Black Friday Deals

Tomorrow being Thanksgiving, I probably won't be posting until Friday.  But, I'm keeping track of the Black Friday Deals.  I'll update this entry as new deals become available.  

Microsoft Office Deal

If you need Microsoft Office for Mac, then Friday is the day to buy.  Here's the deal: Buy any copy of Office 2004 (including the student and teacher edition) and get a $100 rebate.  Then:

For $6.99, when Office 2008 is released, Microsoft will send you Office 2008 Special Media Edition."

Microsoft already offers the Special Media Edition upgrade. The $100 rebate is new and available for only the one day.

What makes the deal sweet and cheap is its applicability to Office 2004 Student and Teacher Edition. According to NPD, the Office student version accounts for most copies of the productivity suite sold at retail. However, there is no upgrade option to other Office versions. For 2008, the Student version's Entourage—the Mac equivalent to Outlook—will not support Exchange Server. The offer creates a cheap upgrade path for Mac users looking at getting Office now and don't want to spend big bucks.

Apple Store Deals

No specific info yet, but from past Black Fridays you can expect some really tempting discounts on software, dot mac (I think they sold it for $20 bucks one year), iPods and accessories and Macs.   As soon as I hear, I'll post it.

Apple Online Deals

Amazon Deals

Amazon's got their own special section of Amazon.com for Black Friday Deals. 

Other

TBD...

iPhone and iPod Touch Enhance Video Podcasts

If you are looking for new and interesting content for your iPhone or iPod Touch, then let me recommend that you check out the Podcast section of the iTunes Store. 

I had dabbled in audio podcasts in the past with my iPod.  Unfortunately, I found that I had neither the time nor the inclination to keep up with many of the podcasts I was interested in.  As a result, I had not checked out the podcast section of the iTunes store in some time.  Since then, how things have changed.  While I was aware at how popular podcasting had become, I was not aware of the extent of content available.  IThere are a plethera of not only audio but video podcasts - some of the quite good.

With there large screens and video resolutions, the iPhone and iPod Touch just scream out for video content.  But, you can only buy so many TV episodes and movies from the iTunes store.  Apple's YouTube application tries to help fill that void, but I find YouTube so full of junk that its near worthless (not to mention the fact that much of the video available on YouTube looks horrible).  Enter the Video PodCast.  There are some real gems available with excellent production and content.  The best part - most are free.

In the past week, I've looked at cooking podcasts (something that really shines in a video as you can watch the recipe being made), the Philadelphia Eagles week in review (26 minutes of video reviewing the Eagles week and there are similar podcasts for each NFL team), National Geographic Video Shorts (sharks, nature, history), The Discovery Channel Video PodCast (additional content from the Discovery Channel Shows) and many others ( network news shows, comedy podcasts network TV shows, newspapers, tech magazines and websites - just a large variety of content is available). 

To give you an idea of what's available, check out these links:

VideoPodCast.tv Directory

PodCast Alley - Video PodCast Section

PodCasting News - Video PodCasts

Podfeed - Video PodCast Reviews

and, of course, the PodCast section of the iTunes store.  It is well worth the visit.

The BBC I think shows the potential future of podcasting.  Up until now, you had to download a podcast to your computer and sync it up with your iPod.  With the iPhone and iPod Touch, that's not a requirement any longer.  The BBC Podcast directory allows you to use Safari to select a BBC podcast and stream it right from WiFi or the Edge network.  While the BBC podcasts are audio only, I expect we will see many video podcasts go this route (as could TV shows and even movies - given enough bandwidth).

iPhone/iPod Update Out (kind of)

Late Night quick post:  

Looks like Apple has posted the iPhone/iPod Touch Software update 1.1.2 to its download url.  iTunes doesn't seem to know about it yet though.  While its probably best to wait until iTunes prompts you, Engadget has the details and direct download link here:  

iPod Touch

iPhone

No big surprises - iPhone hacks are broke again (and apparently quickly on the way to being hijacked again).  Well actually one surprise, apparently the iPod Touch calendar application will let you enter calender items on the Touch.  Yippie.  Nice to see Apple respond to all of those complaints (why they thought that people would not want the Touch to enter calendar entries is beyond me).

