Back to work!

-Kyle

Is Bruce Springsteen about to follow the example of his good pal Bono and get his own Special Edition iPod?

Even, as he once joked, he wouldn’t take the money.

Dunno. The ones who would know, of course, are Springsteen; Apple CEO Steve Jobs and Jon Landau, Springsteen’s longtime manager and record producer. And they’re not talking.

Still, we find it revealing that Springsteen, Jobs and Landau were in the same place at the same time Saturday night in downtown San Jose.

The occasion was Springsteen’s two-and-a-half hour, Ramrod-rockin’ performance at HP Pavilion. (Bruce actually didn’t play ‘Ramrod,’ but he made up for it by including ‘Boss Time’ in a rousing ‘Glory Days’). Jobs and his wife, Laurene Powell, were spotted in the crowd below the right side of the stage, near E-Street band members “Professor” Roy Bittan and “Sister” Soozie Tyrell. A well-placed source said she also saw Landau, who does not attend many of Springsteen’s concerts, rockin’out nearby.

Did the men discuss some business backstage before the show? Or were they there just to enjoy the ‘Magic’ of the night?

Your guess is as good as ours. But this much is known:

When Springsteen inducted Bono and U2 at the 2005 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction show, Bruce told the crowd about the first time he saw U2’s iPod commercial on TV.

“I thought they had totally sold out,” Springsteen joked, as the audience – and Bono — roared with appreciative laughter. So I called up Jon (Landau) the next morning and said, ‘Did you see that iPod thing?’ ”

“Jon said, ‘Yeah, but they didn’t take the money.’ I said, ‘that’s smart, that’s wily.’

“So I tell Jon – I want you to call up Bill Gates or whoever is behind this (iPod) thing and float this (idea of a) red, white and blue iPod signed by Bruce ‘The Boss’ Springsteen,” he joked again.

“And remember, no matter how much money he offers, don’t take it!”

OK, so the Boss wasn’t quite sure who’s behind the iPod. But the world sure has changed since Springsteen cut his first record deal with Columbia Records in 1972. And so has the music industry.

Apple introduced the U2 Special Edition iPod in October 2004.

“U2 is one of the greatest bands in the world and we are floored to be working with them,’’ Jobs said in an Apple release at the time.

Red Herring thinks U2 is a fine band. But it’s not Bruce Springsteen and the LEGENDARY E-Street Band.

After Springsteen’s stop in Silicon Valley, we suspect Steve Jobs feels exactly the same way.

All with a pinch of salt, but I’d have one!

-Kyle

Ok, here are some of my requirements:  

• 3G
• VOIP (Free Internet calls - Maybe this will come from a 3rd party app and not Apple)
• Sleeker design
• Video recording capabilities
• Voice recording capabilities
• MMS (I don’t think this is currently possible on the existing model)
• Bigger memory capacity
• Flash and higher quality camera.
• I disagree with them adding a keyboard like it suggests in the article

What’s on your list?

-Kyle

 

-Kyle

Now this is the only reason I would buy an Macbook Air, look at this thing its so sexy and cool.

The Mac bag is an everyday, water-resistant bag that borrows details from the manila envelope 4.5 x 24.7 x 22 mm - waxed cotton, felt lining, plastic & rubber cord

Information is available but I don’t currently think its on sale!

-Kyle

Here is my response from Apple;

Dear Kyle,

I understand you recently purchased the new ipod touch upgrade software but was accidentally charged twice for this software. I know how upsetting this can be I will do everything that I can do to assist you in this matter.

Apple is currently working toward a resolution for the issue you have reported. You will receive an email after the matter has been investigated and further information is available.

Thank you for your patience. Apple wants your iTunes experience to be as enjoyable as possible.

Sincerely,
iTunes Store Customer Support

What’s investigate further ?, I’m charged for something I wouldn’t have required buying twice. Look at the ordering times there literally seconds apart, if that wasn’t caused by an error on your part, I must be trigger happy with the mouse button. A resolution to my issue would be not to charge me an extra £12.99 for something I haven’t received, come on Apple it isn’t that difficult to work out. If Apple hasn’t already got all the necessary information about my account in front of them at the time of dealing with my issue then something is seriously wrong with their information systems.

Maybe this would be the time to say I dishearten and would be taking my custom elsewhere, but to be honest that would be lie, where else on earth offers me the same easy to use integration with my iPod.

Just do the right thing Apple.

-Kyle

I’ve just finish updating, I paid about 10 times before the damn thing would work (just charged the once though). The new features are cool, and quite useful especially Google Maps, worth £12.99 ? I don’t really know…

Although the wobbly icons are worth every penny.

-Kyle

I’m impatient Apple.

-Kyle

that displays will be everywhere, including walls and desks. In addition, all devices will be service-connected, which will relieve users from having to bridge between content and devices. The  next digital decade also will see the power of the natural user interface take hold, with “touch” technology and speech recognition appearing in more products.

Now I’m not knocking the guy he’s accomplished a lot in his working career and all computer users have a lot to be thankful for. Although I can’t help to believe that Microsoft is slowly going down hill in terms of its creativity (was it ever there??) and ability to impress the public.

That takes me on to next week, Macworld is just around the corner and I can’t help to think we will be getting something special from Jobs & Co. I’ll go with Bill on this one and say that touch is now becoming an integral way in which we interact with computers. That’s why I can’t help to think we will be seeing a touch screen (yeah human touch no stylus) Mac tablet, something much larger than the iPhone (maybe 10 - 13 inch) running the full OS of Leopard. Of course with tweaks that sees the much loved touch gestures used on the iPhone coming into force on the new tablet. Although I still haven’t made my mind up wether it will have an actual keyboard. Whatever the design it will still be foldable/twistable/slideable (I know slideable isn’t a word, but you get my drift), I also like this idea of having 2 touch screen interfaces but doubt this is will be something we will see on Monday. A tablet or ultra portable Macbook, we’ll see something along those lines. For iTunes I think movie rentals will coming to the US, but I’m unsure we will see anything this coming week here in the UK. Finally, I can see Apple wanting to move further its move into the home entertainment area, maybe an updated version of Apple TV, I’m quite sure Jobs doesn’t want to throw away the idea of integrated music and video from the iTunes store in your living room.

Anyway that was my quick break from revision and the opportunity to cast my predictions for next week. Whatever the outcome(s) lets hope they don’t destroy iTunes any further!

- Kyle 

P.S I like the idea of having an ” iPad “

Update : I like the idea of a “MacBooks with multitouch trackpads“

Saturday and Sunday I got my first opportunity to have a play with a new Apple iPhone, now I’m not going to rub everyone’s noses into the fact I’ve got an iPhone because that would have been a great big stinking lie. The lucky person is my 16 year old cousin that swapped almost everything he owns to be one of the first to own the ‘must have’ new toy coming to the UK next month.

Although, I haven’t made the decision yet if I like or not.

-Kyle