Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
"brown rank" yes it certainly is EOM
OT : thanks, I kind of knew that EOM
Righto, I must have selected WMV as a preference at some point. Just have to find the cookie...
Techy query.
I don't seem to be able to watch BBC content (don't usually watch at home - I don't need to...). Just comes up with an error saying 'Flip4mac cannot play this movie'. I presume it's trying to play WMV.
Now when I access our website at work it uses Realplayer, so does anyone recall if there's a choice of player formats on the BBC site?
Can anyone else check if it works for them?
TIA
Just had a look at that bestseller list, the highest plaed Zune was at no 86! I realise this is a snapshot but if that's in any way representative we need to lower those market share guesstimates...
I'll say 1% after a year.
I think dholt's comment is the most aposite - "I think the fundamental issue here is ... XBox ... is a product that people WANT. I am not so sure that the same can be said for Zune... (in my case, I sure don't want one)."
Most of those who don't want an iPod seem to dislike the supposed 'lock-in' with iTMS. The Zune offers the same of course. The US only launch doesn't show great faith in the product either. Admittedly this is more likely due to music licencing issues - after all you aren't going to be putting your own content on there are you I wonder if this is more an attempt by MSFT to confuse the public rather than take any real market share. They just seem to have done so much wrong with this launch. I'd thought they'd learned something about consumer marketing with the XBox (though that's still a fairly geeky market).
BTW There does seem to be an inbuilt assumption amongst many people that once you buy an iPod you cease buying CDs and use iTMS, I've had 2 friends make that assumption recently.
I frankly think MSFT will land on its face at first. The question is how long until MSFT actually gets somewhere with it, and that's a huge unknown.
I'm not sure they've got that long though. The MP3 player market is pretty mature, and the market for the larger players is a fraction of that. The lower end of the market will eventually be cannibalised by MP3 phones (ideally the iPhone...).
I realise video is supposed to be the big coming thing, but I wonder how much of this is being driven by the fact 'we can do this, so it must be a good idea' rather than inate comsumer demand.
Re : Poll
1. Only if the interface works as well as the iPod. You could use just the iPod interface to call people in your address book, or recent calls. A numeric keypad is really only needed for phone no. entry or texting. I imagine a phone that looks like an iPod with maybe a slide out drawer for the numeric keys.
2. Depends on capacity, but probably.
3. Have an iPod Nano, if I didn't - it might, again depending on capacity,
I bought the new Nano as it had reached my price/storage threshold, don't have a need for the full size iPod (though I think an 8G Nano would suit me rather the 4G I have). I really intended it for long journeys, w/e aways etc., using it more than expected. An iPhone would suit me fine for daily use.
I do hope they sell it unlocked. I have an old Orange contract on which I pay only for phone usage, I'd like to keep it ...
BTW, the no. of people who assume that if I have an iPod I'm into downloading and buying music from iTMS...
Had a lecture from a friend about how he liked the tactile quality of CDs and being able to read liner notes etc. I asked him why he assumed I was using iTMS, also pointed out I'd bought way more CDs than him this year I've only PAYED for 1 song off iTMS so far.
OT: Enya - Although of course not all Enya is worth sleeping to. Enya is someone I always regarded as worth sleeping through
Never got her, bought a 'Best of' CD a while back as lots of friends liked her, I've never got through it and stayed awake.
Horses for courses.
I'll second that recommendation EOM.
An example given of why the UI was better was that as you scrolled through your artists, the UI displayed the letter you were on so you could scroll faster than you could read individual titles.
Hardly an advantage, Jobs showed this feature in the recent iPod launch.
I think the further away you get from physical buttons the more attention you have to pay to the device to operate it, which is a downer for operation while you're distracted (running, driving, etc.).
All this drive to do everything on screen, we use touch screens at work, a nightmare for doing things in a hurry.
Tactile feedback is very underrated...
MSFT DRM = Free movies for all - http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/11/07/drm_sky_movies/
WI-Fi I understand. EOM
Interesting, Intel only....
BTW have you seen this one? http://www.rogueamoeba.com/fission/
OT; Are the midterms likely to be interesting at all? I ask because I'll be working o/night covering them
We are putting a big effort into this, live o/night coverage from the US, it'll be on BBC News24 as well as BBC World, a fairly full o/night crew, I think we're even sending our live graphics over to the US studio so they can be used there in screens etc.
All speculation offcourse, but...
