Anyone else notice that there has been no iTunes New Music Tuesday today? Meaning no free single of the week and no new albums on the iTunes Music Store?
Makes you really wonder if sometime this week (I’m guessing tomorrow) that DRM-free music is released on iTunes. Apple did say that DRM-free music would be on iTunes by the end of May and the end of May is Thursday. Due to Memorial Day, you can make the case that Wednesday is the new “Tuesday” this week.
I don’t own an AppleTV and probably won’t in the near future. Maybe it will get on my wedding registry. However, I have seen an AppleTV in action and my mind is buzzing with possibilities Apple has opened up.
If Apple allowed add-ons to AppleTV, some possibilities I just thought of:
I won’t be buying the first version of AppleTV…but I could see it becoming something real special in the future. I can’t wait until I can legitimately ditch Cable TV and get only the content I want (live or prerecorded).
Those of you who have read my blog know how long I have been searching for the perfect backup solution. Specifically, one that allows me to do easy off-site backups.
Mozy now has a Mac version (they also have a Windows version) and I installed it last night. They offer 2GB of space for free, unlimited bandwidth, and it is all encrypted (448-bit Blowfish). Every hour, their software checks my computer and uploads any changes I have made to their servers. I also have a daily backup scheduled at 1am, just to be safe.
Since my iTunes and iPhoto libaries cannot fit on the 2GB space Mozy gives for free, I am not backing them up, which is ok at the moment since I do manual backups of those. However, my entire Documents folder, e-mail, address book, iCal, Firefox bookmarks, etc. are all backed up. Even files that are open or locked are backed up!
It is refreshing to know that some of my most important data is backed up off-site. If I ever wanted, just $4.95 a month will get me unlimited disk space as well on Mozy. It is something I am thinking about, although backing up all of my music and photos will probably take a couple of days.
Of course, I still have my nightly SuperDuper! backup to my external hard drive in addition to an occasional DVD backup that I take off-site.
For the first time, I am feeling more confident that during a major disaster, my data is safe. Try out Mozy so you can make sure at least some of your data is safe.
Today Apple, Inc. announced that it next version of Mac OS X, codenamed Leopard, will be delayed until October.
The initial reaction (just from scanning around various Mac blogs/forums) was outrage for those who were expecting Leopard by WWDC ’07 in June.
While I am more disappointed then outraged (after all, OS X Tiger works just fine right now and is very competitive with what Vista offers), here are my thoughts on why this happened.
Apple stated plainly that they had to borrow key OS X developers to help finish the iPhone for its June release, which robbed the OS X team of key developers it need to finish on time. Makes sense, since the iPhone is running a stripped down version of OS X.
While some people don’t like how Apple is transforming from a computer company into a consumer electronics company (an argument I will save for another time), it is 100% clear that the Apple considers the iPhone crucial to its long term health. After all, just like the iPod effect introduced millions of people to Macs, the iPhone has the potential to do just that, if not more. They have to get the iPhone out the door on time so they get the maximum buzz. The more people that have the gateway Apple products (iPod, iPhone, iTunes, Apple TV), the more likely they will switch to Macs in the future.
Second, this is nothing like the often delayed and years in the waiting Windows Vista release. Apple has never (at least in public) promised a feature in Leopard, then announced later that it has been cut (WinFS is the famous Vista example). Apple didn’t scrap an early version and start from scratch, which happened with Vista according to Wikipedia. In fact, Apple continues to hint that it has secret features up its sleeve (today’s press release even said that Leopard will be “feature complete” at WWDC ’07).
Finally, I am all for waiting and squashing the remaining bugs. A four month delay (which is what the delay will be, since June 21st is the last day of spring and October is just 4 months from June) is a small price to pay for no major issues on release day. I’ll take that in a heart beat.
So in closing, take it easy. It isn’t the worst thing in the world. At least we don’t have to wait 6-7 years like the Vista folks did.
As most people who follow tech news know, Apple did something extremely important yesterday with the help of a ‘Big 4′ record company, EMI. The two companies struck a deal to release EMI’s entire catalog onto iTunes DRM-free and at a much higher sound quality starting in May 2007. Singles will cost $1.29 apiece, while albums will maintain their current pricing ($9.99 to $12.99, although I have seen CD’s for as cheap as $7.99).
Why is this important? Why are many people talking about this?
For the first time thanks to this deal, legal digital music has a real chance at working like it is supposed to. All of that potential that the original Napster unlocked for a year or two is finally being realized. I am not talking about the peer-to-peer file sharing piece of Napster. I am talking about the ability of someone to easily discover music, pay a cheap fee for it, and get high quality copy that works just like any Compact Disc…except a lot easier.
How is this better then going down to the store and picking up the latest CD?
I personally cannot wait for May to come around. I know that for now on, if an artist is available on iTunes DRM free with the high bitrate files, I will definitely buy via iTunes instead of taking a car trip to buy the CD.
The music industry as we know it is dead come May.