Posts by Gordon

Apple blocks cheaper UK iPod sales

iPods are cheaper in the UK than the rest of the EU!

My younger sister is looking to by an iPod, we found the 80GB ones being sold on the UK store for £159. Converting this to € it comes out at €201.

Apple, however, won't allow non-UK residents to purchase from the UK store so instead we have to get stung for the IE price of €229.

Which is a price difference of €28, at today's rates that's £22

So no, it's not rip-off Britain because they're cheaper in Blighty than anywhere else in the EU. The problem is solely down to Apple being allowed to regionalise their selling (even in the EU, which is supposed to be a single market).

Police give up on lost CDs

Re: £20K reward...

They're CDs, surely you could both return the discs for the £20k and also sell the data on the black market, as often as you like?

Wikipedia black helicopters circle Utah's Traverse Mountain

@ Andy Hockey

There is now, let's just see how long it lasts

Europe's banks must inform customers of US snooping

How is this good for privacy?

If you have no alternative but to use services provided by SWIFT (or any other financial service provider for that matter) then you just have to suck it up and allow your transactions to be monitored. Being told that they may be monitored doesn't win the customer anything in terms of privacy protection.

How about showing a little backbone and *not letting* transactions be monitored by outside agencies? I don't mind having a mechanism where external agencies could request certain data from EU law enforcement groups, with appropriate safeguards of course.

Rivals torture consumers via Microsoft

Microsoft *aren't* a "convicted monopolist"

That makes no sense, there's nothing illegal about having a monopoly. However, if you do have a monopoly then you are held to higher standards and responsibilities than other companies, one of which is that you are not allowed to abuse your monopoly position to stifle competition.

Microsoft were convicted of *abusing* their monopoly, not of having one.