Apple recently issued a report on it’s suppliers. The report is on the performance of suppliers in relation to the guidelines they have been given. The report revealed that three suppliers have been using child labour. In total the companies have employed eleven 15yr old workers. One company had tryed to cover it up.

Also reported is that 50 factories are working employees for longer than allowed with a 60hr week. Twenty four have been paying less than minimum wage. Only 61% met safety standards, and only 57% had the required environmental permits. All very worrying. Though some may feel that 15 yrs is old enough you can’t ague with the stats on other conditions.

But that’s not all. Most of the suppliers that Apple use said it was the first time ever that they had been audited. However, 133,000 workers have been audited last year in comparison to only 2,000 in 2007. So Apple is stepping up it’s responsabilities. But all this may put a dark cloud in consumers minds, and that’s sometime a tough one to clear.

Taiwanise smartphone manufacturer HTC are being sued by apple for 20 iPhone patent infringements.

The infringments pretty much cover everything on the iPhone, user interface, hardware and the underlying architecture. One of the infingments relates to the way the device in unlocked.

Apple have said that while they feel competition is healthy and encourage it, they draw the line at competitors directly stealing their technology. Competition should created new original technologies.

HTC has since issued a statement: “HTC is a mobile technology innovator and patent holder that has been very focused over the past 13 years on creating many of the most innovative smartphones. HTC values patent rights and their enforcement but is also committed to defending its own technology innovations. HTC only learned of Apple’s actions this morning via media reports, and therefore we have not yet had the opportunity to investigate the filings. Until we have had this opportunity, we are unable to comment on the validity of the claims being made against HTC.”

The lawsuit has been filed with the U.S. district court in delaware and the U.S. ITC. Apple wants a permanent injunction put in place that will stop the selling of HTC devices in the US. Pretty heavy stuff, and not a first. In a role reversal, Nokia filled a complaint in december 2009 with the ITC against Apple. Stating that MACs, iphones and iPods violate it’s interlectual property rights. The counter sue by Apple is still ongoing.

Apple yesterday announced their new jesus product.. the iPad.

• .5″ thin
• 1.5 pounds in weight
• 9.7″ Display
• 1Ghz APPLE A4 CPU (This is claimed to be quite fast)
• 802.11n, WiFi and Bluetooth 2.1
• 10 hours battery life per charge
• 16, 32 or 64GB Flash Storage versions available

It grows on you (a bit like an infection)

Should be available to buy in 60 days – although don’t expect a UK version before June (We just aren’t as big as the US). Approx cost as a Wifi Only unit without any contract about $629 for the 16GB version – Most likey about £600 in the UK, rising to £700 and £800 for the 32Gb and 64Gb versions respectively.

As usual another blog entry about the much rumoured Apple tablet device. What will it be like? – Well, as exciting as it might be for Apple fans.. we should try and remember that prototype iPhones were awful!

Expect more news tomorrow confiming the new Apple Tablet Device (Possibly and most likely in conjunction with a new version of the iPhone 3G software).

Some of the  features we are predicting:

• iPhone type OS
• 10″ Screen
• Minimum5 – 7 hours battery life
• GSM – Persistant internet connection via cell network
• WiFi
• Very few physical buttons

Could this be a pretty good idea of what it will be like…

Very cool - Very snappable!

Kaspersky have introduced their latest offering for MAC users. A topic of many opinions.. sadly the wrong ones. Many MAC users live in blind faith that MAC’s are immune from virus and malware.. Not true. Admittedly its currently pretty unlikely you will suffer from a Virus on your MAC.. but the time is coming and when malware and bad code finally breaks into MAC land.. it will run riot. It will shake the MAC faithful to their core as they don’t think it will happen. It will! – Lets think back a little to when Novell was the big dog and nobdoy thought Microsoft would do so well. One thing I’ve learnt in IT is that times change… sometimes very quickly.

If you have a MAC – maybe its time to invest in the future and get a real commercial product protecting you. Nobody can question Kasperskys dedicated approach, they update almost every 2 hours! – In the world of Windows they are arguably the best current AV vendor out there.

