Did Apple Solve Music and Software Piracy?
I think this article may nail it on the head – Apple just took a huge first step to solving piracy of music and software with the introduction of their iCloud service with wifi sync.
Archive for the ‘iPod’
Apple Embraces Self Publishers
I love this announcement from Apple that they will open their iBookstore to those who self publish. I can think of a few friends and colleagues that will be able to take advantage of this change and use it to make money for their art and reach a larger audience. Kudos, Apple!
To take advantage of the service, you must first have an International Standard Book Number (ISBN) for each work you wish to make available for sale. Obtaining an ISBN isn’t as difficult a process you might think; it can take as little as two weeks. Second, you must have a copy of the work in ePUB format. There are a variety of different ways to convert text into ePUB format, many of which are free (a list can be found on the LexCycle website). You must also have a valid iTunes Store account as well as a US tax ID.
The last requirement is that you, as the author, must have access to a modern Mac. In order to participate, you must encode your eBook with Apple’s software, which needs an Intel Mac running at least OS X 10.5. The encoding process most likely adds Apple’s very own brew of DRM to the book, ensuring that your writings won’t be distributed outside of the iPhone or iPad.
Did you hear the one about Apple fitness?
I wrote about it on Mac.Blorge. Apple is getting into the fitness market – and a little more as well. Some of the news is cool (Apple fitness, tailored to you – awesome) and some creepy (identity metrics and more).
Two Turntables And a Microphone
MacWorld 08 Thoughts
I was underwhelmed by the MacBook Air. I think it is geared to the business traveler who doesn’t need an actual optical hard drive or any serious storage space because they will only us it to write letters and such. I don’t want a laptop I have to buy a separate hard drive for to store photos, movies, files, etc on. I think they should have kept this in development until someone made a ultra slim hard drive to put in it. Because the MacBook Air with a massive slim hard drive of 160GB or more PLUS the Ram and Flash is has already would have truly been stunning. I’m guessing some gadget heads will buy the air out of a need to have the latest thing right out of the starting gate. I keep seeing comments around the net from people who don’t get that it only has a flash drive and RAM who think the 500GB is plenty of space for a computer, but trust me, it isn’t that kind of memory, folks.
As for the rest of it? The iTunes movie subscriptions and the improvements on the AppleTV and such? That was better than the MacBook Air, frankly. I still wish the AppleTV was also a true DVR, but this is a step in the right direction. Too bad Time Warner countered the innovation with an announcement of a crippling price hike based on bandwidth. Sometimes the entertainment and technology sector can’t win for shooting itself in the foot all the time.
I was also concerned with Apple’s recent Bad Apple legal tactics against bloggers and other fans, and had high hopes they would do something to rectify the situation a bit, but this reaction to a fan tells me I shouldn’t hold my breathe. I had a press pass to this even this year, and no way to go. Now I’m a bit glad I didn’t try harder to find the money for airfare. I would have enjoyed seeing my friends in California, but I would have been disappointed with the overall Keynote. I probably would have had fun wandering around after though – maybe next year.
Antitrust and Apple
In December a lawsuit was filed against Apple accusing it of making its iPod into what is known as “crippleware”. This mean that while components in the iPod will play “industry standard” WMA files, Apple’s iPod restricts playback to Apple format AAC files. This is true – iTunes does in fact convert all MP3s to AAC files, and I must agree that I find it a pain in the ass. However, I find it a paint in the ass from the other direction – I’d like the industry to let go of the idea of the WMA file as main stream, as the quality of the songs in WMA usually are just not great. I don’t think that is going to happen, but since I follow all things music and apple news so closely, I’ll be following the lawsuit to see where it heads.
iTunes Plug Ins and Add Ons
LifeHacker posted their list of 23 iTunes extras and add-ons here. Are they really the best? That I don’t know, but I do know that I don’t use many iTunes add-ons. Most of the ones I’ve tried, like iWow, don’t play well with Leopard. Others don’t play well with iTunes at all on a MacBook, causing speaker issues. Many don’t have adequate updates and support once they are created, tossed in the dustbin by their programmers.
If you find an extra or add on for iTunes you want to try, by all means use it. My MOG and Last.FM “recently played” lists come from an iTunes add on. When they work, they work great. But when they don’t they can be hard to uninstall. I suggest learning to use the Activity Monitor – a handy way to stop a process causing an iTunes Freeze so that you can figure out if the freeze may be due to a plug in or not. If it is, you can then uninstall the plug in. If it isn’t, you can trouble shoot using Activity Monitor.
Do you use iTunes add ons? What are your favorites? Did LifeHacker leave any off its list?
For Your Amusement
The holiday guide to iCrap. Thanks for the tip, Wm.!
