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iTunes Music Store - 'Coolest Invention of 2003'
Pingsmoth writes "Time Magazine has just named the iTunes Music Store as their Top Coolest Invention of 2003. Also among this year's favorites are 'fish-skin bikinis, a new love drug, the car that parks itself, and the invisible man'."
By Tim Copperfield
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About Lunix
Lunix is an operating system. An operating system is the basic set of programs and utilities that make your computer run. Some other common operating systems are Unix (and its variants BSD, AIX, Solaris, HPUX, and o
Making some digital media available online is not new.
I remember having the possibility to purchase media online long before this.
Now, if, of course, having these integrated in iTunes is cool, I somehow doubt it is that "cutting edge" (even though I am a Mac enthusiast and I love OSX).
Trolling using another account since 2005.
Ever since Gnome 2.4 was released, I have found more and more gnome zealots who MUST absolutely advocate GNOME at every possible moment. Here is a guide to some of their claims, and what they really mean.
/gnu/celeron gnu/packard gnu/bell gnu/box.
Unlike KDE, Gnome is free
Translation : GPL is freerer than LGPL. LGPL allows corporations like Novell and Sun to have propeitry forks and lock away their changes from the user. Now that Novell has taken over Ximian you can expect Gnome to get put under corpirate lock. With KDE you have the choice, you either PAY UP or pay with your source code.
Nautilus is much better than konqueror.
Wrong, if your using nautilus for anything more than a simple finder clone you can forget it. No split screen, no ioslaves and forget about being able to have a decent file dialog, not to forget that it is as unstable as hell and is STILL slow on >3 Ghz machines.
Gnome is easier to use
Yep, nothing like using gconf-editor to edit all except the most trivial of settings.
Gnome has eye candy
Yes, my pirated Win32 fonts with the patent infringing font renderer. Bit stream vera sans looks like Tahoma put through a shreadder! Of course I still reboot into windows to print using "Comic Sans MS.
Gnome has a new web browser
Yawb! Along with Galeon, mozilla, thunderbird, konqueror, atlantis, lynx, netscape and w3m. Yes I need another browser! Not to mention that its got a religiously offensive name and it dosen't allow bookmark folders. It also crashes like a crazy! Apple chose khtml for a REASON! its stable and light!
Gnome is themeable
Yep, choose from High, low and medium contrast, default, and clean ice. Wan't to change the colour scheme? USE GCONF NOOB, plus if you complain about it we will tell you to fuck off and go back to Windows or KDE.
Gnome has multimedia framework
Its a kludge of esd combined with broken xine libraries. No wonder it crashes all the time and dosen't work on 95% of video files
Gnome allows mac like operation.
x86 compatible 1 button mice are almost impossible to find, and it dosen't copy the whole macbar concept. Not to even mention their auto apply implementation is broken and dangerous! Plus if they did actually come anywhere close to copying the Mac the C&D letters would come flying up their asses.
Gnome is GNU software.
gnu/Yay, gnu/gnome gnu/for gnu/my gnu/debian gnu/linux gnu/500mhz
Inspired by the gentoo translate-o-matic.
I fail it. I know.
Since upgrading to panther on 3 machines I've found I can no longer burn iTMS AAC files to disc as audio discs as I could on jaguar. This has happened across my eMac, iBook 800 and my father's iMac. Is this another goddamned restriction by Apple?
Camera phones: This has lead to people being arrested for taking photos up girls skirts
Robo Lobster: For clearing mines
Robo Cat: Sits there and does cat like things with all the mess
Rus
Cheap UK and US VPS
Much as I think Apple have created an amazing proof of concept in the Apple Music Store I am not convinced it qualifies as an invention.. Downloading music off the internet is not new and paying for it is not new either... Now if they radically opened up the distribution to bypass the majors... now that would be rather revolutionary... but we'll have to see how far they take it..
---- The Open Source Record Label : : LOCARECORDS.COM
Wow, talk about a slow year for inventions.
iTunes integrates a music store with a music player. Ooh. Maybe I'm missing something because I'm only using it on Windows, but it doesn't exactly wow me the way I expected the 'Coolest Invention of 2003' to.
Frankly, I'm even disappointed with the Segway. They shouldn't be handing out this invention to anything that doesn't have wings at this point.
After we fought successfully the demon of P2P terrorism and millions of people deleted their MP3 we're facing a new kind of terrorism. Capitalism and other people earning money.
In addition to the music store, iTunes works great as a jukebox - plus the software is free and they didn't cripple it unlike Napster and Musicmatch.
The first cartoon where Bugs Bunny was in drag was Hare-um Scare-um (1939).
This counts as an "invention"?
Look, the absolutely coolest invention of 2003 is the USB wristwatch. My watch holds all the essential stuff I used to keep on a diskette. Nothing helps bonding like showing people that your watch can store porn. Or a PowerPoint presentation. Or your latest baby photos. Whatever they need: my watch has it.
But iTunes? I can't carry it on my wrist.
Ceci n'est pas une signature
Much as I like iTunes... spot the AOL Time Warner and iTunes connection.
my favorite would have to be the snorkel fm radio. Of course, the wet babe in the bikini may be influencing my opinion.
* Especially if you've been facing imminent extinction for some 20-odd years.
Old joke:
"The invisible man's at the door!"
"Tell him I can't see him."
(Maybe) new joke:
"You certainly deserved your gold medal after that amazing dive. What do you call that technique?"
"The salmon skin roll."
Seriously folks, I'll be here all week ...
