Not my practice blog, by Scott Knaster

Apple sells 1,000,000,000 songs

As of last night, Apple has now sold a rather incredible one billion songs in the iTunes Music Store. The person who bought the billionth song won some nice prizes:

• an iMac
• 10 60Gb iPods
• $10,000 credit at the iTunes Music Store

Apple continues to maintain a huge market share in both downloaded songs and music players. Lots of folks seem convinced that Apple will slip (for typical examples, see here and here), but it hasn't happened yet.

Super Bowl ads

Once upon a time, people watched the Super Bowl because it was a big football game. Then came Apple's ad in 1984. The genius of this commercial was that not only was it an incredibly great commercial, but it invented the notion that the Super Bowl was a venue for ads.

The Super Bowl commercials have gotten far less entertaining in the past few years. It's like they're trying too hard or something.

Macworld Expo wrapup

Here are a few random thoughts about Macworld Expo, because I was too lame (and busy) to get it together and post last week:

• Great weather this year for Macworld! Thanks to whoever arranged this.
• Sure, Apple loves secrecy and surprises. But the most amazing thing to me is, how do they change dozens of street ads just in time for the end of the keynote?
• I'm impressed that Apple got the MacBook Pro ready so soon, but it's not the one for me. I think I'm going to wait for something else, although I'm not sure what.
• By the way, I'll disagree with everyone else I've heard and say that MacBook is a great name. Of course it sounds weird now -- so did PowerBook the first 500 times we heard it. A new name takes time to slip into familiarity. Getting Mac in the name is exactly the right thing to do.
• Every year Macworld Expo reminds me that I basically hate trade shows as a place to see products. I love trade shows because I get to hang out with friends I never get to see otherwise.
• It's still worth getting up at 5 AM to see Steve Jobs deliver a keynote (watch it here).

Take Control of Switching to the Mac

If you're buying your first Mac, here's an easy, inexpensive way to get some help. And if you're already a Mac person and you have friends or relatives making the switch, get them a copy and you might just reduce your personal support burden.

Revolution in the Valley

Better late than never, Forbes reviews (and enjoys) Andy Hertzfeld's book (which was derived from Folklore.org).

Twisted take on Mighty Mouse

The SF Chronicle has this notion on Apple's new mouse: it's part of Apple's bid to lure Windows users. It's an odd article, with logical leaps over vast canyons, but it shows you where the mainstream perception of Apple stands nowadays.

ADHOC begins

ADHOC got off to a rousing start tonight with the traditional midnight pizza and keynote, this year presented by Apple's Jordan Hubbard. Actually, this keynote was not a keynote: it was a feature presentation. Apparently, there's only one guy at Apple who's allowed to give a keynote, and he wasn't here tonight.

ADHOC/MacHack 20

I have been happily drawn deeper into ADHOC, as I'm going to co-host the Showcase with the esteemed Andy Ihnatko. Will we approach the high standards set by the wonderful Scott & Greggy shows of the past? I dunno. But we promise to try to keep you awake.

How I want my Mactel to work

When I buy my Intel-based Mac laptop next year, I want to run Mac OS X and Windows on it at the same time. There's no need for Windows (or Virtual PC) to emulate Intel/Windows hardware any more, because the actual hardware is there. In this dream, Windows/VPC is not running as an OS X app: it's full-on Windows with special magic stuff going on behind the scenes so it can talk to OS X. A configurable keystroke or gesture switches between operating systems, complete with a cube-flip animation. I can copy and paste between operating systems. Each OS has a window or some other proxy that represents the other, so I can drag and drop without switching. And if I hook up an external monitor, I can have OS X running on one and Windows on the other. And yeah, I can drag between them, like one big desktop.

What do you think?

Apple + Intel

Random observations on the tech story of the day (year?):

• I'm very surprised that so many otherwise intelligent people have trouble separating Intel, Windows, and the user experience. Putting OS X on Intel is, for a user, not a big change, assuming Apple delivers as promised.


• Apple will no doubt suffer from lost sales until Intel-based Macs are shipping. But if you were Apple, would you rather have 6-12 months of lowered sales, or no next-gen PowerBook for another year or more? It's just too bad this has to happen during a time of great momentum in Mac sales.


• There should finally be a version of Virtual PC for Mac that lets me pitch my Windows laptop.


• On the other hand, if you're Microsoft, do you develop that killer VPC for Mac? Yes, you sell a copy of Windows with each one, but you also further increase Apple's lead in digital music -- people buying Macs aren't doing it buy music via Windows Media Player. If I were in charge of digital media at Microsoft, I'd have something to say to Bill Gates about this.


• Will this work out well for Apple? It depends on execution: they have to get new Macs done soon, convince developers to move to Xcode, and make sure the Rosetta translator works well.

If Apple pulls all this off, it will be the most remarkable transition in the history of personal computers. It will also give Apple incredible leverage to use designs from Intel, PowerPC, or even other sources in the future.