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It was reported that they do

Yep, you are basically right, but I do believe DiskWarrior doesn't install any kexts.

Well, the article is about Firefox's speed on Intel Macs, and I could have sworn I did see Jobs use iDVD but I may be wrong.

Take a look at these performance specs of the development boxes Apple is providing.

Keeping in mind this is all using Rosetta and not native builds, the performance is pretty bad...in line with a Virtual PC expectation.

Interestingly there is a link at the bottom of the page there is a link to a news story about the keynote runing on a quad-pentium Mac but the link is broken. (And the plot thickens!)

But it is going to happen. Jobs himself has said so.

He did? Link?

Funny, Apple VP Phil Schiller said the exact opposite.

They're called Smart Folders in Mac os X Tiger.

Yes, we've covered that.

The NeXT developers had almost NOTHING to do with this.

Except build the APIs, the OS, the file system, etc., etc., etc.

The search/index technology was called VTwin before it was called Spotlight and it has been part of Mac OS since Mac OS 8.

You're confused. V-Twin is Sherlock, a slightly different technology. Spotlight is made possible by new OS features that extract, read, index, and categorize file meta-data.

The integration into the file system was done by one of BeOS's engineers (I don't remember his name) who now works for Apple.

His name is Dominic Giampaolo. He joined Apple in 2002 after stints at Google and QNX. He had designed a similar Meta-Data system for BeFS, and definitely brought understanding and experience with the technology to the NeXT team.

I hate to break it to you, but Copeland is dead and Mac OS only lives on as the phatom "Classic Environment". Most of the tech in OS X came from NeXT, with some bits pulled from the Copeland project (e.g. Blue Box)

# Apple will offer a Developer Kit, which includes 3.6GHz Pentium 4. OS X 10.4.1 for Intel (preview release). Order today; available in two weeks. [10:48 am]

10:33am PDT - "As a matter of fact, this system I've been using here..." the keynote's been running on a P4 3.6GHz all morning"

"The best part of RC5 is that it is Alti-Vec and multi-processor aware, and Macs crunch data 5 times faster than a PC of the same MHz. It is a great way to show off the speed of your CPU."

"SETI@Home 2.0.4 was the fastest version of SETI for Macs. It relied heavily on the amount of L2 cache on the processor. Since most modern macs have 512K or 1MB of cahe it was able to produce results far better than a PC of the same MHz. But when 3.0 came all that changed. The L2 cache programming was removed and the speed was based solely on the MHz. So then Macs fell behind in WU times." [...]

"The best part of RC5 is that it is Alti-Vec and multi-processor aware, and Macs crunch data 5 times faster than a PC of the same MHz. It is a great way to show off the speed of your CPU."

rumours that Mac is going to start using Intel based CPUs in place of PowerPC CPUs in their systems?

Stop the rumors and repeat after me: Mac is not going to use Intel-based CPUs over the current PowerPC!

Because of The Power Supply burning up .

Trying to decode an HD stream on a Mac mini is probably not that good of an idea - a single G4 doesn't have quite enough power to manage it.

H.264 != HD !!!

H.264 is a codec that can encode video at any size, including standard definition down to sizes that fit on mobile phones up to HD. A raw high definition stream that is not encoded with such a computationally-intensive codec as H.264 will probably play on a Mac mini. There was a big hubbub about this over in the MacNN Forums about whether PowerBooks can decode HD-quality H.264 video (the answer is not quite).

http://www.macnn.com/articles/05/05/17/sony.hdr.hc 1.handycam/

.... Because Tiger Direct is suing Apple over their use of the word Tiger and asking for an injunction which would stop sales of the product. Find out more at http://www.macnn.com/articles/05/04/28/apple.sued. over.tiger/

Hmmm, I suppose that I'd better clarify that I don't think getting the government involved is a good thing at all (especially when they are open to lobbying and all sorts of underhand tricks).

The player is really good, the store interface is the best (IMHO), the amount of music choices available legally is the best, the software is easy to use, the value is decent, the DRM protecting the files is the least intrusive and annoying of all their (legal) competitors.

Yes the iPod is good, I own one, I like it. I used to own a godawful Creative slab of junk, it was crap, I threw it.

What I don't like is Apple changing how I share my music without so much as an acknowledgement of a change like this. Was that the result of industry pressure and if so, how far is it likely to go?

