I've been keeping an eye on the keynote address going on right now at Apple's Macworld conference. After a pretty uninspiring show (upgraded software, one new laptop, almost no surprises), new keynote MC Phil Schiller revealed that Apple's iTunes Music Store is dumping the annoying copy protection scheme, Fairplay DRM. Basically, this means that when you download something from iTunes, you own it and can do whatever you want with it. No more "You can't play this song on this computer" message. It's about damn time, Apple.
In addition, iPhone and iPod Touch users can now download music directly to their mobile device, eliminating the need to first download songs into iTunes running on a computer. A nice, overdue feature.
Other than that, no iPhone Nano, no new Mac Mini, no updates to the iMac line. Weak sauce, Apple. Maybe Steve Jobs is dying after all.
This article appears in Dec 31, 2008 – Jan 6, 2009.