Dark Ipod

When Purdue University senior Marcos Kohler skipped a physics class to attend a concert in Chicago, he didn’t have to borrow a classmate’s notes to catch up.

Instead, he connected his silver iPod to a computer, downloaded the lecture, and from the comfort of a campus coffee shop, listened to the two-hour discussion on particle physics.

“It recreates the entire class experience,” said Kohler, 22, who missed another lecture at the West Lafayette, Ind., campus when he overslept for the 1:30 p.m. class. A video conference class would be even better, he said, but “to go from paper printouts to audio, this is a step in the right direction.”

It’s a step that a small but growing number of professors are trying. By turning class lectures into podcasts - free audio shows that students can download to their iPods or other portable players - students can skip the lecture hall but still hear the lecture. Supporters say podcasts help students who miss a class or want to review the material, while professors get points for being flexible and using the latest, hippest gadget.

More traditional academics fear that by listening to lectures on the run, students will miss out on learning that can only happen when students and instructors come together.

Professors have posted lecture notes, Powerpoint slides and other written class material online for years, but instructors only recently began testing the best uses of the popular audio technology.

At Drexel University in Philadelphia, a chemistry professor assigns podcasted lectures, recorded last semester, for homework and then uses class time to review problems. At the University of Michigan, lectures can be automatically delivered to dentistry students’ computers or portable devices.

And at the University of Hawaii, hundreds of students in a computer science class are required to show up at a lecture hall only twice a semester - for the midterm and final. Instead of a textbook, they purchase a small iPod at the bookstore, though most students already have one, the course professor said.

Universities have found other ways to test podcasting, using it to publicize campus news and broadcast Sunday mass.

A newscast about upcoming events at Allegheny College begins: “Sit back, relax, enjoy. If you’re in the car, drive safely while you listen. If you’re at the gym … stay focused on what you’re doing and be safe.”

The California Institute of Technology admissions office recently released an 11-minute podcast for prospective students that leaves listeners with the impression that the school is nerdy, in a hip kind of way.

Rick Bishoff, admissions director at CalTech, said a podcast is a perfect way to grab the attention of busy high school seniors. “I want high school students to listen and imagine, `that is a community I want to be part of. Or say, `that doesn’t sound like any place that I want to be a part of.’”

At a recent national conference for admissions counselors, TwigPod Productions, a Pasadena, Calif.-based marketing company that produced the CalTech podcast, pitched the idea to other colleges. The podcasts cost between $5,000 and $7,500, depending on their complexity.

Some universities, such as Purdue and North Carolina’s Duke University, have university-wide programs that make it easy for professors to become podcasters.

Purdue this fall introduced a podcasting service, called BoilerCast, that records and downloads lectures to the school Web site at professors’ requests. About 60 professors are using the service, and their students can access the lectures as soon as 10 minutes after class.

Since Aug. 22, when the program began, the Web site has had more than 34,000 downloads, said Michael Gay, Purdue’s manager of broadcast networks and services.

Erica Carlson, one professor podcasting her lectures, said attendance in her 22-student seminar class on thermal and statistical physics hasn’t declined.

Carlson downloads her lectures to iTunes as well as the Purdue site. After she was featured on the home page of the iTunes Web site, the number of subscribers to her podcast shot up to 750 from 100. A college history major e-mailed to say he enjoyed her lectures, as did an engineer who graduated from college years ago.

“When I saw the subscribership shoot up to 750, I started getting nervous. I love an audience, but an audience of 750 that I can’t read or get feedback from is intimidating,” Carlson said.

Her two-hour class hasn’t changed, she said. “We run the course just like we did before. Just now it is more accessible.”

Duke University professor Richard Lucic, who has 27 students in an introductory computer science course, podcasts lectures and also requires students to listen to independent podcasts related to class topics.

The easy availability of his lectures hasn’t affected attendance, he said, likely because class participation counts for 15 percent of a student’s grade.

Meredith Tenison, a Duke senior in Lucic’s class, has missed only one class but still downloads and listens to the lectures before writing weekly papers and putting together presentations required for the course.

“If there is a gap in my notes, I go back to get the context,” said Tenison, who also listens to podcasts about wine, South Africa and Duke basketball. “You can be doing your laundry or doing your homework. It’s amazing how efficient you can be with your time.”

