The November 24 show should be a good one, with a retrospective look back at the last decade of gadgets and games. The Christmas show, which will happen at the Hotel CBD rather than the Shelbourne on December 8, will be a Christmas bonanza, with the coolest tech for the holiday gift-giving season. Should be a lot of fun on both counts, so if you’re in Sydney, make sure you RSVP and check it out (and say G’day if you see your friendly Giz editor there).

[Byteside]

The New York Times’ account of the behind-the-scenes negotiations that led to iTunes going totally DRM-free, getting downloads over 3G and variable pricing is fascinating for several reasons. One, it reveals that while Jobs said he was taking the holidays off to spend time with his family instead of preparing for Macworld, he was plenty busy making record executives cry. The Christmas Eve call, the Times says, “ricocheted around the music industry.”

Two, it reveals that Apple and iTunes have reached a tipping point since becoming the number one music retailer in the world: iTunes is now a more powerful institution than the record labels themselves. Just 18 months ago, Universal was flexing its muscles to show that iTunes still depended on the record instury, not the other way around. But in this round of negotiations, “several high-level music executives” told the Times (anonymously, of course) that “they operated in fear of Apple’s removing a label’s products from the iTunes store over a disagreement, even though that has never happened. The labels do not have much leverage in negotiating with Apple.”

Sony was the lone dissenter, which resulted in the “particularly tense” Christmas Eve chat. And well, we all know how it turned out. [NYT]

Though the kid might have a faint “I’m totally gonna see this on YouTube” glimmer in his eye, it’s still a pretty funny clip. (Warning: Turn down those speakers.) [via Maxconsole]

APC also suggests a course of action to people affected by Optus’ move – first, send the network a formal complaint, then contact the ACCC, the Office of Fair Trading or the telecommunications industry ombudsman to make your complaint. If enough people make enough noise, hopefully next Christmas won’t see the same horrible gift sent to Optus customers again.

[APC Mag]

Sergeant Kuffer Kaltenborn explains that “Heath Blom wanted a remote-controlled aeroplane for Christmas, and not the Wii,” unlike every other person on the planet under 30. The paper isn’t too clear on what exactly went down, but it appears that Blom acted like a real asshole in front of his grandparents and his girlfriend called him on it: “When he didn’t get the plane, he got really upset. He acted like a 10-year-old kid.”

One thing led to another, and she alleges that “He dragged me down two flights of stairs, by the hair,” Young said. Blom, on the other hand, says that he “stood in the doorway trying to block her. She punched me in the eye. She punched me three times. I said ‘That’s it.’ And I pulled her hair.” However it happened, both were hauled off by the cops and booked on misdemeanor charges of “domestic-related” simple assault.

Today’s holiday lesson: Don’t act like an ingrateful prick when you get a Wii for Christmas, or you will go to jail. Anyone else think an appropriate sentence would be giving the Wii (or several) to charity? [Boston Herald via Game Politics via Kotaku]

The rig was created and programmed by Sarah Angliss. It plays many tunes, but in this video we are hearing a rendition of Troika, from Prokofiev’s Lieutenant Kije (duh).

Sarah’s provided some technical details:

The bells are being played by wooden balls, spring-mounted on servo-controlled beaters, running off a LynxMotion SSC-32 board, receiving serial signals from a Max/MSP patch (which is interpreting a midi file). These bells have been recycled from Swinging London, my 2006 installation for the Overture Weekend at the South Bank, London. Here they’ve been mounted on a stainless steel shop fitting, reclaimed from the back yard of Moore’s of Dunstable.

And all that is powered by a Mac laptop (MacBook? Pro? She doesn’t say). [YouTube — Thanks, Sarah!]

Like Giz reader Brian, who had this sweet post-xmas story to tell us about his dad:

I went back to MI to my parent’s place this year for Christmas. My dad’s gift this year was a new 10 mega pixel digital camera with all the bells and whistles.

While helping him figure out his new gadget I thought it would be fun to put pictures on the nice Kodak digital photo frame that I gave them for Christmas last year. So I ask my dad, “where is your digital frame”? Imagine my confusion when he points the frame out to me. See attached files.

God bless them. Reminds me of my beloved mother-in-law, who refers to her MacBook as “the television”.

Do you have any funny stories with your parents or grandparents you would like to share? Send them our way. [Thanks Brian]