FairPlay is tied to the computer, not the portable devices. AFAIK, you can sync as many iPods (and soon, phones) as you want, to any one of the five(?) computers which are authorized to play your purchased iTunes tracks.
Via the disc functionality, you can copy protected song files on/off an iPod at will; but, they will not play unless they were loaded via iTunes. I suspect it will be the same for these phones.
Prices on books in Japan are pretty much fixed. The price including or excluding tax (which is a standard 5% across the country) are printed on the book by the publisher. I guess there are discounters, but Amazon doesn't seem to be one of them. All prices there seem to be standard, or maybe 5% or so off.
Actually, there is a law (something along the lines of protecting cultural identity) that specifically forbids selling new books/magazines for less than the marked price. Amazon.jp would love to discount their non-imported books, but simply cannot.
The 5% discount that you notice is probably for books that are also sold outside Japan.
Toll roads are generally cheaper than bullet trains in Japan, over long distances, but not by much if only one person is involved.
Anecdotal evidence - Sendai->Tokyo on the highway is around 9000 yen, whereas the shinkansen sets you back nearly 11,000. For more than one person, it's a no-brainer; but if you're going alone, the 2000 yen is usually worth the 2 hour time savings (4hrs versus 2hrs).
Last month, I had a chance to try one of these things out while I was waiting for my plane. Translation from my spoken English into Japanese was surprisingly good. You press a button, and speak; and the Japanese translation appears on the screen fairly quickly.
It didn't do so well in translating my spoken Japanese into English, which could have been my accent more than anything else, I suppose. They had a survey to fill out -- "Would you rent one of these", "How much would you pay", etc. and I got a free tie-tack pin. (Woo hoo!)
Also, to the reader who compalined about the lack of wireless net access, I think there is a free hot-spot after you clear immigration (outgoing), along the corridor with the duty free shops. FYI.
the default for iTunes is AAC riping. so you could make the same point.
The same, only different. The AAC songs ripped by iTunes can be played by any player supporting AAC. The WMA songs ripped by WMP can be played by any player supporting WMA.
The difference is that in order to develop a player for WMA files, you have to pay the MS tax. For AAC files, Apple is completely out of the loop -- it is between the developer of the player and Dolby.
So, on the one hand, you have embrace/extend abusive monopolies, and on the other, you have a minority company pushing another company's standards. Hardly the same point.
In Japan, most of the Yahoo-BB customers are signed on for BB-Phone, which can call either other Yahoo-BB customers or any land-line. I think support for cellular phones is on the way.
I don't know.... To a society that is bombarded with Columbia House offering 10 CDs for just 1 cent, spending $29.95 in good faith for downloadable songs wouldn't be unreasonable.
Cell phones are called "keitai" (kay tie), so it is not an Engrish issue; just a cute word combo. There are enough Engrish problems already without having to invent more.
My two current favorites:
"Quarity" as one of the reasons listed on the brochure why Mitsubishi cars are a good buy
and the "Dictionaly" section of the local bookstore.
Karma - Irrational, mostly the result of eating too much pi.
It seems to me that crashing an integral part of the operating system (such as IE) is an order of magnitude worse than crashing a browser such as Mozilla.
But what do I know -- I'm just a Mac user.
Re:New: "Open in Tabs" item in Bookmarks Bar menus
on
Safari Beta 2 Available
·
· Score: 2, Informative
Replying to my own post.
The "open in tabs" feature is somewhat buggy. Any existing tabs disappear; and the "back" button after all of the new tabs show up takes the browser back to the previous tabs. (ie, if Slashdot and Yahoo are in two tabs; selecting "open in tabs" of my "Apple" bookmark folder would replace/. and Y! with Quicktime, OSX, etc. Pressing "back" gets rid of the Apple pages, and/. and Y! come back).
Something else worth mentioning is that if you close all of the tabs, you can't open a URL without first creating a new tab. I suppose that makes sense; but it is not the way I would do it.
