Free Republic

Worldwide PC shipments totaled 62.7 million units in the first quarter of 2007, a 8.9 percent increase from the same period last year, according to preliminary results by Gartner, Inc. The worldwide total is in line with Gartner’s earlier projections; however the geographic regions showed mixed results. The United States, Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), and Latin America regions performed better than Gartner’s forecast while Asia/Pacific and Japan shipments were lower than expected. The Asia/Pacific region surpassed the U.S. PC market to take the No. 2 position in terms of shipments for the first time. Microsoft’s official consumer launch...

EMI Group PLC on Monday announced a deal that will allow computer company Apple Inc. to sell the record company's songs online without copy protection software. The agreement means that customers of Apple's iTunes store will soon be able to play downloaded songs by the Rolling Stones, Norah Jones, Coldplay and other top-selling artists without the copying restrictions once imposed by their label. EMI said almost all of its catalog, excluding music by The Beatles, is included in the deal. Singles and albums free from copy-protection software and with a higher sound quality will be offered as a premium product,...

"Why aren't Apple Macintosh computers more popular in large mainstream organizations? Whatever the gigahertz numbers say, Macintoshes are comparable in performance to Windows or Linux machines. Whatever the conventional wisdom or the Microsoft marketing message, Macs aren't dramatically more expensive to buy and on a Total Cost of Ownership basis they are probably cheaper. Nobody would argue that Macs are harder to use. Clearly, they are easier to use, especially on a network. So what's the problem? Why do Macs seem to exist only in media outfits," asks Robert X. Cringely for PBS? Cringely writes, "Apple is clearly wondering the...