Am I the only one who thinks this is funny? This is like physicists saying we need a new law of entropy so we can make devices that are 110% efficient.
What they don't get is that things like aesthetic appeal and simplicity are important to people, while things like Ogg Vorbis support simply are not important to anyone outside of Slashdot, where utility is the only important thing. I swear, some 2-bit company could release a 6 inch-wide, 2-pound digital music player, but as long as it supports Ogg Vorbis and FLAC, Slashdot will laud it as another "iPod Killer."
Here's what the competitors really don't get. People don't give a shit about music formats. They want simplicity. They want their music downloads to work on the iPod, and they do. MP3 is by far the most popular format, still, and most of the music people are buying is in protected AAC format, which the iPod supports. So people are "shallow" for paying a little extra for the product that is the simplest to use, gives them everything they want and all with a touch of style? That's absurd. Get off your geek pedestal and please come back to reality.
You can already sort of do it with Griffin's media reader attachment. When your camera's memory card gets full, just take it out, plug it into the media reader, and all your pictures get stored on the iPod.
Actually, a better and more possible approach would be to write your local Congressman about campaign finance reform. Once lawmakers stop worrying about how to pay back the private interest groups who's bribed... er, sorry, I meant "contributed," then maybe they can make room in their schedules for their bosses. You know... us.
Apple's DRM is considerably more restrictive than WMA's. All sound quality aside, Apple gives you one store, one media player, and one portable player. WMA gives you many stores, several players, and quite a few portables.
Oh, wow. So I can buy a song from Napster, cancel my subscription, subscribe to Rhapsody, and my song will still work? I didn't think so.
Besides, Mac-style drag-and-drop installs have their own problems: they don't get updated properly and they don't verify or deal with dependencies on install; they just dump the mess into the user's lap.
Dran 'n drop installs are only supposed to be used when dependencies aren't a problem.
I should probably clarify... I actually am a social liberal on most issues, but I think that the sudden obsession with "culture" is a symptom of the extreme left's (the so-called "bleeding heart" liberals) noble but somewhat misguided quest for racial and cultural harmony.
Things like "analyzing" literature, learning about music history and all but the most basic philosophy are purely leisure activities. I don't care if people want to take them, but forcing those of us in technical majors to take them is absurd. I write fan fiction in my spare time, and I love doing it. But I do it in my spare time. It never ceases to amaze me how many people have made a living off "analyzing" Shakespeare's works to death or proposing new "theories of communication."
There is a definite de-emphasis on math and science in American schools. In the name of bleeding-heart liberalism, everyone now has to take multiple hours of world culture classes, which, for those of us in technical (read: the difficult ones) majors, those takes up a lot of time that could otherwise be spent on real work, like programming, math and science homework. I don't oppose the idea of requiring American history, government and the like at American schools, but classes like "world music" shouldn't be general education requirements.
To make matters worse, OpenGL doesn't include equivalent cross-platform audio and input APIs/toolkits, so you need to rewrite these parts for each new platform, or create your own API (and you still need to write support for it in every platform), or maybe look for some of the half-baked efforts out there.
You mean the Open Graphics Library doesn't include an API for sound?!
id Software, however industry-leading it may be, can't sustain our only true cross-platform open API in existence alone forever.
No one uses DirectX for professional 3-D rendering; they use OpenGL. It's not going anywhere.
Current desktops are confusing for quite a few users. Now consider that this new interface doesn't really change the way things are done (there are still windows, menus, et cetera), just adds stuff. Granted, it's really damn cool stuff (stuff that I can see Apple using Quartz Extreme to do sometime down the road), but it will confuse the shit out of computer novices.
Re:If they want to be innovative and supportive...
on
Sun Wants to Make Linux 3D
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· Score: 2, Informative
Nope, the Mplayer guys reverse-engineer a lot of codecs that they don't have licenses to, like Windows Media, which has no official implementation on Linux and MPEG-4, which they technically can't use without paying a license.
The only reason they can legally do this is that Apple has a headstart in market share on the Windows platform, since iTunes & iTMS are available for Windows.
Actually, they can't legally do it. Bundling their music service with Windows would be yet another example of flexing their monopoly muscle to illegally convert marketshare in one sector (operating systems) to marketshare in another (music services). The EU is about to smack Microsoft down for this very same behavior with Windows Media Player.
They're not going anywhere anytime soon. And they're turning a profit consistently. If a company is consistently making more money than it costs to run itself, then it'll be sticking around.
There's no doubt that Apple spent a lot on product design for the iPod, and like I said, it's a pretty thing. But has it really changed all that much in the last few years? That initial cost has been paid for many many times over by now. If a company like Rio can produce something like the Karma which is quite different in form factor, and many would argue also quite attractive, and sell it for so much less, then why can't Apple?
