A Perfect Example

This Ads in iTunes story is a perfect example of my last post on the Apple rumor mill. Everyone is all a twitter over an Advertising Age article that claims Apple is going to start putting ads in iTunes. Everyone has jumped all over this as if Apple is going to be putting out ads that play along with your music, but there is NO information available to support this conclusion.

It's all based on the fact that ESPN has said that they are "looking at new technology that will provide a much richer advertising experience and hope to roll that out very soon." for their podcasts.That's it. Nothing more. They could do that with a standard enhanced podcast. Ad Age then tries to bolster the argument by saying that Steve has publicly supported ads in podcasts. What? How in the world does that translate into Apple providing the advertising?

So we've essentially made a huge logical leap from one free content provider saying that they're going to start providing "a richer advertising experience" (i.e. enhanced podcasts...something they've been free to do since day one and that video podcasts do all the time) to Apple providing ads while you listen to music in your own library.

This is all totally disregarding the point that this would be a terrible idea. As the almighty John Gruber reminds us of on a nearly weekly basis, Apple is a hardware company. iTunes is there to sell iPods. The music store is there to sell iPods. It's all there to sell iPods. So as long as it breaks even, mission accomplished. Ads would be a perfect way to kill iTunes and it's iPod halo. And even there was some grain of truth to this, do you really think Apple would let ESPN talk about it so casually?

Double sigh....

The blog telephone game, or why I hate the Apple rumor mill.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy a good rumor as much as the next gadget hound. What I hate (and Apple is especially prone to this) is how they get blown totally out of proportion by the blogosphere.

Robert Cringely's recent article is a perfect example. In his latest article, the ever topical Cringely posits that Apple will have virtualization in the newest version of it's OS, allowing Mac users to run Windows without the rebooting gymnastics that Boot Camp currently requires. While I think this is a great idea, Cringely bases this on what really boils do nothing more than a gut feeling. And don't get me wrong; I think the odds are around 50/50 that Apple will indeed do this at some point (I'm far from certain though...while Apple would benefit from virtualization in some ways, there are some clear advantages to letting the third party companies take care of it that I won't go into here), but that's not the point. The point is that Cringely is saying this essentially because HE thinks it's a good idea.

And that really isn't the problem either. The problem is the blogs and news sites that pick up and report the story. The smaller sites essentially just want to link to the article, and they give it a headline like "Next version of OS X to have virtualization". From there, it makes it's way up through the foodchain to the mainstream sites, where it finally lands in the hands of the analysts. And this is where it becomes a problem, because the analysts consider it a credible rumor (after all, so many sites are talking about it) and they release a statement with their belief that this is what Apple will do. And all the blogs pick that up as confirmation of the initial rumor, proving that there's something behind it.

All because one guy thought "Wouldn't it be cool if Apple....?"

And again, I'm not in any way trying to be critical of Cringely (I'll save that for another article). And I'm not saying this happens to every rumor (only time will tell if it will happen with this one). But the next time you read about an analyst reporting on what they see in Apple's future, ask yourself if it was the lead article in Think Secret two weeks ago.

You'll see a pattern.

Dear Apple

Please decide where you want the freakin' customize toolbar command. In 3 different Apple products it can be found under either the Edit, View or Window menu.

Argumentative

I hope that title reflects an actual word. I've realized that I'm really argumentative. Not in a surly way, but any time I hear someone state something that I disagree with, I immediately start formulating facts and figures so that I'm might cohesively spell out why they are wrong wrong wrong. I had this discovery when I was listening to a standup comic on my iPod. He made a joke, and my internal response was "yeah, but..."

Sad but true.

Inaugural Whine - Dancing

I've never understood why all people are required as if by law to enjoy dancing. It starts in high school, where every major memory making event is essentially a dance (homecoming, prom, etc...). The big dance is always the climax of a teen movie. Even after adolescence, weddings, anniversaries and holiday parties all generally focus around dancing.

That by itself wouldn't really bother me much. The thing that really gets my goat (aside from goat snatchers) is that if you go to one of these events and don't dance, then it's assumed that you're embarrassed by the way you dance. Or you're "no fun". Or you can't find the beat. For me, none of this is true. I just don't like to dance. It's just not fun. And we don't do this with anything else. If you don't like playing Monopoly, no one assumes that you can't count or have a fear of tiny hats.

Of course, it could be worse. I could live in India. According to every Bollywood film I've seen, dancing is 2/3 of their average day.

Let the whining commence!

I can't imagine why anyone would be reading this, but this is where I'll come to whine and complain for the most part. The other goal is to use it as a place to hone my writing skills a bit. I've considered trying to write for a few tech blogs accepting proposals, but I don't have much in the way of samples to send their way.

So....uh...yeah. You come here often?