This Book Is It Worth It For This Picture Alone

There he is. Steve Jobs in a quiet moment in his "home office" as some have called it, circa 1982. The image is from the book "The Bigger Picture" by Diana Walker. While the book is full of great portraits, there's just something about this one that perfectly captures a certain time period on the history of Steve Jobs and Apple. Note the lack of a computer, but the turntable in the back. I'm guessing that's a Dylan album back there. Well worth picking up. The Bigger Picture.

Can the iPhone Continue To Grow While Tied To AT&T?

Several sites are reporting talks are underway to extend AT&T's exclusive carrier status for the iPhone in the U.S. through 2011. Previously it was thought it might be a five year deal to begin with. At any rate, there is a finite number of people who use AT&T, and a smaller number of those people want/can afford an iPhone. Will Apple be satisfied with that number of people, versus making the phone available to all, or at least more U.S. subscribers? It's not an easy thing to switch cell carriers. Sure the ability to keep your number makes things better, but the mobile-to-mobile, and "fave five" programs lock you into sticking with the network a majority of your friends and family use.

If Apple can keep the iPhone one step ahead of the competition, AT&T should continue to see slow, steady subscriber growth. That's great for AT&T, but it seems like it is hobbling Apple's ability to drastically increase the U.S. user base. What does Apple gain by sticking with a single carrier model? Announcing an end to the exclusive partnership would give other carriers time to get out of their own agreements with Blackberry, Samsung, etc. and throw their ad weight behind the iPhone. AT&T wouldn't dare stop carrying the iPhone as the customers brought to AT&T purely by the iPhone would be likely to jump ship again.

Macgirl's Media pick of the week 4/11/09

This week my pick is a throwback to a simpler time. (ok, a time in history that I didn't actually experience, but it looked nice in American Dreams...)

If you haven't already, head over to iTunes and download something, anything,  by Raphael Saadiq.  His 2008 release, The Way I See It, has been on constant rotation in my iPod since it first came out.  It has a great mix of soul and motown, with a modern updated feel.  I LOVE this album.  Check it out, you'll find some old-school music vibes are a great compliment to your edgy music mix.

When Will Everyone Who Wants an iPod Have One? Soon

Back in my Apple retail days, it was quite impressive to see the number of people buying 3rd gen iPods. The third generation (with the four buttons across the top) marked the start of mass adoption. The buying frenzy was so strong, and so long, I started to wonder if the market of people willing to spend $250 on the device would soon dry up.

Well as history has shown, Apple had far more people willing to buy that player than I thought, and soon Apple began addressing the lower-priced market with the iPod Mini, Shuffle, etc.

It looks like we might finally be reaching the saturation point though. AppleInsider took a look at the latest Piper Jaffray teen survey, and it looks like in the teen market at least 92% of the respondents had a digital media player, and 86% of those who did, had an Apple player. In case you're curious, the Zune came in at 4% (gee, it's almost the exact opposite of OS market share...)

With this market nearly filled, Apple will either need to add more features, or convince more of these teens (and their parents) to get an iPhone. Eight percent said they owned an iPhone, and 16% said they planned on buying one this spring. Unfortunately, the report didn't provide data on computer purchase plans.

New xServe! You've Been Waiting For It, Right?

And so, we've made it through another "we'll be back shortly." The Apple store was down this morning, but now it's back with... The Nehalem-based xServe we mentioned on last night's TDL Live. In the server space, this chip will make a lot of difference, but beyond the chip, Apple has also added an interesting option for a 128GB solid-state drive that works as a boot drive, and doesn't occupy any of the drive bays. $2,999 gets you the low-end model, while our fantasy xServe topped out at $14,649.

It's still strange to see the Promise VTRAK RAID option where once the mighty xServe RAID stood. We'll miss you, even if we never saw you in person.