BERLIN — European regulators dropped their antitrust case against Microsoft on Wednesday after the software maker agreed to offer consumers a choice of rival Web browsers. The move ended a decade of legal strife that cost the world's top maker of software 1.67 billion euros in fines and penalties and forced it to alter the way it did business in Europe.
Olivier Hoslet/European Pressphoto Agency
Neelie Kroes, the European competition commissioner, said the agreement with Microsoft was an “early Christmas present for more than hundreds of millions of Europeans” who would get “effective and unbiased choice” between competing browsers.
The agreement, announced in Brussels by the European competition commissioner, Neelie Kroes, calls for Microsoft to give users of its Windows operating system a choice of 11 browsers that compete with its Internet Explorer, made by companies like Apple, Google and Mozilla.
The five-year deal is an unprecedented concession for a company that, since its founding by Bill Gates and his partners in 1975, had largely defined, exploited and defended the advantages and rights of proprietary, commercial software.
When Microsoft first entered the cross hairs of European regulators in 1998 for including its media player with Windows, which operates 90 percent of the computers around the world, and for its use of confidential coding to favor its desktop and server software, the company fought back with legal guns blazing.
Microsoft lawyers argued that the commission's very logic was at fault; that computer users routinely used more than one media player and that bundling applications in one product was not in itself an abuse of market dominance.
But the commission, in 2004, and the appeals court, in 2007, dismissed Microsoft's arguments, and Microsoft abandoned its efforts to overturn the ruling in October 2007 after paying the equivalent of $2.4 billion in fines and penalties.
The outcome Wednesday, said Graham Taylor, the chief executive of Open Forum Europe, puts an exclamation point on the regulatory mood in Europe.
"The European settlement sends an unambiguous message to the market: software lock-in is dead," said Mr. Taylor, whose group supports the open-source movement. "Competitive, free choice should be the norm."
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Δε λέω. Μπράβο στην Ε.Ε. που έκανε αυτό που έκανε. Αλλά θα τους πιστέψω πραγματικά όταν ΣΕ ΟΛΕΣ τις κυβερνήσεις της Ε.Ε. σταματήσουν να χρησιμοποιούν το λογισμικό της Micro$oft. Μέχρι τότε, όλα τα παραπάνω, είναι παιχνίδια εντυπώσεων και αλισβερίσια κάτω και γύρω από τραπέζια. Και τράπεζες.
Φυσικά δεν συζητάω καν το αληθινό πρόβλημα που είναι οι άθλιοι καταναλωτές που ΑΚΟΜΗ αγοράζουν ή ΚΛΕΒΟΥΝ λογισμικό της Micro$oft. Καλά να πάθουμε.
Καλύτερα να μασάς παρά να μιλάς Κύριε Mozilla
If you download a fresh copy of Firefox, you'll note that the default search engine is not whatever you already have picked in all your other browsers. Instead, Mozilla chooses Firefox's default search engine, and the list of search providers in the accompanying drop down menu, based on their popularity. Thus, Bing isn't one of the choices.
This might seem a bit odd to readers who remember last week's comments from a Mozilla executive urging Firefox users to ditch Google for Bing due to privacy policies. In order to switch—or even to try the service in the search bar—users have to download the Bing add-on for Firefox; they can't simply change the drop-down choice.
Wondering why this was, we contacted Asa Dotzler, Mozilla's director of community development, the same man who recently switched from Google to Bing and used his personal blog to try to get other Firefox users to do the same. Is Bing not an option in Firefox because there is some kind of Google-Mozilla conspiracy going on? After all, the larger majority of Mozilla's revenue has always come from Google (about 97 percent). Most of Mozilla's revenue is still being generated through search deals with Google and other popular website operators, and Google has recently committed to extending its contract with Mozilla until 2011.
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Τι παπαριές Θέε μου. Είναι δυνατόν να πιστεύει κάποιος λογικός ή παράλογος εκεί έξω ότι υπάρχει περίπτωση το Bing να είναι ισάξιο (αφήστε το καλύτερο) με το Google search; Μόνο αν τα παίρνει από τη Micro$oft ή μόνο αν παίρνει ναρκωτικά ή τίποτα ληγμένα, μπορεί να το πιστεύει αυτό. ΦΥΣΙΚΑ και το Firefox θα έχει το Google search προεπιλεγμένο. WTF δηλαδή!
Γιατί αυτοί που κάνουν κουμάντο άρχισαν να γουστάρουν την Apple
NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- A common sense interpretation of Apple(AAPL Quote) fundamentals leads most investors to conclude that this stock should go straight up. Mac sales were up 74% in October and November, the iPhone is on track to have its first quarter of unit sales of 10 million, the iPod Touch continues to gain market share among gamers, the Tablet will be released in 2010. But for some reason, the stock sits dormant in December; if only investing were so easy.
Common sense wins in the long run, but the short run can be dominated by sophisticated trading strategies that test your conviction. Apple happens to be the investment vehicle of choice, not only for the longs but the shorts as well. For many of the same reasons you love Apple stock, the shorts do, too.
