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Microsoft Developing iPod, iTMS Competitor
Software writes "Reuters reports that Microsoft is developing an iPod and iTunes Music Store competitor. Few details are available, but it's known that Robbie Bach (the man behind the Xbox) is heading up the project." From the article: "Most iTunes rivals charge monthly fees to access a catalog of entertainment, but some allow consumers to buy individual songs for about $1 each. Microsoft's service will emphasize the pay-per-download, or a la carte, model, the sources said. A subscription component will also be offered, according to early accounts of the planned service. One source, who has seen a demonstration of the service, said it was an improvement over iTunes."
"heading up teh project".
All a new commer has to do is to talk Apple's customers into give up their iPods and around $2bn of purchased content, after that they can sell on the basis of better devices and new sales/subscription models.
C'mon, it's supposed to be "heading up teh project."
You know you're a geek if you've ever replied to a tagline.
"One source" [cough]Robbie Bach[/cough]", who has seen a demonstration of the service, said it was an improvement over iTunes."
"If I could live to be several hundred
I could take a walk and really wander, really wonder."
!!?
<grrr
"...Robbie Bach (the man behind the Xbox) is heading up hte[sic] project." So that means the controls will be unecessariliy large?
it seems Europe was right about the media player in XP was more than just convienience, will the US now see whats happening and the true intention of bundling the media player with XP/Vista
Gee, I wonder if that source was an Apple rep.
Now that the market is almost saturated... why would I bother to switch from iTunes and my video ipod (which I just bought with my Macbook Pro) to an MS service? Are they going to seriously undercut prices? No.
Does anyone seriously disagree with me that Windows Media Player is a bloated piece of shit? Ever since like.. version... 6.4? MS has been trying to add every possible little thing to it... they are trying to make it so that it is the ONLY program you will ever need to run on your PC... personally I am all for decentralization but I realise there are some users who want to open up one program and then start typing an e-mail and buy movie tickets within the same app (a few years off in WMP)...
This is it.
The ipod killa.
Pop a 40 Steve, because Bill is about to pop a cap in your lickable bar of techno soap.
or
2. yawn, another ipod killer story.
Take your pick
Buying tunes through XBox live marketplace, and transferring them from the box to the player would open the door to a huge untapped group of consumers who don't have (or want) a PC, but probably have (or wouldn't mind) a game console.
I would be shocked to find out that this isn't the route MS plans to take, the 360 being your entertainment-hub and all.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
From the Article:
""They have been developing technologies that have really good music discovery and community," another source said. "iTunes is the 7-11 (of music stores). You don't hang out there.""
Well, I didn't hang out at the local 7-11 because that's where the local child molester picked up boys (why our parents forbid it AFTER he was arrested and jailed...), and they got rid of the video game machines.
I'm sure there is no connection between on online community and an offline community in that reguard...
(I do work for an iTunes rival, but that's not revelant I think)
The easy way to win this competition, at least among the audiophiles that care, is to avoid DRM in all its manifestations for the new service. Not that it's likely, given that it's a MS service, but I speculate that doing so would gain an instant market share.
Meh, a real sig would take too long, and I have an MMORPG to play with....
However any music store that intends to compete with itms is going to have to support the iPod - there are just too many ipods aren't to try and do anything else.
So if ms did support both the iPOD and their on Plays4Sure players, then i think they would stand a good chance to uprooting Apple. Especially considering they can run the store at a loss for years.
Didn't I read a while ago about how they were doing this?
Fellowship 9/11
They will probably be using proprietary WiMP codecs and DRM. I wonder if the EU is going to even bother trying to open up their DRM? Might just give the EU one more tangent to fight the Microsoft monopoly if they are able to edge Apple out of the top spot. But doing that would take some doing. First, Microsoft has to play pattycake with the record labels. Apple has been able to do this so far by turning over the lionshare of the profits to the labels and making their profits on iPod sales. But if Microsoft wants to do this, they also have to price their player competitively with the iPod (less profit), AND less money on the content? Sounds like they will be a loss leader for a number of years to get a foothold in the market. But, this isn't exactly new for Microsoft, is it (hint: XBox)?
Listen - DRM SUCKS !!!
There. I wrote it. You may disagree all you want, but it does.
It's always great to see MS on the cutting edge of consumer trends. Where do they come up with these wildly original ideas?
The odds of Microsoft successfully pulling this off successfully are practically zero. One of these key components are bound not to show up, so I imagine people will have a copy itunes installed on their machine along with whatever Microsoft has.
/^[A-Z0-9._%+-]+@[A-Z0-9.-]+\.[A-Z]{2,4}$/i
I thought Microsoft partnered up with MTV to make Urge. Are they going to have multiple subscription services? If so, will customers have to pay $5/mo or whatever for each? Or will one payment grant you access to the "Microsoft Music Network" that has Urge, Splurge, and whatever other music store they come up with in the future?
Is it just me, or does it look like ever since Steve Ballmer took over the reigns Microsoft's business plan can be summed up as "Whatever Google/Apple is doing, we're gonna compete with that."?
-Charles
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
Come on, don't they make this announcement every second week?
