Do iPods Dream of Electric Sheep?

Bugg's Take

Ever wonder what you iPod gets up to on it's day off?

They go on a date of course.

After all, churning out hour after hour of sonic-licious tunes from the stinky back pocket of someone's jeans is no easy job. An iPod's got to have a break sometime.

Get your iGuy here.

Source

Apple's iPod nano Will Make Competitors Whimper

"There is no doubt in my mind that the iPod nano is a hit. Sleek sexy and signaling a move from the aging white ID to a more contemporary black this product is well priced and uses the successful iPod interface. For the iPod users ready to get the next big thing in music players and for those just coming into the fold this should be a hit," Rob Enderle writes for Technology Pundits.

Dan Chmielewski writes for the San Jose Mercury News, "... The iPod nano makes even the slender Razr look chunky by comparison... The device will replace Apple's most popular iPod, the mini. It's this kind of clever, even daring, strategy by the folks in Cupertino -- killing off their most popular model before the competitors get a chance to develop a knock-off -- that has given Apple a dominant share of the digital music player market. Even while seated at the Moscone Center, we could hear the faint yet audible sounds of competitors whimpering."

BUGG'S TAKE

Apple has another winner here. Never one to sit on their laurels, Apple has one again forged ahead in the digital music marketplace and redfeined the standard for others to follow. It's been some years now since Apple revolutionized the music world with the iPod, 5 years on and they're still kicking asses and taking names.

Available in 2 and 4 Gig models, in both white and black (the NEW white).

With iPod nano Software 1.0 you can:

• Listen to music and view album art

• Browse your photo collection or view photo slideshows with music

• Listen to audiobooks purchased from the iTunes Music Store or audible.com

• Listen to podcasts, downloadable radio-style shows delivered over the internet

• Store or back up files and other data, using iPod as an external disk

• Store and synchronize contact, calendar, and to-do list information from your computer

• Play games

• Store notes

• Add clocks for multiple time zones

• Use stopwatch as you work out to track your overall time and your lap time

• Lock your iPod Screen to prevent your iPod from being used by someone without your permission

Microsoft's Bill Gates & Steve Balmer: Potty Mouths!

Chair hurling Microsoft CEO Ballmer: 'I'm going to f---ing kill Google'

"Microsoft Corp. CEO Steve Ballmer vowed to 'kill' internet search leader Google Inc. in an obscenity-laced tirade, and Google chased a prized Microsoft executive 'like wolves,' according to documents filed in an increasingly bitter legal battle between the rivals.," The Sydney Morning Herald reports. "The allegations, filed in a Washington state court, represent the latest salvos in a showdown triggered by Google's July hiring of former Microsoft executive Kai Fu-Lee to oversee a research and development centre that Google plans to open in China. Lee started at Google the day after he resigned from Microsoft."

The SMH reports, "The tug-of-war over Lee - known for his work on computer recognition of language - has exposed the behind-the-scenes animosity that has been brewing between two of high-tech's best-known companies. Ballmer's threat last November was recounted in a sworn declaration by a former Microsoft engineer, Mark Lucovsky, who said he met with Microsoft's chief executive 10 months ago to discuss his decision to leave the company after six years. After learning Lucovsky was leaving to take a job at Google, Ballmer picked up his chair and hurled it across his office, according to the declaration. Ballmer then pejoratively berated Google CEO Eric Schmidt, Lucovsky recalled. 'I'm going to f---ing bury that guy, I have done it before, and I will do it again,' the declaration quotes Ballmer. 'I'm going to f---ing kill Google.'"

SOURCE

Meanwhile... on the OTHER side of the OK Corale...

Microsoft's Bill Gates: 'We've been f---ed by China'

"Former Microsoft executive Kai-Fu Lee has accused the software giant of incompetence in its plans to gain a business footing in China, and testified that an expletive-filled tirade from chairman Bill Gates was a low point before he defected to rival Google," The Associated Press reports."In testimony during a hearing on Microsoft's lawsuit against Lee and Google, Lee said on Tuesday he wrote a memo to another Microsoft executive saying he was 'deeply disappointed at our incompetence in China - that we have wasted so many years in China with little to show for it.' Lee went on to say in the email that he was embarrassed by Microsoft's business practices and that people in the government joked about Microsoft's internal politics," The Associated Press reports. "He testified that one of the lowest moments of his career with Microsoft was a conversation in which Gates yelled at him and said the company had been 'f-----' by the Chinese people and its government. Lee did not clarify the context of Gates' comments."

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