...but maybe Apple's right on the money with their "tamper-resistant software." Forget about hackers and pirates; I don't want $ony taking over my machine.
It may sound paranoid, but once they start messing with the kernel, you really don't know what they're going to do...
Until the damn thing cooks, cleans, and can do basic maintenance on my car, I think the iPod is missing essential features! All I want is for it to do those simple things. COME ON, APPLE!!! GET A CLUE!
If Google can make a nice living-room-delivery service that the folks at the varios studios find acceptable (i.e. they are getting paid for it, too), you may be right. I had forgotten about this.
I think you're absolutely right. The only thing I'd point out after reading your comment is that a TiVo is a computer, too. Runs on Linux. Having a system based on downloads instead of recording broadcasts in real-time is a major shift, but need not be one that be tangible to the end user.
One reason why Apple's suite of hardware/software/services may be able to propel this sort of download paradigm into the future is that they have been hard at work trying to figure out how to make consumer machines that are comfortable in rooms other than the office. A lot of people are already running Minis in their entertainment centers, in their car dashboards and more. At the recent keynote, they released Front Row, billing it as, access to all your media "from the couch". Unless you've got a couch in the computer room, they're obviously expecting the new iMacs to be put elsewhere.
With regards to the long downloads, it would be interesting if (for instance) Apple licensed the TiVo interface for choosing shows, since people seem to love the TiVo system. Then, instead of recording it in realtime, the system just downloads it while you're at work, and boom, when you get home, it's no different from a TiVo.
The main two differences here are:
1- If there's a problem (i.e. TiVo failure, cable out, dish askew, power outage), then you've missed your show and you have to wait for it to be broadcast again, using TiVo. If you miss a show with a download system, you can download it whenever.
2- This could be applied retroactively, so that shows you missed, because maybe they were broadcast before you were born, could be digitally archived and made available for download. I'd love to watch Superbowl 1 some day, but I'm not going to order a DVD from Time/Life Sports and wait for it to be shipped to me...
Last, regarding pricing, I'm not 100% thrilled with the pricing, but it's good enough for now. I've never been a proponent of DRM which causes files to expire, but for TV shows, I think that would be a good idea. Do I need to own episode 5 of Desperate Hoeswives? I don't think so. But if I could pay 50 cents per episode, have them commercial free and have them available for, say, three viewings or 30 days, commercial free, would I be willing to pay for a season? Most likely. Heck, if I could have it free and have targeted ads delivered along with the file, that'd be fine with me, too, as long as it was an option I could pay to opt out of.
Woah nelly! Up till that post, nobody looked like an ass.
I was just posting my opinion, based on my own TV viewing habits. I had forgotten that the national average TV watching time was 7 hours. Of the shows I really don't want to miss, I think I have about 2 hours a week these days. Occasionally, that changes, but if I never have to program anything, never have to worry about a system breaking or a power outage causing me to miss a program, I'd be willing to pay a little more, especially if it lets me dump cable altogether.
This wasn't meant to be a religious battle; my claims were roughly on the same level as the TiVo's claims that they've killed the VCR. For the TiVo faithful, they have. For millions upon millions of others, no such thing has happened, and I'm sure there'll be a similar adoption curve for video downloads. However, I do feel strongly that downloads are the wave of the future, and Apple has a pretty elegant solution that I think will do well. My "crap" isn't pro-Apple, it's pro-a-solution-that-happens-to-be-Apple's.
Last, but not least, you're right. I didn't do all my research. As I mentioned, my comment was all opinion based on my own habits. Regardless of who is being an ass here, I know that my ass is not in front of a television for at least 18.5 hours per week. That doesn't sound like entertainment to me; that sounds like a part-time job.
I know people who "drunk dial" their friends and loved ones. This could be marketed as a way to avoid making a call you regret when you're totally wasted.
You're right... that's why I mentioned first and foremost, people downloading and watching using "frontrow". Once there's enough content, I think we'll see higher resolution options available and a mass migration of computers to the living room. People are already doing it with the mini...
