higaara/dino

Blog's Moved. Again.

2008-04-22T12:56:00.002-06:00

Direct Link: http://ishnoob.wordpress.com

ATTENTION: THIS BLOG IS MOVING

2007-06-10T15:15:00.001-06:00

Yep, I'm moving over to a Wordpress blog hosted on some server space I own. You can find it here. Direct link: ~~http://www.onnati.net/kumaran/blog/~~ http://ishnoob.wordpress.com

Now, just to make sure you understand what this means:

I WILL NO LONGER BE POSTING HERE. THIS BLOG WILL BECOME DORMANT AND I WILL MOVE TO A NEW ONE, WHICH CAN BE FOUND AT THE LINK MENTIONED ABOVE.

WWDC 2007 Predictions

2007-06-08T22:59:00.000-06:00

Well, WWDC '07 is this coming Monday and it should be pretty interesting. Here are my predictions:

iPhone Widget Development:

Yes, I believe Apple will allow developers to make stuff for the iPhone, but for now, I think it will only be the Widget environment. That's a pretty simple sandbox that's easy to support and should please developers for now. Eventually, down the line, Apple will probably finish up standardizing and documenting their API's and will probably announce iPhone development sometime next year.

Mac OS X Leopard Features:

Ever since Apple announced that, along with the delay, all WWDC attendees will get to see and take home a feature complete developer preview of 10.5 Leopard, everyone knew that the developers conference would be almost entirely focused on the new OS. What might the new features be?

Brand new UI. Okay, I don't mean something radically different that doesn't conform to current usability standards, but something far more than just the unification of the OS. As I talked about in a previous post, from the recent developer builds, it seems pretty clear that Apple's setting the stage for a pretty nice revamp of the OS' GUI. Regardless, the Mac OS X UI needs to get a revamp; it's almost in shambles as it is right now.
Filesystem change from HFS+ to ZFS. The only reason I'm predicting this is because Marc Hamilton of Sun said it. Of course, he isn't saying that now.
New Finder. Okay, this one's been predicted over and over. Maybe it'll finally happen this year...

Of course, there will be more features than that in Leopard, but hey, I'm not Superman.

Personal Info In iTunes Plus Music

2007-06-03T22:57:00.000-06:00

There's a bit of a broohaha about Apple embedding personal info (the person's name and iTunes account username) into the DRM-free downloads. Geeks R Us has a nice little piece on why this doesn't matter, but they also forget to mention that iTunes purchases have always had the exact same information embedded in the files. I'm just extremely perplexed as to why there's any sort of issue at all...

Airport Extreme

2007-06-03T01:14:00.000-06:00

My family got an Airport Extreme. It was easy to set up and works really well. Yay! Here's a picture gallery.

Apple TV And YouTube

2007-05-30T22:07:00.000-06:00

This is pretty big. Apple TV will be gaining YouTube functionality this June; something I mentioned could happen back at Macworld in January. So, it didn't happen then, but it's happening now. Steve Jobs apparently said that the Apple TV is a hobby. I really don't think so if they're making YouTube re-encode all their videos into a nice h.264 streaming codec for use only, for now at least, on the Apple TV. To me, this is very intriguing, and pushes the device further into the radar of the consumer electronics market. Now all we need is movies available internationally and a rental service.

Oh, and I also made this prediction in January:

I'm thinking we'll see HD content on iTunes one month after Apple TV starts shipping (in February) at the very latest. Well, there's another prediction that'll die I bet. :p

Yeah, it died. I even had the one month delay to work with and HD content never materialized. Of course, it will happen eventually.

iTunes Plus

2007-05-30T21:41:00.000-06:00

Apple launched iTunes Plus today, letting users buy DRM-less content. Probably what I like most about the service is that they don't ever make the exclusion of DRM out to be a negative thing. Usually, you'll hear it in the form of 'unprotected content', a term which I will no longer be using to refer to DRM-less content. But that's not the case with iTunes Plus; Apple always refers to the tracks as higher quality or DRM-less.

Upgrading my existing music was easy as pie. The iTunes Plus page, which highlights all the DRM-less content, shows you how many songs out of your library of music purchased on the iTunes Store are upgradable to the higher-quality, unrestricted format. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a screenshot of the page that actually shows you the individual tracks that can be upgraded. Sorry. :(

After that, I just click the buy button and it replaces all the corresponding tracks in my library with the newer versions, giving me the option of either trashing the old ones or putting them in a folder on my desktop. Overall, it was a painless experience.

When I upgraded the music, the Store asked me if I wanted to see the iTunes Plus tracks instead of the DRM'ed tracks wherever they may be available. So now all the iTunes Plus tracks have a little plus sign beside them.

Unfortunately, only a total of two tracks that I had bought were upgradable and it cost me 40 cents per track. Makes sense, as the new Plus tracks are $1.39 instead of the $0.99 that the DRM'ed tracks cost.

Good Desktop Bluetooth Mouse

2007-05-29T09:36:00.000-06:00

I really like the Mighty Mouse, but it just doesn't work well for gaming. As such, I'm seriously considering getting a new one. However, I can't seem to find a good desktop mouse that uses bluetooth. Most of the logitech mice use their own wireless protocol while their one bluetooth mouse is a notebook mouse. Does anybody know of a good desktop bluetooth mouse?

Doom 3 Review

2007-05-28T14:45:00.000-06:00

First, Doom 3's fps aspect is not deep. It largely relies on a simple point-and-shoot mechanism. However, this works very well for the game, as the real star of the show is the the horror element. There are some unfortunate decisions that id made in trying to scare you, namely that many scares involve enemies popping up behind you. However, the other scares are very well done. Quite often, you'll see that you're about to enter a room. Inside there's a dead body on a table, blood on the walls, the lights are flickering and you can hear something inside. Quite often, you're first thought is one of incredulity in having to enter the room in order to continue the game. And then you realize that it's just a game and walk in anyway, albeit, cautiously.

Actually, much of the overrun research facility that the game is almost entirely set in is in a very similar state. You'll rarely come across another human in the game. Although, you will find little sentry bots that are probably a good idea to follow, as they pack quite a bit of firepower. The catch is that they'll run anywhere to get to their destination regardless of what they have to go through. This makes for some extremely intense fight-outs, as you're dragged somewhat unwillingly into areas that are filled with enemies.

Throughout the base, there are also little video discs and PDA's that you'll find. As soon as you pick one up, the information is downloaded to your own PDA in the game, allowing you to watch, read or listen to any of the content that was on them. As you progress through the game, you'll come across many such PDA's, giving you glimpses of other people's lives on the base and an eerie overview of the state of affairs at the research facility leading up to the invasion. These moments of calm give your mind and senses some much needed rest from the constant state of edge that the game keeps you in.

Overall, Doom 3 is a well-made game. Although it's shooter aspect isn't particularly deep, the overall atmosphere and experience of the game is what will keep one interested and is what the game will be remembered for.

8.5/10
-A game where telling someone to go to hell means a lot more than in real life.

An Important Look At Packaging

2007-05-14T16:08:00.001-06:00

Halo review

2007-05-09T21:45:00.000-06:00

I gave it a shot. I thought that maybe I wouldn't despise Halo so much if I would at least give a good try at playing the single player campaign (and I was also bored as hell playing HL2DM all the time). So I borrowed it from a friend, played about 5 hours of it and decided once and for all that I HATE HALO. I cannot stand this game. The level design is utterly boring and uninspired, the weapons are all quiet and feel weak, the enemies are dumb as hell, the story is flat as a board and the story-telling is so flat it makes it into the 2D realm. Sometimes, the game would even slow down. A 4 year old game. Slowing down. It's never happened to me in HL2 and it didn't even happen to me in the FEAR demo.

3/10
-A game about fighting aliens that design every single fucking room exactly the same way.

Note: Halo multiplayer is awesome. Halo 2 multiplayer is also awesome. I have no idea about Halo 2 single-player as I've never played it before.

Bus Driver

2007-05-07T16:38:00.001-06:00

A bus driving sim. Yes, I know. It's crazy.

News Contributor at iOnMac

2007-04-20T12:45:00.001-06:00

iOnMac is a little Mac community website that's been running for the past couple of years now. It hasn't been getting a lot of traffic and the existing community there, including myself, are coming up with ways to try and attract more visitors. One of the first things that we're doing is getting the news back up and running again. As such, I've volunteered as a news contributor and will be writing news posts. I've already posted a couple of stories and you'll be seeing more, especially once finals are over.

Note: I already have a couple of reviews there too and am planning on finishing up some more to post.

