Microsoft seems determined to dunk the iPod. It is setting the stage for a no holds barred match and is going all out. The two pincers in its attack are a huge ad campaign that talks about the high cost of iPod music as well as a buzz campaign around Twitter on a Zune-esque product due in June.

Wes Moss hosts the Zune Pass ad. The trivia is amazing. Could you imagine, for example that a 120 GB iPod full of music would cost $30,000!!! yes that is the amount it would take to buy that much music from iTunes. $15 per month of rent could be a much better deal – the Zune deal. There is a bit of cloaking in these claims, a lot actually.
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iPods and iPhones are helping the US army in the war zones of Iraq and Afghanistan. These devices carry secure software, are easy to operate and not too expensive. The army uses them for a range of issues from translation to working out sniper trajectories. These devices can hold more than 30000 programs.

In the future they may be used to guide bomb disposal robots and to receive drone air craft aerial footage, and the military is working on this. Soldiers can now upload photos of detained suspects if the US Marine Corps succeed at their new program.

These would then go into a biometric database. The software could match faces. The British Military is envious of this but currently does not plan to follow suit. According to an expert, the iPod may be all the personnel need. The army men are familiar with iPods as well.

With bulk orders the Pentagon can get these machines relatively safely. So the iPod you use is the one used by U.S. military. Deja vous to the Hummer craze.

In the space of five months, the web market share of the iPod Touch has tripled. It has shot past even the iPhone. The share of Windows in the market has dropped to the lowest point even as Mac stands firm.

In November, the use of the iPod Touch stood at just 0.05 percent among the myriad websites which were being tracked by Net Applications. In less than half a year the use stands at 0.15 percent. Although this amount is still small, it represents a significant increase over the previous volume in percentage terms. Read more… »