Macworld UK has got the scoop on this one. As many of you were probably aware, Apple Corps [the Beatles' record company] had asked the UK courts to grant them an injunction against Apple Computer using the Apple logo inside the iTunes Music Store. Now, I'm no legal expert, but there's a few interesting things to look at in the case. Firstly take a look at Apple Corps website. Note the logo. Now look inside iTunes or anywhere inside an Apple page, and observe the logo. Any similarity? Er, nope. When Apple released the iTunes Music Store, Apple Corps was [it would appear] given 3 months prior knowledge of the store. So why are they sueing? In my view, it's simple. Artists, in fact more the record labels, have made huge profits from iTMS - EMI and Universal Music both reported record profits recently, due in part to the higher returns of download sales [all the marketing and bandwidth and support is provided by iTunes]. Apple Corps missed out by not licensing Apple the use of the Beatles' catalogue, and it seems they're trying to sue Apple as a way of getting back-dated payment just because they missed the boat. I'm going to predict that whilst Apple Computer perhaps had some wrong doing [come on, even an iMac, iPod and iLife using Judge would admit it] a long time ago, Apple Corps are not in a valid position to claim an injunction which would lead to another court case. I have a feeling the judge will add that this whole Apple vs Apple mess has gone on too long, and bluntly tell both sides to sort it out. If Apple lose, I suspect that his Steveness will, if need be, write one final cheque to simply settle it once and for all - and with $8bn in cash it's an easy settlement. Should Apple Corps lose, I wouldn't be suprised to see the Beatles' digital release in the near future. To ease the pain, Apple may as well pay for exclusive release rights, but that might just be considered rubbing salt into the wounds...... this one's going to be interesting, so stay tuned!

Apologies for the downtime - NikFletcher.com was down overnight due to my host having server problems. It all appears to have been resolved, so I'll get on with another post!

Rumours are flying around the interweb about how Apple is apparently likely to pressure Blu-Ray content providers into enclosing an iPod Video version of the feature for playback on a video iPod. It's possible - Blu-Ray has 50Gb of space to use per disc, so the technical part of it is likely. But there's other forces at play - namely Sony - who are staunch supporters of Blu-Ray too. Sony has, for too long, relied to clunky and closed proprietary systems of content storage, playback and management. First there was the ATRAC3 codec, then the Memory Stick and Memory Stick Duo] and then the NetMD. None of these acheived mainstream adoption as very few companies obtained licences to use the technology - Memory Stick has Sony's Magic Gate copy-protection technology which only works on Sony players, ATRAC3 is Sony-only, and whilst NetMD wasn't exclusively sold by Sony, Sony was the only company pushing NetMD when everyone else was looking at flash memory and HDD MP3 players. One of my friends said yesterday how displeased they were with the fact that their Sony Ericsson W800i's Memory Stick Pro Duo worked in nothing, and it's a fair point. Not only is Memory Stick proprietary, it's obscenely expensive unless you buy it on eBay [something I'd highly recommend as I saved over £140 on a 2Gb MS Pro Duo High Speed and adaptor]. Sony wanted £180. eBay was just under £40 from a highly efficient UK seller. Sweet. Now, back to Blu-Ray.

Sony has, for too long, backed too many failed formats, and with Microsoft choosing HD-DVD as their High Definition DVD format of choice, it seemed that Blu-Ray was going to become the modern-era Betamax and go the way of the dodo. However this rumour, if true, gives Sony a magic opportunity if they play it correctly. Allowing Sony movies to be distributed in an iPod format would be the ideal thing to do - hell if they were to persuade Apple to implement a Blu-Ray consortium-wide memorandum that meant Sony could also use the videos in its players, then not only would Blu-Ray become the standard through wide-spread use [because let's face it, when a proper Video iPod comes out, every man, child and monkey is going to want 7 of them], it would give Sony's lagging media players a lifeline they maybe didn't deserve, whilst sticking a firm 2 fingers up at Microsoft. The move would also mean that there would be a way to put video legitimately on your iPod without violating any laws [such as the DMCA in the US]. Of course, this is all speculative, but if there were Sony and Disney movies available on Blu-Ray with an iPod version to boot it would take some serious work from Microsoft to be anywhere close to the position Apple and Sony would be in.

The iPod with HD video will settle the HD wars - especially if it's done with the ease, simplicity and functionality that iTunes offers users with their music.

Notes: Not only are Apple, Sony, and Disney backing Blu-Ray, but so are Dell, HP, Warner Brothers, Paramount Pictures and 20th Century. A full member list for Blu-Ray can be found here.