Digg Buttons Pissing Me Off

2007-04-18T21:42:00.000-06:00

So I'm getting pissed off at the dynamic buttons that Digg provides. You'll see them in some of my previous posts. I've just been adding the post to Digg and then putting the button in the post later. The thing is is that they don't seem to actually work properly. The button I'm using lets me state what URL I want dugg so that I can show the Digg count for a certain page regardless of where the button is. But it seems to ignore the URL I give it and instead just uses the URL of the page that it's currently being viewed from. In other words, the post page's Digg button shows the Digg count for the story (http://higaara.blogspot.com/2007/04/regarding-unified-theme-in-latest-seed.html) while the main page's Digg button shows the Digg count for the main page of the blog (http://higaara.blogspot.com).

Of course, I could just use Digg's blogging funcionality and just get it to digg every post I make, but I don't like the idea of putting my useless desktop posts and such on there. That and I also like to just have some control.

Note: I will be putting this on Digg in the hopes that someone will help me out.

Please make sure that you are directly viewing the post by clicking on the post title before digging this post.

Desktop March/21/2007 + April/17/2007

2007-04-17T23:16:00.001-06:00

Yeah, a double wammy this time. I didn't post my previous wallpaper, so here's both the old and new.

March/21/2007

April/17/2007

Regarding the Unified Theme in the Latest Seed of Leopard

2007-04-17T13:29:00.000-06:00

Now, I myself do not have a copy of Leopard, but the Mac-world was all in a frenzy last week when screens of the latest Leopard build seeded to developers started popping up all over the net (Think Secret has a nice gallery). However, there were quite a few people complaining as they felt that Leopard felt too dark, and that it didn't differentiate applications from one another. For instance, iCal and Safari now look very similar:

iCal

Safari

Mail's look has also changed considerably:

Mail 2.1.1 in Tiger

Mail in Leopard

In my opinion, the darker look doesn't fit Mail as well as the lighter Unified theme.

I was also intrigued about this user-interface update as it's been widely rumored that one of the 'Top Secret' features of Leopard is a new user-interface. Something that would retire the old Aqua look. One might think that this recent development discredits that idea, but I don't think so. According to Delmonte at Digg:

Many don't know that there's a major change under the hood of the UI engine in Leopard. First, for resolution independence, every interface widget is being vectorized. Second, the new interface is stored in a neatly organized modular package called "Aqua.bundle" instead of the archaic and messy "Extra.rsrc" resource file...

But also, I think chloran is on the right track. With the unification and vectorization of the interface, changing the tint (color) and/or brightness of the interface is a matter of changing a couple of variables, heck it could be done in real time, and on a per-window/per-application basis...

As I pointed out in another digg thread, Apple has been recently awarded a patent for "custom shading of a UI" that shows the possibility of smoothly transitioning from a black text on gray/white background interface to a white text on dark/black bg as night comes by.

This seed of Leopard only seems to be laying groundwork. I'm very much looking forward to WWDC.

Material:
Leopard 9A410 Gallery
Digg - New Interface in Leopard!

Curse You Vista!

2007-04-14T20:28:00.001-06:00

Thief 2 randomly freezes up in-game, I can't seem to skip the Valve intro screen when I play Half-Life 2 (as well as Deathmatch), The Sims 2 won't even install and webpages loading in Firefox kind of shake about until I load a new page. FUCK!

Regarding the iPhone and It's Phone Functionality

2007-04-14T13:05:00.000-06:00

In my last post, I may have over-emphasized the phone functionality in the iPhone. However, the point I was trying to make was that the phone functionality is primarily a trojan horse to get people to use the device, because nobody is going to just use a PDA-only1 type of device, regardless of it's ease of use2. The phone functionality instantly makes the iPhone accessible to a very wide range of users (who doesn't own a cell-phone these days?3).

1. So the iPhone isn't exactly a PDA.
2. There's just nothing 'sexy' about a PDA.
3. Aside from you Artem. :p

My Later Than Expected Post on the iPhone

2007-04-13T13:12:00.000-06:00

I definitely didn't expect that I'd finish my first post on the iPhone 3 months after it would come out. But when Steve Jobs' 'Thoughts on Music' came out, I decided that writing about that was a little more pressing than writing about a cellphone that wasn't coming out for, at the time, 5 months.

I would really like to bring attention to a little quote from my prediction post for Macworld 2007 regarding the then unannounced iPhone:

I don't expect this thing to blow us away, like all the rumours have suggested. I think Apple's going to play this safe... But this is definitely not going to be the shape-shifting, do-it-all phone that others are expecting.

I'm very happy that I was wrong.

The Product

I can't lie: I fucking love it. At least, I love what I've seen so far. The phone just blows me away with it's apparent ease of use, advanced operating system and crazy features. Is this as revolutionary as the Mac, or the graphical user interface that it introduced? I don't think so, but it definitely is nothing short of a revolution in the cellphone market as well as the broader portable electronics market, where portable devices (particularly cell-phones) and their operating systems are treated more like toys than real consumer products. It could very well popularize actual mobile internet usage, beyond just the stupid ringtone downloads that people seem to eat up like crazy. I also love the design, not so much because of the hardware itself, but because the design of the phone pretty much is the user interface.

Of course, there are issues that I have with it. First off, there's no user-replaceable battery. That just plain sucks. There will probably be smudges that will appear on the screen1 and the device won't have any support for third party apps (at least right off the bat).

A New Market

There seem to be some interesting directions that Apple's taking with the iPhone. One of them seems to be the market that they're after. Since Apple's not much of a business company (and since apparently the iPhone will not be able to sync from Outlook contacts on Windows PCs2), it appears that the iPhone is aimed squarely at normal consumers. However, there are many things about the iPhone that most consumers don't use on a phone. The web browser being one. Who needs a web browser? How many people actually use the web browsing capabilities of their cell-phone? I'm guessing that most people don't. The same can be said of Google Maps (which comes in it's own dedicated app form on the iPhone). About the only thing that users really use on their phones are the music playback capabilities (which don't seem to be particularly popular at all) and the phone features. Well, both of those things have been vastly improved on the iPhone, but what's with all the other stuff? Why would Apple put in all those capabilities and drive up the price?

Because they're trying to popularize it. By 'it', I mean internet functionality in general. What Apple's doing isn't particularly rare for the company. They've done it plenty of times before: laptops, USB, wireless networking, mp3 players, online music/video stores, podcasts, etc. have all been brought to market and popularized by Apple. What's interesting is the way that the company is bringing about this functionality. It's nothing like what they did with the iPod: a simple somewhat stripped down version at first and then many successive generations each adding several new features. Such a path can lead, if followed correctly, to a very robust, full-featured product, as it has with the iPod. Instead, like the Mac in 1984, Apple is betting the bank on the iPhone. It sort of represents Apple's 'hopes and dreams' for the future; they're little child that will let them grow in the cut-throat consumer electronics world.

Third-Party Applications

It has been explicitly stated by Apple that the iPhone will not run third-party apps. Now I don't know about recent rumblings, but regardless of what Apple is planning on releasing at launch, I believe that a third-party development environment and market are in the plans. However, I highly doubt that it will be as free-form as the Palm/Windows Mobile world. What seems likely is an environment much like the iPod games at first and then an eventual loosening of the restrictions to open it up to a wider range of developers. Ultimately, it seems to me that Apple wants to emphasize that the iPhone is not a PC and doesn't want to treat it as such.

- - - -

I guess the only thing that matters after all has been said and done is one thing: will it sell? Well, I see the iPhone doing very well. Is it gorgeous? Yes. Is it easy to use? Yes. Is it advanced? Hell yes! Is it expensive? Yes. It seems to me like all the ingredients are there for a successful product.

1. But apparently it only takes a wipe of the screen with one's sleeve to make smudges disappear.
2. Which is utterly stupid.

Material:
Macworld January 2007 Predictions
The Ultimate iPhone Frequently Asked Questions
The Apple Phone Show » iPhone Poker - Apple Phone Show
STATE OF THE ART; Apple Waves Its Wand At the Phone - New York Times

No-Mac Inc.

2007-04-13T00:17:00.001-06:00

Apple recently announced they're going to delay Mac OS X Leopard. Yes, this is a disappointment, but nothing particularly horrible. Another 4 months and it should be shipping to our greasy little fingers. What seems to be getting to people though is Apple's reason for the delay:

...we had to borrow some key software engineering and QA resources from our Mac OS X team, and as a result we will not be able to release Leopard at our Worldwide Developers Conference in early June as planned.

People's reactions can be summarized as such: "Apple's delaying their Operating System for a cell-phone?! What the fuck is up with their priorities!".

