I really don’t know what I’d do with a tablet, but it’s still plenty interesting to see this ModBook come together. On the other hand, if there’s anything to the earlier rumors of an Apple tablet, I hope it leads to some sort of large-screen iPhone-like device.

I’m at Apple’s iPhone Tech Talk in New York today. Info is flowing like water through a firehose, so I’m not going to attempt live blogging, but here are their suggested ingredients for a successful iPhone app:

• Delightful
• Innovative
• Designed
• Integrated
• Optimized
• Connected
• Localized

The picture is of the main theater for the event. It’s by far the most beautiful space I’ve ever been in for a tech conference.

Update: the network was hugely over subscribed at the event, causing a number of network timeouts. That caused some errors while I tried to save posts, but I’ve fixed then now that I’m on a better connection.

Nobody but the studios seem happy about Apple’s implementation of HDCP on its recent laptops. The situation leaves people who legally purchased movies unable to play them on external displays (yeah, that means you can’t watch movies on the video projector you borrowed from the office).

A related story may reveal the extent of the problem. The MPAA is petitioning the FCC to allow it to use “selective output control” to block playback of video content in a manner similar to HDCP. SOC would disable your DVR and analog outputs, as well as some 20 million HD TVs, according to the Consumer Electronics Association.

Public Knowledge has joined the fight, explaining that if the FCC grants the MPAA’s request, it would give studios unprecedented control over the consumer electronics landscape, including the ability to require people to buy expensive new equipment. Sounds unlikely? PK suggests you look at Sony’s recent actions: “Last month they announced that you can watch Hancock on VoD distributed over the Internet before it comes out on DVD. The only way to receive this content is through a Sony Internet device that connects to a special plug only available on a Sony TV. Sony is a studio and member of the MPAA.”

If anything, this appears to offer more proof of the XKCD argument: if you want digital media you can count on, pirate it.

The Axiotron modbook is cool, I gotta admit, but with so many rumors of a MacBook Touch due this fall, I suspect that potential buyers might be holding their breath. But, on the other hand, those people have been waiting for a Mac tablet since Jobs killed the Newton, and rumors of a tablet are hardly unusual — see 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008. Still, the whispers of an over-grown iPhone device are getting a lot of echos lately.

Sure, we can get a MacBook Air with 64GB solid state disk (SSD), but what about upgrading a MacBook Pro? Ryan Block put one in his MBP and got a 20 second startup. Ridata released a 128GB 2.5“ SATA SSD in January that looks compatible with my MacBook Pro. Newegg has it for under $500. For comparison, however, a 250GB 2.5” spinning platter SATA drive can be had for under $100.

Corrected: I had originally written “128MB” above. Jon Link pointed out my error.

I’m really glad to see the news about the iPhone 3g. I’m interested in how the new mobile me service takes a small step toward cloud-based storage services that I’ve wanted for a while. And the news that Max OS X 10.6 “Snow Leopard” will focus on speed and stability, rather than features is good, especially considering the following.

You see, I’m a fan of Apple products. Not because I like the brand, but because the products work for me. I do enjoy that the Apple style is rather compatible with mine, and I have to admit that Apple products have influenced my work and choices, but now I’m realizing that I really do enjoy the products simply because they help me do the things I want to do faster and better…until they don’t.

I used to love iPhoto. Even more than taking pictures, I enjoy sharing them. iPhoto did that, and the editing tools made quick work of preparing my photos for sharing. I find iPhoto’s adjustment tools faster and easier to use than Photoshop’s (I started using Photoshop at version 2.0, so I’m more than comfortable with it), and the organization tools — the digital shoebox — have given me been a fair place to keep the large number of photos I’ve taken over the years. And that’s the problem.

I now have over 20,000 photos in my iPhoto library, and the performance of the application has dropped significantly. Further, my whole computing experience falls down when it’s open, even though I’m running a not-too-slouchy 2.16 GHZ Mac Book Pro with 2GB of RAM. It’s gotten to the point that I cringe when I plug in my iPhone after taking a few pictures and it opens to download them. And yesterday I finally worked up the courage to download the 300 photos that had been collecting on my DSLR.

