I’m Not Sure NBC Could Have Screwed This iTunes Thing Up Any Worse

There’s a lot of jackassery to pick apart in this short statement from NBC Universal executive vice president Cory Shields, responding to Apple’s “don’t let the door hit you on the way out, idiots” statement yesterday, but I’ll focus on this curious tidbit for now:[...] Thanks to thehigherlife for providing this nice story on Digg.

What other users say about this:

toyotaboy: NBC (really general electric) is turning into the worst money grubbing corporation this world has ever seen. GE buys NBC, nbc buys telemundo as well as some other stations. My dad worked for WSNS for over 30 years, thank god he’s at retirement age. They basically offered him a buyout that says “please leave, so we can become more profitable”, because they want to use robotic cameras and have one guy multi-tasking 4-5 shows to replace dozens of workers. I’m all for improving the bottom line, but they’re basically pushing it beyond the envelope. Don’t be surprised if your local NBC news starts to go into the shitter because of software failures and nobody to fix them in realtime.

Dush: “It is clear that Apple’s retail pricing strategy for its iTunes service is designed to drive sales of Apple devices” – NBC

uh, no doi?

kollross: I was thinking I read that iTunes basically saved the “The Office” from getting the boot. The show was getting poor rating but selling huge numbers on itunes. They must have forgot that part.

robwilkens: I still can’t believe people paid extra for wathing TV shows in the first place. I mean, come on people, buy a TV, it’s content is free and you get to see it there before it’s available everywhere else. The download time is instant, and it takes up no hard drive space. Is the ‘advantage’ of watching it over-and-over-again-in-repeat-episode-mode on a portable 1″ screen in extra-low-quality really worth $1.99 or even $4.99?

barroni: I admit to getting about 40 gig on stuff a month from torrents. but my ipod has no i repeat NO illegal stuff on it .
When you earn $30,000 a week as an executive $5 seem s like sod all ,when you earn $30,000 a year $5 is a lot of money.
Fuck you NBC

bobbknight: Meh, I never buy tv shows, I don’t care about this at all, rent the dvd and ripe it, then you have the tv shows you want.

GreenAlien: Someone at NBC must of been clued up enough to make the initial agreement with Apple. Where are they now? Was this the same person making the decisions? If so, why the change of heart?

6donkey9: So they want us to all sign up for HULU so they can give us what we want AT 4.99!!! Yea that’s gonna happen reeeeeeaaaaaaaalllllll soon.
F them!

ElectricMovie: I stopped watching t.v. years ago. there’s no time and all the shows suck and are so uncreative.

JasonCox: “Fuck NBC.”
Fuck Apple. Seriously, who pays $1.99 for tv shows? I already pay $50 bucks a month for cable not counting the movie channels, they arent getting one more fraking dime out of me.

Thanks to Apple; Jaguar XF sports Pulsating Start Button, Rising Air Vents

“We have been working with Apple on control interfaces.” That’s a direct quote from, not Martin Winterkorn at Volkswagen, but Ian Callum, the design director for Jaguar, as quoted by CAR magazine. Callum says Jaguar’s new XF’s start button “starts to pulsate” when the driver gets into the car. Once running, the car’s hidden air vents “rise up”[...] Thanks to CLIFFosakaJAPAN for providing this nice story on Digg.

What other users say about this:

bankhead: You can hate on this car but it’s taking a very warm welcome from enthusiasts. Here is a video that shows how the shifter button and the rising air vents actually work. http://www.motortrend.com/av/autoshow/frankfurt/112_2007_frankfurt_2008_jaguar_xf

one2gamble: What does a quote from someone at Volkswagen have to do with the interior of a Jaguar?

MaceSoul: Huh. So a company that outsources design to design firms is designing for other designers? Are they letting Jaguar use Frog Design or are they acting as a middle man?

knobtwiddler: i accidentally clicked this story.

BURY>>> FUk dIS KRAP

pr5owner: lol why would you buy an auto sports/luxtury car?

sephiroth4: In other news, Q takes notes from Compiz for Bond. “Desktop, Shaken not stirred”…..

Alwar: Is it just me, but to have a story like this and not show a short video of what’s being described, or at least some time lapsed stills would have been so much better! Maybe it is just me.

