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Microsoft Launches Portable Music Player
prostoalex writes "Microsoft announced Portable Media Center, a digital music player, to be available in the second half of 2004. The announcement follows Dell's foray into portable digital music. Microsoft plans to license their software for the Media Center to third-party manufacturers as well. Samsung Electronics, Sanyo, ViewSonic, and iRiver are already on the list. The actual Microsoft-branded devices are promised to start at $350."
...to pay your $699 licensing fee you cock-smoking teabaggers.
suckas!
Well, does it?
"Madness is something rare in individuals - but in groups, parties, peoples, ages it is the rule." -- Nietzsche
My business faces ruin. CD sales have dropped through the floor. People aren't buying half as many CDs as they did just a year ago. Revenue is down and costs are up. My store has survived for years, but I now face the prospect of bankruptcy. Every day I ask myself why this is happening.
I bought the store about 12 years ago. It was one of those boutique record stores that sell obscure, independent releases that no-one listens to, not even the people that buy them. I decided that to grow the business I'd need to aim for a different demographic, the family market. My store specialised in family music - stuff that the whole family could listen to. I don't sell sick stuff like Marilyn Manson or cop-killer rap, and I'm proud to have one of the most extensive Christian rock sections that I know of.
The business strategy worked. People flocked to my store, knowing that they (and their children) could safely purchase records without profanity or violent lyrics. Over the years I expanded the business and took on more clean-cut and friendly employees. It took hard work and long hours but I had achieved my dream - owning a profitable business that I had built with my own hands, from the ground up. But now, this dream is turning into a nightmare.
Every day, fewer and fewer customers enter my store to buy fewer and fewer CDs. Why is no one buying CDs? Are people not interested in music? Do people prefer to watch TV, see films, read books? I don't know. But there is one, inescapable truth - Internet piracy is mostly to blame. The statistics speak for themselves - one in three discs world wide is a pirate. On The Internet, you can find and download hundreds of dollars worth of music in just minutes. It has the potential to destroy the music industry, from artists, to record companies to stores like my own. Before you point to the supposed "economic downturn", I'll note that the book store just across from my store is doing great business. Unlike CDs, it's harder to copy books over The Internet.
A week ago, an unpleasant experience with pirates gave me an idea. In my store, I overheard a teenage patron talking to his friend.
"Dude, I'm going to put this CD on the Internet right away."
"Yeah, dude, that's really lete [sic], you'll get lots of respect."
I was fuming. So they were out to destroy the record industry from right under my nose? Fat chance. When they came to the counter to make their purchase, I grabbed the little shit by his shirt. "So...you're going to copy this to your friends over The Internet, punk?" I asked him in my best Clint Eastwood/Dirty Harry voice.
"Uh y-yeh." He mumbled, shocked.
"That's it. What's your name? You're blacklisted. Now take yourself and your little bitch friend out of my store - and don't come back." I barked. Cravenly, they complied and scampered off.
So that's my idea - a national blacklist of pirates. If somebody cannot obey the basic rules of society, then they should be excluded from society. If pirates want to steal from the music industry, then the music industry should exclude them. It's that simple. One strike, and you're out - no reputable record store will allow you to buy another CD. If the pirates can't buy the CDS to begin with, then they won't be able to copy them over The Internet, will they? It's no different to doctors blacklisting drug dealers from buying prescription medicine.
I have just written a letter to the RIAA outlining my proposal. Suing pirates one by one isn't going far enough. Not to mention pirates use the fact that they're being sued to unfairly portray themselves as victims. A national register of pirates would make the problem far easier to deal with. People would be encouraged to give the names of suspected pirates to a hotline, similar to TIPS. Once we know the size of the problem, the police and other law enforcement agencies will be forced to take piracy seriously. They have fought the War on Drugs with skill, so why not the War on Piracy?
This evening, my daughters a
I'm not Seth.
God Bless America, with the worst crime levels in the first world
God Bless America, where "democracy" means a rich, white male as President
God Bless America, the biggest consumer of the world's natural resources
God Bless America, so happy to violate international laws
God Bless America, where "freedom of speech" means race-hate groups like KKK
God Bless America, and its massive and ever-growing poverty gap
God Bless America, with barely 300 years of dire history and culture
God Bless America, all its appalling "sitcoms" with no grasp of irony
God Bless America, with the highest obesity levels in the developed world
God Bless America, because corporations should be allowed to run amok
God Bless America, wasting billions to attack foreign countries
God Bless America, and thank God I don't have to live there.
