Slashdot Mirror
Slashback: Drives, Pods, OEMs
Drive-n to strong drink and harsh words. Kenneth Yu writes: "You might recall the overwhelming response to a recent 'Ask Slashdot' regarding the abnormally high failure rates of IBM 75GXP Hard drives, and the pulling of all 75GXP from Pair Networks' Servers. A class action lawsuit has been filed by Michael Granido, Jr., on behalf of himself and all others similarly situated. You can view the complaint in PDF format at http://www.sheller.com/IBM_complaint.pdf. This story was initially reported by Tech Report (http://www.tech-report.com)."
Apropos that, jriskin writes: "Storagereview.com has its new reliability database up and running. I have no affiliation with the site, but it only benifits the community to have as many people contribute as possible. The database is a listing of hard drives and whether or not they have failed, when they were purchased, etc. So get over there and put in all your HD data!" Things like this could help eliminate the anecdotal-only nature of many of hardware complaints, especially if people who are happy with their hardware bother to report it.
Falling far from a tree has nothing to do with it. Majik writes "A quick correction - the iPod has *10* gigs of storage, not 5 (or 6 like the Nomad). And with the Firewire interface you can move an entire CD in under a minute. Although I admit I was hoping for more out of the product announcement, it's still pretty darn cool ... "
On the other hand, jchristopher writes: "Love it or hate it, Apple's new iPod digital music player is here. Yesterday, many people commented that "at least it has no copy protection" and praised Apple's attitude toward digital music. Unfortunately, this may not be the case - according to this New York Times article, the iPod does indeed have copy protection - MP3 files copied to the iPod from one Mac to the iPod CAN'T be offloaded onto a different computer. Ouch!" That means (at least without further hacking) it can't be used as a transfer medium between the G3 and work and the iMac kept hidden in your darkest closet, which is sort of a shame considering that it has all the right things built in to be even better than the several portable firewire drives on the market.
Unorginal Equipment Makers. An Anonymous Coward writes: "This is a follow-up on a previous story posted to Slashdot about Microsoft's anti-competitive OEM contracts." It's a report by German journalist Erik Möller (hi, Erik!), who too an extremely thorough look at the details of OEM bundling deals, and what they mean to customers. Möller's conclusion: "No operating system will ever be able to compete with Microsoft Windows on the desktop market as long as OEMs cannot legally install it besides Windows without losing their license."
'Technical meaures' covers a pretty broad swath. Robotech_Master writes "The RIAA has responded to the 'license to virus' story, calling it a false Internet rumor and explaining their side of the story." So the RIAA officially does not want a license to hack, at least on paper.
Where'd you get that from? Look at the specs: 5GB hard disk drive.
From Apple's iPod Web page:
"Small though it is, iPod has a hefty 5GB hard disk drive."
What the hell? Apples website says: "...Ultra-slim 5-gigabyte hard drive..."
Go to http://store.apple.com and look for your self.
"Not my manner of thinking but the manner of thinking of others has been the source of my unhappiness." - M
That's funny, Apple seems to think its only 5GB.
-Spyky
No it's not. Check the specs page for details. Says so right there, 5GB. So, is there a source?
As for transfering files, it is my understanding that in Idiot Mode (which Apple calls Default Mode), the iPod can only synch with one primary computer at a time. you can operate the device from within iTunes in non-idiot mode, which gives you more flexability.
What the iPod does is mirror the macintosh it's connected to. What that means is that if it's got the mp3s from one mac, they'll get overridden with the mp3s from the next mac you sync with.
However, if you use the iPod as a firewire disk, then you can copy files back & forth (including mp3s that you can play) with glee. They just wanted the RIAA off of their back, so now you have to (gasp) click and drag your files in order to copy them.. It's called "manually copying" the files...
Care about electronic freedom? Consider donating to the EFF!
or are you just happy to see me? ;-)
If you celebrate Xmas, befriend me (538
That means (at least without further hacking) it can't be used as a transfer medium between the G3 and work and the iMac kept hidden in your darkest closet, which is sort of a shame considering that it has all the right things built in to be even better than the several portable firewire drives on the market.
Apple has said explicitly that you could use this 5GB (yes, FIVE gigabyte, not ten) as a storage medium. Presumably the storage of MP3s would be restricted to interfacing with only one unique copy of iTunes. But that's no problem, just zip up (or use the excellent DropStuff, free utility from Aladdin for windows and mac) those MP3s and transfer the files that way. Sure, you won't compress them much, but you can route that silly protection.
