However, I was a little dissapointed by the price of the new iPod mini. At $250 (just $50 less than the (now) 15Gb iPod) I can't really see how it's worth it. I'll just pay another $50 and get an iPod that can hold my entire music library. Not sure what they were thinking with that price.
Internet appliances came and went. All in the blink of an eye. What you're talking about has happened. And failed.
That doesn't necessarily mean it's the end for them -- Apple's Newton wasn't considered a failure after Palm arrived, they were "too far ahead of the curve" or "good idea poorly implemented" or "too expensive for too little".
I think there's still a market for "internet appliances", but we need a few things in place first. To wit: widespread use of higher-resolution HDTVs to connect them to; low-cost Bluetooth or radio-frequency keyboards; a good way to use a mouse without a surface (gyroscopic flying mice come close, as do trackpads); and plug-and-play broadband (so you can plug the box into your cable or digital satellite cable as easily as you plug it into the power outlet).
It's not unachievable by any means, but I don't expect it for several years. When it happens, though, the company that makes them first stands to make a killing.
I suppose one could argue that 80% of a store's Apex DVD players are going to technical idiots, since Apex is about the cheapest brand out there. So these owners are going to be a bit rougher on their players, increasing the likelyhood of breakage.
The deep discounts, then, come with a cost we don't see: no more mom-and-pop electronics stores in the United States
Most moms and pops these days can hardly manage recording one program and watching a second one using ten-year-old VCRs. No offense to the over-twenty-five bracket (I'm in it, after all), but when I want advice on which widescreen HDTV set to buy for my living room, I'll buy a copy of "Consumer Reports".
You don't have to be old and retired to be seduced by people promising you 500% returns on $50,000 investments. Twenty-somethings will fall for it if you use enough marketspeak.
Old PowerMac running BeOS with SheepShaver - > which emulated Mac OS, running Virtual PC - > which emulated Windows, which ran IIS.
Nitpick: SheepShaver on BeOS is similar to WINE on Linux -- it doesn't actually emulate the OS, but lets it access the processor without completely switching. Thus SheepShaver wouldn't run on anything but a PowerPC chip, just as WINE won't run on anything but an Intel-compatible chip.
I didn't even know they existed until I saw a few at a hobby shop this past weekend. What could be more distinctive in a geek's cubicle than an assembled 3-D puzzle of Hobbiton, Minas Tirith, or Edoras?
Always has been. Sci-fi literature did it first, but the original "Star Trek" was probably definitive in using humans with makeup and funny clothes as aliens. The simple and obvious reason is that it's much easier for studios to produce human actors as aliens, and easier for viewers to relate to them.
When you have an alien that's a blob or a rock or a robot, you have to work ten times harder to find the pathos. "Dr. Who" used them as identityless villains without much in the way of personality.
What is my guarantee that I will be able to listen to this music in 20 years after I spend the money to license it?
The majority of the music the RIAA is making widely available is stuff you wouldn't want to listen to three years from now, let alone twenty.
And what is it about people here who keep conveniently forgetting that they can, in most cases, burn their purchased DRM music onto CDs and archive them that way? Quit whining already. It's not like the music isn't available on CD at the same time.
Apple's bound to make a tablet eventually. If the market demands it, it'll definitely happen, and the current tablets on the market suck.
You say that as if those two sentences had anything in common. IIRC, there was virtually no real demand for the iPod when it was introduced (a 5GB digital music player? and $300 to boot??), but it was so whiz-bang and easy to use that it literally created its own market. For what it's worth, the original Apple greenscreen PCs did pretty much the same thing. (The main reason the Newton failed is because it wasn't as easy to use as it needed to be; it fell to Palm to reach that goal.)
Right now, there's no demand from the market for tablet PCs whatsoever. The demand is from Microsoft, and from those hardware companies they've sold on the idea. But if/when Apple introduces one, it will need to be the most intuitive, uncomplicated, and convenient thing that anyone has ever made. Anything less, especially with Apple's market share, will be a flop and Jobs knows it.
We dont want Aragorn doubting if he wants to be king or not. We dont want any more Dwarf-tossing jokes. We dont want Faramir to be cruel and aloof.
