With all the buzz around the MacBook Air, I totally forgot that it's now possible to shop (and rent!) from iTunes using the Apple TV.  Back when the Apple TV was first announced I was pretty disappointed and surprised that it couldn't shop on iTunes, but the new Apple TV software gives pretty much total access to the iTunes Store (movies, music, podcasts, etc).  Now you no longer need a computer to shop on iTunes, and the new software download is for all Apple TVs.  The Apple TV still doesn't offer iPod connectivity which seems really weird.

The first season of The State is now available on iTunes! Hopefully this will pave the way for Mr. Show, Upright Citizens Brigade, and other great sketch comedy from back in the day being added to iTunes as I proposed in one of my first posts. I've already downloaded the episodes and can't wait for more to be added.

It's official!  EMI will make their entire catalog available on iTunes DRM-Free.  In press converence last night in London EMI's CEO Eric Nicoli and Apple's Steve Jobs made the announcement and took questions.  Here are the major details.

1. The EMI Catalog will be available DRM-Free on iTunes in May
2. The format is AAC 256kbps (twice the standard quality)
3. These Premium Tracks will be available for $1.29
   
4. Entire albums will be sold DRM-free and higher quality at no additional cost
5. The Premium Tracks will be available alongside the standard versions that include DRM for $0.99
   
6. For $0.30 customers will be able to upgrade any existing EMI music they bought to the higher quality, DRM-free version

There seems to be some ambiguity on #4, according to EMI's Press Release:

Complete albums from EMI Music artists purchased on the iTunes Store will automatically be sold at the higher sound quality and DRM-free, with no change in the price.

Source

That would indicate that there would not be two options when buying an entire EMI album, customers would always get the premium version when they buy the album.  However, Apple makes no reference to complete albums in their press release. Additionally, Steve Jobs said in the press conference:

We are going to address both these issues [DRM and sound quality] by introducing new version of our songs and albums that will be sold alongside our existing version.  The new versions will be DRM-Free so they are completely interoperable and they will be encoded in 256 AAC...

Source - at about time 23:32

So next month we'll see if EMI albums automatically come in Premium format or if there's an option.  Hopefully, the Premium album will be the same price as the standard album as was stated in the press release.  Additionally, Steve Jobs predicts that half the iTunes catalog will be available DRM-Free by the end of the year by having more record labels agree to sell music DRM-Free.  Also, EMI's CEO Eric Nicoli said that Premium Tracks would be available to other retailers including places like emusic.com.

I remember reading about it right when it was announced but forgot I had previously blogged about this exact idea. In April of 2006 pictures of laser etched gadgets from Nike's labs started appearing on the web, and I wrote about someone should start a company to laser etch gadgets. Then in December of 2006, word broke that Phil Torrone, an editor of Make magazine, and Limor Fried were starting a small company in New York to laser etch gadgets. No clue when they started working on this project. Best of all, they're publishing business plans to start your own gadget laser etching company. Hmm...maybe I should take my own advice and get the plans to start one up in good old St. Louis...

Adafruit Industries Laser Etching
Laser etching coming to a laptop near you - CNet.com

Last week Apple released iTunes 7 and it features not one but TWO enhancements previously described on "They should do that," needless to say I'm delighted. The first, and more hyped new addition is browsing by album artwork. The second new feature, which hasn't gotten as much attention, is that iTunes purchased music can now be transfered from an iPod to a computer. This means that if your computer hard drive dies, but you had all your purchased music on your iPod you haven't lost it. Woo hoo!
Apple iTunes Album View and Cover Flow View
Apple iTunes Sync both Ways