New and Noteworthy: Legal downloads increase 10x; Apple Retail Stores critical to switching; Mac mini makes switching attractive

Legal downloads increase 10x An article in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer notes that legal music downloads increased 10x in 2004 compared to 2003: "Music fans paid for more than 200 million downloads last year compared with 20 million in 2003, according to the London-based International Federation of the Phonographic Industry." More.

Apple Retail stores critical to "switching" A Macworld UK article notes the increasing role Apple Retail stores are playing in getting Windows users to switch to the Mac: "[An analyst] expects Apple will come close to selling a Mac to one in ten iPod-owning Windows users, simply by using [Apple Retail] stores to show Mac minis and iLife to them." More.

Mac mini makes switching attracive, affordable In his Wall Street Journal column, Walt Mossberg credits the new Mac mini for making it feasible for more Windows users to switch to the Mac: "If my e-mail from readers is any indication, more Windows users are thinking of switching to Apple Computer's Macintosh models than at any time in a decade...But some are put off by Apple's prices...So, this weekend, Apple will start selling its lowest-priced Mac ever, a tiny but full-featured desktop computer called the Mac mini, priced at just $499." More.

Previously on MacFixIt:

• iLife '05 now shipping
• Conflict between Virex 7.5.x and Intego ContentBarrier X
• Saving files with a period (".") at subject beginning in Entourage v.X/2004
• iPod Shuffle: Bad buttons; Going from one Mac to another; more
• Odds and Ends: Opening the Mac mini; Griffin radioSHARK: AM audio quality issues; more
• Utilities Updates: Duplicate Catcher 1.3.2; Default Folder X 1.9.7; ChangeShortName 1.1.3; Virex 7 DAT 050119; more
• New and Noteworthy: Computer, microphone, iPod make broadcasting personal; Think Secret retains pro bono lawyer

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