It seems to me that Apple's priorities are just fine. The iPhone is Apple's first computer-like product that heavily uses Mac OS X and it's underlying frameworks that isn't a Mac. Any improvement made to Leopard will also help with the development of the OS for the desktop/laptop. Add to that the fact that the iPhone is one of the most highly anticipated consumer electronics products of the decade and Apple has every damn reason to get this thing done well and on time. Besides, Tiger is a perfectly fine OS as it is right now and will do fine. Those who were holding out on a Mac purchase until June are actually kind of likely to just buy a Mac now instead of waiting, since they now know it's not coming as soon as they expected.1

1. There will be a decrease in the growth of Mac sales though. I just don't think it will be as bad some people are making it out to be though.

Material:
Apple announced Leopard delays due to the iPhone - The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)

1984 In Skype?

2007-04-12T17:01:00.001-06:00

Okay, what the fuck?

Google Homepage Looks Pretty

2007-04-06T10:19:00.001-06:00

It's pretty awesome that Google's livening up their homepage.

A Thought on DRM-free Movies and TV Shows on iTunes

2007-04-02T09:46:00.000-06:00

With Apple now offering higher quality music tracks at a premium price, might they do the same thing with movies (and maybe TV shows) as well? They could give users video files at the current quality at the same price with DRM but also sell 720p videos with no DRM at a higher price and give users the option to upgrade their already purchased video content to the higher-quality for the difference in price. It would also go hand-in-hand with the Apple TV that is able to play 720p content but suffers from a lack of it on iTunes.

And It's Happening

2007-04-02T09:15:00.001-06:00

From AppleInsider:

DRM-free tracks from EMI will be offered at higher quality 256 kbps AAC encoding, resulting in audio quality indistinguishable from the original recording, for just $1.29 per song. In addition, iTunes customers will be able to easily upgrade their entire library of all previously purchased EMI content to the higher quality DRM-free versions for just 30 cents a song, Apple said.

iTunes will continue to offer its entire catalog, currently over five million songs, in the same versions as today -- 128 kbps AAC encoding with DRM -- at the same price of 99 cents per song, alongside DRM-free higher quality versions when available.

With this model, Apple avoids customer confusion by continuing to offer what is now cheaper and lower quality downloads (albeit with DRM) as well as at a higher bitrate. In other words, higher quality for more money, lower quality for less money. Easy to break down and easy to understand.

Note:
From the same AppleInsider article mentioned above:

All EMI music videos will also be available in DRM-free format with no change in price.

That sounds very good.

Note 2:
From Macrumors:

- Q: You mentioned 2.5 million tracks available by year end... obviously that isn't just EMI...
- A: (Steve) Yes... that is our projection for other labels coming on board as well.

Even better.

Note 3:
An audio webcast of the conference can be found here.

Material:
AppleInsider | EMI Music launches DRM-free iTunes downloads in higher-quality
Mac Rumors: Apple/EMI Press Conference Coverage
2 April press conference

Steve Jobs and EMI Press Conference on Monday

2007-04-01T22:19:00.001-06:00

From Macrumors:

Late last week, MacRumors had heard rumblings that Steve Jobs and EMI would jointly announce the dropping of Digital Rights Management for EMI's music associated with iTunes. We were unable to confirm, so we were unable to publish, but this invitation certainly adds credence to this story.

From The Wall Street Journal Online (Requires subscription):

In a major break with the music industry's longstanding antipiracy strategy, EMI Group PLC is set to announce today that it plans to sell significant amounts of its catalog without anticopying software, according to people familiar with the matter.

The London music company is to make its announcement at a London news conference featuring Apple Inc. Chief Executive Steve Jobs. EMI is to sell songs without the software -- known as digital rights management -- through Apple's iTunes Store and possibly through other online outlets.

Dammit I hope so.

You Know Hell Has Frozen Over When...

2007-03-24T13:01:00.000-06:00

DRM: Complication

2007-03-16T17:49:00.000-06:00

Material:
Enter the Devosphere
higaara/dino: Reasons for DRM on Independent Content
Enter the Devosphere: DRM on Independent Content
Daring Fireball: Would Apple Mix DRM and Non-DRM Music at the iTunes Store?
Stairways Software: Why Apple Cannot Allow DRM-free Indie Music
The Poisoned Project - Poisoned
MP3 music download website, eMusic
USATODAY.com - EMusic's pitch: Download song and own it
higaara/dino: Thoughts On Thoughts On Steve Jobs Thoughts on Music Minus Macrovision's Response
Apple - Thoughts on Music
Rolling Stone :Steve Jobs: The Rolling Stone Interview

Artem over at Enter the Devosphere has a good rebuttal of my piece entitled DRM on Independent Content. Of course, I take issue with several of his points.

DRM Vs. Non-DRM

Yes, such a point is valid, however, the difference between DRM'ed and non-DRM'ed content is far more significant than the difference between Explicit and Clean content. Explicit and Clean content can pretty much be used in much the same way. That situation just isn't possible with DRM'ed and non-DRM'ed content being sold at the same location.

In reference to the the above quote from my post, Artem states:

DRM’ed and non-DRM’ed music can also be used in the same way… listened to. DRM or non-DRM does not change how a normal user (non-pirate) uses music. Either way, they get their song, put it on their iPod and enjoy listening to it. The only thing that is affected is the subtleties of sharing. Most users already deal with these differences due to the fact that they don’t buy all their music from iTunes but download some from limewire or indie sites like www.3hive.com .

The list of differences between Explicit and Clean content:

Explicit content can be 'turned off' using iTunes parental controls.

The list of differences between DRM'ed and non-DRM'ed content (in the context of iTunes):

DRM'ed content can only be played on (generally) Apple branded hardware and software while non-DRM'ed content can be played on any device that supports the particular format.
DRM'ed content from one particular account can only be played on up to 5 computers. Non-DRM'ed content can be played on any number of computers
Computers that can play DRM'ed content must be authorized to play that person's DRM'ed content. Authorization is not required for DRM content to be played on a person's music. Subsequently, deauthorization is required for when the user moves to a new computer.
DRM'ed content is effectively impossible to share

As can be seen, there are a significant number of differences between DRM'ed and Non-DRM'ed content compared to Explicit and Clean content.

Artem believes that most users won't notice the difference. I disagree. In the same blog post that both I and Artem link to, John Gruber himself states that even if a simple icon was used to distinguish both DRM and Non-DRM'ed content, it still probably wouldn't be effective:

I see no reason why Apple couldn’t devise a little icon to represent FairPlay-protected songs. But Peter Lewis is right that no matter what Apple does, it would only matter for iTunes users who are paying attention — and most users don’t pay attention.

Even with a single consistent set of rules, DRM is complicated. (How many people have forgotten to deauthorize an old or broken computer before getting rid of it?) Selling a mix of DRM-laden and DRM-free music wouldn’t pose any serious technical hurdles for Apple, but it would pose some design challenges.

Peter Lewis also gives some good points in a post that Gruber links to:

The answer is pure Apple through and through. The tyranny of choice. Think about the consequence of iTunes Music Store offering some music in FairPlay, some in unprotected MP3 format. Now every song needs to be clearly marked as which format it will be purchased in! No longer can I just click the Buy buttong and know what I am getting.

But how would this be communicated? A special “flag” icon to indicate format - that would not likely be noticed. A dialog box on purchase - people do not read them, and already ignore the current ones. The net result would be confused consumers wondering why some music they purchase works with their Zen and other purchased music will not play. Lots of angry customers. The result: a degrading of the iTunes Music Store experience and customer loyalty.

People do more with their music than just listen to it. Over the period of a year, someone might burn CD's of it, share it online, move it to multiple computers and put it on different pieces of hardware. These are just some of the potential uses of digital music.

The problem with DRM, as indicated by both Peter Lewis and John Gruber, is not that it explicitly stops customers from doing what they want with their music, but that it's an impediment to what they want to do with their music. That's the rub with DRM: it introduces complications that feel arbitrary. Why do they feel arbitrary? Well, because DRM doesn't work, mostly because true freedom with your iTunes-bought music is just a burn away.

As an example of other aspects of digital music that Artem believes people have a harder time with, he states:

This slight sharing difference is much simpler than some more significant music differences users’ deal with. Some of their music is in mp3, some in wav, some in Apple’s aac, some in other formats (ogg anyone?).

Really? Well, let's take a look. The following screenshots are pics I've taken of a P2P filesharing program called Poisoned. Using Poisoned, I've searched for a particular popular track:

How about a lesser known title:

From these screenshots, it's clear that most of the tracks on filesharing networks such as Gnutella and Ares are provided in the widely used MP3 format, which both iTunes and the iPod (as well as all Apple software and hardware) natively support. AAC and WAV are also natively supported in iTunes and Apple hardware. Even WMA will automatically be converted to a format of the user's choice when they try to import it into iTunes. As for OGG, tracks in that format are actually hard to find and are very unlikely to show up in a user's music search. And there already exists free utilities that will convert any OGG track into an MP3. This is something that alot of iPod users are already familiar with, as there are already plenty of people who use similar utilities to convert videos into an iPod ready format.