Note that in product demos of the beast, the iPod shows up as a FIREWIRE DISK ON THE DESKTOP. I see no problems with transferring MP3s, just be a little craftier. Sheesh. Hardly any hacking required.
There is no legal way to act anti-competitively when you define anti-competitive to mean "illegal".
The government can, and does, impose anti-competitive tariffs and have it still be legal. Congressmen can, and do, give targeted anti-competitive breaks to companies and it is still legal. Patents are legal, 17-year, permits to be anti-competitive. Max, you have yet to define what "anti-competitive" means other than to say it is illegal and it is what Microsoft does.
That, my friend, is exactly what you would expect in a low transactional cost market. This is a market where the Cost of Goods sold is less than 0.1% of the product price. For sake of argument, zero transactional cost. Assume three potential companies start with equal shares of the market. Natural perturbations will cause them to become unequal. The one with the larger share will then have more money for advertising, research, etc. This will cause the share to increase even more. It is a positive feed-back loop.
You may not like anti-competitive effects of Marketing but it is very effective and it is legal. It is especially effective on the herd mentality that was brain-washed by a generation of TV commercials telling them that expensive Brand Name products are much better than low-cost alternatives.
Yes, it is very possible for a new, low transactional cost market to become dominated through legal means. Call it FUD, call it Vaporware, call it Marketing. In the United States, call it legal.
Did Microsoft violate Section 2? I think it did. It is virtually impossible to be a monopoly and not be guilty of maintaining a monopoly. But it may be possible monopolization is inevitable in this market. Even the DoJ lawyer didn't answer the Appellate Court question "We are going to replace one monopoly with another if you're right; right?"
what year did you graduate from Apple U.?
If you celebrate Xmas, befriend me (538
One upset consumer was heard to say, "I read on some web site claiming to have apple insiders that their new digital device was going to be a fully digital electric car with handwriting recognition, 14 pci slots, and a breakfast buffet in the trunk. How dare Apple promise something so great and then deliver a simple mp3 player?"
Other people have complained about the price, feeling that even though the hard drive that powers the iPod costs $400 all by itself, Apple should've cut the price significantly so that their customers don't have to spend so much money. An stock analyst in an expensive suit told us, "I don't get it. Apple somehow managed to post a profit this past quarter, despite everyone else bleeding money and complaining how bad the economy is for computer makers. Where do they get the gall to not be losing millions of dollars?"
After this extreme disappointment, Apple watchers are all looking into the future, hoping for better results from their favorite company next time. Rumors of a levitating PDA that has voice recognition, does tarot card readings, and has wireless access that allows it to communicate with NASA's Cassini space probe have gotten everyone excited!
One time I threw a brick at a duck.
As far as the copy protection goes, it is really not draconian. If you sync your iPod with iTunes, iTunes will overwrite all songs on the iPod that you don't have on your copy of iTunes. However, you can manually copy music files from the iPod to any Mac. The Register has more info. They actually got to play around with one.
It does come wrapped in plastic that says "don't steal music" in 4 languages.
--
The internet is the greatest source of biased information in the history of mankind.
the following is copy and pasted from macintouch.com/ipod.html.
:::::
A lot of people are making the mistake that the iPOD is only and MP3 player.
First and foremost it is a 5 gig firewire drive with 32 megs of static ram, and input as well as output devices (scroll wheel, screen, etc...not sure if the definition of a computer has changed in the last day... but this thing is a lot better than the powermac i owned years ago).
Ok, very simply it is a slave device. Portable Open Database. You know it will have a calendar, clock and whatever apps apple ads or I myself when i understand the OS... aka palm sync. It will also contain a few games... i still use my original game boy and the screen is not much bigger. Everyone thinks this is only a music device... but this is what everyone needs and doesn't even know it.
Ever since Apple took away our floppy drives. I can now take my excel files, photos, mp3 files, cad files, i can even put OSX on it and boot my mac from it!!!!....or any frickin thing I want in my pocket!!!! Just imagine the possibilities... when I am outdoors with my digital camera i can store files on it or when i am in a conference room I can record my voice on the disk.
Why would Apple put such a large screen on there, why would Apple not once place the words music or mp3 player on the device... why is the file system capabilities of this thing so amazing... no one quite understands what this is... remember all those easter eggs that weren't allowed in 9.1 or X...well they are all in this baby... this is iPod, this is our portable little slave device that everyone will want when they realize what it can do...
I seem to recall the last successful (?) class action suit against Iomega for the whole zip disk eating zip drives. Only thing that anyone received was a crappy coupon for Iomega products. IANAL but I pretty sure the case will flop regardless of who wins, getting replacement drives is one thing, but getting cash reimbursement is an exercise in futility.