Looks like a backwards step ergonomically, I can operate my Nano with either hand just using my thumb. With that interface you're back to a scrubbing ( a la scroll wheel) action, which means lifting your thumb/pinky to continue scrolling. Having a touch surface horizontally along the bottom as shown would be uncomfortable to hold and use in one hand. If there are different menus associated with each side of the bevel it would mean constant hand adjustments...
it's only when you go back to other handheld devices you realise how brilliant the thumbwheel is.
Anybody here use del.icio.us ?
Just thought I'd try it, not that big a deal if it doesn't work the way I want.
Uploaded all my bookmarks OK.
Thought I'd try Safarilicious to sync bookmarks - it won't login.
Tried out Cocoalicious (though not entirely sure what it does...), logs in OK and shows a grand total of 0 bookmarks on my del.icio.us.
Anyone else tried these?
One final thing, my del.icio.us page has the 'verication email sent, please verify' message at the top. Despite resending this about 5 times (to the correct address), I still haven't received it ...
Maybe it's not for me
LOL guys, very good EOM
Thanks for that Dllleet, had heard of it, hadn't realised it was OSX compatible, cool.
Don't worry about iTunes, I've bought a grand total of 1 tune from there...
Blue, this is what I figured, BUT when I go to 'Edit Apple Account' it seems your Apple ID isn't editable (at least it ain't in iTunes 7). You can change your email address associated with that Apple ID though. My ID may be non-editable as it's a .Mac ID, apparently I can continue to use this.
Only ever purchased one tune, and got credit for 6 freebies.
Guess I'll find out at the end of the month.
BTW I am now part of the iPod generation ( I feel so much younger )
The new Nano reached my tipping point as regards storage ve price, and once I picked one up in the Apple store, well that was it. Always did like the brushed aluminium of the Mini. 'Tis a thing of beauty...
Do you think the Zune will have the same effect on people ? :-/
Apple ID and iTunes.
Anyone know about this, changing your email address disables all song purchases in iTunes - hearing this is the case in 7.01.
I'm planning on dropping .Mac this month - fed up with paying £70 for not much. Going with gmail. I've got 6 song credits with iTunes, I'm concerned changing bmy email will lose these.
Google buys YouTube : http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6034577.stm
That looks really useful. unfortunately, I've been unable to download it at all. Sourceforge seemed to be set to the wrong directory, when I corrected that it's been unable to downlaod from anywhere, been through about 20 mirror sites. You don't have it do you?
actually, wasn't having a go at you Tex, thought it was some journalistic invention you were quoting
Sorry, but WTF does recently-ised mean? What's wrong with 'recently used'? It's even the same number of characters, nothing is saved by using it. I'm used to bastardisation of/ invented words etc but that's just ridiculous.
Hadn't seen this: latest version of WinMP won't let you backup your music licences:
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=34523
Not only that, but if you foolishly switch on 'copy protect music' and your 'licences' get hosed you may not be able to even play the music you ripped from your own CDs! Finally, your Media centre recordings will get wiped after 3 days.
Yet another reason why MSFT will fail, along with this :
http://www.engadget.com/2006/09/14/the-engadget-interview-j-allard-microsoft-corporate-vice-presi/
- i/view with MSFT VP re Zune. Note the avoidance of answers re 'PlayforSure', and much guff about changing the way we 'interact' with music.
What's wrong with just listening to it?
Video cards - our Macs now all use Blackmagic cards. We're not using HD at the moment, but the cards seem reliable. AJA I believe are pretty good. We stopped using the Digital Voodoo cards as they seemed to offer no new products on the Mac, that may have changed.
All this talk of movie / TV downloads is great, but only if you're in the US :(
Season 1 of Sleeper Cell is airing here, unfortunately Channel 4 are showing it as 5 x 2 hour episodes rather than 10 x 1, which makes it a real pain if you miss a week.
Missed last week's, wondered if I could get it off iTunes as I have 6 song credits. Of course was led to the US store. I realise there are 'other' sources, but haven't had much luck finding individual episodes there.
10 million Shuffle sales apparently. EOM
Broadcast Def:
US (NTSC) is 525 lines but only 480 are used for picture.
Europe is 625 lines - 576 picture.
Both use 720 pixels/line.
Hi Def , this is where it gets messy...
Virtually all 'HD' transmitted will be 720 line (1280 x 720), there are also 'progressive' and 'interlaced' versions of this, interlaced is better for action / sport.
