"Jef Raskin, the human-computer interface expert largely credited with beginning the Macintosh project for Apple Computer, died Saturday at age 61" [Via CNet]

Raskin, who named the Macintosh after his favorite fruit, joined Apple in January 1978 as employee No. 31.

Famed UI designer dead at 61! What a shame to one of the most credited and copied people or "styles" in UI trends for modern and future technology.

Jef Raskin, named the Mac after his most favorite fruit. This man new graphics and ease-of-use would be the future of UI design for all to come. He left Apple after development of the Mac after Steve Jobs had reportedly had conflicting issues with Raskin. Raskin claims much of what he initially conceptualized he had seen from Xerox, though originality in the Mac was evident from start to finish.

After leaving Apple, Raskin designed Canon Cat. This striped down computing device didn’t succeed and many blame this on the poor marketing, but non-the-less, Raskin was a pioneer and example setter for all technology and those who inspire to create as he did. His influence can be seen in almost every modern technology we use today.

Does anyone at Amazon.com really read the user reviews? I posted this review of a David Hasselhoff CD on October 16, 2002. It's almost been 3 years and so far 2 people have rated my review as helpful. Thank you guys, I'm honored.

David Hasselhoff is musical magic personified....

"David Hasselhoff is musical magic personified. This album just proves that he can do much more than just act. It's hard to believe that so many people in America have overlooked Hasselhoff's musical talents. Probably the most exciting track on this album is the Night Rocker [Extended Blaster-Mix]. The first time I heard this song I fell in love with it. I probably played it 20 times over and over again. I just close my eyes and dream of being behind the wheels of KITT from the TV show Knight Rider. I can smell burning rubber with the wind blowing in my 80's feathered chest hair while gently touching the turbo boost. Hasselhoff really knows how to capture the emotions of love and excitement in song. I'm still excited!" [Read my review on Amazon.com]

Newcomer Michael Lord scores big with his debut album of melodic modern rock, Sway. The multi-instrumentalist wrote, produced, sang and played on his album, which cradles sumptuous arrangements in a fragile, but rocking sonic embrace.

Tracks from Sway have found their way into ABC's "ALIAS," and MTV's teen oriented "Laguna Beach." Michael is currently working on pilots for ABC and FOX. His first video for SWAY's lead track "Come To Me," features Terminator 3's Kristanna Loken.

iTunes has selected the song "Smile" to be the free download of the week. Smile is an upbeat and atmospheric piano-and-guitar tune about the light at the end of the relationship tunnel. Enjoy.

Download the free song here:

A Smith Barney equities analyst said that Apple is not likely to buy TIVO based on discussions with Apple senior management. According to the analyst, Apple is committed to proven technologies, like the iPod and DVD-R.

Wall Street is rife with speculation that Apple will acquire TIVO as part of its strategy of owning the 'hub to the digital lifestyle.' With a market cap of $300 MM, many analysts opine that TIVO is a cheap buy. Shares of TIVO, while up in recently over such speculation, are down almost 25% since the start of 2005. If the rumors are indeed unfounded and TIVO's stock drops, short sellers will find themselves handsomely rewarded.

Tech companies, from HP to Microsoft, are racing to own the digital home with its focus on the computer as the home centerpiece.

Who will rule the digital living room of the future? If rumors serve true, it could be Apple.

TiVo's CEO, Michael Ramsay, claims that his company is not for sale, but with a market cap of only $300 million, TiVo is basically a garage sale bargain. This is especially true for a company with a massive cash stockpile like Apple. Other companies considering scooping up TiVo include Comcast, Time Warner Inc., Sony and Liberty Media. Surprisingly Microsoft hasn't jumped on the bandwagon yet.

However, the idiots running TiVo have yet to make a profit despite having a great product. It's hard to believe Apple would want to acquire such a money-losing business unless it would fit into a bigger plan they secretly have in the works. In fact the only thing Apple and TiVo seem to have in common is a focus on the customer. One potential hurdle for Apple, would to maintain their darling status with content providers. The enormous success of the iTunes Music Store has made everyone happy from the artists and record companies to the consumer. TiVo, on the other hand, has pissed off everyone from TV and Film studios with their sloppy DRM strategy to advertisers with their commercial skipping abilities. Buying TiVo would require Apple to fix TiVo's DRM problems and please both content providers and consumers. Currently this is beyond the skills and vision of TiVo management. TiVo can't even enable AAC audio playback on their settop boxes or Macintosh compatibility for their TiVoToGo feature. Maybe it is time for someone with brain cells to take the reins at TiVo.

