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Apple AAC: iTunes, iPod, Macs, Windows

Windows WMA: Just about every media player(WMP, real, Winamp, etc), Macs(Yes they have WMP), Windows, atleast 10 different mp3 player manufacturers, and you can burn on CDs (depends on who you buy from and what rights you have


Hmm... let's correct that, emphasis added:
Apple AAC: iTunes, iPod, Macs, Windows, RealPlayer 10, burn on CDs

Windows WMA: "Just about every media player (WMP, real, Winamp, etc)"--on Windows. Nothing on Mac OS. (No, MS has still NOT bothered to release a Mac version of WMP that can play DRM'd or Windows Media 9 files), Windows, at least 10 different mp3 player manufacturers, and you can burn on CDs (depends on who you buy from and what rights you have)

So your only significant argument is that WMA supports many of the newer cheap plastic MP3 players. Wow! All those other portable MP3 players are soooo superior to the iPod. If I can't use one of those, I'll cry! Oh, and I'll take a crappy ten-pound plastic Compaq laptop to match it!

You'd rather trade universal full burning rights and the ability to play on two major platforms and support for the most popular MP3 player--for "depends" burning rights (in addition to other inconsistent features of the licensing schemes), support on only one platform, and support for several also-ran MP3 players? Okay, but suit yourself.

Dont talk trash unless you really know what you are talking about....
Oh, the irony.

Just the thing to wear while waiting for the subway at the iPod station.

Where's the PowerBook G5 when I can afford it? I hope the dollar keeps this low with respect to the euro until I've bought that little baby.

Links? Here is a longer article with background info.

In addition to showing up in the news from time to time, I think that Apple bundles figures like that in the news releases that they give out to shareholders.

I'm not sure about the shareholder news releases though, I'm not a stockholder. I just heard about them in a comment on another story.

Apple doesn't give a discount, which I know is the major part of the point you are making, but they do allow for prepurchasing in large chunks. iTunes has an "allowance" feature that lets you prepay a certain amount. It was designed with kids in mind whose parents don't want them just buying as much music as the credit card allows.

Also, there are gift certificates you can purchase, that when redeemed work like allowances. You can purchase them through iTunes itself, through the online Apple store, or even as gift cards at Target.

I think a bulk discount would be awesome, but at least bulk purchases (without a discount) are available. This achieves the credit card processing savings you mentioned.

You forgot Apple.

The Wall Street Journal (right arm & shirt off back required) reported last month that Apple were planning to pay off the rest of their debt when it was due on Feb 16. So I'd be surprised if it wasn't true. MacMinute have a summary.

Trent Reznor is squarely in the Mac camp. Here's a few URLs:
http://www.apple.com/hotnews/articles/2000/06/tren t/
http://www.macminute.com/2002/01/31/01311710
http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2002/09/17/rezno r/

Yes. I saw a report talking about the new PS2s and it was stated that the FireWire was not used by nearly enough people to justify the manufacture of PS2s with that feature. I find that somewhat disappointing but at the same time I have to state that I never used the FireWire on my PS2. It just is disappointing to see a device lose features.

However, I think Apple forming an artist-friendly label is MUCH more likely (or at least advantageous) than artists doing it themselves because artists haven't got the money to start it and Apple could split the money gained by muscling out the RIAA (if it somehow could) between themselves and the artists.

Because they're in the midst of releasing updates to the OS to work with Apple's AAC format with Home Media Option. I bet there's some code that Apple doesn't want to share (I don't blame them). Apple probably told them to stop allowing image downloads if they're going to get on the AAC front.

Just my $0.02.