Friendly MAC Interface - Not bad for the first version.

Check it out at the kaspersky site or pop down to PC world. Really – Do it now before you have real issues, they didn’t didn’t invest in writing a new product for nothing.

Both Microsoft and Apple have a Server product out there for you to use on your network. It has to said that Microsoft’s Server product offering is far bigger and more mature than Apples but then you’d expect that for a business trying to lead in all areas of the primary commercial IT space.

Also just to be clear. The Products I’m talking about here are Apple’s Leopard Server and Microsoft’s Windows Server 2008. Both run on intel CPU based hardware and both are designed to be suitable for the SME market and upwards. I’ll try and focus on significant differences and what they mean.

Licensing

Licensing is dealt with in a very different way be each company. Microsoft’s licensing model is notoriusly complex and they approach licensing in several different ways each with their own benefits and pitfalls. For example: User CALs are requried for each user and these are available as user or device CALs, There are academic versions, Enterprise versions, product specific versions.. I could go on.. but you get the idea. Apple (possibly quite sensibly) have only a single version of MAC OSX Server that makes all features of the product available to the owner and one other smaller option. For OSX Server these are the 2 basic types of license, one being a 10 user version and the other being unlimited. Its really that simple, no extra user or device CALs, easy!

Who wins out here.. Apple. A more basic licensing option but certainly easier for the end users and much less hassle.

Directory Services

Both products look wildly different and usually come at you from opposing perspectives but have many underlying similarities to their name. Both operate heavily on a directory service for servicing clients, authentication and security etc. Microsoft have their well known Active Directory and Apple have their lesser known Open directory. Both run their own version of something called a Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) database.

This servces as the key repository for much of the systems information and both use the kerberos protocol for security. Both products offer a comprehensive toolset for managing client computers connected to the server, Mcirsooft with their Group Policy and Apple with their Managed Preferences – both allowing many of the client settings to be controlled from one single point (Neither offering any real cross platform support). Microsoft Directory Service is by far more advanced and allows for much more complex network environments and replication (forests, multiple domains, unique namespaces etc), its a true Enterprise solution scalable to a global level. Apples just isn’t as advanced.. its making inroads but has some way to go yet.

who wins out here.. Microsoft. Better in just about every way but does require a competant engineer to plan it for you.

File & Print Services

Both Server systems come with their own services for providing file and print services. By default windows Server 2008 supports SMB/CIFS file sharing aimed fairly and squarley at Windows clients. But does come with optional support for Services for Unix/Linux and Services for MAC.. both of these are ok but failry basic and do have some limitations. Mac OSX Server however is a different story.. it comes with support for SMB, FP, NFS (Unix/Linux) and even FTP. It does it all out of the box. Because it ships with this ready to go it is of course arguably easier to setup than the Windows equivalent – certainly more intuitive from a users perspective. In Windows services for Mac has never had a brilliant reputation and if your serious you should look at a third party product like ExtremeZ-IP.

who wins out here.. Apple. personally I’d argue that the Microsoft code is better for what it does but there is no denying the user experience so Apple nick it.

Internet Services and Web Technology

Both windows Server and Mac OSX Server have both come with built in web servers for years now. Microsoft have their product IIS (Internet Information Services) and Apple have Apache. There has been much debate over the years as to which one was best which is plastered all over the web. I think generally Apache was clear leader in terms of web based hosting and only recently (last 12 -18 months) have Microsoft really caught up. As of today I think it’d be very difficult to say which one is better, the only clear fact to differentiate the two is that most of the firtune 500 do use Microsofts product – go figure. Microsoft also include Windows Sharepoint services with their Operating system which is widely regarded as ‘Pretty good’.

who wins out here.. Microsoft. They just did it quicker and better.

Email, Messaging & collaberation

Both products come with basic email functionality but it does get a bit murky now as really with Windows Server you have to invest either Small Business Server or Exchange Server, both having their own price and cost implications. Apple ship OSX Server with a mail server, a chat server (iChat), a calender server (iCal) and also a way to manage contacts etc. This is most of the functionality of Exchange Server for free.. built in! This makes OSX Server very attractive from a value perspective. The only problem with this though is the quality of the applications and the support and integration factors. Exchange is now the industry standard email server and offers amazing flexibility with Outlook Web Access, Activeysnc, PUSH email (throw your blackberry out) and more.

who wins out here.. Microsoft. Their product is much better and more mature – just costs a few quid.