Listening to ''Bui Doi'', from Miss Saigon

After a lot of deliberation, time and effort, here's the new design. I had a number of design options - of which I felt this was the best. Comments are more than welcome. I'm going to be meddling with the code in the next few days to get everything finalised [there's still a few things to be fixed] as I've brought it online slightly earlier than I had initially planned to enable myself to get blogging again, but it is a feature rich early release [unlike the feature-less late release that's known as Windows Vista]. I've got a number of posts in the pipline, so stay tuned!

I've decided to make this a new permanent design [this is now NikFletcher.Com version 4.0!]. To that end, I would like to thank all those who gave their feedback about my beta site, and am indebted to Seb Payne whose Photoshop skills improved and created the header image. There's more to do - specific headers for certain pages based on the new design, and any code tweaks that are required, but the site's taken so much shape I'm going to let it loose on y'all.

Listening to ''Theme from Schindler's List'', by John Williams

One very last thing - I've been working a lot on getting the code to validate. Now unfortunately the code won't validate as Strict XHTML, but it will validate as Transitional, so for now that is all it will be ;-)

Well I think I've got enough will to get on with the website's fabled re-design. It won't be a permanent design - more a hasty "get rid of the red" as I know that at least one visitor cannot stand the red and reads the site exclusively through RSS. I'll try to be back bloggin soon, but in order to ensure that the comments all stay linked, I need to not blog during the transition. Thanks for your support - I've added some more archived posts to the front page so that in the mean time this service announcement won't be lonely!

Listening to ''The Battle'', from Gladiator

Add this to the "TTIBLDM" list [To Try if Broken Limbs Don't Matter List]. On Easter Sunday, a crowd gathers to observe the fun-looking BYOBW race [Bring Your Own Big Wheel Race] on San Francisco's Lombard Street [that's the pink curly one if you've ever played Midtown Madness 2]. There's a great video to watch on the site below, but be warned that loud audio is played upon visiting, so once at this site, look for the pause button below the white BYOBW logo on a white T-shirt.

Bring Your Own Big Wheel Race

What's it all about? Simply turn up with a plastic-wheeled childrens sit-on car/tricycle and drive down Lombard Street on it and hope that neither you or the toy gets broken in anyway! This years race was held in modestly wet weather, and looks like a great and crazy time was had!

Listening to ''Hung Up'', by Madonna

I'm incredibly excited about the Da Vinci Code movie that's being released worldwide on 19th May. Great cast [the likes of Tom Hanks, Ian McKellan, Jean Reno, Audrey Tautou and more], a great production team [Ron Howard and more from "A Beautiful Mind"] and what promises to be a blistering soundtrack from Hans Zimmer mean it will be one of the biggest movies of the year, and maybe even all time. So in steps Google to leverage their brand in conjunction with the launch of the blockbuster film:

The Da Vinci Code Quest on Google

This is really smart - the film gets a huge amount of publicity on Google, whilst entrants into the Quest get to pass the time solving clues that [by the site's own admission] are solvable using Google! Find a video on, suprise suprise, Google Video; search the Web using, shock horror, Google web search, whilst all the time your progress is tracked through Google's Personalised Homepage [something I love as it tracks my Gmail, as well as providing a true internet "Start" page with bookmarks and RSS feeds] to complete all the tasks. By the time you complete the challenge [sometime after the final puzzle is released on 11th May] you'll no doubt have used most of Google's features - and maybe not realised how much exposure to, and brainwashing by, Google you've had. Just as the word iPod has become synonymous with MP3 players, and ultimately added the name to popular culture, so too has Google. How many people say "Search for it on the net" compared to "Just Google it"? I sure do, and no doubt after this latest marketing blitz, many more people will to!

Listening to ''The Might of Rome'' from the Gladiator Soundtrack, by Hans Zimmer

Usually the iTunes Single of the Week is, shall we say, rather bad. But, being the cheap skate I am, I always download them from iTunes and this week I came up trumps! I've really taken to the Orson single "No Tomorrow". So I turn to iTunes' fantastic Music Store [yes record labels and RIAA, if you think consumers are gonna drink your kool-aid and protest against iTunes, you're wrong. The record labels deserve a more detailed rant - but not now!] and low and behold there's a visible review that said the person had got it as the free download and loved it. So I did a search of my iTunes library - and it's there! Woohoo. Nice one. Unfortunately, the Lion King soundtrack is currently unavailable [see for yourself here!] which is a shame, as I'm a massive fan of Hans Zimmer's soundtracks. Ah well - time to pre-order the Da Vinci Code soundtrack I think. That is gonna be one kick-ass film, and my flatmates and I are more likely than not to be watching it as soon as it's out. That's all for now folks!

Listening to ''The Story Continues'', from Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire Soundtrack

After a few hours sleep this morning, I went to the Apple Expo website and low and behold, it's been updated. Registration is now open [I'm registrant number 39!] and it runs from 12th to the 16th of September. See you there!

