Speed comes at a price - Bob Colwell, former chief architect at Intel
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Apple gets investigated for antitrust violations
FRUIT THEMED TOYMAKER Apple has finally made it into the same league as the outfit it claimed was Big Brother in the 1980's.
It seems that the US Department of Justice (DoJ) has started snuffling around, gathering evidence for an antitrust action against Jobs' Mob.
Apple, which had appealed to those who felt they were making a stand against Microsoft, has now entered an exclusive club of businesses accused of playing monopoly. This club includes IBM, Intel and Microsoft - the very companies that had Apple claimed it wasn't.
According to Business Week, at the centre of the antitrust row is how Apple uses its Itunes digital music service.
The DoJ antitrust division questioning of music industry officials and Internet companies is still in the early stages. So far the US press claims that they have not found that Apple has done anything wrong.
Itunes is one of the biggest music retailers and the cappuccino company has used that to press music companies to agree to terms.
It is possible that the music industry wants to get a bit of control back, but it seems that the DoJ is looking at the complaints of smaller online vendors, which suggests that they might have been strong armed by Jobs' Mob in some way.
Cathy Halgas Nevins, a spokeswoman for EMusic.com, a small, closely held online music vendor, confirmed that the DoJ contacted the company as part of the investigation.
It is not the first time that its Itunes antics have gotten Apple into hot water. In 2008, Apple agreed to lower prices on Itunes tracks sold in the UK as a result of a European Union Competition Commission inquiry that had begun in 2005.
It has also faced inquiries from regulators in Norway, Sweden and Denmark over complaints that songs sold on Itunes were incompatible with music players other than its own Ipod. µ
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Then, perhaps the vial could be filled with the tears of grief shed the by parents of the young adult who considered death preferable to putting in another shift building iPhones?
How about an app which plays a funny noise everytime there's another suicide?
But perhaps they are. I don't know. It has happened in the past with other goods and it's an easy accusation to make, whether it's true or not in a particular case.
And, small electronic component parts, little fingers, it's just a good idea? ...What?
you could buy limited edition iPhone, inset with a vial containing the tears of the children that built the phone.
apple has the power to make certain consumers blind to common sense
and darth jobs is good at parting money from fools
Anyone who thinks that when they choose a device with a fruit on the front they are leaving the scummy mainstream behind should understand they're simply joining a different herd of sheep - and paying through the nose to do so.
The only people who think Apple is genuinely "clean" are those who whack themselves dry over Apple products - products which, as we learned this week, are made in sweatshops by suicidal workers on a mere pittance.
China is undemocratic and 'un-American' on every possible level, but bugger all that when we're talking about a U.S. business maximising its profit and monopolising its customers, eh?