This documentary is our first major project for ‘07, and we’re aiming for a theatrical release to then go to cable/DVD. The feature will be about the rise of Apple (from the tough early years to now) and the people who helped make it a success and have formed a community around it. Our crew will be heading to MacWorld, and we thought filming Adam’s party would enhance our narrative.
I can assure you that this will be a straight forward documentary, not a “Borat”-style ambush. Our company has insurance and I am attaching a location agreement that we use for everyone’s protection. Regarding permission to film patrons, employees, etc., we have releases that we can have people sign and it may be worth considering putting up a notice in the entry that will alert people to the filming that will be taking place. We obviously want to minimize any adverse impact that this will have on your business (it shouldn’t have any) and we will work with you to ensure that this happens.

They contacted me because my DailyTechTalk Macworld party was in its 3rd year and they wanted to talk to me about Macworld. Pretty cool, right? Well we did an interview that Wednesday morning at The Moscone Center and that night they interviewed me and Laura and did an interview with the world famous Violet Blue. I never knew this film would be showcased at Macworld Expo in 2009 to a crowd of over 200 people and then sold on DVD for thousands of people to watch over and over. Naturally, I’m pretty excited to be there for this and I hope you’ll be there too. My post is here and you can watch the screening if you have a Macworld badge. It’s as simple as that. You can find out more about the movie on their website. Below is a slideshow of photos that Laura took while they were interviewing me.

This whole AdamsBlock thing has resulted in daily hate mails from uninformed citizens, hateful phone calls from blocked numbers and Twitter accounts like “fuckadamsblock” that just start following me on Twitter. The emails really get to me because they’ll start with “you’re a retard and your girlfriend is a dumb bitch.” Those emails will end with, “oh and I’m gonna rob you when you’re not home.” It’s gotten a little better but I’m still feeling a lot of heat.

Someone I’ve only met briefly, Lesa King, is an idol to my girlfriend. Laura goes to GraphicReporter every day to check for new tutorials. Lesa is the wife of the notorious Shawn King who has given a lot back to The Mac Community in his weekly YourMacLife podcast among many other things. Lesa is what Shawn calls, a MacMac and she’s pissed that Apple is ditching Macworld. Her idea of a SilentKeynote was pretty cool so I tweeted that everyone should Digg it.

Someone named MichaelYurechko replies to me with a link to this which I’ve copied below.

Lesa Snider King, go f**k yourself.

In Apple’s scheme of things, MacWorld makes no sense at all. It’s an event that happens every January and if Apple doesn’t deliver on a new product, their stock drops. Apple doesn’t need MacWorld to make news, they can make their own.

It costs Apple millions to sponsor this event that no longer does anything for them, it just makes sense to stop wasting money. The event is for die-hard Apple fans (for the most part) and this is not who Apple is trying to reach. Die-hard fans will continue purchasing new Macs, Apple is more focussed on gaining market share and going after those new customers.

Apple decided to re-think things. Having to push out a new product in January of every year is a product cycle Apple doesn’t want. For one, it slows sales. Everyone knows not to buy anything for about 2 months before MacWorld. They want to release products on their own schedule.

Lesa, as kirk06 said above, GROW UP. Silent keynote.. honestly.. are you two years old?

Grow the f**k up and get over it. If you hate Apple so much, buy a Dell.

He then puts out a tweet that says, “Lesa Snider King is one dumb b**ch. Go f**k yourself.”

I’ve been caught up in a lot of hate lately and this is a perfect example. That response is totally uncalled for. I never said that I’m going to go to the silent keynote. In fact, I haven’t even bought a Macworld pass for this year because I’m kinda done with it. I was done with Macworld months before Apple’s Tuesday announcement. Lesa is passionate about something just as I was passionate about using my webcam in San Francisco to raise money for charity and deter crime but since she and I stuck our necks out there, we are faced with ignorant and hateful people who fly off for no reason. I flew off the cuff at Michael over Twitter because I’m sick and tired of people like him cursing out and publicly humiliating people who have a good intention.

I’m sure if Michael exposed his buying habits, what kind of car he drives or his political beliefs to the web, he would get a ton of people cursing him out as well. I know this to be true because whenever I show a passion for anything online, I get 50/50 positive and negative responses and the negative is always from an idiot that doesn’t want to actually debate but will instead attack me in the most simple elementary school tactics.

