Apple

Next to Apple, Creative is one of the most recognizable names in the Mp3 player industry. As a result of a patent dispute between Apple and Creative over a music player interface, the two companies have settled with a number of conditions. Today, ... thanks to their competitor, Creative is $100 million richer. During August of 2005, Creative was awarded a patent for a unique digital music setup. According to a press release at the time, Creative described the patent as a tool that "enables selection of at least one track in a portable media player as a user sequentially navigates through a ... (view more)

It's getting to be an expensive day for Apple. Hours after the announcement of its $100 million settlement with digital music competitor Creative, the Cupertino, California company has also made public that it will be recalling 1.8 million batteries ... once installed in its laptop line. The recall is on the same Sony batteries found in the 4.1 million Dell systems cited as faulty by that company earlier this month. For those consumers who own a Macintosh iBook G4 or Powerbook G4, the recall affects those models sold between October 2003 and August 2006, a time window larger than that outlined by ... (view more)

Yesterday we reported on America Online's recent termination of three employees, including its Chief Technology Officer, for leaked customer web-search information. Today, the trend appears to be continuing, with a group of Apple employees being ... fired over their illegal downloading of the company's unreleased Macintosh operating system (OS) "Leopord" -- the upgrade to the curren version, "Tiger" (10.4.x). Although certainly not as popularly anticipated as Microsoft's Vista, Apple's Leopard OS uses true 64-bit technology, while still maintaining 32-bit compatibility. One of Leopard's most ... (view more)

It looks like Nike isn't the only major American corporation facing charges of sweatshop labor. Apple, creator of the massively popular iPod, recently responded to allegations that many of its workers are slaving through excessive hours for just ... dollars a week. The accusations have led to Apple's own investigation into the reportedly affected factories. Most of Apple's iPods are made in China -- perhaps the world's new hot spot for cheap tech manufacturing. The country of some 1.3 billion people is also the major supplier of wares for department store giant Wal-Mart, and is steadily growing ... (view more)

With the North American automotive industry in a tailspin at the moment, automakers are turning to the latest and most popular technology to regain appeal. And, for anyone not stuck in a cave or buried by a landslide for the last five years, the ... clearest way to catch a techie's eye is to flash an Apple iPod -- the industry's current undisputed "Golden Toy". That's exactly what Ford, General Motors, and even Mazda are doing, as they work with engineers to integrate Apple's wares into future audio systems. Isn't this technology already out there? At this time, most iPod owners are forced to ... (view more)

The first question that pops into this writer's head is: What is Lars going to complain about now? Metallica and most publicly, drummer Lars Ulrich, were one of the first and most vocal opponents to online music downloading. Their most sensational ... events were open and often angry speeches against Napster, the Internet's first massive peer-to-peer service. Since then, the bell has long since tolled for Napster, but others have picked up the torch, leaving a few veteran bands like Metallica shaking their fists at technology. However, the recent demise of downloading giant Kazaa (not that it ... (view more)