Your right, before the ipod, the other players like Archos were making big ugly boxes. But those players were very functional. Unfortunately, that meant 'geeky' and 'nerdy' to everyone else. Apple sexed up the product and now Joe Blow can get into this "mp3 thing I've been hearing about." Which is slightly ironic as most users buy DRM aac songs from Apple and probably don't have a single real mp3 on there.
Your point about the design of players is well taken, but I assure you "most" users are not downloading AACs from iTunes; downloads are still a tiny fraction of physical CD sales, not to mention the collections gathered during the Napster/kazaa days, not to mention swapping files on burned MP3-CDs... etc.
Since you need it spelt out... my point is that Windows 3.1 was arguably a look-a-like of MacOS in many respects and Microsoft still kicked Apple's ass all over the shop.
Much obliged. Your argument sucks. Win3.1's success was only peripherally (at best) related to its actual quality. It had everything to do with market economies and Apple's bad decisions.
Just because the iPod looks pretty and its DRM is the least evil, doesn't mean it will always be that way. Just like with the Mac vs Windows, a lot of people will stop paying the Apple tax if something cheaper comes along that as good a job.
Simply allow people to transfer files from mp3 player to mp3 player...That just requires a little engineering and a little software. Especially with usb 2.0.... The RIAA and music industry would flip, but you'd outsell the ipod. Make a decent price point don't make it look like crap, a relatively easy to use interface, and you have a goldmine.
Why stop there? Throw in a pony, make it even better.
There is absolutely no technical issue whatsoever involved in getting, say, two iPods to talk directly each other (especially older firewire models). But politically, that is currently verboeten. No label in the world will allow it. No music industry lobbyist in the world will currently let something like that go unanswered. Its not a technical problem at all, it has everything to do with the old guard holding the keys.
And I'm sure that if I were to dig into Google Groups that Mac zealots were saying the same thing about Windows 3.1 when it first appeared.
You point is...?
Seriously though, I want a music player that plays MP3, AAC, WMA and (for completeness) OGG out of the box, looks pretty, where DRM is supported for each favorite music format and where the software that doesn't suck and lets you choose which format is right for the user. Can it be that hard to do?
For engineering, completely do-able. Licensing and political considerations, next to impossible.
These competitors sniping ineffectually at Apple's heels in the digital music player space need to realize that they will always be playing second fiddle (ha ha) as long as their players look remotely like iPods.
People know instinctively that this is an iPod-wannabe. That (nicely anthropomorphic) form factor is burned into the public consciousness (such as it is).
The thing that will erode Apple's domination is the inclusion of iPod-like abilities in other devices. The only thing in the world that is more popular than an iPod is a mobile phone. Its interesting, because of the wrinkle that is the ROKR. Remember the hype around that phone? Everybody knew this could be a killer combination but something happened and it rolled out the door totally crippled; so people wrote off the phone-as-iPod idea in a sense.
Go look at the latest batch of Sony Ericsson phones, extrapolate the direction of the hardware +1.5 years and each one of those phones will be at least as capable as a Nano. And while you don't strictly have to have an iPod, there are many who would agree that a mobile phone these days is strictly necessary... like the PS2 with DVD -playing, people will rationalize the fancy phone as a "junior iPod" over an iPod + Phone separately most of the time. And the fanciest Bluetooth gadget in the world will never integrate the phone with the iPod in the way that they are when shipped in one device (receiving calls and handing off, etc).
All this applies to point-and-shoot digital cameras, as well.
Did it ever occur to you that, yes, maybe you did miss a memo? I mean, why would you just assume that because you haven't heard of something it couldn't be true? I'm not saying it is true, I'm just saying that's a very stupid argument.