-
Nothanks.
I stick with radio before I buy a microsoft media crippler
FP
...their hardware is always really nice.
slashdot, news for crazed liberal socialist zealots
Seventh Post!!!!!
Are we going to see a blog photo of 50-odd iPods being delivered to Redmond in the next few weeks?
The DiVA 489 which is the first DVD recorder to record using Microsoft's innovative Windows Media 9 Series video compression (WMV9) for digital video recording to DVD and CD disc, as well as playback of streamed and downloaded video. http://www.i4u.com/article768.html
welcome our Microsoft overlords.
My little brother like totally got fired for posing with his ipod for the dude that got fired for taking pictures of the g5s.
-CompuTroll9000
In *2004*???
I'd been holding out on buying a MP3-enabled device until Microsoft put one out. Thank goodness the wait is almost* over!
GMFTatsujin
* For high values of "almost"
It will just go on and on, and on, and on, and on...please.... make... them.... sto..
It supports mp3, wma, and 0E formats. It also can play video and show pictures. I hear the visualization for IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL is quite soothing.
1. Microsoft is evil, therefore the device will explode and kill you if it detects improperly copied material.
2. Another music player...so what?
3. Blue screen of death in audio form?
4. Don't mention Microsoft and Licensing in the same sentence.
"A great democracy must be progressive or it will soon cease to be a great democracy." --Theodore Roosevelt
It will probably only support WMA, with heavy DRM implementation.
Also, I don't want a music player that requires virus checkering and suffers BSODs!
Now Microsoft will take over the music industry, too.
some comment that is intended to be a joke about the RIAA that fails miserably
some other comment about SCO that doesn't fit with the topic
dell bad, other manufacturers good
Wake me up when I someone cares.
So why should I care again? By then another revision or two of the iPod will come out and it will only get better. Dell will have improved their product, so will Creative, and everyone else in the industry.
MS may make nice hardware (their mice, keyboards, and joysticks are all great), but why should I care? Tell me next summer and I might listen, but is there ANYONE who is even thinking of buying an MP3 player that won't because of this announcement? I doubt it.
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
just focus on Longhorn so that we have something new to provide tech support for and mess with. hehehe
-Tim Louden
I've always had a saying, for every loss there is an opportunity. Digital music up, CD's down? Think what you can do to help Digital music along? Is there a problem there that needs solving? Is there some worthy contribution you can make? Business is chess and business is war at the same time. Or better still, time to consider a new industry to open a store in? Yes it hurts but in the end you may not only keep your house, but upgrade the house as well :-)
...in bed
What will happen to people using these things when Microsoft deprecates the WMA format, just like they did with the AVI format?
"They redundantly repeated themselves over and over again incessantly without end ad infinitum" -- ibid.
Here.
Hmm, will it work with ogg vorbis or AAC?
"The iPod comes in three models, ranging from $529 to $799, depending on capacity"
Damn Australians.
Sounds like Windows CE all over again. Sure, it won't be any good until 2008, but after that, better throw those damned IPods away!
I also find it slightly unbelievable that it plays MP3, a DRM-less media. I thought Microsoft assumed all customers wanted DRM (which is why it's going to feature so much in Longhorn!). Don't tell me they've actually come to their senses and realised that no-one is going to buy a device that only plays licensed music!
Drill baby drill - on Mars
more portable MP3 players = more features to choose from in the market + lower prices
Even if MS's player is crap, we'll win.
Now even more half assed copies of various Apple technolongies by Microsoft.
SLASHDOT please stop posting MSFT related stories, we care less and less.
Everybody who said that the interface didn't matter will now have their chance to be proven right. I still think Microsoft's solution is going to win on Windows, and it'll in no small part be due to their attention to Windows interface standards in implementing their application.
The fact of the matter is that they've proven to adapt themselves well to competing platforms (and the competition in general), whereas Apple software only seems to look good and perform well on Apple hardware. If you look at things like Office for the Mac, you can see that when Microsoft puts their effort towards cross-platform products they actually work at making the product fit in with the environment it's supposed to work with.
So, in the long run, if Apple doesn't dramatically revamp their iTunes offering on Windows, I fully expect it to be swamped by Microsoft's opumescent solution.
Try not. Do or do not, there is no try.
-- Dr. Spock, stardate 2822-3.