I've been evangelising Firefox recently and I thought that whilst this could be labelled "Not Another Firefox" post - for there have been so many "Switch to Firefox you Bozos" posts - it should serve a point as to why you shouldn't be using Internet Explorer: I'm talking to all those who make up the 23% of blog visitors who do visit my site in Internet Explorer especially. Below is a screengrab of my planned re-design, as viewed in the very excellent Safari browser [OS X] or Mozilla's Firefox [Win/OS X]:


Now take a look at the Internet Explorer version:

Before some Windows fanboy says "Hey, how did you get IE to screw up the page for a grab like that", well the answer is, I logged onto my beta site here in Internet Explorer. Look at the screenshots and you'll notice that there's no menu bar [or drop-down menus], and that the sidebar is about a screensize down the page [when viewed in IE]. So, I have a choice. Either persuade 23% of visitors to use Firefox, or go with another design. Hmmm, both require a bit of effort, but I'll let you know what I decide. In the meantime, download Firefox now and see how the web is meant to be displayed!

Whilst I'm blogging, I've got something to add: For anyone who thinks "Why aren't Mac users using Internet Explorer?" Well we did have IE for Mac. But it died a long drawn out, and long overdue death recently. It displayed websites worse than the Windows version [if that's at all possible] and at one stage, the default homepage [MSN.Com] of IE for Mac crashed the browser! Another tip: In preparation for switching to the Mac [hey, come on - you know you ought to] use Firefox, and you won't have to worry about changing browser when you switch! ;-)

If you have any comments at all about the new design, leave them in the specially designated "Comments" bit below!

Well take a peek at these:

-Simpsons Movie Teaser

-Mission Impossible 3 Trailer

-The Da Vinci Code Trailer 1, Trailer 2

-The Sentinel Trailer

-Pirates of the Caribbean 2 Trailer

I'm also working [slowly] towards yet another re-design of the site - getting rid of the red being the first priority! ;-)

How many of us actually read the spam messages in the GMail spam box? Well occasionally I do, and I've found something rather odd going on. Messages that are not addressed to me are being delivered to my Spam box. Take this example:- I receive an email addressed to nik.hnhjkdbhfebwhefbq@gmail.com [as an example] and nik.diamond@gmail.com even though I have no address like that! So what does this mean? Well, it means that either someone's confusing the SPAM filter at Google, or more worryingly Google is actually sending the spam to me*! Yikes!

*Well, they're sending it to me instead of bouncing it to the sender ;-)

Woohooo! Kiefer Sutherland has apparently signed for 3 more series of 24 and netted a cool £22.9 million for the role of Jack Bauer as well as continuing to produce to show too. I can't wait!

...or why eBay is the answer and USB isn't the holy grail

Ah the Joys of Technology. If you've been listetening to the podcast I produce with Seb Payne, you'll know that I really do love my Nokia 6280 - however it's made me realise just how awkward technology can be.

Example 1
Memory Cards

Unlike my digital camera, which takes Memory Stick (Pro, Pro Duo, Normal Duo or Normal) the Nokia 6280 uses MiniSD cards. It's not too big a problem in itself [eBay provides enough cheap solutions for 1Gb cards - something I'm likely to buy soon enough], but because I'm using a card reader to read-write to it [using a memory reader means I can do more with it on my Mac] I need to take one home with me if I'm going to exchange any content with relatively little hassle [Bluetooth is just not as easy as "Remove MiniSD card, insert into reader, browse read or abuse the content til you heart's content"]. Normally this would be no big deal, but now that I've cunningly made my memory reader a semi-permanent feature on [or rather under] my desk it's not likely to travel with me, so again I'll resort to eBay for another memory reader [which inclusive of postage is likely to cost me just £7!]
If Nokia included an adaptor with their MiniSD card [as came with my brother's Transflash card in his Moto V3x] I'd be set to use my parents digital camera as a mounted drive in OS X thanks to the SD slot in the camera. But no - clearly a freebie adaptor is too much to ask for with a £300+ phone..... My rant about memory cards brings me onto a different idea - the number of different memory cards I've had to use.

• SD
  
• MMC (ok, it's similar to SD, but there are some differences!)
  
• MiniSD
  
• xD
  
• Memory Stick
  
• Memory Stick Pro (ok, ok, a near duplicate again)

That's a lot of cards - mind you I've used a lot of gear (4 cameras and 2 mobile phones)... which nicely brings me on to the next example:

Example 2
Power Adaptors, Audio Cables, and other general connectors

Nokia are currently the world's no. 1 mobile phone manufacturer. Wherever you travel - be it a friend's, parent's or girlfriend's house - the likelihood that someone will have a Nokia charger is high [whilst it's possibly a bad idea to go without your charger anyway, I feel it's a valid point], and so your phone won't run out of "go-juice" otherwise known as power. Now, however, it's no longer true with the 6280 [and presumably other new Nokia models] that an "old-skool" Nokia charger will work, as the 6280 uses a smaller scale connector. So there's now a few choices:

