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Domain: jakeludington.com

Stories and comments across the archive that link to jakeludington.com.

Comments · 8

  1. Re:What do you get combining Apple + gaming compan by earlymon · · Score: 1, Troll · on Apple Eyeing EA?

    Jacked up the price and sampling bitrate for higher fidelity (insofar as that's even possible with digital music).

    Yes, they are about the money. But who isn't?

    Everyone's Apple-DRM anger would make more sense if they had pioneered the per-song deal without DRM, then added a "gotcha" lower-price, lower-quality, DRM-laden product. But they did the opposite.

    As for point #1, replacing your DRM-laden songs. Now that is typical Apple - typical American corporate beast. They didn't even offer the option, trade up to DRM free (with higher sampling bitrate) for 30 cents. I or anyone could argue the problems with ensuring the old copy was gone, etc, etc, and how poor Apple would have pay again for the license because that's how the music guys would look at it.

    But that part is just the way-sucky part of American business ethics. Is it Apple's fault you can't convert your DRM songs? The record companies'? Both? The end result is the consumer has a moving target, accepts (in general) that the market has moved on to newer/better, and bites the bullet. To be clear - I'm not saying it's ok because it's understandable, I'm saying it's less ok because it's understandable.

    Meanwhile - can't you burn your DRM-laden music to CD, then import it DRM-free? I thought you could do this, I don't know. I know the quality **may** take a hit - not sure. But you might try it - CDs are way cheap, hold a lot of songs, it's worth a try.

    http://www.jakeludington.com/itunes/20060513_unlock_itunes_music_store_files.html

    And for a bit of Apple-DRM background, from a few years ago, check out:
    http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughtsonmusic/

    Hope this helps you have a better day!

  2. Re:Exactly what is new about AppleTV? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0 · on Netflix and iTunes Rentals Aiming At Different Crowds

    Aside from games and a built-in (but NOISY) DVD player, Apple TV has the following things going for it over Xbox 360: I would expect the Apple TV to do video-related functions much better than the Xbox 360, which is primarily a gaming console. However, until this week, the Xbox 360 was arguably a better video-playing set top box. Note that the Xbox 360 allowed downloads directly to the console about a year ago (purchase, rental, standard definition, and high definition).

    -Your purchases get backed up to iTunes on your PC. It annoys me to no end that every other week or so I have to delete shows I've paid for because you can't back up programming to your computer. That is a good feature (added this week) for iTunes purchases. That's not so great for rentals, since they're useless after 24 hours.

    Also, Amazon Unbox purchases can be bought (and backed up) on your PC and streamed to your Xbox 360 using Windows Media Player 11 or Windows Media Center. Of course, Media Center Versions of Windows (XP MCE, Vista Home Premium, Vista Ultimate) make this process much simpler since the Xbox 360 has been promoted since launch as a "Media Center Extender."

  3. Regular mobile web user by j-stroy · · Score: 1 · on Dvorak Says gPhone is Doomed

    I too use a samsung phone on the web daily. I use it for reverse phone number lookups, directory assistance, google maps, Calendar schedulizer, email checking, news reading. I have a $10/month unlimited web on Bell Canada pay as you go.

    The PIM synching for phones sux! Not all are functions or phones are supported, with BitPIM or DataPilot. I did find a googlesync app which does not resolve duplicate events, but seems to be the only hack that almost works. Bluetooth is an option, but usually you have to send contacts or appts one at a time. The manufacturers and carriers have shown almost criminal ineptness or intent when it comes to actually using the features of these devices.

    An as far as iPhone and iPod, I was doing most of that with my Compaq/HP iPaq PDA 5 years ago. The problem was the lack of easily accessable apps for majority of non-techno users. Then the PDA market never really matured properly due to poor designs/marketing, and even todays PDA is only marginally better than the early devices.

    The amount of "carrier" brand web content that gets pushed to users is enough to make anyone doubt the usefulness of it. It takes some downloading and hacking service codes to get proper filesystem access so that cool apps, etc can be easily installed.

  4. Re:Need a straight answer on this by barefoothannibal · · Score: 1 · on High-Quality HD Content Can't Easily Be Played by Vista

    Alright. I load in HDV camera footage via CineForm, and edit in Vegas. I output WMV files and also MPEG HDV m2t files for output back to tape. I view the WMV files on the PC. Does Vista affect any of this?

    In my experience, yes. First off, Many new cameras from Sony, Hitachi and Panasonic (Such as the new drool-worthy HDR-SR1) use AVC-HD for their HD video. Vista refuses to natively support this format. Furthermore, Sony Vegas does not work with Vista. Additionally, vista hogs system resources even with the "areo" effects turned off. That is why I "upgraded" my new state of the art core 2 duo notebook from Vista to XP (which took an additional $70 for a replacement wireless card. which the manufacturer emails me: only has drivers for vista) Now it boots in 40 seconds with a fresh (windows updated but otherwise unoptimized XP install) compared with the ~3 minute boot time with Vista.
  5. Re:Bullshit by Durandal64 · · Score: 4, Informative · on Jobs Favors DRM-Free Music Distribution

    If Jobs wanted a consistent, all-or-nothing experience, he would make iTunes encrypt all music -- ripped CDs, MP3s from the intarweb, etc.
    I said a consistent experience with the store, you blitering idiot. Why the hell would Jobs forcibly have iTunes DRM legitimately-ripped CDs? Hell, this is an argument in favor of Jobs' comments today, not against them. iTunes doesn't even offer the user the option of DRM'ing their rips, unlike Windows Media Player.

    The current situation is inconsistent. If a user wants to make a MP3-CD for their car player, some of their songs can be copied (MP3s ripped from original CDs) and some can't (iTunes Store purchases).
    Wrong. iTunes will simply convert the protected AACs to MP3's to create the MP3 CD.

    How the fuck is that consistent? The average user doesn't understand why there's a difference. They don't know that iTunes Store tracks are encrypted, and they certainly don't know how to tell which is which. They just have a bunch of music and want everything to work the same way.
    Bullshit, you retard. There's a "Purchased" category in iTunes that shows you exactly what you've bought from the store, and all music bought from the store has the ".m4p" extension. Have you ever used iTunes?
  6. Re:My Talk With Richard Stallman About This by gentlemen_loser · · Score: 1 · on Norway Outlaws iTunes

    Consumer choice??? As far as I knew, consumers have always had a choice with the iPod:

    See some options here

  7. Re:Yes but... by Technician · · Score: 2, Insightful · on Company Claims New Chip Converts Heat To Electricity

    how long will it be before The Machines start using us to produce electricity?

    Already hapening..

    http://www.haimei.com/mobile_phone_accessory/manua l_charger.htm

    http://www.the-gadgeteer.com/review/shakelight_nig htstar_led_flashlight_review

    http://www.jakeludington.com/gadget_envy/20050707_ hand_crank_led_flashlight.html

    http://www.ambientweather.com/emra.html

  8. Backup to Mini-DV is easier and cheaper than DVD by bigmouth_strikes · · Score: 1 · on It's 2006 and Backups For Home User Still Tricky?

    If you have a Mini-DV camera you can get between 10 and 20 GB per tape, and a DV-tape is about the same or cheaper than a blank DVD.

    Article here

    Of course, recovering from tape is a more cumbersome since you can't just plug it in a start browsing the files. But then again, it's better to minimize the effort on something you do often (creating the backup) rather than something you do seldom (recovering from a backup).