Command-clicking on the folder in the bookmark bar accomplishes the same thing. It was quite un-nerving the first time it happened (I was trying to experiment to see if a single bookmark could be opened in a new tab).
From what I heard on NHK news Saturday, there was a redundant system -- but it also received the same system upgrade early Saturday morning. So, two broken systems is really no better than one.
The text besides the picture in the sidebar says "If you have a Mac which isn't equipped with a SuperDrive, external HD's are available", and then proceeds to link to one.
(slightly off-topic)
Where you mention "pull price", that is actually the pre-tax price of whatever you are buying. In your case, 3%. The tax is now 5%; but the net info on the labels is the same.
In case anyone is curious, there are actual laws in Japan prohibiting the selling of books, magazines, and other things at a lower-than-retail cost. It falls under "protecting the cultural heritage" or something.
Now we know why Jobs moved the keynote up a day. If Time is published on Monday, Apple would either have had to "debut" the iMac a day after everyone had read about it in print, or ask Time to change their whole publishing cycle. Moving the keynote to occur as the magazine was _supposed_ to be released made everyone happy.
Okay, so why is the Mac faster at the operations you used in your tests? It's a different architecture! You are comparing apples (pardon the pun) to grapefruit here.
What's truly ironic is that the Princess Monoke DVD is not scheduled for
release here in Japan until the winter of 2002 (maybe even 2003). There
was a schedule of sorts attached to the pre-order display for Totoro, but
I was so shocked at the delay, I forgot the specifics. The Japanese
auction sites all have several US versions listed (as well as Akira, which
will cost 9800 yen -- that's >$80!!) when it's released next month).
Needless to say, region free players are quite common.
Slashdot Mirror
Just connect the PB to an external monitor. One extra cord, but no disorienting head-tilts required.
FairPlay is tied to the computer, not the portable devices. AFAIK, you can sync as many iPods (and soon, phones) as you want, to any one of the five(?) computers which are authorized to play your purchased iTunes tracks.
Via the disc functionality, you can copy protected song files on/off an iPod at will; but, they will not play unless they were loaded via iTunes. I suspect it will be the same for these phones.
Is anyone else wondering what they call raincoats which -aren't- waterproof?
Prices on books in Japan are pretty much fixed. The price including or excluding tax (which is a standard 5% across the country) are printed on the book by the publisher. I guess there are discounters, but Amazon doesn't seem to be one of them. All prices there seem to be standard, or maybe 5% or so off.
Actually, there is a law (something along the lines of protecting cultural identity) that specifically forbids selling new books/magazines for less than the marked price. Amazon.jp would love to discount their non-imported books, but simply cannot.
The 5% discount that you notice is probably for books that are also sold outside Japan.
Toll roads are generally cheaper than bullet trains in Japan, over long distances, but not by much if only one person is involved.
Anecdotal evidence - Sendai->Tokyo on the highway is around 9000 yen, whereas the shinkansen sets you back nearly 11,000. For more than one person, it's a no-brainer; but if you're going alone, the 2000 yen is usually worth the 2 hour time savings (4hrs versus 2hrs).
Last month, I had a chance to try one of these things out while I was waiting for my plane. Translation from my spoken English into Japanese was surprisingly good. You press a button, and speak; and the Japanese translation appears on the screen fairly quickly.
It didn't do so well in translating my spoken Japanese into English, which could have been my accent more than anything else, I suppose. They had a survey to fill out -- "Would you rent one of these", "How much would you pay", etc. and I got a free tie-tack pin. (Woo hoo!)
Also, to the reader who compalined about the lack of wireless net access, I think there is a free hot-spot after you clear immigration (outgoing), along the corridor with the duty free shops. FYI.
the default for iTunes is AAC riping. so you could make the same point.
The same, only different. The AAC songs ripped by iTunes can be played by any player supporting AAC. The WMA songs ripped by WMP can be played by any player supporting WMA.
