Posts by David Bagby

Apple won't refund US Sales taxes either

Apple's VAT policy in iTunes / the App Store is consistent with their US Sales Tax policy.

I work for a public university and my state government exempts our purchases from the state's sales tax.

In the US, Apple does not charge sales tax on regular hardware/software purchases by groups that are exempt from the tax. However, they have no mechanism to allow sales tax exempt purchases through the App Store. Pointing to the T&Cs of the iTunes Store, they also refuse to provide a refund of sales tax.

The iTunes Store and the App Store share a common set of T&Cs. I wonder if this tax question is a leftover from the beginnings of the iTunes store - after all, what music rights holder would sell a song for $0.99 for anything other than "personal, non-commercial use"? If that's the case, then it's high time for the App Store to get its own T&Cs.

Not quite a small MacBook Pro... missing Firewire

Apple has actually made the new MacBooks less useful than before for use with video, audio, and many existing external drives. There is no Firewire connection on the aluminum MacBooks! Firewire provides audio interfaces with dedicated bandwidth; it's how many video cameras connect; and what about all those Firewire-only hard drives? Apple's just said, in effect, go spend another $700 for the MacBook Pro (oh, plus $29 for a Mini DisplayPort to DVI adapter) (oh, plus another $29 for a Mini DisplayPort to VGA adapter if you travel, to connect to most projectors).

Mine's the one with the Mini VGA to VGA adapter... No, that's the Mini VGA to S/composite video... Nope, that's Mini DisplayPort to VGA..... sorry, that's the Mini DVI to S/composite video... well, no, that's Mini DVI to DVI... Err, Mini Displayport to VGA.... that's Mini DVI to VGA.... no, Mini DisplayPort to DVI....

Oh wait, mine's over there with Steve's hand in the pocket.