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.

From Wired.com:

By 2012, digital music is projected to account for 40 percent of music sold, according to InStat. If Apple holds onto its current market share, it will account for more than one-quarter of all music sales by its ninth birthday. Not bad for freeware.

“I’m very skeptical about whether iTunes can be unseated, because there’s not a lot of consumer pain there,” said Paul Resnikoff, editor of Digital Music News.

Digital Music News recently found that iTunes is installed on nearly 30 percent of all computers worldwide, making it the most widely installed music store application in the world.

When Apple snapped up a little music program called SoundJam MP back in 2000, no one predicted that the iTunes application it became would lead to a complete restructuring of the music industry.

Samsung is launching a touch screen cellular device that it hopes will compete with Apple’s wildly popular and equally expensive iPhone. The Korean technology company announced today its plans for the Instinct, which will be available to Sprint customers. The fully touch-screen device will be available in June. What will the Instinct be able to do for you? EVERYTHING. I’m lazy so here’s a lengthy block quote.

According to Sprint, the Instinct features a touch-screen with localized tactile feedback, called haptics, which allow the virtual QWERTY keypad and other operations to become “a sensory experience.” The mobile phone also features a Voice to Action button offering access to functions through voice activation, including call, text, picture message, traffic, movie, sports, news and search.

The device measures 2.17 inches by 4.57 inches by 0.49 inches and weighs less than 4.5 ounces, Sprint said. It features advanced functions like Visual Voicemail, which lets users listen to messages in their order of preference and manage them with a screen tap. It also offers support for corporate and consumer POP3 email accounts, multitasking that lets users play music in background mode while surfing the Internet, texting or playing games; a 2.0 megapixel camera with camcorder and expandable microSD memory of up to 8 Gb. Other features include stereo Bluetooth 2.0; an integrated world clock, SMS voice and text messaging with threaded text, phone as a modem, picture caller ID and Sprint Mobile Sync.

The Samsung Instinct marks Sprint’s first EV-DO Rev. A consumer device. It offers Web browsing, business and personal email access, picture sharing, commercial-free radio and other features at broadband speeds. Additionally, the device opens up access to Sprint exclusive services and multimedia content including Sprint Navigation, a system powered by Telenav with GPS-enabled audio and visual turn-by-turn driving directions, one-click traffic rerouting and more than 10 million local listings; and live search, delivered through Microsoft, which offers access to director information, GPS-enabled directions, interactive maps and one-touch click-to-call access.

The Instinct also boasts entertainment features like Sprint TV, which offers live and on-demand programming; Sprint Exclusive Entertainment, a made-for-mobile sports and entertainment video programming network; and Sprint Music Store, which lets users browse and wirelessly download full songs directly to the device for $0.99 each.

Lastly, the device offers Pocket Express, which gives up-to-date information on sports, weather, news, movie times and other customized options based on the user’s zip code.

The only thing that it won’t help you with is getting laid, but you’ll be so distracted by all it’s other features, you probably won’t care. And really who has time for sex or any other sort of human interaction if you’re going to be pestered by constant e-mails from your boss, clients, etc. all the fucking time? Sprint is hoping that the Instinct will win back some of their customers who jumped ship for AT&T when they became the US’s sole handler of the iPhone, but seeing as these defectors probably had to sign ridiculous contracts to do so (AT&T owns my soul too), I’m wondering if it’ll take a couple years before Sprint starts seeing dividends.

The battle is on, however, and Sprint is quick to fire the first shot, saying of the Instinct’s release that “slow ends in June,” a pot shot at the iPhone’s fickle functionality. Pricing is still not determined, but Sprint says the Instinct will be under $300; meanwhile, the cheapest iPhone is around $100 more.

Picture courtesy of Gizmodo.

Mozilla CEO John Lily called Apple’s attempt to force its Safari browser upon Windows iTunes and Quicktime users “just wrong.” Apple included the browser as a “stealth update” via an application called Software Update that is included as part of standalone iTunes and Quicktime downloads.

Lily’s objection to Apple’s tactic no doubt stems from fear of competition, but he claims to have altruistic reasons for his statements:

While a user has the option to uncheck the update, Lily argues that most will just press the “Install” button, which automatically installs Safari possibly without the user realizing what he or she has done.

“Apple has made it incredibly easy — the default, even — for users to install ride along software that they didn’t ask for, and maybe didn’t want,” he says, “This is wrong, and borders on malware distribution practices.”

However, Lily may be getting worked up over nothing. According to Information Week, Safari 3.1 and Windows XP and Vista aren’t the best of partners. XP users have reported that opening Safari causes their operating system to crash, and despite rigorous testing, the browser doesn’t function properly on Vista.

“When I try to start Safari 3.1 in Windows XP, it crashes right away,” said SakJosep, in a post currently on Apple’s online support forum.

“I have this problem too, I have no idea what it is,” said another user, OllieK92.

“I’ve tried removing and installing a new Safari — still fails to open,” reported KobeKungFu.

Such complaints are echoing across a Safari support forum thread on Apple’s Web site that’s drawn more than 1,000 views in the past week — an indication that the problem could be widespread.

Macs are cool and all, but Safari’s pretty fucking lame; and honestly, I’ve been so disappointed with recent Firefox updates that I’ve been using IE more and more. I don’t know if that means I’ve forfeited my standing as a geek or not.

For a while now there have been whispers of the Fab-Four finally going digital and making their back catalog available for download, but for the most part it seemed to be just wide-eyed speculation. However, that appeared to change a few days ago when the UK press (Daily Record, Telegraph, Daily Mail, etc.) began reporting that a deal had been struck with Apple Inc. (computer company not Beatles publishing, that’s Apple Corps.) to make the songs available for download on iTunes.

It looked as if I’d finally get replace those tattered old records with substandard, compressed mp3s! Hooray! Wait, that doesn’t sound right. Why should I be excited to replace organic audio with a cheap codec-ridden blather that’s one-tenth the file size? To be honest, I’m not. Sure it’d be great to line the pockets of Ringo and Paul with a little more cash; after all Paul is about to get hammered by an ugly divorce settlement. But personally I’d rather scour a record store (even if they’re going the way of the buffalo) looking to find that classic album on vinyl. Now you might be thinking, they’ve yet to create a Walkman that plays vinyl, and they probably never will. Truly, you would be mistaken, and you can find one right here that will only run you $250. Even if that groovy gadget isn’t your style it remains true that most of The Beatles’ catalog is already available on CD, which can be purchased and made portable. In the end it becomes a compromise of quality for price.

All techno-babble and rhetoric aside, the issue is still unsettled. The initial reports of an agreement have since been discounted and only time will tell when those famous boys from Liverpool will finally go binary.

Now trailing only Wal-Mart, iTunes is the number two (legal) source of music distribution with 50 Million customers and 4 billion songs sold. They pushed past Best Buy and Target, who trail 3rd and 4th respectively.

From the Associated press:

About 10 percent of music acquired in the U.S. was through legal downloads in 2007, and consumers who bought digital music legally through pay-to-download Web sites grew by 5 million to 29 million in 2007, NPD said Tuesday.

With iTunes’ position as #1 internet retailer of music, I guess that most people figured out that those other digital music servicing sites (where you pay by the month and once you stop your membership your songs go bye-bye) are totally garbage. And more and more youngsters aren’t even buying hard-copies of the music either:

From MacWorld:

NPD says that 48 percent of US teens did not purchase a single CD in 2007, compared to 38 percent in 2006. The report estimates that one million consumers dropped out of the CD buyer market in 2007.

I guess that’s also because owing an iPod is SO COOL!!!!!!!!

…uh…