Newt-dog
My Doctor prescribed daily nasal saline irrigation, hehe
A pocket nuclear fusion reactor is an invention, a biplane made out of recycled cheese is an invention, a new kind of breaking system for cars is an invention.
iTunes is a store. It happens to be on the internet. That's not an invention, no matter how well executed it is.
Beep beep.
Small independant labels that give their artists good royalties are nothing new. However, such a label coming up with an online music service that is actually *good* is new!
Let's compare this service to iTunes, the most popular current service.
Price:
iTunes - $0.99 per song
Magnatune - $5.00 an album
If it's a good album without crappy filler then Magnatune is the big winner here. Classical fans get a great deal, but pop fans may not, depending on the band. Overall, I'd give the edge to Magnatune, but not a big one.
Format:
iTunes - AAC with some annoying DRM
Magnatune - Uncompressed WAV's!!!
Absolutely no contest here. Finally an online music store has listened to audiophiles! They'd be smart to use a lossless compression format to save on their bandwidth costs though...
Ethics:
iTunes - Apple takes it's (big) cut and then the Artist's (frequently RIAA affiliated) label takes most of the rest.
Magnatune - The artist gets 50%!!!
Again, no contest. Instead of feeling guilty about fueling a powermad monster when you buy music you can feel good about supporting the people who actually made it!
Selection:
iTunes: Lots
Magnatune: Not a lot
iTunes is the clear winner here.
To sum up, you get more for your money with magnatunes, including peace of mind. You just can't get many albums there... yet. If magnatune manages to get off the ground that may change, but they have a long road ahead of them. Their biggest challenge is getting more content. In my opinion they need to forge alliances with other like-minded independant labels. There are a lot out there, but many use mail-order as their only form of distribution! Magnatunes needs to get these labels on board pronto.
A few days after Itunes for Win32 came out, I decided to reboot from Gnu/Linux to try out Itunes on my decficated Windows XP partition.
.exe file which of course was being slashdotted by millions of Apple zealots, so it took around an hour on my Cable modem.
First of all, I had to download the HUGE 19.9 Mb
When it finally downloaded I double clicked the install file. Yuck, an installshield, so much slower than the RPM format I am used to. I had to read the Apple EULA, wait around 20 minutes for it to install, and GASP Reboot, installling xmms.rpm didn't go that.
After rebooting, a dialog came up telling me where to scan for files. I selected "my documents" of course. Unfortunatley it retardedly thought my pr0n mpgs were "music" so I had to spend around 30 minutes removing them from the list.
After pissing around i decided to actually tried it out. First of all I could tell it was retarded. I had previously tried the Mac Version on a G5 at my local PC world, and this was a completley different looking App. Its used non standard controls, no way to maximise it and looked retarded similar to what Windows 3.1 looked like. Looks like whoever ported it to Windows had NO idea of the Windows HIG. Brushed metal looks so inconsistant on Windows too, and unlike other media players its not skinabble.
Its visualiasion feature was completley stupid, for the first 10 seconds it ALWAYS swowed a gay little Apple logo in the centre of the screen, with no way to turn it off.
The Musique store was useless for me, since I live in the UK, I could only listen to crappy previews that even on my 15 quid speakers sounded like ass.
I think that the music store could be a good idea, providing Apple provides an API for other Music Players to be able to connect to the Apple store, and that they provide service world wide (and at decent exchange rates, charge no more than 59p in the UK). But i don't like the Windows version of itunes. Lukily the other day I found a linux program called Rhythmbox that a similar layout to itunes but has the crap stripped out, actually conforms to Operating System HIGS and does what its supposed to DO, and THAT IS TO PLAY MUSIC!
Must have slept in longer this morning then I thought. Good thing 2003 is over. Those last 2 months went buy really quickly. Nothing significant must have been invented...
The article mentions that the iTunes store doesn't have the rights to resell the Beatles' music. I wonder if that's due to the ongoing trademark turf war between Apple Computer and Apple Records (the Fab Four's label, and - according to legend - the appleinspiration for the name Jobs and Woz gave their kit computer). As I recall, one of the terms of a past settlement between the two was that the computer company would stay out of the music-publishing business.
DRM
iTunes for Windows is my official new favorite MP3 player.
I am proceeding to rip all my 500+ CDs into iTunes. With one click.
Winamp has served me well for many, years, but it lacks the snazzy playlist/library editor, and the ability to transfer music from CD, to the hard drive, tag it, and add it to my playlist at the click of a button. Literally.
Sure, it's a little slow, but who cares. Its functionality is unmatched. The music store is snazzy, too.
Good move, Apple, with iTunes for Windows. You may see a future Mac / iPod customer soon...
I remember seeing fish leather products in Darwin at a Kawasaki/Harley dealership about 7 years ago, though I don't recall if there were any bikinis.
However, I did find this reference to fish leather bikinis, dated 2001. Sorry, can't find pics :-(
When they came for the communists, I said "He's next door. Take him away. Goddam commies."
Sorry, but something that gives you a longer erection is hardly the successor to MDMA.
Peace and love, y'all
I tried searching the store for about ten of my favorite artists and couldn't find anything. No, I do not have obscure tastes. I like classic rock and oldies, and had great difficulty finding a lot of great hits from the past. I say stick to CDNOW or others until iTMS becomes more complete. It's very geared towards the current top 40 instead of great music. Innovation? No, not until they get a reasonable library.
hmm, i just installed iTunes and wanted to take a look to the music store. I'm living in Austria and when i wanted to connect to the store a message informed me that this service is not available here. so, does is help when i change the value in the "country" state at the registration or does apple a lookup where the ip adress is registered? furthermore, since i pay by credit card where is the problem with buying music from iTunes Store. if the RIAA is making problems concerning the copyright in different country's, hell, they shoud be glad someone actually buys their music and not downloading it from kazaa.
