Apple iTunes Plus Price Drop

Back in my post regarding the new Amazon music store I asked:

From what Steve Jobs has said, the Apple Store uses DRM because they are under contractual obligation to record companies to do so. If that is the case why are the record companies allowing Amazon to sell the same tracks sans DRM? It would seem to me that is an unfair business practice. I would also point out the price difference but it is entirely possible that Amazon is taking a hit on their end rather than the record companies taking it on theirs.

I'm not sure whether I was right or not, but it seeing the actual announcement about the price drop, we still do not see any major label other than EMI, but we do see a whole bunch of smaller independent labels. I am going to go out on a limb and suppose that EMI agreed to the price drop and the independent labels came for the ride. The other labels are still, in my opinion, illegally colluding to "punish" Apple Inc. Seeing as how various top name artists are re-evaluating their attachment to the major record companies, I can only think that this is going to be a lose-lose for those record labels who do not get with the program.

Bank Of America Mobile Banking

First, I'd like to thank Apple for hosting a directory of iPhone optimized websites that I can use on my N800. Thanks.
I'd next like to say No Thanks to Bank Of America for disallowing my device to be used with mobile banking. So instead I'll use the regular BOA page that fits quite well on my N800's screen (what with all those extra pixels and all). I cannot fathom why mobile banking is disallowed but not the full site.

Anyway, I refuse to do banking over the air anyway (unless i'm on my home network which is locked down tight). Anyway, good luck keeping that banking stuff secure with that TIFF vulnerability giving root access to the iPhone and iTouch.

Neo Office 2.2.2 out

Go get it here

Hopefully that bug where the office 2007 Excel files take years to open has been fixed.

Daft iPhone Owner

Taken directly from a letter sent to Macintouch:

"...Yet, at the same time, I cannot understand why Apple would refuse such a repair for a charge. The shear inconvenience of a dead phone, having to locate and travel to an Apple Store, and the paying of a fee should be enough to discourage future alterations to the phone. I can certainly say I have lost all interest in "hacks".

Why yes, there is a pay for means to have your iphone put into ship shape:

iPhone
8GB

Ships: Within 24 hours
Free Shipping

$399.00

Who knew?

Shifting Habits

Ny times auto blog about manual transmissions:

At first everyone in the conference thought he was joking. He wasn’t. His magazine isn’t a car magazine, so there’s no professional reason for him to know how to drive a stick. But I’d always thought it was a basic life skill, like rock, paper, scissors, and shuffling cards. I’d always taken it for granted.

Seriously though, Most automatic tranny drivers I know are lazy and have really bad driving habits. They ride their brakes... Oh yeah, you got to do that to keep the car from moving while in drive...right. Look, I want the car to move when I want it to move. I want to brake when I choose. I want to hold the engine at whatever RPM I choose. I want to disconnect the engine from the tranny when I want to. Get it? When. I. Want. To.

I don't care about how fast the computer can shift. I like the hand, foot, eye coordination.

New N800 Kernel

While a lot of N800 and 770 owners have been sniggering at iPhone owners who had their phones "reset" by the latest Apple update, Nokia has released a kernel patch to fix a glaring problem in it's kernel that has "bricked" many peoples SDHC cards. Of course we'll have to re-install everything we have in order to get this fix. Me. I'm waiting for a more significant update cause I'm about tired of reloading apps.

Marion Jones: Cheater

Took Steriods for two years. Lied repeatedly about it. For shame.