[TheBattman]

Actually - it is dishonest. Here is why:

Hard drives are measured in GB.

The actual measurement of a GB = 1024MB

Marketing use of GB - 1000MB

And while the 1000MB definition has become the default, it is much like the old CRT monitor marketing - a 15” monitor actually had an actual viewable measurement of around 13”. This became the acceptable method of marketing for CRTs.

So - the GB advertisement commonly in use today is misleading, but because it is the “common” form now, anyone paying attention knows the truth.

[Spktyr]

And, actually, many companies, Apple included, note somewhere in their disclaimer text that they are defining GB as 1000mb, and MB as 1000kb.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

The actual measurement of a GB = 1024MB

Marketing use of GB - 1000MB

Where Did Kilo, Mega, Giga and All Those Other Prefixes Come From?

They have entered our language. Everyone uses them. The terms, particularly with "byte", are almost commonplace. Kilobyte, Megabyte and Gigabyte are part of our lexicon.

But do you know where they came from?

First, let's show the terms:
Kilo 10001 103 1,000
Mega 10002 106 1,000,000
Giga 10003 109 1,000,000,000
Tera 10004 1012 1,000,000,000,000
Peta 10005 1015 1,000,000,000,000,000
Exa 10006 1018 1,000,000,000,000,000,000
Zetta 10007 1021 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
Yotta 10008 1024 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

Ok. So where did they come from?

Kilo comes from the Greek khiloi and means, curiously enough, 1000. It is interesting enough, the only prefix with a direct numerical meaning.

The next three come from Greek and Latin and are either descriptive or mythological.

Mega comes from the Greek mega meaning "great", as in "Alexandros O Megas" or "Megas Alexandros" (Alexander the Great) . . .

Therefore the technical usage of "kilo" and the rest to be integer powers of 2¹⁰ is conventional computerese technical jargon. In the context of a suit over the fact that consumers don't understand technical jargon, it comes as ill grace to complain that a marketer was not using jargon when defining the size of the memory!

[coconutt2000]

I’m sorry, but you’re just wrong when discussing computer storage.

Storage capacity uses the definition of gigabyte as 1000 megabytes.

Computer memory, on the other hand, (Random Access Memory or RAM), uses the value of 1024 MB = 1 GB.

Dishonest implies motive to deceive, whereas in the case of Apple and other computer and disk drive manufacturers, the motive isn’t to deceive but rather it is the use of an industry standard definition.

It also can’t be dishonest or a case of misrepresentation just because you disagree with the industry standard definitions. What it is is confusing, and that isn’t Apple’s fault at all.