Apple makes some beautiful products like its new iPod Nano, but its behavior can be ugly. Thanks to the efforts of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, we can now see documents that pertain to Apple's legal crusade to find out who leaked its alleged trade secrets.

Judging by the documents, Apple appears to be more interested in intimidating reporters than in identifying the person or persons responsible for spilling its supposed secrets.

Robin Zonic, the senior manager of investigations in the corporate security department at Apple, testified that he and a colleague interviewed 25 people who had received a computer file believed to be the source of the information. That's not exactly casting a wide net -- the company has more than 13,000 employees. As the EFF notes, "It never took depositions, never issued subpoenas (other than to the journalists), and never asked for signed declarations or information under oath from its own employees."

This is significant because the law requires that Apple conduct an exhaustive search before trying to subpoena journalists.

Perhaps it's naive to expect better behavior from a company that once urged its users to "Think Different." But wouldn't it be something if businesses lived up to their friendly, feel-good marketing messages?

REVIEW: New Yahoo Mail Beta

The Unofficial Yahoo Weblog says Yahoo is rolling out the beta of its new mail interface, with slick Ajax-enabled features.

Gmail is suddenly looking a little clunky. The new Yahoo Mail is a sleek, finely wrought piece of interface design. The overall look is an Outlook-styled, three-pane window with folders in the left vertical pane, headers top right, and a message preview pane below the headers. Thus, Yahoo becomes the first major E-mail provider to keep the Inbox in view while reading a message. That alone is news, but it's not, in my opinion, the biggest news.

The new Yahoo Mail features a tabbed interface whereby you can line up several messages for later perusal, very much like Firefox's tabbed browsing. Double-click any message header to open that message in a new tab. The Compose window now opens in its own tab, keeping the Inbox available. Retaining access to the Inbox while reading and writing mail is the key to this upgrade in my mind, though Yahoo isn't emphasizing it in its marketing.

(Via Download Squad.)

Update: InformationWeek has the story.

Soviet space monkey pants on eBay

These are pants made for a macaque to wear during experimental space flights in the 1950s-1960s (or, I suppose, any social occasion during which a monkey feels obligated to wear pants).

Perhaps we should set up a whole new category on this blog for "Soviet Space Monkey Pants," because we're sure to have a lot of entries on that subject.

I never knew I had such clout with Microsoft. Back in July I wrote a column opining that the company should split Vista into two very different products, one for the corporate world, and one for users like me who are their own tech support departments. The response proves again that old adage about being careful what you wish for, because you just might get it: Sources say Microsoft is prepping not just two, but seven-count-'em-seven versions of Windows Vista.

Continue reading "Be Careful What You Wish For..."