But Naomi Baron, an American University linguistics professor, said podcasting lectures makes it too easy for students to cut class or mentally check out. It also condones the idea that a student can learn just as well by listening to a lecture on a couch as in a classroom.

“I want to believe that what I’m doing in class is not canned and has something to do with the people who are there,” said Baron, an expert in language and computer technology.

Tenison’s mother, who is paying for her daughter’s education, also said she doesn’t see a podcast as a substitute for class.

“I would be rather upset with that,” said Elizabeth Tenison, who said she isn’t worried about Meredith skipping class. “Part of going to a university is hearing alternate points of view … and that would be lost in large part if students didn’t attend. They would hear it but they wouldn’t be participating.”

For the 600 students in David Nickles’ two computer science classes at the University of Hawaii, there are no traditional lectures. Nickles records lectures from his office and students listen to them on the bus, on the beach or in their dorm rooms.

In his orientation podcast, after an introductory drumbeat, he explains the unconventional style. “We will be taking lecture out of the lecture hall and putting it into your pocket,” he said. “This approach will open up your schedule in that you will have the lecture with you all the time. When you have time to listen to lecture, you listen to it.”

In a throwback to the old ways, he shows up at a lecture hall once a week to hold optional review sessions.

About half the students join him_for extra credit.

Watching a TV show requires far more attention than listening to a song, so it would be no surprise if Apple Computer Inc.’s new video-capable iPod music player provided a less-than-satisfying viewing experience.

After all, the stylish design that puts thousands of songs in your pocket may not seem so cool after you’ve held it up to your face for hours. And while a tiny screen is great for displaying tune titles, a full-length TV show is another story.

Though Apple could not overcome the inherent shortcomings of video on its popular portable, the latest iPod does a superb job of making the drawbacks seem far less significant than might be expected.

For one, it’s touting video as a feature, not the focus, which remains music. It’s also kept the same price as the previous generation — $299 for the 30-gigabyte model (7,500 songs) and $399 for the 60 GB model (15,000 songs).

The color display has been bumped up to 2.5 inches from 2 inches while the gadget’s overall size has been kept to roughly the length and width of a playing card. Both models are noticeably less thick than previous models.

And the battery life has been extended to 12 hours on the 30 GB model and 20 hours on the 60 GB model when playing music.

The improvements not only enable the video feature but also enhance music listening and slideshow viewing. Apple has created a compelling reason to buy an iPod even if it’s never used to watch a single video.

But with all the attention given to video in the months leading up to the launch earlier this month, most new iPod owners will give it a try.

Purchasing and transferring a show is just as easy as music at Apple’s iTunes Music Store. The content, once downloaded to the computer, automatically transfers to the portable as soon as its connected via a USB cable.

With my 6-megabit-per-second DSL connection, an episode of “Desperate Housewives” was downloaded and transferred to my unit in about 10 minutes. Using the click wheel, I started the video just as I would a song or a slideshow.

The program looked remarkably clear, and I had no problem reading the tiny credits at the beginning and end of the show. The video was largely stutter-free, the audio quality pristine.

I was surprised that I could hold the iPod in a comfortable viewing position for the 44 minutes of the episode (no commercials!). This might turn out to be a very popular iPod use on subways, buses and airplanes.

But continuous video playing severely cuts down the battery life. My 30 GB model lasted just 2.5 hours — still 30 minutes longer than Apple promised — before it ran out of juice.

Unlike music bought at the online store, video can’t be transferred to a CD or DVD from the new iPod, thanks to copyright protection technology.

The biggest problem is the anemic selection of commercial programming.

There are episodes from five Disney television shows — including “Desperate Housewives” and “Lost” — for $1.99 a pop. ITunes charges the same to download one of the 2,000 music videos or a half-dozen Pixar Animation Studios shorts.

The business model is promising. If only more content owners would open their vaults.

AS IT turned out, yesterday’s latest handset launch from Sony Ericsson was a 3G (W-CDMA) version of its Walkman handset, the W900. Not a portable video player with cellular capabilities as some had predicted.

The W900 can play back video but the crucial point about this particular Walkman phone is that with its support for faster download speeds, it will become viable for more mobile network operators to offer full MP3 music downloads using over the air (OTA) technology.

Such a move cuts out the middleman – which in this market is Apple’s iTunes service, of course. The handset boasts 470 MB of internal memory which puts it on par with Motorola’s Rokr. Sony Ericsson quotes a maximum Memory Stick Pro Duo capability of 2GB seeing as 4GB ain’t out yet.

