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It’s not often that you see two moguls of this magnitude sharing the stage with eachother.  Tonight however, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates will sit across from one another at the D: All things Digital conference.  They will take the stage in 15 minutes or so, and we’ll keep up the updates as more develops, so keep an eye on Gadgetell for anything of substance.

Update: Nothing too exciting happened at the event other than seeing old buddies reminiscing.  It was interesting how well Mac and PC got along on stage and how good it made each of them look.  My favorite thing that Steve Jobs said when talking about Bill Gates’ charity work, is that Bill is not trying to be the richest guy in the cemetary.  And no, unfortunately, they didn’t reinact the Mac vs. PC ads.  Maybe next time.

Update 2: We added the highlight video and remove the picture.

Photo Credit: Engadget

The Tornante Group, founded in 2005 by former MouskeCEO, Michael Eisner, has launched Vuguru, a web-based studio to produce short films to be distributed online.

They’re starting production with an original 80-episode - or webisode? - series titled “Prom Queen” (by Big Fantastic LLC) about life during the last year of high school. Each episode will last approximately 90 seconds and be distributed not only on the web site but also through lawsuit magnet, YouTube, and Veoh, an Eisner-created video networking site.

Maybe this will finally show Disney stockholders that Eisner really does love digital stuff, and that the alleged feud with Steve Jobs at Pixar might not have been all his fault. OK, probably not.

Read [BlogHerald] Site [Tornante Group] Site [Veoh]

It hasn’t been long since Steve Jobs wrote his infamous essay about how the music industry should abandon DRM, and now other execs are starting to follow in his footsteps.  Dave Goldberg, head of Yahoo Music, stated that unprotected MP3 files have been much bigger sellers on his store than protected ones.  Goldberg lays a few claims to back himself up.  First, he feels that DRM confuses consumers - which I have to say is true.  He has also spoken out against Microsoft’s PlaysForSure DRM by pretty much saying it’s silly to pay for the service when it “doesn’t work half the time”.

Also speaking out against DRM is SanDisk’s founder and CEO Eli Harari, who had the following to say:

“Proprietary systems aren’t acceptable to consumers. In recent months, there has been a rising chorus of complaints in Europe about the anti-competitive nature of closed formats that tie music purchased from one company to that company’s devices, and tie that company’s devices to its music service.”

Read [Silico Valley Watcher] Via [Macworld]

Earlier today, following Tuesday’s essay by Steve Jobs, it became public that EMI Group (one of the “Big Four” in the music industry) may be interested in freeing its entire library of music from digital-rights management - what’s better known as DRM.  It seems that music executives are speculating EMI will soon make the pluge into DRM-free downloads.  According to the New York Times, executives have stated EMI “has discussed various proposals to sell unprotected files through an array of digital retailers, including Apple, Microsoft, Real Networks and Yahoo...”

In the recent past, EMI has piolet-tested selling music without DRM, and apparently it’s worked out for them.

Read [New York Times] Via [Gizmodo]

On Tuesday, February 6, Steve Jobs wrote an open letter entitled “Thoughts on Music” to the music industry.  His words (or whoever wrote it’s words) were carefully thought out and gave him a chance to share “his feelings” while still maintaining his relationships with the industry.  In the essay, Jobs examines “three different alternatives for the future.”

The first option is that we “continue on the current course.” In a sense, he almost makes it sound silly how segregated the music industry is with Zune music only playing on the Zune player, Sony Connect only playing on Sony players, and iTunes only play on iPod.  He then states that “customers are being well served with a continuing stream of innovative products and a wide variety of choices.” Jobs takes a closer look at the iPod and iTunes.  He mentions that there have been 90 million iPods sold, and 2 billion songs sold from the iTunes Music Store.  That means on average, each iPod user has 22 songs from iTunes.  He says since the most popular iPod holds 1,000 songs, that means that only 3% of the music on the players are protected with DRM.

The second option that Steve speaks of is Apple licensing its FairPlay DRM - which he makes pretty clear will never happen.  He talks about how history (PlaysForSure) proves that when multiple companies use the same DRM encryption technology, there will be leaks of information, making it easy for people to develop DRM-cracking tools.  He points at Microsoft’s decision to move from an open model (PlaysForSure) to a closed model (Zune) as evidence that opening up is the wrong way to go in the future.  “Apple has concluded that if it licenses FairPlay to others, it can no longer guarantee to protect the music it licenses from the big four music companies.”

The third option is to get rid of DRM entirely.  And as weird as it sounds, Steve Jobs may actually be sincere about this one.  I won’t say much more about this one, since it’s best to read this excerpt:

The third alternative is to abolish DRMs entirely. Imagine a world where every online store sells DRM-free music encoded in open licensable formats. In such a world, any player can play music purchased from any store, and any store can sell music which is playable on all players. This is clearly the best alternative for consumers, and Apple would embrace it in a heartbeat. If the big four music companies would license Apple their music without the requirement that it be protected with a DRM, we would switch to selling only DRM-free music on our iTunes store. Every iPod ever made will play this DRM-free music.