I wish Lesa King luck with her SilentKeynote initiative. I think it’s good to see someone stepping up just like many of us do for what she thinks is right. I’ll stand next to her because I believe in what she is doing and we all need a support system sometimes to combat the growing amount of ignorant haters in this world.

A) Apple doesn’t care about you. Seriously. They don’t and never forget that.
B) You can get $100 off most Macs on Amazon every day of the year
C) MacMall offers ram upgrades, free copies of VMWare Fusion and printers that make the Macs a great value through them.
D) Apple’s Refurb store has deals on Macs 20% off or more every day of the year
E) eBay has fantastic deals on new unopened Macs every day of the year

Apple offering $150 off a MacBook Pro that’s priced at $2499 is a discount but getting up early, fighting crowds and waiting in line for that Mac where you could have gotten it for $100 less on Amazon yesterday isn’t worth my time and I’m disgusted with the amount of blog posts about how heavenly Apple is for offering discounts. If you remember fact A that Apple doesn’t like you, then you’ll realize everything they do is for money and stockholders.

Stay home, shop on eBay and update your blog or something. The Apple Store I would avoid on Black Friday.

Wow. Apple kicked fanboys in the balls a lot harder than I expected. $11 off the iPod nano. I’m not in the market for any Apple gear so I wasn’t lining up at 4AM at any Apple Store but it’s amazing how for weeks I’ve read report after report about how much Apple was going to give you the reach around on black friday. I wake up today and see $11 off the iPod nano and $21 the Apple TV. Hah! Yep Apple hates you and that same Apple TV you can get for $50 nearly everywhere else. Avoid Apple’s Black Friday deals because every day of the year nearly every Apple retailer beats even the black friday discounts.

I’ll follow up on all of my unread emails with an email asking them a question which forces them to respond. I’ll post blog entries on all of my blogs and Twitter at a crazy volume so that I’m basically the only person on Twitter. Then when I’m completely caught up, i begin instant messaging people I work with and adding people as friends on Facebook. Anything that causes their blackberry or iPhone to buzz and check their email. It’s my way or reminding America, nope you’re not getting a day off. This is the Internet Age and I can make your phone buzz even on Christmas Day. So if you’re friends with me, I’m sorry but the workaholic in me that hates football, doesn’t get in to parades and doesn’t like shopping or getting drunk forces me to work on that day and bug the hell out of you.

It’s not like I can go out anywhere on that day. Everything is closed! Luckily, The Internet isn’t closed and that’s the best Christmas gift I could receive.

Building The Bag:

Building a Rickshaw Bag from Adam Jackson on Vimeo.

An Inside Look behind The Commuter Bag:

Rickshaw Bag an Inside Look from Adam Jackson on Vimeo.

My Flickr Slideshow:

You have to check these guys out. I’m proudly wearing the commuter bag and it’s the most comfortable bag I’ve ever used.

1. The user interface was fine for me but a lot of people didn’t seem to like it. Well, that’s all new and getting started is much easier. You can update your status from any where in the sidebar, viewing Flickr and interacting with Facebook is much easier. Yoono also added Myspace and imeem networks to the sidebar.

2. There is a new widget in town. Currently, there are widgets for Gmail, social networks, music, Digg and clipping things on the web to check out later or share with friends. Yoono is adding the shopping widget. It’s an unobtrusive, easy to use widget that is there when you need it. I was shopping amazon for Ren & Stimpy DVDs and the shopping widget is there to show me that Buy.com has it for cheaper and with free shipping. I can even share that link with a friend. This is Yoono’s secret to making a bit of money which is something every startup right now is striving for.

With the addition of new networks, a simpler interface and a cool shopping widget to help save money, I’m ecstatic about the changes coming to Yoono and anxiously await Firefox’s notification that I need to update my version of Yoono because it’s going to be full of goodies.

Download it now at http://yoono.com.

Outside of the deep south, where I grew up, when someone buys an import vehicle dozens of people don’t line up to say to them that they’re a terrorist because they didn’t by a Chevy. Why am I publicly ridiculed for running Windows Vista. I’ve written about this before and received dozens of comments and replies about my lack of taste and idiocracy of running Windows Vista. It was my choice to purchase a 2.6Ghz MacBook Pro and it’s also my choice to run any operating system that I choose.

