Pre-Internet, we accepted that media had a mayfly’s life span: Yesterday’s news was yesterday’s news, and that was it. If you were the creator of it, you made peace with the notion that people either saw it or didn’t when it appeared, and you moved on; there was no alternative.
If it lingered in the public consciousness, it was because of its durability, not repeated reminders. Content had finite endings and deaths, not asymptotic approaches and long-term vegetative states from which resuscitation is always an option.
アップルごひいきのライターで、当ブログでも頼りにしている Jim Dalrymple に関する辛辣な指摘はなかなかのものだ。
* * *
果たして偶然か
アップルはイベントの招待状を、特別なゲスト、限られたアップルの従業員、ブルームバーク、 NY タイムズ、ロイター、WSJ などメジャーな報道機関、それに加えて Daring Fireball の John Gruber や The Loop の Jim Dalrympleのような必ず前向きに取り上げてくれる少数のブロガーに対して送付する。アップルのことを最大書き立ててくれる連中には招待状の話が広がるように早めに情報を与える。例えば、アップルが最新の iPhone イベントについて発表したまさにその日、カナダのブロガー Jim Dalrymple はたまたまクパティーノに居合わせ、発表会場の Flint Center でアップルが建築中の構造物のスナップ写真を撮っていたが、これは偶然にしては出来過ぎている。
Apple sends out invitations to special guests, a small group of Apple employees, reporters from major news outlets including Bloomberg News, The New York Times, Reuters, and The Wall Street Journal, and a small group of reliably positive bloggers, including Daring Fireball’s John Gruber and The Loop’s Jim Dalrymple. Apple’s biggest boosters get early tips to expect and publicize the invitations; for instance, on the exact day Apple announced its latest event, Canadian blogger Dalrymple just happened to be in Cupertino, snapping photographs of a structure Apple was building for the event at the Flint Center. It’s difficult to just call that a coincidence.
Steve Dowling と Natalie Kerris は双方とも個人的に Katie Cotton の後がまに座るべく根回ししていると言われるが、アップルがその後任としてホワイトハウスの大統領報道官 Jay Carney を検討しているという最近の報道はその意味でも興味深い。常に信頼するに足る Re/code がこのポストに Carney がウワサされていると最初に書いたが、The Loop の Jim Dalrymple はそれを否定した。複数のソースによれば、Carney の話は正しくないと Dalrymple や他の記者に語ったのは Kerris だという。世界で最も重要かつ有名な広報官を退く Carney が複数の技術企業と折衝中ということであれば、アップルも何らかの形で検討しないのは無責任な話だろう。アップルの誰がその話を積極的に否定しようとしたのか不明だ。
Both Kerris and Dowling are said to be individually lobbying to take Cotton’s place, which makes recent reports about Apple’s consideration of former White House Press Secretary Jay Carney for the job all the more interesting. After the consistently-reliable Re/code first reported that Carney was “bandied” about in connection to the open Apple position, The Loop‘s Jim Dalrymple claimed that this was not true. Sources say that it was Kerris who told Dalrymple and other reporters that the claims of Carney’s consideration were false. Since Carney was exiting the world’s most important and high-profile PR job and in talks with multiple technology companies, Apple would be irresponsible to have not considered Carney in some capacity, so it’s unclear why anyone at the company would actively deny the report.
One journalist from a major publication noted that Apple’s attention to Gruber and Dalrymple was somewhat surprising, given that their blogs hardly get as much attention or readership as bigger names such as Bloomberg, Time and WIRED. Another journalist noted dryly that the bloggers’ words are widely repeated when they serve as Apple’s attack dogs, so Apple keeps them happy, despite whatever their raw traffic numbers might be.
* * *
大学生 Mark Gurman の筆は冴えているというか、アップル系ライターの大先輩たちに一矢放った形になっているのは皮肉。
The countries in white are countries where apps are available but music isn’t. There are 51 countries where you can buy music and 72 where you can buy apps but not music.
* * *
6カ国で iTunes のテレビ番組が買える
つぎの地図は iTunes のテレビ番組が購入できる国を示している。
The following map shows the countries where iTunes TV shows can be purchased.
As in the previous chart, the countries in white are those where apps are available but TV shows aren’t. There are six countries where you can buy TV shows and 117 countries where you can buy apps but not music.
Digital music (as iTunes defines it) started expanding outside the United States in 2004 and managed to reach these 50 other countries in seven years. TV shows took a much slower route. Not only has there been a limited selection of countries in six years of expansion but even the US, the programs available are a tiny subset of what is being produced.
Is the TV business going to expand digital distribution at the glacial rate of music or not at all? In either case, the distribution of Apps as a digital medium is positively viral.
今日 CBS News は Steve Jobs が死亡したという誤報を Twitter.com に載せた。
CBS News accidentally reported that Apple CEO Steve Jobs had died in a careless post on Twitter.com today.
Shira Lazar がホストする CBS 番組「What’s Trending」のアカウントが出所だ。「Steve Jobs が死亡したという知らせが入った。詳しくはアップデートを待って・・・」というツィートでインターネットは騒然となった。
An account tied to the U.S. network’s web series What’s Trending, hosted by Shira Lazar, sparked an internet firestorm with a post reading: ‘Reports say that Steve Jobs has passed away. Stay tuned for more updates’.
‘Reports of Steve Job’s (sic) death completely unconfirmed,’ it read.
このナゾに満ちたツィートは Jobs の健康状態に関する懸念に油を注いだ。アップル CEO は8月24日に彼がガレージで 1976 年に設立した会社から退任したばかりだった。
The cryptic post has fuelled speculation as to the state of Jobs’ health; the Apple CEO stepped down from the company he founded in his garage in 1976 on August 24,.
But it’s the one place where we can get an apples-to-apples snapshot for how all of the devices are doing, so it’s pretty interesting, and probably is directionally correct.
金融紙 Bloomberg は、17 ページにわたる Steve Jobs の死亡記事を今日最新のものに書き換えることにした。・・・そしてうっかりして、それを公開してしまった。Steve Jobs の死亡記事が出て、それから突然消えたのを見て一部の投資家はギョッとした。それはその日遅くその記事をみた我々の情報ソースも同じだった。
The Bloomberg financial newswire decided to update its 17-page Steve Jobs obituary today — and inadvertently published it in the process. Some investors were undoubtedly rattled to see, as our tipster did late this afternoon, the Apple CEO’s obit cross the wire and then suddenly disappear.
Aug. 27 (Bloomberg) — An incomplete story referencing Apple Inc. was inadvertently published by Bloomberg News at 4:27 p.m. New York time today. The item was never meant for publication and has been retracted.
– Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak
– Jon Rubinstein, former head of Apple’s iPod division
– Heidi Roizen: venture capitalist who once dated Jobs: -redacted- or -redacted-. Heidi knows a lot of Silicon Valley insiders and may put us in touch with others, including A.C. Mike Markkula, the first VC to back Apple.
– Larry Ellison of Oracle (one of his best friends)
– Jerry Brown (personal friend) and California AG
– Al Gore: member of Apple’s board of directors
– Bill Gates: Microsoft was among the first developers of Mac software
– Bob Iger at Disney: who bought Pixar from Jobs
– Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google and member of Apple’s board
– Paul Otellini, CEO of Intel Corp. (Apple began using Intel chips in its Macs in 2006)
– Scott McNealy, co-founder of Sun Microsystems
– John Lassiter and Ed Catmull: Pixar-nee-Disney executives
– Guy Kawasaki, one of the first Apple evangelists
– Nolan Bushnell, founder of Atari