The danger as I see it is that if Apple continues to run with a closed system that both supplies them with a large chunk of revenue from their hardware sales and relies on content from others, then they're open to abuse plain and simple. To extricate themselves from that, they'll either need to allow other players to use their shop, or allow their players to use other shops, otherwise the music industry that currently feeds them could potentially be their downfall.

iPod camera connector

Apple switched their rendering farm to OSX machines early last year, at least according to this article. Slashdot discussion thread here.

• c. You agree that your purchase of Products constitutes your acceptance of and agreement to use such Products solely in accordance with the Usage Rules, and that any other use of the Products may constitute a copyright infringement. The security technology is an inseparable part of the Products. The Usage Rules shall govern your rights with respect to the Products, in addition to any other terms or rules that may have been established between you and another party.
• Apple reserves the right to modify the Usage Rules at any time.
  
  d. You acknowledge that some aspects of the Service, Products, and administering of the Usage Rules entails the ongoing involvement of Apple. Accordingly, in the event that Apple changes any part of the Service or discontinues the Service, which Apple may do at its election, you acknowledge that you may no longer be able to use Products to the same extent as prior to such change or discontinuation, and that Apple shall have no liability to you in such case

In short... you don't own it. At least, not in the shiny plastic disks kind of way.

Also worth noting: The last update of the iTunes application limits you to five connections per day when sharing playlists. The update previous to that disabled the application's ability to get CD track names on songs ripped with applications other than iTunes.

It's sad that Apple feels the need to hobble one of its finest applications for its core market of home users because the RIAA's panties are in a bunch.

Then why is it that Apple is consistently ranked #1, ahead of all other vendors, in customer service and support, and has been for years? I wouldn't call that an "adversarial relationship" with customers. (1,2)

It's not a Dupe.
Slashdot is just implementing Story Redundancy and failover. That way, if one story crashes we will still be able to read the other.

Even better some places like MacMinute and MacNN are co-locating the story to provide further resistance to outages.

You know that you want to keep the signal digital until it's as close to your amp as possible. Assuming your amplifier has an optical input, simply running fiber from a soundcard's optical output is the best choice. This puts the burden of clarity on the amplifier's internal DAC and power supply. Optical SPDIF seems capable of 15 meters on standard cable with normal drivers. Since the PC end is all digital, component choice is essentially irrelevant. PCI soundcards with optical outputs are common, so let reputation and support be your guide.

If your amp only accepts analog inputs, things get more complicated. A standalone SPDIF-analog converter seems obvious (and leaves a simple amplifier upgrade path in the future) but consider that such gizmos, while overpriced, usually include a heinously noisy wall-wart power supply. Ripple on the DAC's inputs translates to noise in your audio. Careful design can filter this crap, but caveat emptor. Do listening tests.

This can also be a problem with many of the USB audio devices available. Since they're powered from the USB, a bit of digital noise is inevitably coupled to the analog side. Component choice and careful design are essential here. I'd trust any of the big names to get this right. M-Audio and Edirol both make some slick little USB audio dongles with excellent analog stages. A plethora of USB and firewire audio interfaces are avilable.

If your PC is just a few meters from your stereo, then USB is probably the way to go. My first question would be about ground potential differences, between the USB signal and the amplifier's idea of analog signal ground. Feeding the whole mess from the same branch circuit is an easy way to sidestep the question, but I'm sure someone has tackled it. (Clueful? Please reply!)

If you're dealing with a longer distance, real networking may be the way to go. The idea here is to let your PC in the next room serve the files, but put enough intelligence in the hifi rack to do the decoding as well as the DAC step locally. This usually includes a display and interface of some sort, so you don't need to mess with wireless keyboards or whatever. Various network music players are available, with varying levels of software sophistication and hardware quality. I don't believe any of them include audiophile-quality components in the outputs, and power supply noise is usually an issue in these cheapie designs done by digital engineers without an analog bone in their bodies. If you can find one that supports raw WAV file input, give it a try and see if the audio quality suits you.

Most such players rely heavily on the ID3 tag info for database and display purposes, so tagless WAVs might be awkward at best. Alternately, "tune" the network player to an "internet radio station" which is really a stream running from your desktop's player software. The stream server can then stuff tag information into the stream's metadata, which will appear on the display.

Someone mentioned using the Airport Express as an output device that iTunes could throw digitized audio at. Cute, but I'd be skeptical of any analog components sitting so close to a power supply. Anyone done SNR measurements on this sucker? If it worked with software besides iTunes, it wouldn't suck so hard.

Leave the cable out, and shave some $$$ off the product price, and let the buyer pick a cable up at time of purchase.

