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Tech news: Four men pleaded guilty yesterday to conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement as , already included in Mac OS X 10.2.8, have been released to fix three holes in the open-source software.
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all your fuel cells are belong to us...
I work on these things for a living. They'll get there, and I look forward to putting them there. Toshiba uses a direct methanol approach. There are others which I consider better, such as reformer based methanol fuel cells, which convert the methanol to hydrogen before it gets to the fuel cell, and thence to water...
Apple's looking into this technology as well...
Not just to get into the enterprise market... but imagine how strong Apple would be if it owned Java.
Apple should buy your Mom.
It just irritates me how everyone is quick to spew Apple should by this and that. What makes you think Apple is in a financial position to buy Sun? And Java would have died a log time ago if Apple owned it. Apple is good at apealing to the consumer, but never good at retaining dominance in ANY category against Microsoft. The initiative Sun has done to keep Java going, Apple never could have done. Enterprise is not in their blood, and aquisition will not solve that.
that sun isn't in a position to be bought out by someone.
sometimes, you have to buy out someone to PREVENT another company (hint, hint) from doing the same.
First, whether Sun is in a position to be bought or not (I desperately hope MS wouldn't pull that, since we'd all loose), Apple can't afford it unless a miracle happens or Sun's stock majorly tanks--Apple's half the size of sun.
Second, I also work with fuel cells every day (with Macs!), and I'm not the least bit surprised by Toshiba's delay--I was highly suspicious about their original target dates when they first announced them, just like I've been suspicious about every commercial fuel cell announcement in the past few years. Fuel cells are going to happen, but companies big and small seem to be a lot better at announcing unrealistic target dates than producing working products.
Incidentally, in reference to the previous poster's comment, for a laptop-sized fuel cell I'd be really surprised if they could pull off a methanol reformer that would work--the only ones I've seen haven't shown any promise for that sort of small, cool, on-demand power. Not that it couldn't happen, but if anything direct-methanol probably would work better.
Pure hydrogen is where they should really be (it'd take almost nothing to hit their target power range), but that's probably not going to happen for a while yet.
Instead of methanol, these fuel cells should be using Hydrazine. Ample power in a small package. 70's technology, too.
What makes you think that Apple wants to just play in the consumer market? The new G5's aren't exactly marketed as game machine and iTunes and iPhoto work just fine on an iMac. The G5's and Xserves are entry level enterprise machines. Workstations and servers respectively. OS X, Webobjects and EOF are enterprise grade technologies. The irony is that consumers are being seeded with better technology than they are afforded in the workplace.
As of Friday apple's market cap was 7.86B and sun's was 10.72B. Not a very big gap. Companies that close in size have been known to merge rather than get bought out by one or the other but really it is all in how you market it. The consensus despite market performance is that Apple's stock in undervalued (depends on who you talk to but most will agree out side of their respective institutions opinion that apple isn't going anywhere anytime soon so buy it for the long run and feel safe) Sun just lost a billion dollars last quarter is on track to loose the same next quarter, has no market identity; Solaris or Linux? Sparc or Intel? Who knows? They sure as h*** don't. Given Apple's ability to make sound investments and maintain a large amount of cash on hand... something even larger companies like DELL and IBM have a hard time doing, I would find it hard to believe that Apple isn't in a position to buy Sun.
Sun has a large installed base of machines... but was quickly surpassed by Apple as having the largest installed base of machines running unix. (How long has sun been in this game? decades? apple has only been at it for a few years.)
Reasons for buying.... Sun's platform is negligible. The Sparc chip is at the end of it's life cycle. Solaris is solid but showing it's age. There are hundreds of patents sun has that apple could benefit from. Java fits apples mindset... it would put it in good graces with IBM who has spent a great deal of money on java building its Websphere platform. The customer list. Just to convert them form sun customers to apple customers would give Apple an instant enterprise market share. The same enterprise market share that HP, IBM, DELL and MS are attacking everyday. It must be worth something...HP has targeted it. Weather or not Apple can apple hold that market after it acquires it is another story but it may be the reassurance IT directors need for finally recommending Apple as viable solution in their companies... after all they are using it at home to load music on their iPods.
Nothing stays the same. Just because we work in an Intel/Microsoft dominated world today doesn’t mean that it will stay that way. If the auto industry is any indication as to what can happen, I’m betting on the underdog. In the 70’s Toyota was nobody, had a lot of fumbled opportunities but they had right formula at the right time (energy crisis). In the computer industry that turning point may very well be the lack of security highligh
So when I said Apple should buy Sun earlier it wasn't an off the cuff comment. It is what insiders in HP believe is going to happen and they are trying to erode Sun’s grip on that market before it does happen. It is not a matter of so much as if, but when.
Post merger with Compaq, HP’s enterprise market is so fractured and dissatisfied with the "Road Maps" HP has presented it that many IT shops are freezing future purchase and are evaluating new vendors. Why not? HP end-of-lifed many of the platforms they are using so if you are going to have to migrate you might as well look at what everybody else has to offer. The Linux community is so put off by HP inability to understand what Linux is, it has pretty much handed the ball to IBM. OpenVMS is on the verge of dying due to lack of marketing. A shame too, it is virtually hack proof. It was forbidden from being presented at DEFCON because nobody could hack it… how fair is that? TRU64 is out but will ride the slow 10 year phase out death. HP/UX is still there but customers are worried they will face the same fate that OpenVMS users are or even worse Tru64 users.
Since the merger the only thing HP has going for it is Printers, digital camera, peripherals, Intel desktops and laptops. They have flooded the market advertising their HP invents tagline. While they sell many time the volume of products that Apple does they haven’t even been able to approach the cool factor Apple has going for it. Why does Apple get such a higher multiple of return for every marketing dollar spent than HP does? HP wants to know. It doesn't take an rocket scientist to realize that a company increases sales by either creating a new market or converting another company’s customers to its own. Apple has been known to create new markets but it has also been know to do a product “right” i.e. iPod. HP is not a market creator… maybe if you consider printer cartridges. If apple can get an X fold return on it’s marketing investment at it’s current size what happens if it hits a homerun with another "cool" product or somehow becomes a standard for something... Remember Apple is known to be a consumer conscience company. HP just makes computer stuff.
The biggest growth in the computer industry has come from consumers. People finally breaking down and getting online or buying a digital camera, mp3 player or dvd burner. These don’t represent the biggest dollar purchases but they represent the volume that has made these companies the size they are now. Sure Apple may never top HP or Dell but every time they sell an iPod, Dell doesn’t sell an mp3 player. Every time someone buys an iBook, HP doesn’t sell a notebook. When you are using you consumer market to float a dysfunctional enterprise market, every sell counts. When a competitor who is smaller than you, spends less on marketing than you, and makes greater margins on their goods than you, begins to scale that formula up it is time to be scared.
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Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Jul 2001
Burnt Balls
I can feel the pain already!
A bomb in me lap - yeah!