The idea that you do not have to be a professional to create a good commercial is becoming widespread, in a trend known as consumer-generated content. Leave it to Apple to paraphrasing the company’s old slogan a bit think differently.

A television commercial for the new iPod Touch from Apple, scheduled to begin running on Sunday, 10-28 is being created by the longtime Apple agency, TBWA/Chiat/Day. It is based on a commercial that an 18-year-old English student and Apple devotee named Nick Haley, who says he got his first Macintosh when he was 3 created on his own one day last month.

His spot offers a fast-paced tour of the abilities of the iPod Touch, set to a song titled ‘Music Is My Hot, Hot Sex’ by a Brazilian band, CSS.

Mr. Haley said he was inspired to make the commercial by a lyric in the song, ‘My music is where I’d like you to touch.’

He based the visual elements on video clips about the iPod Touch and other new products, which can be watched on the Apple Web site (apple.com). He uploaded his commercial to YouTube, where it received four stars out of a possible five and comments that ranged from ‘That’s awesome,’ followed by 16 exclamation points, to ‘Makes me want to buy one and hack it.’

Via fscklog

As John Gruber puts it, the big question is whether …

The biggest question, as I see it, is whether Apple plans to introduce iPods that are more or less just the iPod app from the iPhone (i.e. just music and video players), or iPods that are everything but phones, with Wi-Fi networking for email, web, and more.

I would love to see an iPod with Wi-Fi networking being able to do email and web as on the iPhone. Better yet, an iPhone that shipped officially in Europe.

What will come first? My bet: new iPods.

The Zune, which is currently available in white, brown and black, will soon sport prettier colors. A baby-pink version will be available in May, and another vibrant color will be introduced a few weeks later.

‘It could help with reaching more of their target demographic,’ says Ross Rubin, an analyst with NPD Group. ‘Colors like pink could help increase the device’s appeal with women.’

Oh come on, Ross Rubin, admit it. You want a pink one, too. #

Via Daring Fireball Linked List

Some of Apple’s secrecy measures get a little extreme. When Jobs hired Ron Johnson from Target to head up Apple’s retail effort, he asked him to use an alias for several months lest anyone get wind the Mac maker was working on retail stores. Johnson was listed on Apple’s phone directory under a false name, which he used to check in to hotels.

Apple’s head of marketing, Phil Schiller, said he’s not allowed to tell his wife or kids what he’s working on. His teenage son, an avid iPod fan, was desperate to know what his dad was cooking up at work, but daddy had to keep his trap shut because he might get canned.

Even Jobs himself is subject to his own strictures: He took an iPod hi-fi boombox home for testing, but kept it covered with a black cloth. And he listened to it only when no one else was around.

Via Wired News

Steve Jobs has posted an essay over at apple.com where he discusses the reasons of the current DRM implementation on the iTunes store, the numbers behind music sold with and without DRM and three scenarios of what could happen in the future.

In a nutshell Apple’s alternative to DRM:

The third alternative is to abolish DRMs entirely. Imagine a world where every online store sells DRM-free music encoded in open licensable formats. In such a world, any player can play music purchased from any store, and any store can sell music which is playable on all players. This is clearly the best alternative for consumers, and Apple would embrace it in a heartbeat. If the big four music companies would license Apple their music without the requirement that it be protected with a DRM, we would switch to selling only DRM-free music on our iTunes store. Every iPod ever made will play this DRM-free music.

This should us keep thinking at least:

Why would the big four music companies agree to let Apple and others distribute their music without using DRM systems to protect it? The simplest answer is because DRMs haven’t worked, and may never work, to halt music piracy. Though the big four music companies require that all their music sold online be protected with DRMs, these same music companies continue to sell billions of CDs a year which contain completely unprotected music. That’s right! No DRM system was ever developed for the CD, so all the music distributed on CDs can be easily uploaded to the Internet, then (illegally) downloaded and played on any computer or player.

In 2006, under 2 billion DRM-protected songs were sold worldwide by online stores, while over 20 billion songs were sold completely DRM-free and unprotected on CDs by the music companies themselves. The music companies sell the vast majority of their music DRM-free, and show no signs of changing this behavior, since the overwhelming majority of their revenues depend on selling CDs which must play in CD players that support no DRM system.

Apple, or should I say Jobs, will never stop surprising me.

I had a great time watching Steve Jobs returning to Apple, references to Napster, birth of the first iPod back in October 2001 and other great info about the iPod.

Are we going to see an iPod phone next tuesday at MacWorld Expo 2007? Why is Cesar Alierta (chief at Telefonica and 108# Fortune rank) going to meet Steve Jobs (159# Fortune rank) soon?

Why do I have to carry, sync and charge my phone and iPod separately? No I don’t want the Motorola Rokr phone.

Highly entertaining images from the latest episode of the Simpsons.

Via plasticbag.org

The iTunes Store is being updated… Have a look at the change in the name, it’s not the “iTunes Music Store” anymore!

This is probably due that Apple is going to announce Movie downloads as well as Music downloads.

Expect new iPods to be released as well. Regarding the iPhone, I think this won’t be happening yet.

The Videostream of the event has benn spotted but don’t expect to be it live. Probably it will be functional as soon as the event is over. The event will take place today at 10:00am Pacific time at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in downtown San Francisco.

Consisting of a sensor that gets places inside the Nike shoe and a receiver attached to Apple’s nano into the Dock connector, the data while you run gets monitored on the nano, displayed back and giving you voice feedback.

If that wasn’t enough, a new syncing service will upload your workout data to both iTunes and nikeplus.com, where you can see your runs, set goals, and challenge friends.

There will also be a Nike Sport Music section in iTunes where you can download workout mixes depending on time or distance based workouts. Top athletes will chose their favorite playlists and audio and video podcast will be created for this new venture.

Step 1:

Step 2:

Step 3:

Does this mean that Jobs is going to wear Nike shoes from now on instead of his usual New Balance 991s.

Via the Cult of Mac Blog