I find it somewhat hard to believe that you don't know anyone who owns a Mac or anyone who knows someone who owns a Mac. I suppose the easy response to this would be that you need to get out more and get to know a more diverse set of people. I know plenty of people who own Macs and they run the gamut from educators, social workers, and graphic designers to adademics, attorneys, and doctors.
The other response to the parent compares Apple to BMW (mostly in terms of market share). Do you not know anyone who owns a Bimmer either? Although, I will admit that I know far fewer BMW owners than Mac owners. They also span a far smaller segment of the socio-economic spectrum.
I agree. I own a Sony Series 1 TiVo and a Hughes HDVR2 that comes with the peanut remote. I immediately bought a universal remote after dealing with the peanut remote for a few days. I wish I could use the Sony remote with my HDVR2. I can find all the buttons on it without having to look at it and it can learn the volume commands for my somewhat esoteric Acurus preamp--which the peanut remote can't. Also, the TV power button is in the middle of the peanut remote for no good reason. I can't tell you how many times I've inadvertently turned my TV off because of that.
It would seem to me that they are purposely trying to make it more difficult for you to capture the audio to a file. After all, they are offering downloads of the programs at audible.com. This American Life offers this explanation. It basically says that you're not respecting the copyright by downloading the file, but that by listening to the stream, it's basically just like you're listening to it on the radio.
I would prefer if they would stream MP3, but that's pretty trivial to capture to a file. Sites may be turning to Windows Media for its DRM capabilities. QuickTime has DRM too, but I don't know if anyone besides Apple is actually using it.
I disagree with another poster about QuickTime being terrible in Windows. I have very few problems with QuickTime on my Windows machines. I find Windows Media much more annoying and problematic on my OS X machines.
Check out the December 2003 issue of Stereophile. The editors chose the iPod as the budget component of the year. I think it may have placed in another category also, but I don't have the magazine on me right now. These guys are serious audio snobs. They especially liked that fact that you can copy CD's in full resolution to the iPod. You might be able to do that with other audio players too, but the large hard drive in the iPod makes it a bit more practical. It would be nice if Apple could build in support for Shorten (lossless audio compression).
Incidentally, the update to Jaguar will cost $129, I believe Jobs said during his keynote. It will ship Aug. 24th.
Why should I pay $129 so OS X will finally near OS 9 speeds (and only if you have a supported video card)? I already paid >$100 for the retail box version of OS X. What are the stupid coupons that come in the OS X box for then? Is Apple trying to see how much they can piss their users off?
xlr8yourmac.com suggested that existing users might be able to upgrade for around $20 but I saw no mention of that on Apple's site.
$100/year for something that used to be free (iTools) is a bit steep too. You can get full fledged web hosting for near that price and use your own domain name.
Apple is just repeating what brought them success in the first place. They are pushing the killer app. Years ago, desktop publishing was Apple's killer app. If you wanted to do DTP back then, you had to have a mac. The people who were serious about doing DTP bought Apple machines just to run these apps. The fact that there were other things you could do with the machine was just a side bonus!
Final Cut Pro is Apple's new killer app. A lot of people out there (most of them professionals) are touting FCP as the premeire app for doing digital video at a very reasonable price. People will buy Apple hardware just to run Final Cut Pro. Comparisions with PC hardware are moot since Final Cut Pro only runs on Macs.
I'm more of an audio guy myself. Yes, there has been a lot of progress made with audio stuff for Windows, but I'll still buy a Mac to run my digital audio apps.
Now they're invading the PDA world. Am I the only one who finds all this a bit disturbing?
I don't think you can really compare Sony to Microsoft. Microsoft is in a league of their own when it comes to being a monopoly. At least Sony manages to create some noteworthy products. Just take a look at some of their professional products: Betacams are still being used in the news industry. Their digital mixers and DAT decks are being used by some big names in the recording industry.
Don't forget about VEGA or SACD, either. It's awfully hard to beat the picture quality from a VEGA XBR. Audiophiles have given Sony SACD products good reviews, as well.
