Some hours ago i was pointed to an interesting post about the new "code signing" features that Apple is going to implement for the iPhone software developers, and honestly, I am speechless...
There was a time when i used to believe that there was a good reason for Apple to be so closed in some aspects: To keep the user experience as clean and smooth as possible.
That could explain several behaviors in the iTunes Music Store, in the iPod and of course in the whole Mac platform, but after reading several times this great article at Rogue Amoeba's blog, just one thing comes to my mind... "is there any limit ?".

I still can't believe the fact that it is just NOT possible to load an application inside an iPhone unless it's blessed (read: digitally signed) by Apple, and yes, you read it right, not even for testing purposes, which means that if you want to start writing some code for the iPhone, you have to a) buy a $99 testing certificate, and b) buy an extra iPhone compatible with that extra certificate.
But the story continues....

Apple seems to have a list of things that they are not going to bless, like for example Porn, or "Bandwidth Hog" applications, and there is also the "unforeseen" category, which translated to plain English means "anything that we don't like at all or we consider bad for our business model".

I happen to believe that protecting the user experience as much as you can is a good thing, and that is mainly the reason because Mac OS is more enjoyable than any other OS out there, no discussion there, but when a company starts telling me what I am allowed to run (or not) on a device that i OWN, I think that something is really wrong. In my particular case, I don't own an iPhone (and not even planning to own one, mostly because I use Nextel, and I wouldn't change it for anything), for the contrary i own a Motorola headset, and i can load any application on it, or even write my own if I feel like.

No matter how much I love Apple and their products, I think that freedom of choice is one of the most valuable things that our society must protect, and while I read a lot of forum / blog posts by the so called "Apple fanboys" saying things like "if you don't like it, don't buy it" I just don't want to believe what could happen if a company with this way of thinking becomes the market leader.

I have yet to see the evolution of this whole thing, but right now this just makes me re-think if some other eternally blamed companies are really sooooo evil after all...

It was some days ago that i had some free time and i decided to re-create the glorious soundtrack from the Apple's "Think Different" TV commercial.
I don't know who is the original author of this, so i cant really credit him / her, but whoever you are, i really love this track, in fact, i love it that much, that i decided to make it again.
This is not an "exact" replica of the original of course, because i play it with my own style, but if you know the original, you will find that this one is pretty close to it.

You can listen or download the song by going HERE.

For the techies out there:

The Piano comes from the fabulous Steinberg's "The Grand".
The Strings are from the Miroslav Vitous - String Ensembles AKAI library.
All this has been sequenced and mixed in my beloved Cubase sequencer and the reverb used is Waves IR-1.

This is the first ever commercial for the iPod released in 2001.
Not really a lot to say about this one, i personally don't find it really "creative" when compared with other Apple campaigns, but i think it deserves a place because it was "the first".
The song used for this one is "Take California" by The Propellerheads.
Enjoy one of the very few high quality versions available on the web.

Please note that you will need a 512kbps internet connection (or faster) in order to watch this video without interruptions.

[vidipress mode="rtmp" rtmpserver="rtmp://plusmediaserver.com/media/" rtmpid="iPod/1st_ipod_2001"/]

As many of my friends already know, im working on an online archive of Apple related commercials and institutional videos, so well, some days ago i received a series of uMatic tapes, and i found this inside one of them.

This is, in my humble opinion, one of the better (if not the better one) examples of clean institutional advertising & branding, and one of those commercials that "touch your heart".
Quick Tip: In recent pre-releases of Mac OS X Leopard, you will find the whole narration for this commercial in the high resolution icon of the "Text Edit" application.

I hope you enjoy this, because you wont find a better quality version in the whole web
Please note that you will need a 512kbps internet connection (or faster) in order to watch this video without interruptions.

[vidipress mode="rtmp" rtmpid="massanti.com/td_hq" /]

Quote from Wikipedia: "Think Different was an advertising slogan created for Apple Computer in the late 1990s by the Los Angeles office of advertising agency TBWA\Chiat\Day. It was used in a famous television commercial, several print advertisements, and several television advertisements for Apple products. Apple's use of the slogan was discontinued with the start of the Apple Switch ad campaign in 2002. The slogan may have been a play on the venerable IBM Think motto coined by Thomas J. Watson."