What keeps me from buying a computer from Dell? Actually, Dell is my favorite PC manufacturer right behind Apple. Yes Apple is a PC manufacturer and they make computers fully compatible with Windows XP and Vista. Dell has fantastic support and offers well made computers for an awesome price. Their social media outreach and blogging has made the company more transparent and their phone support (if you buy a business line computer) is still based in Texas and you’re talking to someone who you can understand. The only caveat to buying a Dell is that you can’t take it into a store that has a “genius bar” and their design is always a step behind Apple and not as cutting edge. A minor detail is that I can’t easily run Mac OS 10 on a Dell. I still need the Mac for creative things like music production and photo editing.

Why buy an Apple computer? Small, thin, light technology that looks exceptionally beautiful and it makes me a part of a club of other Apple users. Use an Apple and you’re somebody especially in the bay area. I love the genius bar for instant help and support and Apple’s public image makes me feel warm and fuzzy. I don’t mind paying an additional $700-$1000 dollars for that. It’s just like buying Banana Republic jackets compared to Gap jackets. They are usually the same. Actually I have a jacket that looks exactly like my friend’s but he paid $30 less at Gap but my experience at BR was better and I paid a premium.

I’m going to say something about Apple and I’d like for you to drop your egos and simply listen. Apple is a publicly traded company and investors are the only people that Apple has to please. If Apple happens to please its customers as a result of that, then good but their priority is investors and returns on their investment. Apple owes you nothing, did not ask for this community to spring up and simply makes hardware and software. They’re no different than Sun Microsystems or Oracle. I’ve worked for Apple and as a user of their products, it was the worst experience ever. Rules about what websites you can’t visit, rules about how to handle fanboys and rules about representing Apple even when you’re not at work all enclosed in a 300 page policy & procedure manual. I couldn’t even post a picture unboxing my new Mac while working at Apple. My co-workers couldn’t smoke cigarettes while wearing their Apple shirts and other wacky rules forced me out of the company. Apple doesn’t love you and I can go on and on to prove it. Steve Jobs held a door for me once while I was working at Apple campus but if I said anything like, “you rock!” he would have fired me for being a complete wacko creep.

Apple’s hardware is equal to beautiful art and if I could run the Blackberry OS on my iPhone I would but I can’t. I can run Windows Vista on my Mac so I do. Let’s talk about Vista haters. There is a very slim group of people who don’t hold it against me running Windows on my Apple computer. Instead, they attack Vista and say I should be running XP. Windows XP is unstable, insecure and unreliable. I mean that because I’ve been running it for a long time. My background is in IT and system administration for an IT company in Florida. I’ve been setting up Windows XP Pro, Windows Vista Business and Windows Server deployments since 2004 and have had my fair share of issues with all Windows OSes. I installed Windows Vista the day I received my copy in November of 2006. That’s when it was released to manufacturing and sent out to Microsoft Partners. I ran Windows Vista Business for a year and then after receiving Windows Vista Ultimate, I moved to that.

I’ve operated Windows XP and Vista on a MacBook Core2Duo 2Ghz, MacBook Pro 2.33Ghz and my current machine, a MacBook Pro 2.6Ghz without any hitches. There are issues but they are related to Apple’s Bootcamp drivers. I blame Apple for this and not Microsoft. It’s the hardware manufacturer’s responsibility to make good drivers or find them and Apple has failed at this. I’m not saying that Apple promised perfect compatibility with Vista but when I bought Leopard, it came with BootCamp 1.0 and I consider that a feature I paid for. It’s no longer a beta and Apple needs to either fully support Vista 64-bit or not. The issues I have are as follows:

1. Issues with sleep unless I log out
2. Keyboard Backlight flickers in bright or low light. It never just works
3. Audio is extremely loud even on the lowest setting
4. Battery management is crap. I’ve had vista notebooks from Dell that last a long time so I know it’s not Vista completely but with all wireless, bluetooth and monitor turned down my brand new MacBook Pro will only get 1.5 hours if I’m typing in MS Word and doing nothing else.

People have said there are other problems and I’d like to bring those up.