Using Your Mac For Holiday Cheer
Creating a short movie card or holiday podcast is the ultimate in easy with a Mac. I just used my MacBook to make this tiny, miniature pod cast for Cre8Buzz:
I had never used Garage Band to make a pod cast before, and it took about 30 seconds from the time I opened the program to the time I hit export to iTunes to say what I wanted and add background Rockabilly holiday music. Easy peasy!
If I can think of enough to say I may do a longer pod cast email for all of my far flung friends and relatives this year. I probably wont do an iMovie, I’m too camera shy, but I bet some of my friends like Meleah will. How about you?
(Don’t forget to help me win the Cre8Buzz contest, too!)
I Can’t Believe It Is Almost Christmas: Apple Gift Guide
Apple released the Apple Gift Guide this week. I can’t believe it is almost Christmas! The link below will get you free shipping on items ordered from the Gift Guide. Enjoy!
Apple Store Gift Guide – Free Shipping on all Gift Guide items.
iTunes Goes Wifi
Apple Week In Review
I got a bit busy this week, as I mentioned over on Smoke Rings. That means I missed some excellent Apple news for you. By way of apology for tripping over my own deadlines this week, here is a quick recap of some of the highlights:
- MacWorld has opened registration for the the big MacWorld 2008 event and exhibition. Even better, for a limited time you can enter the code below at this site and get into the exhibit hall portion of the show for free. Yes, FREE. I wish I still lived in Santa Barbara – I’d so be there! (Use Priority Code: 08-E-VF01 to get the Exhibit Hall passes for free until October 5th.)
- This is a nice look at the man behind the beautiful designs of the iMac, iPod and iPhone, Jonathan Ive.
- The drummer from the Ramones, unable to resurrect his career legitimately, has decided to make some money by suing Apple and a host of others over use of his music. Git.
- This site tells you how to stream movies to your iPhone from iTunes. Awesome.
- Apple asks its workers to cancel holiday plans between Turkey Day and Xmas this year. The plan seems to be to release the new line of slim MacBooks,, and that coupled with new iPod options and other innovations may make this holiday season quite busy for Apple.
- Steve Jobs was subpoenaed by the SEC in the back dating case.
Have a great rest of your weekend! Can’t wait to see what Apple news and rumor abounds in the coming week.
You can also read my work today at Profy (NovelMaker, Mog vs LastFM), The Writer’s Well, and Smoke Rings. Enjoy!
The RIAA Killed Your Ringtones
RIAA has been a thug-life thrill killa for years now, but this one takes the cake. Do you know why Apple passed up their goal of user generated ring tones? That’s right, the ever evil RIAA made them. I am so sick of having to hear about and deal with the RIAA / MPAA bullshit, aren’t you? They should take a good hard look at digital media trends and get with the times already. Sadly, that probably won’t happen any time soon. Definitely read those two intelligent links on the RIAA and ringtones – you’ll learn something new.
Clearly, the record companies jumped on ringtones as a whole of stack of potential profits that could not be allowed to go without remuneration. Apple makes very little from sales of music in iTunes; the vast majority of revenues are funneled back to the record companies, which then devise how to avoid paying their talent and keep as much as they can.
I’ve ranted and raved about the RIAA so often on so many of my blogs that I feel like I’m repeating myself to write it all over again. Don’t worry, I still believe in fighting the good fight! I just don’t want to bore you with repetition. That said, you can read my previous rants thoughts on the RIAA at the following links:
How Do You Find New Music In An RIAA Thug Age?
Arrrr Ye Mateys, Do Ye Have Stolen Music?
FSF Calling Steve Jobs To Account For His Words.
MPAA Tries On RIAA Steel Toed Boots.
Prince: Marketing Genius And RIAA Defeater.
Bush’s Daughters And RIAA Copyright.
Annoying Future: RIAA Schooled By Judge.
Harvard Encouraged To Stand Up To RIAA.
End Of Boycott RIAA Month, Not End Of Fight.
Score One Digital Radio, Zero RIAA.
Television Melding With Internet.
Now They Are Dragging Out The It’s For The Children Chestnut.
The Reasons Behind The Reason.
OK. I just realized how much I’ve written about this topic. There are about 100 more RIAA posts on my various blogs. 
Just go to any of them and type in RIAA, it seems, and you’ll get a gazillion jillion hits.
Next Generation iPod: WANT
I thought I was content with my 30GB iPod Video for another little while. Until Steve Jobs unveiled the drool worthy new line of iPods yesterday. 160GB! Touch screen! WiFi! I must get my hands on those wonderful toys!
The hardest thing for me is going to be deciding which one to put on my wish list. Do I want enough room for my entire music collection in the 160GB? What about touch screen, getting rid of the click wheel that my long nails sometimes make irritating to use? And Wifi! glorious WiFi! Wireless iTunes downloads! Decisions, decisions.
Which one would you choose?