Here's the press release.
Interesting to note that Creative is on the list. Will we be seeing a (more) bastardized version of the Nomad?
Ladies, form queue here -->
Now if someone would come out with an MP3 player that fit in your car stereo slot, and cost less than $300, I'd buy it in a minute. I listen to most of my music in the car, but carrying around a bunch of CDs is more trouble than it's worth. It doesn't seem like it would be that much more expensive to make, but who knows.
Why is Microsoft trying to get into the consumer hardware biz all of a sudden? Is there really that large of a market for them to make a decent profit off this or are they simply introducing this to hype there upcoming media box (XBox 2)? I personally still see no point in buying any handheld compressed music player until on has ogg support. I know I'm in the minority on this one but I have major problems being tied to a single vendor (WMA, AAC) and gaps between songs (mp3). I guess I'll just have to wait for someone brighter (and more bored) than I to write a firmware update for one of the existing players.
So you reloaded Slashdot how many times so that you could do your best to get a First Post?
If you really want to get sympathy, don't make a post that competes with a short story, dialogue and all. Pity-magnet posts rarely result in anything but you getting a chance to express yourself on a site which probably has a strong lean towards pro-p2p. Instead run for political office.
Change the world. Maybe try to start an online Christian Rock store. Times change, so innovation is the key to long term success.
tilTrue.info contechtext.info prettypowerful.info twitter.com/frets fb.com/prosody
...it won't work with the largest collection of digital music for download besides kazaa available - itunes. ...they'll probably put windows ce on it, which is overkill for a portable music player. (why not either a from-scratch OS that does only what is needed very well or a very compact one like minimal linux) ...they will probably bombard you to buy one from the time you put in the Longhorn Home Edition cd... or remind you at bios on Phoenix/MS systems.
At the end of the article, they say iPods are $529 to $799... other dollar quotes in the story say $US and these last quotes leave out the US... is that what's going on?? Strike anyone else as odd ?
Want to bet that low-end iPod is $249 ( or less ) by the time these MS players actually ship? Competition is good.
Including the author? This is not a piece of Microsoft hardware...
This makes the cost comparison slightly misleading. One American dollar is about 1.50 Canadian.
I think this is going to hinge on who has the best media player. According to this survey, iTunes has them all beat.
(If Microsoft's player doesn't favor WMP, it might have a better chance IMHO)
Regardless, the ipod is the leader in MP3 players anyways. I don't see why anyone would switch.
and Treble are belong to us
"I am Heisenborg. You will probably be assimilated"
Is this a demonstration of the "innovation" that we hear so much about coming out of Redmond?
Instead of pirated WMA files use the new WMD format - the U.S. government has a hard time finding them on your system...
Why can't someone just make a small form-factor (iPod-ish) player based on decent off-the-shelf hardware? We could install whatever OS we wanted and then add whatever player software wanted. The geekier amongst us could write their own. Come on... just give us a well-implemented hardware with a small LCD and we can opensource it from there.
I want control over how this thing plays my music. I want to be able to set up the OS myself. And yes, I want eggs in my beer, too.
...no pictures so we have to imagine a pile of turd rather than look at one.
Jonathanjk.com
| - | - |
Blues screen of death.
United States of America, good ol' backers of world peace.
Right, and there goes your karma with it.. lol.
err, my karma..
-Hott (cause we all troll in our spare time..)
My cd/radio head unit plugs into a pre-amp that then plugs into my amps and speakers. The pre-amp has a selector, with a spare set of RCA jacks in the back. With an RCA-to-minijack cable, I can plug in my iPod (or any MP3 player with a headphone jack) and select it as my other input.
Why can't they merge these two devices? How hard would it really be to strap a 15 gig hard drive and lithium battery to the back of an existing pda board, add an mp3 decoder and make a really small, lightweight portable device that you can listen to music on. The iPod is definitely the leader on this.. but where it's a black and white lcd, and it's small, your productivity is pretty much nil. Add this feature and it's the next purchase I make (along with some of that nicely priced iTunes songs...)
"Victory means exit strategy, and it's important for the President to explain to us what the exit strategy is." G.W.Bush
How about someone making an Ogg Vorbis portable, with proper standards compliant USB mass storage emulation so it works with all platforms?
.....