In short, I realize now that iPhoto’s non-performance has taken the fun out of photography.

People suggest that I could archive my old photos to DVD or create separate libraries, but that misses the fact that a huge part of iPhoto’s value to me is in having easy access to all my photos without having to remember what disk they’re on. The storage issue was what had me propose Space Ship, as the 53 GB of photos hardly have to remain on my local hard drive, and it’s keeping me from switching to a MacBook Air, but the performance issue may drive me from iPhoto, and possibly the Mac platform all together.

You see, without easy access to my media, I lose much of the value that the iLife suite brings to me. Why use iMovie if the media browser can’t find the source photos and videos that are no longer in iPhoto? Keynote’s integration of the iLife media browser was great, but again, if my source material isn’t there, why use it? If I have to go through the effort of manually managing my now far-flung media, why use a Mac at all?

Please Steve, I’ve loved Apple products all these years because they did what computers where supposed to do: they made my life easier, more fun, and more productive (even if “productive” means getting an great photo of a family vacation). But you’ve not mentioned the Mac being the center of my digital life in some time, and it’s clear from Apple’s recent product announcements that the company is focusing elsewhere. Please remember that I enjoy creating media as much as consuming it, and I need products and services that support that creativity.

We knew iLife 08 was a bit ho-hum when you announced it in January, but now it’s looking pretty tired.

Last weekend, while I was putting an iPod interface into my Scion I did the same thing for my 2002 Honda Civic. Using Ben Johnson’s story as a guide, I bought a PIE HON98-AUX interface and dove in.

Aside from tools (screwdrivers and 8 and 10mm sockets), you’ll need:

• The interface adapter
• Audio wiring — I used a 6′ RCA to 1/8th inch cable from Radio Shack
• Power — I used a Belkin car charger plugged into this 12v extension cord I picked up from Radio Shack

I also recommend a sufficient quantity of good beer or other beverage. I used raspberry wheat for this project.

As I noted in my previous post, most people recommend unhooking the battery to guard against short circuits while doing this sort of thing. For my part, I usually skip that and let a fuse automatically disconnect things when it blows. Either way, though, you’d do well to find your factory radio’s 5 digit security code, as if the power gets disconnected, it won’t work again without it.

Underneath the dashboard is a panel with the car’s only power socket. The panel can be removed with some careful-but-stern pulling around the edges. Five friction clips (two on each side, one on the top center) hold it in place, but by working a flathead screwdriver around the sides I was able to pull it off.

Behind the panel are the screws that hold the dashboard console assembly in place.

With those two screws removed, I was able to push the assembly from behind and ease it out of the dashboard cavity.

Again, however, I had to fight these friction clips that held the top and sides of the assembly in place.

Once the assembly was out, I could plug in the interface adapter into the CD changer port.

I routed the interface adapter’s cable bundle behind the stereo and down to the accessory power panel. There’s enough space behind there for the adapter to sit, but first I wanted to test it.

Unlike the Toyota adapter, the Honda adapter has a separate ground wire. Fortunately, there’s another ground wire screwed in down there behind the 12v jack too.

To power my iPhone, I cut the plug end off the 12v extension cord and tapped it in to the wires leading to the existing 12v socket.

The inline taps are hugely useful.

I fished the cable for both the extension socket and the audio along the center console, hidden behind the plastic on the passenger side. The socket end of the extension emerges from the console at a convenient spot along with the audio cable. My old Belkin car charger plugs in there, the audio cable plugs into the base of it, and the dock-connector cable plugs in to my iPhone. The only thing I have to futz with is the dock connector cable, everything else is out of sight.

People have asked me why I chose to use the low-tech PIE adapter, instead of a smarter one that would allow me to control the iPod from the factory stereo. Up to the time I got my iPhone, I was sure that that was what I wanted, but the message I get every time I plug an old accessory into the dock connector is enough to make me cautious about building infrastructure around the interface. I don’t know what music device I’ll use next, but I would rather not have to take apart my car again to plug it in.