I check all these daily:

MacInTouch
MacNN
MacMinute
MacFixIt
Mac OS X Hints
MacSurfer

Great software update resources:

VersionTracker
MacUpdate
OS X freshmeat

Other great sites:

O'Reilly Mac DevCenter
O'Reilly Mac OS X Page
Apple Mac OS X downloads
Apple Third Party Products Guide

Developer sites:

Mac OS X Developer Home Page
Mac OS X Developer Documentation
Darwin
OpenDarwin
fink

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Well said. For another example, look at Apple's success with their own Apple Stores. Sure, they've cannibalized a lot of the independent Apple dealers, but they've brought those profits in-house. I work for a publishing company, and we make a lot more money selling our books directly to customers than we do selling them to Amazon at a discount.

The Neistat brothers' side of the story contains this gem:

"We then purchased a third-party battery online. I'm very proficient with electronics, but it's a very difficult thing to change the battery on the iPod, and that's why I think Apple doesn't offer the option... When I put in the new battery, I broke my iPod. So then I had to buy a brand new $400 iPod." According to Corey Neistat, it's then that the fury that fueled the video truly kicked in. [emphasis added]

Basically, the Neistat brothers tried to install a new battery into the iPod, broke the iPod, then railed at Apple for not offering a replacement.

Even more fishy is the assertion--in the Neistat brothers' side of the story--that Apple did not offer a replacement for the iPod battery until after their video was downloaded by hundreds of thousands of users. The Neistat brothers began editing their video on 23 November, but MacMinute reports that Apple began offering an iPod battery replacement service as early as 14 November. Google gives the same date for both MacRumors' and MacNN's reports of Apple's iPod battery replacment service.

Given the discrepancies between what the Neistat brothers have so far said and the journalistic record, the Neistat brothers appear to be at best disingenous. At worst, they are liars looking to punish Apple for their own poor hacking skills.

Apple only announced their $99 battery replacement plan four days before these guys got their domain name. It's plausible that Apple's announcement was a result of the campaign waged by these guys before they were able to edit the video and get the site up.

Story here on MacMinute, and here is the official Apple page on it.

For you non link clicking types, this is MacMinute's blurb:
21-Nov-2003

Apple is now offering an iPod AppleCare Protection Plan for both Mac and Windows users. (Previously, AppleCare was only available for Apple's desktops and laptops.) iPods come standard with 90 days of phone support and one year of hardware service coverage. The US$59 AppleCare plan extends service and support coverage for your iPod, its included accessories, and iTunes for up to two years from the original purchase date. With the plan, you get direct access to Apple experts for answers by phone and access to Web-based resources. If your iPod or its accessories need serviced, Apple-certified technicians will repair it or provide a replacement. The plan is available for all iPod models within their one-year limited warranty.

... these /. mac fags should go get their own site and leave real enthusiasts/nerds alone.

Okay. I'll bite. Dear Mister Troll sir...as to us having a site of our own...we do. In fact we have several from which to choose. And, pray tell, what in your tiny little troll-like mind leads you to believe that Mac users are all of a particular sexual orientation of any kind at all? Or that mac users don't qualify as nerds? And by some strange twisting path of logic that we don't in some way belong here?Newsfalsh! The mac now not only sports a command line environment, but you can set your environment to your shell of choice!

I know, I know, please don't feel the trolls. Move along. Move along...

Although there have been several attempts at online music services in the past, I find it very interesting that the only 'viable' and well-publicized services today can be considered derivatives of the iTMS.

The same is true for the iPod - there were several HD-based MP3 players on the market before its launch, and more than a few released after. However, virtually all 'modern' portables seem to take several chapters from the iPod playbook, and some are far less subtle.

I won't believe that Apple is the only company with the talent to conceive and release groundbreaking products, but they may very well be one of the few companies with the courage to do so. I find this to be very disheartening.

or you could spend your $50 worth of cold hard cash on pepsi and get the tunes that way...

From the Apple Q4 conference call:

137,000 iBooks shipped ($154 million)
336,000 iPods shipped ($121 million)

iPods represent almost as much income as iBooks!

Without iTMS for windows!

What will those numbers look like after this Xmas?

Hello?

