Attention Black Friday Shoppers: How's It Going Out There?

If you're out there in the thick of the distinctly American tradition of Black Friday, we want to hear from you! Whether you're standing in line at an overpacked Apple Store, fighting over the best videogame at Best Buy, or strolling through a Radio Shack everyone else forgot about, let us know how it's going. Better yet, leave a voicemail: 408-627-8242. We'll play back some of our favorites during Monday's episode of TDL Live.

Live Concert Downloads Announced for iTunes

For quite some time, the iTunes store has offered limited tracks from artists who performed at various Apple stores around the country (but mainly NYC and CA), however today a bigger announcement means far more live recordings are on the way.

Apple has partnered with Live Nation to bring content from 80 "wired" venues around the country. It's definitely an interesting, and tentative step into a whole new world for iTunes. Would Live Nation ever allow those events to be seen/streamed live, as in as they happen live? That would really be a game changer. You can check out the new live music section of iTunes here.

Retro Tech Tuesday: Apple's e-World

Long before Safari or Firefox. Before Internet Explorer was the world's most-used browser. Heck, in a time when there were hardly any browsers at all, there was Apple's e-World. The history of e-World is a long and crazy one, but in short, you have Apple to thank (or blame) for AOL. Apple was ahead of the curve, and ahead of the price point most people felt comfortable paying for access to what was for the time, quite an interesting little online community.

Unfortunately, there's very little left to document this long-gone relic of Apple history, but thankfully through the miracle of YouTube, we're able to dig up this tiny glimpse into the welcome screen, unusual looking icons, and town map that served as a hub for the community:

If you were an e-person, or even helped develop the community, we'd love to hear from you, or share your experience in the comments. And hey, if it's a slow week at work, then take a few minutes to learn more about e-World from this Wikipedia entry.

Psystar: Good or Bad For The Mac Community?

With the latest, um, setback for Psystar in its quest to sell generic PCs pre-loaded with Mac OS X, the question becomes, what was is/was the point, and what does/did Psystar do to change the landscape of Macs?

First, although no sales numbers have been announced, it appears unlikely that Psystar sold any great quantity of machines, so in terms of direct harm to Apple's units sold, the effects have been trivial.

What Psystar did help to do though, was reignite the old debate about the cost of a Mac and the existence of the "Apple Tax." Whether intentionally or not, Psystar showed that OS X could be put on a machine with similar, or in some cases better specs from off-the-shelf components, and run just fine.

It also brought another nagging question back from Apple's distant past: Should Apple license the operating system to other hardware manufacturers. Granted, Apple's days of needing the OS on other people's hardware to survive are long past. But if Apple has any aspirations of reaching 30-40% of OS market share (which admittedly, doesn't look like their biggest concern) they will need hardware partners. At some point, tech support alone would overwhelm any single company responsible for the hardware and software.

What we will never know is, what effect, if any, Psystar (and hackintoshes for that matter) might have had, or will have on Apple pricing decisions. There is a price point at which Mac laptops would stop selling if there's an alternative to have the same OS experience on significantly cheaper hardware. Do we have Psystar to thank, in some tiny part, for the specs/price of the newest iMacs?

TDL Live This Week: (11/9 - 11/16)

First the bad news: No TDL Live next week. Now the good news: There was a TDL Live this week! If you missed the live show, here's your chance to get caught up. We cover the Droid launch, Apple's app store milestone, 10.6.2 release and more (like the new A-Team movie):