The iPod w/ video is just a sneaky way to get us to be comfortable with buying video downloads to be used on a device. Let's go back in history... even though I know Apple did not invent any of these categories, they integrated them all so well, and introduced them in an order that helped ease adoption of the next step.
1- iTunes: easy to use - rip, mix and burn
2- iPod: integrates with iTunes for the songs you've ripped
3- iTunes Music Store: integrates with iPod for the songs you haven't ripped
4- iPod Photo: integrates with iPhoto, shows that iPod does more than music, starts move to color screens
4- Bonus: streaming videos and movie trailers within iTunes Music Store
5- Podcasting: Supported in iTunes, iTMS, iPod, Podcasting is now officially mainstreamed.
6- Vodcasting: Supported in iTunes, people ask, why can't I watch it on my iPod?
7- FrontRow: people can use their Mac as a multimedia device, wonder, why can't I download video?
8- iPod, with video: integrates with new Vodcasting, new content on iTMS, people start buying video content, start asking why can't I get full movies, and/or higher resolution content?
9- Future: Apple offers hi-res content and movies. People download and wonder why they ever went to Blockbuster or even Netflix.
10- There is no step 10, or
10- ???
11- Profit!
...it would be really wise of Jobs and Co (meaning the TV/movie studios) to try to figure out a way to embrace BitTorrent (or some similar technology) to distribute those mountains of data. Heck; why pay Akamai to ship all that crap out if they can build torrenting into iTunes. Maybe give people a discount on purchasing certain media if they are willing to torrent it out to new buyers...
Agreed; however, I don't see any reason why they couldn't begin to offer shows in a higher-quality format if the store shows any promise.
In a world where people pay $2.00 for a ring tone that sounds like crap and will expire in 90 days, I think it's likely that a significant population will be very willing to pay for video downloads in a pretty significant volume.
Even if just a million people download a couple of TV shows a year--and I'll bet it'll be a lot more than that--Apple will be able to convince more networks and studios to release content that way. Heck, if 24 came available, I'd probably buy the whole series and watch it every day during the commute hours. And I'm sure there is a Simpsons or two that I've never seen...
I can practically hear the sounds of chairs being thrown in Redmond now...
What's to doubt? Just because people get DVD players doesn't mean they throw out their VCRs... People still have libraries of stuff which they haven't--and might not ever--convert to DVD.
My parents are finally decomissioning one of their two Betamax machines. Under both their TVs, they've had a VHS and a Beta for, well, decades. I bought them a DVD player for their anniversary two years ago, and they use it all the time, but it doesn't mean that they're just going to toss the VCR. Heck, they still get broadcast TV over a roof-top antenna!
For them to move to a new technology, it takes a pretty significant push. For them to actually ditch the old, it's got to be even greater. And with our aging population, I'll bet there are plenty of people--at least 97 million of them--who are more than happy to hold on to their old technology.
Parents? What about me, actually? I rarely use my VCR, but I still have it, and it works great for the rare occasions that I do record anything for later viewing. I sincerely doubt that I'll ever buy TiVo. However, I'd be happy to buy a non-subscription-based (i.e. per transaction) downloadable video rental and purchase system like Apple is doing with iTunes Video.
Videos, TV shows, podcasts, news headlines, sports highlights, political commentary. There's no reason why there should not be a huge market for a wide variety of downloadable content that traditionally would have gone over broadcast or cable.
Meant to say that commuters will be watching on their new iPods...
And TiVo will be buried by...
on
TiVo Buries the VCR
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
...the iTunes Video Store being played on Macs with Front Row.
Not to mention commuters watching their favorite shows on the train in the mornings and evenings.
I noticed the same thing: You bought Orff: Carmina Burana. We recommend Black Eyed Peas:[whatever the new BEP album is].
I'm thinking it must be a profiling system built on an odd sampling of data. The idea is that most people who buy from iTMS probably have 98% of their music on (and ripped from) CDs. Thus, they are only buying things that fill odd holes in their collection. Songs or albums they remember from their childhood and don't have on CD, ultra-new stuff they won't bother buying on CD, stuff they have on vinyl and which they are not inclined to digitize...