".Sig Stealer" was here
I just dont see how something that has been sold at a high cost for 20 years can now count as an invention. Sharkskin bikini's were quite a rage back in the early 90's, but i guess that doesnt count huh?
An entirely new approach to running a business isn't cool? Did we learn nothing from the dot-bomb experience? Consider this:
1. Alienate potential customers, existing customers and existing resellers of your products.
2. Piss off biggest computer company in the world
3. Piss off regulatory groups in many countries in the world
4. Make unsubstantiated demands for money from complete strangers. Provide no mechanism whereby said strangers can pay the requested money
5. Threaten all and sundry with lawsuits. Specifically refuse to tell anyone the basis for these lawsuits, with the explanation that doing so would allow people to stop "breaking the law" which would be unacceptable
6. Issue verbal indemnities to potential lawsuit recipients, based on constantly changing criteria. Ensure nobody can tell whether they're actually indemnified or not, which actually isn't that big a deal as nobody knows what the basis of the lawsuits is anyway (refer previous point)
7. Continue distributing for free that which you proclaim to be illegal to give away. Distribute it under a licence that specifically says "it's OK to give this away"
8. Sell product in blatant violation of the rights of the owners of the product. Simultaneously complain that others are doing the exact same thing with "your" product
If the Iraqi Information Minister was cool - and who among us thought he wasn't THE man for 2003? - then this is also cool.
Itunes DOES have problems. What if Apple Made Windows Media Player and Microsoft Made Itunes? What would you say then?
While writing a little multithreaded print workflow app in AppleScript for the client, I struck upon an idea: what if I could expose the functions of iTunes using AppleScript in a client/server type arrangement, and then make those functions accessible across the network to a Debian system running a modified dselect iTunes browser? AppleScript is pretty powerful, as any seasoned Mac user will attest, so it was quick work to create a handy little mutithreaded fully re-entrant AppleScript based server for the core iTunes functions (load song, play song, browse playlist, buy song etc).
The next part was to patch dselect on the Linux side so it could connect to my AppleScript server/wrapper on the Mac. I'd previously extended dselect with a Scheme-scriptable plugin, so it only took me a day or two to modify dselect with some Scheme macros so that it emulated to look and feel of iTunes (using ASCII art of course!!), but accessing the actual iTMS functions though the network exposed AppleScript..errr..script.
It worked a treat!! It is now a simple matter of running dselect on my Debian box to browse the iTMS, as long as the Mac over in the corner running the AppleScript wrapper is turned on of course. I have actually implemented a direct USB->USB cross over connection to get around bottlenecking problems with our Ethernet so I don't have to put up with skipping in iTMS MP3 playback. Now it works great!!!
The final step will be to patch apt-get with iTMS interface functionality...then buying my favorite music legally will only be an apt-get install Justin-Timberlake away!
Which is nice.
I just bought a brand new iBook G4, which is like the coolest thing ever. But as far as sequenced groups of electrons go, iTMS kicks so much ass it isn't even funny. seriously. I totally dislike buying CDs because well, I hate malls, and the record stores here in Tralee don't have any of the Boston bands I like, such as Dropkick Murphys. P2P is unreliable. If I had a job I'd trash all my mp3s and just buy a whole new collection off of iTMS (a lot of my files got screwed up from transfering them from CD-Rs which i highly abused).
This was posted earlier on, but an Apple Zealot who thought "Apple is god, you can't critisize it". If this was windows Media Player it would be Immediatley slapped up to 5, insightful. So, I am reposting this, and this is a true account of what happened.
.exe file which of course was being slashdotted by millions of Apple zealots, so it took around an hour on my Cable modem.
A few days after Itunes for Win32 came out, I decided to reboot from Gnu/Linux to try out Itunes on my decficated Windows XP partition.
First of all, I had to download the HUGE 19.9 Mb
When it finally downloaded I double clicked the install file. Yuck, an installshield, so much slower than the RPM format I am used to. I had to read the Apple EULA, wait around 20 minutes for it to install, and GASP Reboot, installling xmms.rpm didn't go that.
After rebooting, a dialog came up telling me where to scan for files. I selected "my documents" of course. Unfortunatley it retardedly thought my pr0n mpgs were "music" so I had to spend around 30 minutes removing them from the list.
After pissing around i decided to actually tried it out. First of all I could tell it was retarded. I had previously tried the Mac Version on a G5 at my local PC world, and this was a completley different looking App. Its used non standard controls, no way to maximise it and looked retarded similar to what Windows 3.1 looked like. Looks like whoever ported it to Windows had NO idea of the Windows HIG. Brushed metal looks so inconsistant on Windows too, and unlike other media players its not skinabble.
Its visualiasion feature was completley stupid, for the first 10 seconds it ALWAYS swowed a gay little Apple logo in the centre of the screen, with no way to turn it off.
The Musique store was useless for me, since I live in the UK, I could only listen to crappy previews that even on my 15 quid speakers sounded like ass.