Here are seven reasons why investors love to short Apple.
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Ε, λογικό δεν είναι; Και λίγα λένε. Εγώ θα μπορούσα να βρω είκοσι λόγους. Εσείς πάλι με τη Micro$oft μπορεί να βρίσκατε 20 αντίθετους λόγους. Καλά να πάθετε.
Apple Big in Japan;
Apple continues to add more markets for the iPhone worldwide, and the strategy is paying off. The latest analysis from mobile ad firm AdMob reveals that the number of unique users of iPhone OS-based devices is now split 50-50 between the US and the rest of the world. Overall, the number of unique users hitting AdMob's network from an iPhone or iPod touch has grown 150 percent over the last year. Japan has seen the biggest increase—over 300 percent—which may help explain why the iPhone commanded nearly half of the Japanese smartphone market in 2009.
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Κάπως έτσι είναι μέσα στην Apple τον τελευταίο καιρό. Φυσικά εννοώ ότι φοριέται πολύ αυτό το κομμάτι ;)
Τα σπάει λέμε το iPhone ΑΚΟΜΗ και στην Ιαπωνία! Πως να μην τα σπάει αφού κάνει πράγματα με τρόπους που ΙΣΩΣ οι άλλοι κατασκευαστές τα κάνουν κάποτε. Βέβαια οι κακές γλώσσες λένε πως η αγορά των AppPhones δεν είναι μεγάλη στην Ιαπωνία. Ε, και; Και μικρή να είναι εφόσον κατάφερε η Apple όχι απλά να είναι παρών εκεί (που ΑΚΟΜΗ και σήμερα πολύς κόσμος θέλει να πιστεύει ότι είναι άσχετη εταιρία με κινητά) αλλά και να πάρει κεφάλια, λέει πολλά για το πόσο ΕΞΑΙΡΕΤΙΚΑ καλά πηγαίνει η Apple ;)
James Cameron's AVATAR
Put simply, Avatar is the most visually fantastic film I've ever seen. It will be hailed as the groundbreaking 3D release of its time while setting a new standard by which all blockbusters are measured. Yes, it's that good.
I'm not going to talk about plot (or that I thought to myself, Dances with Wolves in space more than once). I'm not going to talk about dialog or pacing (or that the limited narration was totally unnecessary). There are other reviews, more reviewy type reviews, that have all that covered. I'm not going to spoil anything, either. Heck, I'm not even going to talk about Avatar...not just yet.
Avatar may be hurt by the curse of expectation, and it's hard to keep the message that MOVIE MAKING HAS BEEN CHANGED FOREVER out of your mind once your butt is actually in a seat in front of the thing. The trailers keep telling us how nothing will ever be the same again, and we know the budget of the movie was anywhere from $200 million to $500 million, depending on what report you're reading. Who knows how much R&D Cameron put into the technology behind the movie.
Even the credits of the film are monstrous: after Industrial Light and Magic and Weta Digital were credited for the special effects, the long line of other effects houses that worked on the movie scrolled by. I lost count of how many different companies leveraged how many different forms of technology to get Avatar filmed. If you're a fan of cinema, no matter how you feel about the trailer, you need to see this movie; it represents the absolute best that technology can give us in film—at least with an unlimited budget and a small city of geniuses working across a decade to bring it to life.
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Τα πολλά λόγια είναι φτώχεια. ΠΡΕΠΕΙ να δείτε το AVATAR τώρα! Βρείτε κινηματογράφο. Κόψτε εισιτήριο και καλό ταξίδι. Ένα κακό υπάρχει σ' αυτό το ταξίδι. Είναι χωρίς επιστροφή. Ξεχάστε ότι ξέρατε μέχρι τώρα για ταινίες. Καλώς ήρθατε στο μέλλον!
Πως να παίξετε World of Warcraft!
Βήμα 1ο:
Πάρτε το Mac σας σ' ένα χώρο που γουστάρετε πολύ
Βήμα 2ο:
Συνδέστε το στην πρίζα.
Βήμα 3ο:
Φορτώστε το World of Warcraft
Βήμα 4ο:
Μη νιώθετε κανέναν και τίποτα! Εσείς είστε IMBA. Οι άλλοι είναι δήθεν, μικροί ΚΑΙ σε ηλικία ΚΑΙ σε μυαλά ΚΑΙ θα 'θελαν να είχαν έστω το ένα από τα δύο μεγάλα και τριχωτά κότσια σας!
Βήμα 5ο:
Κάντε όλα τα παραπάνω συνήθεια!
Step one: bring your iMac to a Panera Bread. Step two: play WoW on it. Step three: be old. Step four: win the unconditional respect of the entire internet, forever.
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Τι να λέμε τώρα; Ο άνθρωπος είναι ΖΩΝΤΑΝΟΣ ΜΥΘΟΣ. ΔΕΝ σας νιώθει. Τα δήθεν ανώτερα και πολιτισμένα πλάσματα. Ουστ ζώα. ΟΥΣΤ!
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