The iTMS drives sales of iPods.
Apple need not turn a profit on the iTMS.
By Making-The-Whole-Widget (tm) Apple can compete against the likes of Napster, et al on completly different terms.

It fits in with their overall iApps strategy.

It would be interesting to know what the trends are like on the Mac side. Were the Mac users downloading a million songs a week? If so, then the Windows users didn't download any -- that's probably no more accurate or meaningful than the "million downloads, million songs" correlation.

From the stats up to September, Mac iTunes users were averaging 500K songs per week and Steve Jobs indicated during the iTunes for Windows announcement that the average since then has been moving up towards 600K.

So, if we assume 600K/wk, then the 3.5 day period should have yielded 300K of sales. Given that 1 million songs were sold, it looks like 700K of those were to Windows users. Of course, all the hoopla (and simultaneous release of a new version of iTunes for the Mac) may have led Mac users to ramp up their buying a bit.

I'd guess at least 500K songs were sold to Windows users.

Yes. Yes it will.

Apple is most definitely concerned with market share - it's the only way they can keep the platform from further being ghetto-ized. I'm not saying Boo about Apple's innovation - they "get it", already. They need to somehow get everyone ELSE to "get it".

Apple has succeeded in the last two years simply by not offering a commodity product, and that's the balance that Apple has to try and walk: create amazingly cool shit that folks will somehow differentiate from a $600 costco PC, and be willing to spend the difference. The eMac is certainly a great deal, but why can't we buy it in Costco, where I'm certain it would sell? Apple is obviously NOT emphasizing these low-profit models, and it's probably why they're as healthy as they are.

sloth jr

What about these, out at Virginia Tech?

What about these, out at Virginia Tech?

Here's some:

1. Web Objects
2. Open Directory
3. Article on Support for Web Standards (HTML, XHTML, etc.)

Enough for now - I have better things to do. Next time, feel free to search Google for this stuff on your own. Takes about 5 minutes to grab the basics. In each and every instance above, it talks about partial/complete implementation and the things they built on to extend the original standard. Which is the point. Enjoy.

Well, hopefully you'll have one closer sometime this year.

There's lies, there's damned lies, and there's the Apple marketing department.

We all KNOW that Apple users are pot smoking hippies

Don't forget that the company itself is so constrained by the political views of its corporate leadership and board, which now includes Al Gore, that it's accepting lower sales. Commie mutant traitors!

In typical Slashdot fashion, this is old news. Everyone had the link before the PowerPage... For instance:

MacMinute
MacNN
MacDailyNews

And every other half-baked Mac site. Good article though.

IMHO, the best (fastest, most 'real-time') running transcripts of keynotes are those at MacMinute. Today's transcript is at http://www.macminute.com/wwdc2003.html.

JP

IMHO, the best (fastest, most 'real-time') running transcripts of keynotes are those at MacMinute. Today's transcript is at http://www.macminute.com/wwdc2003.html.

JP

Follow the live WWDC Steve Jobs Keynote coverage at macminute.com.

By the minute updates here

Link up to keynote stream will go up after the keynote finishes. LoopRumors says they'll link to it once it is available.

Fear not :) The stream will probably be QT MPEG-4 which I don't think mplayer supports yet (Strange because it supports quicktime containers and a variety of mpeg-4 based codecs). So keep windows up for another half-hour or so and start the stream when it appears.

Here. Refreshes every 60 seconds.

Rejoyce.

More info from MacMinute.

Apple today released Safari Update 1.0 Beta (v51) 1-10-03, a new version of the company's Web browser that was introduced on Tuesday. A detailed list of improvements was not given, but Apple did say that the update is "recommended for all Safari users."

