Cult of Mac

Two news nuggets suggest the Beatles catalog is getting close to release online:

Yesterday Reuters reported that Neil Aspinall, the long-time head of Apple Corps., had stepped aside:

A combative, media-shy executive fiercely protective of the Beatles’ legacy and Apple Corps Ltd., Aspinall kept busy in recent years waging a legal battle against computer company Apple Inc. over their similar logos.

A bigger issue was the Beatles’ noted refusal to license tunes to online retailers, such as the technology firm’s iTunes store….
His slow-and-sensible approach to the band’s affairs paid off in the 1980s when compact discs were introduced. He refused to join the rush, and held out for a higher royalty rate. The band’s crowning moment, “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band,” finally came out on CD in 1987, amid a worldwide publicity blitz marking the album’s 20th anniversary.

Aspinall was also the main reason why Beatles tracks are not heard on multi-artist compilation CDs, because he said they cheapened the band’s image.

On Thursday Reuters reported Apple Corps. settled a long-running royalty dispute with EMI:

The company representing The Beatles has settled a 30 million-pound ($59 million) royalty dispute with EMI Group, in a deal that could finally pave the way for the Liverpool band’s music to go online… “It seems like it is heading in that direction,” Jupiter analyst Mark Mulligan told Reuters of the Beatles catalogue. “The conversation has changed from an ‘if’ to a ‘when’.

Michael Adberg of WeaKnees, a company known for its TiVo upgrades, wrote in to say his company just started shipping a self-install upgrade kit for the AppleTV. For $200, you get a 160 Gbyte hard drive pre-formatted for the AppleTV. “The installation process only takes a few minutes and then the AppleTV will re-synchronize with your iTunes to download all of your music, videos, and photos,” WeaKnees promises.

Link.

Ingrid Ebeling, an analyst at JMP Securities, believes 500 million MP3 players will be sold before the market becomes saturated. Apple will easily sell 350 million of those, besting Sony’s record for Walkman sales.

Reports AppleInsider:

“During Sony’s 15-year reign with the Walkman, the company sold over 350 million units, and we believe that Apple’s addressable market over time will exceed this number given the upgrade and replaceable nature of iPods as well as the overriding trend of consumers’ increasing use of digital media,” she wrote. “The net takeaway is that this is a product category that is far from saturated, and we believe well over 500 million units will be sold before the product category hits maturation.”

Apple has long had Sony’s benchmark in sight. Last year, Jon Rubenstein, the now-retired head of Apple hardware who oversaw development of the iPod, told me that he was pretty confident Apple would beat Sony’s 350 million record.

This is London:

Acoustic guitarist Kate Walsh has knocked Take That off the top of the iTunes download album chart – but does not even own an iPod.

The 23-year-old guitarist recorded her album in a friend’s bedroom and named it Tim’s House in his honour.

The homemade album has proved a unexpected hit with iPod fans who had downloaded it from the iTunes website in their thousands – knocking Take That and Kaiser Chiefs from the top spots.

Miss Walsh said: “You end up looking at it every day to see if you’re still number one. I think I’m ahead of Elton.

“I don’t actually have an iPod yet. I hear they are quite good for ten hour flights.

“I set up my own record label called Blueberry Pie and just got the music out there. It’s pretty easy. Anyone can do it.”

The classically trained pianist from Brighton said she built up a fan base by putting her music onto her MySpace page and eventually persuaded iTunes to sell it.

Kate Walsh’s MySpace Page.

AppleInsider | MGM flicks arrive on Apple’s iTunes Store:

MGM flicks arrive on Apple’s iTunes Store By AppleInsider Staff Published: 09:00 AM EST Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (MGM) and Apple announced Wednesday that MGM is now offering titles from its catalog of feature films for purchase and download on the iTunes Store.

TUAW : AppleTV Commercial Follow-up:

Apple TV Commercial Follow-Up by Erica Sadun, The Unofficial Apple Weblog Eagle-eyed TUAW reader Klemens noticed that the Apple TV in the commercial had only a power-cord and no connections to a TV. Here are a few other things you may (or may not) have noticed.

