Not only that, but anyone who has purchased songs in Microsoft's PlaysForSure scheme have been FUCKED by Microsoft. It's incredible to me that there isn't a larger outcry in the press over this. Microsoft spent a couple of years badmouthing Apple's vertical model and praising their third-party licensing format, then suddenly turned around and abandoned it in favor of Apple's. If Apple released a new iPod with FairPlay 2.0 that didn't play any FairPlay 1.0 files, the torches and pitchforks would be out.
Hell, yeah, then we'll get the small torrent of anti-establishment anti-hipsters who will think of themselves as really, really indendent for rejecting a popular device that is "inferior" and "overpriced" and "doesn't play OGG." Same old crap from them while everyone else simply enjoys something that's fun to use and functions quite nicely.
you have to be wearing blinders not to see the similarities between this actual, documented, nearly implemented plan and what the conspiracy theorists allege about 9/11.
On the contrary, I just have to have common sense. I guess Bin Laden, the Taliban, Al Queda, Britain, both sides of Congress, and the entire military are also in on the conspiracy? Is there a martian in your bedroom?
Don't people get tired of writing these and being proven wrong a month later? I guess after the 90s "Apple is dead" FUD didn't work, and all the "iPod killer" FUD articles of the last 24 months didn't have an effect, so now it's time to go after the iPhone?
Where is BusinessWeek's "Zune, yawn" article? Wouldn't that make more sense given Apple's staggering financial success announced this week and their path toward supplanting Gateway as the #3 U.S. computer maker?
Why pay a premium for an Apple computer when you can buy an equivalent Dell system for less money?
You mean like the Mac Pro that costs $1,000 less than the equivalent Dell, doesn't require cash shelled out for antivirus, firewall, and antispyware software, and runs Mac OS X?
Along the same lines, why buy an Apple cell phone when you can buy a Nokia phone for less money?
Because it's likely the Apple phone won't suck like today's phones do?
Oh, how ridiculous. It's perfectly justified to criticize Microsoft for sending out a broken link. It means nobody even checked it before it went out! My company sends out links everyday, and it would cost us a lot of money to get them wrong. Somehow, we manage to make no mistakes, but checking a hyperlink must be too difficult for the #1 software developer in the world.
Slashdot has just sunk to a new low of pointlessness in their "articles". Urgh.
No, they haven't, though it's amusing to see Microsoft employees posting anonymously now to defend the homeland.
It's a big deal that Microsoft apparently doesn't vet its own URLs before sending them out to third-parties, especially for such an important set of interoperability discussions. The guy didn't even check the link before he sent it out? It's a competence thing (lack thereof). These things just seem to happen with Microsoft, don't they?
What excuse? Apple said they regretted missing the virus while wishing that Windows was hardier against them, since it was an infected Windows machine on the assembly line that introduced the virus into their devices.
Are you one of those guys who says they won't buy music because they don't want to send money to the companies that the RIAA represents, then they turn around and pirate music, invalidating their moral highground?
Which brings up a larger point: Most of the time the Slashdot opinion is the minority opinion.
And if you want proof, go back and read the Slashdot story concerning the iPod mini announcement. Doom-and-gloom predictions left and right from everybody. Yet it becomes the #1 selling iPod.
Some Slashdotters seem to see everything through the veil of a technical specs list without seeing the whole product. It illustrates a real lack of understanding about what actually makes for good technology--applicability and accessibility, not technical superiority. People don't want an ugly, hard-to-use device with an engineering name like "Sony xc451" even if it plays OGG. In retrospect, it's braindead obvious that people are going to want a music-playing device to look and feel really nice, just like they want their automobiles to look and feel really nice (yes, I know car analogies are tired).
Steve Jobs said recently that a lot of people get it wrong in assuming "design" refers to just the look of something, while Apple believes design refers to how it works and how it functions for the user. The iPod's look spawns from that ala the clickwheel.
But like cell phones, which were the first gadget to become an acceptable fashion statement, iPods are starting to suffer from feature bloat and quick obsolesence. How many more things can you cram into the 'new' iPod before it becomes something else entirely? It'll start competing with itself, unless they keep breaking...
I love when people make these ominous predictions without citing anything. How is the iPod starting to suffer from feature bloat and quick obsolescence? Do you have any user surveys that you're basing your conclusion on? Sales figures? Anything? After all, people around here were complaining that not enough new features were introduced with the recent iPod update, which took longer than usual to come out (to the point that analysts were concerned), so the "Showtime" event sort of contradicts both of your claims, don't you think?
Are you on crack?!? HE can't find any reference to back up YOUR assertion, and you say "GOOD, because my assertion that he claimed that is untrue!"??
I argued with Slashdotters months ago who claimed IE7 was a rewrite. Paul Thurrott referred to it on his blog as a rewrite. Walt Mossberg today called it a "fundamental rewrite."
Is there a reason you're coming unhinged over this?
Well, they do count, because those are the people I was referring to. If you can't find any reference, than I'm glad, because IE7 isn't a rewrite and that meme shouldn't be out there!
I agree! Typing "G5" or "G4" to refer, respectively, to the iMac G5 and G4 is far too much work. I propose Apple switch to the Dell engineering naming scheme of iMac Inspiron 2110c. Consumers will definitely understand whether they're buying an iMac Inspiron 2210, 2400a, or 3410+ XPS as opposed to that crummy PowerPC processor suffix and all those model numbers like the G3, G4, and G5. I get the three confused all the time!
