Those of you who adhere to Apple computers for their perceived higher code of ethics may be in for a surprise, Apple is as bad as everyone else.  Just recently their annual audit for adherence to their code of conduct uncovered the use of child labor, non-certified vendors disposing of hazardous waste, falsified records, and even the payment of excessive “recruitment” fees.  It’s a bad Apple indeed.

Bad Apple - Child labor, hazardous waste, falsified records, etc.

The good news is that this was Apple’s own annual audit.  They caught all of these misdeeds of their own accord, and are taking immediate corrective actions.

But it just goes to show, everyone’s doing it.

There’s a small flurry of hubbub going around in the iPhone/iPad community.  It would seem that in the latest iPhone SDK was found evidence that the iPad will one day have video conferencing built in.  Almost.  Maybe.  Well … it might have.

The evidence comes in two parts.  The first part is a variable in the code specifically for handling if a device has a front camera, you know, to take pictures of you the user as you look at the screen.  This hasFrontCamera variable seems to indicate some kind of video-phone option since, well, why else would it be there?

But why would anyone think that it would be for the iPad instead of the much more likely iPhone?  The devil is in the details graphics.  Also in the iPhone SDK was a graphic for two buttons, to reject or accept an incoming video conference call.  The thing is, the graphic is too wide for use on an iPhone.  Which pretty much just leaves the iPad.

So does that mean that Apple is actually bringing video conferencing to the iPad in the future?

No.

It doesn’t.

Since we know full well that even Apple didn’t seem to know what, exactly, it was doing with its iPad for a rather long time, it’s much more likely that this evidence uncovered from the iPhone SDK is not evidence of a future, but simple remnants of a confused past.  It’d make far more sense for the iPad to be a video phone if it were firstly a phone.  Further, all evidence so far points to a pretty lackluster performance capability of the iPad, which also doesn’t speak well to something as sophisticated as video conferencing.

Frankly, based on the evidence, I’d sooner believe that Apple is just working on a new iPhone with a larger screen resolution than I’d believe that the iPad might do anything interesting.  And honestly, I don’t even believe that will happen any time soon.

But to each their own.  You can certainly dream all that you like.  It won’t make it true, but you can dream it all the same.

We already know that Apple was having a lot of issues with their 27 inch iMacs this Christmas. So how are they coming along with that?  Turns out, not so good.

Two months on and Apple is still up S___t Creek.  And it’s gotten so bad that they’re now offering full refunds plus fifteen percent!

Oops.

It seems that even though a firmware update now theoretically fixes flickering problems (though thorough testing remains to prove it so) there are still yellow screen problems, and supply is still far short of demand.

But it’s not just Apple with their head firmly wedged up their behind.  Microsoft is buggering up as well.  As usual.  Good ‘ol Microsoft…

First, Windows 7 is shortening the battery lives of a lot of laptops out there, of perfectly good batteries, sometimes from 2 1/2 hours under Windows XP down to a mere 1/2 hour on Windows 7!  The problem?  A new feature that warns you if your battery needs replacing … needs replacing.  The “consider replacing your battery” warning is, apparently, very much in need of more work.  Microsoft is claiming that the problem is in the way that it reads system firmware, and that they “are investigating this issue in conjunction with our hardware partners.”

Uh huh.

But that ain’t all.

Because what would Microsoft be without Yet Another Internet Explorer Bug Of Doom?

Yes, that’s right folks.  As if the last IE bug wasn’t bad enough.  Now we’ve got one more, and it has been described as the “public file server” bug.  Why?  Well simple, because anyone running Windows without Protected Mode turned on (or in the case of older versions like Windows XP that don’t have Protected Mode) and surfing the web with IE – any version of 6, 7, or 8 – have essentially handed their PC over to hackers to use as a public file server, giving free access to any file that you already know the filename of if you visit a malicious website while this vuln remains unfixed.  Talk about a security nightmare!

Of course, according to Microsoft, this is merely an “Information Disclosure” bug.

