Certainly restaurants which are looking for any kind of publicity get very excited when they see a diner with a camera.  I've even had complimentary dishes sent out. 

But the thing about stealing plate compositions: that's actually chefs suspecting people of being "in the business" and stealing trade secrets.  Much paranoia among chefs.  Must be all that heat.

I don't have much an issue with iTunes, but I think the edge you mention is the fact that ownership of music may be old news. 

With Pandora, Spotify, and the like, there are many people happy to go there only.

One thing with iTunes, I thought, was that it brought back the single.  When I was a kid, I bought 45s a'plenty but in college and beyond, albums, cassettes, and CDs.  Music favored artists who made albums, really, and the story would be how many number one songs might be on a particular album.

iTunes made it easy to buy specific songs again.  Now, it's hard for artists to get album deals, actually, and overall many are having to fund their own "record deal."

So, the single plays right into the hands of Spotify, for instance, and, at a minimum, I think satellite radio's days are numbered. 

Don't you find, though, Brian that Apple's losing its iTunes edge? Granted, I have never liked iTunes so I admit my bias! But it's interface is clunky, there are a lot of user problems, and it hasn't advanced/improved much since its debut, no? Apple IS sitting on a gold mine there; they could do a lot with it -- the issue is, will they do it right?

We just got a Samsung 55-inch TV with SmartHome and, I have to say, it's flipping amazing. The three of us couch-potatoed last night, as cast-members from various shows entered our living room. My daughter's home sick today, and is watching the videos she made on the big screen. It's pretty darn cool. Apple needs to make its TV splash pronto or come up with something extremely amazing and/or cheap (and knowng Apple, it won't be cheap) to make headway against Samsung, Sony, or LG in this space.

Thanks so much, @Sunita. As a writer, I'm always thrilled to get compliments on my written work. But I'm super-excited to get nice words about my experiments in photography!! :)

It will be interesting to see how long, that is, for how many years will Google give out the luxorious benefit packages to employees. If competition reigns and other firms don't follow Google's lead, I'd suspect the fringe benefits will dry up quickly.

For now, it's great publicity and great for the folks working there. It only makes the rest of us envious.

i'd say its a very bright idea to have come up with that tool. Its very easy to lose out on a job based on being judged over irrelevant things. Facebook for instance is just your social life and you can't always be too rigid. Yet if its going to cost you a job, you would want to clean up from time to time.

speaking of complex ideas, that common words tool is difficult to type a full sentence with if you plan to finish and do something else.

On another note, speaking of mobility, the mobile USB fridge is probably the best invention i've learnt of this week that attempts to combine food convenience with your computing environment.

"Today Apple is perceived as a 'rich' brand and kind of a status symbol"

What about Vertu then. It leaves apple behind by miles.

@ WaqasAltaf

I agree and hadn't really thought about that.  To some degree, Apple's high price-point gives the iPhone a cool factor.  I guess the trick, if the price does come down, to time it perfectly so that the rush of new customers dominates the loss of some customers.

However, the price panache would be lost forever.  So, Apple will have to have something new in its place.  Thus, my belief that iTunes is the key for Apple's future because on the device side, Apple is a victim to its own innovation.  Without an ability to disrupt itself, Apple's long-term device view is the same as the Razr or the Blackberry.

Of course, they've done an excellent job creating new market space.  iTunes, to me, is a revenue bunker if they strike a dud.  Another factor is iCloud and how they monetize that.