Hope this at least resolves the /tmp folder issue.

all dual combined with the faster motherboard should make these really fast running 10.2. can't wait to see the benchmark tests. it is also the first Mac since the Beige towers that have two full sized front bays. if you look at the new case modifications, you can see that this is meant to move a TON of air through the case. the whole back panel seems to have speed holes, and there are ports in the front of the case for full air pass through (older G4/G3 case had no venting in the front and most of the back was sealed up except the fan ports). it also has a monster heatsink. apple.com has some VRs posted of the inside and outside of the case. besides the already listed stats, here are some other interesting bits of information. the full breakdown is now up at Apple.com as well.

from macminute.com-

* the ability to have two internal optical drives via a build-to-order option that adds a second DVD/CD-RW Combo Drive ($250)

* support for four internal hard drives (two ATA/66, two ATA/100)
* support for up to 2GB of DDR RAM with four slots (266MHz in the dual-867MHz, 333MHz in the dual-1GHz and dual-1.25GHz)
* dual-867MHz and dual-1GHz feature 1MB of DDR L3 per processor, dual-1.25GHz features 2MB per processor

* processor heatsink is considerably larger than previous models, but lacks a fan

* the return of an audio-in port

* ATI Radeon 9000 Pro replaces NVIDIA's GeForce4 MX in the mid-range and high-end models, but a GeForce4 Ti card is still available for an additional $250 (or $350 on the low-end Power Mac G4)

* video cards feature ADC/DVI connectors; VGA is supported through an included adapter

* dual-1.25GHz system delivers 18.3 gigaflops, versus 15 gigaflops for the previous generation dual-1GHz (20% increase)

"Customer response exceeded our wildest expectations so we're not continuing the rebate at this time," Ling Hong, an Amazon.com spokesperson told MacMinute. "But obviously all the pre-orders that we received during the time that the rebate offer was posted on our site will be honored." Hong said all orders placed up until 19:00 PT yesterday will be eligible.

From MacMinute: "Overwhelming demand caused Amazon.com to retract its $50 rebate for Mac OS X 10.2. Amazon.com caught the attention of the Mac community earlier this week when it rolled out the exclusive rebate, but pulled it yesterday afternoon without notice. 'Customer response exceeded our wildest expectations so we're not continuing the rebate at this time,' Ling Hong, an Amazon.com spokesperson told MacMinute. 'But obviously all the pre-orders that we received during the time that the rebate offer was posted on our site will be honored.' Hong said all orders place up until 7:00 pm PDT yesterday will be eligible."

The word on the street is that Apple is going to release their own Windows iPod software as soon as Macworld July. Remember you heard it here first. Unless you heard it somewhere else already :)

I suppose it's a good idea. Tons of folks have speculated that Apple sells more Macs because people want iPods and need Macs to run them. This may be true, but perhaps the iPod can be the "gateway drug" of PC to Macintosh conversion for some.

I read about the new release at Mac Minute and quickly get to /. to report the news, when the news about the update was just posted. Now's that's instant gratification!

Spymac sucks... they're as bad as MacOS Rumors.

Think Secret and As the Apple Turns are the only reliable (heh) sources for good rumors.

MacMinute usually gets it right the day of the keynote.

• Macfixit
• AFP548
• Maccentral
• MacNN
• MacMinute
• As The Apple Turns
• MOSR
• Mac OS X Hints
• Versiontracker
• MacSlash

but no pictures >:(

The pics weren't in the original story anyways, just on the home page. Here's the cover pic--on another site, so no worry that it will be taken down--and here's a nice pic which is still accessible on timecanada.com.

Man, that and the printer-friendly version of the article? If timecanada doesn't fire their webmaster for posting too early, they sure as hell should fire him for being unable to even take the story and picture down successfully!

Deep link still works...

Pic
Cover photo

You can buy a flat display for your Power Mac G4
Apple Studio Display (15" flat panel) $599.00
But some news sites say that No flat-panel iMac at Macworld Expo next week
The really news may be the $ that costs such a Mac (Design+power+flat screen)

please be gentle with the site :-)

http://www.macminute.com/

MacMinute is at the event, covering it live. It's called the iPod, and it's an MP3 player.

• 5GB HD space
• 20 minute skip protection
• Firewire