Ken Ray of Mac OS Ken does live call in show each week via Ustream. I decided to weigh in on the iPad conversation of the night. Mac OS Ken is a daily Apple News podcast. He has an app for it and also provides the recorded audio of the Mac OS Ken Live as a podcast. If your a fan of Apple and want to get caught up on news about Apple daily, subscribe to Ken’s shows, they are a must.
The “leaked” photos of the next revision of the iPhone have people all a buzz. Whether you believe or are skeptical, there is certainly enough information to absorb regarding this story.
To add fuel to the fire, I offer some correlation to a story that surfaced back in March 2010. I recalled today driving into to work that as of May 2010 Apple would stop selling the protective film that many iPhone, iPod Touch and iPod users apply to their devices for protection.
Now if the “rumors” are true it is not too far of reach to conclude the reason for the ban is the film could blur or obstruct a front facing camera’s lens. Anybody who buys a new camera knows that the film attached to a lens for protections during shipping certainly lessons the quality of the picture or video if left attached.
This is not say that the manufacturers of these protective films could easily adjust the design to prevent the obstruction of a front facing camera current film protector’s lack. It is also likely that a new designed iPhone would mean a redesign of the film, given the dimensions are likely to change as well.
If you were on the fence (and I don’t know why you would) with the iPhone HD stories of this past week, maybe this could move one to believe the recent stories surrounding the new device from Apple.
This week I picked up The White Stripes Under Great White Northern Lights live CD from my local music store for $9.99. What exactly does that have to do with Apple and all things Mac? Simple, I picked up physical media at a music store that was $2.00 less than the iTunes price.
Yes in the ever changing world of the music industry, buying CDs may be back en vogue.
Then there was a release from Universal Music Group stating, they will be offering CDs at a price of 6 to 10 dollars as part of their Velocity program. That deserves a Neo “WHOA”
It should be noted there will not be a price change from Universal Music Group for digital music.
I remember when a CD cost around $20. I thought back then (1992) that a CD should be less. Prices eventually started to come down. Most new releases came in just under $12.00.
It would appear the music labels have finally started to understand how to get CDs to compete with digital downloads. As Universal stated, they will to make up for the lower percent profit margin via sales volume and higher priced deluxe versions.
Granted the iTunes model appears to focus in on the individual track purchase. The music industry wants album sales.
Doing the math, for $9.99 one could purchase about 8 individual tracks at a $1.29, 10 at $0.99 or about 14 at the highly elusive $0.69 via iTunes. Following the Universal’s album model, I got 16 tracks for $9.99.
The best part of course was the handling of the album art and did mention my local music store added a free ticket to the DVD screening of the film.
Yes, that deserves another Neo “WHOA”
In downloading the January 27th, 2010 Apple iPad Keynote this weekend, I noticed that the show was tagged “Explicit”. In watching the podcast, I didn’t see much in the way that would garner the Keynote the tag. I decided it must have been the fact that the iPad caused many bad words to come from Amazon and Sony. Possibly back at Big Red (Verizon) they were shouting many bad words about how they failed to score the 3G contract for the latest Apple device. Maybe Bill Gates let out some bad words related to “why the BAD WORD are we wasting time on the Zune and not creating this”. Anyway you look at it, the iPad and more importantly the Keynote may have garnered it the “Explicit” tag due to all the BAD WORDS coming out of its competitors collective mouths.
Click on the photo for a larger view.