In my next post on this topic, I’ll explain how I replaced the rear speakers in this car.

Based on this story about an iPod interface install I purchased a PIE TOY03-AUX aux input adapter so I could finally listen to my iPhone without using the lousy FM transmitter. Sure, I coulda bought a new car, as the manufacturers seem to have finally come to their senses and started including such inputs, but I refuse to buy another car until I can have one that gets well over 40MPG.

The parts:

Thing is, buying all the parts is the easy part.

The dashboard:

Remove all three knobs and these two screws:

Pull the panel out from the bottom. As the hooks at the top of the panel are released, the panel should move freely:

Be careful of the wires to the A/C, defrost, and hazards. Thinking of electrics, most people recommend unhooking the battery to guard against short circuits while doing this sort of thing. For my part, I usually skip that and let a fuse automatically disconnect things when it blows.

Once the panel is clear, remove the four screws that hold the radio in place (two each side):

With the radio out, the interface adapter plugs in easily. There’s lots of room behind the dash to hide the box, and lots of open space to route the audio cable through.

But why spend so much time on this and still plug the iPhone into the dash’s 12V accessory socket? I wired the extension cable into the existing power. Getting at the wires to the power socket requires removing another panel. Easy enough, but it looks an awful mess:

With the audio cable and the new power jack, I simply plugged in an old Belkin car charger, plugged the audio cable 1/8th inch end into that, and now all I have to do is connect the dock connector to listen to my iPod in the car.

Total time for the job? If you don’t include having to run out for a new fuse, then it’s under an hour.

Apple’s Time Capsule is great. Seriously. When has backup been easier? But I need more.

The MacBook Air’s small storage highlights a problem I’ve been suffering for some time: there’s never enough storage. The slower processor and limited RAM expansion are sufferable, but storage isn’t. The 120GB drive in my MacBook Pro now is stuffed with 8GB of music (and that’s after spending hours paring it down a few weeks ago), and almost 50GB of pictures. I’ve piled up almost 10GB of email, another 10GB of stuff in my downloads and desktop folders that I can’t quite place nor get rid of, and a paltry 5GB of just plain old documents.

That’s about 80GB of my own stuff, add to that 8GB of applications and 15GB of stuff in /Library, /System, and /var (well, /private/var). Now recognize that a “120GB” drive can really only store about 110GB and you see my problem.

My photo library grows fast. I took 1.5GB of photos last weekend. Most of them are junk, and I’ve started actually tossing ones I don’t think I’ll ever use, but it hurts. I’ve also tried burning photos of to CD or DVD, but that defeats the point of having a library in the first place. And none of this changes the fact that, even without my photos, I’d be bumping in to the limits of the Air’s disk capacity (let’s assume that I’d be getting the 80GB HDD model, not the 64GB and at least $1000 more expensive SSD model). And then I have to ask myself “do I really care if I have a Mac if I can’t have iPhoto?” The short answer is “less so.”

So here’s my real question: Why hasn’t Apple figured out how to offer me a storage solution that puts frequently used items on local disk, and less-frequently used items on a network disk? Seamlessly.

Really. I want my iPhoto and iTunes to work just like they always have, but if it’s been a while since I looked at the pictures of my sister’s graduation from a few years ago, I want it to put them on a remote disk. And when I do decide to look at them again, I want it to fetch them from that remote disk and show them to me as though they’d never left. It might take a moment longer for me to load them from the network, but I can suffer that. Especially if it means I don’t have to manage where they are for myself.

It’s amazing how many pieces of this are already in place. The network is nearly ubiquitous. Unix and Linux have had union filesystems for years. Clearly somebody would have to think seriously about what happens if the network isn’t there, but that’s solvable. The value of having a hard drive with elastic capacity and seamless live backups is certainly worth it.

I can’t go to the parties Laughing Squid names, and World of Apple’s live video coverage seems about as likely as a Kucinich becoming president, but The Unofficial Apple Weblog’s keynote predictions are out, Ars’ keynote bingo is set, and half the blogaverse will likely offer some updates about the action, some of them live. The Stevenote is coming, and at the end of the day, or at least later that day, it’s likely that Apple will broadcast the recorded event in QuickTime (judging from this URL, you might find it here).