I think that the music store could be a good idea, providing Apple provides an API for other Music Players to be able to connect to the Apple store, and that they provide service world wide (and at decent exchange rates, charge no more than 59p in the UK). But i don't like the Windows version of itunes. Lukily the other day I found a linux program called Rhythmbox [rhythmbox.net] that a similar layout to itunes but has the crap stripped out, actually conforms to Operating System HIGS and does what its supposed to DO, and THAT IS TO PLAY MUSIC!
They are protecting themselves against credit card fraud.... see here to see what I'm talking about..
Stop supporting the murder of thousands of helpless fish! Don't you understand that millions of fish are being senselessly killed and raped of their skin just to support a fashion trend? How would you like it if somebody wore your skin?
I wish that you could feel the suffering that our friends in the ocean are feeling every time their skin is being harvested for pure capitalist profit. It tears my soul apart when I hear someone advocating such violent acts against creatures that have brains twice as complex than our own!
I'm going to go listen to some emo and cry about what you said. I hope you're happy, killing fish and sending people like me into deep, dark, depressive states.
Go to Hell,
Your Friendly PETA Activist
Until Slashdot fixes the funny modifier, use insightful or interesting. The poster knows your intentions.
No better than advertising and product placement imo.
But wait, could I be wrong? Time magazine is owned by AOLTimeWarner, which makes money off of ITunes. So never in a million years would time magazine ever thing to run an advert, er, article on something their making money on so they could make more money, but since the people buying the magazine take it legit as an article and the truth or as good opinion, they'll just eat it up without thinking twice.
Seriously slashdot editors, can't you post something up interesting?
Candy-Coated Knowledge
>Selection:
>iTunes: Lots
>You just can't get many albums there...
Understatement of the year.
>Magnatune - $5.00 an album
"Name brand" artists won't allow their work to be sold for $5/album.
Surely that is the coolest thing in the world, I've seen the adverts, its lets me do more with less, I can consolidate all my domains down to just 4. AND I can then slide.
Microsoft Server 2003 is the coolest invention of the year, and MacDonalds are a healthy food option.
Wha' da' ya mean dominated by advertising ? Me and Mary Beth were only on Jerry Springer twice.
An Eye for an Eye will make the whole world blind - Gandhi
"Mac users, who represent only 3% of the computer world...in the 97% of the world that uses Windows PCs"
Sorry guys, it's now official. *BSD is dead. Time says so. In fact, so is Linux.
Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face
Why should someone pay for music (minus the moral issues) when Kazaa Lite has the ability to download music for free? It also has a rating system, so if something is rated Excellent, you can be fairly sure you are getting what you expect. I don't see how iTunes will make it in the long run.
I'm still waiting.
Salmon skin bikini? I'd rather go naked to the beach. On a second thought, I already do. And have salmon-skin sushi on the beach. Isn't that a better combination? :)
Cozinha para as massas (e para geeks)
I'd rather put Open Office 1.1 in there.
that new fangled "sliced" bread? Sure been doin' it for me this year
quite possibly, but those of us outside the USA don't get squat with all the new services, or have to put up with a windows only facility.
hmm sees a business oportunity, if only the various RIAA type organisations around the world could be convinced about non-DRM implementations of this stuff. I mean it's a pain having to go via a couple of phono leads to put the material on a CD I play in my car (via cassette in my case so the quality drops).
i guess it qualifies as "coolest" since the definition of cool these days seems almost synonymous with music.
maybe i'm odd, but i don't see why so many people believe the hype that music is so essential to life. I swear some people say stupid things like "music is my life" as if it's a cool thing and kids define themselves by the music they like. people who have different tastes in music now seem to belong to different "crowds". "what bands do you like" and "are you in a band" seem to have become almost as standard cliches as "hello" and "how are you". This is insane.
"come see my band play", groupie girls stupidly having their lame thing over "band boys" and the slut-izisation of american teenagers under peer-pressure that makes giving head to someone who's in a band an admirable and eviable thing is pure degradation of minds through the incessant brainwashing brought upon them by MTV & co and other industry-driven glamourization of music.
get a grip people, music isn't essential, isn't that glamorous, and it's a sad sad state of affairs that it occupies such a big share of the national entertainment culture. It's even more than entertainment for some.
From the article:
"At most, Jobs is left with a dime per track, so even $500 million in annual sales would add up to a paltry $50 million profit. Why even bother?"
Excuse me? A paltry $50 MILLION dollar profit?!?
'Paltry' and '$50 million dollar profit' don't belong in the same sentence.
This mentality is what's screwing the entire downloadable music process. It's not about whether it's profitable, it's about whether it's profitable enough.
Just for them saying that, I'm going to download some MP3s tonight. WTF...
Tal
"Study your math, kids. Key to the universe." -The Archangel Gabriel
They missed the "Cmdr Taco Electrified Corrective Buttplug."
I thought that was pretty cool.....
in yOUR pursuit/disempowerment of unprecedented evile, aka, the corepirate nazi life0cide.
time loves a hero? get ready to see the light.
Smart Playlists is what did it for me. Being able to categorize my music by how much I listen to it and my favorite artists instead of having to add each and every song by hand is a great time saver. Maybe the dudes over at nullsoft can borrow this idea...
"Victory means exit strategy, and it's important for the President to explain to us what the exit strategy is." G.W.Bush
I can see people having trouble with Time's use of the word "invention". It's their language, not Apple's. So many have used patents in an abusive way, it's easy to get into a defensive posture on even hearing the word invention. In the context of the Time article, "creative consumer offering" would better fit what they are talking about.
