Good Old Fashioned Apple Mind Game

Exciting news everyone: I have an offer for a summer internship with Deutsche Bank! I have to call in the morning to get details (obviously, I won't be able to share said details here), and it'd be fun to spend a summer in New York City! Anyway, moving right along: remember that open letter from Steve Jobs last week about DRM? I, like many other geeks, took the bait. We were excited about what he was saying without giving it much thought. Well, much thought has been exposed on the issue in the past few days, but I support this perspective the most. All things considered, Apple is selling a lifestyle. Face it fanboys, you pony up the big bucks for Macs not because OS X is the best OS (I don't think there is a best, for the record), but because you're an Apple user for life. It's ok, you can come out of your closet. Many of us are Microsoft users for life, sadly. Anyway, the point is, they're rallying their legions of followers under the easy banner of hating DRM and vilifying the music industry. In fact, people are even suggesting what Jobs can do to fix things. I must say, it's quite brilliant. Now if the industry wants to raise prices on iTunes music again, or stay the course of DRM (which, duh, they're going to do), Apple can wash their hands clean of it and claim to be on our side. How big of them. In reality, they could care less about us, they just want to look good so they can get away with questionable practices (like FairPlay) and maintain their loyal army of consumers in the face of a hot button issue like DRM (i.e., they want our wallets). This isn't to say that Jobs doesn't believe what he said, he may very well personally be opposed to DRM. That's immaterial though; what's at issue is the stage he's set for the future of digital music distribution, and the control he's solidified in his hands. Nice.

Before you head to Cupertino and hug their front door, you may want to consider the fact that they've decided that no one is to virtualize OS X, not even heavyweight VMWare. I really don't like that. Why do they like keeping their kernel so closed off? Do they think it'll make them that much more secure? They can't possibly be that disillusioned. Good news for Apple though: they've added Lionsgate to their library of movie selections on iTunes to bring the count up to more than 400 titles this month. Not too shabby.

YouTube is going to be providing over 4,000 hours of classic television very soon, all totally legal and free. This is a phenomenal deal, mainly because it provides a stepping stone into more modern, popular shows to become available on YouTube. Hey, it beats the return of rabbit ears, which I think is a funny development. I didn't know that technology followed the same retro rules that fashion did.

Circuit City is shutting down 70 stores across the continent due to shrinking flat-panel TV sales apparently (plasma TVs provide awesome profit margins, so don't let one of those retail store sales reps push you into buying one before you do your homework). They've always seemed to have better customer service than Best Buy, but I always perceive their prices as higher.

Couple of quick things. Intel is showing off a processor with 80 cores, which is so freaking stupid. I know it's just research and all, but what the Hell will 80 cores help us with?! We can't even optimize for two! Other quick thing are these fun geek gifts for Valentine's day. That Laser Star Project looks pretty sweet to me:



IGN has a full review of 300 and they gave it a perfect score! Of course, they broke the rules by giving it 5 stars since 4 is the highest you're supposed to give a movie before it comes out on DVD (that's why I do letter grades), but who cares. The idea is the same: add them to the list of critics enthused by the Frank Miller graphic novel adaptation.

I hadn't heard of Shane Acker's 9 before today, but apparently a lot of people are loving this movie as well purely based on its animation. Sound-wise, so far they have Elijah Woods, Martin Landau, John Reily, and Jonathan Plummer (yeah, not sure who he is). Not too shabby, and it's even being produced by Tim Burton! Keep an eye on this film.

Movie posters haven't advanced much in quite a while, but apparently there's now a company that's developed 3-D hologram printing that can produce a ton of different images for a full motion effect as you walk by a poster at your local movie theater. Not much to look at for it right now (their servers got hammered today), but the one I saw earlier looked pretty sweet.

Lastly, the director for the adaptation of another Frank Miller novel, Ronin, is one who is not very respected for such films as Stomp the Yard, but maybe he has raw talent hidden somewhere? No? Oh well, at least we'll have 300 to look forward to!

To spite Valentine's Day, I'm doing the Monday Music Mambo this week instead:

1. Of all the albums that won a Grammy this year, which is your favorite (or what you think would be your favorite if you heard it)?
Definitely Stadium Arcadium! I don't care what Robert says, I think it's freaking awesome (except for that Hump de Bump song; it's dumb)! That Mana album looked interesting though (I have "Rayando el Sol" stuck in my head now!).

2. Of all the songs that won a Grammy, which is your favorite?
I have to say Dani California given the selection, though maybe that Flaming Lips song (I haven't heard it).


3. Of all the artists that won a Grammy, which is your favorite.
Red Hot Chili Peppers =P