iPod Redefines RDF

Well the Reality Distortion Field has never been in more full effect than it was last Wednesday with the announcement and release of the G5 Video iPod.

Despite Steve Jobs well-known and long documented protestations over video (immersive technology) on a small screen Apple have caved and gone to the market with the iPod update that has been forced upon him by market and popular expectation.

It's sad that there is emerging this view that you have to have one device to do everything when the iPod has done music so well. I wouldn't want to combine my iPod with my cellphone because I'm sure as hell not going to dock my phone with my stereo when I get home from work.

And this is why the iPod rules in the music player stakes and also why video won't hurt it. It is so damned practical to dump all your music on it. For fanatics like me it is the business. It won't displace my phone but it has displaced my two PDAs (one an aging Palm IIIe and the other the lacklustre and backlight bereft Palm Zire 21) and frankly I'm pleased to se the back of them as the iPod's contact display and management options are more than enough for my needs.

Coked Out

You wonder whether they're on the jungle juice over at Coke Headquarters ... You really do ...

Yesterday, in little old iTMS deprived NZ, Coke launched Coke Tunes, a big music service touting 500,000 songs.

The Herald reported the launch but missed the fact that it doesn't work with Firefox - only I.E. (bad idea, especially as the new I.E. cannot be built to standards.

They reported that the service doesn't work with iPods and I thought "What are they thinking?"

Every kid wants an iPod. They are not going to use this service if they can't put their tunes on their player of choice.

Coke may as well just give their money away ...

Map Attack

Following reports in Wired News this morning that the new Virtual Earth from MSN shows Apple Headquarters as an empty lot I decided to have a look for myself ...



Sure enough. Microsoft have now fully decided to ignore completely the Cupertino crowd. They blame old maps. No excuse.


The same view from Google Maps showing the 11 buildings in the oval that make up the Apple Campus.



What is more interesting though is the way the two mapping rivals treat each other. Google is confused about itself .. Somehow it thinks it is Keyhole and is based in an empty lot beside a freeway.



MSN does depict the location ... Surprise, surprise. I guess Apple are just hacking off MS more in their games of endless catch-up with both companies.

Bollocks Fast Company

In an article published for their August issue, Fast Company argue that the iPod is doomed because Apple's competitors are adding more features for their players while the iPod remains closed.

The author, John J. Sviokla, argues that the iPod's competitors are operating in an open "ecosystem" and that history has always favoured such.

Well that is debatable and there are precedents for suggesting that the inferior technology offered by this lumpen conglomerate of PC lovers could succeed ... but really it's beyond them now because none has the sheer effusive style and panache of the iPod.

Even consider for a minute the fact that Creative, one of the first company's on the market with a MP3 player, actually saw their profit fall last year.

How can they innovate and research when they have no money? Will Microsoft's support be enough? I would say their support would be a hindrance rather than a benefit.

The MSN music service is muddled at best with its typically timid washed-out MS design and featuring all this stuff that gets in the way of what I want.

Apple though have made a iTunes is a classic ... They have the classic paradigm ... The device combined with the application and augmented by the service (the Music Store) all with miraculous ease of use. Nothing can beat it. Not in a million years.

Squandered Opportunity

In my home of Auckland, TVNZ are tonight screening the first episode of the hit UK drama Hustle.

Looking like a cross between Snatch and Ocean's Eleven, the network have been pumping this baby for weeks with promos setting out to titillate and encourage us to dive in there on the night.

None of the promos really got me going though like some thing that I caught out of the corner of my eye a few nights ago advertising the Auckland Harbour Bridge being for sale. Details were apparently planted in the Herald of the next day ... it was shaping like a media bonanza ... I had to see it.

So yeah, they'd taken out a full page ad (right-hand page, inside back front section - prime space) advertising our bridge being for sale and referring us to a website for Clacy Hughes Realty ... (or Clacy Huges Realty in the title bar)

So what does one do .. well one goes and has a look and yes, its pretty much a replica of the print ad. same picture, (albeit cut down) but with one difference, blinking text enticed me to CLICK HERE to view tenders.

