Wow, that was quick

Mr Motorola has backpedaled from his, "screw the nano" statement.
That didn't take very long at all.

4 new posts in one day...

5 if you count this one. Take a moment if you haven't been around in a while to scroll down a bit.

On another note the post before this was commented on by 2 comment bots pretty much immediately. Published, reloaded my page and bam 2 comments. Forget the fact that this happened twice because it posted out of order initially. So, after reposting 2 more bots with 2 different comments posted. Go figure.

So, um, speaking of Music...

So, my former boss's boss's boss's boss's boss's boss's boss Edgar Bronfman (EB), thinks that Apple owes the record labels (probably mostly his) a piece of the iPod pie. No, seriously. He thinks Apple should share the profits of the iPod with record labels. Why is that? you might ask. Well, Steve Jobs is adamant about not charging more than $0.99 per song in the iTunes music store. Thus allowing consumers to pick and choose what songs they want as opposed to buying entire albums to get that song. That is unfair because newer songs should cost more. The sub dollar cost should be reserved for older music (never mind charging less for old music). So the rationale is this policy of cheap music for everyone is somehow cutting into the labels profits because you can buy that one song you like off the new Young Jeezy record. You know, as opposed to feeling like you wasted your money buying the whole album. The artifically low cap of $0.99 is designed to boost the sale of the iPod. Thus Apple owes record labels a portion of the iPod profits. WTF?!?!? Nevermind the fact that Apple made legal downloading of music, not only supereasy, but somewhat cool. So lets artificially hike the price to encourage more illegal downloading as consumers begin to feel cheated by record labels again. More proof that record execs are completely nucking futs.

Not sure what's worse, what I just wrote or these idiots:
Zander sez "Screw the nano"
Cingular music service for 2006
SprintNextel to launch music service later this Year

iTunes Oddities

Recently, Apple updated the iTunes program. Which is cool since it now includes an option to create folders to further organize your music. When I first noticed this I was like, "Holy crap when did this happen I coulda been organized my music." Thankfully, this was a new feature added to v5.0 and nothing that had been there all along in past versions. So I didn't feel to foolish about not taking advantage of this option sooner. Considering it wasn't there before.

In other iTunes interest they have updated the interface slightly. Going for a more streamlined appearance and removing the sidebars. Which isn't as weird as it sounds. It's just kinda strange that Apple doesn't have some type of unified look to it's applications. Mail looks different from Safari, which looks different from iTunes, which looks different from Garageband, which looks really different from everything else. Considering it's knack for design and form fact you would think this would extend to its OS and applications.

And finally my one true gripe about iTunes. The Music Store. Though it is cool if you are into music (and paying for it legally, which I don't mind, once other avenues have been exhausted *clears throat*). At least into music in your particular country of residence. While it will allow you to browse all the other music stores for every other country that iTunes is in, it will only allow you to purchase from your country. Unless you have a credit card with an out of the Union address all you can do is window shop. Or window listen as the case maybe. Which sucks if you are really into music. I'd purchase from the Japan store, the UK, Canada and any other play I ran across interesting music. But alas that it is not to be. Apparently, in addition to suck ass record labels, other countries have completely different laws about music and copyrights and such. Combine that with record label BS and you are confined to your country of residence when it comes to buying music. This is what I have learned after posting to a message board about a possible work around. Too bad, so sad. There ain't none. Glad I found that French website with the Cowboy Bebop Soundtrack.

Welcome to Jamrock

Viacom sucks. For any number of reasons. But most recently for something I've noticed on VH1 Soul. See unlike typical music stations. VH1 Soul plays nothing but videos 24/7. Which is generally a good thing. The problem I have is when they censor certain videos for no particular reason on this channel. Whereas the same video goes unchanged on BET. Not that I want BET to censor it too but it just seems odd that 2 channels owned by the same company would be so drastic in there playlist policies. For example I first noticed this with Jay-Z's song "Girls, Girls, Girls." There is apart in that song where he asks a non de-script indian woman what tribe she was with "red dot or feather." An honest enough question if not alittle brash (or maybe crass is more appropriate). But this part of the song gets blank out. So he literally says, "Asked her what tribe she wit? ____________?" Though this video is a little old it still plays in the rotation on VH1 Soul. I seem to see it at least once a week these days. Needless to say this elicited a WTF moment that got confirmed the next time the video was played. I had recalled seeing the video unedited on BET. Hell, I probably should pull out some old VHSs to verify. But considering the next example I probably don't have to.

So flash forward a few months and Damion "Jr Gong" Marley releases, Welcome to Jamrock. Where part of the chorus goes, "out in the streets they call it murder." Considering that the topic of the song is about the sufferation (Jamaican slang if my understanding is correct) of the Jamaican people and the tribulations of growing up poor in such a depressed/opressed environment I would think that such a lyric would be acceptable. Considering it is not glorifying murder just expressing some of the problems faced by the inhabitants of the island you would think it would be okay to have such a lyric go unedited. And it does on BET. On VH1 Soul it plays as, "out in the streets they call it __________." I thought I was losing it when I heard the edited version. Because I felt like I had just heard it played out completely, with no edits. In fact I had, just on another channel. Consistently VH1 Soul edits out that particularly offending (apparently it must be right? otherwise why cut it out). Too me it seems silly. But, hell, what do I know I live in LA LA Land.

I'm Disgusted

In the wake of the Katrina tragedy my co-worker (the south to canada one) had some strong opinions about the relief efforts. As I'm sure most people had. However, he did raise an interesting point. He was completely disgusted that Bush would ask his "...poor ass for some money" to help the people effected by the hurricane. See considering all the billions of dollars that we sent to Iraq we should just as easily be able to either A) be as generous to our own citizens or B) reallocate some of that money to our citizens. Either way he felt like the president shouldn't be asking us the little people when he could be lobbying for corporations, "the have more's" and the federal government to donate. Particularly since the relief efforts started so terribly (keep in mind when all this started Bush stated that $10 billion would go to rebuild the city whereas Iraq was getting like almost $200 billion). That and the fact a subsidiary of Halliburton has already been given the contract to rebuild the Big Easy. So, I must admit I kinda agreed. Considering also that everybody and there momma is asking for donations. From reputable companies to scam artists. I saw Roll Bounce this weekend and 10% of the proceeds from that are being donated too (I'll let you draw your own conclusions about the one black movie out right now donating a portion of its box office to the victims of Katrina). Still, weeks ago, right after that conversation I made a donation through the iTunes music store. But I still didn't feel any better about the situation...

Long weekend coming up...

wil try to post over the weekend. I got a lot to say.