Plus, once the music has been imported into the person's library, they don't have to worry about it anymore. The same can't be said of DRM'ed music. It's entirely conceivable that one would want to send tracks to multiple people over a period of time, or that one would want to burn a playlist with a specific DRM'ed song for the 7th time a couple of months after they purchased the track, or, as Gruber states, that one might run into their 5 computer limit just from forgetting to deauthorize a computer, or any combination of these things. DRM presents a multitude of variables that can easily cause customer confusion and frustration. In contrast, the importing of different types of tracks is largely transparent due to most of the internet standardizing on unrestricted MP3's.

Some music is 8bit, some 16bit, and myriad other differences. I think it is naïve to think that iPod users will be confused or frustrated by the presence of non-DRM music in the iTunes Store.

But that involves expecting people to know what the difference is between between 8bit and 16bit music, or at least knowing the differences it causes. Users don't care about the bitrate or how the track measures in a 'quality scale'. Ultimately, their idea of quality is subjective: if it sounds ok, then they'll get it1.

Also, by introducing a distinction between DRM and non-DRM music Apple can collect data and what music users prefer. Then they can turn to the big companies and start talking in their language of money but simply bringing up stats and saying: “look small label X made twice the money as equivalent small label Y by selling non-DRM music”. Maybe then Big Music would listen.

Except the Big 4 already have evidence of this working: eMusic. eMusic currently holds the number 2 spot for online music sales with an 11% marketshare. That's nearly double the marketshare of their closest competitor, Real Rhapsody. And every single song they sell is in an unprotected MP3 format, therefore, all the music on eMusic comes from Indie artists and labels. The same Indie labels that sell their music on iTunes.

Now, my bet is that the music industry will eventually go for unprotected music, but not because they'll think that it makes them more money, but so that they can remain in a position of power. From a previous post of mine:

...there's also the fact that the music labels don't have a lot of control when it comes to the sales of music online. That's because they've put all of their eggs in one basket: iTunes. Apple wields so much power with legal online music sales that the music labels actually find it hard to negotiate with them. Take the labels' push for variable pricing for individual tracks as an example. They were out there publicly boo-hooing about how they should be the ones to decide the pricing of their songs. Except, well, it never happened. Every song on iTunes in every country that it's available (except for Japan) has a flat-rate pricing structure and the prices never changed.

If the music labels didn't enforce DRM, then the situation I've outlined would have been far less likely. That's because Apple's DRM scheme only works with iTunes and the extremely popular iPod and vice versa, greatly discouraging users to not buy their music from other online services. The only way the music labels can defuse this situation is to stop enforcing DRM and instead let all the music stores sell unprotected content that can work on any music player, thereby increasing other music stores' share of the market and creating a more level marketplace in terms of marketshare. In this situation, the Big 4 have far more leverage in discussions they have with music distribution services.

Apple's Close-To-The-Chest DRM

Artem also states what he thinks is the reason why Apple won't release Indie content as unprotected tracks:

I think the reason Apple is really continuing to sell all their music as DRM is to hold on to their proprietary rights. Regardless of what Steve Jobs publishes as “his opinions” on DRM music, Apple is still a heartless capitalist corporation. By sticking to DRM, they make sure people can only easily listen to the music on their iPods and not competitors. This way iTunes Store and iPod become a bundle and exclusive “cool” society that other more open MP3 users can’t join2.

But then why would Apple even allow such an essay to be penned and prominently placed on the front page of their main website? It's not even so much that Steve Jobs made an essay about the subject, but that he explicitly states in clear terms why DRM doesn't work at all. If what Artem says is true, this essay seems more counter-intuitive than anything else.

And how can Apple use their system to lock users in if only 3% of an iPod owner's music is from iTunes:

under 3% of the music on the average iPod, is purchased from the iTunes store and protected with a DRM.

And even if that particular estimate isn't true (there is some debate over the math Steve Jobs employs), it is still widely agreed upon that most iPod owners music collections either don't contain music from iTunes or contain very little.

Plus there's this statement from Steve Jobs in a Rolling Stones interview back in 2003:

We have Ph.D.'s here, that know the stuff cold, and we don't believe it's possible to protect digital content.

...And it only takes one stolen copy to be on the Internet. And the way we expressed it to them is: Pick one lock -- open every door.

I don't think that Apple actually cares about, or likes, DRM. Along with complications for the user, DRM involves a complicated platform of locks, keys and checks to support it that's costly to maintain. The only reason that iTunes exists is to have a source of digital content for the Mac, iPod and any other products Apple might release.

One of the main reasons why I think Apple made this essay is because they're worried. Worried that the music labels' increasingly arrogant attitude and their continued antagonizing of customers are going to push people away from legally purchasing music and instead towards other means of legal and illegal means of getting unprotected content. This would be a bad thing for Apple, as the iTunes Store is becoming an increasingly bigger selling point for Apple products. If people stop caring about it, then that business advantage of having an end to end (purchase to listen) system becomes irrelevant.

1: Why else would people be willing to pay $10 on iTunes for a 128kbps encoded album when they can pay the same amount or a little more for a CD that's lossless?

2: I don't quite understand this last sentence. The iPod is an open platform when it comes to the type of formats it accepts. The only thing that's really closed about it is that it's DRM isn't licensed to other music distributors and/or hardware manufacturers. But that's significantly different from 'more open MP3'.

Oli, Welcome to the Blogosphere

2007-03-07T01:18:00.000-06:00

Material:
Random Musings

Welcome to the blogosphere Oli! :)

Reasons for DRM on Independent Content

2007-03-05T23:51:00.000-06:00

Material:
Would Apple Mix DRM and Non-DRM Music at the iTunes Store?
Thoughts On Thoughts On Steve Jobs Thoughts on Music Minus Macrovision's Response

John Gruber has an interesting little piece on Apple mixing DRM and Non-DRM music on iTunes. In it, he touches on the possible design complications of selling both forms of content. Essentially, he doesn't see the potential problems as technological in nature, but instead as design problems.1 Whatever people might say, it's not easy to simply just sell content with mixed user rights without running into a lot of consumer confusion. Consumers don't generally see the music they buy from iTunes as a music file with DRM attached to it, but instead as a single track they bought for 99 cents.

One of Gruber's points about adding visual tags to signify DRM protected content is that Apple already has similar badges for 'Explicit' and 'Clean' content.

Yes, such a point is valid, however, the difference between DRM'ed and non-DRM'ed content is far more significant than the difference between Explicit and Clean content. Explicit and Clean content can pretty much be used in much the same way. That situation just isn't possible with DRM'ed and non-DRM'ed content being sold at the same location.

Understandable Concepts

One of the reasons Apple has been such a successful company as of late is because they have been able to make products which the customer is largely able to understand almost as soon as they use it, not because they necessarilly 'make things simple'.2 Once most people use an iPod, they 'get it'. Apple has managed to encapsulate not only all the technology required for a digital music player into the iPod, but the very concept of portable music itself into the product, while also making a highly desirable design. The same can be seen of their ads. The Get A Mac ads simply state that the Mac is, through a series of subjective comparisons, better; Apple's iPod silhouette ads tell you that having an iPod is cool and hip.

All of this carries over into their products. The iTunes Music Store would not have taken off if it weren't for the extremely straightforward design and experience. Every song costs 99 cents and every song has the same set of user rights. In essence, this states that no song is 'better' than the other, that every song is worth the same and has the same value. So then if some music has DRM on it and some doesn't, then what is different about the music that does not have DRM? Why does it deserve better user-rights?

The fact is is that it doesn't and because of that consumers aren't going to understand the reason why: The labels want it that way.

Of course, it seems like a simple enough concept: some music labels want DRM on their music and others don't. But people don't buy music based on what label it has been published by. Few people subjectively think that Warner Bros. 'makes' better music than EMI in the same way that most people subjectively think that one movie is better than another3. Once this way of thinking is taken into consideration, making the user-rights of one artist more open than the user-rights of another artist will just end up making the consumer feel as if the differences are just arbitrary.

That's not to say that people won't understand. In fact, it's possible that most people will understand. However, by most people, I mean most individuals. As a group, people tend to think differently than as individuals. In the end, all it will do is make the user-experience more frustrating for the actual user, resulting in overall dissatisfaction with the product.

