A Pilgrim’s Digression

In case you missed it, earlier this week, RealNetworks announced the availability of a piece of software called Harmony which makes it possible to purchase songs from the RealPlayer music service and play them on the iPod.

This sounds to me like a kick in the teeth for Steve Jobs, who a few months ago rejected an offer for a partnership with Real’s CEO, Rob Glaser. It remains to be seen how Apple will respond, but this article makes it clear that Steve Jobs is none too pleased. Dedicated Mac Heads are screaming foul and demanding Apple Legal come down on Real like a freight train on a Yugo. Personally, I don’t think Real would have made a move like this without considering the legal ramifications. There may be little Apple can do, except to update the iPod regularly, altering the iPod continually so that RealNetwork’s songs do not play on the iPod.

In the end, Apple may not want to do anything. All along, Steve Jobs has said that he sells iPods, not music. So if Harmony results in a few Windows users buying an iPod now that they can listen to Real’s music on it, where is the harm in that?

On my iPod now: “The Seeker” by The Who. This is one of my favorite songs from one of my favorite movies.

I looked under chairs
I looked under tables
I tried to find the key
To fifty million fables
They call me the seeker …

The movie in which I first heard this song is called The Limey. Terence Stamp (General Zod, Superman II) plays a bad ass, old Brit, recently released from prison in England, who travels to America to seek violent vengeance on Peter Fonda. Fonda plays a wealthy, sniveling, aging hippie who seduced and then acidentally killed Stamp’s daughter, who had come to California to make it in show business. Stamp is great in this film. Think of General Zod with gray hair, without the goatee, slimmer and meaner. Now that’s a good movie.