The Mac Professional's Resource
Earlier this year, Steve Jobs wrote an essay saying that DRM should be abolished. Some people called it hypocritical because Apple has always been tenacious with protecting patents, but I think it shows a genuine frustration with the record labels and the growth of alternative forms of music distribution. Since Apple is the leader of alternative forms of music distribution thanks to their iTunes Music Store, any move that makes music more free seems to benefit apple.
A few months later, Apple partnered with EMI to release DRM-free downloads, but rumors are suggesting that Jobs will take things a step further by partnering with Hip-Hop Mogul Shawn Carter, who you probably know better as Jay-Z to form their own record label. Some people are going to look at this deal and wonder what Jobs was doing, because despite Jay-Z’s success as a business man and performing artist, there will be some negative connotations to his style of music. However, there is a lot of potential in this deal.
Taking a look at iTunes demographics, I think Apple made a savvy move. Although their new label might only be a drop in the bucket at first, there is a potential for Beyonce to join, and if they are successful, I could see other successful bands willing to do think differently about how they make their albums. In the meantime, Apple will be building their brand with some of the most recognizable names in pop culture. Even better, they get to stick it to Universal (Jay-Z) and Sony (Beyonce) at the same time.
— Joe Fahs
Over the holiday break, rumors began to fly about a new Apple iPhone update which would bring along several feature enhancements including a customizable home screen and the “Locate Me” quasi-GPS built into the Google Maps application. Since the original story came from a web site that did not have much of a record within the Apple rumor game, some people were skeptical, at least until more comprehensive video proof started to come out.
Since I have been a big wimp about hacking my iPhone, I am excited for a lot of this new functionality despite the glaring lack of proper MMS. Users of modified iPhones are already bracing for the update to break everything once again. Apple has promised to release a full SDK for the iPhone later in the year, so there is hope that the update-and-pray cycle will come to an end eventually.
— Joe Fahs
For many years, Apple’s growth has come on the shoulders of the iPod, which has dominated the portable music player market almost since its inception. This was great for Apple as a company, but Apple’s success at bringing people to the iPod did not always translate into success for Apple hardware. iPod and iTunes ruled music, but Apple was still kicking along at less than 5% market share, even as other computer companies were enjoying record sales. Now, at least one company is saying that Apple’s computer market share is making a comeback as well.
ComputerWeek reports that Net Applications, which tracks web statistics for over 40,000 companies, reports that Apple’s browsing market share finshed at just over 8% in 2007, which represents an increase of 28% for the year. Browsing statistics are not a perfect measure of how popular computers are, especially among businesses, but the numbers seem to mirror what Apple had to say in its 4th Quarter Financial Results. Still, this is good news for Apple fans, as many have wondered if the focus on the iPod and iPhone has hurt Apple’s innovation in computer hardware by spreading its engineers too thin.
— Joe Fahs
The end of the year may mean a slow down for many industries as people leave work and spend the holidays with their families, but this is the time of the year where Mac rumors really start to heat up, as people begin to anticipate what Apple may have in store for MacWorld Expo. MacWorld events were traditionally the place where Steve Jobs would drop hardware and software bombshells, but that has waned in recent years as Apple has incorporated more and more special events throughout the year to showcase new products.
Steve Jobs’ keynote is still over a month away, and the rumors are starting to pick up. Bloomberg anticipates a new ultra-thin portable along with a higher capacity iPhone, while Fortune wonders if flash storage will be coming to the MacBook line. We will be looking forward to the new announcements, but also guess that the most significant product releases will come later in the year. Best bets are that this year’s keynote is heavy on Leopard and iPhone, but 2006 brought us Intel Macs, 2007 brought us the iPhone, and so the possibility for something really big still exists.
— Joe Fahs
Mac OS X 10.5, known as Leopard to some, and “unholy piece of crap interface experiment” to others was released less than three months ago, but is already getting its second update. AppleInsider reports that recent seeds asked developers to test “iCal, iChat, Mail, Parental Controls, Quick Look, Rosetta, Safari, Time Machine, and Airport”. For those of you that have beta-tested Apple OS releases before (i.e. installed it before the first two bug fixes were available), you know this is par for the course.
A more interesting note comes from a source at Macenstein which reports that Stacks feature will be getting a number of interface improvements, most noticeably adding list view, but also providing an option to display your stack as icon, making it much easier to tell what your stack is all about in the first place. Now if they would only do something more about that damned dock.
— Joe Fahs