Breezeblog

Finally, the iTunes store is to ditch DRM. One of the few highlights of today’s snorer of a keynote at Macworld was that 8 million of the 10 million songs available on iTunes will immediately be DRM-free with the remaining 2 million DRM-free by April. Apple is also introducing three prices for songs – 69c, 99c and $1.29. iPhone users can now also buy songs over a 3G network (dream on, Bermuda …) and not just over wi-fi connections. But if you’re thinking of upgrading your library to DRM-free using Apple’s iTunes Plus service, think again, according to Macworld magazine – it is far from a bargain.

Also announced today: an expensive new 17-inch MacBook Pro, long overdue updates to iLife and iWork plus the beta of a new online collaboration service, iWork.com, in competiton with Google Docs and Microsoft’s Live Office Workspace.

The iPhone is Apple’s Netbook: Almost Half of All Traffic from WiFi Networks – ReadWriteWeb

If there’s one product that seems to be missing from Apple’s product range, it’s a netbook – something in the handy 9-10-inch screen range. Steve Jobs has said in the past that Apple doesn’t go in for making budget hardware and maybe these figures about the wi-fi usage of iPhones back him up. Certainly the growing functionality of the iPhone means I may buy one instead of a MacBook. But to me these figures also indicate that Apple could make a killing by just beefing up the iPod Touch (call it the iTouch or MacTouch) and giving it a slightly larger screen. Do that and it surely opens up the whole netbook/tablet market to them.