In a move that would make Microsoft blush and scream "monopoly!" the proverbial word on the proverbial street is that the new iPods won’t work with old video cables and docks from third parties. Meaning, if you’ve got a hip stereo designed for your iPod but it’s not made by Apple — you may as well throw it out. Thanks again, Apple!
According to various sources, the new iPods will only work with cables that have Apple’s authentication chip — meaning any old third-party add-ons you have will no longer work.
Is Steve Jobs an angry drunk? Has someone been celebrating their success with too much gin? First the iPhone price cut makes half of Apple’s most dedicated customers look like idiots, now this.
Say it ain’t so, Steve. Say it ain’t so. This is a Microsoftian move if we’ve ever seen one — much like having to use iTunes and only iTunes if you want to a functional iPod. Normally, we wouldn’t care terribly much but iTunes is a terrible and clunky thing (surprising, again, for Apple) — and nothing angers us more than having to use it every time we want to put music on our iPod.
Whatever Steve is smoking he should stop — let’s take a step back and remember what got you here in the first place, Steve, because, sexy new iPod or not, Apple is headed toward Microsoft-land fast.