"Get them before they get....
Hey,
:)
Why not just use resEdit on your MP3 files and tell their resource or info forks that they're some other file format? You could change their file type on the iPod, copy them over, and then change them back.
Sure it isn't elegant, but someone could easily make a resource-fork screwer-around-wither that does it easily, even as a scriptable part of the OS.
Macs are great, cuz you can do deep, intuitive modifications of every part of the OS, from the layout of dialog boxes to the language of menus just by screwing around with various resource forks. Joe User never has to worry about this seedy underbelly of cheap tricks, but everyone else is welcome to cheat wherever they want.
Here's hoping Apple wins the commercial OS battle someday
"Look at me, I invented the stove!" -- Ben Franklin
I read the RIAA comment referred to in which they "deny" requesting a right to hack.
The first half of their comment seems reasonable. Then they admit that the anti-terrorism bill did contain a provision which would make some of their "technical measures" illegal and subsequently the bill was modified.
What is conspicuously absent from their statement is any mention of which provision in the original anti-terrorism bill was problematic. There were anti-hacking provisions and they were modified so as to apply only to acts whose intended effect is to influence or cause harm to the government (I'm paraphrasing here.) Does anyone know if that is the "fix" they are referring to, or is it something else? And can anyone think of a "technical measure" which is legitimate that would have been prohibited by the first draft and not by the final bill?
Also see the Oct. 25 entries on the Mac Resource Page.
Wow. I recognize that as a load of crap and I work in marketing!
- j
Portable firewire HD, sans music player, but:7 .h tml
/. meant that you could move 70 minutes of mp3s in under a minute, because to read 680 meg from a CD would require a read spead of 76x.
http://www.archos.com/us/products/product_50004
Archos has a 20 GB model, it is larger, but I would assume it would be faster- (I can't see having a 7200 RPM drive on an mp3 player, but IMBR), and $100 cheaper (search the net for a better price) for 2x the storage.
Also, it IS five gigabytes, unless apple.com's lying:
http://www.apple.com/ipod/specs.html
I would assume that the person who submitted the
--I hate people when they're not polite -"Psycho Killer", Talking Heads
thanks for posting the link. I can't say that my short report was really "thorough", since much of it is quotes from Hacker and Gassee, but that's partly because of its subject. Since the kind of OEM deals it discusses are certainly not frequent (and possibly organized in a clever contractual hierarchy), it is quite easy to cover them up.
But I think the evidence for their existence was already overwhelming before my own search (you don't have the CEO of a major competitor making such factual claims if there's nothing behind them), and at the point where one manufacturer told me quite straight-forwardly "Yes, we can't create dual-boot machines under our OEM contract, but please don't quote me on that" I decided to do what is called a cut in Prolog and not investigate further. It is really up to the anti-trust authorities now to subpoena these contracts and to then examine them in detail. If I am not mistaken, this was already done by the US regarding the "modification of icons on the desktop" question.
Interesting: In the K5 article, there were quite a few vocal Microsoft supporters who argued that this is a non-issue, either because the contracts don't exist or because they are not relevant -- in the attached poll, however, ~85% said that the OEM pratice should be investigated and quite possibly forbidden. So the silent majority seems to agree that this is a major issue.
Don't be fooled into passivity by a vocal minority: If you agree it's an issue, do something about it -- fax or write the EC in support of my report, or e-mail your own legislators (wherever you are, this seems to be an issue everywhere). Don't let MS get away with this.
Thanks,
Erik
Does my bum look big in this?
Ok, Slashdot gets it wrong on the iPod again. Here's the deal, as can be found on MacFixIt. The iPod has two basic modes, the automatic music management system that syncs with iTunes, and a more manual sort of management method. It will only auto-sync with one "setup" of iTunes, meaning that you can't go to another computer and have it automatically copy all the music that the iPod has but the HD doesn't to the computer. However, you can manually transfer music files back and forth between the iPod and any compatible computer. This all, of course, totally ignores the other major functionality of the device as a plain-jane Firewire HD, which can be used to copy whatever you want between computers.
It's true, the iPod has only 5 billion bytes of storage capacity. Majik was smoking crack with timothy or something. Whatever. Now for the cool shtuff.
:)
What I have heard is that the drive in the iPod is none other than the Toshiba 5GB PC Card Hard Disk Drive, which itself is worthy of GadgetLust. Yep, that iPod's got a Type II PC Card slot in there, just waiting to be upgraded when Toshiba releases a 10-gigger (which probably won't be more than 6 months). If it's not a PC card drive, it's certainly the embedded version of the same drive, and hopefully will be eminently hackable. Here's to rumors, rumours, and the Apple stock I bought after the WTC bombings
In response to your post, I do hope that two-way transferring isn't a problem.