What the W900 does give the company is a range of Walkman phones since it also has the original W800 and the W550 (which mutates into the W600 for the Americas). This is beginning to have a pronounced effect on its unit sales which increased to 13.8 million in Q3 2005. That gives it around 7 per cent of the market.

Like Nokia, these results have caused Sony Ericsson to raise its estimate for total global handset sales in 2005 to over 760 million units. So the market is looking increasingly healthy.

Buried away in the announcements was a Walkman branded accessory - the MMR-60. What’s this? Only the handset vendor’s answer to the iTrip for iPods. Basically it broadcasts music from the latest Sony Ericsson handsets via FM. As a result it will only become available in ‘limited markets’. It’s illegal over here in Blighty.

Another interesting move is the MDS-70 home audio system. Basically it’s a jumped up docking station with Hi-Fi speakers which incorporates Sony’s S-Master technology to provide a decent sound when you’re playing back from a Walkman handset. Intruigingly it has a different part number for sale through Sony branded outlets.

Sadly Sony Ericsson has missed the chance again to provide a decent set of stereo earphones for the W900. Instead there is just a plug-in set of stereo buds in the shape of the HPM-80. No Bluetooth headset. Well, at least the HPM-80 has a built in controller that provides the usual play, reverse,and stop functions so you can control the handset from the headset.µ

It’s technology news with a twist that’s tailored for cops.

And it’s hosted by a University of Virginia fourth-year student.

It’s an unlikely combination, but Ricky Schumaker, 21, is proving that he has what it takes to shed a little light on emerging technology, an area that sometimes leaves police in the dark.

He hosts “Tech Talk” segments on CopCAST, a weekly podcast about criminal justice issues. The segments are co-hosted by Schumaker’s father, Rich, and Steve Ferguson, a deputy with the Salem Sheriff’s Office. Although the podcast is based in Salem, the father and son’s hometown, 600 users from across the world in September downloaded the weekly shows from CopCAST.net.

“We’ve had really great success,” said Rich Schumaker, 48, who, in addition to his duties at CopCAST, is director of the Cardinal Criminal Justice Academy.

Podcasting, a relatively new way of publishing audio files via the Internet, allows users to subscribe to particular feeds or shows that are automatically downloaded - usually in MP3 file format - to a computer or portable listening device when a site posts a new episode or item.

“It’s the next step,” said Sean Tubbs, producer of the Charlottesville Podcasting Network. “It’s something that’s gone from one to a hundred in a year. It’s taken off.”

The technology gets its name from the iPod, the wildly successful portable digital music player from Apple Computer. The device is not needed to listen to a podcast.

A “hot seat” guest joins Rich Schumaker and Ferguson each week to discuss current criminal justice news and issues. The pair ultimately wants CopCAST to morph into a vehicle for training law enforcement officials.

Devices like the iPod will allow users to multi-task and “train on demand,” Rich Schumaker said. For example, he said, a police officer could download a lesson onto his iPod and listen to it while mowing the lawn. Later, the officer could take an online quiz.Ricky Schumaker’s contributions to the podcast round off CopCAST’s current offerings, Rich Schumaker said. His segments will “bring those guys who are kind of lagging a little bit [in computer knowledge] by giving them a piece of information each week to add to their growing body of information about computers,” he said.

“Tech Talk” is “right up [Ricky’s] alley,” Rich Schumaker said.

Ricky Schumaker, whose interests at UVa include Spanish, education and computer science, delivers the three-to-five-minute “Tech Talk,” which explores what’s hot in the technology world and provides listeners with practical computer tips.

“With the ‘Tech Talk,’ I can combine my interest in education and my interest in computers,” Ricky Schumaker said.

The topics he’s discussed during the past few podcasts include how to download and install iTunes, setting up an online address book, and keyboard shortcuts. He has peppered “Tech Talk” with news tidbits, such as Motorola’s release of a phone that is equipped with iTunes.

One of the benefits of any podcast, he said, is having the freedom to talk about anything and address diverse interests. As far as the Schumakers know, this is the only podcast targeted to a law enforcement audience.

Podcasting could greatly impact people’s lives, Tubbs added.

Podcasting, he said, “shows tremendous promise for democracy. If it helps get people more information to make decisions on anything, it’s a good tool.”

