Posts from — January 2009

Normally I don’t believe in this whole, predicting the future thing. If you think you can reasonably predict what’s going to happen in the next 5-10 years, you’ll generally find that you’re WAY off.

But then there’s Steve… and this reflection from CNET of his interview with Rolling Stone back in 2003 a mere 8 months after introducing iTunes.

From CNET:

We were bowled over by the preciseness of Jobs’ assessment of what the future held for digital rights management, music subscription services, the four largest recording companies, and Apple.

Jobs correctly predicted that attempts by the major labels to find a technological solution to piracy would fail. When it came to subscription music services, he said the public would reject them. He foresaw a day when iTunes would sell 1 billion tracks a year–a bold statement, considering that at the time, iTunes had only sold 20 million songs.

And from the original interview itself on competing with music theft:

What’s new is this amazingly efficient distribution system for stolen property called the Internet — and no one’s gonna shut down the Internet. And it only takes one stolen copy to be on the Internet. And the way we expressed it to them is: Pick one lock — open every door. It only takes one person to pick a lock. Worst case: Somebody just takes the analog outputs of their CD player and rerecords it — puts it on the Internet. You’ll never stop that. So what you have to do is compete with it.

Our position, from the beginning, was that 80% of the people stealing music online don’t really want to be thieves. But that it is such a compelling way to get music: It’s instant gratification. You don’t have to go to the record store; the music’s already digitized, so you don’t have to rip the CD. It’s so compelling that people are willing to become thieves to do it. And to tell them that they should stop being thieves — without a legal alternative, that offers those same benefits — rings hollow. We said: We don’t see how you convince people to stop being thieves, unless you can offer them a carrot — not just a stick. And the carrot is: We’re gonna offer you a better experience … and it’s only gonna cost you a dollar a song.

App Store Hits 15,000 Apps, 500 Million Downloads – Mac Rumors.

Further reason to believe the App Store & iPhone/iTouch combo is a gamechanger and is going to be BIG.

Stay tuned for Apple’s fiscal results for the CY4Q within the next hour.

That didn’t take long!

The White House website has been updated and includes a lot of great resources about the Obama agenda, his Administration, and general fun facts about the White House itself.

In the Briefing Room you’ll find a blog, as well as a place for press releases, executive orders, and proclamations.

[Seen on Daring Fireball]

Take care of yourself. Apple won’t be quite the same without you but you’ve left it in capable hands. Thanks for everything.

Read Steve’s email to Apple employee’s.
or Gruber’s Godspeed.

Following my post about digital formats threatening Blu-ray, the Pew Research Center has a report out indicating that the internet continues to make serious gains as a source for news compared to traditional outlets like television and newspapers.

The internet, which emerged this year as a leading source for campaign news, has now surpassed all other media except television as an outlet for national and international news.

Currently, 40% say they get most of their news about national and international issues from the internet, up from just 24% in September 2007. For the first time in a Pew survey, more people say they rely mostly on the internet for news than cite newspapers (35%).

The trend is especilaly strong amoung young people aged 18 – 29 with an equal number of people responding that the internet and television are their ‘main source’ for news.

For young people, however, the internet now rivals television as a main source of national and international news. Nearly six-in-ten Americans younger than 30 (59%) say they get most of their national and international news online; an identical percentage cites television.

I wasn’t surveyed but would have certainly responded that the internet was my primary source. For the last few months I’ve been subscribed to the NBC Nightly News podcast via iTunes, which provides the complete evening news program, without commercials, just hours after it’s broadcast. I’ll regularly flip this on over breakfast here in the UK, and watch the news from the night before.

Much of this is driven by the fact that we’re living in the UK and like to keep up on what’s happening in the US. The format however is the real driver, as it’s always available, on demand, and in high (enough) quality. Not to mention, there are hundreds of news podcasts to choose from depending on what you prefer to follow.

Podcasts in Front Row

I've set iTunes to keep the 5 most recent episodes. After that they're automatically deleted.