If Jesus wants me it knows where to find me.
Too bad it isn't the good ole days when the hint of a future MS product could freeze competitor's sales. Old habits die hard I guess.
I wonder if the MS Pod will be packaged like this?
On a more serious note, has someone who has a good working knowledge of the DRM controls in MS Windows (XP and maybe some of Vista's) and Mac OS X know how these two comparitively "play out"?
For example, can you burn DRM'ed music to a CD from Media Player like you can with iTunes?
Te Quiero, Puta!
No wireless. Less space than an iPod. Lame.
...called URGE. I'm confused.
"They have been developing technologies that have really good music discovery and community," another source said. "iTunes is the 7-11 (of music stores). You don't hang out there."
They have got to be kidding. People spend hours sifting through iTMS. I know people who never close it!
iTMS is like Amazon, people just use it for basic music reference at this point. These people are on crack.
If Jesus wants me it knows where to find me.
The way I remember things, in WMP version something or other, MS included support for a few stores, but defaulted to Napster. Sortly after that, didn't Microsoft try an MSN music store, suddenly making that the default over the 3rd party stores in WMP? Then there's a bunch of news about this MS/MTV Urge online music store, I wasn't sure where that leaves the MSN service. It sounds like they're grasping at straws, trying the same things over and over again.
I agree about WMP being lousy... I've tried to use it do sync music with my small (256MB) mp3 player. It's incredibly frustrating to try and get your music ready to copy to the mp3 player. I never use WMP to transfer my music now, I just do it through Explorer, or on Linux, but then I don't have control over the overall order of music. It seems that music within a single folder gets played all together and in the intended order, but I don't know what order the folders will be played. On my sister's non-iPod mp3 player, she can't make the music play in the order she wants, even if she creates a playlist in WMP, and syncs based on that. I never used to understand why non-Apple products don't get as much attention as iPod/iTMS (it seems like a simple thing to copy music to an mp3 player, how bad could everyone be screwing it up?), but now that I have one of the non-Apple players, I can see what a frustrating experience it can be.
I'm not really expecting a brilliant turnaround in Microsoft's next attempt at doing the same thing, the same way, all over again... (what was Benjamin Franklin's definition of insanity, again?)
The Xpod
I can see it now - cheap, overhyped, and bsoding.
It is the owner that crashes the system. If you are enough of an idiot to put 50 background processes in Windows you sho
If in fact this does support iPod's and isn't a crap interface, I may be all over it. I can't stand iTunes. It's slow, and bulky. The other thing that would open this up for MS would be to allow a subscription service (much like Raphsody) that allows you to download as many songs as you want to your iPod for one monthly fee. If it had that feature, crappy interface or not, I'd be in.
"If you have legs and are flammable, you are never blocking a fire exit." -- Mitch Hedberg
No shit... Microsoft innovates again?
I think this is disgusting:
http://openforce.eu/20060614/linux-condoms.html
Micro "soft" ipod.
I can see it now. Microsoft conincides the release of this device with U2's next album. U2 does a commercial for Microsoft dancing and counting to fourteen in a foreign language. But get this... He skips 5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12 and 13! Genuis! The next day at work, all anyone can talk about is how much of a fucking idiot Bono is, in that new Microsoft [insert trendy name, like Origami. It doesn't have to make sense, it just has to sound cool] commercial. Hate for Bono drives sales.
Similes are like metaphors
...today Microsoft announced their plans to open a chain of discount retail stores to compete with companies like WalMart and Target. Tentatively called "WinMart", the new stores will carry a large assortment of grocery, clothing, and electronics items, including all the latest Microsoft software releases. "Businesses have to expand to survive," said a Microsoft spokesperson. "As we already control the operating system and productivity markets, we felt a need to expand into a completely unrelated field. Plus, WalMart seems to be very successful; we'd like to put them out of business as we have done to so many other successful companies in the past."
:)
Microsoft will seek to promote synergy between their software and retail arms. "Using a complex algorithm, our exciting new operating system Vista will be able to learn all about its users tastes and habits, through analysis of their websurfing and other computer activities. We can then send our customers personalized circulars containing exciting and valuable coupons for the things they need to buy most. Plus, if they have a webcam connected to their computer, we will be able to store their likeness in our centralized database, and store greeters will be able to welcome them by name as they enter the store."....
(OK, enough of that.
This article is such a troll. And why even mention that ONE SOURCE says it's better than iTunes, if you don't have any details? It's just a troll for responses, and I've been trolled. I must be new here...
absolutely.. not only that it's not novel or even new.
it was done by napster, napster failed at it and moved to subscriptions.
nothing to see here.
The XPod will lose 4 billion dollars but fail to make any significant gains in market share, but when the second-generation XPod comes out Zonk will post every day on Slashdot about how great it is.
So basically, the question I have (not being an iTunes user), will all the songs people have purchased simply copy over to their new MS player and work?
Or, will one companie's DRM effectively stake claim to an entire market segment of hostage consumers?
If the latter, DRM is going to stifle competition and create unreasonable barriers of entry to new commers.