BTW, folks interested in getting a full kit for their new ipod photo should check MacNN, there's a link to discounted 'old new stock' ipod photos that have full kits (dock, all cables, carry case, etc) which are really good deals.

What? Apple had $213 million in 1Q05 in software sales, and estimates $1 billion in software revenues for this year. And you think Apple doesn't really sell software??

Apples Application listing, Version Tracker and Macupdate are all great sites to find new software.
Of course the best resource are all of the mac websties and forums, my home is Macnn. Two useful threads from there: What application do I use if I need to....? and Your top 5 [share|free]where (lots here).

Apples Application listing, Version Tracker and Macupdate are all great sites to find new software.
Of course the best resource are all of the mac websties and forums, my home is Macnn. Two useful threads from there: What application do I use if I need to....? and Your top 5 [share|free]where (lots here).

Apples Application listing, Version Tracker and Macupdate are all great sites to find new software.
Of course the best resource are all of the mac websties and forums, my home is Macnn. Two useful threads from there: What application do I use if I need to....? and Your top 5 [share|free]where (lots here).

Unix systems, in general, don't get slower with the more applications you install. They don't slow down over time. They don't start acting "wierd" over time.

I use one of these (Deskmount) to maximize my desk space.

One: It's another proprietary crap-pile from Apple.

Two: You're forced to pay for MacOS X, when you'd rather just put your own Linux distro in for Free.

Three: It's $499. Considering items one and two, that's highway fucking robbery for vendor lock-in.

= 9J =

[Here come the Apple zealots, saying that "iPod is the only mp3 player that matters!" Sheep...]

What the parent neglects to say is that the iPod is in fact the only portable music player that matters. Apple happens to own over 90% of the hard-drive player market. (source).

When one vendor owns over 90% of the market for a specific device, the competition is a complete non-factor in shaping the direction of the market. Are users going to throw their $250-$600 iPods in the trash tomorrow if Archos comes up with something new? Not likely.

The comparison between MSIE and the iPod just doesn't ring true. The iPod is a piece of hardware that requires a monetary investment to acquire. MSIE is a piece of software that you can download for free if you're on a supported platform, or an unsupported one if you're a Crossover Office kind of person. ;) The alternatives to MSIE are also free, especially my favorite browser, Firefox.

Heavy bandwidth usage tends to be a very normal occurrence on fansites at any rate. For a while now, Apple Rumors and MacNN switch to low-bandwidth versions during the keynote, and even these sites were swamped.

MacRumors was pretty much down after iWork was announced.

MacNN had a 403 between when iDVD was discussed and when the Mac Mini was mentioned.

Mac Teens performed the best, but started to get intermittent towards the end (probably due to a cascade effect of people fleeing from one working site to another)

Engadget was fairly unreliable, but a little better off than MacNN.

for those that want lots of details through play-by-plays:

http://appleinsider.com/
http://schwarztech.us/keynote.shtml
http://www.macmerc.com/
http://mwsf.macnn.com/

AI's got a nifty pic with jobs holding up the (very small) box...

Someone already figured out how to do this with Xgrid.

Unfortunately, Apple has it patented.

Interesting idea, though - what if Apple sold an iPod with electronic paper in the case? You really could skin that hardware, and it would sell the same way that custom cases and faceplates for cellphones do today.

It was a real funny chance myself getting infected in fact.

Its in just couple of Limewire 3.7.2 beta and 3.7.3 releases for mac. When they figured mac forums getting reports, they immediately pulled it from installation.

I am one (c) freak guy using all original dvds, cds, programs etc. Its really funny I got infected with spyware because of Limewire I mean...

I left a friend alone with my Mac G5, knowing my root pwd and I really didn't think he could be THAT GOOD on macs or forgot how easy macs are used :)

Guy installed limewire to get a rare mp3 he likes and boom, I had java asking permission to connect at morning (netbarrier running here)

What drove me nuts is, I am one of the FIRST guys figured TopMoxie on Win32 and alerted press (Wired etc) about it.

They figured mac users are aware of what that thing does and pulled it.

here is a forum posting for you, on a real popular mac website.
http://forums.macnn.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid =195695

About Top Moxie? Oh man, that thing was more evil than satan... Can't imagine how much money went to wrong hands instead of non spyware legit referrers of Amazon.com etc.

http://www.symantec.de/avcenter/venc/data/adware.t opmoxie.html

Looks like Symantec analysed a recent version. That thing is written by very advanced java authors itself, read: Limesoft. It was first bundled with Limewire/Windows and OS integrated firewalls like Symantec firewall AUTOMATICALLY granted ALL rights to it since it was using SIGNED Microsoft JView to run. So, Jview, signed app, you get alert from firewall which RECOMMENDS to enable access since its signed microsoft system part.