I’m as annoyed as the next guy about how hard it is to find a decent screencast app for Mac. The forthcoming Mac OS 10.5’s new iChat Theater (and the built-in screen sharing/control features) should create some new opportunities for developers, but right now it’s hard to know what works or is worth trying.

Further, I narrowed the field with the following requirement: I need an app that records to QuickTime-compatible files, not Flash. Here’s what I’ve found so far:

• Snapz Pro X, the $70 oft-cited front runner is now native.
• iShowU, $20.
• ScreenRecord, $20.
• Copernicus, $free.

Extra: this how-to pointed out OmniDazzle and Mouseposé as tools to help draw users’ focus during both live or recorded demos.

screencast, mac, mac os x, apple, demo, screen sharing, screen copy

It’s likely Phil Carrizzi could make a broken tire iron look good, but his series of the iPhone with the Newton Message Pad and eMate is geek-sweet eye candy.

iphone, newton, emate, apple, photo, gallery, pr0n, porn, photos, eye candy

Cliff and Vasken wrote up some link bait complaining about how the iPhone doesn’t meet their expectations or is a lesser competitor to a crackberry. But I challenge them to find a device that offers what they say is missing or even matches what the iPhone has.

Still, I’ve been using mine for a month now, and I can say there are few things it’s missing or could do better. None of them are deal breakers; in fact, it’s only because the device is so generally good that I’ve got any complaints at all. Call me a fanboy if you want, but I’d be interested in hearing from anybody who’s spent significant time with an iPhone who’d rather go back to their old phone.

Like Cliff, I’m frustrated that the built-in GPS isn’t user-accessible or integrated with the Google Maps app, but having used it a lot in my travels recently I can say that the maps are hugely useful even without the GPS. (though this is funny and useful too) The lack of Flash support is frustrating, but I’m not aware of any mobile browser that fully supports it, and the YouTube app is actually much better because the stream dynamically adjusts its bandwidth based on the connection speed (EDGE is way slower than WiFi, though not nearly as bad as some are reporting), and the high bandwidth stream looks much better on my iPhone than in Flash on my desktop. And despite some whining that not all the YouTube content is available, the Apple press release on the subject did claim that all YouTube content would be available by fall.

But that doesn’t mean I don’t have complaints. I already noted issues with data getting lost after a firmware reset, but that post missed a few more general issues:

• No copy/paste/clipboard
• Browser doesn’t save passwords, or synchronize passwords from the big-screen browser
• Form auto-fill seems a little dumb compared to the big-screen Safari, perhaps because the history isn’t sync’d?
• The .Mac RSS reader is pretty good, but it can’t display aggregated feeds the way Safari on a Mac can
• The email inboxes aren’t aggregated as they are in Apple Mail, and I must instead check each account individually
• When using GMaps, is there an easy way to switch out of route-view to search for a single point?
• No search tools — especially useful for finding music or contacts

All of those can be fixed in software. My list of hardware-realted complaints is tiny by comparison. I mean, I’ll agree with those that point out the phone can’t properly orient itself while in orbit and doesn’t have a metal cutting laser, but my own complaints were smaller scale. I was surprised to learn that my Belkin car audio adapter didn’t work, somewhat less surprised to find my camera adapter didn’t (wouldn’t it be cool to offload pics from the camera to iPhone, then view them and upload the good ones to Flickr?) and I’m eager for somebody to develop a small external keyboard (hey, check out Pogue’s iPhone keyboarding tips).

iPhone, complaints, early adopter, version 1.0, progressive refinement, user feedback, apple, smartphone

New 160GB AppleTV. How far away are we from a standalone unit that can download from iTunes store directly, sync iPods, and write to USB-attached burners?

apple, tv, itunes, itunes store, ipod, media, AppleTV

It couldn’t be much easier. I’d previously posted command line instructions, but it turns out that there’s a huge number of people who don’t know the easy way: just CTRL-click on the file and select “Create Archive…” You’ll also find the option in the File menu. Either way, you’ll end up with both the original and a zipped copy.