"This entertainment medium will only work with this model (and our future models until we decide to drop support)"?
Boy, that's sucks for everyone; except who controls the DRM... But it's not like we didn't know it already; just that I didn't think about MS potentially being a victim.
Maybe DRM will screw all it's proponents one day when someone new makes the "next" ipod.
/me sips his coffee and ponders a new sig...
The AAC lock-in is the only thing I hate about my iPod. It's supposedly possible to play AAC's on Linux, but I haven't been able to get it to work, even after downloading gtkpod, faac, faad, xine, amarok1.4, etc. And you're right that AAC lock-in makes 'plays for sure' a joke.
Not that microsoft lock-in'd be any better, but what if Microsoft were to write a utility to seemlessly convert and/or copy your exisiting iTunes library from AAC (including DRM-AAC) to WMA?
That might work for Microsoft. Of course, the DMCA would probably make it illegal for them to do this. Do you think Microsoft might count on offshore 'talent' to build such a utility. Like 'count with cash'?
And what if Apple finally did open up iTunes to other hardware vendors? Would that fend of a direct challenge from Microsoft. Would Creative build an iTunes compatible and try to compete with Apple? Would Apple let them?
Posted from my Android phone. Oh, I can change this? There, that's better...
"Microsoft Developing iPod, iTMS Competitor"
lol again?
-- lol pwned
I smell a potential anti-trust issue developing here. The DOJ missed the real important points. MS will abuse their position with developing services and products. Unbundling IE is nothing compared to how MS can screw people with new services.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
The dancing Blue Silouhouettes of Death!
Prism Durosport.
Likewise "Search". There's quite a bit of revenue there, of course, but it wasn't until GMail, GTalk, GExcel (just kidding) popped up that MS really felt the heat from google's platform.
No, the iPod is not a platform. But OSX is, and if there isn't a microsofty competitor to the iPod then that little device's users are eventually going to discover that Macintoshes are -- as a whole -- quite a bit better than XP boxes. (Vista I set aside for the time being)
Just thinking aloud here.
My turnips listen for the soft cry of your love
This is a perfect example of "Microsoft Innovation" like Steve Ballmer was yammering on and on about during the anti-trust trial. Let someone else do the work and when something is successful, copy it and extinguish the original. But in this case, I don't see Microsoft's usual "innovation" plan succeeding.
"Hey, mr online music seller slash music buyer! Don't be supporting iTunes just yet. Microsoft are developing a system, it's going to be really really good! You can go with trusted Microsoft products! Ignore that Apple thing for just a while longer!"
I've made a habit of ignoring any vapourware announcements from Microsoft like this one. They really are worthless. No dates for anything, no estimates, not even a name yet!
Guy asked me for a quarter for a cup of coffee. So I bit him.
That will be another Microsoft 'innovation' there then.
If this takes any significant market share of iTunes / iPod, I will eat my hat. At the end of the day, it has to be more than 'an improvement' over iTunes - we all know how quickly Apple can roll out big changes to their products, and all it takes is one or two small updates to put Apple back on top IF do release a product which is better.. but (and lets be honest about this) I really doubt they will.
"Hey! Unless this is a nude love-in, get the hell off my property!!"
> The ipod killa.
:-)
Never underestimate an overstimulated Steve Ballamer with a stack of chairs
He's done it before and he can do it again!
Or, will one companie's DRM effectively stake claim to an entire market segment of hostage consumers?
That is exactly the case. Only like you say it wasn't supposed to be Apple in control of the market.
Given that Apple is on the way to having similar control over video sold online the whole industry should be sweating bullets. The only way to de-throne Apple would be to drop DRM and go with an open format, which movie and music studios will never be intelligent enough to do.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
"One source" [cough]Robbie Bach[/cough]", who has seen a demonstration of the service, said it was an improvement over iTunes."
I only barely avoided spewing coffee all over the keyboard. A shame I have no mod points.
Seriously, though. One source said it was "better." Using what criteria? Did this source see actual hardware working with actual software?
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
huge untapped group of consumers who don't have (or want) a PC, but probably have (or wouldn't mind) a game console
For most people, it's safe to say on the priority of expensive luxury items, a computer is going to come before the $400 game console.
MS has been rumored to be fiddling around with selling music for years.
There ain't no money in it... Apple sells music at a loss to encourage sales of ipods.
The "wildly successful" xbox also sells at a loss (correct me if I'm mistaken).
So, unless they're determined to burn thru all their cash, what does this mean, if not a perpetuation of overpriced OS & apps to pay for the other stuff?
Are you sure it's not an "iPod, iTMS"-killer?
what a waste of manpower. Why do the shareholders of MS listen to Ballmer when it comes to going into new markets that MS has no talent or background in? MS should retreat into just Office, windows, and related online services and leave the innovation to innovators and people of vision.
I don't understand why developers even BOTHER coming up with new software for Windows. Don't they realize that this will just serve as a huge beacon that screams "LOOK MICROSOFT!!! ANOTHER FRESH NEW NICHE MARKET THAT WE PIONEERED FOR YOU TO TAKE OVER AND FORCE US INTO BANKRUPTCY!!!!"