Of course, it would have to have stereo analogue inputs and outputs. Preferably on separate audio sockets too - those 3.5mm mini-jacks are too unreliable - and voice-activated recording, a 10" pre-record and tweakable start point to compensate for the short interval before the first threshhold crossing, and manually-overridable, automatic track splitting. For all those copy-prevented CDs the companies are foisting on us that only play properly on hi-fis
Je fume. Tu fumes. Nous fûmes!
More innnovation from Redmond.
Now, if they could just invent an online store where I could donwload songs electronically and burn them to a CD.
Slashdot "libertarians": Small government for me, big government for those I disagree with. -1, I disagree with you
1. Criticize Apple for being too restrictive with the iPod and iTunes.
2. Develop an even more restrictive media player and software.
3. ???
4. Profit!!!
First, iPod prices were Australian, not Canadian (where it'd be $439).
Second, exchaterate.com reports current rates are $1USD = $1.31 Cdn = $1.42 AUD
Care to back that up?
From what I have seen, WMV9 is a decent codec, but it is far from "innovative". It' sjust another hash of MPEG4, and has huge attributes in common with DivX 4/5, XViD, and other MPEG4 codecs.
It's just that Longhorn is so damn bloated that even with all that horsepower there's only enough left over to barely keep up with playing an MP3.
Actually, these days, it's more like $1.30, all thanks to the crashing American dollar. :)
Microsoft penis enlargers! Now you too can enjoy the satisfaction of Cock Slapping(tm) everyone you see, just like Bill*! Not only lengthens and thickens, but also removes that unsightly foreskin!
*Billionare status and oversized novelty bottle of Viagra not included.
Not anymore. With the sad shape of the american economy the ratio is now 1.3:1 .
If I remember correctly, the iPod project went from idea to finished product in less than 8 months. Now that's speedy!
Dateline August 23, 2004
Microsoft released Service Pack 9a for its Portable Media Center music device today, much to the relief of hundreds of thousands of Donny and Marie Osmond fans whose music files were being stolen by remote Chinese Linux users using an exploit recently found in the device's Portable Media Messenger Service.
Although Microsoft was quick to release the Security fix, they are still working hard to enlist other popluar music artists (besides Donny and Marie) into their roster of DRM'd Pay-for-Play music.
Microsoft is not releasing a player, despite the confusing wording of the article. Well, they haven't ANNOUNCED a player anyway.
...Apple needs to make a gaming console now.
Actually now that I think of it it wouldn't be that bad, it would just have to come in more than just "iPod white."
If iPod had stayed proprietary to macs, MS might have something, but now it's just another mp3 player thrown into the fray. Especially since ipods are starting at $300 right now. By the time MS's comes out ipods will be $200-$250, and it will be way too overpriced.
Every god damn story on /. has at least fifty "OMG who cares" posts: "Quit posting about SCO" "Quit posting about MSFT" "Quit posting about solar flares" "Quit posting about the 2.6 kernel" "Quit posting about Apple." So I went ahead and fixed the problem for all you whiny bitches out there who can't be bothered to figure out how to filter stories.
Here's the new Slashdot, made especially for those of you who "care less and less".
Don't you know: Portable music players haven't been invented until Microsoft comes up with one.
(I think it was Petreley who came up with this notion.)
Really. I'm very suprised that M$ has never tried to just BUY aol. Get it over with.
But as we all know, Apple owns this space, M$ is always playing pick-up, as in pick-up what is profitable. And they say they are about INOVATION???? Please. Buying inovation is NOT the same as DOING inovation.
My Karma is bad. May I take you out for a drink? It's on me...
it is becoming even more obvious that microsoft realizes that its old model, i.e. box software sales and license fees is ending. not next week, nor next year. but microsoft clearly is looking at the long term, as they frequently do. which is interesting that most US companies don't. anyways, they are looking at 5 years from now. where is the IT world going. who knows, but will it be radically different. and microsoft has a few things going for them:
1) TONS of cash to weather some, many, screw ups. i.e., if xbox never turns a profit, it won't kill them. they aren't a one trick pony.
2) they are the 800 pound gorilla. if they enter a market, it essentially squashes everyone else. they will let you play (i.e. dell, gateway) so long as it benefits them. but the list of firms that put their cargo in microsoft's truck, only to get screwed is long.
3) they still have the golden egg in office. as long as they don't kill the goose, or someone else offers another goose, they have the opportunity to branch out, and the more they tie office in to their "stack", they know they will never die.