That said...
Thinking about the iPod, I can't help but realise that the use of FireWire is very understated -- basically, it is being used only as a conduit between your computer and the iPod. But wait a second -- FireWire is a device-to-device bus, unlike USB. So do we really need the computer?
Imagine -- being able to transfer music files, playlists, etc. to your buddies by simply attaching a FireWire cable between two iPods. Why not?
Technologically, this is probably a no-brainer. But being Apple, I would have to assume they would be all over this if it were a real feature. It seems that you can only transfer music to the iPod and back to your (or another) Mac. This seems to preclude transferring data and music between iPods, which would be truly a ground-breaking improvement over existing portable music devices.
So, why is this (most assuredly) artificial limitation in place? My guess is pressure on Apple from the music industry (RIAA et al). Thoughts?
-Lunatic
"What's worse - we were accused of equating Internet piracy with terrorism. We may take Internet piracy seriously, but we're not insane."
Oh, I beg to differ... ;-)
"It's one thing to be criticized for what we do - that's fair game. But to be vilified for what we don't do - that's very disheartening."
Maybe if we vilify them even more, they'll be so disheartened that they'll give up! Wouldn't that be the day?
Aw Jeez.
The iPod has 5 GB of storage.
It also does not have any copy protection, but it won't auto-sync between two machines, you have to do it manually (just drag & drop the files).
Hope that clears things up just a little.
I tried to enter my hard drives into their reliability database, but they don't accept any drives older than 1998. How can you get any reliability information on a drive so new?
None of my drives are that new. I wanted to enter my CDC 94171-307 in the database, it is the drive I have been the happiest with, it has given me no problems in the 9 years I have had it, and it was used when I acquired it.
All hard drive manufacturers use the proper SI/metric meaning for mega and giga, i.e. 10^6 and 10^9. Why? Because it's not technically a lie, and it makes the drives look bigger.
Computer UIs, however, usually present to the user the CS definition for mega and giga, i.e. 2^20 and 2^30.
The capacity of the iPod is 4.6GB, 4.6*2^30 bytes, which is 5 billion bytes.
You can see this in Apple's user-interface preview of the thing -- click on the "About iPod" button.
Or for quicktime-less folks, a GIF of the relevant screenshot.
- Peter
INsigNIFICANT
As far as I understood from the previous /. article, IBM had accepted returns and provided users with problematic drives new ones that were known to be good. From what I can tell, it seems that IBM has acted in good faith.
A lawsuit against them raises the price of drives, and makes it harder and harder for anyone to release a product without excessive, often unecessary but always expensive, testing. Of course a product should perform as advertised, but in many cases, even exhaustive testing cannot determine how a product will perform when released to others. If the company acts in good faith (and maybe the complaint alleges that IBM didn't), a class actions lawsuit seems like nothing but trouble for all of us.
The only certainty is entropy.
One needs a license to hack? That'll be the day...
From the PDF FAQ linked above:
Now this is interesting... If I'm reading this correctly (and I'm pretty damn sure I am), this means that I could, for example, shoot some footage with my trusty Firewire-capable DV camcorder, and upload all that data to the iPod... While I assume that this would result in the loss of some or all of my MP3's and other files on the iPod's HD, this would mean that one could use the iPod in lieu of additional DV tapes, or (more logically), as a backup for said footage.
The iPod obviously wasn't designed to lock out other possibilities for use... It just has specialized functionality for use with other Apple products. My other Apple products.
is to give the raw, unformatted capacity in SI units.
G=1000
So an unformatted 20GB drive has 20,000,000,000 bytes of space before you format it.
Ok, here is my reading between the lines of their FAQ.
When iTunes puts mp3 files on the drive it does something wicked and secret to them so that:
1. Only files so encoded will be playable by the internal firmware.
2. Said files are invisible when the drive is viewed in Firewire mode.
So yes, you can use it to transport mp3 files, but it isn't practical. What they had to prevent, to keep the RIAA from sueing their butts off, was the nightmare scenario where everyone buys one and plugs them into each other's machines, instantly exchanging music libraries with each other. If you thought Napster over DSL was bad, try FireWire speeds.
They also don't want PC or Linux folk to be able to use their products. In their way they are as bad as M$, you either buy into the Mac way or they don't want you touching any of their toys.
