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Even though any new product has a glitch or two Apple must have seen this one coming.  There is a court case in class action status that alleges the battery of of the iPhone is a problem.

Specifically in the lawsuit the plaintiffs did not know that iPhone battery was sealed and soldered into the device.  It also claims that the iPhone battery can only be charged 300 times.  That would make an annual purchase of a battery a must.  Since the battery is “hard wired” inot the unit the consumer cannot replace on their own.

If you are without a phone while Apple replaces the battery on yours they’ll charge you $29.95 for a loaner.  The battery alone is reported to be about 1/5 the cost of the phone.  That adds up on an annual basis.

The suit also alleges that it is difficult to find information on Apple’s website on the replacement process.

Honda has developed a car that runs on diesel fuel and get more miles to the gallon that a hybrid.  The car maker says that the car runs on “clean” diesel and expects it to be in the US by 2010.  The new car gets about 63 miles a gallon while looking and driving like a Honda Accord.

The car can run on regular diesel fuel, which is commonly found at gas stations.  It can also run on biodiesel, a form of fuel made with vegetable oil or other fats.  With that in mind, it would be a cleaner car than the Prius.

Honda showed the car off earlier in the month at a trade show. The show was in California, where the state has passed strict bills limiting fuel emissions.  It is also a very big market for “cleaner cars”.

I just went over to simpsonizeme.com.   Here’s what I came up with…

It looks like a college is taking a stand against the RIAA.  Although The University of Kentucky has been tightened their rules on students downloading copyrighted music and movies they do not plan on forwarding the RIAA’s request for the names of 14 students who are accused of music piracy.

This is not the trend for universities around the country.  Many colleges forward the letters to the “offending” students who the RIAA claims get music for free or at a drastically reduced rate.  Some colleges cite concerns over students’ privacy, but decide to comply with the RIAA anyway.

Yesterday two US Senators called for the implementation of a method of filtering technologies to protect children on the internet.  This was discussed in a Senate hearing where civil liberties groups were not invited.

Daniel Inouye, a Democrat from Hawaii and Ted Stevens, Repbulican from Alaska both called for ways to set up technologies to filter out illegal materials for the sake of children.  They said that the internet is a dangerous place and that parents cannot protect children by themselves.
Senator Inyoue said, “While filtering and monitoring technologies help parents to screen out offensive content and to monitor their child’s online activities, the use of these technologies is far from universal and may not be fool-proof in keeping kids away from adult material.  In that context, we must evaluate our current efforts to combat child pornography and consider what further measures may be needed to stop the spread of such illegal material over high-speed broadband connections.”

Ted Stevens of the Internet is a series of tubes fame followed up with, “Given the increasingly important role of the Internet in education and commerce, it differs from other media like TV and cable because parents cannot prevent their children from using the Internet altogether.  The headlines continue to tell us of children who are victimized online. While the issues are difficult, I believe Congress has an important role to play to ensure that the protections available in other parts of our society find their way to the Internet.”

The FCC was called to find ways to identify ways that industry can filter out child pornography to help parents protect their kids.  This may also include monitoring software as well.

Usually the way any law works is that lawmakers say, “We’re doing it for the kids”.  Shortly thereafter the is call to do this for criminals, so the kids are safe.  After that it gets imposed on everyone.  Why are people making these types of statements when (in Stevens case) they really don’t know what the hell the internet is, let alone make laws about it.  There are ways to protect your kids while online already in place.  You just need to be a savvy enough parent to protect your kids.  If you’re not, just pull the plug on the computer. 

The One Laptop Per Child project has started production of its XO computer.  This computer, known as the $100 laptop is set to bring computers to poor children in Africa.  With the costs of gaming laptop in the “couple of thousand dollar range” it’s interesting to see this unit finally come to see the light of day.

Although the $100 laptop isn’t the fastest laptop around it will do the job for most people.  It will surf the web, help you check your myspace page, e-mail, play audio and video, and run word processing programs.

