Criminal Defense Law With An Apple

I knew this was going to happen eventually but this came as a surprise to me. Computer World reports that 8 in 10 businesses now use a Mac?!? Now that’s a headline.  As Apple marches forward and begins to gain more Market share in the business world, let’s all hope they do not fall prey to the mass calling for mediocrity and continue to provide a superior product. From the article:

Nearly 80% of businesses have Macs in-house, nearly double the percentage that said they had users runningMac OS X two years ago, a research firm said today.

“Then, we were talking about onesies and twosies,” said Laura DiDio, a research fellow at Yankee Group Research Inc. who conducted a survey of more than 700 senior IT administrators and C-level executives. “Now the number of actual users is very significant. A number of the businesses said that they had 50 or 100 or even several thousand Macs deployed.”

Apple and I have had our moments. And they have been known to get heated.  Nevertheless, most of the time, Apple does the right thing. Today the company did something that takes a great deal of integrity and moxy. They apologized. And gave us all a free 30 days of service as a symbol of their sincerity. For me, this is enough to bury the hatchet. For those that rely heavily on this service…well, you have to carry that firewood yourself. 

I want to direct you to Esquire Mac Blog. The blog looks great with a wealth of useful insights.  In addition, Adam Greivell is a great writer (and veteran Mac-user) and has the inside track on a number of software apps. 

Not a good week for Apple, at all. Apple always takes a beating when they make the smallest of mistakes. But the last 5 days have not been small. It is been a major meltdown. Old iPhones aren’t working. New iPhones aren’t working. And mobile me is sorta working, but not the way it was described. The only reason I am not included in the ever-growing number of angry iPhone users is a an upcoming trial that prevented me from swinging by the store this weekend. Now caution and good sense has me waiting for good news.  So now what Apple? 

I could not sign in until about an hour ago. I was able to view Address Book and it looked super slick. Then I went to look at iCal and the site hung-up. After that, I have not been able to sign back in.  So far? Er…uhm. I suppose we will give them some slack for another 24 hours. For all the hype, this was a poorly executed opening day.

The time to worry is over? 

Apparently, there is a email phishing scam that is telling former dot mac users to head over to a web site and reenter all their data. Of course this is just a ruse to get you to hand over all your data (including your credit card number). As Apple-users, we have already become complacent to viruses and adware. That is fine. But we need to be aware that so long as we are connected to the internet, there is always potential for harm. Worse still, phishing scams can be the most devastating. If you use 1Password, you are protected from some of the well known phishing sites. Nevertheless, these phishing outfits are ever growing (and I doubt any company can keep up with these kind of social engineering scams). The simple rule is this: do not enter websites through your email unless you are 100% certain of the source. Good luck and surf safe. 

It was a great and, once again, diverse group of legal bloggers. In attendance was  Trial Ad (and Other) Notes, Copyright or Wrong, China Law Blog, Law According to Michael Rice, Employment Law Blog, Washington Employment Advisory, Speeding Ticket Blog, Seattle Trademark Lawyer, and the Avvo Blog. Topics included: the word blawg, ways we track, use and justify our blogs, the potential (or lack of potential) in twitter, the value of social networking tools, dealing with unsavory comments in the comments and more. It is a good cross-section of the blogging community and nice to share about the blogging experience. I look forward to meeting with them all again at the next gathering. 

Expect an angry call from Ballmer!

I just read the article posted on the 16th, from well-known Mac user Kern Lewis. Mr. Lewis goes through his set of reasons to switch to a Mac and, like any great trial lawyer, makes a very cogent case. The title of the article is Trial Preparation Made Easy With Macs and you can read it here.