However, in the event where just one of the major music labels does allow their music to be 'un-DRM'ed', my thoughts would be just as John Gruber's:

But now that Apple has published Steve Jobs’s “Thoughts on Music” essay, if one of the major music companies were to step up and say, OK Apple, go ahead and sell our songs without DRM, I think it’d be hard, if not downright impossible, PR-wise, for Apple to say they won’t allow it until the other companies agree, too.

I agree entirely. An entire major music label's catalog of music on iTunes in a non-DRM'ed format is a significant enough of chunk of music that I think would cover enough people's music purchases to make it worth it. Of course, people will still probably get frustrated, but such a move would be made moreso to pressure the other labels into following suit.

Note:
Originally, I believed:

I actually think that something is stopping Apple from selling this music in an unprotected format. I think it's a very real possibility that the music labels force Apple to sell all of their music in a protected format...

No one has been able to confirm this, but I still think it's the case.

That could still very well be the case, but I guess I've changed my mind on the matter.

1: This seems to be the way most of the consumer electronics/computer industry works. They only ever see technology problems and never design problems. Their line of thinking is: If you have the technology, why don't you use it?

2: It still hasn't made the Mac as big of a hit as the iPod.

3: People feel that way about the artists that actually make the music.

Desktop March/4/2007

2007-03-04T11:48:00.000-06:00

material:
The Happy Spork - Stuff
Flickr Photo Download: Desktop #38

Thanks Penguin! :)

Shnoob.net. It exists.

2007-03-01T17:02:00.000-06:00

Material: || shnoob ||

So, what's up. Why does somebody have to come along and make a shnoob.net, huh? According to the site:

The site is dedicated to keeping friends together and providing a media for members to keep in touch, share pictures and stories, plan trips, keep up on news, and help get some of us on the internet.

I guess I'll make an account and see how it goes.

The Areas of My Expertise by John Hodgman, free on iTunes

2007-02-21T21:53:00.000-06:00

material: The Areas of My Expertise (Abridged Nonfiction) (iTunes Store link)

Yep, I just listened to the clip and am downloading it as I type this. Considering that it's free and that it's goddamn funny, I highly recommend checking it out.

The house of Lara Croft's Parents

2007-02-17T17:12:00.001-06:00

link: "The house of Lara Croft's Parents" by taganitos - Caedes.net

Now, is that not a cool shot?

Thoughts On Thoughts On Steve Jobs Thoughts on Music Minus Macrovision's Response

2007-02-16T21:13:00.000-06:00

Material
Steve Jobs Thoughts on Music
EMI Mulls Unprotected Web Song Sales: Sources
Daring Fireball: Interoperability and DRM Are Mutually Exclusive
Music Labels Experiment With Non-DRM'ed Music
Universal, Warner push "multitier" music pricing
Daring Fireball: Reading Between the Lines of Steve Jobs's 'Thoughts on Music'
The Macalope: Then why not do it?

Apple is pushing the interoperability blame by Norway from themselves onto the Music Labels.

Yeah, sure. So what? It's always been widely acknowledged that the big 4 major music labels want DRM on their music (although, apparently EMI might be reconsidering). So, since there's no such thing as interoperable DRM and the music labels are pushing for this 'un-interoperability', then why is Apple being reprimanded for it?

There's also the fact that making an essay about how you would make all your content unprotected is going a bit too far if all you wanted to do was to continue selling music in a particular region. Norway is very likely a drop in the bucket for iTunes Store sales. They wouldn't be doing something like this because of losing Norwegian customers. If Norway won't let them sell music without licensing FairPlay, Apple would just pull the store. Simple as that.1

Apple is just taking advantage of the fact that music labels will never sell unprotected content and are instead just riding on the coattails of the concept.

First off, all of this content will become available as unprotected content, and downloading music off the net will become the norm. It's up to the music labels to decide whether they want to be apart of that. If consumers decide that paying for protected content sucks, then the music labels are going to get left behind. Their scare tactics (suing everyone) doesn't scale very well.

My second point is that I believe that the music labels will definitely go for unprotected content very soon. We're already seeing signs of it happening (see the EMI link above for another example). Of course, there is the fact that growth is beginning to slow, but there's also the fact that the music labels don't have a lot of control when it comes to the sales of music online. That's because they've put all of their eggs in one basket: iTunes. Apple wields so much power with legal online music sales that the music labels actually find it hard to negotiate with them. Take the labels' push for variable pricing for individual tracks as an example. They were out there publicly boo-hooing about how they should be the ones to decide the pricing of their songs. Except, well, it never happened. Every song on iTunes in every country that it's available (except for Japan) has a flat-rate pricing structure and the prices never changed. This wouldn't have happened if DRM wasn't their in the first place. It was because of the music labels' push for DRM and the fact that Apple's DRM scheme works only with the most popular mp3 player on the planet that put them in the position that they are now.

Third. Regardless of whether the music labels are going to sell unprotected content or not, Steve Jobs never had to say anything in the first place. More specifically, he didn't have to say that Apple would switch to selling unprotected content in the iTunes Store:

If the big four music companies would license Apple their music without the requirement that it be protected with a DRM, we would switch to selling only DRM-free music on our iTunes store. Every iPod ever made will play this DRM-free music.

Now Jobs and Apple are expected to keep that promise. If Apple doesn't want to sell unprotected content, then making an essay about how you would switch to it when you're being forced not to is pretty contradictory.

What about video?

Obviously, if music can be sold unprotected, then video can be too. However, the sales of video online isn't ready for this. It's still in it's infancy, and not enough people actually care enough yet. Gruber also makes an interesting point:

Jobs makes the point in his essay that 90 percent of all music is sold DRM-free on CDs; DVDs, on the other hand, are copy-protected.

Steve Jobs Reasons for Not Licensing FairPlay Are Bogus.

I agree. What does Jobs have to say about this?

However, a key provision of our agreements with the music companies is that if our DRM system is compromised and their music becomes playable on unauthorized devices, we have only a small number of weeks to fix the problem or they can withdraw their entire music catalog from our iTunes store.

So why don't you just get more time from the labels. They've been pushing for Apple to embrace this whole 'interoperable drm' idea for some time. I'm sure they would be willing to give Apple more time.

The most serious problem is that licensing a DRM involves disclosing some of its secrets to many people in many companies, and history tells us that inevitably these secrets will leak. The Internet has made such leaks far more damaging, since a single leak can be spread worldwide in less than a minute. Such leaks can rapidly result in software programs available as free downloads on the Internet which will disable the DRM protection so that formerly protected songs can be played on unauthorized players.

An equally serious problem is how to quickly repair the damage caused by such a leak. A successful repair will likely involve enhancing the music store software, the music jukebox software, and the software in the players with new secrets, then transferring this updated software into the tens (or hundreds) of millions of Macs, Windows PCs and players already in use. This must all be done quickly and in a very coordinated way. Such an undertaking is very difficult when just one company controls all of the pieces. It is near impossible if multiple companies control separate pieces of the puzzle, and all of them must quickly act in concert to repair the damage from a leak.

Except that Microsoft already does this with PlaysForSure and there haven't been any more breaches to PlaysForSure then there have been for Fairplay.

Jobs does make an interesting point about the Zune though.

Apple has concluded that if it licenses FairPlay to others, it can no longer guarantee to protect the music it licenses from the big four music companies. Perhaps this same conclusion contributed to Microsoft’s recent decision to switch their emphasis from an “open” model of licensing their DRM to others to a “closed” model of offering a proprietary music store, proprietary jukebox software and proprietary players.

Sure, that might have been a likely factor in the decision to make the Zune. But I really doubt that if PlaysForSure had been successful that Microsoft would have decided to go through with the stupid decision of making another DRM format. In other words, it was the failure of PlaysForSure that caused the creation of the Zune, not the complications involved with licensing out a DRM scheme.2

Steve Jobs is being hypocritical because Apple sells independent music on iTunes that is not necessarily sold with DRM protection (like at eMusic).

It certainly seems that way, doesn't it? I actually think that something is stopping Apple from selling this music in an unprotected format. I think it's a very real possibility that the music labels force Apple to sell all of their music in a protected format. The Macalope gives a good explanation.

Apple’s agreement with the big four may say they can’t offer DRM-free music as the recording industry executives might fear that the great communist scourge of uncontrolled music files would eat their lunch and make love to their women better than they can.

No one has been able to confirm this, but I still think it's the case.

- - - -

Overall, I think that there's some fallacy in Jobs' letter. However, there is still a lot of truth to it. He brings up good points and makes a promise to sell DRM-free content if the Big 4 labels stand down on DRM. If Steve Jobs and Apple really wanted to continue this iTunes/iPod lock-in, this letter never would have come out in the first place.