So I did that too and then I was greeted with a screen that told me I'd been hustled. Hustled? For clicking through on that? Maybe if I had been genuinely tricked. Great idea for TVNZ to try stepping outside the bounds of their usual promo activity but not quite enough to convince me ... Having come up with the idea they could have at least seen it through ...

vPod or vPort?

With the rumour mill running at overdrive that Apple are going to release a video iPod, and the news reports about the negotiations (the oft-quoted Wall St Journal story) going on at the moment with the film companies it is worth taking stock of some things that Steve Jobs has said in the past about such a device.

Audio different from Video

Audio is an ambient medium that you can do other things to while video requires your full attention. This alone would negate the device being anything but large.

Device Size

As video does need to be so immersive then how can Apple achieve a form factor that will satisfy the market and create the hit product they would need ... How?

It already exists. You just have to look (as Cringely says) at the "shoes" already thrown by Steve Jobs. But even hasn't picked up on this.

I would bet they will do nothing with the iPod but look to doing something with AirPort Express with iTunes. The video codec has been added to iTunes. Apparently that was trivial.

This is one cool little product that is about to get seriously extended so that you can enjoy (well anybody in the USA with a broadband connection and a middle-class income at least) video on demand and movies whenever you want. And on a device that will support watching video -- ie ... your TV.

Then again, I could be completely wrong and Jobs will be seen holding up a vPod at a product launch in San Fran around September. The RDF is like that ...

More iPod Envy

The Microsofters are getting more desperate by the day is this strangely named page (accessed via a link off the beta version of the new aol.com) shows.

Its all about passion, and the default screen for this collection of Passion that encompasses "lifestyle" is music.

What marketing dweeb at Redmond Headquarters would have signed off on this creative? It's fairly appallingly generic (reminds me of clip art gone crazy from 10 years ago) and a classic example of a company on the back foot, pumping up the vapourware while another little company (with supposed tiny market share) has stolen the march and keeps improving and developing its product range in both hardware and software for where the next computing battle is being fought ... the home.

I would say now that this goes beyond iPod Envy, this is now fully Apple Envy and Microsoft are very scared and probably more so now that Apple has a pending move to Intel in the wings.

Theories about The Switch

This article is an interesting take on the Apple to Intel switch, especially in light of the release of those new IBM chips.

You've got to wonder and perhaps even agree with Jon Stokes (the author of the
ArsTechnica article) that he is right considering these chips would drive the Apple laptops to G5 speeds without melting the motherboard.

They would also provide the low power drain that laptop consumers demand and need these days.

So apart from what he is saying about Apple being an incredibly demanding customer that couldn't get what it wanted when it wanted, what on earth could be driving the move away from IBM with all its complicated architecture redesign?

The desire to beat Gates. More on this later ...

You Don't Know

This has been building for some time but it is now growing so fast that it cannot be ignored.

The shuffle factor, made mainstream by the iPod but utilised for years previous as Random Selection on desktop audio players and CD systems, is now influencing radio so much that a new format has arrived and is gaining traction big-time.

Jack Radio is a genre-bending "train wreck" of end-to-end songs akin to the selection diversity one might come across on an iPod set in Shuffle mode with upwards of 1000-1500 songs.

On mine, (2,200+ songs) Julian Cope can come up before Roots Manuva and on Sunday, the faithful G3 was shuffling through the library and we heard Portishead (Glorybox from Dummy) before Interpol headed off Patsy Cline. Only the huge capacity made possible by the iPod has created the template for the disjunctive surprise of 'What's coming next?' that many people now enjoy.

There's a kind of poetry to this as the iTunes code serves up this randomness and we are tempted to wonder whether there isn't a bit of AI going on here. How much is the thing learning from me?