Meanwhile, folks in the UK are waiting through the night for their iPhones.  And it looks like  a fun Midnight Madness release in Germany.

Eisner says Blame Apple. He's Wrong.

Leave it to Michael Eisner to prove exactly what's wrong with the studio mindset regarding video digital distribution:

The studios "make deals with Steve Jobs, who takes them to the cleaners.
They make all these kinds of things, and who's making money? Apple!
They should get a piece of Apple. If I was a union, I'd be striking up
wherever he is."

Ugh.  As I have noted before the mindset that Apple is to blame for the supposed lack of profits on video digital distribution is simply hog wash. 

First of all, the studios haven't seriously taken a shot yet at digital distribution.  Apple's only got around 1000 videos for sale on the iTunes store.  Moreover, I am convinced that video sales of films are just not what people want - rentals are where the volume (and money) is (and I am not the only one who thinks this).

More importantly, the movie and TV studios are just irrationally wedded to an advertising model.  They think that ads will make them money, the same way it makes them money on TV.  But it will not work in the digital world.  They have to offer their products digitally in a manner that is convenient, simple to use and, can be accessed anywhere.  For many reasons, an ad based model doesn't fit that bill (not to mention the fact that it is very easy to eliminate ads in digital distribution - and that absolutely drives the studios nuts).  And they have to offer the content at a price that is reasonable ($9.99 for a movie download - without the DVD extras - and $1.99 a TV episode is pushing the upper limits here.  And yet, they want higher prices!).  And of course, they continue to insist on restrictive DRM. 

Not only is Eisner an idiot for his Apple comment, he's just plain wrong on the writer's strike:

For a writer to give up today's money for a nonexistent piece of
the future -- they should do it in three years, shouldn't be doing
it now -- they are misguided they should not have gone on the
strike. I've seen stupid strikes, I've seen less stupid strikes,
and this strike is just a stupid strike.

Now, I admit I don't know all the details about the writer's strike, but I do know that the whole reason there is a strike is because the writer's forgot to deal for DVD's the last time.  Seems reasonable to me that the writers don't want to let several years of digital revenue pass without them having a deal to getting a share of it.

So, after all this BS, where does Eisner think the of video distribution future is?   Yup, you got it - the internet.  Thats where is putting his own money.  What a clown. 

Music Subscriptions...DOA (Again)

Well, Well, Well. Seems that Napster has figured out that there is no business in music subscriptions. 

Might want to let Rick Rubin know about that:

"You would subscribe to music," Rubin explained, as he settled on the velvet couch in his library. "You'd pay, say, $19.95 a month, and the music will come anywhere you'd like. In this new world, there will be a virtual library that will be accessible from your car, from your cellphone, from your computer, from your television. Anywhere. The iPod will be obsolete, but there would be a Walkman-like device you could plug into speakers at home. You'll say, 'Today I want to listen to ... Simon and Garfunkel,' and there they are. The service can have demos, bootlegs, concerts, whatever context the artist wants to put out. And once that model is put into place, the industry will grow 10 times the size it is now."

I'm not sure if Rubin is deluding himself or if he's just spouting off the Columbia Records corporate fantasy. Either way, like it or not, people want to own their music. Gee wonder where I heard that before....

Odds & Ends: Today's Interesting Reads

Around the Mac web for November 1, 2007, Intel GMA X3100 graphics edition,

MacBook Stealth Update

Time Invention of the Year: iPhone

iPhone already has a Legacy

Leopard's Quality

Leopard Demolishes Vista

Someone Else noticed Apple's Cash Nest Egg

Strike!

Last, but certainly not least, iLounge has released the iLounge 2008 iPod & iPhone buyers guide. Really good stuff. I recommend it highly (and it comes in a really cool iPhone format too!).

