Billy Berghammer founded http://www.planetgamecube.com/ - he loves Nintendo, he's merely voicing his grievances about things that he feels Nintendo has done wrong over the years.
The online link came too late in the product cycle and even Nintendo themselves hardly used the GBA connectivity (which I was also very excited about before it came out and was disappointed with how it was used). Nintendo needed to pioneer these unique things in order to get developers thinking about *they* could adopt them.
The system *is* underpowered compared to the other next-gen machines - but we were expecting the console and controllers to be cheaper to make up for this... And bundling a game that I don't particularly want doesn't really make up for that.
I've imported all Nintendo's consoles since the SNES on the day of launch so I'm a big fan - I'm just not as excited as I was before the price announcement.
"still lacks gapless MP3 playback (a major buzz-kill)"
Rockbox - the same guys who do the firmware that allows for gapless playback for the iRiver, iAudio and Archos also do firmware for the iPod - so gapless playback (and lots of other features) is entirely possible on the iPod.
Now I agree that Apple should have gapless playback built in to their own firmware - but IIRC all the other big manufacturers don't have gapless built into their own firmware - instead relying upon rockbox for gapless playback...
You'll find this helpful then: Gapless iTunes playback. It takes alittle bit longer when you rip the mixes - but it does the job:)
Also rockbox.org who do the firmware that allows the iriver to do gapless playback have now built gapless firmware for the iPod:) I've not tried it myself yet as my iPod is too old:( *Finally* someone did it - had hoped Apple would have done something about it though...
"They don't support the software I want."
it is the software company that doesn't support OS X rather than Apple not supporting the software
and with bootcamp you can just boot into windows XP and run any non OS X apps from there...
"They're good for design but that's about it"
bzzzt wrong.
"I guess if you've never owned a Playstation, you must have missed all the Final Fantasy games? Final Fantasy 7 is probably the second-best RPG ever made, and you could argue that it was better than KOTOR in some areas. (freedom and duration, mostly.)"
You are aware that Final Fantasy started on the NES and then moved to Playstation years later...
and this was when the game was still made up with *gameplay* rather than cut-scenes - in my opinion the FF series went off the rails at number 7
but otherwise I agreee - there is no reason not to buy a console just because it isn't Nintendo - I've also owned every Nintendo system on the day of launch since the NES - but I also bought a PS2 this generation as Nintendo do not release enough games. Again, the GameCube launch titles were rubbish and then took aaages to get the decent first party titles out of the door.
Nintendo has a real touch with niche games that seem to appeal to *everyone* - but in aiming at this market they completely miss out on the more realistic (and I *hate this word in relation to games) mature games which go to the PS2 and the xbox.
I buy nintendo for 1st party - Playstation for the rest...
I *still* can't view WMV files with DRM on my machines as I use a Mac - is congress looking at this - forcing MS to open it up or release WMA 10 for Mac?
What about Real's music store (not that I'd touch it with a big stick...) - I can't buy files off there using my Mac. Congress looking at this - nope.
That's not exactly fair play is it? *badum tish*
*groans*
iTunes 4.7 (and 4.7.1) allows you to import at exactly the same bitrates as 4.6 - 128Kbps, 160Kbps, 192Kbps or custom...
Go to iTunes preferences, importing and click on the settings drop down...
"If you're interested in ending the stranglehold on your music that the conglomorates have on you I suggest finding alternative ways to get your music legally and for free."
you do know that when you 'buy' things from allofmp3 - the artist, the record label, *no one* but the people who run allofmp3 get any of the money - not really the best way to get the recording industry to change their ways...
But NN4 will still display the content - just the layout may (read: definitely *will*) look incorrect if the site uses a linked to stylesheet.
This is how backward/forward compatibility should be thought about by web designers - create good standard code that displays your site correctly in the current (and slightly old) browsers and this will ensure that the information displays in the uber old browsers (NN4 et al) as you have used standard html tags and even NN4 knows how to display text/images in p tags...
