October 23, 2007
Along with my birthday this past week Apple is celebrating a birthday of one if its most famous offspring. The very first iPod was introduced on this day October 23 2001, just six years ago.
The stainless-steel unit costs $399, had a 5GB hard drive, connected to a Mac using FireWire only, included a 10-hour lithium polymer battery and offered 20 minutes of anti-skip protection. The iPod measured 2.43 inches by 4.02 inches by 0.78 inches and weighs 6.5 ounces. Apple didn't know how many they would be producing, but there are about 7 million Macs with a FireWire port. The device did not use a digital-rights management scheme at the time. "Piracy is not a technological issue. It's a behavior issue," Jobs said, adding that all the encryption schemes that have been developed can also be broken.
Today there have been thirty-two different models from the shuffle, to the nano, to the mini, to the new iPod touch. There have been over 100 million iPods sold so far and I'm sure the next model will be a big hit again.
By the way, as a birthday present this year, I did by a new Nano iPod and it is better than I thought. You never disappoint Apple.
October 2, 2007
Another birthday mention this month is the 50 year anniversary of the successful launch of the the first satelitte in space. Launched by the Russians it was one of the main reasons the Americans wanted to be the first humans into space, but to no avail. The Russians again beat them to the punch with Yuri Gagarin becoming the first man into space. As America and President John F. Kennedy ignited the dream of landing on the moon, well the rest is history, or conspiracy for some of us.
No cellphone, no internet, no TV, no predictable weather, much different world, oh and no iPhone kids!
"I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth."
— Pres. Kennedy, May 25, 1961
I've been waiting for Wes Anderson's new movie "The Darjeeling Limited" with Jason Schartzman, Owen Wilson and Andrien Brody and there is an online only short prequel film called "Hotel Chevalier". It stars Jason Schartzman and Natalie Portman. As it turns out she is very nude and very grown up now since "The Professional" It's a free iTunes download and was pretty cool. It seems to establishes a past relationship that looks to be important or known to the viewer in the upcoming film. So check it out here:
Hotel Chevalier Free Link
So, another creative first from the anti iTunes band Radiohead. They are distributing their new 10 song album IN RAINBOWS online for how ever much you want to pay. ($1.00 min.) You can also order a box disc for £40.00 and includes extras like a CD
and 2 X 12 inch heavy weight vinyl records.A second, enhanced CD contains more new songs, along with digital photographs and artwork. The Discbox also includes artwork and lyric booklets. All are encased in a hardback book and slipcase. I am a huge fan of Radiohead and am looking forward to downloading a copy on October 10 when it's available. Check out the site here:
www.inrainbows.com/Store/Quickindex.html