A product is more than a list of features. It's also about philosophy. Fairness, paying attention to the overall experience, and caring about behind the scenes detail is all part of this. Most consumers aren't likely to know that Apple is paying for the high-quality Fraunhofer IIS MP3 codec to let them use it for free in iTunes. Don't expeect to see things like that from MS/Napster. As any Linux user can tell you, beauty is more than skin deep.
The reason for this is licensing- European distributors haven't gotten around to licensing the music to Apple to sell in Europe (not for lack of trying on Apple's part).
...according to a poll on technical innovation website T3.co.uk. The story is in this Ananova article describing just how vital it is.
SlipHead.com is a cool new site following in this trend if any of you are interested. It's basically a free forum for the exchange of ideas with a methodology similar to open-source software. Take a minute to check it out!
It's November. How can they possibly know what the coolest inventions of 2003 are?
-- Ed Avis ed@membled.com
That's not a word, dear.
It's so cool that anybody who doesn't live in the United States can't use it! THAT'S SO FREAKING COOL, ISN'T IT!? ARRGH!!
[Breathes]
Seriously though. One would have thought that, when releasing a product to a world-wide audience, the software would be usuable by said audience. As it stands, when things like this happen, it just demonstrates that the United States still thinks that it's the center of the Universe. Grrr.
Should I read that you meant "an entire box of Twinkies" instead of "solid food"?
Ah, those shameless Europeans. :-)
And now, with fish-leather thongs, I can see millions of women saying "no, honestly honey, the smell's from my bikini."
Start a happiness pandemic
Actually, record contracts are geographically specific. Contractually, a record label gets the rights to sell recordings on behalf an artist in one specific country or group of countries. For example, the rapper Dizzee Rascal is on XL Records in the UK, but will be on Matador in the US. Since labels are responsible for promoting and manufacturing records, they usually limit themselves to a certain region. It makes sense in terms of physical recordings being sold through shops. I have to agree that such a system doesn't make sense online. However, you run into the same issues with books and electronics as well.
This doesn't make the U.S. the hub for all music. In fact, there is a considerable amount of international music that never makes it to the States. There are even bands from Canada that don't make it to the U.S.
This guy built one himself.
I don't think it's as groundbreaking as the hype would lead you to believe. That, and I think it predates 2003 by a bit.
"Still no cure for Cancer."
I've seen that so-called "invisible" cloak before, and I wish they'd stop calling it that. It is a special effects technique nearly as old as cinematography. Someone wears reflex material while a scene is front-projected onto them. I don't think much of it as a stealth technique. FX man (walking up to armed guard at secure installation): 'scuse me, would you mind looking through this beam splitter while I set up a projector at your feet? Thanks! --Metryq
Anyone else notice how many functional robots there are in this section?
...
Robots have been "the future" for so long, I kinda wrote them off with flying cars and moonbases. But slowly, they are becoming real
Which is cool. Except for that robo-cat, which looks to me like a creepy undead reanimated cat-pelt.
My Karma: ran over your Dogma
StrawberryFrog
Concerning the Windows version of iTunes, does anybody know how to stop iTunes from adding a value to win2k's registry that makes Quicktime start at bootup? It added said value on initial installation and I chopped it out, but then I noticed that every time I run iTunes the value is put in again.
Bring it on.
Without DRM, there will never be practical online music delivery. Period. Fly-by-night outfits that purport to deliver music without DRM only deliver music that nobody wants; these are the examples that prove the rule.
Apple did the best thing: they created a DRM schema that protects the rights of both the creators and the consumers. And they should be lauded for it.
Among the contenders, we had stuff straight out of sci-fi : a invisible camouflage suit, a wearable robot suit which augments your strength (just like in those cartoons), glasses with a built in screen and camera, and the winner for coolest invention was... iTUNES? WTF??
"Backups are for wimps. Real men upload their data to an FTP site and have everyone else mirror it." -- Linus Torvalds
So iTMS is all cool and stuff, but better than a flu vacinne (sp?), or a water purifier? I mean, this stuff could save lives, while the iTMS is just for downloading music. Mabey it's that Time is par of TimeWarner and they own the music companies...
If you had some money, would you invest it at a 10% return or a 20% return?
The question isn't whether $50M is a lot of money. The question is whether the capitsl investment could return better than $50M if invested elsewhere. It's quite possible that $50M is paltry compared to the alternatives.
The money doesn't just roll in without expenses you know.
Compere: Well, you can't get much more interesting than that, or can you? With me now is Mr Thomas Walters of West Hartlepool who is totally invisible. Good evening, Mr Walters. (turns to empty chair)
... Even now you yourself, you do hardly notice me...
Walters: (off-screen) Over here, Hughie.
Compere turns to find a boringly dressed man sitting by him.
Compere: Mr Walters, are you sure you're invisible?
Walters: Oh yes, most certainly.
Compere: Well, Mr Walters, what's it like being invisible?
Walters: (slowly and boringly) Well, for a start, at the office where I work I can be sitting at my desk all day and the others totally ignore me. At home, even though we are in the same room, my wife does not speak to me for hours, people pass me by in the street without a glance in my direction, and I can walk into a room without...
Compere: Well, whilst we've got interesting people, we met Mr Oliver Cavendish who...
Walters: (droning on)
I believe we might be overlooking what the phrase "at most" means. Apple's probably outlaid millions in R&D, hosting, advertising, etc to make -- at most -- $50 million annually. At the least, Apple might not even be making the dimes mentioned above. The return on investment is perhaps not the best as far as Apple's stockholders are concerned, as another post mentions -- if taken at face value.