So will Apple buy TiVo? Could there be an iTunes like Movie/TV download store in the future? Rumors continue to fly while representatives from both companies continue to decline comment.

In the meantime, shares of TiVo have shot up 17%.

Apple has shaken up its the iPod world again and unveiled a new iPod Mini lineup including a 4GB model priced at just $199 and a new 6GB model priced at $249. Several improvements have been made to the new iPod Mini.

Both iPod Mini models feature a better 18 hour battery. This should be good news considering battery life has been a common complaint against the iPod.

In an effort to cozy up better with PC users, the iPod Mini can now charge and sync via one simple USB 2.0 connection.

The iPod Mini includes the following accessories:

• earbud headphones
• a belt clip case
• USB 2.0 cable
• CD with iTunes software.

Additional accessories include:

• USB power adapter
• iPod Dock
• in-ear headphones
• arm band
• lanyard
  
• FireWire
  

Our friends at iPoditude.com report that "The Mini armband will be available in five new colors (grey, orange, yellow, blue, and pink) in addition to the existing black one. These fancy blood pressure monitor cuffs will be shipping in 5-7 weeks for $29. Wouldn't it be a good idea to add some reflective material on them for added visibility at night when jogging or during drunken stumbles?

Apple also announced a new iPod Mini lanyard. This device looks pretty handy but details are scant. It attaches to the dock on the bottom and has an adjustable length lanyard... It ships in 5-7 weeks and will run $19."

As always, you can get a free laser engraving on your iPod if you purchase it from the Apple Store. Just be careful what you ask to get engraved. Apple has a history of rejecting certain engravings (Article: Rejected iPod Engravings). Think it through ahead of time, your engraving is limited to two lines of text with a maximum of 23 characters per line.

Both the 4GB and 6GB models are available in the following colors: silver, pink, blue or green.

As of today, the new iPod lineup consists of the following:

• iPod Shuffle 512MB, $99
• iPod Shuffle 1GB, $149
• iPod Mini 4GB, $199
• iPod Mini 6GB, $249
• iPod 20GB, $299
• iPod U2 20 GB = $349
• iPod Photo 30GB, $349
• iPod Photo 60GB, $449
  

As if the iPod Shuffle isn't tasty looking enough...

With its sleek design and simplistic appeal, the iPod Shuffle and it's price are sitting nice with consumers. One thing though that is boring about the Shuffle is it's lack of color choices like the iPod Mini provides.

If you want individualized style instantly applied for truly unique appearance, check out the DecalGirl fixtures. These non-gooey adhesives come in an array of colors and patterns, and quickly allow you to jazz up the drab white of the Flash based iPod Shuffle.

These 'dress-up kits' are washable and extremely cheap to purchase. A single kit to spruce up your iPod is only $2.99.

According to The Drudge Report, Paris Hilton's T-Mobile Sidekick cellphone was hacked and its contents were posted on the Internet!

Scores of A-list celebrities' private cell numbers, including that of Lindsay Lohan, Christina Aguilera, Andy Roddick, Victoria Gotti, Vin Diesel, Eminem, Anna Kournikova, and Ashlee Simpson, were published!

We suspect that all of Paris' Sidekick buddies from the T-Mobile commercials (Snoop, Wayne Newton, Wee-Man...) are going to think twice next time before they throw their numbers out there hoping to spend a night in Paris.

One angry celeb grunted to Drudge, "I gave her my number after we met in Miami, I did not know she f**king kept it on her cellphone!"

Paris' cellphone also had a built-in color camera. The hacker was able to download all her personal photos.


We're guessing that hacking her Sidekick was more invasive than stealing her homemade porn tapes!

It seems like the world is stuck in a permanent iPod fever. First everyone couldn't get enough of the iPod Mini at Christmas time. Then after the holiday shopping season calmed down, iPod demand seemed to get back to normal. But not for long. The iPod Shuffle was announced and we started all over again.

Myself, like plenty of other people I'm sure, ordered the iPod Shuffle the day it was announced in January. It was a pre-order, but I had a gift certificate for Amazon that I wanted to use. Plus, Apple said they had already produced enough to satisfy initial demand... or so they thought. The iPod Shuffle proved to be a little popular than they first predicted and once again, only a month after Christmas, there's an iPod shortage.

