Last summer the Internet was under a spell. That spell being the Fake Steve Jobs blog. While the unleashing of the real “fake Steve Jobs” might have caused the blog to slowly take a head dive, the Fake Steve Jobs Mock Turtleneck might make people confuse you for an internet cultural icon for half a second.

The real Fake Steve Jobs himself gave permission to use his persona on the traditional Steve Jobs-style mock turtleneck. It seems now they only have the shirt available in sizes Small and Medium. For the larger Jobs wannabe, they might be shit out of luck. Get your own for $20 my small framed friends. — Andrew Dobrow

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At this year’s Macworld conference, Steve Jobs introduced the new ultra-slim MacBook Air by pulling it out of a normal manila folder to showcase its impressively anorexic design. If you thought this act of showmanship was a pretty cool idea, you’re not alone. You can now even get your own Manila Folder MacBook Air Case.

Made from durable upholstery-grade vinyl and lined with fuzzy, soft fleece, the case is a piece of protective gear that fanboys can really admire. It resembles an actual envelope so closely, they might even be able to pull off the shipment by slapping your address right on the case itself. Get your own for $29.95. — Andrew Dobrow

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Type the word “virus” into the search field on the Apple site and you get an interesting result. The word “Windows” pops up with a sly looking smiley face, telling you that you’ll love Apple.

Steve Jobs has always got a few sly tricks up his sleeve. All in all we think its just harmless fun rather than dirty tactics. If he wanted to he could just come out and say they are crap and throw it in our face. Oh, wait…hmm…those I’m A Mac ads were kinda nasty. — Andrew Dobrow

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Less than a week remains until Apple CEO Steve Jobs and Microsoft Dictator Bill Gates square off in a head to head debate at the All Things Digital Event over in New York City. What can we expect out of the big two. A cordial convo or a raunchy romp?

There will no doubt be lots of mud thrown over the whole PMP competition between the Zune and the iPod as well as talk about a possible Zune phone compared to the upcoming iPhone. We’d love just to see these guys go at it. Tux can be the ref. — Andrew Dobrow

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With his band’s new release last month, Year Zero, Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor has been feeling the pain that DRM has been causing for record sales. Here’s what Reznor had to say on his blog:

As the climate grows more and more desperate for record labels, their answer to their mostly self-inflicted wounds seems to be to screw the consumer over even more. A couple of examples that quickly come to mind:

* The ABSURD retail pricing of Year Zero in Australia. Shame on you, UMG. Year Zero is selling for $34.99 Australian dollars ($29.10 US). No wonder people steal music. Avril Lavigne’s record in the same store was $21.99 ($18.21 US).

By the way, when I asked a label rep about this his response was: “It’s because we know you have a real core audience that will pay whatever it costs when you put something out - you know, true fans. It’s the pop stuff we have to discount to get people to buy.”

So… I guess as a reward for being a “true fan” you get ripped off.

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Apple CEO Steve Jobs has confirmed that Apple will be releasing LED-backlit Macs by the end of this year. “We plan to introduce our first Macs with LED backlight technology in 2007,” he wrote. “Our ability to completely eliminate fluorescent lamps in all of our displays depends on how fast the LCD industry can transition to LED backlighting for larger displays.”

The confirmation comes in the form of an open letter to shareholders and customers about Apple phasing out mercury lit screens in an attempt to boost environmentally safe technology. — Andrew Dobrow

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The confirmation of the iPhone barely out of Steve Jobs’ mouth before rumors started popping up about a possible Zune phone in the works from Microsoft. A newly published patent, which was submitted last year by the Gates’ Squad, seems to be the UI of a possible Zune phone. Whatever it is, it’s definitely some kind of interface for a mobile device. The patent describes an interface with dynamic tiles, changing to match the suit of any running application.

Some of the logos displayed on the UI are really interesting actually. There’s one that seems to be the iconic scale of justice. Will the Zune phone double as a lawyer as well? The most important factor we need to know is whether a Zune phone would display blue screens on system errors. If that was the case we’re not sure if we could even think about purchasing it. Hell, for all we know, the Zune 2 could have been planned to be a mobile device all along. — Andrew Dobrow

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After the rumors running wild for about 24 hours now, EMI and Apple finally announced officially that EMI will now be offering DRM-free music to be sold on iTunes, and a higer audio quality than was offered before. This announcement spurs memories of Steve Jobs and his rant on DRM on the official Apple blog. Now that EMI has decided to release its music with the dreaded anti-piracy protection lifted, will other companies follow in its footsteps?

The new DRM-free music will be available at an audio quality of 26 kbps AAC format, twice the quality currently offered in the iTunes catalog. The new agreement also raises the price of these songs to $1.29 each, though Apple says they will still sell DRM enabled music for the $0.99 price tag. The DRM-free catalog will be available in May. No news on whether The Beatles will ever make it to iTunes. That subject was conveniently not announced. — Andrew Dobrow

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Jailbird and corporate genius Bill Gates, after dropping out of Harvard decades ago, is finally receiving an honorary degree from the prestigious university. Gates would have been part of the class of 1977 if he had not dropped out to start up Microsoft. He’s what we like to call a college sell out. So, only late by 34 years, Gates will finally receive his Harvard degree. This is proof that people can have their cake and eat it too. In yo FACE, Steve Jobs! — Andrew Dobrow

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Sources are saying that at next month’s upcoming NAB event, a mere 25 days away, Apple will launch its release of the Mac Leopard operating system, along with eight-core Mac Pros. Leopard has been rumored as having a release in late-March to mid-April, and sources say that its release at NAB is all but officially confirmed.

The timing of a NAB release makes sense because of Apple’s scheduled workshops and master classes at the World Wide Developers’ conference in June. Invitations from Apple to the event say simply “Lights, Camera, Apple”. Steve Jobs just loves to drop little tantalizing hints. You can also expect Apple to reveal plans on the eight-core Mac Pros, which will feature Leopard in all of its glory. — Andrew Dobrow

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