Hollywood’s actors, directors and writers unions said Saturday they would vet Apple’s new iPod portable video player so members get their share of residuals writes Japan Today

“The announcement today unveiling the Apple Video iPod represents the latest chapter in the ongoing technological evolution of our industry,” said a joint statement by the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, the Directors Guild of America, the Screen Actors Guild, the Writers Guild of America East and the Writers Guild of America West.

“We have not yet heard from the responsible employers of our members, but we look forward to a dialogue that ensures that our members are properly compensated for this exploitation of their work,” said the statement.

“As the representatives for the creative community, we embrace new technologies that expand distribution of material featuring the work of our members,” they said.

Here’s a slogan for Microsoft Corp: If you can’t beat ‘em, join the guys who have the same problem.

Microsoft struck two deals this week with sometime adversaries aimed in part at taking on mutual competitors.

Those partnerships with RealNetworks Inc and Yahoo Inc could signal a return to Microsoft’s roots of successfully challenging IBM by finding the right allies, analysts say. And both show how seriously Microsoft takes competitors, including Google Inc and Apple Computer Inc.

Microsoft “grew to a point where they thought they were big enough they could weather any storm,” analyst Rob Enderle said. “I think they’ve been reminded recently that nobody’s really big enough.”

RealNetworks, the Seattle-based digital media company, on Tuesday announced a broad partnership with longtime nemesis Microsoft that also settles all the company’s antitrust complaints. A series of agreements to share technology and promote each other’s products could better position both companies to fight against Apple’s market-leading iPod player and iTunes music service.

The need to compete better could not have been more clear when, the following day, Apple announced its newest iPod, which plays video, including some hit TV shows, that can be downloaded from iTunes.

While Apple CEO Steve Jobs strutted across a stage on Wednesday touting his latest product, Microsoft and Yahoo were announcing that they had finally agreed to make their instant messengers work together.

That deal is designed in part to take on America Online Inc’s more popular instant messenger. But analysts say the companies also probably have one eye on Google, which launched its own messenger last month.

The mostly free software for sending lightning-fast text over the Internet is popular with business users and teens alike because it electronically mimics regular conversation. Many also see lucrative potential in up-and-coming services like video chats, computer-to-computer calling and perhaps even efforts to sell music or other products.

The RealNetworks deal follows several years of efforts by Microsoft to carve a place in the living room — and in people’s portable gadget collections — for Windows-based systems that can deliver music, TV shows and movies to consumers.

Various Windows Media technologies have been key to that effort, and companies including Creative Labs Inc and Samsung Inc have had portable Windows-based products on the market for the past year.

But analyst Phil Leigh at Inside Digital Media said the video iPod’s attractive price, combined with the TV content it has already snagged, such as Desperate Housewives and Lost, gives it an immediate edge over those fledgling efforts.

“Based upon the demand that they’ve got for the iPod per se, it’s pretty clear that the video iPod is going to outsell all of the other devices that were introduced in the Microsoft ecosystem a year ago,” Leigh said.

Analyst Charles Di Bona at Bernstein & Co said Microsoft’s recent partnership efforts could show that the company is refocusing on its roots as a platform company, providing the base software but leaving it to others to provide hardware and content.

That’s the strategy Microsoft used in its early, extremely successful days, when it paired its operating system with computer makers’ hardware to beat IBM Corp.

In recent years, Microsoft has moved more into content with projects such as MSNBC and Slate, the online magazine it has since sold.

But going forward, Di Bona expects the company to focus less on content, such as its music download site, and more on partnerships that encourage others to use products such as its Windows Media software and copyright protection technology.

“They don’t want to beat the iPod per se; they want to provide the software that allows other people to beat the iPod,” he said.

Leigh said a disadvantage of that strategy is that Microsoft has to coordinate with multiple hardware and content providers, and can’t always control how good the end result is.

“The Microsoft ecosystem has a lot of moving parts, and in the Apple ecosystem, Apple has complete control,” Leigh said.

Also, although Microsoft has traditionally built itself on successful partnerships, some companies may be distrustful of working with the world’s largest software firm.

A big fear has been that to partner with Microsoft is to be owned by it, and the bullying tactics that came out during its antitrust case are still fresh on the minds of some technology executives.

Brad Smith, Microsoft’s top lawyer, has made it a priority to settle most of the company’s outstanding private US antitrust complaints, and a key part of some of those settlements has also been to forge business deals and increase goodwill.

