"It is possible that the application does not exist." Well, granted, if you took enough math and philosophy classes, that statement is 100 percent correct.

Someone, somewhere is hot-swapping servers like there's no tomorrow. Because if Steve Jobs gets this error, there won't be a tomorrow.

If you hurry, you can catch the outage at Apple's .Mac service. It started this morning with me not being able to send mail, then unable to check mail, and it's now a full-on "mac.com/unavailable" interruption page. If this were Windows Live, it'd be all over Digg by now.

When the iPhone went on sale in France in November, French law required Orange, the local iPhone retailer, to sell a "carrier-independent" phone. This "unlocked" phone is priced at €749 instead of the standard €399. iPhone Atlas is reporting that the unlocked phones aren't fully unlocked, but are instead country-locked to French carriers only. I'm not a French lawyer, but this would seem to comply with the "carrier-independent" requirement in a wonderfully perverse and legalistic way, souring the plans of many resellers who wanted to bring back loads of unlocked phones from France. Can any of our French readers confirm this? Oh wait, I know a guy who's in France. I'll give him a call. (Photo by chefranden)

Ignore PC in Apple's latest TV ad as he tries to wreck Mac's Christmas. There are no Grinches this year in Cupertino. Apple's technical employees, rumor has it, were treated very, very well at a company holiday party. As a bonus, each one got a new MacBook, an 80GB iPod, and a week off. Why pay attention to the holiday gift? Such generosity suggests Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who reportedly attended the event, must have been pleased with Apple's newest products. With Macworld Expo just weeks away, we'll soon see what Apple's geeks did to earn their reward. Can anyone confirm the gift — or better yet, what prompted it?

Cranky IT managers, rejoice: Forrester Research has prepared a thoroughly footnoted report that explains why you shouldn't support those pesky iPhones everyone is excitedly bringing into the office. Fortune offers a one-page summary, but warns that Apple is hiring Outlook and Exchange compatibility engineers to make your life more complicated. (Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry)

(Photo/Photoshop courtesy of Engadget)

Opera Software, maker of a feature-laden but forgotten Web browser, is complaining to the European Commission about Microsoft's Internet Explorer. It's an old gripe: Opera points out — duh — that IE is bundled with Windows. Opera claims this is illegal and that IE holds back the web with lousy support for standards. This smells like a publicity stunt meant to remind people Opera still exists.

Former Apple exec Jon Rubinstein, who ushered in the iMac and iBook, was recruited by Palm in mid-July to help pull the company out from under Apple's Birkenstocks and RIM's wingtips. The flailing smartphone maker certainly needs someone to inject something into its product lineup that is, as CEO Ed Colligan concedes, perceived as stale. (Treo, Treo, Treo!) Too bad it didn't happen sooner. Yesterday it was confirmed Palm will have a wave of layoffs, rumored to be in the hundreds, in the next few weeks. Why?

The Web is deriding Microsoft's decision to rename PlaysForSure, its digital rights platform, as "Certified for Vista." It's actually a rare sign of intelligent life in Redmond's marketing cubes. PlaysForSure never spawned the hoped-for army of iTunes killers, and Microsoft itself created another format for its own Zune, kneecapping any stores foolish enough to adopt PlaysForSure.

Our friends from the Great White North can finally purchase TV shows via Apple's iTunes. The limited selection currently includes CBC's Little Mosque on the Prairie and CTV's Corner Gas and Degrassi: The Next Generation, the fourth incarnation of the teenage drama that just won't die. And, of course, hockey — albeit reruns of NHL games. Bob and Doug McKenzie would be proud, eh? [Apple]

Megamillionaire Ron Johnson, Apple's senior VP of retail, announced that Apple will open an additional 40 retail stores next year. The company already fruitfully operates over 200 stores worldwide, but this year Apple will focus on international markets including several new stores in the U.K., Brazil, and perhaps Mexico City. I don't know, Ron: Until you reach Starbucks territory, can you really say you have enough U.S. outlets? (Photo by Sarah Baker)

Having returned to his own company, Michael Dell has seen his namesake PC maker fall behind Hewlett-Packard and stagnate on Wall Street. So far, he hasn't done much to duplicate fellow company-founder Steve Jobs's stunning second act with Apple. Forbes, in its profile, seems to be hoping he will, but Dell's own words show why it's unlikely:

Walt Disney's monument to international culture and technology, Epcot, was stunningly advanced when it opened in 1982, but many of its original attractions became horribly dated over the last quarter-century. Particularly its centerpiece, Spaceship Earth. The ride within the iconic, giant silver golf ball documents the advances of human communications and technology. Recent renovations have brought Spaceship Earth into the Internet age, but when it emerged that the ride would include only one Steve toiling away in a garage to create the historic first Apple computer, controversy ensued. Which Steve?

Apple has bumped the limit on iPhone sales from two per customer to five. Likely this is a result of increased supply and demand from holiday shoppers looking to outfit the whole family with Jesusphones — and a sign that it's less worried about resellers cornering the market. No cash accepted, still. Doesn't bother me. I use my credit card so much it's almost translucent. [Epicenter]

Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo said in an interview with a German paper that Nokia will pursue a cut of subscriber revenues for some future data-based devices. As we've previously noted, Apple has set up a triple whammy with the iPhone: the company gets paid when it sells the phone, gets a kickback from service providers, and gets a cut of content sold through the iTunes store. In October, Nokia rolled out an unimpressive social network and partnered with Universal Music to start its own music store. Apple has shown the rest of the industry that there is money to be made in more than just handsets, and Nokia wants in on the action.

Ventureblogger Fred Wilson is selling his iPhone because he can't unlock it. It is "driving [him] crazy sitting in the box it came in." He started the bidding at $250, but it is up to $375 for a straight purchase or $500 (half for charity) for one enterprising Dutch guy who wants Fred to read his pitch. [A VC]

So, I updated my Macs to the new Leopard operating system, then synced my calendars with Apple's .Mac online service. You can see the results. Fake Steve Jobs has actually acknowledged there are bugs, which makes me wonder if Leopard hasn't Time Machined me into some alternate universe. iCal is cool — my stupid Vista PC can only find one of my brother's birthdays next week. Piece of junk. My new calendar makes total sense to anyone with a basic grasp of string theory.

A research note by RBC Capital says that European iPhone sales are higher than expected. The investment bank's analysts expect Apple to sell 400,000 to 500,000 units by the end of this year, plus 4 million units in the region in 2008. If those numbers are accurate, Apple should have no trouble meeting Steve Jobs's sworn goal of selling 10 million iPhones next year. [Seeking Alpha]

The Internet on the iPhone isn't some fake, watered-down version of the Web. It's going to be an iPhone-optimized Internet, which of course amounts to the same thing. Here's a screenshot of CBS News's image- and video-free efforts. It's so incredibly fast and efficient, I might just start using it on my Mac, too.

Vodafone Deutschland had won a temporary injunction forcing T-Mobile Deutschland, Apple's German iPhone partner, to sell an unlocked iPhone — which it did, charging customers $1,500. T-Mobile appealed and the injunction has now been lifted. Nicht mehr unlocked iPhones for you, Fritz! [BBC]