I already commented briefly on this earlier but I cannot help noting this guy's remarkable use of aggressive framing:
Richard Gallagher: Playing videogames with aggressive content does have an effect on children, teens, and adults. In children and teens, several results are associated with exposure to aggressive videogames. First, youth experience an increase in arousal that suggests an increase in tension that may contribute to aggressive behavior. Second, youth engage in more aggressive thinking about others and changes their attitudes toward people as they emerge from play more likely to believe that others are interested in harming them. Third, play diminishes the level of empathy that kids have for other people. Fourth, play has an effect on the amount of aggressive behavior demonstrated in verbal aggression, teasing, and some physical aggression by increasing the frequency of these actions. There is significantly more impact on aggressive attitudes than on behavior. Finally, playing and viewing does desensitize people to aggressive images and the impact of aggression on others. After play and viewing, children are much less distressed by images of characters being hurt or killed, and, given their reduced empathy, more likely to engage in aggressive behavior against others. The level of effect is considered small to moderate. So, in each of these areas playing and viewing results in increases that are at higher to moderately higher levels than playing or viewing games with other content.
Nice, huh? Just assert your face off and never look back. Gallagher takes it as axiomatic that aggressive competition and 'arousal' (WTF?) are a) bad and b) directed in a negative way. He also seems to think that children do not know the difference between a video game and reality. Guess what? I am an unbelievable calculated killing machine in GTA, but in real life... eh, not so much. I am not a child but Gallagher includes 'adults' in the first sentence of the interview as he sets up his rolodex talkingpoints.
Despite the large body of evidence that supports a link between playing violent videogames and aggression
Where? Where is that evidence? I've seen no such thing.
That is, if we see an increase in violent videogame play, is there also an increase in violent behavior?
Oh for fuck's sake.... people, IGN is trolling. My dog knows the difference between play-fighting and real fighting. Let's give our kids a little credit, shall we?
"Somebody think of the children..." Seldom is it mentioned that the children seem a lot smarter than the adults in this area.
I do not mean any offence to Jacqui Cheng, but with the (notable) exception of the Dell comparison, this review was shallow at best. When I surf Ars I typically expect the nitty-gritty Hannibal type review, and instead we more or less have a completely mundane blog entry about someone's new toy. The writing style is all wrong for that site.
Re:Only real answer is free character transfer
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World of Queuecraft
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· Score: 1
Not true. I don't know the details but there was just an event in WoW that had a permanent impact by opening up new content.
You are referring to the Ahn'Qiraj content, which is very recent and the only example of a sticky server-wide event. The rest of the game is as I described it.
I was very excited about the new DS when i saw the initial images... but (stupidly perhaps) I assumed it was going to be quite a bit smaller. That really isn't what happened; its maybe 10%smaller overall.
I already have a PSP and I want to pick up a DS as well (I'm a sucker for handhelds, what can I say). What kept me away from the DS so far has everything to do with how they build the actual hardware. I hated the original DS case. And I hated the craptacular screen quality. But I love the innovation behind the dual screen concept, stylus input, and massive/excellent software library.
The new DS is very pretty, but barely smaller and the screens still fail to impress. Its just so close! C'mon big N, you can do this right. The original GameBoy was like the original Macintosh - anthropomorphic, iconic, a joy to use and hold. The DS has amazing ideas happening but they have got to get the size down and get better displays. Screen quality in particular is truly painful, when compared to PSP (which, fair to say, is huge - but also fair to say, does a lot more in terms of media playback and surfing).
I guess what I'm saying is, where is the DS Lite Micro?
Re:Only real answer is free character transfer
on
World of Queuecraft
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· Score: 1
Guild Wars handles this without problems. You can switch servers at any time- it takes a few seconds, and you can communicate between servers. Someone just shouts out "MEET AT AMERICAN 3" and you're done... Perhaps I'm missing something technical, but given that Blizzard is making ~1 billlllyyyyon dollars per year on WoW I think they could manage to program something up.
Well one huge difference between Guild Wars and WoW is that GW is very heavily instanced. Last I checked, you are technically in an instance everywhere in GW, except big cities. WoW is the flip of this, only big dungeons and weird things like the tram connecting Ironforge and Stormwind are instances, and the rest of the world is shared.
Re:Only real answer is free character transfer
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World of Queuecraft
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· Score: 1
If you slay the King of All Evil (or whatever) and this is supposed to make a permanent impact on the world, what happens when you log into a server that still has its King of All Evil? Do you get to kill him again?