Microsoft, on the other hand, just produces a lot of crap that people buy because they either really don't have a good alternative or because they have to if they want to remain compatible because everyone else is using Windows. M$ usually buys out their competition to help make your buying decision easier.
There are a lot of alternatives to buying Sony gear. Just take a look at your local electronics superstore. It's not like Sony is the only thing on the shelves. But, take a look at the computer section in the same store. Chances are, all the computers they're selling have Windows on them.
When I was buying my palm, I was considering Clie, too, but I was told that Clie IR only communicates with other Sony devices. Is this still true?
Whoever told you this was wrong. The IR works fine with other Palm devices. The Clie is just Sony hardware running the Palm OS with some extensions to support extra Sony features.
I doubt that the MOTU 896 could be used with ProTools Free. You might be able to record through the 896 into PT Free through the Sound Manager. However, you'd only be able to record two channels at once--definitely not enough. I'm doing some acoustic guitar recordings now and I'm already using two channels just for the stereo room mic.
PT Free is also limited to eight tracks. This is not enough to do any serious tracking.
There are rumors that DigiDesign is working on a Digi001 style interface that will work over FireWire. MOTU already has audio interfaces that work over FireWire (i.e. 828 and 896).
However, I like ProTools, so I'm going to wait it out a bit to see if DigiDesign will actually come out with a decent FireWire product. Although, DigiDesign is notorious for being unbearable slow to market with the latest and greatest, especially when compared with a company like MOTU. Just the thought of a Ti Powerbook plus one of these FireWire audio interfaces--it's making me drool just thinking about it... I own a Digi001 and it's a pain having to lug my entire desktop setup around to do a recording.
AT&T is flexing their virtual monopoly muscle by not coming to some sort of interim agreement with @home to temporarily continue providing service to its customers. Every other cable provider was able to reach some sort of agreement with @home. The New York Times reports that there are 850k AT&T customers without service. It upsets me that AT&T has the audacity to put 850k of its customers out of service. Apparently, AT&T thinks it can afford to lose 850k customers.
I live in AT&T's Chicago market and have been without service since Saturday morning. I got a message on my answering machine from AT&T that said I may be without service for about ten days. I have also heard estimates from other sources ranging from a week to a month. The Chicago Tribune has a related article about the 100k people affected in the Chicagoland area. Every person I know who has a cable modem is affected by this.
I've already been through two DSL bankruptcies (PhoenixDSL and NorthPoint). But, AT&T is forcing me to reconsider DSL once again. I can't get the same maximum speed out of DSL because of my distance from the CO, but I'm fed up with AT&T's handling of the situation. They obviously don't care enough about retaining their customers to have come to some sort of agreement with @home, like every other cable company did, to continue providing service until they were really ready to cut-over users to their new network. Can you imagine if AT&T would have done this with their wireless phone service? Since there is actually healthy competition in place, I'm sure AT&T would have lost a lot of customers...
Consumers should show some self control and not buy any of these copy protected CDs--no matter how much they really want them.
I find it amazing that the people making these albums allow something like this to happen. Why spend boatloads of money recording and mastering an album--making it sound as good as possible--when the record label is going to turn around and intentionally add distortion to your music?
I don't suppose that even if the record labels were successful in increasing their revenues by reducing piracy, that the price of CDs would drop. We would essentially just be getting a flawed product for the same amount of money.
The biggest tip off for me when I hear mp3s encoded onto CDs is the nasty high-end aliasing artifacts (e.g. listen to the cymbals or high hat). These are immediately noticable even in my car on my Apline head unit through my factory speakers. Unfortunately, I can not say for certain if these artifacts disappear at high bit rates since I refuse to listen to CDs made from mp3s. I only know the artifacts exist from listening to CDs other people have made and play in my car. But, for all I know, these artifacts may be introduced by the software used to burn the CDs. I've never been sufficiently motivated to do any real scientific tests.
