I got a GPS reading of 152 mph on my last Acela trip, although that speed was only sustained for about ten minutes. It's not 250, but it does feel quick -- until you recall the disappointing fact that the current plain old Northeast Regional trains manage 125. And the old-school Metroliner was supposedly tested at speeds in excess of 160 mph. In the 1960s.
These numbers are being reported by an insurance company whose product is (relatively) expensive, and must be actively sought out by iPhone purchasers. This is likely to be a group self-selecting for increased probability of breaking their phones, so the stats are probably higher than for the iPhone-owning public at large.
When it comes to technology, it's middle-class consumers and their tastes, needs and expectations that determine success or failure.
Surely there is a feedback loop between users' tastes and the paradigms presented by technology companies. I find it hard to believe that the "beige minitower" form factor somehow taps into the a priori sense of what's best. It's simply what's been successful from a market penetration standpoint. I'd hate to imagine a computer industry without Jobs and Apple pushing out the edge of the envelope.
Perhaps not, but certainly Microsoft is a powerful force with a long history of extending control to new market segments using co-opted file formats and near-ubiquitous market penetration as levers. Microsoft is a company that has indeed innovated--perhaps not directly through its products, but through its aggressive and highly successful strategic business practices
They have an obligation to maximize return to their shareholders, and having $20 billion sitting around in the bank won't do it. They have to spend, partner, and expand into new markets in pursuit of new and profitable revenue streams. Measuring Microsoft purely in terms of revenue is fallacious; look at the profits, look at the $36 billion in cash and short term investments.
Microsoft doesn't control the content providers, but they can offer content providers a massive audience and potential means of distribution. If DVDs contain Windows-only special features, and CDs (all Universal CDs by the end of 2002, supposedly) contain Windows-only software to play copy-restricted content, is it really that much of a stretch to envision things going to the next level? I'm not saying that's the way it is, just the way it could soon be.
While it's good to see somebody standing up for the official format, the trend is moving away from the standard. With Microsoft cutting deals with CD-player manufacturers, and the predictable leanings of big media companies, it seems likely that our future will have "new and improved" CD players that are really stripped down little brothers of the XBox designed to play these new "CDs". Cactus Data Shield uses crippled low-bitrate MP3 files to provide some PC-based music playing capability--but of course, the player is Windows-only. This is just the first halting, unsophisticated stab. Will we soon be seeing new music released in DRM-enabled WMA-only CDs that can only be played in special players or Windows boxes?
LAME compiles and runs just fine in OS X. Grab the latest version (3.91), then get this very nice iTunes script that makes ripping and encoding a CD using iTunes and LAME almost as seamless as using the default encoder.
We are now presented with the ominous possibility (make that probability) that Microsoft will begin cutting deals with media distribution entities and content owners to publish new content in a format that will _only_ work in WMA-enabled hardware players (formerly known as "DVD players"). And, of course, on hardware running Windows XP. Your annoyance in being unable to play Quicktime movie trailers on your Linux system will pale in comparison...
Better yet, first be sure it's got the "copy protected" label. Then insert, rip to AIFF (just a copy command under OS X, which presents audio CDs as implicitly ripped AIFF files!), burn CD-ROM with AIFF files. Then go back to Circus Shitty (they deserve this kind of hassle because of their old Divx "rental" format), whine that "it won't play in my DVD player!" and demand a refund.
While I certainly find the burgeoning copy protection wave to be distasteful, clearly this kind of reaction constitutes vigilantism at best, and theft at worst--not fair use. Let's find a way to smack down all these incipient limitations on our rights to use what we buy. But this ain't the way.
Actually, if you simply download and install the free Developer's Tools from Apple, you'll have make and a couple of hundreds of megs of other goodies. Can you really blame them for not including such things in an OS targeted at such a wide audience? As with Linux, xBSD, etc., it's there if you need it.
Perhaps at some point in the not-too-distant future, the following scenario might be realized.
A woman waits near her departure gate at Newark airport, musing about the glories of days gone by. She inadvertently begins to hum a popular tune from the late nineties. Unfortunately for her, she reproduces the melody with some accuracy; the humming is picked up by several (digital rights law mandated) microphones, and analyzed by the successor to this system, which identifies the "digital property" being reproduced. The woman's location is triangulated by the multiple audio pickups, and she is identified by face. An appropriate license is automatically selected, according to the length of the humming, time of day, location, number of people within earshot, previous digital rights infraction record, and distributor-determined digital rights attributes of the tune itself.
Later in the week, when she receives her monthly IRS debit statement, the woman discovers a $190 charge for a "public performance and audible reproduction license" covering the episode, along with a 28% tax charge. Of course, she doesn't have to worry about the inconvenience of paying; it's already been deducted from her account.
The New York Times saith, "Mr. Jobs said the company had taken some steps to protect against piracy in its device. For instance, he said, songs loaded onto the iPod from a Macintosh computer, cannot then be loaded from the device to a different Macintosh computer, a step he said would make it difficult for people to distribute music they own to other users."
I guess this shatters any ideas of using the iPod to keep the music collection on two Macs synchronized...
If Palm isn't interested in Be's technology, and Be wasn't really a competitor to Palm, why exactly did Palm buy Be? Are there valuable patents or other IP?
Slashdot Mirror
This strategy is called moving the Overton Window.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overton_window
There are phones that cost more than a $1000?
