Moving!

Hey! Thanks for coming, but, I've moved!

Yup - finally got the blog software installed and ready.

Click Here to go to new Blog!

You'll love it - see you there!

Oh yah - if you're here looking for a reply to the Dvorak article fromPC magazine, you absolutely want to follow the link!

See you at the new site!

iTunes vs Subscription Services? NO CONTEST.

Oh please. Be serious. Let's get this straight now. I don't care what MacCentral says and what Napster tries to say, people don't like having to rent all their music. It won't replace people owning music. Period.

Why do I say that? Because I'm an intelligent and reasonable human being. READ: I'm not STUPID!

No, this isn't a rant, it isn't an unreasoned diatribe. What it is, is a well thought out and contemplated reponse to silly people. And, I'll tell you exactly why.

For the same reason that people don't rent all their movies, for the same reason why people buy DVDs and video tapes, subscription based music will never replace owning music. NOW - that isn't to say that there isn't a market for it. But it won't replace it. And that's what people are really trying to convince themselves of. But why?

Well, maybe it's because Napster is so busy trying raise funding, trying to justify their actions to the board - whatever. Point is, they don't need to sweat it. As long as they aren't as bad at what their doing as Real has turned out to be (though they were the leaders in their market and I've still got them loaded on my machine), they're going to make money. Why? For the same reason why Blockbuster, Hollywood Video, Movie Gallery, NetFlix, etc. make money AND so don't all the retailers that sell movies. Heck, think about it, even the video rental companies SELL movies. So, what's the reason? There's not only room for both services in the market - there is even OVERLAP.

So, subscriptoin services won't replace iTunes. In fact, long term, subscription services may benefit iTunes. Why? Because I'd like to hear the WHOLE song before I buy it - and I also don't want to have to wait for it to play on the radio. I'll have a chance to listen to it a few times to see if it will work long term for me. Then, I'll buy it. Gosh, is it that hard to understand?

So. It really isn't iTunes vs Subscription services in the long range view, it's iTunes and Subscription services. So, if you're listening Steve Jobs, then give the folks what they're looking for BOTH.

And iPhoto Will Lead Them

Yup, for sure it's true. And, while technically it was iTunes that led the way to the PC, iPhoto is going to be the next statment that Apple makes for PC users in the quest to become the software media king.

Don't know what I'm talking about? Refresher... two posts ago I talked about how Steve Jobs was planning on making iLife the MS Office of the digital media hub. iPhoto to the PC is the next step. How do I know? Look right.

See it? There it is in splendid living color. PC users that now already use iTunes for the music management will now very shortly have iPhoto for the PC. Isn't it logical? Don't you see it? Doesn't it make sense? Sure!

Hey listen, Jobs is no fool. Pixar already commissions games and the likes for PCs. Sure, he's always going to love the Mac and the Mac OS. But he's planning on making Apple and himself a bunch more money selling software. Bet on it! Oh yeah, then get some long term options on Apple!

Peace!
MacPhilly

Bono Uses Barney as Inspiration for Vertigo!

Don't believe it? I've got proof for you. Just remember - you heard it here first!

First: Let's start at the right (the picture) shall we? You'll notice that Bono uses copious amounts of purple for the Vertigo video. Great color, I'll admit. But, isn't that a very Barney color? Come on, admit it!

But wait, that isn't all. Seriously, do you think I'd really get away with a theory like this on that slim of evidence?! No! I've got more - hang on.

Second. Not only are the colors purple and green used - which as I've mentioned are associated with the kids favorite dinosaur - but they actually use all the colors of the rainbow. And what is always on Barney's videos? That's right! A rainbow!

Third. There's a Barney video from a few years ago with a character by the name of Mr. Tenagain. It's a numbers video and it's all about counting. Hmmmm. Use the link blow for the opportunity to HEAR how Vertigo sounds...

NOTE: You'll need Quicktime to hear and view this stuff.

Listen the start of Vertigo

Fourth. In the Barney video the kids sing a song that starts "Hello, hello, hola!" Sounds like familiar wording doesn't it? OK, so listen to the Barney version.

Listen the Barney song.

Fifth - now for the totally freaky part, with no editing to the length of either the Barney or Vertigo clips - now WATCH the Vertigo clip overlayed with the Barney soundtrack! Scary!

Listen and watch!

I know - you may be wondering how I ever found this. Fact is, I didn't really look hard. All it took was watching Barney with my 19 month old then flipping on TV and seeing the commercial in close proximity to hear the words! The rest just came together!

Hey, nothing against Bono. It's brilliant. Who knows, maybe he was inspired while watching the video with his own kids right? In whatever case - it's still a fun theory - so don't forget to let your friends know about it, just link back here :-)

Peace!

iLife will be the future of Apple

Remember - you heard it here first.

The key was something that Steve Jobs said when they introduced Garage Band - iLife is like Microsoft Office for the rest of your life. And that is what Apple wants. As much as Jobs loves hardware - I think he's seen that the Dark Tower in Redmond has made it's gazillions not by being a hardware maker - but a software maker. And yes, MS makes money from Windows - but it's real revenues come from MS Office.