That's how it works now - nothing is sticky.
Only real answer is free character transfer
on
World of Queuecraft
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· Score: 3, Interesting
The problem is that a realm can get very busy after you've already levelled a character nice and high, and then you are screwed. I understand Blizzard is trying to deal with an avalanche (yeah, boo hoo) - the only real way to deal with it is to keep adding servers and allow players to transfer their characters between them. Obviously some kind of limit would need to be in place to keep people from hopscotching all over (say, 1 transfer a month or something), but since the service is literally falling down sometimes, it is only fair to allow players to load-balance themselves, and for free, in a reasonable way.
That's the Origami vaporware. Now, what's my SonyEricsson K750? Without folding or pivoting, it's a digital video/still camcorder, MP3 player, contacts/calendar/notes PDA, GPRS Internet, and picture frame. With Java applets, it's a "smartphone", and with applets and a Bluetooth keyboard it's an email device and maybe even "videoconferencing terminal". And it pivots images for preferred display orientation on user demand.... And it's over a year old. I'm sure there are phones with better email and "videoconferencing". What is this Microsoft astroturf?
Yes, you called it.
Swap K750 with W600i and you get the swivel too.:)
Next he's going to write a long rant saying how upset, emotionally disturbed, and just plain pissed he is that they changed the Powerbook's name.
No kidding. Its so unfair. Especially when Apple led him to believe that the machine was called PowerBook for 15 years before the pulled the psychic rug out from under him. I don't know how he gets up in the morning.
All in all, the MacBook Pro seems to be a great upgrade, especially when Adobe and Microsoft come out with Universal Applications. I'd get one if I hadn't pimped out my PowerMac G5 so much T.t crying face.
I wouldn't sweat it - those Adobe apps will not show up till 2007.
Is WoW multithreaded? Most games aren't, and that would indicate that it's effectively taking 100% of 1 CPU.
They answered this on the Mac forum on worldofwarcraft.com - although I haven't checked lately. According to Blizzard the Mac client is multithreaded, but in a shallow implementation. Basically it splits the video tasks to one CPU and audio/networking to another. So the answer is yes, although only in the most basic way.
Re:yep, great benchmarks, but lacking in features.
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MacBook Pro Benchmarks
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· Score: 1
If you want FW800 get an ExpressCard with it.
AFAIK, you can't. The cardbus slot that is necessary for FW800 is larger than the one provided on the MacBook. (For now - a smaller card will undoubtably come out.)
Do people still use AV outs on a notebook? Every projector I've seen in the last several years had DVI/VGA hookups.
Are you joking? Every living room I've seen in the last several years has been lacking an LCD projector. Frankly if the MacBook didn't do S-Video/Composite out (and it does), that would have been a dealbreaker for me personally.
I had a PowerBook G4 1Ghz, 1Gig RAM (all graphics set to lowest setting) and would get insane lag in Ironforge around the AH. I couldn't run my epic horse through that area without ending up in the ditch. I now have a MacBookPro, 2.0 Ghz, 2 Gigs RAM and can run around in IF with 0, none, NADA lag and 30-35 FPS. I have all options turned on and the highest resolution the laptop screen can handle. Crusing around WSG is fun as I don't get lagged to death
I'm sure the new MacBook helps - lucky bastard - but for WoW, the issue is probably a network one. If I pop open CPU and bandwidth monitors on my dual G5 while playing WoW (windowed), the CPUs are only hitting 50-65%, and the packets are numerous but small. WoW is just not that intensive a game. I would guess that a combination of non-bus-chocked laptop (MacBook - the G4 laptop's biggest weakness was that weak ass bus), and improvements to both WoW's client and backend infrastructure (they've added dozens of new servers).
Slashdot Mirror
Your point about the design of players is well taken, but I assure you "most" users are not downloading AACs from iTunes; downloads are still a tiny fraction of physical CD sales, not to mention the collections gathered during the Napster/kazaa days, not to mention swapping files on burned MP3-CDs... etc.