Behold: The Instrument
I got a GPS reading of 152 mph on my last Acela trip, although that speed was only sustained for about ten minutes. It's not 250, but it does feel quick -- until you recall the disappointing fact that the current plain old Northeast Regional trains manage 125. And the old-school Metroliner was supposedly tested at speeds in excess of 160 mph. In the 1960s.
These numbers are being reported by an insurance company whose product is (relatively) expensive, and must be actively sought out by iPhone purchasers. This is likely to be a group self-selecting for increased probability of breaking their phones, so the stats are probably higher than for the iPhone-owning public at large.
Next up: Steve Jobs arrested on charges of indecency after being found naked in his bedroom.
Punctuation Nazi says "Grammar."
Surely there is a feedback loop between users' tastes and the paradigms presented by technology companies. I find it hard to believe that the "beige minitower" form factor somehow taps into the a priori sense of what's best. It's simply what's been successful from a market penetration standpoint. I'd hate to imagine a computer industry without Jobs and Apple pushing out the edge of the envelope.
Perhaps not, but certainly Microsoft is a powerful force with a long history of extending control to new market segments using co-opted file formats and near-ubiquitous market penetration as levers. Microsoft is a company that has indeed innovated--perhaps not directly through its products, but through its aggressive and highly successful strategic business practices
They have an obligation to maximize return to their shareholders, and having $20 billion sitting around in the bank won't do it. They have to spend, partner, and expand into new markets in pursuit of new and profitable revenue streams. Measuring Microsoft purely in terms of revenue is fallacious; look at the profits, look at the $36 billion in cash and short term investments.
Microsoft doesn't control the content providers, but they can offer content providers a massive audience and potential means of distribution. If DVDs contain Windows-only special features, and CDs (all Universal CDs by the end of 2002, supposedly) contain Windows-only software to play copy-restricted content, is it really that much of a stretch to envision things going to the next level? I'm not saying that's the way it is, just the way it could soon be.
While it's good to see somebody standing up for the official format, the trend is moving away from the standard. With Microsoft cutting deals with CD-player manufacturers, and the predictable leanings of big media companies, it seems likely that our future will have "new and improved" CD players that are really stripped down little brothers of the XBox designed to play these new "CDs". Cactus Data Shield uses crippled low-bitrate MP3 files to provide some PC-based music playing capability--but of course, the player is Windows-only. This is just the first halting, unsophisticated stab. Will we soon be seeing new music released in DRM-enabled WMA-only CDs that can only be played in special players or Windows boxes?
LAME compiles and runs just fine in OS X. Grab the latest version (3.91), then get this very nice iTunes script that makes ripping and encoding a CD using iTunes and LAME almost as seamless as using the default encoder.
We are now presented with the ominous possibility (make that probability) that Microsoft will begin cutting deals with media distribution entities and content owners to publish new content in a format that will _only_ work in WMA-enabled hardware players (formerly known as "DVD players"). And, of course, on hardware running Windows XP. Your annoyance in being unable to play Quicktime movie trailers on your Linux system will pale in comparison...
Better yet, first be sure it's got the "copy protected" label. Then insert, rip to AIFF (just a copy command under OS X, which presents audio CDs as implicitly ripped AIFF files!), burn CD-ROM with AIFF files. Then go back to Circus Shitty (they deserve this kind of hassle because of their old Divx "rental" format), whine that "it won't play in my DVD player!" and demand a refund.
While I certainly find the burgeoning copy protection wave to be distasteful, clearly this kind of reaction constitutes vigilantism at best, and theft at worst--not fair use. Let's find a way to smack down all these incipient limitations on our rights to use what we buy. But this ain't the way.
Actually, if you simply download and install the free Developer's Tools from Apple, you'll have make and a couple of hundreds of megs of other goodies. Can you really blame them for not including such things in an OS targeted at such a wide audience? As with Linux, xBSD, etc., it's there if you need it.
Perhaps at some point in the not-too-distant future, the following scenario might be realized.
A woman waits near her departure gate at Newark airport, musing about the glories of days gone by. She inadvertently begins to hum a popular tune from the late nineties. Unfortunately for her, she reproduces the melody with some accuracy; the humming is picked up by several (digital rights law mandated) microphones, and analyzed by the successor to this system, which identifies the "digital property" being reproduced. The woman's location is triangulated by the multiple audio pickups, and she is identified by face. An appropriate license is automatically selected, according to the length of the humming, time of day, location, number of people within earshot, previous digital rights infraction record, and distributor-determined digital rights attributes of the tune itself.
Later in the week, when she receives her monthly IRS debit statement, the woman discovers a $190 charge for a "public performance and audible reproduction license" covering the episode, along with a 28% tax charge. Of course, she doesn't have to worry about the inconvenience of paying; it's already been deducted from her account.
...but you're still writing the JavaScript...
The New York Times saith, "Mr. Jobs said the company had taken some steps to protect against piracy in its device. For instance, he said, songs loaded onto the iPod from a Macintosh computer, cannot then be loaded from the device to a different Macintosh computer, a step he said would make it difficult for people to distribute music they own to other users."
I guess this shatters any ideas of using the iPod to keep the music collection on two Macs synchronized...
If Palm isn't interested in Be's technology, and Be wasn't really a competitor to Palm, why exactly did Palm buy Be? Are there valuable patents or other IP?