apple news/media reports

10/18/2007, 3:00pm, EDT

Thursday, October 18th

Apple sued over iPod storage capacity

Yet another class-action lawsuit targeting Apple has been filed against the Cupertino-based company, this time in Quebec's Superior Court. Lead Plaintiff and Montreal law student David Bitton is suing Apple because the company's 8GB iPod nano offers 7.45GB of actual storage capacity, rather than the full 8GB as advertised. Apple sells the 8GB portable player for $200, but lists its definition of 1GB as 1 billion bytes, as displayed on the company's iPod comparison Web page: "1GB = 1 billion bytes; actual formatted capacity less." The lawsuit, however it may appear on the surface, could be taken seriously if Apple's legal history is considered, according to the Montreal Gazette.

The complaint alleges that all Apple products have, on average, 7.5 percent less storage space than advertised. The Plaintiff is asking for a full refund or, if a refund is refused, a 7.5 percent refund for him as well as all iPod owners in Quebec.

A complaint about Apple's marketing method surrounding the battery life of its third-generation full-size iPod player resulted in a class-action lawsuit ruling that gave every affected customer a $50 credit for any Apple purchase, excluding iTunes Music Store tracks.

Apple faces three other lawsuits filed during the month of October alone, all three of which relate to its iPhone cellular handset. One suit claims that the terms of iPhone usage required by both Apple as well as AT&T are illegal, while another complaint alleges that Apple took steps to disable iPhones that were hacked for use with cellular service providers other than its exclusive partner -- AT&T.

A third suit, which is environmentally based, charges that the iPhone contains harmful substances and that the device does not carry the appropriate warning labels to inform consumers of those dangers.


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I should sue!
0
10/18, 3:15pm, EDT
I should sue people who are sueing Apple for taking up my precious MacNN time.
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined May 1999
User is offline
Yawn.
0
10/18, 3:20pm, EDT
This is ridiculous.

If you get a 320 Gb hard drive on a new Dell, you don't actually get 320Gb of free space when it arrives. Windows takes up some of the space -- just like the iPod OS does.

You don't see anyone suing Dell...
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined Apr 2005
User is offline
GAH!
0
10/18, 3:20pm, EDT
ENOUGH WITH THE RIDICULOUSNESS, MORONS!
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined Nov 2003
User is offline
It is 8GB
0
10/18, 3:22pm, EDT
the nano is advertised as an 8GB "model"; not as an 8GB-available device. There just happens to be a few kilobytes that aren't available to consumers. But nowhere does Apple say that the consumer has access to the full 8GB.

This is precisely the sort of absurd action that gives lawyers a disgusted reputation. He's really going to waste the courts' valuable time with this sort of thing. It offers no value to consumers. Probably just a misguided project for a law school course.
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined Nov 2006
User is offline
just going to say the sam
0
10/18, 3:23pm, EDT
"Apple sues over 2 million iPod owners for being complete whiners because the iPod did not fulfill all their desires."

From frivolous lawsuits to divorces to crooked corporate deals, lawyers are killing this country!

/
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined Aug 2001
User is offline
hmmm....
0
10/18, 3:23pm, EDT
...Canadians...every bit as stupid as some of their more southerly neighbours, quell surprise!
Forum Regular
Joined Oct 1999
User is offline
are your Effing me
0
10/18, 3:29pm, EDT
serious. just stop reporting on this crap and maybe people will stop thinking of these ridiculous schemes. I wonder what one of these frivolous suits ends up costing apple just to squash it.
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined Oct 2001
User is offline
thank you!
0
10/18, 3:31pm, EDT
someone had the smarts to say it! the operating system for the ipod takes up 450 megabites of the iPods capacity, woopty fricking do! and yeah 1 billion bites does equal 1 gigabyte, just like 1000 mghz equals 1 ghz, people just can't stand apples sucess are are literally going to sue them into bankruptcy, i hope apple countersues these nit wits so they are forced into bankruptcy!
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined Oct 2007
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What an idiot
0
10/18, 3:34pm, EDT
Like advertised storage has EVER been available space. You would have to sue EVERYONE.

I would be embarrased to be named as the plaintiff.
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined Sep 2000
User is offline
Good idea, bad target
0
10/18, 3:48pm, EDT
This is a great idea! The part that sucks is that poor Apple has become the target. Hard drive (and now memory-based storage) manufacturers should be the target. The fact that a megabyte on a hard drive isn't really a megabyte is just plain wrong. They should have been sued years ago. I mean, if you go and buy a 12 ounce can of coke, and it turns out that 12 ounces is 12 ounces for everything except soda pop, when 12 ounces actually equals 11.3 ounces, because the entire "pop" industry has made up a completely fake definition of "ounce", then that's just wrong. Why in the world they picked on Apple for this suit is beyond me though.

For years I've wondered why the entire industry was allowed to falsely inflate the size of their drives. Oh, wait, they were all guys, now I understand :-)
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined Dec 2004
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