Seaton: Sorry, I don’t like things that “rise up” in my car…

lordmike: Just 2 more gadgets to go wrong on your car which will cost a fortune to fix

HappyScrappy: Misinterpreted rumor. “Control interfaces” likely means they just can connect iPods.

Let me ask you this? What’s the last thing Apple did that they didn’t try to get a huge press splash from and put their name all over?

This is almost certainly a false story.

Flashman: Jaguar is so 2002. It’s all about Leopard now.

nullcodes: You know, Microsoft has a car computing solution: http://www.syncmyride.com/ .. that is coming out in some new Ford 08 vehicles .. sure it’s voice activated .. which is great .. but amazingly they didn’t think of using a touchscreen also and instead have like 20 buttons surrounding the thing for all it’s features. I expect the next version too they still wouldn’t have thought of touchscreen but instead would have a mouse. How innovative .. mouse + drive.

over90000: And the selling out of Apple continues.

l0rdn1k0n: QUICK! TO THE APPLEMOBILE!

l0rdn1k0n: Quick! To the Applemobile!

Apple to unveil iTunes Kiosks at event this Wednesday.

It’s rumored that Apple will be unveiling iTunes kiosks this Wednesday. The kiosks will be distributed to various retail outlets within the northern U.S. and will allow anyone to connect their iPod/iPhone and buy some tunes on the spot.[...] Thanks to YaYaLuvCupcakes for providing this nice story on Digg.

What other users say about this:

thepho: interesting thing about this is, is that my mom works for a grocery store that “used” to have an iPod kiosk, but all of them were taken out of the stores this week. so sounds like this could be pretty reliable.

drewbles: Great idea for places like airports and the like. Makes that impulse duty-free ipod purchase that much better as you can whack your ipod into a kiosk, and load up a few tracks for the long flight ahead. This could also push into the aircraft itself. If Apple integrated a kiosk concept into the in-flight entertainment, a captive audience on a 14 hour flight with nothing but re-runs of everybody hates raymond and seinfeld may be inclined to cough up more dough.

Clever thinking Apple. I’ve often thought a ITMS Kiosk concept would make sense in the right place.

bradmoreland: Apple is also going to introduce a new iPod Nano. Here is an exclusive video of it from an anonymous source:

http://lbn.threat.tv/apple_ipod_nano_exclusive_preview.swf

chrisutley: Unless it does something more interesting than let you buy music and video, these kiosks are going to be a massive flop. I have an iPhone and iPod, but see absolutely no reason why I’d want to use a kiosk to buy media for them.

houndawg87: I love Apple and iPod, but… really?

Shah: Only North America? I mean this would make sense in countries with no iTunes store..right?

johnpaul191: whatever the announcement is, it is worth point out that they are holding it in the same hall they have the MacWorld Keynotes….. which is way bigger than the space they used to show off the newest iMacs.
it *seems* Apple has something bigger to promote than just bumped up iPods.

augustojr: I can see this working at the airport. or on an airplane even!

o2o2o2o2: Kiosks? Is there really a market for people who own ipods and dont have a computer?

jeffchuck: North America == Northern US???

sigginike90: This is a VERY bad idea. And 100% not true.

jthomp: sounds like a great idea. i’d like to do some iTunes shopping from my iPhone on the go though honestly. but this is a start.

mackoid101: A WiFi enabled iPod would make a lot more sense from a user’s perspective. This is probably more economical from Apple’s point of view.

brownkidd: I’m just wondering how the stores these kiosks are set up in are going to profit from this. The only option would be to charge more per song unless Apple would “rent out” the space for the kiosk at a fair price.

bluebirdgm: Where this would be good is if iTunes started selling HD movies, kiosks would cache some movies, and iPods could be used as portable devices to transfer movies to and from one’s AppleTV. Could put another nail in Blockbuster’s coffin…well, if they started selling enough AppleTV’s to make a difference, that is.

iPhones may Scan Business Cards/Photos using Sharp’s Optical Touchscreen

The optical sensors built directly into the LCD surface detects changes by the pixel. Input is sensitive enough to allow complex multi-touch gestures and can also perform scanning functions; a future device could include a business card reader tool or automatically scan data codes found on packaging, Sharp says[...] Thanks to CLIFFosakaJAPAN for providing this nice story on Digg.

What other users say about this:

Kakcoo: Yeah. Only iPhones can have this.