60GB iPod to pack photo-viewing features
October 08, 2004
Damn...if I could only have waited 30 days longer...revised version of the iPod.
Goodbye 2G iPod it was a fun 3 years
October 05, 2004
I am what they call an early adopter. 3 years ago when everyone was snickering at the iPod and saying that it would fail, I bought a 2nd Generation iPod with the built in firewire port.
Like a dutiful servant it served me well 12 hours a day for 3 years until the battery started to give out and die last month. New iPod versions came and went, but I passed them all up because of my love of the hardware based button and clickwheel.
However, with over 12 hours of use a day I couldn't stand a 3 hour charge from a battery that once gave me 12 hours of play on a single charge. Now, I could have replaced the battery for 30.00, but decided not to due to the fact they have introduced new features and higher capacity versions of the iPod.
For those that say the iPod is overpriced, I can honestly say that I don't think it is. For the same 400.00 I paid 3 years ago for my 2G iPod with 15GB I was able to buy a 4G iPod with 40GB of space. That is value. Besides I can take smug ego boosting comfort in the fact that I bought into a product 3 years ago that ended up becoming a cultural icon.
The one sad irony is that even with a 40 GB iPod, I still don't have enough space on the darn thing to hold my entire music collection that sits on my server. Where's that 100GB iPod I really need?
In any case, I have retired my 2G iPod to my car for playing all those audio books. Hey, just because the battery only last for 3 hours doesn't mean I won't use it anymore. That 2G iPod is actually more rugged than the iPod I just bought. That is a definite requirement for my truck.
Paying for Music in the Internet Age
September 17, 2004
NPR looks a ways that the music industry might be reborn
Goodbye Johnny Ramone
September 16, 2004
Read the obituary in the LA times (registration required).
Updated: A Sarcastic Analysis of MicroSoft's New Music Store
September 03, 2004
Courtesy of AtAT, The Gloves come all the way off, now the real fight between Apple and the World can start.
Feature Creep: The Real World of Digital Music and the iPod
August 18, 2004
Heard on gizmodo this morning....
Real has earned a lot of press lately for reverse engineering Apple's Fairplay digital music rights management system. (For those of you who've been in another dimension for the last year or so, Fairplay is the component of Apple's digital music format that restricts songs purchased through the iTunes Music Store to limited use - an attempt to insure that the iTMS won't be recast as a piracy mill.) In an almost swift response, Apple lambastes Real for their efforts and drops hints about Real perhaps getting crosswise with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. If Glaser had stopped there, he might right now be counting the ranks of his supporters in the digital hippie community. Yet Real has forged ahead with a blatantly anti-Apple Web site, an online petition, and then another online petition to replace the one loaded up with anti-Real comments. You'd think all this is due to Glaser and Real's overwhelming drive to butt heads with the almighty Apple, but you'd be wrong.
The editorial is well rounded and points out to the fact that Real is really helping to make Apple's argument that Fairplay should not be open given Real's heavy handed handling of its campaign.
Read the full editorial and also here is a link to the original petition (with comments allowed) before Real pulled it
Concert Review: Van Halen
August 16, 2004
After nearly a decade of being out of circulation, the band reunited with Sammy Hagar has hit the road touring the country. Rhonda and I went to see Van Halen the other night at the Oakland Arena.
The band opened up with "Jump" from 1984 and proceeded into a series of songs from the Hagar days. Aside from Sammy Hagar's enthusiastic energy and devotion to singing, and Alex Van Halen's incredible 20 minute drum solo, the rest of the band's performance was a complete disappointment.
Eddie, who's known for his brilliant guitar playing and high energy on stage, was noticeably subdued. Instead of being into the concert, he appeared to be more like the power bass player from 90's grunge, with head down and very subdued. This in of itself would not have been so bad if it hadn't transcended into his guitar playing. It was very noticeable on several occasions where Eddie was completely missing in his playing of songs like Panama, Jump, and Dreams.
Unfortunately for Van Halen, the high point of the show was Sammy Hagar. His midpoint acoustic solo (sans the rest of the band), and his wonderful update to "Right Now" just carried an otherwise lackluster performance. In many respects this was a vindication for him for being unceromoniously dumped years ago.
While I came away with the impression that Sammy Hagar was having a ball, I also got the feeling that the rest of the band put aside their differences to just make money. Hey, music is a money business, but generally bands get back together and play because they want to, not because they need to.
What a shame. One of the great bands of the 80's has been relegated to a nostalgia act that is fading.
iPod and Audio Books
August 03, 2004
Since my daily commute to-from work racks up a total of 2 hours, I have been using my iPod on a daily basis to listen to music, etc. Let's face it, aside from NPR and the traffic report, radio is basically dead air and beholden to corporate radio music programming. Definitely, not exciting.
The latest fad for me, which is consuming those hours stuck in traffic is listening to audio books. Yes, they have been around for awhile...they used to be called books on tape, but with Audible's digital equivalent and their presence on the Apple's iTunes music store I have been purchasing audio books like crazy. And, unlike hard-copy books, which I never have enough time to read, I have increased the number of books I have "read" this month by a factor of ten.
What a nice use for an iPod!