Much obliged. Your argument sucks. Win3.1's success was only peripherally (at best) related to its actual quality. It had everything to do with market economies and Apple's bad decisions.
Just because the iPod looks pretty and its DRM is the least evil, doesn't mean it will always be that way. Just like with the Mac vs Windows, a lot of people will stop paying the Apple tax if something cheaper comes along that as good a job.
So you are agreeing with me (see original post).
Why stop there? Throw in a pony, make it even better.
There is absolutely no technical issue whatsoever involved in getting, say, two iPods to talk directly each other (especially older firewire models). But politically, that is currently verboeten. No label in the world will allow it. No music industry lobbyist in the world will currently let something like that go unanswered. Its not a technical problem at all, it has everything to do with the old guard holding the keys.
You point is...?
Seriously though, I want a music player that plays MP3, AAC, WMA and (for completeness) OGG out of the box, looks pretty, where DRM is supported for each favorite music format and where the software that doesn't suck and lets you choose which format is right for the user. Can it be that hard to do?
For engineering, completely do-able. Licensing and political considerations, next to impossible.
You should ask to borrow one of your mom's iPods. :)
People know instinctively that this is an iPod-wannabe. That (nicely anthropomorphic) form factor is burned into the public consciousness (such as it is).
The thing that will erode Apple's domination is the inclusion of iPod-like abilities in other devices. The only thing in the world that is more popular than an iPod is a mobile phone. Its interesting, because of the wrinkle that is the ROKR. Remember the hype around that phone? Everybody knew this could be a killer combination but something happened and it rolled out the door totally crippled; so people wrote off the phone-as-iPod idea in a sense.
Go look at the latest batch of Sony Ericsson phones, extrapolate the direction of the hardware +1.5 years and each one of those phones will be at least as capable as a Nano. And while you don't strictly have to have an iPod, there are many who would agree that a mobile phone these days is strictly necessary... like the PS2 with DVD -playing, people will rationalize the fancy phone as a "junior iPod" over an iPod + Phone separately most of the time. And the fanciest Bluetooth gadget in the world will never integrate the phone with the iPod in the way that they are when shipped in one device (receiving calls and handing off, etc).
All this applies to point-and-shoot digital cameras, as well.
If Microsoft approved the mockups their agency sent, it becomes their screw-up.
*sigh* such stereotypes against Canada. Why pick on them? They don't say much, all tucked away, down there...
yeah but Britain doesn't ask for much these days.
(nafta, on the other hand...)
Well, I asked, didn't I?
Richard Gallagher: Playing videogames with aggressive content does have an effect on children, teens, and adults. In children and teens, several results are associated with exposure to aggressive videogames. First, youth experience an increase in arousal that suggests an increase in tension that may contribute to aggressive behavior. Second, youth engage in more aggressive thinking about others and changes their attitudes toward people as they emerge from play more likely to believe that others are interested in harming them. Third, play diminishes the level of empathy that kids have for other people. Fourth, play has an effect on the amount of aggressive behavior demonstrated in verbal aggression, teasing, and some physical aggression by increasing the frequency of these actions. There is significantly more impact on aggressive attitudes than on behavior. Finally, playing and viewing does desensitize people to aggressive images and the impact of aggression on others. After play and viewing, children are much less distressed by images of characters being hurt or killed, and, given their reduced empathy, more likely to engage in aggressive behavior against others. The level of effect is considered small to moderate. So, in each of these areas playing and viewing results in increases that are at higher to moderately higher levels than playing or viewing games with other content.
Nice, huh? Just assert your face off and never look back. Gallagher takes it as axiomatic that aggressive competition and 'arousal' (WTF?) are a) bad and b) directed in a negative way. He also seems to think that children do not know the difference between a video game and reality. Guess what? I am an unbelievable calculated killing machine in GTA, but in real life... eh, not so much. I am not a child but Gallagher includes 'adults' in the first sentence of the interview as he sets up his rolodex talkingpoints.