Decompressing that zip — or any other — is as simple as double-clicking it.

Like I said, easy.

mac os x, mac, apple, os x, zip, archive, zip file, how to, instructions

Following Steve Jobs’ ant-DRM post, people began to wonder if Apple was just pointing fingers or really willing to distribute DRM-free music via their online store. Yesterday we learned the answer.

Apple and EMI announced yesterday they would offer DRM-free 256bit AAC premium downloads, priced at $1.29 each.

Apple, DRM, DRM-free, EMI, ITMS, digital restrictions management, digital rights management, iTunes, iTunes Store

Steve Jobs’ Thoughts On Music is surprisingly open and frank, almost blog-like, for the man and the company especially know for keeping secrets.

Jobs is addressing complaints about Apple’s “proprietary” DRM used in the iTunes Music Store.

There is no theory of protecting content other than keeping secrets. In other words, even if one uses the most sophisticated cryptographic locks to protect the actual music, one must still “hide” the keys which unlock the music on the user’s computer or portable music player. No one has ever implemented a DRM system that does not depend on such secrets for its operation.

And after offering his view of the situation, he offers three possible futures.

The first alternative is to continue on the current course, with each manufacturer competing freely with their own “top to bottom” proprietary systems for selling, playing and protecting music.

And the case for doing more of the same is pretty clear. Apple’s iPod and iTunes Music Store are successful, and though there are competitors, they’ll have to convince would be buyers to give up their iPods.

The second alternative is for Apple to license its FairPlay DRM technology to current and future competitors with the goal of achieving interoperability between different company’s players and music stores.

And that’s exactly what people have been asking for. It’s hard to know who wants to use a player that’s not an iPod, but there are some things that don’t play on iPods. But…

Apple has concluded that if it licenses FairPlay to others, it can no longer guarantee to protect the music it licenses from the big four music companies. Perhaps this same conclusion contributed to Microsoft’s recent decision to switch their emphasis from an “open” model of licensing their DRM to others to a “closed” model of offering a proprietary music store, proprietary jukebox software and proprietary players.

And finally…

The third alternative is to abolish DRMs entirely.

And how does that work?

In 2006, under 2 billion DRM-protected songs were sold worldwide by online stores, while over 20 billion songs were sold completely DRM-free and unprotected on CDs by the music companies themselves. The music companies sell the vast majority of their music DRM-free, and show no signs of changing this behavior, since the overwhelming majority of their revenues depend on selling CDs which must play in CD players that support no DRM system.

So if the music companies are selling over 90 percent of their music DRM-free, what benefits do they get from selling the remaining small percentage of their music encumbered with a DRM system? There appear to be none. If anything, the technical expertise and overhead required to create, operate and update a DRM system has limited the number of participants selling DRM protected music. If such requirements were removed, the music industry might experience an influx of new companies willing to invest in innovative new stores and players. This can only be seen as a positive by the music companies.

steve jobs, music stores, music digital rights management, music, itunes, itms, ipod, drm, apple

The full text follows:

With the stunning global success of Apple’s iPod music player and iTunes online music store, some have called for Apple to “open” the digital rights management (DRM) system that Apple uses to protect its music against theft, so that music purchased from iTunes can be played on digital devices purchased from other companies, and protected music purchased from other online music stores can play on iPods. Let’s examine the current situation and how we got here, then look at three possible alternatives for the future.

To begin, it is useful to remember that all iPods play music that is free of any DRM and encoded in “open” licensable formats such as MP3 and AAC. iPod users can and do acquire their music from many sources, including CDs they own. Music on CDs can be easily imported into the freely-downloadable iTunes jukebox software which runs on both Macs and Windows PCs, and is automatically encoded into the open AAC or MP3 formats without any DRM. This music can be played on iPods or any other music players that play these open formats.

