iTunes U

Have you seen the new feature in iTunes called iTunes U? The link will take you to the iTunes site and on it you will find courses offered from several universities including MIT, Duke, Texas A&M, Penn State, and many others. There's even a course offered by Concordia Seminary in Elementary Greek in both video and audio formats....FREE!

Yes it's 2:45 a.m. but I am just so blown away by this and it's possibilities that I can't sleep. And the fact that I am looking for airline tickets to Honduras for our youth group mission trip.

The news of the day will be iTunes offering of DRM free music, but iTunes U should be the bigger news.

Gotta Have It

HAVE YOU SEEN THIS!? Really it's the most awesome product from Apple ever. Thanks to Brandon for making sure I knew about this.

The iPhone

I stayed up way too late last night watching Steve Jobs introduce the iPhone at MacWorld yesterday. Part of the reason I watched the 60 minute presentation is because the device is absolutely amazing. Really, it's stunning and there is nothing like it on the market now or probably even five years from now. Apple has definitely done it again (provided it works as promised).

That being said, I don't want one. I believe my Apple worship is well chronicled, but other than the 'WOW that is really cool' factor, I just don't need this device. I have always been perfectly happy with a basic cell phone. Not as basic as my sister's phoneshe used for a long time. I like the fact that my cell phone lasts for three days between charges, and I don't want to be thinking, "Do I have enough battery to listen to this song, and call Allison at 5:00 pm?" I don't mind seperated devices, I don't even like camera phones. When has anyone ever taken a really good picture on their cell phone?

In any case I have no doubt that this new iPhone will take the gadget world by storm (notice how no one is lauding the Zune Player anymore). I am sure there are a whole bunch of companies that are scared about this new challenger in the handheld landscape. As for me, I really just want a wide screen, 60 gb, touch screen, video iPod with killer battery life. I have been hanging onto my thrid generation waiting for this kind of change, and it looks like I will have to wait longer. No phone or web browsing necessary (although I wouldn't object to being able to join Wi-Fi's with it browsing that way). The big string attached to this little device will be the terms of the service contract from Cingular. I think it's safe to say that it will cost upwards of $70 per month for a plan that uses all of the iPhone features, which if you spent $500 on a phone you are going to want to get everything you can out of it.

I think it's really cool that Apple continues to make simple, elegant, and powerful products, I just don't think this one is for me.

Side Note: In light of the new Apple TV I am wondering if you prefer purchasing movies from iTunes over DVD's?