...that doesn't let you buy the songs. "Most iTunes rivals charge monthly fees to access a catalog of entertainment, but some allow consumers to buy individual songs for about $1 each." There is eMusic, but you get to keep those songs. People complain about not owning their music, yet these stores only offer the subscription service in addition to the buy a track for $1 service.
It's the same thing with the Xbox. the PS2 wiped the floor with it in market share and sales because of the lack of software and that fact that it was FREAKING huge. Also, PS2 came out first and almost nobody buys two current consoles (a lot of times, they are bought separately and when they're getting close to becoming last-gen hardware, i.e. when they get cheap) so everyone figured "I got my PS2, there's a ton more games for it, the graphics are fine for me, so why buy ANOTHER console and have to buy ANOTHER copy of a game I already have for PS2?"
BUT, Xbox 360 is now out. The Xbox was eventually established and now the major selling point for the 360 is the same used for the PS2, backwards-compatibility. PS3 is arriving late, and although it will be more powerful, no one will have a good reason to blow $500-$600 when they JUST bought another console that has more content available to it. Nintendo is smart not to directly compete with the 360 because it would lose. You have the Wii for the simple, social, have-your-friends-over games and the Xbox 360 for the hard-hitting immersive action games.
Anyway, Microsoft is not competing with today's iPod. They're going to be competing with tomorrow's iPod, the one you haven't bought yet. I wouldn't be surprised if this product ends up being a loss-leader. Face it, no one is going to throw away their iPods for another service, no matter how much better it is. But they might consider it when the battery dies yet again, the screen is scratched, they're tired of the music they have, etc. and they're ready for something new. Microsoft will still be there, and by then it will be refined, offering more flexibility and giving you the choice of several different devices. Now if only they can make them look sexy and not like a tape recorder from 1986.
Sun: Convinced the press and the public that Java was a new language that for the first time would allow a program to run on any computer.
MS: What do you want to do today?
NT
What they'll produce is a second rate player and service. It will attempt to be all things to all record companies and not be all that great a service. What you have to understand is how much Apple pushed the music companies in order to get them to support ITMS.
Remember the major record producers originally had their own "stores". They charged a monthly fee, charged for downloading, and then your music couldn't be transfered to other devices and would expire after two or three months. For some strange reason, it wasn't very popular.
Remember that iTunes and the iPod came out before the ITMS. Apple used it as a demonstration on how popular an MP3 player could be, and how easy it was to copy songs from CDs and share them with friends. There was *no* DRM on the original iPods. Jobs turned around and negotiated the store. He insisted that they sell all music for the same price, that the music wouldn't expire, and that users would have some means of sharing it. In return, Apple created FairPlay which made the record executives a bit less nervious about selling electronically.
Apple also made ITMS "Mac Only" as a demonstration product. This way, the music executives could see how it might actually be good for the industry. Once they were satisfied about the security and sales, they allowed Apple to ship the Windows version of iTunes.
Apple recently again did battle against the record industry. Remember a few months ago that the industry wanted to do away with "one price" pricing? Apple insisted that 1). All music would be the same price, and 2). That it would remain under a dollar.
Does Apple do this because they love us? Nope, it's because Jobs has a clue of what people want, and has a vision how things should be done.
Microsoft will simply try to overload the player with features, then use its Windows monopoly to push it upon the market. All PCs will come with the software, and the service. If you put in a CD, the service will be the default way it will play. The Microsoft designed music players will be unhappy on any machine, but Windows, and will insist upon Windows Vista. They'll come up with the service specs, and will design, but not necessarily produce the system. They will put pressure upon their "business partners" to produce the players, and to bundle them with their PCs. You will get the Microsoft approved device and you will love it.
This is a bit old, but explains why Microsoft couldn't make an iPod: .
I tried to convert my parents to Firefox for the longest time. They wouldn't hear of it. They weren't going to let me "screw up the computer" by installing "viruses and spywares" on it. I explained to them how much better Firefox was than IE till I was blue in the face. It took a malware attack that make IE unusable for them to hear me out. I installed Firefox and they've been happily using it ever sice. Getting people to switch from default Windows has to be a grass-roots effort. You catch someone at the right time sick of Windows, and you can dazzle them with how much better it can be.
Or the second time either.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
1) Any service they roll out will fail, because it won't work with iPods.
2) Any iPod competitor they roll out will fail, because it isn't an iPod.
3) Every attempt they make to kill the iPod or iTMS does absolutely nothing to harm Apple. All it does it further dilute the small chunk of non-iTMS marketshare over which the preexisting iPod/iTMS competitors are already killing each other. They are simply rearranging and adding deck chairs on the Titanic.
Obviously, Microsoft thinks that this market is just like the others they've taken over-- that if they keep trying and throw enough money at it, they'll eventually come out on top regardless of the quality of their product. What they don't seem to realize is that they have been hoisted on their own petard. They thought they could take over with their own DRM, but Apple got there first with FairPlay in the iPod/iTMS, got off to a big head start, and people who have already invested in that 'system' will be highly reluctant to switch to something else. Without DRM-induced market inertia, Microsoft's old method might have worked. Instead, they're really going to have to come up with a kick-ass music player and online store. And even if they do, there's still a high likelihood that people won't switch because they're too invested in iTunes.