I'm trying to be patient. I keep checking my online order status. The current ship date is estimated around March 19th. Great, two months later I might get to see my iPod Shuffle. I contacted Amazon about canceling the order and getting a refund for my gift certificate. Apparently that's a little too difficult for them to coordinate. After getting the run-around by Amazon's customer service department, I decided just to be patient and wait. I hope there's not another iPod announcement before my Shuffle shows up.

In the meantime, I continue to be tortured by everyone else's iPod fever. The iPod Shuffle is selling like hotcakes. This past Saturday I visited the Apple Store in Short Hills, NJ. Store employees couldn't bring carts full of the iPod Shuffle to the check-out counter fast enough. People walked into the store and got right in line. I just watched while quietly regretting placing the pre-order in the first place. Sometimes gift certificates can be more of a pain than they are worth.

The fever for an iPod Shuffle can probably be understood at an Apple store, but the craze has expanded to other retailers as well. People like me who pre-ordered the Shuffle the day it was announced are probably still waiting. If you are thinking about ordering an iPod Shuffle, don't. Just go buy it at your local Apple Store if they have any in stock (I suggest calling them first). Every other retailer is sold out of the iPod shuffle including Amazon. This is what it says on Amazon's iPod Shuffle page: "In stock soon. Order now to get in line. First come, first served." I ordered mine 10 minutes after Steve Jobs got off stage. You would think I'd be somewhere in front of the line. Guess not.

Apparently the only people able to get their hands on iPods are the dorks up in Redmond at Microsoft HQ. A report on Wired.com by Cult of Mac reporter Leander Kahney, details the popularity of the iPod with Microsoft employees and how upper management at Redmond keeps trying to discourage their use. It's estimated that about 80% of the 25,000 Microsoft employees in Redmond, Washington have iPods.

"About 80 percent of Microsoft employees who have a portable music player have an iPod," said one source, a high-level manager who asked to remain anonymous. "It's pretty staggering.

So concerned is management, owning an iPod at Microsoft is beginning to become impolitic, the manager said. Employees are hiding their iPods by swapping the telltale white headphones for a less conspicuous pair."

Maybe Microsoft will all together ban the iPod and help relieve some of the market demand. I'd like to get my Shuffle in the mail before Spring if possible.

On February 16th, Peter Jennings, the face of ABC News got to sit down with Microsoft chairman Bill Gates and talk about the future of the technology industry and what role Microsoft might have in it. Jennings didn't hold back and asked Gates about several sore subjects for his company including the success of FireFox, Google and the iPod.

Here's a portion of the transcript:

JENNINGS: On the subject of music, I read somewhere that about 80 percent of Microsoft employees who have a music playing instrument or a music playing device use an iPod.

GATES: Well, I doubt that's the case. Certainly, the iPod's a great success.

JENNINGS: Do you have one?

GATES: No, I'm not an iPod user. I use the Creative Zen which is a fantastic product. That's another space where, even what we have today, whether it's iPod or the other things are only the start of what we're gonna have in a few years. People are gonna want choices. These things are going to be smaller or better, cheaper. So, music has changed. The age of the CD is really coming to an end.

JENNINGS: The public likes this tension between you and the others as I'm sure you know. So people want to know do you have an iPod. You say you don't have. Did iPod beat you in this issue?

GATES: Oh the iPod did a great job, but what Apple's done there is typically what they do. It's their, only their one music store, only their device. What we're doing is providing choices. So it's like the Apple computer versus the PC. With the PC you can buy from many companies so you get cheaper prices, you get more variety and here with music devices we're coming in with the same. But they're a strong leader in the space and I think as we gain share, people will be surprised.

JENNINGS: But, it isn't hard for you is it to stand back and compliment somebody else?

GATES: No, particularly Steve Jobs who's done a lot of amazing things in our business.

JENNINGS: I've heard some people say that if they were graduating from science or technology today, they'd rather work for Jobs than Microsoft. Why do you think that might be true?

GATES: Well it's certainly not the case. You found a very unusual data point there. In terms of software that's going to change lives and the most interesting software work in the world we're able to attract the smartest people and believe me, that's something that we track very, very carefully. When it comes to having the best software people, that's been the key to our success.

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Labels: ipod

Notice a lot of white earbuds lately? You should have. According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, about 22 million US adults have an iPod or an MP3 player.