Odds & Ends: Today's Interesting Reads

Here are today's interesting reads, mac and non-mac:

2 Million Cats on the Loose

Leopard is Apple if His Eye

Why it was Called the Manhattan Project

What is a Hulu anyway?

Apple needs an actual TV

How to Save Apple TV

Apple-NBC War Continues

Jeff Zucker, head of NBC Universal, wanted a piece of Apple's iPod sales in return for a deal to sell NBC's programming on iTunes: 

"Apple sold millions of dollars worth of hardware off the back of our content and made a lot of money,” Zucker said. “They did not want to share in what they were making off the hardware or allow us to adjust pricing."

“We don’t want to replace the dollars we were making in the analog world with pennies on the digital side,” he said.

So, let me get this straight Jeff.

You want Apple to pay you a percentage of each iPod sale for the right to sell, for $1.99, an episode of the Office on iTunes.

Now, this is the same content that you give away for free every week. 

The same stuff that anybody with a TiVo can record and then skip all those commercials when they watch it later.  

Are you the dumbest guy on the planet? 

Good luck with hoho or whatever you call it. HoHo is not exactly burning with buzz but I'm sure it's just what everyone wants - the ability to watch streaming TV and movies with commercials on their PC. 

Oh yeah, and another thing Jeff. Apple didn't sell iPods off the back of your content (which you already give away for free). Apple sold iPods off the back of the Big 5 music label's content (LOL). 

Seriously, Zucker's thinking is the problem here. He believes that his viewers will just watch where and when and how he says they will. It is a pre-digital mindset. The problem is that as DVD's, TiVo and iPods and iPhones have become common place, viewers have realized that they like the ability to choose the time and place and medium to watch TV shows and movies. That's why the movie theaters are slowly dying. Its why TV ratings are steadily declining. Its why DVD, iPods and TiVo sales are increasing.

Zuckers mindset conveniently forgets that iTunes sales saved his bacon:

"I'm not sure that we'd still have the show on the air" without the iTunes boost, says Angela Bromstead, president of NBC Universal Television Studio, which owns and produces "The Office." "The network had only ordered so many episodes, but when it went on iTunes and really started taking off, that gave us another way to see the true potential other than just Nielsen. It just kind of happened at a great time."

I think Apple should do one of two things - either seriously look into buying NBC Universal from General Electric or, drop the H-Bomb and release a version of iTunes that will rip DVDs in the "it just works" Apple way. I'm sure either move would get the movie studios and networks to play ball.

Odd's & End's: Today's Interesting Reads

Who'd have thought that someday we would live in a world where the Red Sox are not just World Series Champions, but have won the World Series twice in the last four years?

When your iPod shouldn't be close to your heart

iPhone: No Cash and only 2 per person

No gift cards either

$831

Windows as the iPhone Limiter

Leopard stalking Microsoft

NBC tells Apple: we can Destroy ourselves, thank you

iTunes Needs Movie Rentals

With the exception of the iPod Shuffle, all of Apple's iPods and the iPhone support video playback. Yet, the movie and TV sections of the iTunes store have become stagnant with little new content. While iTunes has millions of songs for sale, it has less than 1,000 movies. The Apple TV, Apple's "hobby", appears to be going nowhere. Apple needs to do something soon to step up its video content market. But what? 

Well one of the things Apple seems to be doing is to go after short films. But this is not a viable long-term solution. Apple needs video content soon to help fill up all of those iPods and iPhones that will end up in stockings this Christmas. Many of those iPods are going to be replacing ones that can't play video. Come the end of January, unless Apple has something up its sleeve, people are going to start asking why there's no content. 

Apple's position seems to be that the iTunes movie and TV sections are still young:

“We’re really at the beginning stage in the movie space,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president for iTunes, adding that iTunes had sold more than four million movie downloads...but still had fewer than 1,000 titles for sale.

But this is simply not a reasonable argument when all of your products support video playback.

To further put the heat on Apple, the infamous NBC-Apple feud has apparently ended badly for Apple as talks between NBC-Universal have broken down. Thus, come December 1, all NBC shows, many of which are iTunes top sellers, will be pulled from iTunes.