~Philly
I've got a way for them to win for sure:
Produce the same or better "ipods" with lower prices, and then avoid any and all attempts at DRM.
Whether they do this or somebody else does, this is what's going to replace itunes and be the industry standard. How much do you wanna bet MS isn't smart enough to be first to market on this, any more than Apple or Sony will be.
Anyone got some startup capital?
rhY
I hold very few opinions. I hold information based on observation and fact. If you wish to disagree, please use facts.
One problem with your premise; Microsoft doesn't make a profit on xbox. They hope, to eventually make a profit, but they currently do not.
The wheel is turning, but the hamster is dead.
But ffpmeg (MPlayer/VLC) work much better. As more folks start using MPlayer/VLC to watch media, there will be less need for the WMV (and QuickTime) proprietary protocols.
So, they can ignore the Macintosh at their own peril.
The wheel is turning, but the hamster is dead.
Apple now has it sewn up due not to iTMS or Fairplay but to that little connector on the bottom. Unless MS has that same little connector, they're fucked. Everyone with that iPod connector in their car, stereo, etc. won't buy in and it'll take ages for the market to come around to MS. Apple surely has a response to MS as well. We know that they've got the subscription service primed if they need to deploy. There's a new generation of iPods coming. There's video build-out still taking place. I just don't see how MS can jump ahead of all of that.
This should go over well with all those companies that hitched their wagon to Microsoft's star and licensed Windows Media DRM 10, then came back for more licensing and test fees for PlaysForSure.
I'l sure they'll all understand that they were really just preparing a market for Microsoft, and will quietly close up shop. Certainly, none of these companies such as Creative Labs has ever shown any tendency to cause trouble or litigate. I'm sure they can all simply rely on the US Justice Department's oversight and Microsoft's honoring the DOJ settlement and consent decree to ensure that Microsoft won't try to extend it's monopoly here.
I'm noticing this a lot lately, but this is one of the most glaring examples. Someone out there has tagged an article in which Microsoft pledges to compete with iTMS as "fud". "FUD" is an acronym that stands for "Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt" and refers to the practice of deliberately spreading misinformation about a competitor's product in order to convince customers that switching would not be beneficial. The character of said misinformation is typically the sort that inpires fear (ie, "Early adopters of the Macintosh experienced extreme losses in productivity, pushing many small business owners into bankruptcy"), uncertainty (ie, "It's not clear that switching to the Macintosh is worth the cost anyway, studies show the Mac is quite expensive and offers no tangible benefits over MS Windows"), and doubt (ie, "Company XYZ failed to lose productivity when they switched to the Mac for some tasks, their representatives said, but they didn't switch all workstations and the ones they did switch were the ones used by effeminate hello-kitty product designers who used them primarily in the design of advertisements directed at the SF Castro district community. The question you need to ask yourself is, does your company fit this particular niche for which Macintoshes are ideally suited?")
Obviously there are probably better examples of FUD (U and D in particular overlap somewhat).
This is rather like the lamentable practice that some losers have of abusing the moderation system to bury posts they disagree with. Troll and Flamebait do not mean I disagree, nor does Overrated. When you disagree with a post or a story, the proper response is to REPLY. Let's face it, the reason we all come to Slashdot is for the comments. The days when Slashdot was the place to get current news are long gone -- there are a host of other sites that post this stuff days earlier, fail to dupe, and care about accuracy more than sensationalism. The reason that I don't read these much (and my guess is that it's the same for 90% of the rest of Slashdot) is because regardless of how many spelling mistakes there are in the story submission here, the comments are filled with lucid and interesting analyses of anything and everything.
I guess what this means is that you have a choice: you can either be a coward and use loaded tags or abuse the Troll/Flaimbait mods to comment, or you can actually post content that will help keep Slashdot interesting and the Slashdot masses informed.
Despite what everyone says about "the hive mind" and "getting modded down for going against the grain", I personally have never experienced this phenomenon. Have you ever noticed that nearly every lucidly written post that goes against established mantras and includes the magic line "I'll probably be modded down for this" makes it to +5? The whiners who go on and on about how "The Slashbots are against me!@@!!11one" usually can't write worth squat and such fail to inspire any reaction other than "You're stupid" from the Moderators. It's true that the reverse is not true, which is sad: some twat who clearly didn't pass elementary school English can write "M$ is the suxor! Lin0x is the win@!!" and get to +5 if he posts early enough, but despite this unfortunate reality the truth of the matter is that you can post wildly unpopular opinions and get modded up if you phrase your ideas in an interesting, informative, and non-flamebait way.
Since I'm going on about not abusing the tagging and moderation system, it's only appropriate that this be modded Offtopic, which it is. Mods, do your worst.
is everyone here so anti-ms as to not notice that competition is GOOD for customers? ipods are EXPENSIVE and so far there is not viable competitor that could force apple to lower their prices. is ms could do that, what's not to like? why is everyone so focused on giving ms grief?
