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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."
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."
and lock you into another.... just great
FTA: Microsoft's new portable audio and video player will have a screen that's "bigger than that of the iPod video" (which isn't really saying much) and built-in WiFi so you can not only download content directly to the player (sort of like with the MusicGremlin), but actually participate in an Xbox Live-like social network that will help you connect with other people with similar taste and interests.
Yes, you can dance to Radiohead.
Drm is a pain in the ass with the Ipod.
I dont like to steal music as I feel for $.99 that I should contribute to the artist at an affordable price.
My Ipod is locked up because I upgraded Itunes and accidently created another user account. Worse I have 2 installations of w2k on my desktop, one for work and one for games. Now I have a WindowsXP laptop that I would like to store some music.
The last time I tried to change the user I ended up losing all my music and Itunes deleted everything. Apple was nice and let me redownload everything with a warning not to do it again. Anyway if I didn't have work/school I could research everything and fix it and be carefull to get my music back so I dont lose anything. Yes I know Itunes lets you share music on up to 5 computers but still I have to do it right incase I accidently delete the drm for the music.
If Microsoft offers more leniant DRM then I am all for it! Yes I dislike microsoft but if they make better products and my life easier than I will buy their products. Itunes is a royal pain in the ass but all the labels want DRM or they wont sell you the music.
http://saveie6.com/
So let me guess, the business students didn't run their methodology past some psych students. I can imagine the questions: "Would you like it if your ipod had more features?" "Does the lack of an FM radio function affect your view of the ipod?"
Bad guess. These business students were working professional working on MBAs, not drunken frat boys. The study was supervised by a professor and doctoral candidates who *are* hired by major corporations to do just this sort of thing.
Because he's full of shit.
That number "4" was likely pulled out of his ass. It goes along side his list of things that could go wrong with an iPod but that but that didn't actually happen to him. If he did suffer from all of these problems then he needs to learn how to take better care of the stuff he buys and someone should tell him that you can replace the batteries in an iPod without having to go buy a completely different unit.
Appended to the end of comments you post. 120 chars.
Because Apple is the most proprietary of the bunch. Think of all the times Apple released a new version of ITunes to shut off some cool 3rd party app. Don't get me wrong the ipod hardware is super/best of breed but Apple keeps a tight leash on what you can do with it...besides what has Apple given back to OSS?
A lot of those "Apple Fan Tradition" arguments bug the hell out of me. But this isn't a bad case of that, IMHO. The couple replies were just saying that THEY don't listen to the radio and couldn't care less if there was a tuner on whatever media player they had. If you absolutely need one, don't get an iPod. Duh. If you don't really care about having builtin AM/FM, then why should anyone else care if your iPod's lack of a radio?
.Mac account ($99/year!), upload the photos there, and then purchase them from Apple for a nickel each. Ha! What will they think of next to lock you in?
I don't know why Apple doesn't have a radio tuner in any of the iPods. By the way, did you hear that you won't be able to copy any media you didn't purchase to your iPod in the latest (released today IIRC) iTunes and iPod Software update? Like you said, you have to pay for it, through them. They have some wacky scheme where to get your photos on your iPod, you have to get a
Working toward a usable PDA environment in the spirit of Newton OS: Dynapad