The difference is that in order to develop a player for WMA files, you have to pay the MS tax. For AAC files, Apple is completely out of the loop -- it is between the developer of the player and Dolby.
So, on the one hand, you have embrace/extend abusive monopolies, and on the other, you have a minority company pushing another company's standards. Hardly the same point.
Actually, the B-Flets 100Mbps shared optical line is closer to $50/month, and $30/month if you live in a condo/mansion which is wired for access.
In Japan, most of the Yahoo-BB customers are signed on for BB-Phone, which can call either other Yahoo-BB customers or any land-line. I think support for cellular phones is on the way.
I don't know
Cell phones are called "keitai" (kay tie), so it is not an Engrish issue; just a cute word combo. There are enough Engrish problems already without having to invent more.
My two current favorites:
"Quarity" as one of the reasons listed on the brochure why Mitsubishi cars are a good buy
and the "Dictionaly" section of the local bookstore.
Karma - Irrational, mostly the result of eating too much pi.
It seems to me that crashing an integral part of the operating system (such as IE) is an order of magnitude worse than crashing a browser such as Mozilla.
But what do I know -- I'm just a Mac user.
Replying to my own post.
/. and Y! with Quicktime, OSX, etc. Pressing "back" gets rid of the Apple pages, and /. and Y! come back).
The "open in tabs" feature is somewhat buggy. Any existing tabs disappear; and the "back" button after all of the new tabs show up takes the browser back to the previous tabs. (ie, if Slashdot and Yahoo are in two tabs; selecting "open in tabs" of my "Apple" bookmark folder would replace
Something else worth mentioning is that if you close all of the tabs, you can't open a URL without first creating a new tab. I suppose that makes sense; but it is not the way I would do it.
Command-clicking on the folder in the bookmark bar accomplishes the same thing. It was quite un-nerving the first time it happened (I was trying to experiment to see if a single bookmark could be opened in a new tab).
From what I heard on NHK news Saturday, there was a redundant system -- but it also received the same system upgrade early Saturday morning. So, two broken systems is really no better than one.
The show was "Hakusshon Dai Maou". Sorry no pic of the Genie.
That is the correct title. Hakusshon is the Japanese equivalent of Ah--choo. But, the genie isn't really blue.
http://www.mxtv.co.jp/daimaou/
Sony reacted to the new product as expected. Effective Friday, the price on all PS2's will be dropped to $19.95....
The text besides the picture in the sidebar says "If you have a Mac which isn't equipped with a
SuperDrive, external HD's are available", and then proceeds to link to one.
The law is only for new stuff.
A couple of years back, one of the game mfrs (Nintendo?) lost a lawsuit that was trying to prevent used game sales.
Besides Hard Off, there's also House Off which sells furniture, clothes, etc.
(slightly off-topic)
Where you mention "pull price", that is actually the pre-tax price of whatever you are buying. In your case, 3%. The tax is now 5%; but the net info on the labels is the same.
In case anyone is curious, there are actual laws in Japan prohibiting the selling of books, magazines, and other things at a lower-than-retail cost. It falls under "protecting the cultural heritage" or something.
Now we know why Jobs moved the keynote up a day. If Time is published on Monday, Apple would either have had to "debut" the iMac a day after everyone had read about it in print, or ask Time to change their whole publishing cycle. Moving the keynote to occur as the magazine was _supposed_ to be released made everyone happy.
Now it makes sense....
Well, there are always alternatives. It looks like they could have used a bit more practice on the shooting range, though.
Grapefruit?? Don't you mean lemons? :-)
release here in Japan until the winter of 2002 (maybe even 2003). There
was a schedule of sorts attached to the pre-order display for Totoro, but
I was so shocked at the delay, I forgot the specifics. The Japanese
auction sites all have several US versions listed (as well as Akira, which
will cost 9800 yen -- that's >$80!!) when it's released next month).
Needless to say, region free players are quite common.
Someone should petition Lucas to release Ep. 2 as a GPL movie.
Then we could name the $#(* thing whatever we please.