Best Things In Life Are Free (3/28/05)
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My, isn't it a glorious day? Okay, sure, it's raining cats and dogs (and possibly a few other fluffy domesticated mammals) out in this neck of the woods... but it's rain, which is the cold, wet stuff as opposed to the cold, white stuff, and given that Boston just had its third-snowiest winter ever (and yes, we were here for the other two), we're just thankful that we don't have anything to shovel. Besides, it's officially spring, it turns out that we can pay our tax bill without selling any vital organs, The Venture Bros. was just greenlit for a second season, The Ghettobillies are playing at Sky Bar this Friday, and we've already got tickets to a FLUTTR EFFECT / Dresden Dolls double-bill next month at the Paradise. Everything's comin' up AtAT!

On top of all that, faithful viewer Konrad informs us that a long Business 2.0 article that we would have had to pay to read last week is now free like beer. Reading detailed speculation about future Apple products without paying one thin dime for the privilege? Why, that's... okay, well, that's exactly what we all do each and every day of our pathetic little lives, so clearly it's the natural order of things, but still, does it get any better than this?

As for what Business 2.0 has to say, we'll leave it to you to chew through the six-page article in one of your quieter moments, because it really makes for an interesting read-- it's chock-full of fascinating second-hand glimpses of Steve Jobs at work, and as faithful viewer Nick Aschbrenner points out, there are a few spots where analyst Rob "Wrong More Often Than a Broken Clock" Enderle is actually quoted as if he knows something about where Apple's headed, which is always a hoot to see (although it's more than a little distressing that predicts good things for Apple this time around).

Here's the nutshell version to tide you over until you get a chance to scope out the real thing. Based on "discussions with past and present company officials, Apple partners, and longtime acquaintances of Jobs, as well as clues in patent applications and other evidence," Business 2.0 figures there's: a near-100 percent chance that Apple will eventually release an iPod with wireless capabilities; a 75 percent chance that the company will ship a video iPod despite Steve's continued claims to the contrary (hey, he said he hated flash players, too, remember?); a 70 percent likelihood of an "iHome" TiVo-like entertainment center appliance; a 60 percent chance of true iPod integration into most car models by the middle of next year; and even odds that Apple will one day ship its own mobile phone. Place your bets!

Oh, but they didn't stop there: Business 2.0 even hunted down Robert Brunner, Apple's pre-Jon Ives Chief Designer, and hit him up for five artist's conceptions of future Apple products. Feast your eyes on the Wireless iPod, the vPod, the iHome, the iPhone, and (presumably because a 3D rendering of an iPod car interface would have been too dull to look at) a wrist-worn podWatch. Brain candy and eye candy to boot? Sure beats leftover Marshmallow Peeps. Like we said, life is good.


 
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The above scene was taken from the 3/28/05 episode:

March 28, 2005: Business 2.0 predicts future Apple products-- and why not? Everyone else does. Meanwhile, the guy who registered itunes.co.uk only to have it seized and turned over to Apple is claiming that the domain name registry is biased against small businesses, and the PlayStation Portable may well replace the iPod as the gotta-get-it gift come the holidays, but its music capabilities still leave a lot to be desired...

Other scenes from that episode:

  • 5223: Credibility, Shmedibility (3/28/05)   You know, we only ever mentioned Apple's legal tussle over the itunes.co.uk domain name briefly in passing last December, and we never had a chance to tell you that the matter was settled recently. Mostly. Nominet (the UK's registry bigwigs) ruled just a couple of weeks ago that 22-year-old "Internet entrepreneur" Benjamin Cohen was, in fact, "abusing his registration" by "offering to sell the domain name and by continuing to re-direct people from itunes.co.uk"...

  • 5224: Convergence? Yeah, Right (3/28/05)   We admit it: there is technolust in our hearts, and for once it's not for an Apple product. We are actually afraid to go see a PlayStation Portable in person, because the photos, video, and gushing reviews crammed into every last corner of the 'net are doing enough of a number on our salivary glands that we have to walk around holding empty Big Gulp cups under our chins to avoid leaving a trail on the carpet...

Or view the entire episode as originally broadcast...

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