Got a few things to touch on this entry.

Microsoft recently announced that it would release no further versions of Windows Media Player for Mac OS X, instead it would enable Flip4Mac to release their plug-in for Quicktime for free with Windows Media support.

I hear a lot of things about this, largely coming from Apple zealots foaming at the mouths about how much "M$ suck". Yeah yeah yeah, the big question it raises will be Windows Media DRM support.

Microsoft unlike Apple, licence their DRM to third parties to enable the widest support. Microsoft had been personally developing the DRM for Mac OS X, however Apple had refused to give Microsoft the technical details on how to implement DRM on OS X. This stalled Microsoft greatly, and eventually resulted in them canning the entire effort.

This bugs me, Microsoft go out of their way (for 2 years!) to try and avoid locking you into using Windows for any music you purchase from somewhere like Napster, they try and give you the option of using it on another platform. Then Apple turn around and refuse to share details of Apple's Core Audio and Video systems, preventing anyone else using DRM on their platform. Now that's lock-in right there. "If you've got a Mac, you have to use iTunes".

So the Apple management block Microsoft from enabling DRMed Windows Media support on Mac OS X, to give their Apple zealots ammunition for accusing Microsoft of attempting to lock people into Windows. Unlike Apple, Microsoft make details of their OS available to everyone - including Apple so even Apple can get their DRM working on Windows.

So there we have it, you can now play Windows Media Audio and Video in QuickTime on the Macintosh. When are Apple going to release a plug-in for Windows Media Player so we can play all their QuickTime formats inside WMP? Or are they being too snobbish and arrogant and force us into using that QuickTime which runs loads of crap on boot?

What happens if you can't find QuickTime on it's own? The Apple website doesn't make it easy for people to get just QuickTime, it took me a good 2 minutes of looking around to find the tiny standalone link hidden down the bottom, I dread to think how many regular users are tricked into downloading it with iTunes, the latest version of which ships with spyware to track all your music listening habits.

Keyboards...

Microsoft, who probably make some of the best keyboards and mice in the world, develop a Mac-specific keyboard, all their other keyboards are cross compatible, but this had things like the Mac key and was coloured to match.

Apple refuse to allow Microsoft to use the Apple logo on the Apple key. How stupid is that? They're supporting their damn system, and yet they won't even let them use the Apple logo! Last time I checked Microsoft let anyone use the Windows logo or "Start" on keyboards.

And worse yet these ungrateful losers at Apple do all this after Microsoft make another commitment to release Office on the Mac for another 5 years.

All Microsoft would have to do is drop Office from the Macintosh and watch the whole platform sink. They try and play nice to keep all the anti-competitive crap off their backs and you get Apple executives being spiteful little bastards. And yet some how Microsoft is portrayed as being "evil" (although according to the blogosphere Google are the "evil" ones nowadays).

Lying...

Worse yet, you have probably the world's biggest liar aka Steve Jobs, suddenly announce to the world the new Intel powered Macintoshes, which apparently are 4 times faster than their PowerPC machines. This is the same guy who has been spouting for years that PowerPC was "twice as fast" etc etc, the same company who a couple of years ago ran "the world's fastest computer" adverts in the UK when they couldn't prove it the Advertising Standards Authority forced them to drop it all.

Come on where are all those Apple zealots from 12 months ago? Come on, you said the PowerPC was like twice as fast, where are you all hiding now? May be you could explain to me why Linux is about 40% faster than Mac OS X on the same hardware? No? Oh okay.

I don't want to deal with a company that behaves like this, sure a lot of companies will twist the truth, but this amount of petty-mindedness and outright lying is too much for me to stomach. It's just a shame the 7 Apple fanatics in the world seem to love it.