1. Although I do believe that the Norway issue did factor into the decision to make this essay.

2. One may ask: Why the hell does Apple do this? Well, there's a very complicated answer. In short, Apple just works that way. Sometimes there's a real benefit to doing so, and sometimes there isn't. It's just the nature of the company to lock these things down. In there mind, somewhere down the road they might suddenly find that it gives them an advantage.

Macrovision's Response to Steve Jobs Thoughts on Music

2007-02-16T18:17:00.001-06:00

Macrovision's Response
And more specifically, Grubers response. I really like how it begins:

I would like to start by thanking Steve Jobs for offering his provocative perspective on the role of digital rights management (DRM) in the electronic content marketplace and for bringing to the forefront an issue of great importance to both the industry and consumers.

Fuck you, Jobs.

Jason Reindorp of Microsoft and His Shitty Response to Steve Jobs Thoughts on DRM

2007-02-07T22:59:00.000-06:00

So Jason Reindorp of Microsoft decided to say something dumb today:

Jason Reindorp, marketing director for Zune at Microsoft, said Mr. Jobs’s call for unrestricted music sales was “irresponsible, or at the very least naïve,” adding, “It’s like he’s on top of the mountain making pronouncements, while we’re here on the ground working with the industry to make it happen.”

“He’s certainly a master of the obvious,” Mr. Reindorp said, adding that “the stars were already aligning” to loosen the restrictions.

So just tell us: What in fuck's sake are you doing about it? In fact, it seems that at every turn, the Zune has given in to copy protection. The music labels want a piece of the hardware action? Well, let's give 'em a chunk'a change for every Zune sold. The music labels want to restrict the wifi sharing so that they can 'protect' their digital content? Well, hey, let's make it so that you can only have the song for up to 3 days or can only play it up to 3 times. Oh, and us ML boys want to stop some of those artists that are being sold from your pesky Zune store to NOT be sharable. Guess what Microsoft said to that one? Did they say implementing it would be anti-consumerist? No, of course not, because they're all "here on the ground working with the industry to make it happen".

Yeah, and shit can turn into gold if you look at it hard enough.

Steve Jobs Thoughts on Music

2007-02-06T16:05:00.001-06:00

This is amazing. Just fucking brilliant. The C.E.O. of the world's largest legal online music distributor talks about how DRM doesn't work in an eighteen-hundred word essay.

The third alternative is to abolish DRMs entirely. Imagine a world where every online store sells DRM-free music encoded in open licensable formats. In such a world, any player can play music purchased from any store, and any store can sell music which is playable on all players. This is clearly the best alternative for consumers, and Apple would embrace it in a heartbeat. If the big four music companies would license Apple their music without the requirement that it be protected with a DRM, we would switch to selling only DRM-free music on our iTunes store. Every iPod ever made will play this DRM-free music.

Why would the big four music companies agree to let Apple and others distribute their music without using DRM systems to protect it? The simplest answer is because DRMs haven’t worked, and may never work, to halt music piracy. Though the big four music companies require that all their music sold online be protected with DRMs, these same music companies continue to sell billions of CDs a year which contain completely unprotected music. That’s right! No DRM system was ever developed for the CD, so all the music distributed on CDs can be easily uploaded to the Internet, then (illegally) downloaded and played on any computer or player.

Desktop February/4/2007

2007-02-04T12:08:00.000-06:00

Yeah, so this is the end of my whole weekly desktops thing. Now, I'll just randomly put up desktops. Don't expect as many in the same period of time though.

Ride A White Horse by Goldfrapp from the album:
Supernature
4 Stars

Gruber: Interperobility and DRM Are Exclusive

2007-02-01T12:07:00.000-06:00

I just thought I would highlight one of John Gruber's (A.K.A. Daring Fireball's) old articles: Interoperability and DRM Are Mutually Exclusive. This is probably one of the best articles about DRM, because it doesn't go onto the usual DRM-bashing tirade, but instead, actually talks about a solution to the problem, and why the solution would work.

Record industry executives refuse to believe what is patently obvious to anyone with a clue — they are never ever going to regain complete control over the distribution of recorded music. They so desperately want this that they believe it must be possible, but the very nature of DRM is that it is diametrically opposed to interoperability.

What’s most infuriating is how the mainstream media plays along with the entertainment industry, parroting their calls for nonsensical “DRM interoperability” as though it’s all perfectly reasonable.

Calling for “interoperability” without any practical suggestion as to how it could be achieved is just an empty platitude. It’s like demanding “a cheap source of energy” or “a cure for cancer”. But unlike the energy problem or cancer, digital media interoperability is not an intractable problem. There’s an obvious solution staring everyone in the face.

A very good read, particularly in the light of non-drm'ed downloads from Yahoo.

Weekly Desktop January/28/2007

2007-01-28T11:56:00.001-06:00

Freedom by Rage Against the Machine from the album:
Rage Against the Machine
3 Stars

Losing 2 Things Sucks

2007-01-28T00:48:00.001-06:00

Okay, so I lost my 2GB USB key AND my toque and gloves. I am greatly annoyed.

CAR: Analysts Downgraded Apple On Second Quarter Outlook.

2007-01-23T00:02:00.001-06:00

Crazy Apple Rumors: Analysts Downgraded Apple On Second Quarter Outlook.

Several analysts downgraded Apple today from “outperform” to “slut.”

Best. Damn. Quote. Ever.

Grivendrum: 3

2007-01-22T07:31:00.001-06:00

3 years ago I purchased my 1st iPod: a 3G 15GB model. That's actually pretty crazy. The thing still works (for the most part). Although, for a couple of days, I thought that it had stopped putting sound out through the right channel, but apparently it was just the right channel of the earbuds I was using. Ah well, here's hoping to another joyful year of use. :)

Weekly Desktop January/21/2007

2007-01-21T09:49:00.000-06:00

St. James Infirmary by Toshiyuki Honda from the album:
Metropolis
4 Stars

Weekly Desktop January/14/2007

2007-01-14T13:29:00.001-06:00

Omgyjya Switch7 by Aphex Twin from the album:
Drukqs
4 Stars

MacWorld 2007 Outcome: The New Apple

2007-01-12T17:12:00.000-06:00

This was a bad year for my predictions. I was just as bad as last year. :p

Regardless of my predictions, this year's January Macworld was a stunner. It marked the end of Apple Computer Inc. and the beginning of Apple Inc. Beyond further iterations and cheaper versions of the iPhone, and actual Apple televisions with integrated Apple TVs, I can't actually think what else Apple might make. The next 5 years should be very interesting. :)

As usual, I shall give my thoughts on what was announced in bullet-point form.

Macs

The Vista ad is a good addition to Apple's current lineup of Get A Mac ads. Plus, it's considerably funnier than the last batch they introduced a month or so ago.
No iWork '07? No iLife '07? Fucking Christ, the sky's falling. (I'm sure these will get released later in the year)
Absolutely nothing on Leopard. Man, I want to know what some of those "top-secret" features are.
Oh man, the new AirPort Extreme is sweet.
Something that alot of people haven't talked about in the wake of the iPhone: 50% of the Macs Apple are selling in the United States through all channels are new to Mac. Pretty damn sweet. I'm definitely looking forward to 4th quarter results.
Aside from the above comments, Apple didn't say anything else about the Mac. For some reason, people are unnerved by this.

Apple TV

The solution they came up with is not the best solution, but is alot better then just streaming the video. Essentially the device has a 40GB HD inside of it, and that's used to send content to it from one computer using iTunes. Then, with the Apple TV you can just traverse through the content. The Apple TV can also sync with the computer much like an iPod so that it constantly stays up to date according to your specifications. On top of that, it can also do streaming from up to 5 other computers.
I wonder if OS X is running on this, like the iPhone is.
What's the use in an HDMI-out when there's no HD content on iTunes. I'm thinking we'll see HD content on iTunes one month after Apple TV starts shipping (in February) at the very latest. Well, there's another prediction that'll die I bet. :p

I'll have more on the iPhone in a later post.

Eve of Macworld January 2007 Keynote

2007-01-08T23:21:00.001-06:00

This is what Apple.com looks like now:

Let's see what it looks like tomorrow. :)

Oh, and if you're at a computer at 11:00AM tomorrow, then check out MacObserver's Livepage for up to date information as the keynote is taking place!

Regarding The 6G iPod At This Year's Macworld

2007-01-07T16:25:00.001-06:00

It's not happening. I don't even think it's going to get mentioned.

