Apple TV is neat and all, but I still want to record most of my shows myself.
I think you're missing the point. What Apple are trying to do is to switch you from your current content provider to the iTunes Store.
The Apple TV may not look too interesting in the USA with the many content providers and TIVOs and all, but here in Canada, it will be a very interesting choice. Here's why.
Just as a lot of people stopped buying CDs and now buy single tracks from the iTunes Store, some people will drop their cable/satellite and buy content à-la-carte from the iTunes Store. And frankly, I'm one of them. Cable or satellite costs too much, most providers lock you in so you can't use 3rd party decoders/PVRs (TIVO? You wish!), they force you to get channels you don't want (stupid "channels packages" and/or limited à-la-carte choices) and without their expensive PVRs the whole VHS + decoder box makes it hard to record stuff.
I can't wait for TV shows to be available on the Canadian iTunes Store, so I can drop the monopolistic content providers.
Colossus: The Forbin Project is an apocalyptic science fiction movie based on the 1966 novel Colossus by Dennis Feltham Jones. It tells of a massive defense computer which becomes sentient and decides to take control of the world. Although not very successful when it was released, the film is generally well respected by science fiction fans and critics.
While the movie was produced in a 2.35:1 aspect ratio, and released as such on Laserdisc, the DVD release was changed to a 1.33:1 ratio using pan and scan, which is considered detrimental by movie audiences. As the LD (packaged with Silent Running) is the only high-quality version of this movie, it fetches high prices on auction sites such as eBay. Unofficial 2.35:1 ratio DVDs also exist, having been copied from the Laserdisc version by fans.
Please send angry emails + snail mail to Universal. They botched the DVD release (no widescreen) and couldn't even spell the title of the movie properly on the cover.
Depends on how you use it. While I agree it's quite slow, it's still the smallest non-PDA/non-cellphone device with a real browser. If you use the RSS mode, it's a lot faster, too. And if you disable images, it's even faster. Opera users will know what I'm talking about (RSS is like switching to "user mode" instead of "author mode"). In RSS you get content in both screens (instead of 1:1 in one screen and zoomed content in the other screen), makes it easier to read content. Scrolling is a lot faster in RSS too.
I rather like the idea that carrying a Nintendo DS Lite + Opera DS in my pocket gives me web access in case I need it (if there's any open Wi-Fi spot nearby, of course). I won't carry a laptop for such cases and most cellphones suck (still stuck in WAP and/or cost a fortune per minute to access the web).
Take the Nintendo DS Lite build the Play-Yan micro into it (mp3 audio and mp4 video support, but expanded to the DS screen size, also add JPEG viewer support) with built-in SD card slot add Opera DS (with built-in Opera DS + RAM carts), so you don't have to carry DS+GBA carts to have Opera on the system.
Add basic PDA functions (address book, calendar) which can sync in standard files over USB2 which mounts as a regular drive, i.e. OS-independant.
Overkill/impossible? Aside from the JPEG viewer and PDA functions, you can already have it all, and all from official Nintendo hardware. It's just not built into the DS.
I always upload files in 720kbps MP3 inside an.iso image, then I.zip that ISO file, then RAR the.zip, which I then upload on BitTorrent and put the zipped.torrent file on P2P.
Of course CD sales are down. The iTunes Music Store is now the #5 music seller in the USA.
Also, even if overall music sales are down, it could also be because of the iTunes Music Store. We finally have a legal way to get a single tune from major artists instead of having to buy their whole albums.
Message to RIAA: don't be surprised that sales are down now that we have a way to only buy the music we want instead of crap-filled CDs for a single song or two. Just because your old ways aren't working doesn't mean they were good to begin with. "Power to the people" doesn't only apply in politics.
Unless you're using strictly wind and solar generated electricity to run your air compressor, all you're doing is displacing your pollution from where the population is dense, to places where the air is clean now but you want to make it worse.
You may also have heard about this thing called "hydro-electricity". In fact, we produce so much in Ontario and Québec that we sell a bit of it to some of the northern USA states.
Apple is a vertical monopoly in music players, and wants to be on in computers. One hardware, one software, and one coordinated color scheme for all people. That mainframe in THX 1138 was a Mac! Big Brother was using iChat in that famous commercial!