I also agree with the poster who made the comments about Linn being relatively expensive. You're paying quite a bit for the Linn name and quality. I'm sure someone else could come up with something similar for much less money.
Well, at least the key beeping is still somewhat in the realm of possibility. I have a co-worker whose laptop makes little beeping noises everytime he hits a key--it's a long story...
Anyway, what I find even more annoying are the movies that insist on making all computers make that loud floppy disk access noise (think late 80's mac floppy noises). Clear and Present Danger was a good example of this. Do people even use floppies anymore?
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You can't compare Seattle to New York or LA when it comes to conspicuous consumption. It's all about seeing and being seen in NY and LA.
I find it somewhat hard to believe that you don't know anyone who owns a Mac or anyone who knows someone who owns a Mac. I suppose the easy response to this would be that you need to get out more and get to know a more diverse set of people. I know plenty of people who own Macs and they run the gamut from educators, social workers, and graphic designers to adademics, attorneys, and doctors.
The other response to the parent compares Apple to BMW (mostly in terms of market share). Do you not know anyone who owns a Bimmer either? Although, I will admit that I know far fewer BMW owners than Mac owners. They also span a far smaller segment of the socio-economic spectrum.
I agree. I own a Sony Series 1 TiVo and a Hughes HDVR2 that comes with the peanut remote. I immediately bought a universal remote after dealing with the peanut remote for a few days. I wish I could use the Sony remote with my HDVR2. I can find all the buttons on it without having to look at it and it can learn the volume commands for my somewhat esoteric Acurus preamp--which the peanut remote can't. Also, the TV power button is in the middle of the peanut remote for no good reason. I can't tell you how many times I've inadvertently turned my TV off because of that.
It would seem to me that they are purposely trying to make it more difficult for you to capture the audio to a file. After all, they are offering downloads of the programs at audible.com. This American Life offers this explanation. It basically says that you're not respecting the copyright by downloading the file, but that by listening to the stream, it's basically just like you're listening to it on the radio.
I would prefer if they would stream MP3, but that's pretty trivial to capture to a file. Sites may be turning to Windows Media for its DRM capabilities. QuickTime has DRM too, but I don't know if anyone besides Apple is actually using it.
I disagree with another poster about QuickTime being terrible in Windows. I have very few problems with QuickTime on my Windows machines. I find Windows Media much more annoying and problematic on my OS X machines.
Check out the December 2003 issue of Stereophile. The editors chose the iPod as the budget component of the year. I think it may have placed in another category also, but I don't have the magazine on me right now. These guys are serious audio snobs. They especially liked that fact that you can copy CD's in full resolution to the iPod. You might be able to do that with other audio players too, but the large hard drive in the iPod makes it a bit more practical. It would be nice if Apple could build in support for Shorten (lossless audio compression).
xlr8yourmac.com suggested that existing users might be able to upgrade for around $20 but I saw no mention of that on Apple's site.
$100/year for something that used to be free (iTools) is a bit steep too. You can get full fledged web hosting for near that price and use your own domain name.
Apple is just repeating what brought them success in the first place. They are pushing the killer app. Years ago, desktop publishing was Apple's killer app. If you wanted to do DTP back then, you had to have a mac. The people who were serious about doing DTP bought Apple machines just to run these apps. The fact that there were other things you could do with the machine was just a side bonus!
Final Cut Pro is Apple's new killer app. A lot of people out there (most of them professionals) are touting FCP as the premeire app for doing digital video at a very reasonable price. People will buy Apple hardware just to run Final Cut Pro. Comparisions with PC hardware are moot since Final Cut Pro only runs on Macs.
I'm more of an audio guy myself. Yes, there has been a lot of progress made with audio stuff for Windows, but I'll still buy a Mac to run my digital audio apps.
Don't forget about VEGA or SACD, either. It's awfully hard to beat the picture quality from a VEGA XBR. Audiophiles have given Sony SACD products good reviews, as well.
Microsoft, on the other hand, just produces a lot of crap that people buy because they either really don't have a good alternative or because they have to if they want to remain compatible because everyone else is using Windows. M$ usually buys out their competition to help make your buying decision easier.
