#FF00AA

@apple@

MacBook Pro, I am your father.

 

@apple@

Microsoft officially offers [via] the codecs to open Windows Media files in Quicktime.

If I’m reading things correctly, even WMV3 files (that the indispensible VLC can’t open, and the OS X version of Windows Media Player doesn’t bother to read either) should work. Well, it makes Quicktime Player crash every time I close a file, but at least it’s there.

 

@apple@

Sure enough, people are up in arms about iTunes 6.0.2’s MiniStore and its spyware ways. Not being an iTMS customer, I care more about the real estate and the commercialization of the interface than the data itself (I have no iTMS account number to be associated with my music-playing habits), but since1968.com has some pretty valid points (emphasis mine):

How hard would it be for Apple to check whether my music comes from an RIAA approved source and, if not, simply disable it within iTMS? Is that really such a paranoid fantasy after the Sony rootkit fiasco? I don’t have an answer, but I know this: the more you push back now against apparently harmless invasions of privacy, the less likely Apple will be to breach your privacy substantively later.

And this point is pretty interesting, too:

And why on earth does a third party need to bury its IP address behind a string that looks like an intranet (local) address?

That is really sneaky and off-putting. (Note for the non-geek: numerical IP addresses beginning with 196.168 are local addresses, on the local network; making your program connect to a server with a non-numerical address of 192.168.112.2o7.net means you’re expecting some geeks to be keeping an eye on what’s going through their network connections, and you want to fool them into thinking there is no outbound traffic, when there is. That’s no way to act when you’re honest.)

 

@apple@

The new Apple commercial for the Mactels is quite strongly inspired from a music video. Again.

It’s not like Steve Jobs not to fire a marketing guy who’d plagiarize a video — or at least shout on him loud enough to be sure he doesn’t do it again. He must have knowingly okay’d this. Kudos, Apple.

[01/12] Oh, and Intel isn’t too pleased about the ad, either, surprisingly.

 

@apple@

The new Macs are now pre-installed with Comic Life, with no mention of it being a demo or trial. That’s cool, but weird. But cool.

 

@apple@

Intel Macs might not [via] be able to run Windows XP, only Vista. Or maybe they can, according to some of the comments.

 

@apple@

It seems iPhoto reads Flickr photocasts, and iPhoto photocasts can be read by other aggregators.