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Microsoft To Release 'iPod Killer' at Christmas?
ShellFish writes "According to a report from Engadget, Microsoft is poised to finally take on the Apple iPod this holiday season. Tired of uninspiring offerings from its hardware partners, Microsoft is getting into the ring itself. The new media player from Microsoft will feature a bigger screen than the iPod Video, have built-in WiFi for downloading music without a PC, and Microsoft will work with music and TV content providers to build an iTunes Music Store competitor. In what may be the crucial competitive stroke, Microsoft will also allow you to download from its store any song that you've purchased from Apple, unlocking users from iPod's vendor lock-in."
Albeit ostensibly benevolent, keep in mind Microsoft has a habit of trying to dump loads of money to gain initial market share. It'll be interesting to see how it turns out.
From TFA : "They'll actually scan iTunes for purchased tracks and then automatically add those to your account. Microsoft will still have to pay the rights-holders for the songs, but they believe it'll be worth it to acquire converts to their new player."
Personally I don't see how this will work. I can't imagine Apple being too keen on it.
Without being long-winded, the technology just isn't there. The iPaq (with Windows Mobile 5) freezes up constantly (have to take out the battery to restart it). The handheld web browser only supports a small SMALL subset of Java (it basically has no Java support at all). In addition to that, even with the screen turned sideways, browsing the internet (especially the CSS enabled internet) is a nightmare!
Having used an iPaq, I will bet that the rumor of MS releasing a handheld this christmas is exactly that: a rumor. The technology just isn't there yet.
burrocrisy
and that would be what? Ruling by jackasses? Never has a slashdot misspelling been more apropos
Proud owner of iPod Nano. But when it's time for replacement, I'll give this product a look-see.
This sig isn't original enough, it's time to come up with something witty...
"...But it gets better. To attract current iPod users Microsoft is going to let you download for free any songs you've already bought from the iTunes Music Store. They'll actually scan iTunes for purchased tracks and then automatically add those to your account....[MS has to pay rights-holders...they'll lose money to win converts] "
From: http://www.engadget.com/2006/07/06/microsoft-plann ing-wifi-enabled-portable-media-player-working-o/
Let's not forget also use music management software that isn't just ported over from the mac. I absolutely HATE iTunes.
As a Windows-savvy user I first found myself using iTunes on Boxing Day. I think the root of the problem is iTunes is a Mac application, ported to the windows platform. As a result, hard-core Windoze user will find a lot of what iTunes does to be counter-intutitive. For example, I put in an audio CD and an icon appears. As a PC user, my instinct is to right-click on that icon and be presented with some options (play, rip, copy to ipod, explore, eject, buy (?) etc.) That doesn't happen in iTunes - I've got to click somewhere else.
Or, *by default*, iTunes starts re-arranging music on people's hard disks. I'm sure this feature is handy - But by default? It's *very* confusing and all day long my wife was saying "Where did my song go!?!!"
I'm sure it's brilliant on the Mac, but on the PC itunes is useless and counter-intuitive.
Actually, this is precisely what Steve Jobs predicted in January in an interview with Newsweek.
k /
"The problem is, the PC model doesn't work in the consumer electronics industry, where you've got all these companies and some does one thing and another does another thing. It just doesn't work. What's going to happen is that Microsoft is going to have to get into the hardware business of making MP3 players. This year. X-player, or whatever."
The link is here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10853916/site/newswee
"It'll be built with the reliability and simplicity you've come to expect from Microsoft."
;)
If you want something that's built to last, get an iPod.
Business Students at a local university surveyed a bunch of local high schools. They found that Apple scored low on reliability. Apple also scored low on features, the kids really thought the lack of AM/FM was a negative(*). However, iPod was the most common player. Apple did win on ease of use. Many iPod owners admitted they traded functionality/reliability for "status symbol"/fashion. The kids were fairly well informed since there was a lot of comparing and contrasting of the various players they had.
(*) I expect Apple has similar research of their own and it probably inspired the Radio Remote. I'd wager future models will have it built in.
Looks kind of like this...
b eat.mspx
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/media/giga
Whoever came up with that movie is fricken brilliant. That is all.
... It was Microsoft.
Tedious Bloggy Stuff - hooray?
And Apple learned from its mistakes, now you can use USB 2.0 or FireWire.
Not anymore, you can't. iPod videos ship with a USB(2.0) cable only and are unsynchable through firewire, even with the proper cabling. I believe the Nanos are the same way, but am fuzzy on the details. And lemme tell ya, coming from a guy with four Macs, being forced to sync with the only one with USB2.0 on it (which ain't where my music lives) is supremely fucking annoying.
Triv