Two Recent Mac Purchases I LOVE
I made two recent Mac purchases, and I love them both.
The first recent purchase was Mojotones by VoodooErgonomics. I’ve been using a product called Xingtones. Xingtones has been great, I have no problem with Xingtones, but I have to say Mojotones came along and blew it away. They are both $20, so well within most budgets. They both make excellent sounding ring tones. they are both easy to use, though I have to give Mojotones the edge here for being a little more pleasant to look at and overall a slightly simpler interface.
So if they are both equally good products for creating your own ring tones? What really put Mojotones in first place? Four little words: Full Song Ring Tones. also, it is fully integrated with iTunes. Unless the song is locked by the artist, you can make any song in your iTunes folder into 30 clip on repeat or a full song. I love it! Plus, it is one click action and it works with any phone. Xingtone only works with one phone number at a time.
The other little gem I bought this week is the Griffin iMic. For under $40, I can now transfer all of my vinyl and cassettes to my MacBook. How sweet it is! It is a completely plug and play device. If you find the set up as it comes in the box is too noisy on your records and you don’t want to run them through garage band for clean up, they also sell a $20 grounding cable for your turntable that eliminates the problem. The hissing noise just sounds like an old school record to me, so I don’t need the second cable. I’m having a blast with this. It’s too bad I have to work to afford these toys, otherwise I’d be playing with the thing all weekend.
I’d write more gushing words about the iMic, but I have to go play some more old school punk records now. I’m currently on 7 Seconds. See you on the flip side!
6th Generation iPod
I am only marginally excited for this. When I tell you the reason why I can’t jump for joy yet, I just know you will laugh your collective socks off at me. Are you ready? No off button. I’m serious! Stop laughing! I am not in love with the sleep feature on the iPod. I don’t know about your iPod, maybe yours works just fine, but my iPod? Not so much. When it is on its own, not attached to anything, it shuts down like it is supposed to, eventually, but I consider the delay to be wasted battery minutes. When it is attached to my iHome in the kitchen or my iRiver in the car? It never shuts off. I constantly have to remember to take it out of the iHome or unplug it from the iRiver so it “knows” it should shut down. Eventually. After it wastes a few minutes of battery. It’s a small thing, I know, but I’d love to have the ability to just hit OFF already. Is that too much to ask?
Whew. Apparently I have strong iPod off switch feelings. Who knew? Back to the next generation iPod. It is rumored to have a large, more iPhone like screen in the works, which would be nice for video viewing. It is also rumored to run on OS X, another nice feature. According to the source web site, ArsTechnica, you should look for this in January. Knowing Apple, I’m guessing they will late but the 6th Gen iPod will be even better because of it. And if anyone at Apple reads this? Power. Button. Seriously, people.
Using Your iPod To Its Full Potential
This web site has a nice write up on 5 things you can do to use your iPod to its full potential. Subway maps? Dictionary? Match maker? Jogging/Walking route planner? Doom player? This site has links to them all. I doubt I’ll be installing Linux on my iPod anytime soon (to play Doom), but the others I may give a go. Two thumbs up for these links to some excellent iPod hacks.
How Do You Find New Music In An RIAA Thug Age?
The RIAA seems hell bent on preventing people from finding new music the old fashioned way – by sharing it with friends. I wouldn’t listen to music at all if I had been restricted to what the radio programming manager decided should be the handful of songs in rotation in any given week. My entire life I’ve never been a fan of what’s on the radio. I love punk, goth, alternative (real alternative, not the current umbrella category) and other off the wall choices. Would I have found the music I love in public consumption? Hell, no. I had to turn to my friends for that. They’d make me mixed tapes, and I’d go buy the albums if I liked the songs. I’d say what the RIAA considers illegal music sharing in analog form is what got me to the point where I own (as in paid for, you RIAA fucktards) over 400 cassettes, 800 CDs, nearly 800 records (it was 1000 – I weeded) and tons of iTunes and eMusic mp3s (over 1000 so far and still going). Tally that up, you narrow minded corporate drones – I may be one person, but that is a LOT of money spent on music over the years.
Anyway, RIAA rant aside, we are still left with the problem of how to share the music that we legally own. Playing a song for your friends, no matter where they are, is definitely fair use in my book. Not only that, it is fair use that leads to sales – it’s how we discover new talent. There are a few things you can do to find new music. You can listen to internet radio, assuming the RIAA doesn’t destroy that also in their quest to homogenize the planet and control the airwaves. Internet radio is full of stations that play truly alternative, cutting edge music. Streaming one of the stations, even the ones you see on iTunes radio, is a great way to find something new to love.