I'm pretty much a rock-and-roll and indies kind of guy, but the odd holes I'm filling include: Orff, Hall and Oates, Fiona Apple's new album, Spearhead, and Cat Stevens Greatest Hits.
The problem is that this is not only not representative of any group, it's not even really representative of my tastes today. It's representative of whims and nostalgia. I'm sure that lots of people bought Orff who also bought BEP, but that may be more of coincidence than reliable profile data.
What would be more interesting would be if they could grab people's libraries and see what people actually have on their systems, not just what they bought on their store. I'm sure that some people would be hesitant to let Apple have that information, but from a technical standpoint, it would let them build a much better profile of what ownership of one album might imply about other albums someone might like.
In fact, if they could combine that with play volumes and rating information, that could be awesome. I have three Tom Waits albums, but one of them (Blood Money) get's almost no play, and one of them I could listen to almost any time. The fact that I have them isn't a strong recommendation, but the fact that one of them really stands out as something I listen to a lot could be a recommendation, not only on its own, but in combination with other albums I listen to often.
Along those lines, I would also like to see them get rid of the manual ranking system. I don't have time or inclination to label favorites. I think there are ways to do this automatically. To wit:
- If you put a song into one or more playlists it gets at least two stars (.25 extra stars for each list it's in above one). - If you burn a list that the song is in, the song gets an extra.25 stars for the first burn, and.1 for each additional. - Each time you let the song play all the way through, it gets an additional.05 stars. - Each time you skip a song within the first 10 seconds, lower its ranking by.25 stars. Skipping after 10 seconds but before the last 10 seconds lowers its ranking by.05 stars. - Each time you listen to a song more than once in a row, increase its ranking by.5 stars
I'm sure this list could be extended and refined, but that would be a great way to auto-rank songs, ongoing. It would let the system keep up with a person's tastes (i.e. I'm sick of that song, so I'll skip it), and it could also be used for better profiling.
I know, I know... there's privacy issues there. But I would totally be willing to share this information if it would help me find music that I (a) will like and (b) wouldn't have found otherwise.
This is not a typing, spelling or grammar flame. It is just a post which expresses appreciation at the subtleties of language. This article is not, as you described it, "heresy", which means "belief or opinion contrary to orthodox religious doctrine." It is "hearsay", which is "information received from other people which can not be substantiated."
Personally, I prefer to think that this whole thing was heresy.
I typed in "Surfin' USA" by the Beach Boys, and it suggested "Sweet Little 16" by Chuck Berry! It's amazing how similar those sound. Do you think it's a coincidence?
It might be smarter just to spin off the iTunes product/store into its own company with its own P/L base. It wouldn't be impossible to do, and as long as it doesn't have the Apple name, there is no reason that it couldn't become its own label as well.
This might even resolve the conflict with Apple Music to the point that they agree to release the Beatles collection, prompting millions of dollars in (re)sales overnight!
A lot of the interactive stuff has been modified to run as Flash now, but this guy did some pretty amazing stuff with animated images, javascript and other crazy tricks long before Flash made it easy.
...since they tried to force SCHEME (Berkeley LISP (in case you didn't know (OK, I'll stop now))) down my throat back at UCB in the early nineties! CAR! CDR! ACK! STOP!!!
Mapping graphics to a 2-bit bitmap that is made out of 8-byte blocks, so after every 4 pixels you need to jump over 7 bytes to draw a straight horizontal line, with 2 global colors + 2 colors that are chosen for that particular block... I never got to the point where I could say that was "easy".:-(
You're right... those were the days! Sorry, I didn't say it was rational, did I?
Forget Arkanoid... Dr. J vs. Larry Bird... Raid on Bungeling Bay... Impossible Mission... Jumpman...
Zork III, for G-d's sake! Am I wrong? Epyx Summer Games... Drol... For cryin' out loud, Choplifter!. Don't you dare forget Choplifter!!!
Oh, my god, I almost forgot Mule and Archon, and that stupid game I typed in from Compute!'s Gazette, "Spike".