Since it IS just a FireWire drive with an onboard computer though, it WILL be hacked. If it doesn't get a Linux port it darn sure will get one of the BSD's within a year. After all it is a computer with 5GB of drive, 32MB of RAM, a usable display and some input devices with a FireWire port to talk to the outside world.
Democrat delenda est
I tried to stay out of this, but the iPod bashing seems to continue.
- go-through-this-web-wizard and "we think you dropped it". Worse if you're outside the US. Sign me up for some iPod Applecare - after two dead Rios and two dead NJB's, I could use some warranty love.
a gain Creative Playcenter and you'll see what I mean.
Seems to be a lot of talk about the iPod being dead-in-the-water (or nearly so) as an MP3 player. I, as a NJB owner and occasional Apple owner (my G3 has been powered up twice in the past year), find the iPod quite appealing, and would gladly exchange my NJB plus two hundred dollars for one. Here's why the iPod will, IMHO, kick the NJB's butt.
#1 - Size. The NJB is exactly the wrong size, as are all the other HD-based MP3 players I've seen. Too big to be really carry-in-on-you portable, too small to hold a useable display or enough buttons to properly save/name playlists, manage files, explore your collection etc.
#2 - Data storage. The NJB didn't used to do this, and even now barely does.
#3 - Speed. USB. Slow. Firewire. Fast. Swapping out even a 6GB NJB MP3 library takes a LONG, LONG time, like many hours. Assuming the software doesn't time out on you, which, ten firmwares later, it still does. Often.
#4 - Reliability. PB5300s be damned, Apple makes decent stuff. I'm on my second NJB, and its starting to die too. Creative puts a *90-day* warranty on the things, they're so flaky. Really.
#5 - Battery life. The NJB gets 2 hours IME from a set of NiMH AAs. There are also issues with overheating, failure to charge, and improper charge status reporting on the units. What good is 1000 hours of music if you can only enjoy it two hours at a time? Many NJB owners are resorting to $50-$70 ratpacks worth of bulky NiMH D-cells to get to the 10hr battery life the iPod advertizes as standard. Bring on the lithium polymer.
#6 - Support. 1-800-SOS-APPL vs. we-wont-even-give-you-a-number-to-call-unless-you
#7 - Output level. Based on the Reg's comment about the iPod sounding good, and based on the fact that NJB owners everywhere are opening up their units (voiding their 90 day warranty) to try to solder in a reasonable output level.
#8 - Aesthetics. 'nuff said.
#9 - Price. The iPod is cheaper ($400USD) than the NJB was when I bought my first one at $759CAD ($499USD), less than a year ago. If this 1.8" drive format is standardized, then bigger drives should be able to be shoehorned in, as NJB owners have been doing.
#10 - Drive letter (or the mac version, mount-it-on-the-desktop) support. Try using cheeseball banner-ads-galore gotta-use-it-to-load-the-device-whoops-i-crashed-
#11 - Boot times. Even with the latest firmware, its still 20+ seconds from powering the unit up to getting a sound out of it. For those with bigger HDs, older firmware, or less-than-perfect ID3 tags, startup times of two minutes or more are the norm. I can't imagine the iPod would be worse than THAT.
#12 - Proprietary file system with no repair / diagnosis options. There's no way to do a "real" format on an NJB. As in one that actually looks for bad sectors. One bad sector on your fragile fujitsu 2.5" HD? Count on lockups, freezeups, and untold general annoyances. There's no defrag, either.
There's plenty more, but I think the point is made. 'nuff of the pooh-poohing. As soon as someone can get this thing to accept MP3s from a PeeCee running Windoze and/or Linux, it will be the next big thing. (and save the archos jukebox praise, unless you've actually used one - or at least fondled a dead one).
-- "Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge." (Charles Darwin)
It sure works in a PCMCIA slot, so I'm not sure in what sense it's not a PCMCIA drive. And I'm pretty sure it's type II.
Yes - BUT the iPod can't PLAY the MP3s that are in data mode, only those that are in music mode. That means the ones you're playing can't be copied, and the ones you can copy can't be played. Important distinction.
Timothy;
The Nomad has a 6Gb and a 20Gb version. The 20Gb version is the same price as the 5Gb Apple iPod.
Please, please, please, learn how not to be bought by apple's marketing hoardes.
Simon
Coming soon - pyrogyra
IDE/ATA and PCMCIA are almost the same thing, as is Compact Flash. The electrical signaling is the same, just the form factor of the connector differs. I'm pretty sure that PCMCIA adds some protocol level extentions to drive things that don't act like block addressable devices, hot swaping cards and device identification. But other than that, there isn't much difference.