1. Reliability. I ran my MacBook Pro for 30 hours straight this weekend broadcasting live on Ustream with an external monitor, 10 USB devices, a webcam and nearly all 4gbs of ram in use and never had any issues that required a reboot. Applications don’t crash unless it’s just really poor software.
2. Viruses. I purchased AVG Pro 8 and it auto-updates every day and does a full scan once a week. Nothing so far. In fact, I’ve never gotten a virus on my workstation. I preemptively run Spybot, Spywareblaster and AD-Aware once a week just to keep things clean. Avoiding porn sites helps keep your computer clean. I’m serious.
3. Constant pop-ups asking if you want to allow or cancel when you’re using the computer. Turn of User Access Control and you’ll never ever get a pop-up ever again asking permission on system changes. Google it, disabling UAC takes 2 steps.
4. Slowness? Nah. I’ve never operated Vista on anything less than a 2.0Ghz Core2Duo with a modern graphics card. My first Dell that I put Vista on was a 2.4Ghz Core2 and my current Dell at home is a 3Ghz Core2Quad. Don’t put vista on your Core2Solo 1.6Ghz Toshiba with 1 gb of ram. That’s stupid.
5. Drivers. When Vista first came out, it hated my NVIDIA drivers but after a month it was fine. As most PC users do, I eventually upgrade my graphics card to a model that came out after Vista and my issues totally went away. My Macs have never had graphics card issues running Windows Vista and after SP1 came out, everything was totally resolved.
6. Total cost of ownership. Yes it’s expensive. I didn’t buy my copy of Windows Vista Ultimate orOffice Ultimate. A retail copy of Vista Ultimate 32bit is $299. Office Ultimate is $389. Pair that with a copy of Ad-Aware and AVG Pro and you’re spending a pretty penny. Let’s also assume that once a year, you need to reload the computer cause you’ve screwed it up somehow and you pay Geek Squad $250 to do that. That really ads up especially since I paid $3200 for my MacBook Pro with every add-on. To be honest, Office and Vista were free because I’m a Microsoft Partner and I do my own tech support so it’s perfect for me but I may be an exception.
7. Learning Curve. I pick up on things pretty fast and I’ve been using Windows Vista for 2 years now. I don’t have that issue anymore so it’s non-existent but that’s a factor for many people.
8. Backups. Windows Vista comes with awesome backup software. I have a G-Drive FW800 that I do daily full backups of my computer to and ShadowCopies / Previous Versions does exactly what Time Machine does up to 2 months ago.

I want to state something else. The Mac is perfect for 90% of home users that just need to surf the Internet, chat and check email. The PC is good for that small percentage that has to have games, doesn’t want to spend very much on a PC (initially). Linux is good for the tinkerer. I’d recommend the Mac OS to everyone that just needs the basics and occasionally wants to play games. I want a little more from my computer and love a little tinkering and I prefer Windows because I can stay more organized. The file system is easier for me, Office is the best suite of applications every released and Vista search is so fast and functional. The sidebar kicks dashboard’s arse and the bottom toolbar is functional in every way I can imagine.

If you don’t have a knack for IT, figuring out drivers and doing your own tech support than get a Mac with Leopard but I like a little more fun out of my computer but I don’t like the standard PC laptop design. Apple gives me more and I’m a part of this special pretentious club and I like it. That’s the root of it. I like Windows and being a part of your club so I’ll stick with Apple for a while. Let’s get off each other’s back and just use our computers how we want. I love bashing as much as the next person but the Vista bashing is just old now. It’s not cool anymore so let’s take a chill pill.

So why does every gadget blog insist on posting more and more speculation and breaking news? At this point, it doesn’t freaking matter. SHUT IT!

One of the main features was called “Loopt Mix” which looks at your current locations and shows others in your area. You can be-friend them or send them a message. Their email address is hidden by a loopt.com address. Users can opt-in for the service for those that are concerned about privacy. I immediately turned it on and opted in as a guy that was interested in “networking and business” and for a little fun I clicked that i was interested in “women.” It asks for your birthday and gender and you’re done.

When I opened Loopt this is what I saw:

It’s all guys. That’s fine with me. I wasn’t actually looking to meet women but I was surprised when I opened up all 20 guys in my area’s profiles and realized they were all interested in “men.” Once again, that’s ok with me. I’m not gay and don’t mind meeting gay men as long as they understand that it’s strictly friendship. The funny thing is, I received a message from a guy named “Oliver” today:

I responded that I’m fine and he immediately asked, “you wanna hang out later at my place?” C’MON! My profile says that I’m interested in women. Now I’m being asked to hook up by some guy. Looks like I’ll be turning off Loopt Mix for a while because at this time, the entire 5 mile radius around me is full of gay men looking to go out.

That’s fine if that’s what Loopt has become but I guess I no longer belong there. A place where I thought I could meet new people with an easy to use location aware app has shifted to a different set of people. No worries. There’s always brightkite.