That's why iPod sales are so important. When increased iPod sales, or even sustained iPod sales to Windows users in the face of new competition, and only then, is "WinTunes" a good idea and produces a better ROI than buying US Treasury bonds.
Folks, Apple's a big corporation. A fifty million dollar gain annually is, whether we like it or not comparing it to the scale of dough in our bank accounts/wallets, not horribly big money.
It's all 0s and 1s. Or it's not.
Companies have been doing this for years. This isn't new or even an Invention.
From the way it sounds they are leading in the technology, and have found the best ways to distribute music, but that doesn't mean this style of business is original.
Good for Apple, but Time really needs to pull their head out of their asses if this was the best invention they could find.
TruePunk | Games
Mac OS systems may comprise about 3% of the yearly sold amount of personal computers. That's market share.
However, Mac OS systems do NOT comprise 3% of the total installed base of all computers. A more likely number of Mac OS systems in use is around 20-25%, if not a little larger.
An installed base of 3% could not possibly support the software sales for Mac developers, particularly games and business applications. It's just not possible. Try not repeating what you hear unless you understand it.
Vos teneo officium eram periculosus ut vos recipero is.
Look at that cat. It's meant to keep you "calm and happy". It turns its head, moves its ears and blinks its eyes. Calm and happy? More like nervous and scared. Think Chucky :-/
"It's a disarmingly simple concept: sell songs in digital format for less than a buck and let buyers play them whenever and wherever they like--as long as it's on an Apple iPod."
Wrong, wrong, wrong. Again, wrong.
You can tell the author of this article never actally used iTunes or the iTunes music store. The iPod is completely optional.
I don't have an iPod and I've been using iTunes for years. I will probably never get an iPod. Still, I'm a daily user of iTunes.
It was my fault for reading this silly article. I mean, this is Time magazine. What do they know about technology? Just enough to write some copy. The harm here is that it really short-sells iTunes AND the iTunes Music Store by harping on an optional component.
--Richard
There was NO invention here. Steve Jobs could take a dump in your breakfast cereal, call it iShit, and you fucking retards would pay him money for the privilege of eating it.
It is of NO FAULT by Apple that iTunes has not made it to Europe yet. It is the European recording industry execs and record labels (that are twice as bitchy as the RIAA) that not allowing iTunes overseas. NO download service is international right now that I am aware of.
Elect people who would reform your system over there or be quiet!!!
Hey, I do this at least once a month and the watch survives, believe me! I even think my MP3s sound better when the USB port has been washed a little.
Actually, and seriously the watch is 'water resistant', and because the USB port is basically dead if it's not connected, I suspect that it can get wet and not care so long as it's dried before use.
It's just somewhat easier than carrying a USB flash drive around with you, and sitting on one's wrist it's probably safer than hanging off a keychain or rattling around in a pocket.
Bluetooth would be sweet too... but I suspect it would have bad battery issues, which the USB watch does not.
Ceci n'est pas une signature
grisha.org
Purifying water (one of the lauded inventions) is a cool thing, very relevant to billions around the world, but doing it by distillation is just a joke.
There is a much simpler and just as effective way to purify water in tropical or desert countries: place it in a transparent plastic bottle in the sun for a day. The water heats to 80 degrees and after a few hours is totally sterilised. The mud and gunk settle to the bottom, and what's left is clean and drinkable.
I spent a few days on this once, trying to improve the process of separating the gunk from the water: the principle was to extract the gunk from the bottle which could then be closed and carried some distance. My design requires a straw and a bit of clay. But even that's not worth doing: to solve the problem of drinkable water in most of Africa, all one would need is to ship a billion or so used PET bottles.
Sigh. People like complex solutions to simple problems.
Ceci n'est pas une signature
GHET HIM!!!!!!
THank you. You saved me the time and typing.
and to further clarify:
point 3: uhm, what exactly is point three? Terms of licensing are high? AS in cost to the customer? Or cost to the record label? Indie's and Majors all get the same treatment (link found elsewhere in this article)- its 99 cents a song, albums for 9.99, songs over 7 minutes are only available as albums. If an album has less than 10 tracks, its number of tracks times 99 cents (5 track ep costs 4.95)
As for driving iPod sales, this is actually a COUNTER to your claim- they don't care to make money off iTunes, they just want a kick ass service, so you'll use iTunes, and then maybe you'll think about buying an iPod.
In the future, I would want to not be isolated from my friends in the Space Station.
I love how in the article they say iTMS is giving Apple a mere $0.10 per song. 10% profit doesn't sound too bad to me, especially in the highly-comoditized PC market. Granted, it's not what Apple is used to. They're used to 30% profit margins from their computer sales. But 10% of millions (and some day billions) is nothing to cough at. I wouldn't mind a nice steady stream of 10% of $500 million. But like Steve said...they're selling iPods which gives them a cool 35% or so for each one sold. Niiiiiice.
"He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lampposts...for support rather than illumination." - Andrew Lang
So yeah, that one part of it, happens to be innovative you like massively-pushed music.
And of course, iTunes music store sells their stuff in a weird format for which there are very few players. (Some people (well, usually AC trolls) keep saying that the AAC format isn't "weird" and is standardized, but they forget that the DRM effectively makes the files nonstandard.) The fact that MS Windows users needed special software before they could take advantage of the service, and the fact that every other platform in the universe except for Windows and MacOS still can't use the service, shows just how flawed the approach is, from a "standards" perspective. mp3.com (and other services like them) beats the living shit out of Apple's product in this regard, has had that advantage for many years, and there is little hope that Apple will ever modernize and become competitive, thanks to their DRM requirement.