This new PC goes against Moore’s Law, which simply states that computer performance doubles every two years.  Most people on the planet that have the extra cash to layout for a new PC always want the fastest computer…to look at YouTube.
Moore’s Law also makes existing slower machines cheaper while the newer faster units remain at a premium price.  Where does the $100 laptop fit into all of this?
Could the $100 create such a demand that the makers of the XO start to think retail?  That would cause Moore’s Law and the marketplace turn up on its head.

It would only make sense that a new product sales go up when something first gets released.  With that said, Microsoft’s Vista operating systems share of users online has increased every month so far this year.  Apple’s OS X users have remained flat.

About 4.5% of all the systems on the web are using Vista this June, compared to 0.18% in January.  In the beginning of the year OS X users accounted for about 6.22% and are now at about 6%.

If this trend keeps up OS X will be outpaced by Vista by the end of August.

In the world of Mac the older Power PC computers made up 4.34% of users while the Intel based PCs made up 1.8%.  That gap closed since January with the Power PC chip now at 3.5% and the Intel Macs at 2.48%.

Now looking at Microsoft’s numbers, they have gone flat as well.  All Windows operating systems counted up to about 90% of users for the past 6 months.  XP accounted for 85.02% and went down to 81.94%.

With the sales of the Zune hitting the 1 million unit mark Microsoft plans on a new Zune by the holiday season.  In Microsoft’s calendar that means February 2008.

All kidding aside the software giant does plan on making a Zune 2.0 and other models of its digital media player.  There have been about 1.2 million Zunes sold since their release since late 2006.
A site called Whizbite reports they have been in touch with a MS Rep who’s said:  “We have seen the rumors floating around, but we haven’t announced specific dates or details for the next generation of the Zune devices or service. That said, Zune follows the cycle of the consumer electronics cycle so you can expect an update later this year prior to the holiday season.”

The rep went on to say that there will be a family of Zunes which will include new styles, sizes, and more importantly price.  There will be improvements to the software as well with  podcasting support and more video enhancements.  There is also the possibility of better wireless support, which is the one thing Microsoft has over the iPod and other players.

Although Microsoft has a long way to go with reaching the sales figures for the iPod with their Zune they are creating interesting features and being innovative.  The marketplace is still working out, when you’re number one you stay content (like in Windows) but when you’re not number one you try to be.

Last week Duke University officials blamed the iPhone for causing problems with their wireless network.  That have retracted that statement and now point to a Cisco wireless access point.  This time it’s for real…Cisco helped them track down the problem.

Cisco made a statement to Macworld that said, “Cisco worked closely with Duke and Apple to identify the source of this problem, which was caused by a Cisco-based network issue.  Cisco has provided a fix that has been applied to Duke’s network and the problem has not occurred since.”

A Duke University official has said that the statements about the iPhone were inaccurate that they fully retract the statement.  They also wanted to make sure to say that the iPhone is fully compatible with their wireless network.
Last week the Duke IT staff said with no doubt that they had track down the issues to the iPhone by using their MAC addresses.  It seem that is not the case.  The iPhone is vindicated!

Now that Vista has been out in the market place for a few months the market is weighing its options.  Some of those customers are choosing Microsoft’s older operating system, XP.  One of the reasons why people are turning down Vista is that XP works.

Some key pieces of software cannot run in Vista. You can’t balance your checkbook with Vista, Quick Books won’t work.  You’re also out of luck if you want to send mail with Lotus Notes, for the same reason.  Other problems are happening too.  Some pieces of hardware that worked in XP are not working in Vista.  You’re video camera with a computer connection may not work properly.  Vista may not even recognize it.  So what are your options?

Most people are choosing XP to run their software and connect their hardware.  Some big PC makers are choosing to roll back to XP for operating their hardware.  HP, Lenovo, Dell, and Toshiba are offering XP as an operating system on some computers on their web sites.  It seems to be paying off as they are seeing an increase in the sales of those units.

Although Microsoft claims to have made Vista compatible with many different types of hardware and software they have not covered everything.  But those are typical growing pains for any new operating system.

Growing pains or not, maybe you should stick with what works, whatever that is.