Episode 640

Steve weirded us out a little when his Jobs-note ended without "one more thing," but dudes, we totally called the MacBook Air! Well, OK--everyone called the MacBook Air. Also, Tom's Apple TV becomes slightly more useful, iPod Touch owners get a rude little jolt, and Google shows up on the iPhone *and* in a new partnership with WiMax operator Clearwire. It's that last part we find interesting. 
==Stories Covered==
*Steve Jobs makes surprise announcements about iTunes...
*...and MacBook Air...
*...and all kinds of things
*Amazon vs. Apple: The DRM's still on for iTunes service
*Coming to the Mac in 2008: 'Spore'
*Linux available on ThinkPad T61 and R61
*MySpace agrees to social-networking safety plan
*Google Apps coming to Clearwire customers via new partnership
*FCC approves Google for wireless auction
==Voicemail==
Steve from Nashville
Ferrari is to Armani as Ford is to: 
==Email==
===24-hour rentals--Arrrgh!===
Tom and Molly:
Can someone please explain to me why they are putting a 24-hour window on iTunes Movie Rentals! Why!?!? Why can't this work just like a standard Netflix queue, but without the actual discs? Here's an example:
Open ITunes movie rentals and what do you see? A queue of the movies you want to watch (just like Netflix). 
You pay a monthly fee, not per movie, which gives you access to a predetermined number of titles at the top of your queue. If you pay $15 a month, you get access to the top 3 titles on your queue, for example. 
After watching the movie, you can either purchase the film (save it permanently to your computer, Apple TV, whatever) or you delete it, which then bumps up the next title up on you queue. 
I believe the counterargument to this model is that it will make it easier for hackers to permanently save the movie if they follow this model. But you know what, hackers will figure out a way to permanently save the movies regardless of the accessibility window. If someone wants to figure out a way to hack it, they will, no matter if they have it available for 24 hours, 30 days, or for an unlimited amount of time.
I hope Netflix's move to go unlimited pushes Apple to do the same.
Thanks for the great show!
Roberto 
===Real reason Warner went Blu-Ray===
Looks like Warner was all set to go HD-DVD exclusive, but then both they and Fox got paid off. Fox got $120 million to say Blu-ray only, and Warner got between $400 million and $500 million to switch to Blu-ray, instead of going HD DVD only. No wonder Toshiba acted like they were totally blindsided by Warner's move. Had Warner gone to HD DVD as originally planned, and Fox moved to HD DVD as well, the war would have been over, and HD DVD would have won.
http://gizmodo.com/344680/the-real-reason-warner-went-blu+ray
Very interesting. Sony probably caught wind of Warner's wish to move over, and opened up the purse as wide as they could to get them to go Blu-ray.
Tyler
===Stop the insanity===
Heya Tom and Molly,
Maybe I heard you wrong, but I cannot believe that you guys are in support of ISPs blocking media files based on watermarking. Wouldn't this mean that I could not e-mail myself an MP3 that I purchased? Or, what about streaming music from my home computer while on the road? Now, I realize I can get around this by using a VPN (and that is currently how I remote into my home system), but that still shouldn't be a necessity. Aren't we just getting back to the same kinds of "restrictions" we have with DRM now? It's my content, don't stop me from using it as I wish.
I love the show, you make my daily commute so much better. Just stop the crazy talk. ;-)
Kevin Kittredge
Phoenix, Arizona
===Sunspot follow-up===
Hi all,
I had horrible GPS reception driving to work this morning. This is obviously a direct assault against our newly formed tech-lovin'society, all masterminded by the sun. Specifically, against me (and my Garmin.) Just cause a guy doesn't get outside as much as perhaps he should.
Keep up the great work,
Alan, Pittsburgher
===What is this 404 junk?===
I don't mind you guys pimping other Podcasts on the show or even missing a few shows during the week, but it is messed up with you putting someone else's show in the feed when we are expecting the Buzz crew.
Juan