The DRM is really dumb, too. In order to make the DRM at all tolerable to users, they had to effectively neuter it by letting people burn the music to CD. So it doesn't actually provide any copy protection at all; it merely adds a monopoly chokepoint to the users' toolchain. Worst of all worlds: inconvenience the good guys, don't slow down the bad guys. (In other words, the typical results whenever copy protection is involved.)
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
I bet if I looked into the corporate conglomerate that Times belongs to I'd find some interesting reasons as to why.
Clothing Sizes Chart for listed items:
American
8
10
12
14
16
18
huh? 8 - 18 girls eat.
If she floats, she's a witch.
So what this is saying is...
If I build a mouse (click click, not squeak squeak) that just happens to be the most responsive, comfortable mouse on the market... Does that mean I invented the mouse?
BMW makes very nice cars... Does that mean they invented "very nice cars"? No, of course not.
Maybe if I had something truely original and revolutionary in the new design, I could claim to have invented that part of it. But just because you came up w/ a better version of what's already out.
Nitpicking I know, but I get peeved when people say Edison invented the light bulb.
Besides, I never considered Time to be a good source of judging ANYTHING. There's better stuff out there.
hmmm, fish skin bikini....
"What is that smell?!?"
"No, i swear it's my bathing suit!!!"
You think Apple doesn't want to sell you stuff because of some center-of-the-universe conceit or other? They would gladly sell you anything you wanted, anything they could convince you you wanted, if their deals with the labels allowed it. They don't -- and this isn't different from any traditional music licensing in that way.
The next company you run into that could make a bazillion dollars in a foreign market, but chooses not to because they're a bunch of arrogant Americans, that'll be a first. You post a story about that one then.
"Fundamentalism" isn't about divine morality. It's about human authority.
The "car that parks itself" was the biggest disappointment of 2003 for me. I sometimes drive around for 40 minutes searching for a parking space near my house in Amsterdam. I would love to have a car that finds itself a space after I get home.
Turns out it only manages the 2 second parallel parking routine. Now that helps. And it "senses kerbs": I wouldn't try this on the canalside parking spaces we have a lot of here. This system isn't even a good idea for tourist rental cars.
Ok, I see what you're saying, and you're right -- for the most part, music licencing is region-specific. That is exactly what's cheesing me off. :P
:P
The Internet is a global community; I'm of the opinion that, if a software company is going to release a product to said community, then EVERY member of that community should be able to use it. (Or, if not, at least have a large message on the site indicating this.)
As it stands, I'd love to use iTunes, but Apple only bothered to think about the United States when it determined the licencing scheme. That is, in a word, crap.
Also among this year's favorites are 'fish-skin bikinis, a new love drug, the car that parks itself, and the invisible man
;)
why would anyone need a fish-skin bikini or a new love drug when you're an invisble man? you can already see everything... all the naked flesh you want... and i'm sure you wouldnt need a love drug there... uh wait.. you're inivisble, your partner wont be able to feel *ahem* ANYTHING?
my blog
> I just bought a brand new iBook G4 [
> If I had a job [
You, sir, are an inspiration to us all. *8-)
-A Random AC, saving my pennies for a G4 iBook so I can take Darwin on the road with me to the ski slopes.
This isn't me attacking the United States; however, you must certainly concede that MANY companies in the states are focused primarily on their domestic interests without seeing that there is a global community forming.
If I wanted to attack the United States, I would bring up things like.. say.. the fact that a movie star is now the govenor of California, that the president is a complete and total moron who has, in a little over a year, managed to destroy much of what the United Nations stood for, the fact that the US government continually lies to it's citizens, the fact that the goverment brainwashed the US populus with the Sept 11-Terrorist / Iraq-Saddam connection. (2/3rds of the citizens of the US think that Iraq was involved in the Sept 11 attacks. The ENTIRE REST OF THE WHOLE WORLD knows that this was false and the country was lied to.) Or the right-wing government. Or privatized health care. I can continue, but this is about iTunes and Apple.
using this to sell iPods isn't exactly the greatest idea, IMO
I'd trust Steve Job's business sense over yours any day unless you've managed to start a company as successful as Apple and then managed to save it from the administrative blunders of the next few CEOs.
The iPod is now Apple's highest margin product. If they sell $2000 of computer or $2000 of iPods, they make more money on the iPods. The iPod is the most popular portable mp3 player on the planet, so Apple must be doing something right with their sales strategies.
The majority of your 99 cents goes to the RIAA. I highly doubt that the RIAA trickles any of that money down to the labels who will spread it out amongst their artists.
The RIAA's cut is exactly $0.00. The money goes to the label, whose job it is to pay the artists. If an artist doesn't want to deal with a big label, they can always use CDBaby and put their music on the iTMS and get a very large cut of the profits.
t'nera semordnilap
You will be proven wrong point by point by Apple zealots, so don't even try.
Everything runs faster, more stable on a Mac. Nothing can complete with the Mac and that's why it's the standard on every single desktop and laptop in the world.
With that said, I think Amazon's Full Text search should have won.
Of course, it's 2004 nearly and the biggest invention to speak of is software to buy music or books. I want my damn hover-skateboard and to take vacations on Mars!!!!
Live web cams
Please mod the parent up.