Yes, EVERY SINGLE PERSON will want this when they realize what they can do. and they'll gladly pay $400 for the privalage. sure.
ReadThe ReflectionEngine, a cyberpunk style n
Macs are great, cuz you can do deep, intuitive modifications of every part of the OS, from the layout of dialog boxes to the language of menus just by screwing around with various resource forks
Of course, you can do the same thing in windows...
ReadThe ReflectionEngine, a cyberpunk style n
Here's an another manufacturer's product, a firewire disk drive using the 1.8in drive.
d uc ts/Hard%20Drives/FWFL.asp
http://www.smartdisk.com/Products/Storage%20Pro
This drive supposedly retails for $399, and all it has is a drive powered off a Firewire port. The iPod is like getting the mp3 player and the advanced battery, for the same price.
But surely these drives will continue to drop in price and increase in capacity. Think about a 20Gb iPod, or the future generations of 100Gb pods with video playback capability, and firewire connectivity to your MacTivo.
First hand account of the iPod:
o ryid=1004046897,20517,
http://www.macaddict.com/cgi-bin/storypage.cgi?st
From the article:
" Breakout!: I'm pretty sure I'm the first one who found this, even though I found it by accident. If you select "About" from the main menu, then hold the center button for a couple seconds, a mini breakout game appears on the screen. That's what I call an easter egg!"
This probably means you could do a lot more with this than first appears.
At least when it comes to transporting files in a portable device, those seem more practical that the iPod. Of course, they don't have an MP3 player.
Is this similar to the SD scheme? Does the iPod look like a standard FireWire drive or does it use a special protocol?
Ok, this is probably a bit offtopic, but the search is so horrible and broken I can't find the original topic. It dealt with a question about memory as a disk drive. Lo and behold, our CIO, a gadget junky if there ever was one, got his hands on a Pen Drive from Frys (an evil store in Silicon Valley we turn to as a last resort) with 64 Meg of flash RAM. You install the little driver on whichever systems you want to use it on and it plugs in through a USB port. Here's what amazed me... they actually have it working for Win98 forward, Linux, and Mac OS (dunno about OSX, check it yourself at the link above) Sizes are supposed to be up to 1 Gig, tho I've only seen vendors for the smaller capacity drives. Since it's flash it doesn't need a battery. 64Meg about $84 bucks.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Basically, the iPod can either play or transport files.
It can do both at the same time.
Files put into the player via iTunes synch cannot be removed back onto a computer...
Bzzt ... Yes they can. From the Apple faq
To transfer music between your computers, or to add songs to iPod from both systems, you can selectively drag and drop songs, albums, or playlists between iPod and either computer using the manual update mode.
Steve M
If you transfer an MP3 to the iPod with the purpose of playing it through the headphones, ala a playback device, you can not recopy that MP3 file back to the computer.
From the Apple faq
Q. I have a computer at home and one at work. Can I update my iPod music collection from more than one Mac?
...
To transfer music between your computers, or to add songs to iPod from both systems, you can selectively drag and drop songs, albums, or playlists between iPod and either computer using the manual update mode.
Steve M
Now you know why OEM parts are cheaper than regular parts. If you wanted a retail warranty, you should have been more careful in researching your purchase. Why should IBM honor a warranty that nobody paid for? Dell received a substantial price break because they relieved IBM of the costs of warranty claims by agreeing to handle it themselves, out of their own pocket.
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
Spin: What we wanted to do was legal under current law, we just wanted to keep our rights, we proposed a 'patch'
Fact: What they wanted to do should have been illegal anyways, but they also wanted to escape any civil penalties for possibly trashing thousands of computers.
Spin: Earlier quote is "It didn't make it into the Senate bill, So the great work of the Senate staff to fix this unintentional problem didn't get through."
Fact: The amendments presented by the RIAA were firmly rebuked by the Hill staffers, some of whom called it the "RIAA's License to Virus."
Spin: It leaves out any rejection of the first attempts to submit an amendment and says "Ultimately, the Senate staff figured out a way to change their original provision to eliminate its unintended effect"
Fact: After the first defeat "...the association's lobbyists will focus on a possible conference committee..." (earlier news item) In other words, the Senate staff figured out a way with the help of the RIAA's lobbyists.
By definition this kind of database will only intensify the ancedotal nature of many hardware complaints, because such a database is merely the collection of ancedotes! Not to say it wouldn't be helpful, but it does nothing to add a scientific sampling of error rates. It will give a "feel" for particular hardware...so I'll probably use it (I'm not a scientist).