There are a lot of alternatives to buying Sony gear. Just take a look at your local electronics superstore. It's not like Sony is the only thing on the shelves. But, take a look at the computer section in the same store. Chances are, all the computers they're selling have Windows on them.
I doubt that the MOTU 896 could be used with ProTools Free. You might be able to record through the 896 into PT Free through the Sound Manager. However, you'd only be able to record two channels at once--definitely not enough. I'm doing some acoustic guitar recordings now and I'm already using two channels just for the stereo room mic.
PT Free is also limited to eight tracks. This is not enough to do any serious tracking.
There are rumors that DigiDesign is working on a Digi001 style interface that will work over FireWire. MOTU already has audio interfaces that work over FireWire (i.e. 828 and 896).
However, I like ProTools, so I'm going to wait it out a bit to see if DigiDesign will actually come out with a decent FireWire product. Although, DigiDesign is notorious for being unbearable slow to market with the latest and greatest, especially when compared with a company like MOTU. Just the thought of a Ti Powerbook plus one of these FireWire audio interfaces--it's making me drool just thinking about it... I own a Digi001 and it's a pain having to lug my entire desktop setup around to do a recording.
Well, a lot of people are sure going to see it now that it's on /.
Also, Apple has a history of freaking out over things like this.
AT&T is flexing their virtual monopoly muscle by not coming to some sort of interim agreement with @home to temporarily continue providing service to its customers. Every other cable provider was able to reach some sort of agreement with @home. The New York Times reports that there are 850k AT&T customers without service. It upsets me that AT&T has the audacity to put 850k of its customers out of service. Apparently, AT&T thinks it can afford to lose 850k customers.
I live in AT&T's Chicago market and have been without service since Saturday morning. I got a message on my answering machine from AT&T that said I may be without service for about ten days. I have also heard estimates from other sources ranging from a week to a month. The Chicago Tribune has a related article about the 100k people affected in the Chicagoland area. Every person I know who has a cable modem is affected by this.
I've already been through two DSL bankruptcies (PhoenixDSL and NorthPoint). But, AT&T is forcing me to reconsider DSL once again. I can't get the same maximum speed out of DSL because of my distance from the CO, but I'm fed up with AT&T's handling of the situation. They obviously don't care enough about retaining their customers to have come to some sort of agreement with @home, like every other cable company did, to continue providing service until they were really ready to cut-over users to their new network. Can you imagine if AT&T would have done this with their wireless phone service? Since there is actually healthy competition in place, I'm sure AT&T would have lost a lot of customers...
Consumers should show some self control and not buy any of these copy protected CDs--no matter how much they really want them.
I find it amazing that the people making these albums allow something like this to happen. Why spend boatloads of money recording and mastering an album--making it sound as good as possible--when the record label is going to turn around and intentionally add distortion to your music?
I don't suppose that even if the record labels were successful in increasing their revenues by reducing piracy, that the price of CDs would drop. We would essentially just be getting a flawed product for the same amount of money.
The biggest tip off for me when I hear mp3s encoded onto CDs is the nasty high-end aliasing artifacts (e.g. listen to the cymbals or high hat). These are immediately noticable even in my car on my Apline head unit through my factory speakers. Unfortunately, I can not say for certain if these artifacts disappear at high bit rates since I refuse to listen to CDs made from mp3s. I only know the artifacts exist from listening to CDs other people have made and play in my car. But, for all I know, these artifacts may be introduced by the software used to burn the CDs. I've never been sufficiently motivated to do any real scientific tests.
I also agree with the poster who made the comments about Linn being relatively expensive. You're paying quite a bit for the Linn name and quality. I'm sure someone else could come up with something similar for much less money.
Anyway, what I find even more annoying are the movies that insist on making all computers make that loud floppy disk access noise (think late 80's mac floppy noises). Clear and Present Danger was a good example of this. Do people even use floppies anymore?