Weekly Desktop January/7/2007

2007-01-07T14:45:00.000-06:00

One Very Important Thought by Boards of Canada from the album:
Music Has the Right to Children
3 Stars

Macworld January 2007 Predictions

2007-01-04T21:58:00.000-06:00

I don't have any insider information or anything, but I'm just going to give my predictions.

iTV
Of course, Apple won't be calling it that, but it's the one thing I'm absolutely positive about for this Macworld. At this point, there are so many product rumours regarding Apple that I don't have a damn clue as to what's going to actually be released instead of just announced, only to be released at a later date. iTV seems to be a safe bet on the release part, as Apple announced the product September of last year. As for the whole Google Video/YouTube integration, that I'm not entirely sure about. Although that doesn't sound like such a bad idea (although how you would search around for videos is beyond me).

Movie Store Announcements
First Apple had to prove to the rest of the industry that it could sell movies. Now that they've done that, they need to expand. I only really expect a couple of new studios to be added. And I guess there's also the possibility of higher quality (720p) and expansion into other countries.

Apple Cell-Phone
To me, it seems like this is inevitable. I'm thinking it will get announced at Macworld. I don't expect this thing to blow us away, like all the rumours have suggested. I think Apple's going to play this safe. First they'll release a nicely designed cell-phone that features integration with iTunes and some innovative new features (like dual batteries: one for music playback, the other for the rest of the phone). But this is definitely not going to be the shape-shifting, do-it-all phone that others are expecting.

iLife '07 and iWork '07
Okay, so these are coming out, no question about it. However, this year, we might just see a tables application debut in iWork.

Update and Preview of Mac OS X Leopard
This one seems likely. I do hope that Apple does preview some new features of Leopard though.

New iPod Speaker
Yeah, maybe something like a cheaper, smaller version of the Hi-Fi.

6G iPod
This one I'm not really sure about at all. Refer to my previous post on the 6G iPod for more info.

Well, let's see how right I am this year. :)

Weekly Desktop December/31/2006

2006-12-31T14:44:00.001-06:00

My First Widget

2006-12-31T02:34:00.001-06:00

Using Apple's Dashcode beta, I made my first widget: an rss feed updater for i use this. I call it: i use this. :p

For those oh so many OS X users who read this blog, you can download it here if you want. :)

The Greatest by Cat Power from the album:
The Greatest
4 stars

Weekly Desktop December/24/2006

2006-12-24T11:51:00.001-06:00

Advice by The Pillows from the album:
FLCL Soundtrack
4 Stars

Half-Life 2 Episode One Review

2006-12-21T16:51:00.000-06:00

After purchasing and installing the Half-Life 2 Holiday 2006 pack I bought at EBGames this week, I immediately played through and beat Half-Life 2 the same day (the first time I've ever beat an entire FPS in a day :p ). However, that was just to get me back up to speed on City 17 and the Combine. The next day, I began playing Half-Life 2 Episode One, the official first episodic expansion to the game. Because Valve decided to go the episodic route, there is considerably less gameplay in Episode One then there is in Half-Life 2, but in the end, it comes out feeling tighter, more refined and way more fun. All in all, Episode One is the single best gameplay experience I've ever come across, regardless of genre or platform.

For each episode, Valve has decided to focus on a gameplay aspect in order to improve on it as much as possible. For Episode One, that was NPC AI and interaction. As their test subject, they decided to use Alyx, your sidekick. Consequently, you spend most of the game with her, fighting by her side. I think that in any other game, this level of NPC teamwork would drive players insane, but because of the dramatic improvements to the AI, it feels very natural. Alyx doesn't get in the way, she isn't obtrusive and she speaks and acts much like a normal person. There are some places where working with her is a great experience, like when you're in an underground tunnel, with the lights out. Alyx can't shoot at any of the enemies unless you shine your flashlight on them. There's another scene where she mans a sniper rifle, helping you out with a good number of zombies. All of this results in a codependence with Alyx that other games (including Half-Life 2) don't achieve particularly well.

10/10
-Like, fuck. This game is fucking good!

A.V. Club review of Half-Life 2: Episode One

Weekly Desktop December/17/2006

2006-12-17T12:37:00.001-06:00

I also made my first purchase with my credit card (and from iTunes): The Pixar animated short film, One Man Band.

Satellite Anthem Icarus by Boards Of Canada from the album:
The Campfire Headphase
4 Stars

Stocking Stuffers suck

2006-12-15T13:59:00.001-06:00

So, I saw this little ad today while I was browsing through the iTunes Store, and I immediately thought "What the fuck!". Why are we so obsessed with buying things that we aren't even satisfied with the 100000 presents we get for Christmas, so we go and buy more things. But instead of calling them presents (because we don't want to look like we're just being wasteful fools, do we), we call them stocking stuffers.

Wireless Power?

2006-12-10T13:26:00.001-06:00

Physics promises wireless power

The answer the team came up with was "resonance", a phenomenon that causes an object to vibrate when energy of a certain frequency is applied.

"When you have two resonant objects of the same frequency they tend to couple very strongly," Professor Soljacic told the BBC News website.

Very intriguing.

Weekly Desktop December/10/2006

2006-12-10T10:43:00.000-06:00

I played the Prey demo last night (or this morning, whichever you prefer :) ). Good game, but doesn't come close to Half-Life 2.

Dollars & Cents by Radiohead from the album:
Amnesiac
4 Stars

Music Labels Experiment With Non-DRM'ed Music

2006-12-08T11:47:00.001-06:00

Music Labels Experiment With Non-DRM'ed Music

The Wall Street Journal reports today that one of the major record companies, EMI, has launched an experiment in selling songs in unprotected MP3 format through Yahoo. The first songs are by popular balladeer Norah Jones and the Christian pop band Relient K. Senior EMI execs resisted the idea at first but "were ultimately persuaded there was a need to try fresh approaches to digital sales."

Hopefully this is only the beginning.

Rest In Peace James Kim

2006-12-07T21:43:00.001-06:00

The body of the 35-year-old Kim was discovered Wednesday in a rugged wilderness area in southern Oregon. He had set out across snow and ice with only tennis shoes to protect his feet. He had eaten little in the seven days since his car got stuck.

Do we really need pyramid computers?

2006-12-06T14:42:00.000-06:00

Yeah, so, that's the weirdest looking computer I've ever seen...

What A Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong from the album:
What A Wonderful World
4 Stars

Weekly Desktop December/3/2006

2006-12-03T10:56:00.000-06:00

Nova by Amon Tobin from the album:
Permutation
3 Stars

Weekly Desktop November/26/2006

2006-11-26T12:46:00.000-06:00

Weekly Desktop November/19/2006

2006-11-19T14:38:00.000-06:00

54 Cymru Beats by Aphex Twin from the album:
Drukqs
4 Stars

2006-11-17T16:59:00.000-06:00

UCLA Student Gets Tazered

Completely unnecessary.

Weekly Desktop November/12/2006

2006-11-12T13:30:00.000-06:00

Coyote's Song (When You Hear It Too) by Nobody & Mystic Chords Of Memory from the album:
Tree Colored See

Internet Explorer 5 for Mac Absolutely Sucks

2006-11-07T23:19:00.000-06:00

Okay, so, Internet Explorer 5 for Mac is, for some weird reason, the number 10 Mac download at download.com. I decided to try it out, just for some fun. Here are the results:

Needless to say, I immediately deleted it.

Weekly Desktop November/5/2006

2006-11-05T18:55:00.000-06:00

Check out Thank You For Smoking. I saw it yesterday and thought it was quite good.
Onion AV Club review of Thank You For Smoking

I also picked up iWork '06. $55 of productivity goodness.

Weekly Desktop October/29/2006

2006-10-29T10:52:00.000-06:00

Weekly Desktop Oct/22/2006

2006-10-22T15:33:00.000-06:00

Originally from Happyspork. :)

Stand by R.E.M. from the album:
Green
3 Stars

Zune Rising

2006-10-18T23:15:00.000-06:00

Well, I guess we all knew it was coming. It wasn't like Microsoft was trying to keep it a secret. Zune's been announced, and it's hitting store shelves November 14. So I guess this means that Microsoft's throwing the gloves off. It seems that they haven't been having that much success with PlaysForSure (I know, the understatement of the decade), and it's not like Napster, Wal-Mart, URGE, Real etc... has been raking in the sales. I guess Microsoft would say "It's so hard to find good help these days.". Well, I guess Napster, Wal-Mart, URGE and Real would say the same thing. ;)

So, I guess I should get to the actual meat of this post:

My thoughts:

The brown doesn't actually look all that bad. It just gets ragged on since people haven't made brown consumer electronics since the 90's (and I guess that it reminds people of poo also factors into people's apprehensions).
Microsoft takes the cake in getting a design that looks closest to the iPod (yes, even over Creative). Of course, it's just different enough that they can say "Well, it has two buttons beside the scroll wheel and it has a larger screen. And it's brown.". It's unfortunate that the only other company in this space with original designs had to go down the tubes.
I guess it's nice that the screen is larger than the 5.5G iPods. But then, it's not so nice that the screen currently has the same resolution as them.
With the Zune, you can share a song with another Zune in close proximity (I don't actually know the range). But, and a big but here, shared music can only be played up to 3 times or within 3 days. If you pass either of those limits, then the song is locked and can't be played. Zune apparently doesn't do this by way of DRM, but just through the built-in firmware knowing which songs are the ones you received from other Zunes.
Is Microsoft schizophrenic? I ask this because none of the content from the Microsoft-based stores, using Microsoft technology are going to work on Microsoft's Zune. Instead, they want you to buy all of your digital media from the Zune Marketplace (which will initially have significantly less content than iTunes and will force you to use Marketplace Points instead of just standard money to buy content). Does this make any sense? What's even funnier is that they're still going to develop PlaysForSure:
Microsoft will continue to support and develop for their PlaysForSure initiative, but all things PlaysForSure are handled by two entirely separate division that will not have any crossover.