Slashdot Mirror
Not only that, but anyone who has purchased songs in Microsoft's PlaysForSure scheme have been FUCKED by Microsoft. It's incredible to me that there isn't a larger outcry in the press over this. Microsoft spent a couple of years badmouthing Apple's vertical model and praising their third-party licensing format, then suddenly turned around and abandoned it in favor of Apple's. If Apple released a new iPod with FairPlay 2.0 that didn't play any FairPlay 1.0 files, the torches and pitchforks would be out.
Ding! Ding! Ding! It's almost as if they're trying to deflate the stock before the MacWorld upsurge, eh?
Your name must be Zonk.
Doesn't the premise of this article sound amusingly like the naysayers of the original iPod in 2001? Five years later, look where we are.
Hell, yeah, then we'll get the small torrent of anti-establishment anti-hipsters who will think of themselves as really, really indendent for rejecting a popular device that is "inferior" and "overpriced" and "doesn't play OGG." Same old crap from them while everyone else simply enjoys something that's fun to use and functions quite nicely.
On the contrary, I just have to have common sense. I guess Bin Laden, the Taliban, Al Queda, Britain, both sides of Congress, and the entire military are also in on the conspiracy? Is there a martian in your bedroom?
Don't people get tired of writing these and being proven wrong a month later? I guess after the 90s "Apple is dead" FUD didn't work, and all the "iPod killer" FUD articles of the last 24 months didn't have an effect, so now it's time to go after the iPhone?
Where is BusinessWeek's "Zune, yawn" article? Wouldn't that make more sense given Apple's staggering financial success announced this week and their path toward supplanting Gateway as the #3 U.S. computer maker?
You mean like the Mac Pro that costs $1,000 less than the equivalent Dell, doesn't require cash shelled out for antivirus, firewall, and antispyware software, and runs Mac OS X?
Because it's likely the Apple phone won't suck like today's phones do?
These were easy questions, got any others?
Oh, how ridiculous. It's perfectly justified to criticize Microsoft for sending out a broken link. It means nobody even checked it before it went out! My company sends out links everyday, and it would cost us a lot of money to get them wrong. Somehow, we manage to make no mistakes, but checking a hyperlink must be too difficult for the #1 software developer in the world.
So is to cheat.
No, they haven't, though it's amusing to see Microsoft employees posting anonymously now to defend the homeland.
It's a big deal that Microsoft apparently doesn't vet its own URLs before sending them out to third-parties, especially for such an important set of interoperability discussions. The guy didn't even check the link before he sent it out? It's a competence thing (lack thereof). These things just seem to happen with Microsoft, don't they?
What excuse? Apple said they regretted missing the virus while wishing that Windows was hardier against them, since it was an infected Windows machine on the assembly line that introduced the virus into their devices.
Okay, I'll bite. What does some random 1962 operation have to do with kooks claiming 9/11 was staged without any valid scrap of evidence whatsoever?
Microsofties don't lose their jobs; they just get sent to the MSN group.
Are you one of those guys who says they won't buy music because they don't want to send money to the companies that the RIAA represents, then they turn around and pirate music, invalidating their moral highground?
And if you want proof, go back and read the Slashdot story concerning the iPod mini announcement. Doom-and-gloom predictions left and right from everybody. Yet it becomes the #1 selling iPod.
Some Slashdotters seem to see everything through the veil of a technical specs list without seeing the whole product. It illustrates a real lack of understanding about what actually makes for good technology--applicability and accessibility, not technical superiority. People don't want an ugly, hard-to-use device with an engineering name like "Sony xc451" even if it plays OGG. In retrospect, it's braindead obvious that people are going to want a music-playing device to look and feel really nice, just like they want their automobiles to look and feel really nice (yes, I know car analogies are tired).
Steve Jobs said recently that a lot of people get it wrong in assuming "design" refers to just the look of something, while Apple believes design refers to how it works and how it functions for the user. The iPod's look spawns from that ala the clickwheel.
I love when people make these ominous predictions without citing anything. How is the iPod starting to suffer from feature bloat and quick obsolescence? Do you have any user surveys that you're basing your conclusion on? Sales figures? Anything? After all, people around here were complaining that not enough new features were introduced with the recent iPod update, which took longer than usual to come out (to the point that analysts were concerned), so the "Showtime" event sort of contradicts both of your claims, don't you think?
Of course it was the best one in the market. It was well-designed and had the click wheel. You like nice cars over bulldozers, don't you?
"Overpriced?" Did you miss the recent price drop that even caught Microsoft off-guard and forced them to lower the price on the Zune?
Mossberg called it a "fundamental rewrite" today. Face it, Microsoft and its enthusiasts acted like it was some big rewrite when it's not.
All right, here's just one result from Google: "fundamental rewrite"
I argued with Slashdotters months ago who claimed IE7 was a rewrite. Paul Thurrott referred to it on his blog as a rewrite. Walt Mossberg today called it a "fundamental rewrite."
Is there a reason you're coming unhinged over this?
Well, they do count, because those are the people I was referring to. If you can't find any reference, than I'm glad, because IE7 isn't a rewrite and that meme shouldn't be out there!
I agree! Typing "G5" or "G4" to refer, respectively, to the iMac G5 and G4 is far too much work. I propose Apple switch to the Dell engineering naming scheme of iMac Inspiron 2110c. Consumers will definitely understand whether they're buying an iMac Inspiron 2210, 2400a, or 3410+ XPS as opposed to that crummy PowerPC processor suffix and all those model numbers like the G3, G4, and G5. I get the three confused all the time!
I agree! I had to waste a whole five minutes taking off a tiny panel on the bottom and sliding the RAM in!
Yeah, and Britney Spears albums sell more in a year than Mozart concert recordings.