After trying to sell us albums on USB keys, the (desperate) music industry suits just announced that Walmart and BestBuy will offer SlotMusic to its consumers, a LP on a microSD card.

OK, they got some points right: high bitrate (320kbps), DRM-free, and extra content along with the tunes (photo, videos…). Apparently, the advantage is that you can stick the card in your computer and/or portable music player. Except, well, the Apple ones, and I would not hold my breathe until I see a SD card slot on an iPod. But never mind, iPods and iPhones are not that successful, right?

Oh and did I mention that you need a USB adaptor to be able to transfer files on your computer? How much money is gonna be put wasted into that launch, and for how long they will try?

Last week, I bought myself a flat-screen TV, long overdue purchase, and the crisp temperatures of fall coming made me realize that I needed to invest before winter. Then I had to decide what to hook to my monitor. Cable? Too many frustrating commercial breaks, and way too expensive. A DVD/Blu-Ray player? Not really, most of the things I watch are TV series that I download from iTunes, so my only decent option was: the Apple TV. This box is awesome. It synchronizes all the movies/TV series/music/photos with your computer, is hooked to the Internet wirelessly, so that you can buy/rent directly and (most of them) in HD any movie from their catalog, get automatically TV episodes of your favorite shows ready to be watched the day after its network airing, and watch YouTube videos. I can’t go to bed anymore, I’m addicted. And the best of all is that it is like magic: I decide what I want to watch and when! All of this without any kind of “hard-media” (DVD, CD, Blu-Ray, SD card, USB…)

And then you have the iPod Touch. And the iPhone. Buy all the music that you want from your portable music device. No “hard-media” involved either. Seamless download straight to your iTunes library, in a couple of clicks (can we say click when it comes to a touch-screen interaction?) Okay, iTunes still needs some ironing with better bit rate and no DRM protection, but iTunes Plus is supposed to fix it.

I am not saying that Apple holds the only key to selling music, but they have a pretty good system in place. And they are not the only ones to believe that wireless is the way to go.

So, SanDisk, no thank you.

Now, Apple, if you could let me download music over the 3G network (I can download heavy files on Safari and Mail already, plus I pay a stiff price every month to use that supposedly faster network), fix the Remote App on the iPhone to control my TV so that I don’t have to hold my iPhone in the right hand and the white remote in the left hand, let me play music from my iPhone through my AirTunes speakers, and convince HBO and Showtime to make their TV series available on the iTunes Store the day after they air and not one year later, I swear that I will never ever again insert any kind of media in my hardwares. Except maybe if I decide to go to the video store to see if there is a cute guy wandering in the aisles.

Two things I find insultingly expensive in life. The price of a subway ride in London (£4, or $7.79!!!) and the rates that you have to cough to connect your laptop to the internet in public places (think airports and Starbucks’ T-Mobile hot-spots plans). In my neighborhood, every single coffee shop has free wifi, which was a great way for those non-chain cafés to fight against the Seattle giant. But today, Starbucks and AT&T announced a new partnership that will offer “Starbucks Card holders up to two hours of free Wi-Fi service per day at Starbucks locations offering Wi-Fi access, while more than 12 million qualifying AT&T broadband and AT&T U-verse Internet customers will have unlimited free access to the Wi-Fi service.” (quoting AppleInsider)

Plus more than 5 million of its remote access services business customers, with plans to extend the benefits to its existing mobile phones subscribers. Plus the ongoing rollout free iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store access for users of Apple’s iPod touch, iPhone and other portables running iTunes.

Now if only they could replace all the chairs with some of the indispensable Hawaii Chairs featured below, I swear we’d shut down the NY offices to move into the closest Starbucks location!

(thanks Jon for sharing your 6-pack secret)