Understand the trick? Since its SAME trick used on Limeshop/OS X

Oh it did one "cool" thing on windows...:) You know there are poor coders, freelance authors etc making money to run their sites via referring books,cds from amazon etc? It rendered such URLs (childs toy to get current url from IE) and REPLACED it with some limewire referrer.

Looks like they changed that attitude since Amazon and major, LEGIT referrers threatened a lawsuit against them.

We _must_ keep an eye on that Limeshop and TopMoxie, especially Java fans and developers. This is one cool(!) and evil way to unleash Java "run anywhere" potential. As its written in java, imagine 1 year later we speak about J2ME (java micro edition) spyware which is installed to Cell Phones, PDA's and Nokia, Ericcson give option to their customers to DISABLE Java via firmware.

Or lets say, you see people bragging about Linux,BSD is free of Spyware? It can easily change with that java sneaky thing.

iPod Your BMW. Apple has links to pages on BMW's site showing how they're integrated as well. Says Apple, this is "The first seamless integration of iPod and automobile."

Others had made similar homebrew iPod and non-iPod solutions before (and iPod and non-iPod after) Apple/BMW's solution.

At this point, it doesn't look like Apple has any official plans to unveil further integration of Apple technology with automobiles. Of course, Apple almost always "does not comment on unreleased products."

iPod Your BMW. Says Apple, this is "The first seamless integration of iPod and automobile."

Others had made similar homebrew iPod and non-iPod solutions before (and iPod and non-iPod after) Apple/BMW's solution.

At this point, it doesn't look like Apple has any official plans to unveil further integration of Apple technology with automobiles. Of course, Apple almost always "does not comment on unreleased products."

Slashdot already had a story about the Airport Express being cracked - weeks ago. Here's a news article.

Or do a search for "Airport Express Linux" and you'll find the same thing.

Although I started off my desktop career in the late 80's with PC's using DOS and Windows 2.11, I've used Macs in DTP and grpahics jobs and Windows in programming jobs and in my last job was a Windows admin. At home I use both, but chiefly Macs with OSX.

The things I think you'll need to know:
1.As many others have stated, get a 3rd party multi button mouse. Right button works just as it does in Windows.
2.The GUI will probably seem easier after a while. It is definitely cleaner than Windows. You'll get used to the menu always at the top in no time as it's like a maximised app in windows.
3.The dock will be one of those things on the Mac that shows you a profound difference between Windows and OSX. Just drag apps that you want to have permanently there to it and others that you don't just drag off the dock. Drag 'n drop is a fundamental feature of the Mac.
4.Since there is no start menu, you might miss having your applications available at a click. Just drag the applications folder to the right side of the dock separator and you can then right click on the folder there to access your apps. This works with all folders.
5.You'll probably be using Expose extensively soon. Try the keys F9, F10 and F11 to get a fell for what it does. It's a great way of grabbing a file you need in an application.
6.Cmd-Tab is the way of switching applications. Both here and in Expose, drag and drop make it very useful.
7.OSX uses a lot of meta keys and combinations. Cmd, alt, ctrl, shift and the space bar in various combinations work in various ways, but usually consistantly in various apps, such as alt-drag in the finder to copy a file or cmd-click to select various non consecutive files in the finder.
8.The finder has a columns view that is not available in windows. Some prefer it, some don't. I do. try alt dragging the little area below the scroll bars.
9.The finder lets you place favourites in the area to the left. In order to navigate the finder by keyboard, use cmd-up arrow to move up the folder hierarchy.
10.Minimising places windows on the right side of the dock. alt-double click will place all that applications windows in the dock.
11.Cmd-h will hide an application from view, including its minimised windows form the dock.
12.What are control panels in windows are the system preferences in osx. The app with a light swtich icon. It is considerably simpler to use than Windows contorl panels.
13.The firewall is on by default, and networking services and file sharing are configured here and are fairly simple to do compared to windows. You'll be able to set up a windows share to get data from your windows computer.
14.Printer setup is also easy. Just plug it in usually.
15.You'll need a root account on rare occasions. This can be set up using the Netinfo manager utility in Applications->Utilities.
16.The terminal is a full fledged unix commandline environment and is extremely useful for power users. Bash is the default shell.
17.There are many many sites out there that offer advice and troubleshooting. One that springs to mind is osxhints. The MacNN forums also offer really good help for newcomers.