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=360995396
Is this supposed to be Urge, the new beta music store interated with WMP11? Urge is a collaborations of MS with MTV, VH1, and CMT, and looks good if you don't mind an interface based almost ntirely on Flash. Urge is hardly news; at least, not this kind of 'Ooh, first glimpse of a new product!' news, but it IS fairly impressive. You don't need WMP11 to use it, but they do seem to operate together fairly well.
Unless there's another, Microsoft-only must store in the works, the only news here is that they are releasing a player, which -- considering how much MS has begun to ente the hardware market -- isn't terribly surprising. Very, very little is being said ABOUT the palyer, however. I actually think MS has a golden opportunity, if they can swing it, to move in on the iPod market; iPod advertisements are getting stale, and it has been a relatively long time since a new iPod came out. People are speculating on things like a larger, wider screen, and/or touchscreen control; MS has the R&D money to create a device like that, with a competitively-sized drive and battery life, and could probably release it at a good price point.
If there IS a new media store, we seriously need more info here!
There's no place I could be, since I've found Serenity...
Another iPod killer...Nothing to see here folks, move along, move along
no, no, no... not the ipod and itunes copying... ...but putting a guy who heads up a billion dollar money losing project at the helm of another johnny come lately tech project...
pure genius... pure genius...
Forget an iTMS competitor, they just need you to fix the spelling and grammar check in MS Word.
Customer: I made a CD of the songs I bought using the Microsoft Song Service and it won't play in my car.
MS Support: You have to install Windows in your car to play CDs from the Mircrosoft Song Service.
MS Support: Give us your license number so we can make sure your not a thief.
Customer: WTF?
Enjoy,
It's just the normal noises in here.
http://media.putfile.com/Microsoft-Rebrands-iPod-P ackaging
:)
P ackaging
nuff said
http://media.putfile.com/Microsoft-Rebrands-iPod-
Nothing could ever get me to spend money on anything branded with an Apple logo. I would buy one of these Shutter Pods for the superior WMA format. Furthermore I'd be able to rip the music cd's that I own via purchasing (hey what a novel idea you stinking thiefs) and listen to them in my car, on my pc, on my DVD player, at work, at your girlfriends house, whereever I want. You think I want to share my collection of music with you. Whatever!! you think to highly of yourself. grrravy
Where's the 0xBEEF
Make sure you have the latest revision. The current one is 2.0.2 (Mine identifies itself as 2.0.2.10.)
Also make sure you don't have Popwire installed at the same time.
There is a problem with spelling and grammer checks in MS Word? Please post a link.
I don't see why they shouldn't. It's obviously a big market and they obviously want to be in it.
And it's not like Apple's iPod, iTunes, or the iTunes music store are stunningly original either--Apple invented none of the key technologies or business models surrounding those products, they simply did a better job bundling, integrating, and marketing them. But we can expect that Apple, as usual, is going to try to play hardball by trying to entangle their competitors in patent and look-and-feel lawsuits.
AAC is ISO MPEG 4 Advanced Audio Codec
MP3 is ISO MPEG 1 Layer 3
So because Linux can't play AAC, Apple is at fault? If Linux can't play MP3 files, is it also Apple's fault because Apple also provides you the option of encoding in MP3?
And iTunes originally did support multiple hardware because the iPod wasn't released until 2001, and iTunes is at least as old as 1999. Creative's Nomad did indeed work with iTunes, and it may still if it is a mass storage device, but I don't know anyone who has tried since the iPod was released.
GPL Deconstructed
Imagine my lap covered in vomit, and imagine me sending you the cleaning bill.
And now, a PSA from David Lynch.
Just so long as the Netherlands and France go after their closed source proprietary "plays for sure for the most part sometimes" DRM and ensures that its available to run on any device....
like iPods.
guns kill people like spoons make Rosie O'Donnell fat.
Guess I don't know. That would be my bad because I don't use Windows at home and at work my Windows computer is Virtual PC in a Mac. It seemed to me that before Windows 2000 there was some support in Windows Media Player for the ripping and that with Windows 2000 (and ostensibly due to the mp3 patents) it was taken away. Trying to research the issue through Google, I found, in an abstract, the suggestion that Win2000 would rip at a very low-fi 32kbps and that rang a bell and made me believe that I recollected un-musical low quality as not capable. I did find this link Windows XP to add ripping via add-ins from 7/16/01. At the end of the article, some of you will be amused at how the source press release trumpeted recent deals made between Microsoft and Sony regarding WMA and DRM.
If Windows Media Player today allows for ripping of unrestricted mp3s than I apologize for diparaging Microsoft on this particular point. Though, looking at the articles, even though mp3s were spreading like wildfire in the late 90s, and were clearly what the customers wanted, Microsoft tried to use its consumer dominance and its deep pockets to swim against the tide and try to get people to move their music to the wma format. In 2001, they made a point about getting the fidelity in half the file size, which I suppose should have been a resonant message to all us dial-up users. And yet, it didn't seem to make much of a difference.
you would have gotten a +5 Funny if you had included the following steps:
...