All in all, Steve Jobs takes a bold position by writing this essay.  He knows that he’s the godfather of the music industry - even though he runs a products company.  Judging by his language, and how the piece is written, option 3 is really the only one he feels strongly about.  I can’t say how the music industry feels about this, but Jobs does make a good point - the music industry already sells 90% of their music DRM-free - so what’s another 10%?

Steve Jobs’ Thoughts on Music [Apple]

Now you may not have even known it in the first place, but until yesterday, Apple was known in the corporate world as Apple Computer, Inc.  Steve Jobs made the announcement in his much-anticipated keynote address at this year’s Macworld.  The reason they decided to change it was likely because they’ve gone from soley a computer company to a company that focuses on other consumer electronics, evident by their committment to the iPod brand.  And if you didn’t hear already, Jobs also announced a new phone to join the ranks of the iPod called the Apple iPhone.

Live-blog of Steve Jobs’ keynote [Gadgetell]

Photo courtesy Engadget.

Come one, come all, we’re getting ready for another Gadgetell Live-blog - this time with Apple CEO, Steve Jobs.

Welcome to the live coverage of Apple’s Macworld 2007 keynote presentation. Speculation has been high and rumors flying for weeks on end, what will we be seeing today? Stay tuned and keep tabbing away at the F+5 keys (to refresh the page) for live, up to the minute updates.

8:55 AM - Jobs is set to take stage in 5 minutes.

8:59 AM - The keynote will begin after everyone is seated - just a few minutes to go

9:00 AM - Someone just pointed out that Steve Jobs brought his family to the keynote

9:06 AM - Attendees still taking their seats

9:08 AM - *Crowd cheers*

9:14 AM - Steve on stage

9:18 AM - Jobs: “We’re only talking about the Mac today”

9:20 AM - iTunes: over 2 billion songs sold

9:21 AM - iTunes: 58 songs a second, 5 million a day.

9:21 AM - 350 shows on iTunes now, 50 million TV shows sold

9:22 AM - New movie partner - Paramount. Over 250 movies offered now.

9:25 AM - New iPod ad shown with colored silhouettes on a black background

9:25 AM - Now Jobs is targeting the Zune “Only has 2 percent market share”

9:28 AM - Apple iTV, Apple TV. SPECS: USB2.0, RCA, Component Video, 720p HD, 40GB HDD, B,G and N wireless, Intel Powered - Uses standard Apple remote.

It has an Intel processor in it, and will auto sync from your Mac/PC.

9:30 AM - Apple TV: Use iTunes to sync movies from Mac to iTV - place what movies you want on iTV’s local store. Auto Syncs to your computer - STREAMS HD content

9:32 AM - Apple TV Demo

9:40 AM - Apple TV $299. Shipping in February - taking orders starting today

9:41 AM - Apple logo on screen (2007). Jobs: “every once in a while a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything. Apple has been very fortunate recently...”

9:42 AM -
1984 - first mac
2001 first ipod
today - introducing 3 revolutionary products

9:42 AM -

1. Widescreen iPod

2. Mobile phone

3. Internet communicator

9:43 AM - But these three products will not be separate..one device for all three functions.

9:46 AM - revolutionary interface - interplay of hardware and software
showing treo & blackberry, etc.

9:48 AM - Use fingers to operate it. Uses multi-touch and works like magic. It ignores unintended touches, and is patented just for Apple.

9:49 AM - iPhone runs OS X.

9:50 AM - It has everything you need, core animation, desktop class applications on phone, and networking.

Syncs with iTunes, just like iPod. Syncs all your media on your iPhone.

9:52 AM - Has a cradle to sync just like an iPod dock.

9:53 AM - 3.5 inch screen - highest res screen ever shipped. 11/16” thin, it even has a 2mp camera on the back.

9:54 AM - Proximity sensor. When you bring it to your ear, it automatically turns off display and sound.

9:54 AM - It can tell if held in portrait vs landscape - rotate it.

9:55 AM - You can touch your music with Coverflow to help find it faster.

10.00 AM - iPhone Demo

10.04 AM - It’s a Quad band worldphone with Wi-Fi and bluetooth. Only features EDGE

10.06 AM - To make a call: push phone button on bottom (on screen) and the screen changes like coming out of dashboard, scroll through contacts, push person’s number to call.

10.08 AM - Simply hit another button to add someone and start a conference call.

10.10 AM - First call to Ives and Schiller - On Speaker phone. “Not too shabby”

10.11 AM - There is a button for multiple session SMS messaging.

10.12 AM - When typing messages, letters come up to face you like old typewriter, cool effect. When you send them, they make the familiar iChat sending sound.

10.14 AM - Photos: Just like iPhoto - Finger navigation. Auto rotation of pictures

10.16 AM - Email: POP or IMAP supports both Rich Text and HTML

As a bonus, Yahoo mail is providing Full PUSH IMAP mail to all phone customers for free (Something that is not available to any Yahoo customer).