So Apple’s had one HELL of a first quarter, haven’t they? With tax day nearly upon us, I thought it might be a good idea to look back at how well Apple is answering the issues that I thought were important late in December of last year, especially now that the AppleTV is out in the market and the iPhone has set the world on fire with its hype flames. Or something. So click through — we’ll laugh, we’ll cry, and we’ll learn something about forecasting. Here, again, are the 10 Questions Apple Must Answer in 2007 — and how well they’re responding.

Technorati Tags: apple, speculation, Steve Jobs

Everyone who ever said built-in iSights were a security risk? They’ve been proven right again, but this time in reverse. A MacBook used in London Fashion Week and set to upload Photo Booth pictures to the Topshop site was snatched about a week ago. In the mean time, the crooks have used Photo Booth A LOT, sending their ridiculous mugs right to the top of the queue.
The victim of the theft has confirmed it’s true to Gizmodo today:

This is not a hoax. Two computers were stolen from the Covent Garden venue during London Fashion Week, London, UK. These computers were set up to automatically upload photos to the Topshop London Fashion Week Website via the Topshop Flickr Account. About a month after the theft new photos appeared on our Flickr account and London Fashion Week website. Whether the people in the photos are the thieves, or have just bought a dodgy computer is still in question. As of Thursday 5th April 2007, these computers had still not been recovered.

Anyone recognize their sketchy friends here?
Stolen Laptop Pics Not a Hoax After All – Gizmodo

Technorati Tags: iSight, macbook

The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs:

We’re havng a diner 2 celebrate at John Bentley’s in Wooodside tonght. and Ill be honorst, were getting a little buzzed om super expnsive wine. But itsgood blow ff steam once on a while. ths is relly a special time 4 a[ple. Jon Ive just told us that if you put 100 million iPoods end 2 end, they wd encricle the globebe 13 xtimes. Amazing. Speaking of amazing, i type ths whlala whow whole massage on my iphone usissins using its touchchcscreen keypayd and adaptiona adaptiv typeing and it worksss greeeat.

Anyone check out the new AppleTV ad yet? It’s narrated by none other than John Krasinski, better known as Jim “Fat” Halpert on NBC’s “The Office.” Interestingly enough, HP has a huge promotional concern on the series, and its displays are everywhere on the show. Apple always wins, don’t they?

Via TVAddict.
Thanks, Kimra!

Phillip Torrone of Make magazine and Adafruit Laser Services, a laser-etching etching service for iPods and MacBooks, has kindly offered to etch OxyContin pills for free onto any Rush Limbaugh iPod. If you recall, Limbaugh is offering eight free iPods engraved with his signature as an incentive for his email newsletter (see here).

Phil writes: “If any of your readers wins one, I’ll etch pills all over it for free with my laser. We can then auction it off and give the $ to a group Rush hates.”

Send mail to Pete or I at the email addresses listed at right. Also include suggestions for a suitable charitable organization.

Pic by Sudden Curve

Apple on Monday triumphantly announced it has sold 100 million iPods in five years with a big splashy ad in the New York Times and across the front page of its website. Apple claims the iPod is the “fastest selling music player in history.” That may be so, but it’s not yet the biggest seller: Sony sold 340 million Walkmans (and others sold countless millions of knockoffs).
But Apple watchers are actually more interested in the growth of iTunes. Carl Howe at Blackfriars Marketing notes that iTunes has now sold 2.5 billion songs — 1 billion more songs than 6 months ago. These numbers are only semi-official (Jobs mentioned them casually in an interview), but if Apple is now selling 1 billion songs every six months, that’s a very sharp growth curve.
Also, Howe points out that Apple is also beginning to dominate online sales of movies and TV shows. Wal-Mart revealed on Monday that its online movie store sold just 3,000 movies in the first month. By contrast, Apple sold 125,000 movies in the first week.
“Once you’ve bested the largest American retailer, the sky is the limit,” Howe writes.