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Billy Berghammer founded http://www.planetgamecube.com/ - he loves Nintendo, he's merely voicing his grievances about things that he feels Nintendo has done wrong over the years.
The online link came too late in the product cycle and even Nintendo themselves hardly used the GBA connectivity (which I was also very excited about before it came out and was disappointed with how it was used). Nintendo needed to pioneer these unique things in order to get developers thinking about *they* could adopt them.
The system *is* underpowered compared to the other next-gen machines - but we were expecting the console and controllers to be cheaper to make up for this... And bundling a game that I don't particularly want doesn't really make up for that.
I've imported all Nintendo's consoles since the SNES on the day of launch so I'm a big fan - I'm just not as excited as I was before the price announcement.
"still lacks gapless MP3 playback (a major buzz-kill)"
Rockbox - the same guys who do the firmware that allows for gapless playback for the iRiver, iAudio and Archos also do firmware for the iPod - so gapless playback (and lots of other features) is entirely possible on the iPod.
Now I agree that Apple should have gapless playback built in to their own firmware - but IIRC all the other big manufacturers don't have gapless built into their own firmware - instead relying upon rockbox for gapless playback...
You'll find this helpful then: Gapless iTunes playback. It takes alittle bit longer when you rip the mixes - but it does the job :)
Also rockbox.org who do the firmware that allows the iriver to do gapless playback have now built gapless firmware for the iPod :) I've not tried it myself yet as my iPod is too old :(
*Finally* someone did it - had hoped Apple would have done something about it though...
"They don't support the software I want." it is the software company that doesn't support OS X rather than Apple not supporting the software and with bootcamp you can just boot into windows XP and run any non OS X apps from there... "They're good for design but that's about it" bzzzt wrong.
NTL make BT look professional :(
"I guess if you've never owned a Playstation, you must have missed all the Final Fantasy games? Final Fantasy 7 is probably the second-best RPG ever made, and you could argue that it was better than KOTOR in some areas. (freedom and duration, mostly.)" You are aware that Final Fantasy started on the NES and then moved to Playstation years later... and this was when the game was still made up with *gameplay* rather than cut-scenes - in my opinion the FF series went off the rails at number 7 but otherwise I agreee - there is no reason not to buy a console just because it isn't Nintendo - I've also owned every Nintendo system on the day of launch since the NES - but I also bought a PS2 this generation as Nintendo do not release enough games. Again, the GameCube launch titles were rubbish and then took aaages to get the decent first party titles out of the door. Nintendo has a real touch with niche games that seem to appeal to *everyone* - but in aiming at this market they completely miss out on the more realistic (and I *hate this word in relation to games) mature games which go to the PS2 and the xbox. I buy nintendo for 1st party - Playstation for the rest...
I *still* can't view WMV files with DRM on my machines as I use a Mac - is congress looking at this - forcing MS to open it up or release WMA 10 for Mac? What about Real's music store (not that I'd touch it with a big stick...) - I can't buy files off there using my Mac. Congress looking at this - nope. That's not exactly fair play is it? *badum tish* *groans*
iTunes 4.7 (and 4.7.1) allows you to import at exactly the same bitrates as 4.6 - 128Kbps, 160Kbps, 192Kbps or custom... Go to iTunes preferences, importing and click on the settings drop down...
"If you're interested in ending the stranglehold on your music that the conglomorates have on you I suggest finding alternative ways to get your music legally and for free." you do know that when you 'buy' things from allofmp3 - the artist, the record label, *no one* but the people who run allofmp3 get any of the money - not really the best way to get the recording industry to change their ways...
But NN4 will still display the content - just the layout may (read: definitely *will*) look incorrect if the site uses a linked to stylesheet.
This is how backward/forward compatibility should be thought about by web designers - create good standard code that displays your site correctly in the current (and slightly old) browsers and this will ensure that the information displays in the uber old browsers (NN4 et al) as you have used standard html tags and even NN4 knows how to display text/images in p tags...
You *do* know you can upload/subscribe to iCal calendars on the web don't you..? Not to mention web access for Outlook...