So, here's my theory, Jobs wants iLife to be MS Office of digital lifestyle apps. Face it, almost everyone has a digital camera now. Most have camcorders as well. People love to create music as well as listen to it. Welcome to iLife. And soon - lets say maybe 2005? - I anticipate seeing iLife for Windows based PCs. Why not right?

Think about it, Jobs did the right thing by making iTunes available for th PC. After all, there are over 100 million iPod owners that have PCs not Macs. Even if they jack the price up a bit for iLife on the PC (say $129 or something like that) they still have a huge audience. And what a great suite of apps - you can't touch what they do for under $500 and more like $1,000.

So, like I said, remember you heard it here first, iLife goes Windows. We'll see if I'm right ;-)

IBM Bails on PC Division - Good for Apple?

So, you're wondering what the big deal is? Well, aside from all manufacturing moving to China (as opposed to most of it which is already there) the *big* news is that IBM is getting out of a division that has 11.5 billion in sales but still manages to loose several hundred million every year. They're smart, they're tired of fighting Dell and HP.

So, what does this mean? Well, IBM's CEO has been moving them away from commodity products (like PCs) as part of his strategy. Not a bad idea. But what does that leave them?

Well, the company is huge and they're moving towards being a true service company that is (as they say) "hardware agnostic." Which makes sense - especially since they make the primary chips for Apple's computer line as well as using the same Power technology for the chips used in their servers.

How I see this is good is that IBM will finally stop worrying about their PCs (which as Windows based PCs go are admittedly some good machines - though I still hate that damn little eraser like joy stick) and focus on creating great chip technology - thereby giving (hopefully) more attention to the Power PC chips that Apple uses for their computers. Wouldn't that be great?

Hey, maybe I'm just being optimistic (OK, yes I am) but after seeing the advances that Apple has been making since going to the IBM chips, and knowing that IBM has some really cool technology that is has patented over the past few years for making chips, I'm excited about the possibilities that can come from this marriage!

A New Attack

Geesh,

Every time I come here I feel like I'm cross posting with my other Blog (http://www.VirusMafia.com) so I don't post, but this time I couldn't resist. After all, here I can be really smarmy whereas on my other site I have to at least maintain some semblence (sp?) of propriety and decorum.

Not here.

PCs suck. :-)

I just got done reviewing the new holes and attacks happening even in XP SP2 and, on top of that, I found a link I had meant to investigate a month or so ago on a security hole made possible by AIM. Man, is this getting old? Or maybe it's just me.

I don't just want to turn this into a bitch fest about Windows (I figure there are enough people that can do that without me), but really, I just don't get why people are so enamoured of the crappy OS?

I will say that of the MS operating systems that XP is the best to date, but I don't get why people hold onto it so dearly. Is it because they've always used it? Is it because (like my brother) they had a bad experience with OS 7,8 or 9? (Hey, I used to instruct on those OS' and it didn't scare me away). What is the deal?

Maybe people are afraid of the price? Do they know they can get a fast, superdrive (that is DVD burning) machine for around (maybe less than) $1k? You can get a notebook for $1k? And these are good machines! Fast, latest OS, great reliability?

Oh wait - I got off track - this was about the latest attack though.

So anyway, with this latest attack, hackers have not only proven that the release of SP2 was just about useless, but they're already exploiting it in new ways. So why endure it? Really? Get out of MS! Join the Mac crowd. The only thing we worry about is if we'll get the latest version of a game (and that is happening a lot more now).

Right - no constant worry of having our machines trashed, hijacked or used for DoS attacks. We just use the damn things. And we LIKE it.

Oh yah, did I mention that Mac's have a great resale value too? Heck, my two year old TiBook is still worth around $1,600! And, on top of that it creates a great drool factor wherever I go too :) Oh yah baby. People always look at my Mac. It's kind of like driving into a Hyundai owners meeting with a Bimmer. Everybody looks, everybody "oooooo's" and then they put their heads down and slink back to their Windows boxes. Oh, what could have been

Hmmm, maybe instead of attacks on PCs, next post I'll talk more about that. See you then.

And people wonder why?

Seriously - people (including my alegely genius brother) can't figure out why I switched. This is as he's complaining because his Windows 98 (at least it is SE) system crashes and causes him so much trouble. He's so annoyed - but he won't even upgrade to XP. Actually - I don't really begrudge him that - I didn't want to upgrade to XP either because of the insane EULA.

Anyway, I was just looking at some stuff over at http://www.virusmafia.com in their blog and was reading how they are finding that even when M$ has fixed a hole in IE there are still more than they can catch up with. It's so bad that the internet security center (or some such organization) is advising people to bail out on IE and use Mozilla or any other browsing application they can find.

There is even a reference to a Microsoft site where MS is telling people to turn off all the rich content features in their mail and browsers - or basically the reason why you have the stuff. Typical.

And - people wonder why I have a Mac? My question is, why don't you?

Peace!
Phillip