Seriously. Does Microsoft think that confusing their customers with competing standards from the same company are going to help them win over minds? Because, I think we all know what will happen: When in doubt, go for the biggest one. And in this case, the biggest one is Apple.

Well, those are my thoughts. I expect this thing to tank, but then again, Microsoft isn't positioning this as some sort of marketshare takeback initiative that will finish this year:

'We had to look at what was in the market and offer a competitive price,' said Scott Erickson, Microsoft's senior director of product marketing for Zune. 'We're not going to be profitable this holiday but the Zune project is a multiyear strategy.'

Hmm, I guess it could turn into an Xbox, but I think I'll stick with a Wii.

Stormfront.org

2006-10-17T23:32:00.000-06:00

Goddam white people, always doin' stupid things. ;)

note: I am not racist, either against whites or blacks. In fact, I am black as evidenced by my pic:

Enjoy the reading. 'Cause I sure as hell didn't.

Weekly Desktop October/15/2006

2006-10-15T13:46:00.000-06:00

Sit Down. Stand Up by Radiohead from the album:
Hail to the Thief
4 Stars

No more TV

2006-10-14T15:47:00.000-06:00

I just realized today that I watch podcasts instead of tv. Instead of going to downstairs this morning to catch a show while I ate breakfast, I went upstairs to my room and watched some Cranky Geeks. Other times it might be DL.TV, Hope is Emo or Ask a Ninja. When I get ready for the next day before I go to sleep, I usually listen to TWiT or Gaming Steve. It's interesting. I've replaced all old distributions of spoken content with new ones.

Good Luck by Basement Jaxx from the album:
Kish Kash
4 Stars

Google Docs & Spreadsheets

2006-10-10T22:38:00.000-06:00

This is just a test post. If you want to know why I'm doing a test post, go and check out http://docs.google.com.

Weekly Desktop October/8/2006

2006-10-08T12:20:00.000-06:00

Box

2006-10-07T20:50:00.000-06:00

Want a gig of free online storage? Well, then look no further than Box. I've been using it for about a month now, and it's really come in handy. :)

High RAM Usage

2006-10-05T21:56:00.000-06:00

Hmm. Is my RAM usage so high because of all the apps I'm running:
Regardless, I'm still not seeing any noticeable performance degradation. *sigh* It's nice having one and a half gigs of ram. :)

note: The apps that are running have black triangles under their icons.

Weekly Desktop October/1/2006

2006-10-01T13:12:00.000-06:00

Weekly Desktop September/24/2006

2006-09-24T13:04:00.000-06:00

Weekly Desktop September/17/2006

2006-09-17T14:35:00.000-06:00

Is that really?

2006-09-15T20:14:00.000-06:00

What? Didn't think I wouldn't do it?

Vista RC1 Up for Download

2006-09-14T22:39:00.000-06:00

Quick, get it while you can! I've already finished downloading it and will be trying it out tomorrow. :)

Let's See What It Looks Like Tomorrow

2006-09-11T21:01:00.000-06:00

Well, this is what it looks like today:

We'll see how it looks tomorrow. :)

Weekly Desktop September/10/2006

2006-09-10T11:47:00.000-06:00

Unexpected Releases

2006-09-06T21:47:00.000-06:00

New iMacs (that 24 incher is pretty damn sweet) and new Mac minis (now Apple's entire computer lineup is dual-core). The only problem I have with these updates is that now a comparable iMac to mine costs $100 less. :p

What's most interesting about these updates is that they weren't announced at the September 12 event. Obviously Apple doesn't want these things getting in the way of whatever they have to announce then.

Special Event September 12

2006-09-05T21:18:00.000-06:00

Big stuff is on the horizon. Apple announced today that they will be holding a special event on September 12.

I expect new iPod nanos, video iPods, an online movie store and possibly a video streaming device (pretty much an Airport Express except with Video capabilities as well). There's also the possibility of an iPhone showing up.

However, I do not expect the mythical full-screened video iPod to show up at this event. I expect that to come out next year.

Promotional Smoking

2006-09-04T16:42:00.000-06:00

Smoking is a pretty big thing worldwide. At least here in Canada, we've taken some steps to try and stop it. Now, since the tobacco companies can't advertise their cigarettes, they've resorted to persuading the stores, as I just witnessed today when my boss for the Co-Op I'm working at brought out a red and white box from the back-room. This was a promotional box for a certain brand of cigarettes (don't remember which), and man were they trying to persuade us. As soon as he opened the lid for the box, this voice popped up from somewhere within. Inside was a large pamphlet pitching us the usual crap about why we should carry their stuff, a nice metal ash-tray and three sample packages of cigarettes. Although I didn't get any pics of the box (there's never really any reason to take a digital camera to work :p ), my boss did allow me to take the 'electronic voice' home.

Weekly Desktop September/3/2006

2006-09-03T11:42:00.000-06:00

USB Key

2006-09-02T21:42:00.000-06:00

Today I bought myself a 2GB USB Key from OTV for $83. Great buy; it's small, fast (transfer speeds are the fastest I've experienced with any USB Key I've used) and even came with a lanyard and USB extension cable. It even has a lifetime warranty and a $10 mail-in rebate! Okay, well the $10 mail-in rebate is a little lame, but hey, at least I get some money back. :)

A New Version of Microsoft Bob

2006-08-29T00:59:00.000-06:00

Here's a great little fake news story on why Vista could be delayed again. :)

My Music

2006-08-27T22:48:00.000-06:00

Using Garageband, I've made some fun little pieces of music. iCompositions is a nice site for sharing such pieces. It's completely free, and they let you upload as much music as you want, allowing other people to listen to it and, if they like, download your music.

I made an account there, and have put up two songs. There's Testing, which was my first track; It's pretty plain. And there's Gwun Gwun, which I actually quite like.

Weekly Desktop August/27/2006

2006-08-27T11:03:00.000-06:00

Patent Dispute Settled

2006-08-23T16:23:00.000-06:00

I still kind of wish the patent was invalidated.

Swift

2006-08-22T18:22:00.000-06:00

Anybody willing to try this out? Swift is a web-browser for Windows based on Apple's open source rendering engine, WebKit (currently being used in Safari), which is in turn based on KDE's KHTML rendering engine. Understand that this is a 0.1 release, and is probably really far away from a finished product, let alone a polished one.

iTMS

2006-08-21T20:37:00.000-06:00

On Saturday, we (my Dad and I) downloaded our first track from the iTunes Music Store. Of course, it was nothing really amazing. But that's what impresses me the most; the fact that this almost feels normal. To say the least, it was convenient. With the press of two buttons (we set it up to act as a shopping cart) and a short wait, the song (By This River by Martin L. Gore) was downloaded. A couple of syncs later, the song was on mine and my parent's iPods. I must say, simple doesn't even begin to describe it. :p

Now my Dad's been eying some Indian music on the store as well...

RAM

2006-08-20T20:50:00.000-06:00

After paying back my mom and dad for the iMac, I have now bought myself an extra 1GB of PC2-5400 RAM, bringing my total up to 1.5GB. This thing really flies now; Dashboard widgets load instantly, Front Row no longer has the slight sluggishness that has been annoying the hell out of me for the past couple of weeks and apps (especially noticeable with the large ones) load much faster.

Weekly Desktop August/20/2006

2006-08-20T20:19:00.000-06:00

Getting Crabby at AI

2006-08-17T22:08:00.000-06:00

Read the text below the image before clicking on All Sizes (above the image) to see the original image.

Mac Pro price

2006-08-15T12:35:00.000-06:00

Is the Mac Pro cheaper than similarly equipped PC's?!?!?