You can try programs like SimplifyMedia. My friend Cyndy and I tried this last night, and she wrote a review of it in her Web 2.0 series on Profy. She liked it better than I did. I give it points for catering to the voyeur in me – snooping around someone else’s iTunes and judging them for bonding with them over their taste in music is always fun. Plus you get to see the guilty pleasure songs they never allow to pop up on their iPod and tease them about it (she got to see my Johnny Cash hiding in my playlist, I got to see her show tunes). SimplifyMedia has a couple of major drawback though. First, you can not see the music you bought using iTunes. That is a huge blow against this software for me as I’m a big believer in fair use once I’ve paid for something. Second, while the program doesn’t take up much room on your hard drive, or use much bandwidth, using it really blows up your RAM consumption. I have 1.25 GB in my MacBook, and I found I had to close programs to keep the stream going – not cool.
You can share music the old fashioned way, by burning your friend a CD or emailing them a song. That works for real life friends, but what about interweb fwenz? That puts them completely out of the picture. You can push your luck by using an old fashioned service like Napster used to be, but I wouldn’t recommend that. It puts you at risk for RIAA attention, of course, but also for viruses hidden in files – it just isn’t smart in either case. I believe you should be able to share music that way if you want, again because it drives sales, but this is one case where the risks outweigh the reward. I’d stick to email or CD “mix tapes” instead.
My current favorite way to share music is Mog. This new social network allows you to create a profile and place widgets on both the Mog profile and your web site (you can see my “currently playing” widget in the lower right sidebar). You then make friends, similar to Myspace, Friendster, FaceBook and others but with a much less obnoxious interface. what I love about it that you can blog your music on your Mog profile and upload songs, alum art and videos to support your review of the artist. Then you can embed the player in your blog or web page, giving you another way to point to your review and expose your favorite music to the masses. I’ve done this a couple of times, and know for a fact it resulted in sales – the people who bought the songs would not have heard of them otherwise. It’s easy, they do all of the work for you, and it doesn’t require any software to be installed on your computer. Both Mog and SimplifyMedia work on Macs without a hitch.
However you do it, don’t stop sharing your music tastes with the world just because the greedy people at the RIAA want more of your money (and believe me, it is the RIAA who get the money they sue for, not the artists). I tallied up the total spent on music from my list above and using average costs of cassettes, CDs and records at the tie of purchase, plus iTunes songs, I figured I have spent an average of $26,170 in music since the age of twelve. that’s more than my car costs, people, and yet the RIAA is still being greedy. Shame on them. If you have a favorite way to share music with friends, let me know in the comments. Shoot, if you like the kind of music I do, go ahead and recommend music to me in the comments – I’m always looking for a new earworm.
If you just want to add me to your Mog friends, click here for my Mog profile.
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Technorati Tags: Music Sharing, RIAA, Fair Use, Mix Tape, Music, Online Music Downloads, Streaming Radio, Mog, iTunes, iPod
Follow Up on iTunes with Ringtones
Well, I upgraded to iTunes 7.3 and can safely say no ring tones are evident as speculated earlier. What’s more, other sites are now saying that once the ring tone feature is active in later versions, you will a) only be able to make ring tones out of songs purchased from iTunes and b) will get charged an extra 99 cents a song on top of the original cost of the song to make a 30 second ring tone. If that is true, that’s a multi-level rip off that really pisses me off.
First of all, that first 99 cents a song should cover all fair use of the song. Including making a damn ring tone if we want to. Second, what about my other music services and my CDs? eMusic is a favorite of mine for songs, and I have hundreds of CDs. You mean to tell me that if this rumor pans out I can’t use any of that music to make ring tones for the iPhone, which will only be compatible with iTunes? What a crock. That would make me a really unhappy Apple customer.
It seems that so far Apple is missing a big boat with the iPhone not being able to use a full song from the iPod/iTunes library on it as a ring tone, not to mention the choice of AT&T as the carrier. If the grapevine speaks the truth they can chalk up another strike against them on this, which is too bad. I was hoping they’d be innovative and lead the way on songs as ring tones and other features.
Tags: iPhone, Ring Tone, RingTone, iPhone Ringtones, eMusic, AT&T, Cingular, ringtones, ringtunes
iTunes 7.3 May Have Custom Ringtone Support
This rumor gets a resounding “Hallelujah!” from me. Up until now I have happily been using a program called Xingtone to create my ring tones for my phone, but to have ring tone support right in iTunes would be wonderful.
As it is, as good as Xingtone is as a program, it only works with one phone number, and you have to jump through a few hoops with songs you buy in iTunes to get them to work. Songs bought on other sites, like eMusic, work fine, though.
I hope that iTunes Ringtone creator includes some of the features offered by Xingtone: equalizer, custom cut, fades, sequencing and other effects. You can even record a voice over the music usung Xingtone. If iTunes can do half as much, it will still be good, but if it can do it all that would be even better.
Tags: xingtone, itunes 7.3, itunes with ringtones, ringtones, custom ringtones, emusic
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