the-ish.com/blog

read the article here: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/6c6aa286-7f08-11db-b193-0000779e2340.html

According to the Financial Times, many major movie studios in talks with Apple about making their movies available on the iTunes Store are pushing Apple to redesign their business model, limit the number of devices that can play the movies, and other anti-consumer (under the guise of anti-piracy) concessions.

After months of discussion, a sticking point has emerged over the studios’ demand that Apple limit the number of devices that can use a film downloaded from iTunes.
The studios want to avoid the experience of the music industry, which has yet to recover from years of illegal digital piracy. Apple must introduce a “new model” for feature film content delivery…

[ I have a number of complaints, some about the article, and others about the situation. ]

I take issue with articles that make ridiculous claims as if they’re facts. By that, i mean that the article claims the music industry hasn’t “recovered from years of piracy” there is absolutely NO empirical evidence that could back up a claim like that. In fact, there is a good amount of evidence that the music industry actually benefits from the piracy, but they blame their failing business model and dropping profits on a pretty convenient little piracy scapegoat.

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I’ve decided that i want to keep this blog, and use it generally for technology-related musings. (i have a livejournal for all the other unrelated miscellaneous stuff i like to post.)

In order for this to work, i want to put my objectives out in plain view. I started this blog as a place to post my fake apple rumor. It was dishonest – purposefully misleading. I’m not apologizing for it because i found it rather amusing (and still do) but i dont want my (theoretical) readers to worry about being tricked. My goal is not to fool anyone.

From this point on, though this blog may contain conjecture and opinion, it will not be purposefully misleading. If i have any facts wrong, i promise you it is accidental and i would appreciate feedback. If i am commenting on any rumors or possible mis-information, i will make it a point to cite sources and do the best i can to make it apparent.

cheers.

That last post was a total fake. Not that it’s not completely obvious or anything…

So last night i had about an hour of free time before my girl got home, and i’ve been mulling this “MacTower” spoof idea around for a while. (what’s really lame is that i’ve had the faint spoof concept for a week or two, and have been wanting a computer like the one i made up for a few months, and the BEST i could come up with was the name “MacTower” haha.) So i went to apple’s site and started grabbing some pictures and copying font info. about 15 minutes later i had a photoshop full of crappy mock-ads. …so with my phone i took pictures of them on my screen to make them into the obligatory “blurry cameraphone pictures.”

I only really had enough time/energy/sprite to Photoshop a single (poor) fake, and just stick it in different scenarios. It’s not like there weren’t already plenty of red flags already up. whatever: it’s my first (and probably only) fake apple rumor, i wasn’t all that concerned with it being totally believable.

Then i realized i needed somewhere to post said rumor, so i through together this blog. i was too lazy to even fill it up with a few fake posts… but this rumor being convincing wasn’t really the point. i just thought it’d be fun.

Then the comments start flying in: and i have to say, what i thought was a little fun certainly pissed some people off! any remotely-reasonable comment i let through, the nasty and hyper-angry name calling and death-threat ones i deleted. (though now that i’m writing this, i realize i should have accepted them so anyone reading this post could see the crazies in action.)

Something else that’s interesting to me is how astute some people are! some people are willing to do nearly as much looking in to what i may have done as i spent actually doing it! it’s kind of impressive.

…oh, and throughout this post are the “source files” of the cameraphone pictures. Now, with clean images, you can find even more wrong with the fakes. how about that the faint internal fan of the machine dips too low and would hit the enclosure? :P

NOTE: to all you haters and crazies, calm down. it’s all in good fun. …and to all you “ThIs FaKE is the gaYest evar!” people, go right on ahead and make a better one. It’s fun, easy, and a sociological shocker. :)

This is the first post to this blog – i just couldn’t wait.

I have a friend (who will remain nameless) that just got hired to be an Apple Rep. I think he’ll just be the guy who sets up displays in CompUSAs or something. Anyway, Apple flew him out to Cupertino for the week for training. He’s been out there for a few days now, and just today, while i was in the middle of putting this blog together, i got a Picture Message from him. Three actually.

I was so excited that i just decided this blog looks good enough for now, and it’ll have to go live (in beta) so i can post these images.

It looks like Apple is releasing a smaller cheaper thing that i might have called a “MacProMidget” …but it looks sweet.

So here’s the first delicious image: (i assume that’s the MacPro on the left, and the new MacTower on the right)

More Images after the break!

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