Microsoft reached a massive antitrust settlement with Sun Microsystems Inc last year that included a pledge to work together. Outside the courts, the company has also signed deals such as its cooperation agreement with phone maker Nokia Corp in February.

Smith said the recent partnership push comes as the computer industry is evolving to be more focused on people using many different technologies over the Internet. That’s forced Microsoft to change its philosophy, working to make its products more compatible and its relationships with others in the industry more harmonious.

“Consumers want to be able to use technology from multiple companies simultaneously, and so we have to work with each other in the industry, both to promote that kind of interoperability while we also continue to compete with each other,” he said.

Companies such as Sun, Real and Nokia have also stressed that they continue to battle Microsoft on some fronts. And Di Bona said the partnerships shouldn’t be taken as any indication that Microsoft, known for its brutally competitive streak, is getting soft.

“I don’t think they view themselves as sort of the also-rans teaming up with the also-rans,” he said. “They’re definitely still in this to win. They’re just deciding what stick they want to use.”

Last week, Steve Jobs and Apple unveiled the video iPod to much fanfare and hoopla. Don’t get me wrong. I am a huge fan of iPods specifically and Jobs in general. So it is with some reticence that I say this product will bomb, or at least in its initial state, it won’t change the video space the way the iPod changed the MP3 space.

A little background about this product introduction. The new iPod will allow users to purchase, download and watch videos on new versions of the iPod. Users of this device will be able to download episodes of such shows as “Desperate Housewives” and “Lost” from Apple’s iTunes online music store for $1.99 starting the day after the show airs.

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Now back to why I don’t think this product will fly in its current iteration.

Reason #1 – This business model asks consumers to pay for something that basically is free. You don’t have to pay to watch the original airing of the “Desperate Housewives” episode. However, if you want to see it essentially in “rerun,” you can, and it only costs $1.99.

Now, you might argue that this model is more similar to the music model than it is different. Sure, you can hear your favorite new Coldplay single on the radio, but if you want unlimited access to it, you buy the album. This is similar to today’s video model in which you can purchase the entire season of “Lost” on DVD once the season is over. When the original iPod hit the market, it offered an opportunity for the user to buy that specific song for a mere 99 cents and carry it in his or her personal library and iPod for unlimited play.

Granted, there are parallels. However, American consumers in most instances view music and TV programming differently. For most consumers, music is collectable, while TV programming is disposable. Once the show has aired, interest wanes.

Reason #2 – I have a programmable VCR that can record the show that I might miss. Or I can visit my friend Sarah, who happens to have TiVo. In both instances, I can simply fast-forward through the commercials.

Reason #3 – Not that much TV programming is that good for free. I am not going to pay $1.99 for really bad TV fare.

Reason #4 – The inherent problem with this model is that you still need the computer in the middle. You have the programming that resides in the iTunes library and then the player in the video iPod. But to get the programming from point A to point B, you need the computer as the “downloader.” Consumers seem content for the moment to do that for music because they are building their music libraries. Sure, it’s tedious, but music is different.

Should this be the standard for all other downloads, such as video and podcasts? I don’t think so.

Still, for everything that is wrong with this device, I believe it is breaking new ground and pioneering in this area. First, Jobs and Apple have been able to get a huge media company to break away from the deeply held belief that programming can and should only be available at the end of the TV season in the form of a collector’s DVD.

Second, once this download capability becomes “over the air,” it will become huge. Since iPods launched, I have always wondered why Apple’s Jobs didn’t try an MVNO play. He has a loyal and devoted audience willing to pay extra for a device as well as for music properties. And with this initial foray into video downloading, he really is just one step away from doing just that.

If he can tie into a wireless carrier and work out the mechanics of over-the-air downloads, then the video iPod has the potential of becoming another smashing Apple success … that is, if the TV programming gets any better.

Bloggers were quick to report the news coming from Apple Computer’s highly anticipated event on Wednesday, but if early reactions are any indication they may be slower to buy the new products.

For more than a year, many people have said it was only a matter of time before Apple released an iPod capable of playing video, despite the fact that CEO Steve Jobs himself claimed doing so would be a move in the “wrong direction.” But for all the speculation about when Jobs might reverse his opinion about the importance of adding a video iPod to Apple’s lineup, the final product met with a relatively underwhelmed crowd.