My problem? I was perfectly gruntled, until some numbnuts came by and dissed me.
Somehow all this is beginning to remind me of Record Club of America...
So for small monthy payments you can buy this device but because we run a free embedded version of Linux on it we can better compete price wise with they likes of Apple and MS..... OR give you so many free songs to get you going, which you will receive so many dl credits for upon the receipt of each of your payments.
Where the free songs are paid out of the savings we get from using embedded linux.
The above is a troll. It appears every once in a while on a music-industry related story.
New design is definitely cool.
Where's the Reply button, though?
We've already heard white noise, and soon we'll be able to hear blue noise! Meh.
I suffer from attention surplus disorder.
Wow, that's a lot of notice. Maybe they just wanted to announce something since everyone else was.
Break out the Photoshop fark-style, it's time to add some groovy DJ headphones to the Slashdot bill gates cyborg icon. Who's down with DRM? Every last homie!
So when does the AOL Time-Warner officially licensed portable music player come out?
Lets look at the markets Microsoft has tried to branch into and have been successful in beside software? A console sold thats below cost and a bunch of crap they quit selling. Microsofts media formats suck if anyone hasn't noticed. I sure as hell won't buy one no matter how value laden or feature filled this gadget is. I'll buy something manufactured by a real device manufacturer like Apple, VIA or Creative.
If you don't like what I write don't be a CS and mod it down. Refute it.
Yea I can't spell. So what is your point?
Microsoft announced an *operating* system for media players -- primarily for use in PVP's (personal video players). This is basically a stripped down windows CE. They didn't announce an actual player (To be manufactured by them).
YOU ARE AN ASSWIPE. BEGONE.
No wonder then that MS came out with all that smack talk about iTunes for Windows so soon after it's release...
They want to get the FUD rolling early and maybe get enough people to wait for their product over iTunes & iPods...
He's trolling by siting an article from his own web site. Which was in turn copied vebatim from one of Microsoft's own press releases.
"Innovative" my ass.
Headline: Microsoft Launches Portable Music Player
Definition: Launch: To actually start selling something, as in "Apple launched Mac OS 10.3 Panther last Friday."
Article: Microsoft Announces....to be available in the second half of 2004.
Definition: Announce: To promise that someday you will develop something.
This is great. Microsoft to users: "Don't buy an iPod...we'll have a poor substitute that sucks and has support for crippled DRM WMAs from places like 'Napster' 2.0 and the rest of the lame new download services. And you only have to wait a year!"
When will Microsoft announce it selling it's pattended Redmond brand turd pollishers?
If you don't like what I write don't be a CS and mod it down. Refute it.
Yea I can't spell. So what is your point?
They were da bomb in the late sixties up until 1973. Let you buy vinyl for 1/3 to 1/10 retail, the secret was they rented the pressing masters and stomped out their own under license.
Until about 1971, when more and more of their vinyl had skips and resulted in returns. The company crashed and burned about 1974.
Still have quite a bit of their vinyl and it still sounds good. Always had my returns honored. Nowadays we just press out our own MP3s.
This is obviously some definition of the word "launches" with which I was not previously familiar.
(The microsoft definition I suppose.)
I think that AP article has a -slight- typo.
"The iPod comes in three models, ranging from $529 to $799,"
More like from $300 to $500 (still expensive... but not THAT expensive)
"Things are more moderner than before- bigger, and yet smaller- it's computers-- San Dimas High School football RULES!"
Why, with a cheap Athlon MB and a couple hundred hours of my time, I can make one for half that!
Wow... good luck at catching up to Apple by 2004.
"Things are more moderner than before- bigger, and yet smaller- it's computers-- San Dimas High School football RULES!"
You mean like the X-Box?
"There is no teacher but the enemy."-Mazer Rackham
As a record store owner. (Diaries)
2 75
By Dr Michael Hfuhruhurr
Thu Oct 2nd, 2003 at 10:37:35 AM EST
http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2003/10/2/103735/
Man, it's nice to see Microsoft coming up with some more new innovative items. Next thing they'll come out with is the first ever digital camera!
Considering the name of the site is "Australian IT" Glad this is +5 Informative
I wouldn't ever buy hardware from MS. Last hardware product I bought from them they got bored of after Win98 and never supported it on another one of their own OSes. MS cordless phone system. More like MS useless paperweight now.