• Take the adaptor absolutely everywhere with you [and risk losing it]
  
• Buy a Big-Small Nokia adaptor and carry it in your wallet
  
• Pray that someone else has stumped up the cash to buy a phone that uses the new charger pin

Now I'm not buying yet more kit for the phone, so yup I'm taking my charger absolutely everywhere with me. And I'm not a happy bunny. You see, every piece of kit has its own charger/connections that seem to exist only in some other universe. My bluetooth headset has it's own [cheap, chinese and otherwise anonymous] charger that only works with the BT headset. My camera charger has its own charger that only should be used with Sony re-chargeable batteries [like I own anything else from Sony!]. My phone has it's own charger. As does my iBook. And, oh, by-the-way, so does my iPod. This is turning into a nightmare. Especially seeing as it's 3am that I'm drafting this post, and that I'm packing all the essentials into my laptop rucksack and suitcase. Oh, and did I mention that my speakers too require their own power supply [marked Strictly for Use with JBL Duet Speakers] - I mean come on - like they work with anything else anyway! (Incidentally, you may ask why I'm taking said speakers home. Go to an Apple Store for yourself, test the iBook G4 12"'s speakers and tell me you could live for 2 weeks without some decent speakers you're used to!). So as a result of this madness, my cases contain not 1, 2, 3 or even 4 adaptors. It contains 5 adaptors - my iBook, phone, camera, BT headset and speakers. Oh, and a iPod firewire cable [I decided against the wall charger], as well as a Mini-USB to full USB cable for the assorted devices I'm gonna use. Maybe I should bring a USB hub, as after all I'm bringing more USB cables than my iBook has ports [don't forget the Mighty Mouse I'm taking too] so again eBay will have to do. Seeing as I'm in a vindictive mood, what else has I forgotten? Oh yes, headphones for iPod. Headset for phone, USB cable for phone [just in case I forget the memory reader], my iPod sock, and of course my iPod dock as I don't want to scratch the beloved MP3 player. Now what ties all these devices [bar the BT and Speakers]? They all use USB. Isn't it ironic that I'm asking for an open standard, yet pleading that too many things USE an open standard?! Ah well. The joys of technology, eBay and far too many USB devices.

I'm sure I've forgotten somethings but I've spent so s**ding long thinking about all the ****ing accessories I'm going to need to realise that my iBook, iPod, 6280, camera and MiniSD card are all sat here on the side and that I now have to find space for them. :-|

• Total Equipment Count: 5
  
• Total Accessory Count for Said Equipment: 20

Today marked the opening of the Arndale extension that the Apple Store is likely to be a part of. My findings are online now, and it's interesting as the store is not on anything at customer services [Apple's secrecy there gives it away!] and the online map says "Empty". Oh, but when's the Grand Opening I hear you ask? June was the month I was told........ As ever, more when I get it!

If you're into Apple, then why not subscribe to my podcast [made with Seb Payne]: Northern Bytes

Just another note to say that I'll happily linkshare with regular visitors [go give those kind folk already linking to me some more hits from here]. Simply contact me via the Email form with the title "Link to Me" and a URL somewhere in the body of the message [text description too please!] and I'll take a look with a view to sharing links! Apologies for the numerous, yet short, entries recently. I'll be posting a lot more now that I'm on vacation!

No sooner to people pay $13,000 for a way to run Windows on MacIntel than Apple releases its own software to do the same! This time it DOES have drivers for most Mac hardware [Airport and the like] and is a part of the forthcoming OS X 10.5 "Leopard". It's called BootCamp and available for download as a test-trial-beta now. Remember: running read all the guidelines on the Apple page before hand - especially:

Windows running on a Mac is like Windows running on a PC. That means it’ll be subject to the same attacks that plague the Windows world. So be sure to keep it updated with the latest Microsoft Windows security fixes.

i.e. Anti-virus software, firewall, spyware catcher and more required.
This quote, however, is just brilliant:

Macs use an ultra-modern industry standard technology called EFI to handle booting. Sadly, Windows XP, and even the upcoming Vista, are stuck in the 1980s with old-fashioned BIOS. But with Boot Camp, the Mac can operate smoothly in both centuries.

Brilliant, Apple! Now there's no excuse for not having a Mac! :-D

Recently I reviewed the 6280 I got, but tonight Apple fixed my major downer I had with the phone - no iSync compatibility. Thank you Apple! The 10.4.6 update is just over 60MB, and fixes a lot of issues so if you're running Tiger get it now through Software Update!

This is post no 100 for my Blog! :-o Go Nik! :-D

MacZot is giving away 1000 copies of software if at least 259 people link to them. Hopefully this link will ensure I get a copy of the software ;-)