There was a typo in that one, I remember. It was all machine language. Pure numbers, six 3-digit numbers and a checksum per line. Terribly boring to type in. One of the lines wouldn't check properly. I looked at the code and saw that there was a combination of 032 211 255, or in hex, $20 $D3 $FF. Since the MC6510 was big-endian, that translated to JSR $FFD3, a bad Kernel jump table address.
Since $FFD2 was a known quantity (the kernel jump table address for printing a character to the text screen at the current cursor point), I figured that must be wrong. Since it was only one byte off, it couldn't be a useful address.
Long story even longer, I changed the address, the checksum worked, and I had a fun game to play after another two hours of 10-key typing.
Slashdot Mirror
It may sound paranoid, but once they start messing with the kernel, you really don't know what they're going to do...
Until the damn thing cooks, cleans, and can do basic maintenance on my car, I think the iPod is missing essential features! All I want is for it to do those simple things. COME ON, APPLE!!! GET A CLUE!
If Google can make a nice living-room-delivery service that the folks at the varios studios find acceptable (i.e. they are getting paid for it, too), you may be right. I had forgotten about this.
One reason why Apple's suite of hardware/software/services may be able to propel this sort of download paradigm into the future is that they have been hard at work trying to figure out how to make consumer machines that are comfortable in rooms other than the office. A lot of people are already running Minis in their entertainment centers, in their car dashboards and more. At the recent keynote, they released Front Row, billing it as, access to all your media "from the couch". Unless you've got a couch in the computer room, they're obviously expecting the new iMacs to be put elsewhere.
With regards to the long downloads, it would be interesting if (for instance) Apple licensed the TiVo interface for choosing shows, since people seem to love the TiVo system. Then, instead of recording it in realtime, the system just downloads it while you're at work, and boom, when you get home, it's no different from a TiVo.
The main two differences here are:
1- If there's a problem (i.e. TiVo failure, cable out, dish askew, power outage), then you've missed your show and you have to wait for it to be broadcast again, using TiVo. If you miss a show with a download system, you can download it whenever.
2- This could be applied retroactively, so that shows you missed, because maybe they were broadcast before you were born, could be digitally archived and made available for download. I'd love to watch Superbowl 1 some day, but I'm not going to order a DVD from Time/Life Sports and wait for it to be shipped to me...
Last, regarding pricing, I'm not 100% thrilled with the pricing, but it's good enough for now. I've never been a proponent of DRM which causes files to expire, but for TV shows, I think that would be a good idea. Do I need to own episode 5 of Desperate Hoeswives? I don't think so. But if I could pay 50 cents per episode, have them commercial free and have them available for, say, three viewings or 30 days, commercial free, would I be willing to pay for a season? Most likely. Heck, if I could have it free and have targeted ads delivered along with the file, that'd be fine with me, too, as long as it was an option I could pay to opt out of.
I was just posting my opinion, based on my own TV viewing habits. I had forgotten that the national average TV watching time was 7 hours. Of the shows I really don't want to miss, I think I have about 2 hours a week these days. Occasionally, that changes, but if I never have to program anything, never have to worry about a system breaking or a power outage causing me to miss a program, I'd be willing to pay a little more, especially if it lets me dump cable altogether.
This wasn't meant to be a religious battle; my claims were roughly on the same level as the TiVo's claims that they've killed the VCR. For the TiVo faithful, they have. For millions upon millions of others, no such thing has happened, and I'm sure there'll be a similar adoption curve for video downloads. However, I do feel strongly that downloads are the wave of the future, and Apple has a pretty elegant solution that I think will do well. My "crap" isn't pro-Apple, it's pro-a-solution-that-happens-to-be-Apple's.
Last, but not least, you're right. I didn't do all my research. As I mentioned, my comment was all opinion based on my own habits. Regardless of who is being an ass here, I know that my ass is not in front of a television for at least 18.5 hours per week. That doesn't sound like entertainment to me; that sounds like a part-time job.