While many Apple fans praised the new iPod’s thin design and reasonable pricing, the prevailing sentiment online was that the video quality, show pricing and lineup of available shows offered on the iPod aren’t good enough to move people to adopt the device as their new medium for TV consumption. And the fact that videos can be downloaded only at a size that fits the iPod’s screen means few people will be buying them to view on their PCs.

The new version of iTunes came as a surprise to most people who blogged about or mentioned it in online discussion forums, primarily because Apple just released iTunes 5 a few short weeks ago. While many thought the addition of video to iTunes was a good move, the fact that videos are shown at such a small size diminished excitement for this new feature.

The iMac got a warmer greeting than perhaps either of the other products Apple unveiled Wednesday. Many blogs showed that the company’s move to bring the PC to the center of the living room piqued users’ interest–especially given that many analysts presumed the Mac Mini would take that role. But again, Apple seems to have fallen just short of making a slam dunk with the new product. More than a few bloggers who were excited about the iMac’s Front Row software also lamented that they wouldn’t move to an entertainment system centered on their computer until Apple offers more integration with television.

A shortage in the supply of NOR flash could have caused shipment delays and slow sales of Apple Computer’s of iPod nano in the past two or three weeks, according to sources at Taiwan IT makers.

Rumors that a supply shortage of certain parts has caused shipment delays and slow sales of the iPod nano have been circulating for a while. Apple and its suppliers have been tight-lipped about the issue until October 12 when CEO Steve Jobs, while unveiling the company’s lastest product, the video iPod, said that a parts shortage has made it difficult to say when the company will be able to build enough of the immensely popular MP3 player to fill orders.

Even so, Apple still not did identify what kinds of parts were in shortage.

Sources at local makers had earlier indicated that the parts in question would probably be either the adaptor or dock, but now they have pinpointed the shipment delays to a shortage of NOR flash memory chips, which are supplied by Taiwan-based Professional Computer Technology (PCT), the Taiwan agent for Silicon Storage Technology (SST) NOR flash.

PCT is supplying Apple with 4Mbit NOR flash integrated with a controller IC, the sources noted, adding that although PCT managed to ramp out about one million units of NOR flash in August and September, the output still fell short of demand.

Due to a shortage of NOR flash in the market, the prices of NOR flash prices are expected to be raised in the fourth quarter following a hike of about 20% in the third quarter, according to the sources.

The 30-second spot was shown during the company’s special media event, where Apple chief executive Steve Jobs unveiled an all-new iPod and an updated iMac computer.

The commercial takes a new three-dimensional video approach to the “silhouette” ads popularized in Apple’s recent iPod television campaigns, combining an iconic effect with music video-style filmography.

Jobs told the crowd that Apple had been working on the ad concept for two-and-a-half years. “It takes our silhouette campaign up to a whole new level,” he said.

The ad was received well by the audience during Jobs’ keynote and was met by even louder applause than those following U2’s iPod video ad. Jobs played the ad twice for attendees, and said it would premier on television in one to two weeks.

The ad features Eminem performing his hit single “Lose Yourself,” a song that was at the center of another controversy involving Apple in 2004.

About 18 months ago, Eight Mile Style, the music publisher for Eminem, filed a lawsuit against Apple claiming it used one of Eminem’s songs in a television advertisement without permission.

The ad was one of the first to promote Apple’s iTunes Music Store, which launched in 2003. It featured a 10-year-old singing “Lose Yourself” while listening to his iPod. Jobs showed the ad alongside several other similar spots. The commercial initially aired on MTV in July 2003.

Eight Mile Style, the music publisher for Eminem, said Apple used song rendition without permission. The suit also named MTV parent company Viacom and advertising agency TBWA/Chiat/Day.

In a statement regarding the matter, a representative Eight Mile Style wrote, “at no time did Apple, Chiat/Day or MTV receive authorization or permission to record, reproduce, perform, transmit, copy, use or otherwise exploit the composition (”Lose Yourself”) for any purpose.”

Apple eventually settled the issue with Eminem/Eight Mile Style in early 2005 for an undisclosed cash sum.

It’s unclear what legal issue — if any — lead Apple to withdraw the new “silhouette” ad.

Eminem’s music is often the focus of much controversy, but “Lose Yourself” is regarded as one of his more tame tracks.

Although Apple has removed all traces of the commercial from its Web site, it can still be viewed as a part of the video stream of Jobs’ keynote.

In related news, the rapper left rehab yesterday, after receiving two months of treatment for a drug addiction.