5.
6. Profit!
What a classic knee-slapper. Still funny to this day...
There can never be another successful music DRM. If people do switch to a different music player, they're soon going to realise that their iTunes Music Store songs won't work on that music player due to the Digital Restrictions Management. Microsoft, by launching another music DRM service, is hoping that people can be tricked twice.
It's possible that companies trying to break into the music download service market might turn against DRM, since that's what guarantees Apple their monopoly.
Two years ago Microsoft had their exciting answer. It was some exciting Media Player based store or somesuch and companies could brand their MP3 players as compatible. It was going to be the next big thing that'd replace iTunes and iPod. It flopped.
This year they're releasing a new version of media player with MTV branded store by default. It'll be the next big thing. Well, we're guessing not because they're already planning the next next big thing. Sounds like this incarnation was a flop.
So they have this one planned. It'll be hyped as the next big thing. It'll likely flop and they'll likely work on the next one. And the next one. And the next one.
Who knows, maybe someday they'll eventually stumble on how to get it right. Unlikely though in a genre where being "hip" is important and they the generic big, grey company that your mom uses to do word processing. Of course Walmart isn't "hip" either and yet they virtually control the music industry because they're everywhere and can simply reach more consumers whilst forcing prices lower.
The point being that it's too lucrative a market for Microsoft to just ignore. There'll always be some project or other in Redmond until they either crack it or the end of days comes when the antichrist steps down from day to day operations and starts walking the earth.
Oh.
Shit.
I noticed this as well. The sad thing is that they do get modded up when I would like to oblige them so much and mod them down for being inane or for trolling/pandering for shamelessly karma with that line.
But then, I'll probably get modded down for this.
People complain or at least refer to Steve Jobs' RDF, but the real RDF is the one that Microsoft surrounds itself with. The problem is, they got very, very lucky in a very big way, once, with early versions of Windows. They've cashed in on it ever since. They now think that as a company they have some sort of Midas touch, and that everything they copy will turn to gold. In a way, it does because the public are too stupid to notice that in fact what they do sucks. However, the public is slowly starting to realise that better stuff is out there, and that the way MS do business is really pretty shabby, and that they don't have to accept it. As soon as people start to say 'no' and go with any of the many viable alternatives out there, MS's RDF will collapse around their ears. I for one can't wait to see it happen, and if I'm sure I'll forgiven for a little inward smile of pleasure as it does.
This is just one more example of MS swallowing their own hype. They think they are good at what they do but they're not - they are just aggressive, lucky and unpleasant and that's how they got to be top dog in one area for a short time. It can't and won't last. History shows that hubris rarely lasts long.
How come you think it's the "Mac fanboys" that do this?
EMACS?
http://www.bleep.com/ allows MP3 downloads from some indie labels. So you are wrong.
Offtopic true, but also a very insightful view of the web-phenom that is /.
I only came here to do two things; kick some ass, and drink some beer...looks like we're almost out of beer.
* Microsoft Coffee Machine! ...
* Microsoft eBook Store!
* Microsoft toilet paper!
* Microsoft Radio Station!
contr^H^H^H^H^H... covering all aspects of your digital life!
I don't feel like it...
How true. But MS making this statement is still laughable!
What the msPod will look like:a lbum=4&pos=139
= microsoft%20iPod
http://gallery.ilounge.com/ipod/displayimage.php?
A video has also been showing the box design:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeXAcwriid0&search
I stole this sig from someone cleverer than me.
This is going to be buggy and introduce blue screen of deaths on mp3 devices. Why not inventing something new but just copying others? :-)
Pixel image editor - http://www.kanzelsberger.com
What universe do you live in? No-one here uses Windows CE devices. Most use fancy Nokia stuff or real laptops (and increasingly those laptops are OS X).
'Once scientists, even the dim-witted social scientists, get muzzled, the Western Civilization is finished.' - oldhack
The reason you don't see articles that say "I'm probably going tobe modded down" modded down so often is because that's kind of a vaccination against the effect.
But I've seen well-written "against the grain" articles get modded down, and I've modded a few up again.
"Fud" isn't just about talking down your compeditors product, it usually also involves overselling your own future product (i.e. vaporware), thus the Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt. Microsoft continually prattles about how consumers should have more "choice" than Apple's offerings, even though wmv is even more DRM'd and restrictive.
"even not in Europe"
In Europe, only old people use ICQ/AIM!
---
One of the original uses of the FUD strategy was (and still often is) to announce that “Sure, our competition just released a product in the sector, but before you know it we’ll have a product out that does everything theirs does and more. Plus, with us being the 800lb. gorilla, you should assume that the competing product will be crushed in the marketplace, thus ensuring that your purchase will turn out to be ill-advised over the long term. So you might as well wait till ours hits the market before you shell out that cash.”
The net result is usually lackluster sales for the competing product and often a complete loss of the competitor’s venture capital funding (a result known in some circles as “cutting off their air supply”), leaving an underserved market sector that you may or may not ever release an actual product into. (In some cases it may be necessary to release an utterly useless 1.0 to serve as a placeholder for the real product that starts to emerge sometime around version 2.5.)