-- @rjamestaylor on Ello
First of all, mp3 decoding is done through basically synthesising waves according to the (lossy) information being used, and outputting them as 16 bit 44.1K audio in the vast majority of cases.
mp3 audio is inherently lower quality than 16/44 (some other formats like WMA or 'mp3pro' are even more blatantly inaccurate, making up data out of the blue) and so, to my knowledge, the most common approach has been to just cast the resulting sample values to an int or something, which is the same as truncation of the value. This results in quantization distortion, and since it's just lousy mp3, who cares?
However, it is possible to decode mp3 to 24-bit resolution and up- and this is where it appears Apple's approach to these things gets interesting. My own experience with this started when I got iTunes running on a MacOS 8.6 system- before then, there was no chance of running iTunes, and I'd been using other means of playing mp3s, like SoundApp, which remains a nifty program but didn't prepare me for what I was going to hear from iTunes.
Briefly, I do audio mastering work, and have very high resolution audio gear coming off my Mac- and here's the deal- I started playing tunes off iTunes, and was very startled to hear them playing with a depth and dimensionality that I was totally unaccustomed to. The sound was more 3D than 2D, despite the mp3 sources. Why?
For a possible answer you might look here, at some tests done with 24-bit mp3 decoding libraries, and consider Apple's background in pro audio. Put simply, it's my suspicion that iTunes is decoding to 24 bit or 32-bit floating point, and dithering the result to 16 bits for the sound output DACs. This is a substantially more sophisticated approach than the usual 'mp3 is cheesy anyway' direct truncation, and it yields considerably better sound. I can't get direct confirmation of this by citing iTunes source, as iTunes is closed source- so I linked to a 24 bit decoder review page to drive home the point that this technology is out there and in use.
What does this have to do with iPod? Easy- what iTunes can do in software, iPod can do in embedded hardware. I think it would be a good idea to analyze the performance of iPod compared to other mp3 playing portables- and see whether iPod is pioneering high-resolution mp3 decoding and dithering in a portable. This can be measured: the noise floor will be different and up to 20 db lower compared to simple truncation! It is also likely to sound distinctly different as well- high-quality headphones might make this equally obvious.
Just thought I'd raise the issue, since the Register has apparently commented that it sounds nice, and I've had similar observations about iTunes... the _character_ of the improvement in sound is very much resolution domain stuff, and Winamp users can apparently get an example of this type of sound through a 24-bit MAD mp3 library plugin. If my hunch is correct, Apple are already routinely doing this in their products to get a more 'high-end' sound, including iPod- and it may be a first in mp3 portables. More research (by someone who _can_ just run out and buy a Nomad and an iPod and start measuring them ;) ) is indicated :)
and how pray tell will you get the information _off_ the CD that quickly? Have you got an l33t 1000x CDROM someplace?
Oh, and you probably want to encode the CD, too.
Yes, let's pretend like this is something special, exclusive to Apple, instead of something that every single hard drive manufacturer on the planet has been doing for years.
Mod down posts with a "Free Mac Mini/iPod" sig, they're spam!
Yeah, they all (still) have the right to try and invade citizen's computers. Great.
"But somehow, it became a story that we were looking for special new powers to hack into personal computers."
Nope, just keeping an already existing loop-hole open, in case you ever decide to use it.
"It's one thing to be criticized for what we do - that's fair game. But to be vilified for what we don't do - that's very disheartening."
Like accusing everyone who can copy music that they have and will copy music? Yeah, it sucks to be assumed guilty, don't it?
Those who fail to understand communication protocols, are doomed to repeat them over port 80.
Well, i'm disappointed. If it wasn't Mac only, then they'd have a highly desirable product, instead they have a very nice but no use to the majority of the people product.
Argh. Maybe Sony will see the light and allow this to play MP3's. When the 1 gig Sony Memory Stick comes out this would be a very sweet albeit expensive player. But Sony being Sony means that won't happen.
So, I'm sorry Apple, but i'm going to predict this is going to be a flop. You've limited your potential market to those people that own a Mac. Based on my (admitidally limited) survey of the office, that means about one person in fourty.
Avantslash - View Slashdot cleanly on your mobile phone.
Trying to figure out how parent got modded off-topic...
This is in fact true, IMHO -- IBM was the only company that I can think of with the clout to load OS/2 along with Windows, and even they weren't doing it for very long.
/Brian
(going back to my statistics/business classes) Companies decide that they can afford X number of warranty returns per year. They then check the frequency of failure of their devices over a test period. A nice little statistical crunch later and they know how long to make the warranty to get only X number of returns.