Man, This story keeps showing up. Oh well, at least his story doesn't change, not even the amount of time he's owned the store, and this story is getting over a year old now. I still swear this is just an edited version of some chain letter running around years ago, that used to whine for money, and now just whines.
Maybe you ought to "obey the rules of society" and get a new career, like the rest of us do when the one we're in goes to Hell.
When everyone believes 2 + 2 = 5, to simply state the truth, that 2 + 2 = 4, is a courageous act.
Only if you are using any base >4. Base three will get you 2+2=11, or thereabouts.
For those who describe their systems as 'boxen', do you order multiple 'boxen' of corn flakes also?
The reason I don't buy Christian rock isn't because I can get it online for free, it's because Christian rock fucking sucks. Even if I was brain-damaged enough to enjoy the trash you sell, I wouldn't buy it from you, because I don't give money to "businessmen" who blame their customers for their own business failures.
Some people are offended by my blacklist system.
Yes, we are. How are you liking our "Let's not give this cocksucker any more money" system?
Ooooh! Look at me! I post to K5, and I saw this troll on K5 first! I'm so fucking special!
yuck.
the only good microsoft hardware is called a mouse
White Noise of Death (or WNOD for the hip)
The portable music play appliance, called the Microsoft Me2, will debut in all Best Buy and Target stores with a sticker price of $100, licensing fee and price of saliva DNA sample collection kit excluded.
Let's see now...
.45um, so, let's map the visual range (.7um to .4um) onto the audio range (20hz-20khz),
Blue is about
blue is about 60% into the visual range, and thus we get audio "blue" at about 12000hz, or, a very sharp F#9.
there ya have it folks... nice and irritating!
Spoon not. Fork, or fork not. There is no spoon.
if windows blue screens, the xbox green screens.. what with this one do?
MABASPLOOM!
Maybe that's why there's always so much excitement when something new comes out from Apple and when Microsoft releases something, it's no big deal.
It has drawbacks though... they'll invade your system even if you don't have any.
Don't think of it as a flame---it's more like an argument that does 3d6 fire damage
Am I the only person that thinks that a MS FrontPage banner in
But you replied to a troll. If I told you the word gullible was written on your ceiling, would you check?
Fuck Beta. Fuck Dice
Maybe it will be called the i-Wadd.
that's about the time they'll be done reverse engineering the iPod's operating system and interface. :P
:-)
mplayer + v4l and good cable reception + XviD = happy dance.
Fuck Beta. Fuck Dice
Astroturfing (and piss-poor at that) is so '99
DivX has WMV beat in terms of quality, but WMV is FREE and it is more widely deployable, assuming you don't care about the non-Windows world.
Yes, that wonderful Microsoft definition of "free", which means "bundled into the price you paid for the OS, or the price the OEM paid and passed along to you." When Microsoft released the WMV code & player for Linux (even if it is binary-only), then we can talk about free beer.
There is a player for Mac, but it's out of date and not compatible with the latest WMV9 files.
DivX also has WMV beat in terms of availability to run on other systems. Heaven forbid people would actually have to find & install software!
Regardless of what the article says, MS is not releasing a portable music player. 90% of tech news articles have errors these days, and /. loves to endlessly rehash them.
"DivX also has WMV beat in terms of availability to run on other systems."
Yeah, I more or less covered that when I said "it is more widely deployable, assuming you don't care about the non-Windows world." Can't say that pro is all that interesting, though. DivX's installed base isn't that large, and not everybody who runs across a DivX video is going to hunt down and install the codec. No matter which way you spin it, WMV is still generally a better delivery choice in terms of how large the potential audience is.
"Heaven forbid people would actually have to find & install software!"
You may not think it's a big problem. However, not everybody landing on a video file they don't have the player for is just dying to see it. Had that happen today. A CG site I frequent mentioned a trailer for a new movie coming out. I clicked on it, but didn't have Quicktime installed. I just brushed it aside and said "nah. Don't care." I would have happiliy watched it if Quicktime was already there, but since it wasn't I didn't feel like going there and jumping through Apple's hoops to set it up. Not for a movie I have barely any interest in. I'm not the only one that feels that way, and it is damn frustrating when you create a video and the people aren't all that interested to begin with.
It is a legitimate problem, don't shove it aside and grumble about how stupid everybody is. It's a matter of interest, not a matter of intelligence. Can you honestly tell me you'd install a codec to watch a teaser for Gigli?