Quantum materiae materietur marmota monax si marmota monax materiam possit materiari?
Hopefully with Apple's transition to the Intel chip, this requirement will become irrelevant. In fact, I saw an article in BusinessWeek in which the author (can't his name right now) is now recommending the Intel-based Macintoshes to all students entering college, since it can do what 99% of students need out of the box, and the remaining 1% could run Windows alongside MacOS X using either Boot Camp or the just-released Parallels Workstation.
In my case, I own a MacBook Pro and two PC's, but both PC's run Linux, and the MacBook Pro only runs MacOS X. I don't use Windows at all, except when forced to in a computer lab. Then again, I'm a computer science student, so running Linux at home isn't quite to unusual (although not running Windows at all is unusual).
imho it's fud, with emphasis on the "d" of doubt.
Microsoft has a history of promising products that are gonna kick the lama's ass, and then not delivering. The point is that Microsoft tries to instill doubt in iPod buyers by giving them the idea that there'll be a better product on market soon.
I didn't mean to imply they did it exclusively in general, but rather that in this particular instance, they were the ones that did it. I can see how the title might have been misleading. Mac fanboys, like Linux fanboys, Free Software fanboys (I fall into this category), and other Fanboy groups are prone to reacting very negatively to anything that goes against their world view. In this case, we have another "iTMS killer" story from yet another company pledging to produce something better than iTunes -- there's no reason to believe that they will succeed where countless others have failed, and for many of the reasons outlined elsewhere in the comments (the ubiquity of the iPod, Apple's refusal to license Fairplay, etc) it seems exceedingly unlikely that they will. From my (admittedly emotionally detached perspective) this is a pretty ho-hum story. Despite this, there are quite a few "outraged" responses from the most vocal of the Mac fanboy crowd, particularly over the claim that "some guy that has seen the new store in action says it's better than iTunes" and other such marketing mumbo-jumbo (which is all it is -- think of any up and coming product you've ever seen advertised. There's nearly always some bought and paid for actor talking about how good soon-to-be-on-the-market product XYZ is.)
This story is not fud and never was: it's simply a Microsoft press release, which probably doesn't belong on Slashdot to begin with. Had it been about anything non Apple-related, I'm willing to bet most folks here would yawn and not even think of labeling it as fud. But because they are Mac fanboys and it's about big bad MS claiming they'll produce something better than iTMS, everyone gets all defensive.
From my perspective, it seems clear that it'll be a cold day in hell when MS produces something better than iTMS, and there's no reason at all to get worked up about them playing peacock with the market. But I'm not emotionally invested in the superiority of iTMS -- as a free software fanboy I think all DRM is evil and use ogg vorbis exclusively for my own encoding needs. So I think in this case I can play the part of a relatively unbiased outsider.
Apple is entrenched. Neal Saferstein
It's possible that companies trying to break into the music download service market might turn against DRM
Sure, and it's possible that someone will want to use a store that doesn't sell a single song released on a RIAA label, and that monkeys will fly out of my butt.
Go ahead, tell me how indy music is much better than anything on a RIAA label, and next Thursday every music-buying consumer in the country will wake up and suddenly realize that you have better taste than they do.
Don't blame me; I'm never given mod points.
Microsoft might do better focusing on providing higher quality operating systems and letting others make some money as well. This story reminds me of the automobile export debate between the US and Japan in the 1970s. The US side was complaining about trade barriers in Japan that prevented GM from entering into the Japanese market. One observer remarked: "Does GM really wish to launch such a fight in order to gain a chance to enter the Japanese market and compete with Nissan and Toyota on their own turf?" Until Microsoft is able to produce higher quality operating systems, they might wish to focus on that instead of squandering their talents on digging at small entrenched market players.
Give me a break ... "a man" has seen the product (that is not yet out, still in development) and declares that "it's an improvement over itunes" ... but in the meantime what is Apple developping ??? Probably something that will leave MS in the dust for 5 more years ... or maybe push the release date of MS product somewhere far in the future because they realise thay are late once again !!!
HAHA !!!!
How can you seriously declare that something in development is an improvement over something that is in production for a while, without having any reference to what is in development in the other company ?????
I hope this guy does not pretend he's an analyst or I pie him in the face !!!
Remember Willy being pied in the face 4 times in 3 seconds flat in Brussels a few years ago ???
That's all these MS gonzo deserve !!!
Nothing more, nothing less.
There's really no surprise with everyone trying to compete with the iPod. Also the iTunes Music Store. Microsoft has always been following Apple/Macintosh in hopes of their products out-doing Apple's. It never worked, and Microsoft just gets second best every time. Don't they wonder "Gee what if we made this little thing the size of a cell phone, that held all your music on it, and eventually movies and pictures, and gave it a really cool name, and you could personalize it. Oh oh and then we could make an Online Music Store that worked with our great Windows Media Player!" Windows needs to be more creative and look for individuality, and they should stop following trends, and maybe set their own more often.
"You mean you tried to put two floppy disks in the drive... at the same time!?"