Well, that didn't keep them from putting camera phones in there, which have been around much longer than the Segway, at least in Japan.
Here it is: http://www.time.com/time/2003/inventions/invshredd er.html
Hello! I'm a disaster waiting to happen!
Not "literally" dammit! Figuratively! It's the opposite of literally. What, you think Edison rode around on one of the New York Knicks in his lab all day?
"Literally" is a really useful word with a very specific meaning, and misuse of it like this will lead to its destruction. People like you are turning it into just another content-free emphasis word.
You want a content-free emphasis word? Try "dammit" for a change. "The greatest inventors of our times were standing on the shoulders of giants, dammit."
I dislike iTunes immensely because it forces you to use its format... I have thousands of tracks (legally obtained, mind you, from years of collecting CD's) scanned into Windows Media Player. Converting from the iTunes format to anything else requires WORK... work that I don't want to do. So I dropped iTunes. The biggest problem with these services, too, is the "smaller" artists aren't in there. I have mostly Christian/gospel music. Try finding the complete works of Ginny Owens or such. You'd probably find the same problem with small-market secular artists, too.
not to mention that anything you can replicate with lego's would be hard to image as being the greatest invention of the year.
http://perso.freelug.org/legway/LegWay.html
So Apple invented selling over the Internet? Wow...and here I thought it was merely a refinement of previous efforts. That reality distortion field even effects Time Magazine.
You want to know who isn't running Firefox 2.x? They spell it "definately" and "rediculous".
I see some makeup...
This isn't accurate. I installed Itunes a week ago on my Win2k laptop. I've downloaded about fifty songs (mostly old tunes I loved as a kid), and played them a lot. I don't own an iPod. I don't even own a Macintosh, although that will probably change when I buy my next laptop.
Further, people who have CD burners can burn purchased songs from iTunes onto an Audio CD that will play in any CD player. I *think* the software limits you to making only ten CDs for each tune, but as far as I know that's the only limit.
Apple apparently is using iTunes to sell iPods, but you definitely don't need an iPod to use and benefit from the iTunes service.
Catherine
Read the article people. They give it credit because Jobs was able to get the music industry to agree to it. Before, they were scared of piracy, and allowed only heavily restrictive DRM. Jobs got them to agree to moderate DRM, and the service has taken off. That is why they are the coolest.
The fucking hell they wouldn't, if they get a full $2.50 of it... WHICH THEY DO.
Let's also not forget the other companies Jobs founded.
/. masses to determine.
There's NeXT. Wether that's a plus or minus I'll leave to the
Then there's Pixar. A definite hit. Funny how many people forget he's still CEO of Pixar. Especially when they talk about things like the Rip/Mix/Burn campain indicating Jobs condones piracy.
Does this mean rohypnol has been upgraded?
If Dean Kamen's water purifier can be turned into a still then it might be something to look into. 10 gallons an hour is whole lot of moonshine.
Yeah, I resort to alcohol in seducing women, unlike these new age freaks that use roofies, GHB, and ketamine.
If what you are reading sounds funny, or sarcastic, lame, or stupid
it is because it is supposed to be. just laugh
What a great 2003 invention those have been. Good thing we Americans came up with this brilliant innovation long before the industrious Japanese or the traitorous Europeans. Only with our great tradition of innovation and capitalism could our industries achieve new heights like these camera phones. Long live America!
501 Not Implemented
Who cares about the gadgets, just show me the leather bikinis.
Not that this wasn't entirely predictable.
Usually after an initial dose of GI-irritating caffeine, it ain't a log.
Ok, can everyone stop ranting about iTunes long enough to look at some of the other stuff?
That Invisibility cloak looks pretty sweet. Although it actually looks too good. Some of the videos on their website look fake. It's also a long way off from completion - expected arrival date is 2008 (Why this rates in the 2003 awards is another matter).
There's also the souped-up speakers that look like they belong in the Jetson's house. Given their price tag of $16k, I'll live with my current stereo for quite a bit longer.
And the electrical ladies' jacket. Not something I'd want to mess with. Or wear for that matter. "Even when it's not in use, it crackles with tiny, visible electrical arcs that send a message". Yeah, that sends a message that you can't turn it off. Beware of hanging it on a metal coatrack.
The exoskeleton could be very useful. Imagine hard manual labor getting easier. Crank up the power on it, and you could get a lot of interesting applications. Remember the mech suits in Aliens.
The skydiver wings look like they'd be a lot of fun. And hey, most of the inventions in this list were mere toys anyways.
any girls larger than size 18 aren't in those bikinis (although your mileage may vary). Seriously though, part of the prestige of high end goods is the image it conveys. If you have fat people spilling rolls of fat out of your clothing, it's not going to make your product look good; especially when you're selling $330 bikinis.
If Kate Moss, Calista Flockhart, Lara Flyn Boyle, et al get blamed for anorexia and bulimia, the other end of the spectrum should Oprah, Rosie O'Donnell, Camryn Manheim, et al receive commensurate opprobrium for the obscene obesity rates in the US? If anything, obesity is a larger (no pun intended) problem in the US.
But American cultural arrogance and hegemony? As usual, when it looks like a conspiracy, it's more often short-sightedness. The record labels just don't get it, they're living in past models of distribution. Even when someone cajoles them around to seing a way that works, they're hanging onto their old mindset. There's your arrogance. It's more like idiocy.
"Fundamentalism" isn't about divine morality. It's about human authority.
Show me on the doll where his noodly appendage touched you.