Apple blinks!

Steve Jobs is the iron bulldog of negotiations. It is a rare day when Apple does something that other businesses want them to. They've been good listening to their customers (usually), but when, say a music company wants them to jack the prices? Jobs tells them where to go and how to get there. 

That's why the recent announcement that certain HBO shows are going to be priced at $2.99 is so interesting. Is this a case where Apple blinked? Is this a case where HBO shows are considered premium content, and so are priced between movies and TV shows? And what will this mean to Apple/NBC, who are rumoured to be in the process of making up? 

In other news, none of these shows are available in Canada, although they are offering shows from Fashion Television. It's not quite Lost, but at least its something....

Go Mac!!!

There's a couple of new Get A Mac ads out, including a PC Pep rally. While I still like watching John H (and it's nice to see Justin Long on a regular basis; I was a huge fan of Ed), the ads are coming dangerously close to running their course; they peaked with the first Vista ad, and, while there have been some great ads since then, that was the high water mark. 

And is it me, or has Mac's role been getting smaller and smaller? He used to give the sell lines, but lately, it's been PC delivering not just the punch lines, but the sell points as well. 

Open Office goes native

Open Office, everyone's favourite free Microsoft office alternative, has gone native for Mac. And there was much rejoicing. Open Office has been available for the Mac for a while now, but had to run under X11, which wasn't exactly the most user-friendly experience. 

It's in beta, but it is free. So go on over and check it out.

Daily Reading: And you thought Apple didn't like Canadians

If you're a Canadian, Apple is offering a $45 credit. Of course,  you have to own a first, second or third gen iPod, bought before June 24, 2004 and can prove it. 

Okay, so it's not a gift, it is a court settlement to a class action lawsuit. But hey, it's $45.  

Tip Tuesday: Sharing your internet connection

So, I'm not at home right now. For the last few days, I've been at a hotel with free wi-fi, but yesterday we went to visit friends.

Great people, but are not set up for three computers in the house. Fortunately, he was able to dig out an old router and a pair of ethernet cables, but that was still one cable too few.

But no problem. We plugged in the wife's laptop, turned on Internet sharing in the System Preferences (in Tiger, on her computer, it has it's own tab under Apple Menu:System Preferences:Sharing. In Leopard, it's just another check box in the list).

She's plugged in through ethernet, and sharing over airport. Once that was set up, all she had to do was go to her Airport menu (accessed by clicking the airport icon in the menu bar), and select create network. Voila, instant wireless network. 

It's not the most stable network I've ever used, but good enough to check email and whatnot. 

eMusic is coming to CAnada

More music news. eMusic is coming to Canada. 

It's the second biggest on-line retailer, and has been selling music for five years now.

Five years, and finally coming to Canada? And nobody is sitting there screaming about how eMusic must hate Canadians, because it took more than six months for them to get their services here....

Anyway. Make of it what you will. I'm excited, but at the same time, I barely have enough time to listen to all the podcasts I subscribe to in a week, let alone actual music, these days....

Daily Reading: ten meellion dollars...I mean, songs.

iTunes had 10,000,000 songs there for a few days, but was downgraded to a mere 6,000,000 songs, according to this MacNN story. I'm willing to say typo, or rather, one department not communicating with another department.

As a consumer, they're trying to say they have a lot of music, but as a musician, I must say, that's pretty depressing. 6,000,000 is a fair number, and it's easy to get lost in. Not that we have anything on iTunes yet, but someday we will, and then what happens? You say write good songs, but most of my favourite musicians write great songs, but few people buy their stuff, either. 

Sigh. Anyway. I've gone and made myself all depressed. Hope you're happy.