Today, after the conclusion of regular stock-trading hours, Apple announced that it had settled five outstanding lawsuits from Creative Technologies surrounding the company's iPod interface, to the tune of $100 millon. Creative had been awarded a patent for an iPod-like interface last year, and immediately filed suit against Apple, in an obvious attempt to extract money from the high-flying computer and gadget maker. As the iPod has marched along, destroying everything in its path, including Dell and Sony, Creative has seen their market share stagnate, despite a valiant attempt to compete. Now, instead of revenue, the company gets cash the old-fashioned new fashioned way - through the courts.But don't let that make you think Apple is rolling over, a loser on all counts. While they clearly didn't win this round, it clears the way for continued iPod development and announcements, and sweeps that nasty thing under the rug. Meanwhile, as Apple continues to draw accolades for its upcoming Leopard release, its Redmond foe, Microsoft is taking a beating for what some have called "the buggiest OS I've seen this late in development." And that's not some Mac fanboy or jaded MS developer making noise. That particular comment came from analyst Joe Wilcox of Jupiter Research, a firm which tends to be pretty straight-forward with its analysis.
Windows Vista is hardly seeing feature creep, as many operating systems do as they near shipment. Instead it's seeing feature droop, as highly-anticipated functionality has been eliminated in an effort to ship. But was has shipped is full of bugs, that even the most ardent of Microsoft veterans won't stand. Analysts say the system is the most bug-ridden of any release from the company in more than a decade, and given Redmond's track record, that's truly saying something indeed.
Listening to ''Mind of the Wonderful'', by Blank & Jones (Play Count: 7)