I know people who "drunk dial" their friends and loved ones. This could be marketed as a way to avoid making a call you regret when you're totally wasted.
The iPod w/ video is just a sneaky way to get us to be comfortable with buying video downloads to be used on a device. Let's go back in history... even though I know Apple did not invent any of these categories, they integrated them all so well, and introduced them in an order that helped ease adoption of the next step.
1- iTunes: easy to use - rip, mix and burn
2- iPod: integrates with iTunes for the songs you've ripped
3- iTunes Music Store: integrates with iPod for the songs you haven't ripped
4- iPod Photo: integrates with iPhoto, shows that iPod does more than music, starts move to color screens
4- Bonus: streaming videos and movie trailers within iTunes Music Store
5- Podcasting: Supported in iTunes, iTMS, iPod, Podcasting is now officially mainstreamed.
6- Vodcasting: Supported in iTunes, people ask, why can't I watch it on my iPod?
7- FrontRow: people can use their Mac as a multimedia device, wonder, why can't I download video?
8- iPod, with video: integrates with new Vodcasting, new content on iTMS, people start buying video content, start asking why can't I get full movies, and/or higher resolution content?
9- Future: Apple offers hi-res content and movies. People download and wonder why they ever went to Blockbuster or even Netflix.
10- There is no step 10, or
10- ???
11- Profit!
...it would be really wise of Jobs and Co (meaning the TV/movie studios) to try to figure out a way to embrace BitTorrent (or some similar technology) to distribute those mountains of data. Heck; why pay Akamai to ship all that crap out if they can build torrenting into iTunes. Maybe give people a discount on purchasing certain media if they are willing to torrent it out to new buyers...
In a world where people pay $2.00 for a ring tone that sounds like crap and will expire in 90 days, I think it's likely that a significant population will be very willing to pay for video downloads in a pretty significant volume.
Even if just a million people download a couple of TV shows a year--and I'll bet it'll be a lot more than that--Apple will be able to convince more networks and studios to release content that way. Heck, if 24 came available, I'd probably buy the whole series and watch it every day during the commute hours. And I'm sure there is a Simpsons or two that I've never seen...
I can practically hear the sounds of chairs being thrown in Redmond now...
My parents are finally decomissioning one of their two Betamax machines. Under both their TVs, they've had a VHS and a Beta for, well, decades. I bought them a DVD player for their anniversary two years ago, and they use it all the time, but it doesn't mean that they're just going to toss the VCR. Heck, they still get broadcast TV over a roof-top antenna!
For them to move to a new technology, it takes a pretty significant push. For them to actually ditch the old, it's got to be even greater. And with our aging population, I'll bet there are plenty of people--at least 97 million of them--who are more than happy to hold on to their old technology.
Parents? What about me, actually? I rarely use my VCR, but I still have it, and it works great for the rare occasions that I do record anything for later viewing. I sincerely doubt that I'll ever buy TiVo. However, I'd be happy to buy a non-subscription-based (i.e. per transaction) downloadable video rental and purchase system like Apple is doing with iTunes Video.
Videos, TV shows, podcasts, news headlines, sports highlights, political commentary. There's no reason why there should not be a huge market for a wide variety of downloadable content that traditionally would have gone over broadcast or cable.
Meant to say that commuters will be watching on their new iPods...
...the iTunes Video Store being played on Macs with Front Row. Not to mention commuters watching their favorite shows on the train in the mornings and evenings.
...there's going to be a whole lot more thrown chairs.
I noticed the same thing: You bought Orff: Carmina Burana. We recommend Black Eyed Peas:[whatever the new BEP album is].
.25 stars for the first burn, and .1 for each additional. .05 stars. .25 stars. Skipping after 10 seconds but before the last 10 seconds lowers its ranking by .05 stars. .5 stars
I'm thinking it must be a profiling system built on an odd sampling of data. The idea is that most people who buy from iTMS probably have 98% of their music on (and ripped from) CDs. Thus, they are only buying things that fill odd holes in their collection. Songs or albums they remember from their childhood and don't have on CD, ultra-new stuff they won't bother buying on CD, stuff they have on vinyl and which they are not inclined to digitize...
