Searches for MacWorld or Philnote today on Twitter seems to reveal an overall disappointment with Apple’s keynote at the MacWorld Expo today. Even with the release of iLife ‘09, iWork ‘09, iWork.com, DRM-free iTunes and a new 17” MacBook Pro, people seem to be fairly disappointed with Apple’s turnout this year.
I wonder though: what if this is simply Apple’s way of showing the world it doesn’t need MacWorld Expo anymore? What if in the next few months Apple announces its own conference of some sort, or a press conference, or some other venue to announce even bigger releases? What if a new Mac mini, a new 30-inch Cinema Display, Snow Leopard and more are released at a separate, Apple-driven event?
Hopefully we’ll find out soon.
Posted in blog | Tagged apple |
A lot of PR groups talk about “blogger relations” but are actually about “blogger one-night-stands”. They contact me, get some kind of response or mention, and then disappear until they need something again. I think of it as a “publicity booty-call”. Needless to say, I’m disinclined to “hop in the sack” again, particularly when they’re not taking me out for a nice dinner first. 
Eric Karjaluoto posted a piece today on how PR firms can better their relationships with bloggers.
AppleInsider just released a report that Apple may have reached an agreement with the remaining Major Labels to move ahead with a 100% DRM-free catalogue. Part of the agreement is that
The deal[…]would see Apple break its longtime insistence on a fixed per-track rate for songs and give in to frequent demands from Sony, Universal and Warner that would change the pricing depending on the popularity and recentness of a given song.
I am all for companies setting their own prices for their product. However, this doesn’t make sense:
While many songs will supposedly stay at the 99-cent level, hits will now potentially cost “more” than this amount. In exchange, back catalog tracks will drop to as low as 79 cents each to help move older or less popular content.
When I go When I used to go into a music store, the newest albums were up at the front and were the cheapest albums in the store. Why is it different for digital music? It costs the music companies a lot less in packaging, shipping, distribution, etc. to release their songs digitally. And, unless there are some software systems in place, it’s going to be a crappy job setting individual prices for individual songs at individual times.
When will the major labels learn? When will we stop depending on major labels to determine our culture?
Posted in blog | Tagged apple, itunes, music |
Today in his pre-MacWorld Conference Predictions post, John Gruber made the prediction that Snow Leopard would come with a new system-wide appearance theme, which he has heard is called “Marble.” The way he described it, with “iTunes-style scrollbars everywhere, darker window chrome, and a light-text-on-dark-background menu bar” sounds sexy.
I was interested to see what the menu bar would look like the way he describes it. Once I saw the result I really, really wanted Apple to do it.
Click the image for a larger version of what the menu bar could look like.
I have given more than my all to Apple for the past 11 years now. I will be the first one to step up and tell our Board of Directors if I can no longer continue to fulfill my duties as Apple’s CEO. I hope the Apple community will support me in my recovery and know that I will always put what is best for Apple first.
So now I’ve said more than I wanted to say, and all that I am going to say, about this.
Steve
A letter from Steve Jobs responding to the rumours of his ailing health and why he isn’t speaking at this year’s Macworld Conference. I, along with many in the Apple community, am pleased to hear he’ll be ok.