Capacity has increased, and the unit has gotten smaller and been redesigned with touch-sensitive controls instead of physical buttons. That doesn't come cheaply.
The answer is that they can, they just don't have to. Their marketing is so good that people are happy to pay $400 for a 20gb iPod. Why would they sell it for less? This makes perfect sense - they're making the bucks now before the market matures and prices drop across the board. If I were an Apple shareholder I'd support this, but as a potential customer, it puts me right off.
Why? You may not think it's worth $400, but as a Mac user, I can tell you that it's the best $400 I've ever spent. The iPod makes it easy to carry large files around with me, along with my entire music collection, and it integrates with my system painlessly. I just plugged it in, and BAM. It was ready to go. I haven't been fawning for Ogg Vorbis or FLAC support, or lamenting about my inability to connect it to an ethernet port. I've been too busy enjoying the fact that it's made my life easier.
You can compare it with Windows XP - there's a huge upfront cost to produce the software, and then very low per unit costs. But at a retail of $300 you can bet that upfront dev cost was paid off a long time ago. Why don't they now reduce the cost to just $20 to cover duplication and distribution? Because they don't have to. People are wowed by the flashy colours and marketing and pony up the cash in ever increasing numbers. Many consumers don't even realise they have a choice in O/S. This is why they have a license to print money, regardless of the fact that better (and cheaper) alternatives exist. This is exactly what is happening with Apple and the iPod. I have no problem with people buying whatever mp3 player they want, but someone who harps about choice, freedom, etc and then goes sheep-like to the Apple store for an iPod is somewhat hypocritical in my book.
So people who talk about freedom of choice exercising their freedom of choice by not choosing your preferred choice are hypocrites? Ever thought that some people may just think that it's the best digital music player on the market, and are willing to pony up the extra cash for it?
Jesus, is that really what it looks like? That's just awful. "iPod Killer" my ass. I'd love to see someone taking a jog with one of those things strapped around his arm.
From a functionality standpoint, maybe, but designing something that small with good aesthetics and an intuitive interface is not cheap. Before the iPod came along, I seriously doubt that designers from other companies would've been able build something as small as the iPod without some major sacrifices in terms of button size and intuitiveness. Sometimes I don't think/.ers really get that there are people who get paid money to design things to look good and operate fluidly. That's part of R&D. It's no small challenge to get something to be small, good-looking, functional and intuitive at the same time.
Economics 101: Selling a product for less than it costs to produce results in a negative profit.
Seriously, Apple may like charging their Apple Tax, but the iPod mini is priced just about as cheaply as they could feasibly manage with the R&D costs of it combined with the price for the new hard drive. They'll probably drop the price within the next year.
Get your own facts straight -- the look'n'feel of Mac apps have nothing to do with "Unix" and everything to do with proprietary "Mac" infrastructure. Jeez -- even the dumbest Apple Whores know this.
What the fuck are you talking about? "Infrastructure"? Do you, by chance, mean "window manager"? So it's not really a Unix if it has a "proprietary infrastructure"? Get a clue, dumbass. An infrastructure is the underlying part of a system, not the front-end to it. Mac OS X's infrastructure is a Unix distro (Darwin), whether you like it or not, and it's open-source. Notice that things like AIX are not. If you meant "Linux" in your original post, then you should have said Linux, because Unix and Linux are not the same fucking thing.
The window manager in OS X is proprietary, but it most certainly is not an infrastructure. I'll give you an A for effort in trying to sound like you know what the fuck you're talking about, though.
However since you are typical forum-spamming Mac-Moron, there's no use to try to educate you. Now, go back to gradeschool and learn to butt out when the big kids are having their little Windows-Linux flamewar.
I graduated from grade school long ago because I know what the definitions of big words like "infrastructure" are and when to use them. And the "big kids" can have their little Windows-Linux flame war all they want. I'll sit at the adults' table.
Adults take responsibility for their actions and words; you clearly have a problem with that, otherwise you wouldn't be posting as an Anonymous Coward. It's times like this that I think that title should be changed to "Fucking Pussy."
Oh look, another/. poster who thinks he's being terribly clever because he'd rather insult someone than admit that he can't get his facts straight. Boy you sure showed me.
Slashdot Mirror
Am I the only one who thinks this is funny? This is like physicists saying we need a new law of entropy so we can make devices that are 110% efficient.