Let's see if you really understand "the new Apple" (OS X era): - the iPod and iTunes support MP3 just fine. You don't have to buy DRM music from the iTunes Store. CDs you rip yourself can be in MP3, AAC, etc. will be DRM-free. - a Mac saves its screen captures in 24-bit PNG. - a Mac can "print" to PDF files directly. - a Mac can mount ISO files and map them as new read-only drives. - Address Book uses the industry standard vCard format. - iCal can import/export ICS files, which is the iCalendar standard (RFC 2445) - iMovie can import miniDV or MPEG-4 footage. - Keynote can export presentations to PowerPoint, Quicktime (lots of CODECs including MPEG-4 file), PDF, sequence of images (JPEG, PNG or TIFF), Flash, DVD or even HTML pages. All of this comes with Mac OS X and iLife. Apple uses industry standards, they don't make new ones just to lock you down, unlike Microsoft (BMP, WAV, WMA, WMV)
There's a lot that can be said about Apple in the 80's and 90's, but the only way the "new Apple" locks you down in their "monopoly" is with the extra software they sell. As an example, let's take iWork (Pages and Keynote). I know I'm locked into Pages/Keynote just like most people should know they're locked into Word/PowerPoint. But for everything else, Apple are using standards, they don't try to re-invent them.
My data isn't locked to Mac OS X. I could switch to Linux tomorrow and I wouldn't lose most of my data, and the data I could lose I'd simply have to export into another format. Apple keeps me as a client with a machine, an operating system and software packages that let me work instead of getting in my way.
That's the entire point of the article. Apple is doing to Microsoft and other HD-based players what Microsoft did to Apple in the mid-90s. Expanding the market to new users.
It's also what Nintendo are doing to Sony and Microsoft.
Direct3D works on the platform 96% of all PC gamers use.
That may be a fact, but that doesn't mean it's right.
"Metroid works on the platform that 100% of all Nintendo gamers use." doesn't mean people on other consoles wouldn't want to play Metroid, either.
Direct X = Microsoft lock-in. Saying that "96% of PC gamers use it" is pointless since there's pratically no other choice.
OpenGL = Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, some consoles, etc. Even if slight tweaks or rewrites are required for some platforms, it's still easier than porting from Direct X, if at all.
[...] Apple would format the Ipod differently depending on the host OS that it was first used on. Nowadays though, they've dropped that, and use FAT32 on all Ipods.
Really? Then why are both my 10GB iPod and 4GB iPod nano formatted with HFS+?
I was not talking about hardware or peripherals option, but rather software packages, Linux distros, etc. That's the one mess the Linux community has to work on. Of course there could be server distros and such, but people should work on a single desktop OS, a single GUI, etc.
Remember, choices are only good if people aren't overwhelmed by these choices.
So on the consoles you find yourself needing to get an add-on keyboard to be able to effectively communicate with anyone, while still needing to use the controller to play the game, as the game's designed to be played from just the controller.
I don't know which FF XI you tried, but I never use the Xbox 360 gamepad. The only time I power-up the gamepad is to be able to sign on Xbox Live since the console is too stupid to accept a press of the keyboard key [A] if it doesn't see a gamepad. But once the gamepad is detected/powered, it accepts the keyboard [A] key just fine.
So, FF XI doesn't need a gamepad. In fact I have no idea how people can continuously switch between keyboard and gamepad while playing.
I do not see why someone running a Linux distribution, like Ubuntu, does not just publish a very detailed specification of what will work best with their OS
The websites of the distros should have some sort of "What peripherals do you own", so you can select from menus (printers, mouses, graphics cards, video capture device, scanners, etc) and the distro tells you which peripherals work or not.
They could, of course, use the answers to say something along the lines of "After seeing the survey results, the demands of the Linux community are too diverse. For reasons of technical support, we cannot offer Linux as an OS option on our computers."
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The Apple TV may not look too interesting in the USA with the many content providers and TIVOs and all, but here in Canada, it will be a very interesting choice. Here's why.
Just as a lot of people stopped buying CDs and now buy single tracks from the iTunes Store, some people will drop their cable/satellite and buy content à-la-carte from the iTunes Store. And frankly, I'm one of them. Cable or satellite costs too much, most providers lock you in so you can't use 3rd party decoders/PVRs (TIVO? You wish!), they force you to get channels you don't want (stupid "channels packages" and/or limited à-la-carte choices) and without their expensive PVRs the whole VHS + decoder box makes it hard to record stuff.
I can't wait for TV shows to be available on the Canadian iTunes Store, so I can drop the monopolistic content providers.
Colossus: The Forbin Project is an apocalyptic science fiction movie based on the 1966 novel Colossus by Dennis Feltham Jones. It tells of a massive defense computer which becomes sentient and decides to take control of the world. Although not very successful when it was released, the film is generally well respected by science fiction fans and critics.
_ Project
While the movie was produced in a 2.35:1 aspect ratio, and released as such on Laserdisc, the DVD release was changed to a 1.33:1 ratio using pan and scan, which is considered detrimental by movie audiences. As the LD (packaged with Silent Running) is the only high-quality version of this movie, it fetches high prices on auction sites such as eBay. Unofficial 2.35:1 ratio DVDs also exist, having been copied from the Laserdisc version by fans.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossus:_The_Forbin
Please send angry emails + snail mail to Universal. They botched the DVD release (no widescreen) and couldn't even spell the title of the movie properly on the cover.
