New and Noteworthy: The future of Retrospect; Will the real iPhone please stand up?; more

The future of Retrospect The Register is carrying a rumor that EMC-Insignia is pulling the plug on its Desktop edition of the popular Retrospect backup software. "The internal departures could spell trouble for customers who use EMC/Dantz's flagship backup product Retrospect. Our sources indicate that a skeleton crew has been left to oversee the release of a point upgrade to Version 7.5 of the software. That code due out this quarter will include updates for Microsoft's Vista and Apple's Leopard operating systems." Retrospect for Mac OS X is currently at version 6.1.126. More.

Will the real iPhone please stand up? CNET has a series of photos depicting some of the newly announced phones that closely resemble the iPhone in form, if not function. "No, it's not the iPhone; it just looks like one. Fashion designer Prada and LG Electronics announced on Thursday what they call the world's first completely touch-screen mobile phone to come to market. The Prada Phone (LG KE850) features an "advanced touch interface," ringtones, preloaded content, mobile phone accessories and a leather case." More.

Microsoft mulled Apple partnership, iPod rival in 2003 Computerworld reports that as far back as 2003, Microsoft Corp. considered introducing its own rival to the iPod or seeking a partnership with Apple. "I have to tell you my experience with our software and this device Creative's Nomad Jukebox Zen Xtra is really terrible," said Windows Vista development chief Jim Allchin in a Nov. 13, 2003, e-mail. "Apple is just so far ahead. How can we get the [independent hardware vendors] to create something that is competitive with the iPod? I looked at the Dell system and that is not close either." More.

Explanation for Apple's 802.11n charge ZDNet has a fairly lengthy explanation of why Apple had to charge US$2 for enablers that add 802.11n functionality to most Core 2 Duo and Xeon-based Macs. "The problem is you can't prove what some things are worth until you sell them. What's the value of a software upgrade to 802.11n on the open market? Apple isn't going to let any other company sell software that would upgrade a piece of its hardware, making it almost impossible to establish a market value for that software. That means a company in this situation would have to defer all the revenue associated with the product until it can establish the value of the Wi-Fi upgrade, or until it delivers the complete set of software, said Brett Trueman, a professor of accounting with the Anderson Business School at the University of California at Los Angeles. So, Apple would have had to defer all the revenue for Macs sold with the 802.11n chips from September until it delivers the upgrade in February, and that's not a realistic option." More.

Previously on MacFixIt

• Apple changes planned pricing of 802.11n enablers
• Mac OS X 10.4.8: Blue screen for several seconds when waking up from sleep
• Portable Macs waking up from sleep while closed, not going to sleep (#5): Check Bluetooth settings
• Address Book data disappears -- potential fixes
• System slowdown due to errant FireWire devices
• iPhoto 6.x: Trash fails to empty (#3): Potential fixes
• Slower FireWire throughput after connecting hybrid devices via USB 2.0

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