October 13, 2005

Apple, TV, Esquire Mish-Mash

so apple made their big announcment the other day. honestly, after jobs diss'ed video some time back i really expected them to introduce and 80GB iPod. no dice, it is an ipod that plays videos. but that is not where the brilliance of the announcement comes from. see, the itunes store worked out a deal to get episodes of the show lost available for download -- $1.99 each. now the quality has something to be desired, but it looks like some people are getting it. they are understanding that people want content "how they want it" not just how the content holder wants to spoon it out to them.

as is typical, mark cuban hits it on the head. i had no idea who bob iger was, but cuban's post explains the importance of this deal much better than i ever could. i would add; however, that it isn't the device that is important but the shift in thinking that seems to be afoot. finally!

a.j. jacobs wrote a piece for esquire called My Outsourced Life where he "off-shores" many of his day to day tasks. while there are some practical advantages in some of these things i appreciate the concerns he raises and especially the sly comedic relief. i could just imagine the wife's reaction if i had an indian woman named honey phone her up to deal with an argument. it certainly has its appeal, but i suspect payback would be hell. now the idea of having her call and talk to my mom -- now that's value! seriously though, read this article... it starts a little slow but was damn amusing.

Posted by ac at October 13, 2005 06:00 PM