"When Microsoft released the WMV code & player for Linux (even if it is binary-only), then we can talk about free beer."
A lot of people assume that Microsoft isn't supporting Linux because they don't want to do anything to help it compete. I'm not 100% convinced that's the case. The problem is that if they spend all that time porting it, how many new people can view Microsoft content? Not a lot. That's why Media Player never got past 7 on the Mac. Get a few million desktop users using Linux or Mac, and you'll probably see a WMP port. You see, it isn't realistic to assume that Media Player is holding people back from switching to Linux. However, Microsoft does get a chunk of change from websites using Microsoft's media serving technology. For that to work, lots and lots of people have to be able to play WMV files.
"Derp de derp."
All that is AFTER the Pepsi promotion - 100 million songs (and thus millions of new users) from iTunes.
Apple did say they always thought the online music world would boil down to them and Microsoft - I think they were correct.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
A London-based IPod and Windows XP user who asked not to be named said that because the Microsoft media device would be able to play digital videos, television shows, home movies, and digital photos as well as music, he would consider switching to such a device.
Also in the news:
Some guy in Montreal said if the mileage gets high on his truck, he might just trade it in for a new one with a bigger motor. He'd consider it, anyway.. but only if the price was right.
Journalist "Laura Rohde" found to have lied on her resume, The Smoking Gun has recently uncovered her saultry past.
And another market bites the dust!
Honestly, so how much money is Bill gonna throw at this market to muscle their way in?
I'm just waiting for the day when we see "Micro-mobiles" on the streets. Or at least in the autoshops given their track records on other products.
Insert Sig Here
Microsoft is manufacturing Windows Media Devices?
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"Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
Why am I going to pay a price of $350 or more for something that I can already get for much less than $350?
-- $G
Hello, I am bzzzt! from Nigeria and my husband recently died, leaving me 100 million dollraas!
Please correct me if I'm wrong, but the first sentence in the article clearly states that "Portable Media Center 2004" is a piece of software, not a new hardware device:
It sounds like MS is developing platform software for such devices and will license the platform to the actual hardware vendors (Dell, iRiver, SonicBlue, etc). This seems similar to the kind of relationship Microsoft has with its Smartphone manufacturers: Microsoft supplies the software, Motorola et al. supply the gadgets.
Both things are what any reasonable company would use. They are cheaper and technically superior. If Microsoft does not use superior and cheaper technology, they are the stupid kind of Zealots they like to lable other people as.
Microsoft has proved their collective IQ before.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
Yay. A souped up WMA player coming in the 2nd half of 2004. Seems a little early to be getting excited about that.
It's perfect quality software. I want it in my DVD, my camera and my nuclear core monitoring hardware. Make it run submarines and life support systems. Can you f**k me harder? Please?
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
I've met a lot of fellow Canadians who actually refer to our money as "Canadian Dollars". I think it comes from being so damned close to the US, and cross-border/internet shopping in their currency.
Unless they were talking about Canadian Tire money...
Endless arguments over trivial contradictions in books written by ignorant savages to explain thunder in the dark.
I think the huge xbox controller's a godsend, seeing as I have big fucking hands. I can't speak for the rest of the gaming population... including the millions who can't stand them.
As for a seperate device that can suck my dick... why not make it network capable? Wouldn't you love to bond with your mates, circlejerking with a beowulf cluster of those things? Beats passing the latex pussy around...
Bloody hell... gets modded insightful because it points out the obvious... Gee, an Australian site quotes Australian prices!
You don't see posts marked up for saying "Gee, that seems cheap... oh, must be those new fangled American dollars, as it's much more in Australia".
I'm amazed at how spoon fed people who call themselves 'geeks' have to be.
An MP3 player than can give me a BSOD and will have IE force bundled with it. Hurray! Where do I sign up?
One American dollar is about 1.50 Canadian.
Whoa, what decade are you living in buddy?
1 USD was worth about 1.2886 CAD last night when I deposited some money...
-ben
myselfmusic
If anyone like Bill Gates could come up with a idea making a portable music player, he would lets face it Billy you lost the music market, no one likes the .wma file and no one likes how XP restricts music to be played on MS Media player. Apple has more idea and spunk than you evil will. Long live the mpeg
As opposed to the Open Source Definition of Free, which is "expect to wait a long time to get obscure bugs fixed unless you're willing to put in the effort to do it yourself or bribe programmers, expect it not to work automatically the first time unless you hardware is exactly like the developer (who is invariably using hardware so obscure even the korean manual is translated poorly). expect the installer not to work and the colours to need correcting, but once you get it working, it will work forever until it finds its first unexpected error, at which point it will crash, taking your x server with it and neither will ever work again."
