Reprinted from TidBITS#800/10-Oct-05 with permission. Copyright (C) 2005, TidBITS. All rights reserved. http://www.tidbits.com/ MailBITS/10-Oct-05 ------------------ **Apple Loosens up on "Mac" Trademark Use** -- The email has been coming fast and furious as Macintosh developers, consultants, and resellers have been contacting me after reading "Apple Cracks Down on Google AdWords" in TidBITS-799_. A number of people forwarded their entire discussions with Google AdWords Support, which has been amusing for just how similarly each interaction unfolded. Google did start to provide additional information to people who pushed hard last week, even acknowledging that the request had come from Apple and was specifically related to ads running in the European Union. Randy Murray of Now Software was even told that the ban applied only to ads running in Switzerland and Eastern Europe, and when he tweaked the geographic distribution of his ads to eliminate those countries, the ads were approved again. The best news, however, came from Craig Isaacs and Kerry MacInnes of Neon Software, who, after going through exactly the same rigmarole that everyone else did, were finally told by Google AdWords Support that, "At this time we are no longer monitoring the term 'Mac' per the trademark owner's request." Intrigued, I immediately created a new ad in Google AdWords that used every one of the Apple trademarks I listed previously, and in fact, it appears to be true: "Mac" and "Macintosh" no longer trigger the trademark warning from Google. The other Apple trademarks I listed - Apple, iPod, shuffle, Mac mini, iMac, iBook, PowerBook, Power Mac, iTunes, and iTMS - all still trigger Google's warning, although you may be able to work around that problem by setting your geographic distribution appropriately and requesting an exception from Google. I've queried Google PR and Apple PR to see if they'll admit to this change officially, but as usual, neither has deigned to offer a statement. [ACE] **DD Tournament Poker 2.0p2 Released** -- In "Trying My Hand at Poker: DD Tournament Poker" in TidBITS-784_, I wrote about DD Tournament Poker, a Java-based poker game that plays the Texas Hold 'Em variant, and mentioned that the next version would be released soon. Version 2 was recently released, and Donohoe Digital has just made a 2.0p2 update available. The new version adds online play, so you can play against other live opponents running DD Tournament Poker 2 (without ponying up actual cash, as with many other online poker sites). The skills of the computer players are now customizable, and several hand- analyzing features have been added. One drawback is that the sound effects, which were done so well in version 1, are worse in version 2: shuffling cards sounds like flatulence, and actions such as calling or raising elicit beeps that could be found in a mid-1980s PC running DOS; fortunately, there's an option to play with audio turned off. Otherwise, this is a strong upgrade that improves on a solid poker-playing program. DD Tournament Poker 2 costs $30, or $25 if you're upgrading from version 1; the 16 MB download also serves as a limited demo until you enter a license number. [JLC] **DealBITS Drawing: A Stuffed Dog and Fetch 5.0** -- Congratulations to Glenn Blauvelt of cs.colorado.edu, whose entry was chosen randomly from 720 entries in last week's DealBITS drawing and who received a plush Fetch toy, along with a license for Fetch 5.0, worth $25. Even if you didn't win, you can still save 20 percent on Fetch 5.0 through 31-Oct-05 by using coupon code TIDBITS05 when ordering from within the Fetch application (choose Purchase from the Fetch application menu). This offer is open to all TidBITS readers (although those who entered the drawing received a 30 percent-off coupon). Keep an eye out for future DealBITS drawings! [ACE] .