Depends on how you use it. While I agree it's quite slow, it's still the smallest non-PDA/non-cellphone device with a real browser. If you use the RSS mode, it's a lot faster, too. And if you disable images, it's even faster. Opera users will know what I'm talking about (RSS is like switching to "user mode" instead of "author mode"). In RSS you get content in both screens (instead of 1:1 in one screen and zoomed content in the other screen), makes it easier to read content. Scrolling is a lot faster in RSS too.
I rather like the idea that carrying a Nintendo DS Lite + Opera DS in my pocket gives me web access in case I need it (if there's any open Wi-Fi spot nearby, of course). I won't carry a laptop for such cases and most cellphones suck (still stuck in WAP and/or cost a fortune per minute to access the web).
It's quite easy.
Take the Nintendo DS Lite
build the Play-Yan micro into it (mp3 audio and mp4 video support, but expanded to the DS screen size, also add JPEG viewer support) with built-in SD card slot
add Opera DS (with built-in Opera DS + RAM carts), so you don't have to carry DS+GBA carts to have Opera on the system.
Add basic PDA functions (address book, calendar) which can sync in standard files over USB2 which mounts as a regular drive, i.e. OS-independant.
Overkill/impossible? Aside from the JPEG viewer and PDA functions, you can already have it all, and all from official Nintendo hardware. It's just not built into the DS.
If you have a better way, I'd like to hear it.
Also, even if overall music sales are down, it could also be because of the iTunes Music Store. We finally have a legal way to get a single tune from major artists instead of having to buy their whole albums.
Message to RIAA: don't be surprised that sales are down now that we have a way to only buy the music we want instead of crap-filled CDs for a single song or two. Just because your old ways aren't working doesn't mean they were good to begin with. "Power to the people" doesn't only apply in politics.
If you only go with the marketshare mindset, then you're not making choices on your own.
Let's see if you really understand "the new Apple" (OS X era):
- the iPod and iTunes support MP3 just fine. You don't have to buy DRM music from the iTunes Store. CDs you rip yourself can be in MP3, AAC, etc. will be DRM-free.
- a Mac saves its screen captures in 24-bit PNG.
- a Mac can "print" to PDF files directly.
- a Mac can mount ISO files and map them as new read-only drives.
- Address Book uses the industry standard vCard format.
- iCal can import/export ICS files, which is the iCalendar standard (RFC 2445)
- iMovie can import miniDV or MPEG-4 footage.
- Keynote can export presentations to PowerPoint, Quicktime (lots of CODECs including MPEG-4 file), PDF, sequence of images (JPEG, PNG or TIFF), Flash, DVD or even HTML pages.
All of this comes with Mac OS X and iLife. Apple uses industry standards, they don't make new ones just to lock you down, unlike Microsoft (BMP, WAV, WMA, WMV)
There's a lot that can be said about Apple in the 80's and 90's, but the only way the "new Apple" locks you down in their "monopoly" is with the extra software they sell. As an example, let's take iWork (Pages and Keynote). I know I'm locked into Pages/Keynote just like most people should know they're locked into Word/PowerPoint. But for everything else, Apple are using standards, they don't try to re-invent them.
My data isn't locked to Mac OS X. I could switch to Linux tomorrow and I wouldn't lose most of my data, and the data I could lose I'd simply have to export into another format. Apple keeps me as a client with a machine, an operating system and software packages that let me work instead of getting in my way.
Damn, just as I run out of mod points. Mod parent funny!
Paper folds too, you know. Unless it gets beaten by scissors.
"Metroid works on the platform that 100% of all Nintendo gamers use." doesn't mean people on other consoles wouldn't want to play Metroid, either.
Direct X = Microsoft lock-in. Saying that "96% of PC gamers use it" is pointless since there's pratically no other choice.
OpenGL = Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, some consoles, etc. Even if slight tweaks or rewrites are required for some platforms, it's still easier than porting from Direct X, if at all.
Some guy rendered in 3D with the help of a Cell, I guess.
So what? You'd rather feed toxic food to these 50 000 people?
Unfortunately you don't even have a choice. Even worst, our Canadian legal system has set a very bad precedent for this:0 1dltr0015.html
http://www.law.duke.edu/journals/dltr/articles/20
I was not talking about hardware or peripherals option, but rather software packages, Linux distros, etc. That's the one mess the Linux community has to work on. Of course there could be server distros and such, but people should work on a single desktop OS, a single GUI, etc.
Remember, choices are only good if people aren't overwhelmed by these choices.
So, FF XI doesn't need a gamepad. In fact I have no idea how people can continuously switch between keyboard and gamepad while playing.
Except on the Wii. With the wiimote and nunchuck, it feels more natural than a keyboard and mouse.
They could, of course, use the answers to say something along the lines of "After seeing the survey results, the demands of the Linux community are too diverse. For reasons of technical support, we cannot offer Linux as an OS option on our computers."
Or something.