The rub comes from the music Apple sells on its online iTunes Store. Since Apple does not own or control any music itself, it must license the rights to distribute music from others, primarily the “big four” music companies: Universal, Sony BMG, Warner and EMI. These four companies control the distribution of over 70% of the world’s music. When Apple approached these companies to license their music to distribute legally over the Internet, they were extremely cautious and required Apple to protect their music from being illegally copied. The solution was to create a DRM system, which envelopes each song purchased from the iTunes store in special and secret software so that it cannot be played on unauthorized devices.

Apple was able to negotiate landmark usage rights at the time, which include allowing users to play their DRM protected music on up to 5 computers and on an unlimited number of iPods. Obtaining such rights from the music companies was unprecedented at the time, and even today is unmatched by most other digital music services. However, a key provision of our agreements with the music companies is that if our DRM system is compromised and their music becomes playable on unauthorized devices, we have only a small number of weeks to fix the problem or they can withdraw their entire music catalog from our iTunes store.

To prevent illegal copies, DRM systems must allow only authorized devices to play the protected music. If a copy of a DRM protected song is posted on the Internet, it should not be able to play on a downloader’s computer or portable music device. To achieve this, a DRM system employs secrets. There is no theory of protecting content other than keeping secrets. In other words, even if one uses the most sophisticated cryptographic locks to protect the actual music, one must still “hide” the keys which unlock the music on the user’s computer or portable music player. No one has ever implemented a DRM system that does not depend on such secrets for its operation.

The problem, of course, is that there are many smart people in the world, some with a lot of time on their hands, who love to discover such secrets and publish a way for everyone to get free (and stolen) music. They are often successful in doing just that, so any company trying to protect content using a DRM must frequently update it with new and harder to discover secrets. It is a cat-and-mouse game. Apple’s DRM system is called FairPlay. While we have had a few breaches in FairPlay, we have been able to successfully repair them through updating the iTunes store software, the iTunes jukebox software and software in the iPods themselves. So far we have met our commitments to the music companies to protect their music, and we have given users the most liberal usage rights available in the industry for legally downloaded music.

With this background, let’s now explore three different alternatives for the future.

The first alternative is to continue on the current course, with each manufacturer competing freely with their own “top to bottom” proprietary systems for selling, playing and protecting music. It is a very competitive market, with major global companies making large investments to develop new music players and online music stores. Apple, Microsoft and Sony all compete with proprietary systems. Music purchased from Microsoft’s Zune store will only play on Zune players; music purchased from Sony’s Connect store will only play on Sony’s players; and music purchased from Apple’s iTunes store will only play on iPods. This is the current state of affairs in the industry, and customers are being well served with a continuing stream of innovative products and a wide variety of choices.

Some have argued that once a consumer purchases a body of music from one of the proprietary music stores, they are forever locked into only using music players from that one company. Or, if they buy a specific player, they are locked into buying music only from that company’s music store. Is this true? Let’s look at the data for iPods and the iTunes store – they are the industry’s most popular products and we have accurate data for them. Through the end of 2006, customers purchased a total of 90 million iPods and 2 billion songs from the iTunes store. On average, that’s 22 songs purchased from the iTunes store for each iPod ever sold.

Today’s most popular iPod holds 1000 songs, and research tells us that the average iPod is nearly full.  This means that only 22 out of 1000 songs, or under 3% of the music on the average iPod, is purchased from the iTunes store and protected with a DRM. The remaining 97% of the music is unprotected and playable on any player that can play the open formats.  Its hard to believe that just 3% of the music on the average iPod is enough to lock users into buying only iPods in the future.  And since 97% of the music on the average iPod was not purchased from the iTunes store, iPod users are clearly not locked into the iTunes store to acquire their music.

The second alternative is for Apple to license its FairPlay DRM technology to current and future competitors with the goal of achieving interoperability between different company’s players and music stores. On the surface, this seems like a good idea since it might offer customers increased choice now and in the future. And Apple might benefit by charging a small licensing fee for its FairPlay DRM. However, when we look a bit deeper, problems begin to emerge. The most serious problem is that licensing a DRM involves disclosing some of its secrets to many people in many companies, and history tells us that inevitably these secrets will leak. The Internet has made such leaks far more damaging, since a single leak can be spread worldwide in less than a minute. Such leaks can rapidly result in software programs available as free downloads on the Internet which will disable the DRM protection so that formerly protected songs can be played on unauthorized players.