Virtualization

Apple OSX Server doesnt really have a robust virtualization platform. You can install third party tools to run client Operating Systems like Windows XP or Windows Vista (although in that case you should probably have a PC!) but it doesn’t have anything that you could call a serious hypervisor. Windows on the other hand.. Microsft crashed the virtualization party with HYPER-V and its already up there as one of the best and sits happily in the SME/Enterprise space for mission critical use. Apple are building their toolset and i’m sure will make an offering soon but as it stands, they simply cannot touch Microsft on virtualization.

who wins out here.. Microsoft. Not even a comparison really.

Security

Such a hot topic these days. Once upon a time we all looked own on windows as its was a bit patchy in places and wasn’t known for being the most secure platform. Apple fans would explain how they are immune from Viruses and malware – no longer the case by the way – and windows users would be scratching their heads wondering how to de-worm their re-booting computers. However.. while Apple were sleeping Microsoft snook in and hit them in face with a shovel. Mcirosoft’s commitment to secure code and regular patch schedule means their issues are less and when they have them do seem to be very quick to fix things. Apple.. Not so much and they have a very closed process. Perhaps its all about srutiny and perspective. I guess ford have more problems with their cars than Porsche do.. but then there are alot more Fords on the road right. The figures just don’t lie and Microsoft have a much better record in recent years than most. See the figures below for Vulnerabilies exposed in various Operatings System products in 2008.

What would you run your business on?

There is a flurry of rumour and conjecture surrounding the up and coming Apple Tablet in true apple form. This time the rumours are that Apple are buying up all kinds of components in order to build their next jesus device. The Apple Tablet (iSlate, iPad, iTablet):

Apple Tablet?

Apple first cornered the market on components when it was aquiring flash memory for the iPod and iPhone before making millions of the devices to sell around the world. Now it seems that Apple have their eye OLED displays for its much talked about iTablet device. In the wholesale component industry these items have all but disappeared as they seem to have all been purchased by Apple with the forseeable production runs all pre-ordered by Apple too! I guess they have big plans for the new device (Lets hope its better than the new 27″ iMacs that are all faulty!).

OLED is the choice component this time as it requires no backlighting and also consumes less energy than traditional LCD type displays. Less energy is better for battery life and as such Apple currently favour this technology for portable devices. This type of display is used in the Google NEXUS One and also the Microsoft Zune.

There are suggestions that Apple expect to sell around 2 million devices in the first year alone. So if your trying to source 10″ OLED screens.. Good luck!

The Apple iPhone (jesus phone) has been the focus of much praise since its release (and some criticism). Whatever your thoughts about the iPhone it has without question been one of the most successful mobile devices ever released. A report released today by AdMob suggests that the iPhone is infact now responsible for at least 50% of all mobile data traffic in the world.

The only other platform / device of any note is the new google android.. this is th only other platform showing growth in use and popularity. Everybody else.. by this i mean Windows, Blackberry and symbian have all dropped in use.

Can the networks take the strain? - new device popularity is one thing.. but if those new devices are responsible for relatively more data use on the networks than their less compelling counterparts this could spell less reliable mobile networks for everybody.

Apple has today officially announced the release of newly refreshed Macs. The new unibody Macbook and new iMac & Mac Mini. Each available with their funky new multitouch mouse that has a completely touch sensitive top.

Tiny spaceship or next generation of mouse? - You decide. Its probably the end for the Mighty Mouse as we know it.

 The new ‘mouse’ has one totally smooth and seamless surface designed for true multitouch use. Apple states the mouse can be used to navigate using what they call ‘intuitive gestures’ as opposed to the more conventional ‘buttons’ we’ve had for the last 15+ years. The mouse can be configured to act as a conventional mouse too and used with 1 or 2 virtual buttons, Cool! (expect this to run nearer to £100).