WWDC: First photos

 A fellow named Gernot Poetsch has some shots up from outside the Moscone Centre as Apple sets up for WWDC08. Some interesting signs up there, including one that says OSX iPhone. We've always known that the iPhone ran OSX, but this is the first time I've seen Mac advertize it as such. Is it because this is a developer's conference? Are they trying to grease the path for developers who signed up for the iPhone SDK: "Why not program for the Mac? You're already soaking in it..."

Whatever it is, it will be revealed in four days. I can't wait. Can you? I can't. 

A Change in Policy

While folks like Gruber are reporting that the iTunes store in the States is still renting for 24 hours, a recovering American (who still has his American iTunes account) over on ehmac is saying that he just rented an American iTunes movie and had 48 hours to watch it. 

Can anyone verify this?

Huh. Well, you learn something new every day

In the CBC story about the iTunes movie store coming to Canada, they mentioned that Bell had started an online video service a couple weeks ago. 

Which was a complete surprise to me, as I didn't realize they had done that. 

So I went and looked, and sure enough. There it was. 

And the first thing I see? 

"Download to any PC or laptop (Mac/iPod compatibility not currently available)"

Right. *That's* why I didn't hear about it, and don't care about it. 

But, hang on. They've got Television listed. What do they have?

A Lot of kids stuff (Franklin, Babar), and a bunch of other stuff that is about as interesting as what iTunes currently has....

Also, a quick perusal of their movies shows that they have 680 titles available. Two weeks head start, half the movies available. Can't use on my Mac or on my iPod. Man, they really know how to sell themselves to folks like me....

Movies come to Canada!

Rejoice! Rejoice! The movie store is here!

Yes, after months of waiting and at least a dozen posts kvetching that they were taking their time, movies have come to the Canadian iTunes store!

O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!

A few specifics.

Buying a catalog title? $9.99

Buying a recent release? $14.99

Buying a new movie? $19.99

Renting a library title? $3.99

Renting a library title in HD? $4.99

Renting a new release? $4.99

Renting a new release in HD? $5.99

1200 titles to buy, 200 to rent. Or at least, those are the numbers. Sorting by "All Rentals" gets to a page with over 700 titles listed, but not all of them can be rented...yet. Sorting by all movies goes to a page with just over 1100 movies listed. Some of which may be HD, but I haven't seen any yet.

The Canadian Store is not a mirror of the US store. The first thing that I notice that's different is that the movie 300 is available in Canada, and is *NOT* available in the states.

And who said Apple didn't like Canadians....

Heck, Canadians have 48 hours to watch a movie, as opposed to 24 hours those Damn Yankees have. See, I knew Steve would make it up to us. Here's the official press release. 

In other news, the selection at the Canadian iTunes TV store still sucks.

Tip Tuesday: Sticky Stickies

Another quick one: Cutting and pasting stuff into Stickies and getting tired of popping back and forth between programs. There are programs out there that can help you, but if it isn't something you do all the time, you might just want to keep the Sticky note on top of all open windows. How do you do that? How about by selecting it and hitting apple-option-F. 

Daily Rumours: OS 10.6?

Coming out of left field for a week's worth of rumour mongering, yes, it's Mac OS 10.6, code named Ocelot. Or was it Puma? Never mind. TUAWs is saying that it heard from sources that talked to Steve Job's secretaries long lost brother that 10.6 will be getting its first seed at WWDC. New features are rumoured to be minimal, with the focus being on security and stability.

Well, right there we know that this rumour can't be true, as new OSes are always feature driven.

Anyway. I don't make em up, I simply tell you that other's are....

On the rumour meter, this one is plausible, but unexpected. Apple was having a tough time a year ago building an iPhone and releasing an OS; what with iPhone 2.0 around the corner, one wonders if they've managed to hire on a few extra developers. If so, then there is a good chance that this one is true. 

Two BILLION dollars

Haven't been watching the spectrum auction? It's still going strong, and has climbed to $2.5-billion in bids. There's a couple companies who are about ready to sit it out, but it could be a while yet before we know who is going to be Roger's new competition in GSM.... Multiple companies carrying the iPhone in Canada? Oh, to dream!