But most of all, we don't want a single fan to pretend he speaks for an entire community.
Look, I know that the movie characters deviate from those in the book in several places. I've been reading and watching them concurrently. But you know what? The movie characters are good. The book characters are good. That they're not a perfect overlap really doesn't upset me, because it gives me a reason to enjoy both the book and the movie individually.
Other LOTR movies will be made, probably within my lifetime. They will interpret things differently from the books and from these movies. And that's okay. If nothing else, it gives me something inconsequential to argue about with my brothers at family gatherings.
I'm done responding to you; arguing with people who think the entertainment industry represents capitalism working and can't understand 30 years of history is just ridiculous.
That's okay, I'm only responding because it's fun to watch you piss and moan about it. Especially since you do it so badly.
you see, Sparkle's real name is WVG and is 90% identical to SVG.
And Microsoft FrontPage and IE support a version of HTML that is 90% identical to W3C-compliant HTML. It's that last 10% that makes me want to throw my forehead through my monitor every day at the office.
DRM, as implemented by Apple, isn't stopping anyone from sharing music, so why bother with it?
It's often been pointed out that it's impossible to completely prevent music copying and piracy because of the "analog hole." In that sense, no DRM prevents people from sharing music. The object is to keep them from doing it easily while making it unobstructive enough that people will still pay for it.
Apple is the first company to get all five major record labels to use its DRM technology and get millions of tracks sold using it. I'd call that a rousing success, no matter what standard you're using.
If they would simply sell MP3s, at $.99 or so, and continued going after people who "share" them, I am pretty certain they would make MORE money.
I'm so glad you're "pretty certain" about that. When you can convince the labels to be "pretty certain" about your oh-so-original strategy, rest assured I'll be right there behind you patting you on the back. I'm "pretty certain" myself that their entire marketing departments have never even thought of it.
They could sell product to more people if they would deliver a product more people could use.
Believe it or not, they're selling plenty of product as it is. The fact that you're inconvenienced is really not that important to them.
You're right, it shouldn't be like that at all. The record companies ought to just give you whatever you want on whatever terms you want in exchange for whatever you feel like paying.
Unfortunately, that's the definition of a charity, not a business. So in the meantime, you'll just have to accept that using DRM is like paying a cover charge at a nightclub: a necessary evil in order to get to what you want.
Thank you for justifying non-delivery of what customers actually want.
You have a remarkably naive view of how capitalism ought to work. The industry has absolutely no obligation to give you what you want. They only give you anything you want so that you can give them money in return. If they think they're going to lose money, they'll stop giving you music.
Why the fuck should I or anyone have to jump through hoops to use a product purchased?
Because it's a seller's market. They have all legal rights to the music recorded and sold by their artists. If you want their music, you have to get it on their terms.
Like I said, there's a pretty easy loophole that can be used for people who wish to distribute, so why even bother if it's just going to irritate customers?
Because it's going to irritate customers and most of them won't know how to use it or won't bother.
Seriously, will anyone ever sell non-DRM`ed vanilla MP3`s?
No. The major record companies won't sell you music that you can then give away to the entire planet with no additional effort. This is non-negotiable, and you may as well learn to live with it.
If you want to play it in your stereo, burn the stupid song to a CD and keep the original file on your PC. Just about every major player in the music downloads market lets you burn CDs up to a reasonable limit. Hey, presto! You got what you want!
Grow up and quit whining. This is a business, not the Let's Keep Ender Ryan Perpetually Happy Club.
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However, I was a little dissapointed by the price of the new iPod mini. At $250 (just $50 less than the (now) 15Gb iPod) I can't really see how it's worth it. I'll just pay another $50 and get an iPod that can hold my entire music library. Not sure what they were thinking with that price.
But it has a shiny aluminium case! In colors!
Internet appliances came and went. All in the blink of an eye. What you're talking about has happened. And failed.
That doesn't necessarily mean it's the end for them -- Apple's Newton wasn't considered a failure after Palm arrived, they were "too far ahead of the curve" or "good idea poorly implemented" or "too expensive for too little".
