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It's been a very slow month for rumors, but we finally have a
new one.
3/31/2K: No longer beleaguered, Apple Computer has finally
accomplished it's ultimate goal of controlling the Mac web.
They have forced sites to pull articles and photographs, hijacked
domains, and even shut down Mac Cards, a noncommercial ecard
site.
Through iReview, one of their iTools, they are feeding traffic
only to a select group of lapdog sites (no offense intended
to Small Dog Electronics).
But that was just the beginning. Effective April 1, 2000, the
anniversary of their incorporation, Apple will be celebrating their
anniversary in style - by shutting down the vast majority of Mac
sites on the internet. Any site with the word "apple" or "mac"
in its name has been contacted by Apple's ever vigilant legal
department and told to "get the Mac out."
Expect to see a huge change come over the Mac-centric web on
Saturday, April 1, as many sites make a shift away from
their first love, the Macintosh, to a completely new focus. Several
webmasters I've been in contact with say it's just been a matter
of time before Apple shut them down for not being positive
enough about Steve Jobs, Apple Computer, OS X, Microsoft products,
Apple's iTools, ClarisWorks 6 - let alone any mention of rumors or
rumor sites.
Expect significant changes tomorrow. I'll have to start
digging dirt on other companies, since the least hint of a Mac
rumor, no matter how tongue-in-cheek, could subject myself and my
publisher to a lawsuit from the once-beleaguered Apple. Like
the rest of the Mac web, we don't have the money for the lawyers
necessary to fight, so we're switching.
Switching to what? I can't say, but be sure to surf the web on
Saturday to see what the creative Mac webmasters have come
up with to stay in business despite Apple's best attempts to shut
them down.
- Anne Onymus
Further Reading
Apple should count the cost before alienating its friends,
Charles W. Moore, MacOS Daily, 3/31. "...Apple has been on a binge
of alienating friends right and left lately."
Opinion: Are any Mac
sites safe?, Macinstein, 3/28. "It kind of has a 'Big Brother'
feel to it and had us thinking about all the effort we put into
promoting the Mac."
Opinion: Apple: Big
Brother 2000?, NoBeige.com, 3/28. "Apple is acting like the Big
Brother that it mocked in 1984."
News: Apple
goes postal on Mac Cards, Macworld UK, 3/28. "Apple claimed
that visitors would confuse the site with its own."
Web: Where has the
Mac Cards website gone?, Mac Cards. "...my enthusiasm to
promote the Mac or any Apple product . . . has been completely
destroyed."
Recent Rumor Mills
New Apple drive supports Blu-ray and HD DVD, 09.11.
Tired of being second-guessed and sometimes outmaneuvered by Microsoft, Apple has embraced both next gen DVD formats with its new SuperDrive Extreme.
California: Beyond 'no light bulbs for you', 02.01.
A Calfiornia assemblyman wants to make incandescent light bulbs illegal - but that's just the beginning. His next target: CRT monitors and TVs.
Wouldn't life be great with an iSlate?, John Hatchett, Recycled Computing, 07.04.
PDAs and smartphones are too small for some tasks, full-fledged Tablet PCs are overkill, and ebook readers are too limited. Apple has the tech to own this niche.
Mac of the Day: Original iMac G3/233, Aug. 98 - The Bondi blue wonder that bounced Apple back to profitability and into the public eye.
List of the Day: Mac Pro List is for those using a Mac Pro.
July 5 in LEM history: 98: The iMac: First of a family? - iMac Perfect for schools - 00: Apple is not your friend - 01: 75 Mac Advantages - Do you trust me? - 02: The joy of X with Classic - The good, the bad, and the intrusive - 05: No Quartz Extreme for Pismo - A brief history of NeXT - 06: Education iMac - iTunes and the French interoperability law - TopXNotes - Apple's secret battery reset utility - Misleading hard drive capacity
The Macintosh Portable started a notebook revolution, Carl Nygren, Classic Macs in the Intel Age, 07.03.
Before Apple introduced the Mac Portable, notebook computers were text-based and ran MS-DOS. Ever since, graphical interfaces have been the norm for laptops.
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