Lastly, good luck.

The web is definitely your friend when it comes to switching. The parent links will help.

MacNN Forums
xlr8yourmac.com's forums
MacFixIt Forums
MacWorld Forums

That should be a good start. You'll find that the Mac community is more than willing to go out of its way to help you, especially if you're a new convert. Just tell people you've switched from Windows, you'll get all the help you'll ever need.

Apple have support forums too, they're worth a look, especially to track bugs - people normally go whinge over there.

Finally, as someone mentioned, VersionTracker and MacUpdate are the places to search for software. Even if you don't know the name of the software, type in what kind of thing you're looking for (eg MP3) and you're bound to find something of use.

Good luck, and most of all, have fun :)

-- james

For a company that puts so much emphasis on portable devices, Apple certainly has a lot of problems with batteries.

I knew this sort of crap was going to occur the day heard that MS bought Connectix Virtual Machine Technology and therefore VPC.

So you mean he makes $10/yr now? His salary at Apple is $1.

Uh, no. That was a gimmick to market himself as being in the trenches during his early time back at Apple. Even back then, he was getting pricy perks like a $90 million dollar Gulfstream luxury jet from Apple. Jobs was, in 2003, the highest paid CEO in California, and the second-highest paid CEO anywhere.

It has been widely publicized that Apple does not profit much from the iTunes Music Store and it is more of an enabler to selling iPods with a hefty profit margin. If this really is the case, isn't it a good thing that the iPod can use more formats? I'm sure Apple is just using this press to make noise for itself but they seem to be contradicting themselves in grand public fashion. (This from an iPod, powerbook and iMac toting, .Mac, iTMS using Apple lover)

Apple isn't far ahead of that figure...

-truth

4G iPod == 4th Generation iPod, released today.

But there is a 4Gb iPod, known as the iPod Mini.

It's hard for me to blame Apple for not supporting the vintage 1997 (that would be seven years old, though some were sold in 1998) beige G3s, with their onboard SCSI, their ADB-connected keyboards and mice, and the (pathetic) Rage II+ graphics chips that many of them had. If you want them to work, you can get them to work, Apple just makes it clear that they're not supporting them.

A bit of a digression, but Apple didn't always not support OSX on older G3s, and ultimately settled a class action lawsuit regarding the issues of installing and running OSX on the older machines.

When I purchased OSX for my beige G3 I went through hell trying to install it (and trying to get the machine to run properly again after my first unsuccessful install). When I called Apple support in a vain attempt to get a refund of some sort (as I felt that Apple was making false statements about OSX) I was given the line that OSX will run on an old G3 - I refered to the instructions the guy had already provided me and stated that it would only run in ideal circumstances after reversing all upgrades made to the machine (even though the graphics card in my machine was listed on the OSX as supported), and he acknowledged that but said it was proof that OSX could run on a beige G3 and therefore there was no false statement made.

My response to this was that his statement was like saying mushrooms are not poisonous because some of them can be eaten safely. He saw my point but would not budge. About two weeks later the settlement (to a suit I had previously not heard of) was announced - for US residents only - I lived in Canada at the time.

I was very angry at Apple when all this happened and I keep the incident (and my used-once, never fully installed OSX package) as a reminder that, despite making the comps and OS I prefer to use, and some really neat-o gadgets, it is still a scum-sucking mega-corporation whose motivation to correctly market its wares or succour unhappy customers goes only as far as the cost-effectiveness of such actions.

From digression to rant in one fell swoop - it's funny how that happens sometimes.

The problem with that analysis is that it's much too kind to the underdog operating systems.

I'm having a hard tiime finding good numbers, but it seems that Apple's market share has generally been in decline over the years, with most sources citing a market share or install base fluttering around three or four percent for the past couple of years, with some wildly optimistic speculation that Apple could hit eight percent by 2008.

In the most recent report I could find, Apple's market share was put at 3.7%, with recent quarter growth of 9.3% -- but this is in a market where Dell alone has a share of 32.9%, and the market overall grew by 10.9% in the USA and 15.5% globally. That is to say, even though Apple is "growing" relative to their own recent performance, they're still not growing at a rate that keeps up with the industry as a whole, and they're especially slipping behind global figures. Their market share trend is going down, even as their health as an individual company appears to be holding steady or improving.