Dig it. Within six months, the Wii and the AppleTV will be one device.

Via Gizmodo.

Technorati Tags: apple, appleTV, software

AppleTV just got one step closer to being a full-fledged replacement for a stand-alone Web-browsing device thanks to AppleTV RSS Plugin from twenty08 software. The fun little app adds a new channel to Apple’s hackable box, and then you can make it display your favorite RSS feed. <cough>US, for example.</cough>
The little application will soon support ATOM feeds and video RSS. Can’t wait. This is all nice, but it still can’t compete with what’s officially supported on the Nintendo Wii, which has a headline news reader, weather and even a complete browser. Isn’t that crazy?
Via Digg.

Technorati Tags: appleTV, software

Lawmakers are out of touch and corrupt. Democrats in my home state, Michigan, appear to have reinforced this image by proposing $38 million be spent on iPods for every student in the public schools to use as learning tools.
As you might expect, this proposal has drawn guffaws and outrage from armchair analysts across the land. Newspapers and bloggers alike have gone out of their way to highlight the spending bill as reflecting a worldview that can’t fix things. Don’t believe it. This story has a lot more to it than iPods. At the heart of the matter is a state that seems dead set on dying. Read on to learn what you aren’t hearing.

Technorati Tags: back-dating, ipod

We’re entering a new phase of iPhone speculation. Last fall was Phase I: Ludicrous predictions from people who have never seen one. January until now has been Phase II: Potshots and Idol Worship. And now on to Phase III: Summaries of the obvious.
I submit as the beachhead indicator of Phase III these comments from UBS Specialist Tony Andersson, who concludes that, brace yourself, iPhone sales could have a negative impact on iPod sales. Phew! Are you breathing again yet?

Technorati Tags: apple, iphone, speculation

Everyone is loving the story of the iPod that allegedly saved the life of U.S. Infantryman Kevin Garrad in Tikrit (read more at Gadget Lab). Though it seems like the perfect story, there is actually more to this tale than you might assume. First of all, the iPod didn’t save his life. His body armor did. And it isn’t even an Apple model. Click through for the rest of the story.

Technorati Tags: ipod, iRaq

One of Apple’s greatest feature introductions of the last few years is the use of two fingers to turn a PowerBook or MacBook trackpad into a two-button wonder. It’s an incredibly elegant solution that feels significantly better than awkward multi-button Windows trackpad laptops.
But it also only works on 2005 or later PowerBooks, which left, well, almost everyone out of the party. Until now. iScroll2 is an open-source project that promises to bring the two-finger scroll dance to older PowerBooks. It’s very early in development, so try it at your own risk. My 2003 12″ PowerBook is not supported, so I’m still out in the cold. Anyone got it working? Is it worth our time?

Via Digg.

If you can’t wait until June for the real iPhone, buy this $3 paper iPhone cutout on eBay instead. The seller, who has has 96.9 % positive feedback, claims it’s the “most accurate” paper model on the market today. It boasts advanced features like:
1. Real Rounded Corners
2. Images of the top and bottom of the iPhone
3. Cingular icon has been replaced with AT&T
The seller has even made a high-quaility, pre-assembled paper iPhone for an extra $3. It even includes a thich cardboard insert for extra rigidity. Link to the assembled Paper iPhone auction.

Drug-addled nutjob Rush Limbaugh is giving away eight, 80-gig video iPods, one a week for eight weeks. The bad news: you have to sign up for his email newsletter “Rush in a Hurry.” Even worse, he’s vandalized the iPod with an engraving of his signature. How about a handful of painkillers instead?

Pix by Chris John Beckett

About 4,000 dancers reveled to the sounds of their own iPods at an impromptu flash mob at London’s Victoria train station on Friday, according to the Evening Standard.

A deafening 10-second countdown startled station staff and commuters before the concourse erupted in whoops and cheers. MP3 players and iPods emerged and the crowd danced wildly to their soundtracks in silence – for two hours.