Do you still use Internet Explorer?

So you say that you want an Apple iPad, but you want it to run Windows?  Well, you’re in luck!  Citrix is doing just that.

Sort of.

Using the Citrix Receiver for iPhone, combined with the use of XenDesktop or XenApp, you can basically turn your iPad into a Windows 7 thin client just like you can with the iPhone.  This allows you to run, from your iPad, the user interface to a virtual Windows 7 box running on hardware elsewhere.

Of course, why you would want to is another question.

Because, let’s face it, as I said before, the iPad by no means has the power to run any real software applications.

It’s Apple’s latest and greatest, the iPad.  It’s a large touchscreen handheld device, shown here held by none other than Apple’s Steve Jobs:

The Apple iPad

But notice that I fail to call it a portable computer, or a tablet PC, or anything of the likes.  Why not?  Is Apple too awesome to use that same tired old mold?

Well, yes and no.  Mostly … no.

You see, when push comes to shove, all that the iPad really is is an iPod Touch, just really really not pocket-sized.  Like the oversized buttons on the Jitterbug cellphone targeted at senior citizens, so is the iPad just an oversized iPod Touch.

The Jitterbug cellphone, was this Apple's inspiration for the iPad?

I don’t get it.  On a number of levels.

Okay, one thing I do get.  And I’m sure Apple fanatics the world over will be happy to rip me a new one for pointing out this trite fact, but Apple does not innovate.  Apple is always late to the party with whatever they do.  The only reason they succeed where others fail?  They have the Apple brand name.  Some would try to claim that the reason is because Apple has style, but let’s face it, that’s not even really often the case.  Gaudy multicolored computers?  “Trendy” metallic techy cases?  iBricks?  Apple has a long standing history of making some pretty horrendous aesthetic decisions, and the ones that aren’t so bad are almost always a copy of something else that someone else has done earlier.  Just like the ideas of the products themselves.  Oh, sure, Apple tends to get it right when they copy someone, fixing all of those niggling little details that weren’t perfect in the original.  But then, when you’re always second (or later) to market, shouldn’t that really be expected?  Someone else has done the prototyping of your product for you.  Mostly the Asian markets.  So with this bold lack of innovation, it comes as no surprise that Apple now pretends to have invented the tablet PC.

Only … all they’ve actually invented is a tablet PDA.

Because, you see, the internals really are lacking in processing power.  It really is just an overgrown iPod.  With the same lack of processing prowess, and an equal shortcoming in software compatibility.

Oh, Apple will try to fool you on this.  Oh look at the glorious iPad and all of its apps.  Yes.  Right.  Apps. As in short for “applications”, and a really apt abbreviation as these apps are really aptly abbreviated in functionality.  You won’t find Adobe Photoshop in app form.  You won’t find Microsoft Office in app form.  Those are real applications, with substance, with meat, with purpose, with pride, and most importantly with use.  The iPad will not run those.  Oh no.  It cannot.  It supposedly can’t even run Adobe’s Flash.  And multitasking?  Nope.  It really is just an oversized iPod Touch folks.  A tablet PC without the actual computer part.  It’s just a gimmicky toy.

In fact, it’s not even an iPhone.  You won’t find calling features here.

I can do infinitely more with my Viliv S5 than I can ever do with an iPad.  And more and better UMPCs, tablets, netbooks, and the likes of the new face of portable computing are all on their way, boldly forward, all doing far more for their owners than the Apple iPad.

So then, what is the point?  I just don’t get it.  To sell more apps?  To gimmick us to death?

Or is Steve Jobs simply growing too old to lead Apple forward in innovation?

Is Steve Jobs so aged that he sees the Jitterbug as inspiration for the iPad?

It just seems rather odd to me that a company renowned for its computers would be selling something that so clearly should be a computer, but isn’t.  And it rather makes me wonder, just what exactly was the inspiration behind the iPad then?  Well, I guess it Depends…