An equally serious problem is how to quickly repair the damage caused by such a leak. A successful repair will likely involve enhancing the music store software, the music jukebox software, and the software in the players with new secrets, then transferring this updated software into the tens (or hundreds) of millions of Macs, Windows PCs and players already in use. This must all be done quickly and in a very coordinated way. Such an undertaking is very difficult when just one company controls all of the pieces. It is near impossible if multiple companies control separate pieces of the puzzle, and all of them must quickly act in concert to repair the damage from a leak.

Apple has concluded that if it licenses FairPlay to others, it can no longer guarantee to protect the music it licenses from the big four music companies. Perhaps this same conclusion contributed to Microsoft’s recent decision to switch their emphasis from an “open” model of licensing their DRM to others to a “closed” model of offering a proprietary music store, proprietary jukebox software and proprietary players.

The third alternative is to abolish DRMs entirely. Imagine a world where every online store sells DRM-free music encoded in open licensable formats. In such a world, any player can play music purchased from any store, and any store can sell music which is playable on all players. This is clearly the best alternative for consumers, and Apple would embrace it in a heartbeat. If the big four music companies would license Apple their music without the requirement that it be protected with a DRM, we would switch to selling only DRM-free music on our iTunes store. Every iPod ever made will play this DRM-free music.

Why would the big four music companies agree to let Apple and others distribute their music without using DRM systems to protect it? The simplest answer is because DRMs haven’t worked, and may never work, to halt music piracy. Though the big four music companies require that all their music sold online be protected with DRMs, these same music companies continue to sell billions of CDs a year which contain completely unprotected music. That’s right! No DRM system was ever developed for the CD, so all the music distributed on CDs can be easily uploaded to the Internet, then (illegally) downloaded and played on any computer or player.

In 2006, under 2 billion DRM-protected songs were sold worldwide by online stores, while over 20 billion songs were sold completely DRM-free  and unprotected on CDs by the music companies themselves. The music companies sell the vast majority of their music DRM-free, and show no signs of changing this behavior, since the overwhelming majority of their revenues depend on selling CDs which must play in CD players that support no DRM system.

So if the music companies are selling over 90 percent of their music DRM-free, what benefits do they get from selling the remaining small percentage of their music encumbered with a DRM system? There appear to be none. If anything, the technical expertise and overhead required to create, operate and update a DRM system has limited the number of participants selling DRM protected music. If such requirements were removed, the music industry might experience an influx of new companies willing to invest in innovative new stores and players. This can only be seen as a positive by the music companies.

Much of the concern over DRM systems has arisen in European countries.  Perhaps those unhappy with the current situation should redirect their energies towards persuading the music companies to sell their music DRM-free.  For Europeans, two and a half of the big four music companies are located right in their backyard.  The largest, Universal, is 100% owned by Vivendi, a French company.  EMI is a British company, and Sony BMG is 50% owned by Bertelsmann, a German company.  Convincing them to license their music to Apple and others DRM-free will create a truly interoperable music marketplace.  Apple will embrace this wholeheartedly.

The original Apple press release is gone (and gone from the Wayback Machine too), but back in 1995 Apple announced a different set-top box, also called the iTV, for a six-state trial of interactive television services.

Apple’s ITV system incorporates key technologies including a subset of the MacOS, QuickDraw and QuickTime. In addition, it includes an MPEG1 decoder and supports PAL and NTSC video formats as well as E1 and T1 telephone protocols.

The device was one of a number similar Apple media players (real or imagined). A page at The Apple Collection rounds up most of those past efforts. Of course, today Steve Jobs announced and showed off the real iTV, a $299 goody that brings Front Row from the computer room to living room.

