Notebook Special - Core 2 Duo, 2 MB RAM Only $800 (£400)

An evening shop in my local Tesco store revealed this fantastic deal on a Fujitsu Siemens notebook decked out with a "Massive 2MB memory"!

No, that isn't a typo. At least not by me.

Front of the display, positioned centre aisle.

Left hand side of the display, clearer price.

Both images snapped on my iPhone at Tesco Sutton Cheam Extra.

I'd hate to be whoever was responsible for the marketing on this notebook. Not only is there mistake obvious to those of us with recent technical knowledge but it has been blown up into 6" letters for all the world to see on all for sides of this stand for a total of 8 times for every single instance of this display!

Bad proof reading? Incompetent technical consultation? or just someone in the office with a sense of humor? You decide.

What Apple's iWork Could Learn from Office 2008

iWork '08, Apple's latest attempt at an office suite, is an amazing piece of consumer software. However, Pages, the word processor and publishing application of the iWork suite has one particularly disappointing feature.

While there are many gripes about it's functionality from professional users who until now had little option for commercial Intel native office applications and software to read Microsoft's new XML Office formats iWork is an amazing piece of consumer grade software. Despite the irritating export for Microsoft Office compatibility and Numbers annoying import inconsistencies iWork is a solid suite for the average iLife user.

Pages introduces a new mode, specifically for word processing to accompany the long standing page layout view but this is a choice for the life of the document. Microsoft Word 2008 also offers similar range of options allowing the user to change between modes. One of my favourites, simply for aesthetic reasons, is the notebook view which gives very similar functionality to OneNote for Windows. What makes Word stand out is I can switch modes and the text is seamlessly re-presented to a format more appropriate to the mode.

If Pages offered this seamless movement between it's editing modes it would go along way to moving me from the rigmarole of word processing learnt from years of Microsoft Office use to the more creative page layout's available in Pages - or maybe Microsoft will save Apple the trouble and help it's users display a little creativity in their documents without ever taking them from the comfort of Word.

Why Apple is Charging for the iPod Touch Update

Apples decision to charge $20 US (£13 here in the UK) for the recently announced updates to the iPod Touch has caused outrage among certain users, but there are underlying reasons to charge for new features in a product, primarily the fact that they are a business.

The Unofficial Apple Weblog is currently running a story about an online petition to have Apple release the new applications for the iPod Touch free of charge. The issue for these users stems from three individual things:

1. Free on a new iPod Touch
All users who buy an iPod Touch today get the new features free of charge, pre-installed. I took the opportunity to visit the Regent Street Apple Store here in London today and witnessed the sale of an 'old' iPod Touch. If a user purchases a new iPod Touch which does not have these features they are being discounted the £13 on the sale as to offset the cost of buying the features. Why are current owners complaining? Well, honestly no one is sure. Mac users have long bought Mac's only to find out they have a new version of iLife or even a new version of OS X issued a few weeks later. These users have never professed entitlement to the new features - they have stumped up cash to get them. What makes the new applications, yes, full blown applications, for the iPod Touch software any different from Mac software from this business perspective? Nada, nothing.

So we have successfully debunked this. People got what they paid for and are happy until a new version comes out...

2. iPhone Users got it for Free
Sorry folks. We didn't. Various sources all agree that Apple is making at least some money from a revenue sharing agreement with AT&T current estimates average around $10/month US per iPhone contract and while figures are unavailable for the UK considering Apple's general regard for pricing in the UK market I'd wager around £7/month per iPhone contract from O2. So each iPhone owners have paid for, and are still paying for each and every upgrade. Tell me again why iPod Touch owners should receive the fruits of my hard earned cash for free?

3. But the Apple TV got [er, will get] a Free Update
First up, this is a totally different product and so a bad example to give, but we'll role with the argument. For the most part the huge re-engineering of the Apple TV software is all to add one feature: Rentals. Rentals provide revenue, long term, consistent revenue. Allowing an iPod Touch owner to access their Gmail account does not. While Apple has decided to include additional features such as Flickr photo viewing this is primarily to improve sales, and sales mean more rentals and more revenue.

What Apple users, myself included, sometimes forget is that Apple is a business. You get what you pay for and users shouldn't expect something for nothing.