10.18 AM - Web Browser: Safari (Full version with Java)

10.20 AM - Mail looks just like Apple’s desktop mail

10.24 AM - Again auto sensing devices orientation switched how a webpage is displayed: Shows New York Times as an example

10.25 AM - Change webpages by using the coverflow view to get to different page.

10.26 AM - Side Note: Apple stock currently up $2.43.

10.27 AM - Widgets: Uses standard MacOSX widgets

10.29 AM - Shows Google intergration to the iPhone, find a location and click the phone number to dial

10.31 AM - Google CEO Eric Schmidt on stage now.

10.34 AM - “This is the first of a whole new generation...” -Schmidt.

10.41 AM - Draws comparisons to other ‘smart phones’ on the market.

10.44 AM - iPhone Features: 5 hours of battery life, 16 hours just for audio, bluetooth headset (optional), multitouch screen, precision enclosures, sensors, desktop-class apps, and widescreen interface.

10.45 AM - Innovating like crazy,
over 200 patents in it.

10.47 AM - Price: 4GB model - $499, 8GB model - $599.

10.48 AM - Available: shipping in June. Europe by Cal4 this year, and Asia in 2008.

10.50 AM - Carrier is Cingular - purchase at Apple or Cingular stores.

10.59 AM - Apple Computer, inc renamed to - Apple, inc,

11.00 AM - The Keynote should be finishing now, but it looks as if Steve still has a lot more coming..stay tuned.

11.03 AM - John Mayer - Playing Live Music

11.10 AM - Steve back on stage, Thanks for joining us. Show is over - James Brown’s “I feel good” comes back on - the keynote is now over.

Wow if this doesn’t create excitement what does? Apple has changed their homepage image to the one seen above.

The first 30 years were just the beginning. Welcome to 2007.

As if there was not enough buzz around the company, they have certainly succeeded in reinvigorating the rumors and longing for shiny new gadgets and software in 2007. We already know that Apple will be upgrading their OS, from Tiger to Leopard around Q3 2007 as well as entering the living room space via the “iTV.” Other expectations are a HD Apple Cinema display with HDMI, Blu-ray support for the Mac Pro, the long awaited Apple phone, as well as the forever rumored video iPod.

Can we expect other new products/services from Apple? Be sure of it. How about some thinner, faster, sleeker MacBook Pros, maybe a MacBook tablet, doubling the memory of the nano and shuffle, HD iTunes downloads, more movie studios on iTunes, as well as other gadgets here and there.

Gadgetell Contest: We want to know what your Apple wishes are for 2007. Post them as a comment below and we’ll pick five winners at random. If you win, we will send one of the following items:

• Altec Lansing’s M602 iPod speaker dock ($199)


• Altec Lansing im500 iPod speaker dock ($129)


• Myvu personal media view for the iPod ($299)


• DLO Homedock ($99)

The rules…

The Rules:

• You may only enter this contest one time


• The winners will be sent a notice via email and has 72 hours to reply with their mailing address to claim their prize — make sure you use a valid email address


• You will be shipped your prize as soon as we get it into the mail, but don’t worry it’s coming


• Contest only valid in the continental 48 states


• Contest is open until 11:59pm PST on Friday, January 5, 2007


• Gadgetell has the right to use any and all submissions in any way, shape or form; but will never sell your submission nor your contact information.

Good luck!

According to AppleInsider’s sources, Apple has three new iPod models on their roadmap for 2007.  Details are skimpy at this time, but they’re reporting that one of the new models will likely be the FULL video iPod.  Until now, Steve Jobs “has so far been unwilling to commit the marketing and other resources necessary to bring the device to market.” Others are saying Steve just wants to get a better feeling for how popular the new iTV and iTunes Movie Store will be before dumping millions into the product.  We all know he’ll eventually come around.  No info yet on what the other two iPods could be, but I’m sure we’ll catch word soon.

Last fall when Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced plans to launch iTV by Q1 2007, it wasn’t very clear what direction they would go with it.  Would they simply use it as a wireless set-top-box that streams content from your iTunes collection to your TV?  Would they wire it to your cable and have their own TiVo-like DVR unit?  If the past is any predictor of the future, everything that’s hit the streets so far is a RUMOR… and that’s it.  Products are rumors until they’re announced, and that’s what this one is.  Matt over at PVRBlog is reporting on a ”Wild rumor” that hit his inbox recently.

Apple will be licensing TiVo patented technology for iTV. Also, the name iTV has changed to Mac Media Capsule

Yeah… that’s what I thought.  This one goes down as one of the most unlikely scenerios to be included in Steve’s announcement at Macworld 2007.  Let’s be honest here.  If Apple was going to make a DVR, they would want to OWN the technology as well as sell it.  They would have their good old friends at Hon Hai Precision (AKA Foxconn) whip them up the unit from scratch.

Apple is smart enough to realize a streaming set-top-box will not appeal to the mass market.  If they’re only targeting Apple fanboys, then this would be the product they would release.  However, like I said… they’re smarter than that.

Read [PVRBlog]
Via [SeekingAlpha]