I think there's still a market for "internet appliances", but we need a few things in place first. To wit: widespread use of higher-resolution HDTVs to connect them to; low-cost Bluetooth or radio-frequency keyboards; a good way to use a mouse without a surface (gyroscopic flying mice come close, as do trackpads); and plug-and-play broadband (so you can plug the box into your cable or digital satellite cable as easily as you plug it into the power outlet).
It's not unachievable by any means, but I don't expect it for several years. When it happens, though, the company that makes them first stands to make a killing.
I suppose one could argue that 80% of a store's Apex DVD players are going to technical idiots, since Apex is about the cheapest brand out there. So these owners are going to be a bit rougher on their players, increasing the likelyhood of breakage.
The deep discounts, then, come with a cost we don't see: no more mom-and-pop electronics stores in the United States
Most moms and pops these days can hardly manage recording one program and watching a second one using ten-year-old VCRs. No offense to the over-twenty-five bracket (I'm in it, after all), but when I want advice on which widescreen HDTV set to buy for my living room, I'll buy a copy of "Consumer Reports".
...I lived through the dot-com stock bubble.
You don't have to be old and retired to be seduced by people promising you 500% returns on $50,000 investments. Twenty-somethings will fall for it if you use enough marketspeak.
my grandmother is more careful with her money and she's dead!
Well, I imagine that does make it a bit harder for her to sign checks to fraudsters.
Old PowerMac running BeOS with SheepShaver - > which emulated Mac OS, running Virtual PC - > which emulated Windows, which ran IIS.
Nitpick: SheepShaver on BeOS is similar to WINE on Linux -- it doesn't actually emulate the OS, but lets it access the processor without completely switching. Thus SheepShaver wouldn't run on anything but a PowerPC chip, just as WINE won't run on anything but an Intel-compatible chip.
I didn't even know they existed until I saw a few at a hobby shop this past weekend. What could be more distinctive in a geek's cubicle than an assembled 3-D puzzle of Hobbiton, Minas Tirith, or Edoras?
...There's also a QuickTime trailer out for the upcoming Hellboy movie.
When did the universe become so darned human?
Always has been. Sci-fi literature did it first, but the original "Star Trek" was probably definitive in using humans with makeup and funny clothes as aliens. The simple and obvious reason is that it's much easier for studios to produce human actors as aliens, and easier for viewers to relate to them.
When you have an alien that's a blob or a rock or a robot, you have to work ten times harder to find the pathos. "Dr. Who" used them as identityless villains without much in the way of personality.
What is my guarantee that I will be able to listen to this music in 20 years after I spend the money to license it?
The majority of the music the RIAA is making widely available is stuff you wouldn't want to listen to three years from now, let alone twenty.
And what is it about people here who keep conveniently forgetting that they can, in most cases, burn their purchased DRM music onto CDs and archive them that way? Quit whining already. It's not like the music isn't available on CD at the same time.
You ever notice Gimli says this right after he's finished shattering his axe in a vain attempt to cleave the Ring?
True, although I've also noticed that any good Dwarf carries more than one war axe. There's more than one kind, anyway.
Apple's bound to make a tablet eventually. If the market demands it, it'll definitely happen, and the current tablets on the market suck.
You say that as if those two sentences had anything in common. IIRC, there was virtually no real demand for the iPod when it was introduced (a 5GB digital music player? and $300 to boot??), but it was so whiz-bang and easy to use that it literally created its own market. For what it's worth, the original Apple greenscreen PCs did pretty much the same thing. (The main reason the Newton failed is because it wasn't as easy to use as it needed to be; it fell to Palm to reach that goal.)
Right now, there's no demand from the market for tablet PCs whatsoever. The demand is from Microsoft, and from those hardware companies they've sold on the idea. But if/when Apple introduces one, it will need to be the most intuitive, uncomplicated, and convenient thing that anyone has ever made. Anything less, especially with Apple's market share, will be a flop and Jobs knows it.
Please die, thanks.
And miss further witty retorts like that one? Perish the thought.
And you told me to grow up...
And you told me you were done with this discussion.