What they don't get is that things like aesthetic appeal and simplicity are important to people, while things like Ogg Vorbis support simply are not important to anyone outside of Slashdot, where utility is the only important thing. I swear, some 2-bit company could release a 6 inch-wide, 2-pound digital music player, but as long as it supports Ogg Vorbis and FLAC, Slashdot will laud it as another "iPod Killer."
Here's what the competitors really don't get. People don't give a shit about music formats. They want simplicity. They want their music downloads to work on the iPod, and they do. MP3 is by far the most popular format, still, and most of the music people are buying is in protected AAC format, which the iPod supports. So people are "shallow" for paying a little extra for the product that is the simplest to use, gives them everything they want and all with a touch of style? That's absurd. Get off your geek pedestal and please come back to reality.
You can already sort of do it with Griffin's media reader attachment. When your camera's memory card gets full, just take it out, plug it into the media reader, and all your pictures get stored on the iPod.
Actually, a better and more possible approach would be to write your local Congressman about campaign finance reform. Once lawmakers stop worrying about how to pay back the private interest groups who's bribed ... er, sorry, I meant "contributed," then maybe they can make room in their schedules for their bosses. You know ... us.
You might want to try Path Finder. I happily registered it; it's an awesome file browser.
Imagine a Beowulf cluster of these things!
Nothing will get a burglar out of your home faster than the "Cha-Chuck!" of a 12 gauge.
I should probably clarify ... I actually am a social liberal on most issues, but I think that the sudden obsession with "culture" is a symptom of the extreme left's (the so-called "bleeding heart" liberals) noble but somewhat misguided quest for racial and cultural harmony.
Things like "analyzing" literature, learning about music history and all but the most basic philosophy are purely leisure activities. I don't care if people want to take them, but forcing those of us in technical majors to take them is absurd. I write fan fiction in my spare time, and I love doing it. But I do it in my spare time. It never ceases to amaze me how many people have made a living off "analyzing" Shakespeare's works to death or proposing new "theories of communication."
There is a definite de-emphasis on math and science in American schools. In the name of bleeding-heart liberalism, everyone now has to take multiple hours of world culture classes, which, for those of us in technical (read: the difficult ones) majors, those takes up a lot of time that could otherwise be spent on real work, like programming, math and science homework. I don't oppose the idea of requiring American history, government and the like at American schools, but classes like "world music" shouldn't be general education requirements.
Current desktops are confusing for quite a few users. Now consider that this new interface doesn't really change the way things are done (there are still windows, menus, et cetera), just adds stuff. Granted, it's really damn cool stuff (stuff that I can see Apple using Quartz Extreme to do sometime down the road), but it will confuse the shit out of computer novices.
Nope, the Mplayer guys reverse-engineer a lot of codecs that they don't have licenses to, like Windows Media, which has no official implementation on Linux and MPEG-4, which they technically can't use without paying a license.
I wasn't aware that MPEG-4 was a proprietary format.
They're not going anywhere anytime soon. And they're turning a profit consistently. If a company is consistently making more money than it costs to run itself, then it'll be sticking around.
Jesus, is that really what it looks like? That's just awful. "iPod Killer" my ass. I'd love to see someone taking a jog with one of those things strapped around his arm.
From a functionality standpoint, maybe, but designing something that small with good aesthetics and an intuitive interface is not cheap. Before the iPod came along, I seriously doubt that designers from other companies would've been able build something as small as the iPod without some major sacrifices in terms of button size and intuitiveness. Sometimes I don't think /.ers really get that there are people who get paid money to design things to look good and operate fluidly. That's part of R&D. It's no small challenge to get something to be small, good-looking, functional and intuitive at the same time.
Economics 101: Selling a product for less than it costs to produce results in a negative profit.
Seriously, Apple may like charging their Apple Tax, but the iPod mini is priced just about as cheaply as they could feasibly manage with the R&D costs of it combined with the price for the new hard drive. They'll probably drop the price within the next year.
The iPod has no built-in DRM. Or didn't you know that you can play m4p's from iTMS on any iPod you want?
The window manager in OS X is proprietary, but it most certainly is not an infrastructure. I'll give you an A for effort in trying to sound like you know what the fuck you're talking about, though. I graduated from grade school long ago because I know what the definitions of big words like "infrastructure" are and when to use them. And the "big kids" can have their little Windows-Linux flame war all they want. I'll sit at the adults' table.
Adults take responsibility for their actions and words; you clearly have a problem with that, otherwise you wouldn't be posting as an Anonymous Coward. It's times like this that I think that title should be changed to "Fucking Pussy."
Oh look, another /. poster who thinks he's being terribly clever because he'd rather insult someone than admit that he can't get his facts straight. Boy you sure showed me.
Moron.