iPod-icide

My video iPod has given me great joy and diversion in the two-and-a-half years I've owned it. This past week, Apple revealed its new line of iPod Nanos and Touches. Almost on cue, my iPod began producing the "click of death" and the sad iPod logo when I turned it on. (Were I a conspiracy theorist . . . .)

Today I brought it to the "Genius Bar" of the Century City Apple Store (right after I donated blood, thereby hopefully making a deposit in my karma account). After I waited about a half hour past my appointment time, the genius who waited on me confirmed that the hard drive was fried. He gave me the choice of paying $59 for a refurbished iPod of the same model (with no guarantee of how long that one would last, past the 90 day warranty), or 10% off a new iPod. I chose the latter; but alas the store did not have the 16 gig Nano in stock yet. The store employee who informed me apologized that I would be without music until it came into stock. I suppose I'll just have to follow the music within.

Iphone and Printing Innovations

More innovations in marketing Japanese manga and anime internationally. Yoshitoshi ABe, the writer/artist who has lent his soft-focus artwork to anime such as HAIBANE RANME and NIEA_SEVEN puts out self-published comics, or Doujinshi. (Indeed, HAIBANE RANME started out as a Doujinshi.) Doujinshi generally don't get commercially distributed in other countries, since exportation and translation would be prohibitive.

ABe has gotten around this by marketing his Doujinshi "Pochiyama at the Pharmacy" as an application for the iPhone and the iPod Touch. The app uses multilingual comics software to toggle between a Japanese-language version and an English version.

Only catch: You have to have an iPhone or an iPod Touch to view it; it's not viewable on an ordinary iPod or on a computer screen. If more creators go this route, fans might well boost sales for both devices.

Product Placement: Heroic, Yet Futile

In last Monday's episode of HEROES, a black video iPod was featured prominently in one scene. The dialogue indirectly emphasized its video capacity; and a character even turned the back of the device to the camera, to show the Apple logo on the back.

Product placement? Apparently. A generic video MP3 could be used; or a DVD.

The odd part: Due to acrimony between Apple and NBC/Universal -- which airs HEROES -- earlier this year, NBC announced it would yank its programming off iTunes. That includes HEROES.

So why would the network give Apple millions of dollars worth of advertising in the form of product placement? Two guesses. First, the scene may have been filmed before the Apple/NBC brouhaha. Second, Apple still buys lots and lots of TV advertising time; so staying on the company's good side might still pay dividends.

Itunes Hosannas and Dirges?

Two stories augering the future of the Itunes online music service -- one positive, one negative.

On the positive side, Fortune Magazine reports that Apple may be on the verge of obtaining the holy grail for a music service: The Beatles catalog. (Of course, Apple Computers and Apple Corps. would have to work out that chronic litigation between them over the Apple business name.)

On the negative side, conflicting stories about the volume of downloads from Itunes in 2006 caused turmoil with Apple stock. One analyst said that the number of downloads dipped 65% this year from last. Other analysts quickly jumped in and opined that Itunes had far more downloads in this last quarter than the same time last year.

In any event, Itunes still remains the juggernaut of the music industry today -- tied into the Ipod, with its dominance of the MP3-player market.