Oct
17
2005

apple odds and ends

Two random Apple bites of note:

David Pogue of the New York Times marvels at the $1.99 pricing of ABC television show episodes on iTunes and posits an intriguing conspiracy theory about why The Mouse allowed this to happen:

This $2-per-episode pricing, by the way, blows my mind. How on earth did Apple persuade ABC/Disney to sell its shows for $2 an episode? Remember, we live in an era of rampant greed and paranoia in the TV industry. The only other legal TV-show downloading service I’ve encountered is the Akimbo box, which costs $10 a month AND $3 to $5 per episode AND your downloads expire in 30 days! My guess? Disney, which owns ABC, made this concession as part of a larger negotiation with Mr. Jobs in an effort to persuade him to renew Pixar’s distribution deal with Disney.

Also, Slate’s Jack Shafer, in a critique of how the press fawns over Apple’s every new product release, points to a cynical, if amusing, faux ad for the Apple iProduct.

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Posted at 12:34 AM in apple

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Comments

Not sure if you guys know, but unfortunately iTunes downloads (and Napster for that matter) only work in the USA. I can’t download anything here in Cambodia and my friends from Australia never were able to buy things back home. I don’t understand what the reasoning behind this is. I mean for Cambodia, it probably has to do with IPR and not signing onto the WTO yet. But for Australia [and I assume every other country?], what gives?

Posted by The Girl on October 17, 2005 4:43 AM

That bites! I wonder how they figure out that your computer isn’t in the U.S. — IP address, maybe?

As for your Australian friends, I think their difficulties may have to do with the fact that, for reasons probably having to do with lawyers and copyright and such, there is no iTunes Music Store for Australia yet. (iTMS currently has “stores” for the U.S., Canada, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the U.K.)

Posted by alykat on October 17, 2005 8:43 AM

Rumor has it that an iTMS for Australia may launch as early as next week.

Posted by alykat on October 23, 2005 1:25 AM

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