Apple, Apple Computer, Apple iTV, apple media player, front row, history, interactive television, iTV

My Dutch skills are weak to non-existant, and without a Google translator for MacArena.be, I’m pretty much stuck with staring at the above video and contemplating the short description provided:

A movie about the technology which Apple has recently patented. It is not a movie made by Apple but by some researchers.

Fortunately, this is an area where video is much more illustrative than words.

I sometimes get accused of blue sky thinking when I speak of the role of technology in our lives, but while I go on about how access to huge volumes of instantly searchable information is changing us, this video shows a rather near future where we can manipulate it ways that seemed like science fiction just the other day.

Props to Alan Baker for pointing this out to me.

apple, future, hci, human computer interaction, information access, information manipulation, multi-touch, multitouch, near future, patent, touch, touch screen, touch sensitive, touchscreen, Alan Baker

Jacqui Cheng likes her new MacBook Pro and loves the performance, but gives the MagSafe power adapter mixed reviews. Why? She says it disconnects when it shouldn’t, and seems to stay connected when it should disconnect.

Well, I think I still want one.

Apple, Jacqui Cheng, laptop, MacBook, MacBook Pro, MacBook Pro reviewed, portable, PowerBook, review

Via an IM from Ryan Eby: a pointer to Andrew Escobar’s directions on how to install Apple’s Front Row.

apple, front row, hack, install, media, media pc, media player, jukebox, mac, computer

There is, supposedly, some historical meaning to our Thanksgiving holiday, but all I can figure out is that I wasn’t there and it probably didn’t go as I’ve been told. Thing is, Thanksgiving isn’t so much about what we were, but who we are. Thanksgiving celebrates the two most important things in life: food and family.

Almost unique among US holidays, retailers haven’t yet found a way to commercialize it. International readers may wonder how a US holiday can exist without commercial involvement, but they should know that we make up for it in the way we eat. We will stuff ourselves, then get seconds and perhaps more. We will tell stories or play a game. Then we will have desert; apple and pumpkin pies are the tradition. After that, it’s back to the turkey again.

tags: apple, desert, eat, family, food, holiday, holidays, meal, pumpkin pies, stuffing, thanksgiving, thanksgiving holiday, turkey

I live quite a distance from any Apple Stores, so it’s only now that I’ve been able to see the new stuff. The Photo Booth application bundled with the new iMacs is actually more fun than I expected. That’s me above with the “comic book” effect applied.

But Front Row is every bit as sweet as it looks in the demos. Yes, I want it on my current machine. And, yes, I would pay $49, or maybe $79, I might even be convinced to pay $99 for the remote and software. Apple should move quickly, as it’s already been found in the wild.

tags: apple, apple media center, apple stores, front row, imac, isight, mac media center, photo booth, remote control

In case you’re looking: Metaphyzx’s Mac OS Wireless Adapter Compatibility List.

tags: apple, card compatibility, compatibility, compatibility list, list, mac, mac os, mac os x, macintosh, network adapter, wifi, wifi adapter, wifi cardbus card, wifi pc card, wifi pci card, wifi pcmcia card, wireless, wireless adapter, wireless adapter compatibility

I have plans to apply AJAX to our library catalog but I’m running into a problem where I can’t do XMLHttpRequest events to servers other than the one I loaded the main webpage from. Mozilla calls it the “same origin policy,” everyone else calls it a cross-domain script exclusion, or something like that.

Some Mozilla folks are working on a standard to address the problem, but it could be quite a while before browser support is common enough to build for it.

So Plan A was to use simple AJAX with XMLHTTPRequest. Plan B comes from this crazy suggestion at Apple’s developer site: Remote Scripting with IFRAME. It looks like different functions are subject to different restrictions, so the theory is that a JavaSctript loaded in a page in a hidden IFRAME can call functions from the parent page and do pretty much everything we’ve come to expect of XMLHTTPRequest. Here’s an example they offer.

Crazy as it is it works, and it gets around some cross-domain script exclusions for some browsers, but it still gets trapped by Mozilla.

tags: ajax, apple, browser security, browsers, cross domain, cross domain script exclusion, frustration, iframe, javascript, mozilla, remote scripting, web application, web applications, xdomain, xmlhttprequest