Unlike the music business, Movie and TV producers seem to have Apple's number:

NBC Universal spokesman Cory Shields said his company's programs help drive the sales of iPods. "The iPod is only as good as the content on it," he said.

I suspect NBC's challenge to iTunes will eventually fail. Although (unlike the music business), NBC does not get any significant portion of its revenue from iTunes sales, it does get buzz among the people it most wants to attract with its shows. Not to offer it on the iTunes store is just foolish. But, the fact that NBC can even think it is possible to challenge Apple and the reason Apple's movie selection is so meager can probably be pinned on one person: David Porter of Wal-Mart. 

It seems Mr. Porter has clubbed the movie studios into submission in order to protect Wal-Mart's multi-billion dollars in DVD sales. As a result, digital movie sales are stuck in the mud with limited selection and insistence by the studios on high prices and ridiculous digital rights management (DRM) restrictions. 

But there may be a way out for Apple: Movie Rentals.

Apparently studios that had been reluctant to make their digital content available for sale through Apple are considerably more enthusiastic about video-on-demand (VOD) rentals because they wouldn't compete directly with Hollywood's own DVD sales operations.

There has been some speculation that Apple will soon be ready to roll out movie rentals. If true, then expect Movie rentals to be the main attraction at January's Macworld.

Happy (belated) Birthday iPod

I missed this yesterday - the iPod's 6th Birthday.

I remember watching this webcast. It was held, I believe, in Apple's (small) town hall auditorium and everybody and their brother knew that Apple's big secret was going to be an MP3 player. Looking back now is how much folks hated it. It was mac only. It was expensive ($399 for 5GB). The overall reaction from the tech pundits (and just about everyone else) was that the iPod was not a game changer.

Pretty funny. I still have my original 5 GB iPod and it still works like a charm. One of its coolest things about that 1st generation iPod? It came sticker on it with the words "Don't Steal Music".

Re-live the birth:

Odds & Ends: Today's Interesting Reads

Odds & Ends for October 24, 2007:

Behind Apple's Money Machine

Around the U.S.A. with only an iPhone

iPhone's impact on web design

Gmail goes IMAP

Fake Steve loves the Sox

Which reminds me, Go SOX!!!!

Apple Earnings Blowout

Apple's 2nd quarter earnings numbers are amazing. No commentary or analysis can really do it justice, the numbers speak for themselves:

$ 5.26 Billion in revenue - 56% from the sale of Macs, 44% from sale of iPods and music
$ 770 Million in Profit - up 88% from 2Q2006
$ 35.1% Gross Margin - up from 29.8% from 2Q2006
1.5 Million Macs Sold - up 36% from 2Q2006
10.5 Million iPods Sold - up 34% from 2Q2006

Analysts had predicted profit of 64 cents per share. Apple annouced profit of 87 cents per share.

Some interesting tidbits:

- Mac sales growing faster than iPod sales (so much for the iPod is the only thing holding the company up).
- iTunes sales are up (no numbers offered though).
- Sales through the retail stores grew 79% (alot of Apple's profit is coming from retail sales).
- Apple's going to account for sales and earnings from the iPhone and Apple TV on a subscription basis for 24 months after the sale of a unit. This is very intersting. Apple said that the reason for this is because they are going to be offering new software features for free for the iPhone and Apple TV.
- Notebook sales up 79% from 2Q2006. Guess 2007 is the real year of the laptop.
- Apple has $12.6 Billion cash on hand. No mention as to what they are going to do with that huge war chest.

The iTunes Cash Cow

Apple has maintined that the iTunes store is not profitable or breaks even. They have let the electronics and music industry assume that they make thier cash on the sale of iPods. Of course, selling iPods is a very profitable business. But a new report by Andrew Hargreaves of Pacific Crest may shed some light into Apple's iTunes revenue stream. According to the report, Apple sees $0.10 of profit per $0.99 song. Not too shabby considering Apple is selling millions of songs a week.