Music lovers in China have been banned from accessing and using Apple’s iTunes store because 46 Olympic athletes downloaded a Tibet protest album. The government is said to be behind the blocking of the site. Athletes from Beijing, North America and Europe used iTunes to download “Songs For Tibet” which was offered for free from the United States-based International Campaign for Tibet.

The album was produced by a band, The Art of Peace Foundation, and is about the rights of Tibetans. Artists on the album include Sting, Moby, Damien Rice plus others. It launched a few days before the opening ceremonies.

China is known for blocking “politically sensitive content” and Apple won’t explain but did acknowledge the block. Plenty of Chinese are offended by the album and are planning protests. What else could they possibly ban next?

And I remember when I got a phone that could take pictures I was pumped.

Since 2004, a team of professors and students from the University of California, Berkeley has searched for ways to let a single human supervise a team of robot planes. Now, this Center for Collaborative Control of Unmanned Vehicles has a new device for ordering around its drones: an iPhone.

In a video taken from this month’s Teaching & Technology conference, the Berkeley crew uses an iPhone to pick tasks for its drone squadron, input a set of coordinates for a local reconnaissance mission, and send the planes new orders while the aircraft are in the sky.

But don’t tell Steve Jobs how the Berkeley folks are using his gadget. According to the terms of the Apple Software Developer Kit agreement, “applications may not be designed or marketed for real-time route guidance; automatic or autonomous control of vehicles, aircraft, or other mechanical devices; dispatch or fleet management; or emergency or life-saving purposes.”

I cannot wait. I’m going to get my hands on one of those new puppies asap. I’m not the only one, either. Several people in this office have been complaining about their phones sucking lately, enough to make me suspicious of Apple for some kind of iPhone conspiracy. Maybe Steve Jobs hired some secret team of geniuses to hack the mobile signals from the satellites or some shit because everyone’s phones here keep randomly shutting off. I, myself, have been without a working cell phone for like 5 days now because my charger has mysteriously disappeared. Damn gnomes.

I’m not even going to buy a new charger. I’m re-virginizing myself until the day I get my iPhone and we spend our first night together, touching buttons and exploring all its bells and whistles. Damn, I just checked and I guess it’s not going to be available until July 11th. Wahhh!!!!!!!!

Blogger Perez Hilton wants to use his “talents” to start a new record label and save the music industry. His first task will be to do whatever it takes to revive the CD. His ideas for doing so include lowering prices of CD’s to something like five dollars and creating large partnerships with worldwide companies. His main goal is to get the public to start purchasing music again. With all the easy ways to get free music and the availability of downloads I wonder if his ideas will take off?

He wants to follow in the footsteps of Apple, Inc. creating popularity for small-time bands and artists featured on their commercials, like Feist. His partnership ideas include teaming with such large corporations as Wal-Mart and Target. I’m not so sure how these corporations will feel about partnering with an obnoxious individual who got his name from socialite Paris Hilton.

For more info on Perez check out his juicy celeb rumors on his blog site: http://www.perezhilton.com

Apple recently introduced a new idea for a solar film to cover iPods. A patent is pending on this new “green” idea and would include the entire iPod to be covered in solar cells. This will be more compact and within budget than the current solar iPods available. The devices on the market at the moment require a fairly large charger that requires a lot of sun exposure. To make things more convenient, Apple wants the solar cells to eliminate the need for the large charger to consistently be in the sun for long periods of time. Having solar cells built in to your iPod is in the near future. For now, if you’re going to be doing plenty of sun worshipping this summer - grab yourself a solar iPod for a new tanning buddy.

A producer friend of mine just turned me onto to something he was justifiably excited about, a third-party application for the Apple iPhone that allows it to remotely control ProTools. This would allow someone to monitor their fader automation and any sort of other conceivable adjustments from outside the control room, or conceivably outside the studio altogether. Real shit. No wonder Apple continues to stack mad fucking loot. Now if we could just get them to make the iCar, iKid, iWife, iBeer, etc, life would be so, so much better.