Best way to increase the warranty period? Make the products last longer. I'm sure the iPod will have far fewer warranty returns than the Nomad.
The model number for the drive is MK5002MPL, and there are two vendors that list it on Pricewatch - one at $332+8 and one at $364+9. It's probably available elsewhere as well.
fencepost
just a little off
Oh...for shame...
.... never buy anything ending with '100' from Apple.
I thought all Apple users knew the rules
[Okay, the PowerMac 7200 had a flakey PCI Bus, and the PowerBook 5400? got the 'extended 7 year warrenty' because just about the whole thing was flakey]
My SE/30, IIci, ClassicII, Centris650, Powerbook 520c all still run fine. [well, as powerful as they ever were...as the newest one's from 1994?5?]
Oh...I've seen a few dozen PM7100's that run like champs, so I guess we can't completely blanket the '100' rule.
For the most part, it's like installing bleeding edge software.... version '6.0.5' sounds so much safer to me than '6.0'
Oh...and to somewhat keep this on topic -- I have a Maxtor 80G firewire drive as we have a restriction on 'no MP3s on work computers', so they're just on a personal peripheral device attached to a work computer. I'm using 2.5G for mp3s, and another 25G for misc. backups. The portability is great, as this would be smaller than the power supply of my firewire drive now [3.5" form factor, needs external power].
Build it, and they will come^Hplain.
According to a first look at the iPod, it's got a Breakout-style game included as an easter egg. No doubt the ROM is fully programmable, and I expect it to be only a couple of months before programmers have hacked the device to play other games as well, or (which would be very cool) read games from a special file on the hard disk.
An entire CD's worth of songs is clearly what was meant. We are talking about an MP3 player ;)
Step 1 - encode all cds to mp3.
Step 2 - whenever you want, move a cd worth of songs onto your iPod in under a minute.
Step 3 - call NASA and get an entire flight team to help you guide your hands to your ass, you're clearly having problems with this step.
nobody will buy a computer just to play games
nobody will buy a computer just to do email
nobody will buy a WORSE OS just to use MS Office.
stop saying people won't do something stupid. they have b4, they will again.
No supported interface for anything except a Mac! How hard could it be to write a Windows driver? Surely not hard enough neglect 90% of the market! But perhaps the geniuses at Infinite Loop felt that mucking with Win32 code was beneath their dignity. Hey, who cares about making money? As long as we're cool!
The iPod does have size and weight and battery life in its favor. These are amongst the most important features for a handheld device.
The User interface issue simply can't be judged at this point. None of the people blathering on about how great the device is have seen one, let alone used one for any length of time. What they are doing is looking at the clunky demo on the Apple site and extrapolating from what they think the demands they would make of the device would be.
Having used an archos device extensively I really don't consider the user interface to be problematic in any respect whatsoever. The archos device appears as a disk drive. To load files onto the unit you just drag them onto the disk drive. If the copied file is an MP3 the archos device allows it to be played. It can also be copied off the device just like any other file.
In fact the Archos device UI is almost certainly going to be easier to use than the iPod because unlike the iPod the Archos device is not compromised by the clunky copyright management limitations that make the creative labs nomad unit a pig to use.
On the firewire issue, I really see no advantage whatsoever over USB. With 6Gb I don't copy music files onto or off the device very often. In fact I have only got 50 disks ripped so far which takes just over 2Gb so moving the files is pretty much a one time operation. When I do get round to ripping more CDs I would probably buy the 20Gb unit if necessary so I could keep my whole collection with me rather than keep loading and unloading them.
So yes, the firewire is nice but I would not rate it a major plus given my experience of using a similar device.
The major minus of the device is it is designed soley for Apple users. It is an attempt to solidify the Apple computer user base but there is nothing here for non-Apple users as Apple itself admits.
As a result I think the iPod is more likely to be a Newton than a Palm. If I was an Apple shareholder I would be very upset about the iPod. Consumer electronics are a notoriously cut throat business. Development of a peripheral of this complexity that only connects to Apple systems is unlikely to see a return of the investment.
It is a pretty good bet that the iPod will not be a winner. The economics all favor the competition. If the market demand is for a smaller size and a lithium battery then the competition will respond, in the meantime Archos, creative and the rest have a heck of a lot more room for discounting their $250 units than Apple has in their $400 product. Apple can at best sell 5% of the units the competition do - and that if the monopolize the Apple user market which they won't. They just don't have the same ecconomies of scale.
Looking for an Information Security student project suggestion?
Try http://dotcrimeManifesto.com/
I refuse
ReadThe ReflectionEngine, a cyberpunk style n