Great work to the Twitter team for improving uptime, keeping users happy, moving to some brand new offices and redesigning the website all in 3 months. You guys Rock. Twitter’s New Look

Did you ever want to chase Kevin down a busy street in San Francisco, or even better, appear on the cover of a national magazine doing so? Now’s yer chance!

Join the Digg crew for Friday afternoon beers and a permitted romp down the streets of San Francisco. Meet up at 3rd and Townsend this Friday 9/19, between the hours of 3:00pm and 7:00pm to enjoy a frosty pint with the Web 2.0 set. There will be crossing guards, barricades, Digg swag and free drink tickets for the folks that RSVP here! We will meet during and afterwards at a nearby bar (to be announced).

So Digg is going to buy me and some fellow Digg users a beer for wearing our shirts and chasing Kevin Rose down the street. This is exactly what they do in pop videos to make the pop star singer seem popular by paying a bunch of teenage girls to chase him down the street. I’m not saying this was Kevin Rose’s idea or that he even wants to do this. I like Kevin a lot and think he is an awesome guy but this idea is just dumb.

Unfortunately, I’m sure over 250 people will show up as with any Digg meet up. I just hope the fanboys behave themselves. Of course, I won’t be attending this because I’d rather chat with Kevin at a party and talk like normal people instead of going to some photoshoot and pretend that I’m in love with him.

On September 30, 2008 we will share a broadcast of “It’s Going to be Brilliant” with Shantanu Narayen announcing Creative Suite 4, and Johnny Loiacono leading demos of the key features of the new Creative Suite products.

Also on hand we will have some of Adobe’s Experts showing off some of the new must have features of CS4.

We are doing this with 6 other bay area usergroups so it is going to be big.

The date and time? September 30th at 6PM California Time at Adobe’s San Francisco Headquarters. More info. Click Here.

He simply made the subject line, “What it’s like to use Vista ”

This actually is as inspiring as it is offensive and ignorant. This guy is still my friend but the email was pretty hurtful for a few reasons. The first is that the depiction is highly inaccurate. Actually, the past month of using Windows Vista full time has been extremely positive. I grew up with Windows 3.1 and in 2001, I switched to Macintosh as version 10.1 was released. In November of 2005, I got a job at a Windows IT company working on Windows XP in a technical atmosphere and mastered the operating system. On January 23rd of 2007, Windows Vista was released to retail stores and I performed an in-place upgrade from Windows XP Professional to Windows Vista Business and haven’t looked back.

There were issues initially but not as many issues as those that plagued Mac OS 10.0 or iPhone OS 2.0. Windows Vista’s issues primarily involved hardware compatibility but those were worked out within the first couple of months. I fell in love with Office 2007 and my two favorite applications were OneNote and Outlook. Windows Vista’s search functions, sidebar, Aero and sidebar really wowed me. It actually inspired the following articles:

1. The Vista Experience
2. Windows Vista is Freakin Cool
3. Looking Forward: Windows Vista

I actually wrote a dozen posts that month about how much I was loving the new OS from Windows. I used the OS full time until June of this year when I made a move across country to San Francisco. The Mac OS was my OS @ home for blogging, writing, creating podcasts and collecting photos. I have a Dell running Windows Ultimate at the apartment here that I use for playing videos and music on Windows Media Center. The only Mac I owned was a MacBook Pro running Leopard.

It took 3 months of managing my digital lifestyle on my Mac to yearn a switch back to Windows. 1 month ago, I wiped the Mac OS from my MacBook Pro and installed Windows Vista Ultimate. It’s been fun, more organized and problem free.

The reason for this entirely long preface is because I wanted to show something. The stigma around Windows Vista is fake. Windows Vista, if maintained properly, is a stable and usable operating system with great compatibility with every bit of hardware and software available. I manage hundreds of emails a day, Twitter, RSS feeds, 4 blogs, edit video & photos and stay connected with all of my friends. Windows has been a great friend to me and the only thing I miss about the Mac OS is the iLife suite of applications. Everything else about Apple’s OS can be done on Windows. The next time I get an email about how Windows sucks and Macintosh rules, I will lose it and you can consider us no longer friends. Using Windows Vista is not like using drugs. I don’t need your help breaking the habit and my choice of OS is not damaging to my lifestyle or health. Let’s stop with this bickering and simply use what we want to use in peace. I’m through with this arguement.

Sam Writes:

I visited the Dale Chihuly Art Exhibit this past Friday at the de Young Museum of San Francisco

Chihuly is one of the world’s top glass art sculptors. His works have been featured across the US as well as around the world.