University of London student Lucy Dent, 20, was among the flash mobbers. She said: “It was my first flash mob and I’m hooked. I’ve been dancing non-stop since we began.

“I didn’t even notice the commuters. When you get into the dancing you’re oblivious to them and forget you’re at a railway station.”

Says Flickr user vandanger: “It lasted almost two hours before the police intervened. It was great.”

The Wall Street Journal is reporting: EU Music Complaint Focuses on Record Firms:

The true focus of a new European Union complaint alleging unfair online-sales practices by Apple Inc. isn’t the company’s iTunes Store, but the recording industry, an EU spokesman said. The European Commission on Friday sent Apple and four record companies “statements of objections,” accusing them of harming consumers in the United Kingdom and Denmark by charging them more to download songs than residents in other parts of the 27-nation bloc. Regulators want Europeans to be able to shop for better prices and obtain a more varied selection by going to iTunes Web sites outside their home country. (Paid subscription required)

Feel the love, people! MaxGizmo, a band based in Toronto (where I happen to be right now — and I’m a little drunk), has just released a fairly awesome song about the glories of the Mac 512k, the first Mac that was capable of, well, doing stuff. It loses points for casual use of a slur, but the beat’s catchy enough. Dig it!

Thanks, Harrison!

Image via EldoCountry

So, I might or might not be interviewed by On the Media soon regarding my thoughts about the Apple/EMI deal that will soon bring us DRM-free iTunes music downloads. It’ll basically depend on if they can find me a studio in Toronto or not — I’ll keep you posted. In collecting these thoughts, the following thing occurred to me: I have no idea if it’s a good thing or not. After giving it some more thought, it’s definitely good, bad and ugly…I mean, unclear. This is the most theoretical I’ve gotten in awhile, so definitely click through to see what it’s all about.

Look who Apple’s in bed with: the record company that fired the Sex Pistols.

But The Pistols had the last word:

There’s an ulimited supply
And there is no reason why
I tell you it was all a frame
They only did it cos the fame!
Who?

E.M.I.

Too many people had the suss
Too many people support us
An unlimited amount
Too many outlets in and out
Who?

E.M.I.

And sir and friends are crucified
A day they wish that we had died
We are an addition
We are ruled by none

Never ever neverrrrrraaa

And you thought that we were faking
That we were all just money making
You do not believe we’re for real
Or you would lose your cheap appeal ?

Don’t judge a book by the cover
Unless you cover just another
And blind acceptance is a sign
Of stupid fools who stand in line
Like

E.M.I.

Unlimited edition with an unlimited supply
That was the only reason we all had to say goodbye !

Unlimited supply
There is no reason why
I tell you it was all a frame
They only did it cos the fame !
I do not need the pressure
I can’t stand the useless fools !
Unlimited supply
Hallo E.M.I.
Goodbye A & M

The Mac Pro has been updated to 8-core Intel Xeon chips — and can cost up to $16,000.

The new machines, available immediately, can be configured with several different chip combinations, from two Dual-Core Intel Xeons to two Quad-Core Intel Xeons. The top of the line runs two Quad-Core Intel Xeon “Clovertown” processors running at 3.0GHz.

The monsters can be configured in every way imaginable, and have options for four internal hard drives and four video cards. But pricing is not for the feint of heart.

The entry level model — which has two dual-core processors — starts at $2,500 for the base configuration.

The top-end beast starts at $4,000, and that’s with only $1 Gbyte of RAM.

Bump the RAM to 2GBytes and the internal drive to 500Gbytes, and the price jumps to $4,500 — this should be considered the base price.

Add a pair of 30-inch high-def monitors, and it costs $8,200.
A model with all the bells and whistles (16Gbytes of RAM, 4x750Gbyte drives, 4 graphic cards, two displays, airport+bluetooth, fibre channel, etc. etc.) and of course, an Applecare protection plan but no extra software — costs $15,900.

Link