Proper HD is 1920 x 1200, I presume this what we'll get on HD-DVD / Blu-ray. Used in filming (Star Wars etc. ) and post production.
Very good summary here of formats on MSFT's website of all places...
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/howto/articles/UnderstandingHDFormats.aspx
Solid set of announcements, though new iPods don't sem to be on the store yet, have to see what this TV streaming device looks like too.
Sell on news?
I'm presuming the stream is going to be post event?
Just wondering if this Apple event is US centric, as they don't seem to be doing a european press launch AFAICS, certainly not using their usual haunt (the BBC) if they are.
What does this mean? movie store or phone would maybe imply a US launch 1st.. guess we'll find out soon enough.
I presume it's the usual 9am PST?
re DVDs
Maybe I've been lucky, but the few disks I've bought (and I do mean few) seem to have very little of that kind of thing.
One movie I do like ('Fight Club') had a notice in the non- fast forwardable section that was actually a mickey-take and appeared to crash the DVD player. 1st time I played it thought the player had died. We actually had to figure out how to freeze frame the notice so we could read the entire thing...
I also tend to put the disk in and go and do something else while it's loading, by the time I'm back it's usually on the menu.
One other thing, frankly my definition of HD isn't something I get on a dowload.
All those models KCMW, way too confusing - like all those Performas we used to have
I expect they're thinking 'ooh those teenager spend oodles downloading ringtones, imagine how much we can get for whole movies!'
Idiots...
BTW those rumoured prices for movie downloads... $10-15? I can buy the DVD c/w with extras for that price, maybe with the exception of latest releases.
I'd think it'd be movies buffs who really want to own films, precisely the same people who won't put up with lo res versions, who want all the extras and who'll be the first to try HD-DVD / Blu_ray.
Still only rumours of course, but I'd say a rental model would work better.
Apple advertising. PCs are for the stuff we have to do, like pie charts and spreadsheets. This line almost implies to me that you NEED a PC to do those things. Surely it'd be better if the second line said Macs are for those things, but also for the stuff we want to do, like photos, music and movies.
Or have Apple given up on this business market, and just assume we'll all install Windows to run the 'serious' stuff?
Also, while the Mac zealot in me finds the TV ads amusing, I agree more & more with Lango's original remarks, they reinforce stereotypes, and potentially alienate current PC users. Let's face it they're way too broad anyway - the vast majority of high-end 3D (including Pixar) is done on PC workstations, yet the guys who do that couldn't conform any more closely to the Mac Guy in the ad if they tried. Maybe it's about time they switched the guys around to show you can do real work on a Mac.
While mentioning Pixar, just wondering how well 'Cars' was reviewed in the US. It wasn't quite panned here, but it received the worst reviews of any Pixar film I've seen. Didn't appeal to me at all I must say (TBH don't know anyone here who saw it).
PS3 european launch delayed yet again. Now due in March (was due November), problems in mass production of Blu-Ray apparently. Still on target fro November lauch in US and Japan.
OT : Is it just me? ballmer's presentation reminds me of Steve Martin in is stand up days, even down to the loud suit...
Agreed.
Now then, 1000 songs @ 90 seconds a song to fill just a Nano would mean spending an entire 24 hour day watching adverts (or more likely just waiting to download). Are people that desperate? Would probably take less time to find a decent version illegally.
Also that smallprint reveals it's essentially a subscription site, that gives it a completely different complexion.
The music industry seems determined to make it as inconvenient as possible to buy their product online, they deserve to lose out.
So let me see, the 2 big threats to the iPod and iTMS are incompatible with each other, nice.
So will the Zune store offer music for free?
What is supposededly so special about Zune? WiFi. The idea seems to be you can buy tunes w/o a computer, but what use is WiFi w/o an infrastructure. Certainly here in the UK, public WiFi access is hardly widespread, and where it's exists it's often prohibitively expensive. Are users so desperate to buy music they can't wait until they get home and buy through the computer?
Ah you say, but Zune users can also swap tunes with each other. I assume these swapped tunes will retain their DRM, and presumably have limited play functionality too.
WiFi will do wonders for battery life...
It's so much easier just to lend your mate the headphones for a listen , but that of course doesn't involve technology, so that can't be any good.
Yet another idea without a purpose.
If Apple made everything... http://www.b3ta.com/challenge/apple/
I suppose we could add iHub?