Weblog of Fernando Reig Matthies

Still some peripherals and computers missing, but a very interesting collection.

From those depicted (and some missing) there I have been a proud owner of:

• Apple // europlus
• Apple ///
• Apple Macintosh SE 1/20
• Apple Macintosh LC II
• Apple Newton MP2000 (upgraded to MP2100 and still with me)
• Apple PowerBook G4 17”
• Apple PowerBook G4 15”
• Apple MacBook Pro 15” (my current Mac)
• Apple iPod 3G (my current iPod)
• Apple Airport Extreme Base Sation (my current WiFi router)

• Mighty Mouse and Wireless Mighty Mouse

  Soon to be followed by an iPhone (europe version) for sure…

Pig, Meet Lipstick:

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.