Thursday, May 29, 2003

Consumer Reports: Macs most reliable [The Macintosh News Network] 5:42:26 PM

Pillaging the cartoon universe. Fred Flintstone as a mob boss! Yogi's pal BooBoo as a terrorist! Jonny Quest as the subject of a gay child-custody battle! All these outrages and more can be found on Cartoon Network's hilarious, hallucinatory "Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law." [Salon.com] 5:42:01 PM

AOL, Microsoft learn to just get along. Although the software giant and the publishing conglomerate have fought in court and in the marketplace for years, CNET News.com's Michael Kanellos says the shifting industry landscape has made the two rivals unlikely allies again. [CNET News.com] 5:41:39 PM

Microsoft wins big in digital media. Thursday's settlement with AOL brings a powerful new ally to Microsoft's side in pushing Windows Media against rivals, including RealNetworks and Apple. [CNET News.com] 5:41:21 PM

AOL, Microsoft to talk about IM. As part of their major truce announced Thursday, the two tech giants pledge to discuss making their instant messenger products talk to each other. [CNET News.com] 5:41:07 PM

Microsoft to pay AOL $750 million. The two companies drop pending litigation and announce a seven-year deal under which AOL Time Warner will license Internet Explorer for free. [CNET News.com] 5:40:53 PM

Microsoft and AOL Time Warner Settle Antitrust Suit. Microsoft will pay AOL Time Warner $750 million and let the media company license its browser software for seven years. By The Associated Press. [New York Times: NYT HomePage] 5:40:14 PM

iTunes 4.0.1 Restricts Music Sharing (29-May-2003; 2.2K) [TidBITS] 1:15:43 PM

Novell Jumps to Linux Rescue. Novell said Wednesday it -- not SCO Group -- owns the key rights to Unix and that SCO should stop claiming Linux developers misappropriated Unix code. Linux advocates rejoice and SCO's stock tanks. By Michelle Delio. [Wired News] 8:42:05 AM

Clear Channelization of America to commence Monday. Opinion Media pigopolist coup d'etat on schedule [The Register] The wholesale surrender of public property to obscenely wealthy commercial interests is nothing new in America, but turning the essential mechanism of public information into nothing more than a vehicle of commercial propaganda and political spin is the most dangerous bit of corporate welfare imaginable. The Bush campaign can only be helped by further amplifying the voices of a soon-to-be grateful broadcast and publishing mainstream, and further marginalizing those of skeptics and independent thinkers. 8:32:36 AM

Reading IT's mind. Tech industry watcher Jon Oltsik speaks with four IT managers whose take on technology reflects a very different reality from the one commonly bandied about as conventional wisdom. [CNET News.com] 8:29:00 AM

Microsoft, again: Apple's old nemesis. While the Mac maker commands today's headlines, it faces a series of obstacles from the Windows empire ranging from software licenses to influence in media industries. [CNET News.com] 8:28:21 AM

.Mac Learning Center offers tutorials. Apple's .Mac is its subscription-based service offering users access to e-mail, Web page creation, online storage through iDisk and free software. To help .Mac users get the most out of their membership, Apple has created the .Mac Learning Center. The special Web site features short step-by-step guides called How To's that offer up details on how to use .Mac Mail, HomePage, iDisk, Backup, iSync, iCal and iChat. The How To's are complete with screenshots showing each service in action to help new .Mac users understand exactly what they're doing. [MacCentral] 8:27:50 AM