I decided to purposely NOT bring a digital camera and only use my iPhone 3g to see what type of photos I could shoot.

Check out his photos

I was hesitant to install the recent 2.1 update but made the leap just 48 hours ago. The result? An iPhone with the speed, reliability and battery life of the first generation model. I’m so happy with the iPhone these past couple of days that I’m ready to stick it out and stay iPhone. More people complain than offer positive feedback but I’m thankful of Apple’s progress with iPhone 2.1 and every issue I had was resolved with the latest update.

When she tried removing the shield, after 9 months of having it on the unit and the shield left a sticky residue and actually tore off the iPhone antenna cover. Watch the video below.

It may be memory loss with a combination of shaky hands but he is certainly getting older. Many CEOs can run a company and don’t do public hands on presentations of the products but Steve has a very visible role at Apple so each time he comes on stage we are watching his every move. If Steve was to remain in his office at Apple and not make public appearances from this day forward, I’m sure talk about his weight loss and signs of aging would never be brought up but when Steve takes an iPod nano and fumbles with the click wheel skipping over a few songs while reading the instruction card, it’s obvious that he’s not young anymore.

Steve even brought Phil Schiller up to play some games on the iPod Touch. Steve tried to pinpoint a specific song on the iPod nano and skipped over it back and forth a few times. He lowered his glasses to read instructions on a card on the table and the entire presentation, he was staring at the prompter at his feet to see what was coming up next. There were many obvious pauses in the presentation and when it came time to read off the iPod Touch pricing, he didn’t even know what it was and paused for 5 seconds to review the pricing prior to hitting the next slide.

Commenters will say that I’m being overly critical and I should leave him alone. I’m just saying that yesterday’s presentation did not force me into a reality distortion field at all because Steve wasn’t the smooth salesman that he used to be. The excitement and buzz of attending a Steve Jobs keynote was lost and now it’s just an old man showing off products that are targeted to people born in the 90s. Sorry Steve. I love Apple and the beautiful products. Your position as CEO is critical to Apple, Inc. but maybe it’s time to step down and let someone else take over the presentations from here on?

Steve took that stage at 10AM local time to revise and refresh every iPod, make some announcements and release iTunes 8.0. iTunes 8 packed some new features, the iPod classic got a price drop and the iPod Touch received a slight redesign and some extra features that bring it on par with iPhone 3G. The big news was a new iPod nano. The iPod nano is Apple’s highest selling music player since its release and the new design adds a wider screen for better movie viewing, an accelerometer, more colors and a new design that’s thinner than the previous nano.

It has been a while since Apple has made me say “wow.” The last time Apple truly amazed me was when the MacBook Air was released in January of this year and the original iPhone was announced in January 2007. Lately, changes have been progressive and not revolutionary but there are some specific details from today that I think are pretty cool. You might want to read Apple’s Press Releases from today if you aren’t familiar with the announcements.

The iPod nano finally goes video with a widescreen display. I haven’t confirmed if the screen is true 16:9 aspect ratio but Apple does some very inventive things with the new screen real estate. Turning the iPod nano sideways changes to coverflow mode and videos all play in landscape mode for the best possible viewing experience. While browsing for the next song, the current playing song shows in the bottom 20% of the nano’s screen. The new nano has a glass screen which might not be a good thing but certainly makes for a more crisp picture when viewing photos and movies. The nano comes in 8 colors and 8 or 16 gigabyte capacities. I’m sure it’s a retail nightmare to stock 16 different nanos to a few hundred Apple Stores but all of those choices should equal many more sales for Apple.

The iPod Touch is the same thickness as before but the edges mimic The iPhone 3G as they taper down to nothing on the edges. The back is still stainless steel which means scratches will remain highly visible. I am extremely happy that Nike+iPod integration is built in to the iPod Touch because the only reason I keep using my 1st generation nano is for the Nike integration.

iTunes 8’s killer feature is the genius playlist that works like Pandora but for music that is already in your library. I can assemble 25 – 75 songs just like a particular song or artist that I like and iTunes puts it all in one playlist. It also shows songs that are in The iTunes Store that I can purchase to make my playlist complete. iTunes 8 also adds support for HD television episodes which is going to be awesome but HD episodes only play on your computer and not the iPod or iPhone. Apple also announced that NBC is back on iTunes which completely rocks. I personally thought NBC was dumb for ditching Apple last October and it’s nice to see them back in business.

That’s all for Apple news today.