Yes 22 million MP3 players! That's a lot of music walking around our streets. But what's that number in comparison to the total population? Drum roll please... 11% of the US adult population. However this 11% includes all MP3 players not just the iPod.

But how many MP3 players out of that 11% are iPods? Let's break it down. According to a report on MSN's Money Central, the NPD Group says Apple controls 92% of the U.S. and about 60% of the global portable MP3 player market. Not a bad feat for Apple Computer. So roughly 20 million people in the US own iPods. Wow. Three years ago their stock sold for $11. Today it's in the upper $80's and about to split 2-for-1. If only we all had time machines.

Related Link: iPod People = 1-in-10 US Adults

When Miguel Merrano first came to Mirror Valley, the land was green and lush...and off limits to Mexicans. Ranchers Tom Drake and Joe Stangle tried to drive Merrano out, to fence him out; and when he warned them that greed and overgrazing would ruin their land, they refused to listen. Now Merrano's predictions have come true. The cattle are hollow ribbed and dying. And Stangle and Drake are broke... flat broke. Only Merrano's ranch is thriving. As the ranchers watch him pay for goods in gold and sell his cattle at a profit, their hatred grows and festers...until they finally draw their guns, neighbor against neighbor, in a desperate act that could tear the valley apart forever.

Download the free audiobook here:

The GRAMMYs are over but all the winners' songs and albums are all in the iTunes Music Store. Winning albums are on sale starting at $7.99. Also online is a live version of the song "Across the Universe" which was performed by Bono, Stevie Wonder, Norah Jones, Brian Wilson, Alicia Keys, Scott Weiland, Billie Joe Armstrong, Steven Tyler, Alison Krauss amoung others that night. All proceeds earned from the sale of this song goes to benefit INICEF's ongoing tsunami relief efforts.

According to a Wired News report, Melanie Griffith threw a celebrity hissy-fit when she found out that the pink iPod Mini was out of stock. She demanded an iPod and said that all Apple Stores "have a special stock of iPods for people like her."

People like her? What is that? Aging Hollywood starlets with too much plastic surgery? Hey Melanie, get in the back of the line with the rest of us. Everybody wants an iPod.

Are they just trying to get hyped or is it all for real? Taking their name from a member of the Manson family and locking themselves in a remote farmhouse to record their album, Kasabian ensured that lore and mystery would precede the release of their debut album. It's not set to hit stores until March, but you can get an early preview of this Leicester, England four-piece by downloading their free single "Club Foot" from the iTunes Music Store this week.

Download the free song here:

Just when you thought Google couldn't get any better, they launched an amazing online mapping service this week. Also newsworthy, MapQuest crapped their pants.

If you have yet to play with Google Maps, don't waste time and go check it out. The service is still in beta, so expect a few glitches and make sure you download the FireFox web browser first (even Google thinks Internet Explorer sucks!). Also please note that Google Maps currently only supports U.S. addresses.

After checking it out, I'm sure you will agree that Google Maps isn't only a great mapping tool, but it's fun to navigate and has great graphics. You will probably want to bookmark it and make it part of your normal routine. Savvy Mac OS X users may even want to integrate it into their Address Book.

Here's how:

1. Launch up Script Editor (Applications > AppleScript > Script Editor)
2. Select New from the File menu to create a new empty script
   
3. Copy the code listed below in-between the "--Start" and "--End" comments
4. Paste this code into the blank empty script in Script Editor
5. Save the script in your ~/Library/Address Book Plug-Ins/ directory and name it "Google Map Of.scpt"
   
6. If the Address Book application is open, quit it
7. Launch Address Book and select someone with a U.S. address
   
8. Right-click or control-click on an address and select 'Google Map Of (Firefox)' from the pop-up menu
9. FireFox should open up with a map
10. Enjoy
    

AppleScript Code from MacOSXHints.com:

-- Start
property googleMaps : "http://maps.google.com/maps?q="

using terms from application "Address Book"

on action property
return "address"
end action property

on action title for p with v
return "Google Map Of (Firefox)"
end action title

on should enable action for p with v
return true
end should enable action

on perform action for p with v
set params to ""
if street of v is not missing value then set params to params & street of v & " "
if city of v is not missing value then set params to params & city of v & " "
if state of v is not missing value then set params to params & state of v & " "
if zip of v is not missing value then set params to params & zip of v & " "
try
tell application "Firefox"
OpenURL googleMaps & params
activate
end tell
on error
disp