Meanwhile, figures for Linux are harder to determine, but it seems that the past couple of years suggest that Linux has hovered at a steady 1%, so the picture isn't any stronger on that side -- they're doing at best 1/3 of what Apple is doing.

(And yes, market share figures are all voodoo that is about as reliable as hardware benchmarks (that is to say, hardly reliable at all), but still, the discussion doesn't work if you don't at least take a stab at quantifying things. So please, grant me some leeway here :-)

More to the point, it doesn't seem like Google has ever had a problem with catering to just the dominant platform. Consider the Google Toolbar, which has been available for years as an IE only plugin on Windows -- it has never been available for the Mac version of IE, and it has never been offered for other operating systems (they just meekly suggest putting links to Google in your Netscape bookmark bar, but that hardly counts for much). Admittedly, Mozilla has had third-party Google search plugins for a while now, and when Safari came out it had a built-in Google search box, but these were both provided by third-parties, not Google.

The only client-side software Google has offered in the past has been for Windows and IE, and the Picassa acquisition is just a continuation of this pattern.

I played around with Picassa for a little while last night, and it is a pretty slick application; I can see why they wanted it (the UI is quite clever, and they may want to put some of the people who thought it up to work on their existing web tools & webmail). I'd love to see a version of it for OSX (please, please something better than iPhoto), but I'm not convinced that that Google will bother porting it, based on the questionable market share trends and their past client-side offerings.

If you go directly to CDBaby, you can hear about a minute of each song instead of 30 seconds. Also, independant artists get a larger cut than those who signed up with the Big Labels, so you don't need to feel guilty about handing money over to the Evil Empire.

Upon some research, it looks like CDbaby inked the deal last year. Wish I'd known!

Apple iTunes Music Store hits 100 million song mark
Monday, July 12, 2004 @ 5:55am

Early Monday morning Apple announced that its iTunes Music Store has reached the 100 million song mark-- after launching a 'Countdown to 100 Million Song' promotion earlier this month. The milestone, a first for the online music industry, sets the standard for other music services, as Apple reached the mark only 15 months after launching the service in April 2003. Kevin Britten (of Hays, Kansas), who downloaded Somersault (Dangermouse remix) by Zero7, will receive a 17-inch PowerBook, a 40GB iPod, and a gift certificate for 10,000 iTunes songs. In addition, Apple also awarded 50 special 20GB iPods -- one to the purchaser of each 100,000th song downloaded between 95 million and 100 million songs. Apple said it would post a complete list of winners soon.

Apple launched its 100 million song promotion on July 1st and offered just over 5 million songs for download in in July, a rate of just over 2.5 million songs each week. Apple had initially hoped to distribute 100 million songs within the first 12 months of the launch of the iTunes Music Store, but following Apple's 50 million song mark in March 2004 made, Steve Jobs admitted that Apple would fall short of that mark. In addition, it also became clear that the redemption rate in the Pepsi/iTunes promotion of 100 million free songs would fall well short of expectations. In April 2004, on the first anniversary of the iTunes music store, Apple announced the latest version of the iTunes Music Store and said that its industry-leading service had had more than 70 million songs downloaded--including the 5 million free songs that that were given away as part of the Pepsi/iTunes promotion.

On its anniversary, Apple gave away free song downloads each day for eight days. Apple continued to the promotion, offering free songs each week as a "risk free" way to introduce to new users to the service. Today's announcement of the 100 million song mark likely includes these song as part of the tally.

Since the July promo announcement, several developers have developed software and charts for monitoring iTunes' download rate, which many readers used to help increase their own chances to win one of the several prizes being offered by Apple. Readers, however, report that they were unable to access the store as the store approached 100 million songs, frustrating many readers attempting to purchase music (and become the grand prize winner).

"Last night I tried to access the iTunes Music store as the 100,000,000 song mark approached--only I was unable to connect," noted Dennis Callahan. "I tried for about 10 minutes to view my existing shopping cart--all to no avail. Seems this type of demand should have been anticipated and dealt with before it became an issue to those of us who would have enjoyed the possibility of winning."

Several readers also note that the download rate has dropped off dramatically since the end of the promotion.

Hmm. I don't recall the last Sony campaign to get a Grand Kelly, kick ass at the Clio's, and win big at Cannes all in one year, but maybe I just missed it.

Part of the success of the iPod is the marketing, and it's not about brute force dollar spending. This is an amazingly well crafted brand. Unlike what I would call Sony's portables...is there even a brand there? Oh yeah...some alien who pulls mad tail. Neat.