We dont want Aragorn doubting if he wants to be king or not.
We dont want any more Dwarf-tossing jokes.
We dont want Faramir to be cruel and aloof.
But most of all, we don't want a single fan to pretend he speaks for an entire community.
Look, I know that the movie characters deviate from those in the book in several places. I've been reading and watching them concurrently. But you know what? The movie characters are good. The book characters are good. That they're not a perfect overlap really doesn't upset me, because it gives me a reason to enjoy both the book and the movie individually.
Other LOTR movies will be made, probably within my lifetime. They will interpret things differently from the books and from these movies. And that's okay. If nothing else, it gives me something inconsequential to argue about with my brothers at family gatherings.
I'm done responding to you; arguing with people who think the entertainment industry represents capitalism working and can't understand 30 years of history is just ridiculous.
That's okay, I'm only responding because it's fun to watch you piss and moan about it. Especially since you do it so badly.
you see, Sparkle's real name is WVG and is 90% identical to SVG.
And Microsoft FrontPage and IE support a version of HTML that is 90% identical to W3C-compliant HTML. It's that last 10% that makes me want to throw my forehead through my monitor every day at the office.
did I miss anything?
It doesn't support DRM! Where am I supposed to legally download music to play on it?
DRM, as implemented by Apple, isn't stopping anyone from sharing music, so why bother with it?
It's often been pointed out that it's impossible to completely prevent music copying and piracy because of the "analog hole." In that sense, no DRM prevents people from sharing music. The object is to keep them from doing it easily while making it unobstructive enough that people will still pay for it.
Apple is the first company to get all five major record labels to use its DRM technology and get millions of tracks sold using it. I'd call that a rousing success, no matter what standard you're using.
If they would simply sell MP3s, at $.99 or so, and continued going after people who "share" them, I am pretty certain they would make MORE money.
I'm so glad you're "pretty certain" about that. When you can convince the labels to be "pretty certain" about your oh-so-original strategy, rest assured I'll be right there behind you patting you on the back. I'm "pretty certain" myself that their entire marketing departments have never even thought of it.
They could sell product to more people if they would deliver a product more people could use.
Believe it or not, they're selling plenty of product as it is. The fact that you're inconvenienced is really not that important to them.
eBay itself seems to be safe as (from what I understand of the auction site) it doesn't handle any payments directly, PayPal excepted.
IIRC, eBay purchased PayPal some time ago, making it liable for PayPal's legal infringements.
It _ought_ to be less hostile.
You're right, it shouldn't be like that at all. The record companies ought to just give you whatever you want on whatever terms you want in exchange for whatever you feel like paying.
Unfortunately, that's the definition of a charity, not a business. So in the meantime, you'll just have to accept that using DRM is like paying a cover charge at a nightclub: a necessary evil in order to get to what you want.
Thank you for justifying non-delivery of what customers actually want.
You have a remarkably naive view of how capitalism ought to work. The industry has absolutely no obligation to give you what you want. They only give you anything you want so that you can give them money in return. If they think they're going to lose money, they'll stop giving you music.
Why the fuck should I or anyone have to jump through hoops to use a product purchased?
Because it's a seller's market. They have all legal rights to the music recorded and sold by their artists. If you want their music, you have to get it on their terms.
Like I said, there's a pretty easy loophole that can be used for people who wish to distribute, so why even bother if it's just going to irritate customers?
Because it's going to irritate customers and most of them won't know how to use it or won't bother.
Now most people who buy a car are more concerned with other features - passenger comfort, style, efficiency.
I don't know anything about you, but I'm now absolutely certain you're not a resident of the United States.
Seriously, will anyone ever sell non-DRM`ed vanilla MP3`s?
No. The major record companies won't sell you music that you can then give away to the entire planet with no additional effort. This is non-negotiable, and you may as well learn to live with it.
If you want to play it in your stereo, burn the stupid song to a CD and keep the original file on your PC. Just about every major player in the music downloads market lets you burn CDs up to a reasonable limit. Hey, presto! You got what you want!
Grow up and quit whining. This is a business, not the Let's Keep Ender Ryan Perpetually Happy Club.