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Steve Jobbs of Apple unveiled the highly anticipated iPhone at its famed Macworld Tuesday.

The iPhone will come in 4GB and 8GB models for a very steep price: $500 and $600 respectively. It will almost be worth the price though, for non-thrifty tech enthusiasts anyways. The device will run the standard Apple operating system OSX, therefore, allowing it to pretty much have the capabilities of a standard computer. It also contains a 2 mega pixel camera, Wi-Fi internet support, and an attractive standard QWERTY virtual keyboard.

As expected, the iPhone Read the rest of this entry »

A few days ago Subpop Records announced that they’d start selling a few ringtones from their artists. The current ringtones available are as follow:

• The Shins - Phantom Limb, Caring is Creepy, and New Slang
• Postal Service - (specific ringtone not listed on site)
• CSS - Alala
• David Cross - Fake tits/Real beer
• Hot Hot Heat - Bandages, No, Not Now, and Talk to Me, Dance with Me
• Sleater-Kinney - Jumpers

To purchase one of the ringtones, just text “Sub Pop” to 73804. I’d like to try out the service to get a Postal Service ringtone, but I’m not sure if my piece of shit Audiovox can handle it. If I try it out I’ll keep you updated.

After a long, dormant Christmas break, it took an optimistic music industry related news story to get me blogging again. As I was wasting my time on digg this morning, I found an entry on the future of DRM (Digital Rights Management) in 2007.

The article mentions five bright spots that show the paradigm shift from DRM to DRM free music.

1. Amazon may make a DRM free music download store to compete with Apple’s iTunes.
2. Yahoo Music will experiment with [a little] DRM free music from EMI and Sony BMG artists.
3. eMusic’s success as the 2nd leading online music marketplace shows that DRM-free music is demand, and that major labels and other retailers will follow suit.
4. Limewire may charge $1 per download for its DRM-free music if the labels give in and okay it.
5. Myspace wants to let its musicians sell only DRM-free music to other myspace members.

So it’s news stories like these that keep my head up and allow me to still have hope for a DRM free music world. Are most of these scenerios likely? Ahh..doubtful. I think 2-3 are somewhat likely, which would still be a victory for music fans. Once the DRM-free ball gets rolling, I don’t see it turning back.