I'm pretty much a rock-and-roll and indies kind of guy, but the odd holes I'm filling include: Orff, Hall and Oates, Fiona Apple's new album, Spearhead, and Cat Stevens Greatest Hits.
The problem is that this is not only not representative of any group, it's not even really representative of my tastes today. It's representative of whims and nostalgia. I'm sure that lots of people bought Orff who also bought BEP, but that may be more of coincidence than reliable profile data.
What would be more interesting would be if they could grab people's libraries and see what people actually have on their systems, not just what they bought on their store. I'm sure that some people would be hesitant to let Apple have that information, but from a technical standpoint, it would let them build a much better profile of what ownership of one album might imply about other albums someone might like.
In fact, if they could combine that with play volumes and rating information, that could be awesome. I have three Tom Waits albums, but one of them (Blood Money) get's almost no play, and one of them I could listen to almost any time. The fact that I have them isn't a strong recommendation, but the fact that one of them really stands out as something I listen to a lot could be a recommendation, not only on its own, but in combination with other albums I listen to often.
Along those lines, I would also like to see them get rid of the manual ranking system. I don't have time or inclination to label favorites. I think there are ways to do this automatically. To wit:
- If you put a song into one or more playlists it gets at least two stars (.25 extra stars for each list it's in above one).
- If you burn a list that the song is in, the song gets an extra
- Each time you let the song play all the way through, it gets an additional
- Each time you skip a song within the first 10 seconds, lower its ranking by
- Each time you listen to a song more than once in a row, increase its ranking by
I'm sure this list could be extended and refined, but that would be a great way to auto-rank songs, ongoing. It would let the system keep up with a person's tastes (i.e. I'm sick of that song, so I'll skip it), and it could also be used for better profiling.
I know, I know... there's privacy issues there. But I would totally be willing to share this information if it would help me find music that I (a) will like and (b) wouldn't have found otherwise.
Personally, I prefer to think that this whole thing was heresy.
This might even resolve the conflict with Apple Music to the point that they agree to release the Beatles collection, prompting millions of dollars in (re)sales overnight!
A lot of the interactive stuff has been modified to run as Flash now, but this guy did some pretty amazing stuff with animated images, javascript and other crazy tricks long before Flash made it easy.
My French teacher didn't think so. I just failed my midterms because of your "wisdom". Merci beaucoup!
Or as you would have me pronounce it, "Murr-kih bee-yow-cowp"
...since they tried to force SCHEME (Berkeley LISP (in case you didn't know (OK, I'll stop now))) down my throat back at UCB in the early nineties! CAR! CDR! ACK! STOP!!!
That would be just smurfy.
...once the ads are put back in between the stories and the comments? Or are we going to stick with ads only on the tops of pages?
Oh, and by the way, device 8 was for wussies, too! I much preferred device 1. My mantra is and always will be:
load "*",1,1
Again, I didn't say it was rational, did I?
You're right... those were the days! Sorry, I didn't say it was rational, did I?
Zork III, for G-d's sake! Am I wrong? Epyx Summer Games... Drol... For cryin' out loud, Choplifter!. Don't you dare forget Choplifter!!!
Oh, my god, I almost forgot Mule and Archon, and that stupid game I typed in from Compute!'s Gazette, "Spike".
There was a typo in that one, I remember. It was all machine language. Pure numbers, six 3-digit numbers and a checksum per line. Terribly boring to type in. One of the lines wouldn't check properly. I looked at the code and saw that there was a combination of 032 211 255, or in hex, $20 $D3 $FF. Since the MC6510 was big-endian, that translated to JSR $FFD3, a bad Kernel jump table address.
Since $FFD2 was a known quantity (the kernel jump table address for printing a character to the text screen at the current cursor point), I figured that must be wrong. Since it was only one byte off, it couldn't be a useful address.
Long story even longer, I changed the address, the checksum worked, and I had a fun game to play after another two hours of 10-key typing.
Ah, to be 13 again...