Where? Where is that evidence? I've seen no such thing.
That is, if we see an increase in violent videogame play, is there also an increase in violent behavior?
Oh for fuck's sake.... people, IGN is trolling. My dog knows the difference between play-fighting and real fighting. Let's give our kids a little credit, shall we?
"Somebody think of the children..." Seldom is it mentioned that the children seem a lot smarter than the adults in this area.
I do not mean any offence to Jacqui Cheng, but with the (notable) exception of the Dell comparison, this review was shallow at best. When I surf Ars I typically expect the nitty-gritty Hannibal type review, and instead we more or less have a completely mundane blog entry about someone's new toy. The writing style is all wrong for that site.
You are referring to the Ahn'Qiraj content, which is very recent and the only example of a sticky server-wide event. The rest of the game is as I described it.
I already have a PSP and I want to pick up a DS as well (I'm a sucker for handhelds, what can I say). What kept me away from the DS so far has everything to do with how they build the actual hardware. I hated the original DS case. And I hated the craptacular screen quality. But I love the innovation behind the dual screen concept, stylus input, and massive/excellent software library.
The new DS is very pretty, but barely smaller and the screens still fail to impress. Its just so close! C'mon big N, you can do this right. The original GameBoy was like the original Macintosh - anthropomorphic, iconic, a joy to use and hold. The DS has amazing ideas happening but they have got to get the size down and get better displays. Screen quality in particular is truly painful, when compared to PSP (which, fair to say, is huge - but also fair to say, does a lot more in terms of media playback and surfing).
I guess what I'm saying is, where is the DS Lite Micro?
Well one huge difference between Guild Wars and WoW is that GW is very heavily instanced. Last I checked, you are technically in an instance everywhere in GW, except big cities. WoW is the flip of this, only big dungeons and weird things like the tram connecting Ironforge and Stormwind are instances, and the rest of the world is shared.
That's how it works now - nothing is sticky.
The problem is that a realm can get very busy after you've already levelled a character nice and high, and then you are screwed. I understand Blizzard is trying to deal with an avalanche (yeah, boo hoo) - the only real way to deal with it is to keep adding servers and allow players to transfer their characters between them. Obviously some kind of limit would need to be in place to keep people from hopscotching all over (say, 1 transfer a month or something), but since the service is literally falling down sometimes, it is only fair to allow players to load-balance themselves, and for free, in a reasonable way.
So true, its painful...
"Apple only uses certified kryptonite-plated Monster(tm) Cable to connect its servers to your internets."
Yes, you called it.
Swap K750 with W600i and you get the swivel too. :)
No kidding. Its so unfair. Especially when Apple led him to believe that the machine was called PowerBook for 15 years before the pulled the psychic rug out from under him. I don't know how he gets up in the morning.
I wouldn't sweat it - those Adobe apps will not show up till 2007.
They answered this on the Mac forum on worldofwarcraft.com - although I haven't checked lately. According to Blizzard the Mac client is multithreaded, but in a shallow implementation. Basically it splits the video tasks to one CPU and audio/networking to another. So the answer is yes, although only in the most basic way.
AFAIK, you can't. The cardbus slot that is necessary for FW800 is larger than the one provided on the MacBook. (For now - a smaller card will undoubtably come out.)
Do people still use AV outs on a notebook? Every projector I've seen in the last several years had DVI/VGA hookups.
Are you joking? Every living room I've seen in the last several years has been lacking an LCD projector. Frankly if the MacBook didn't do S-Video/Composite out (and it does), that would have been a dealbreaker for me personally.
I'm sure the new MacBook helps - lucky bastard - but for WoW, the issue is probably a network one. If I pop open CPU and bandwidth monitors on my dual G5 while playing WoW (windowed), the CPUs are only hitting 50-65%, and the packets are numerous but small. WoW is just not that intensive a game. I would guess that a combination of non-bus-chocked laptop (MacBook - the G4 laptop's biggest weakness was that weak ass bus), and improvements to both WoW's client and backend infrastructure (they've added dozens of new servers).