Er, sorry. Bad experiences with mplayer. AND xmms. AND some piece of shit from Project Mayo. Multimedia on Linux drove me back to Windows on me desktop; I'll take the easily avoidable DRM over software that doesn't work any day of the week.
Microsoft's definition of free is "added value and some added unneeded hassles." In most cases, you can work around MS' hassles using MS' own APIs (divx, mp3, shit i play AAC files on Winamp2). Apple's definition of free is "you're really paying for this with the hardware, so we'll make it relatively hassle free." My iPod is such a joy to use that I never missed the whiz bang PocketPC I traded for it. The OSS definition of free is "you can compile it yourself! change it all you like! give it to your friends!" What a fucking hassle. I don't want a philosophy, I just want to play a GOD DAMNED porno clip and all this hacking is killing my wood.
Hey freaks: now you're ju
Apple sells iPods (at a healthy mark-up) and gives away the software to keep those iPods fed. MS's strategy will be to commodify and hence cheapen (and make mediocre) digital media players -- and then make deals with publishers, studios, and the companies duking it out to create these cheap media players. And presumably MS will find other ways to charge for the software and content once everyone is taking advantage of the 40% discount to go with generic, off-the-shelf media players.
Microsoft cant come up with anything new or fresh by themselves. They should be paying Apple for providing them with ideas when they are as innovative as a catholic priest themselves.
MS is the like a bad xerox that copies things but just half right.
HTTP/1.1 400
I think it's canadian prices...that's roughly how much iPods cost here in the great igloo of the north.
From The Jargon File:
Now, Microsoft have just announced a new, super-dooper portable digital media device, but it won't be out for an entire year.
So people will wait for it, and avoid products such as the iPod, the Rio line, iRiver, etc, etc.
Then Microsoft's device isn't released next year. They delay it. Perceptually.
Stops you from buying their competitors product when they have no other way to compete. That's FUD.
The Microsoft devices will support both the company's Window Media standard and the common MP3 format.
They are producing both a portable media device and software to work with it and others.
- b
The Microsoft devices will support both the company's Window Media standard and the common MP3 format.
The article talks about them creating both hardware and software.
- b
Ergonomics are OK but don't change my button count! If you had said "style" or "flair" I'd agree but "easy to use" and ergonomic don't describe the iPod. Why is it that the press now speaks as though Apple invented the music player? As far as I'm concerned they were years late to the game.
This press release is a desperate move.
Like anyone is going to think Hey, I was in the market for an iPod which I can get here and now or perhaps during the holiday season, but now I'll wait another 9 months to see what MS has to offer.
Rest assured Apple will have released another iteration of their glorious device by then, perhaps even two and they won't be telling anyone about it almost a year in advance.
to buy the tablets...
Cut the price and call them music players.
I read the stories and I am in doubt that Microsoft will launch its own portable media player. To me it sounded like MS will make some software that will run on devices built by third parties.
mmmm blue screens on your microsoft player... lol
You are fucking religishitty. Go kill yourself
They should call it the....Scumpod!
Why does anybody care about the shape of a console that's going to sit on top of your freaking VCR? Nobody actually does...people like yourself are just busy grasping at straws trying to nitpick every MS product because that is the only hobby you have. There is nothing wrong with the XBOX. You are full of crap.
PLEASE DO US ALL A FAVOR AND GET A LIFE!!!!!! And for the love of God, find something else to whine about besides the aesthetics of the XBOX case. Damn.
The advantage was that they could get to market quickly with the iPod, once Archos and Creative showed them there was a market in HD-based players. But Apple's failure to design any custom ASICs or advance or protect the iPod technology mix since then is problematic. The iPod's power consumption is way high, their battery life stinks, and Apple finds it difficult to raise its iPod margins. Also, like IBM with the original IBM-PC, they can not really block others from doing the aggregation.
MS can also employ industrial designers to pretty up the outside of a commodity box, you know... Don't get too cocky.
Da Blog
Yes, it sounds odd, but it's because Microsoft won the anti-trust case against them that they lost. And the citizens of the U.S. lost the case our government won. So Microsoft can do anything they want, and will.