It just goes to show how we are all rediscovering how much great music there is and has been rather than filling up on the average of the moment sounds. Even if you are a white guy who's not quite as cool as he thinks he is.

If Jack Radio is going to be a serious contender in the radio formats of the future then I'm sure we'll see many flavours of Jack.

Platform Wars Forever

Apple's plan to switch to Intel chips initially provoked an outpouring of vindictive that Apple was suddenly siding with the enemy.

The heedless and the over-emotional who would like to see Apple stay in a niche grotto make these sorts of rash judgements without considering for a second the business imperatives behind what is probably the biggest decision ever taken by Steve Jobs and Co.

They see it clearly now as the right time to take the Mac to primetime.

Several factors have pointed to this, chiefly among them the continued dropdead success of the iPod and the Apple music strategy in general.

Also the genuine wider uptake of Macs in the consumer market. The low exposure on the business market has for a long time skewed the share figures down. You can't (Dell, HP/Compaq etc) ignore the fact that 7 of the 10 top-selling desktops on Amazon are Macs and 6 of those are G5s. That is incredible for a company with supposed less than 5% market share.

Then there's burgeoning laptop market that IBM could not service with a suitable G5 chip that Apple are desperate to grow with speed (because they make the coolest portables by far). These occupy 6 of the top 10 places on Amazon. Again, incredible.

So with Intel in there, these machines will run faster and despite the protestations that Apple will only allow OSX to run on Macs you can bet that's just the Reality Distortion Field in action. I can see those PCs being lined up and everyone offering the old dual boot scenario and pretty soon it could be goodbye Microsoft ... It won't happen tomorrow, but it will happen.

Here's a great guide to the change to Intel for Joe Consumer.

Kings Of Their Own Stage

There's only one band around that are really doing it for me right now. Queens of the Stone Age have ripped through the genre mess of post-punk rock (and pop) to create a sound that is pure addic-tion. Once you're hooked you can't get enough.

They've been that way though ever since they incarnated themselves from the ashes of Kyuss, mixing power rock with slower blues-based churn that gets right inside your skull, forcing a hold that is mesmeric in its influence.

I read somewhere (where oh where on the web was it?) that they come on like a combination of Can and Canned Heat and I'd have to agree that that is pretty close but you'd have to throw a nod to the Sabbath as well, the band that undoubtedly influenced much of their desired "robot rock".

And they've grown in stages through the very fine Rated R (the second album) to the tightly-wound, unrelenting (and some say commercial) Songs for The Deaf while arriving at their new departure point Lullabies to Paralyse.

This is one engrossing album. Like the others before it, not perfect, but with the Queens you gotta take the rough with the smooth. It seems to represent a real maturing of their sound and ideas, as it spins between muddy blues feels, taut riff-a-rama and sheer QOTSA grooves.

Many have bagged it, but the ones that like it, (this NME review is a good summation) you have to trust because they know what it is to hear a band on top of their game and leaving everyone in their wake.

Watch out - QOTSA fans are everywhere and in the form of genuine music lovers as this titbit at the unlikely source of Wine Journal shows ...

Steve Jobs Posting in Slashdot!?

In an incredible series of posts to the Apple forum on Slashdot, As Seen On TV has a lot of people of wondering whether he is Steve Jobs or another high-profile Apple exec -- Marketing honcho Phil Schiller appears to be high on some slashdotters radar.

But this poster has to be Jobs, or at least possess the soul of Apple's CEO by the tone of his postings and the topics commented on. He also seems to be not afraid of losing his job.

The most revelatory post involves a reply to the often speculated appearance of a video iPod. As Seen shoots this down with characteristic Jobs vindictive saying a video iPod would be wrong for all sorts of reasons. Reasons he's commented on before and is probably tired of hearing rehashed in the media.

The best line in the post has to be the last, a guide to all the tyre-kickers out there speculating on where Apple may go now with their incredible product set:

"These are the things you guys need to be paying attention to. Not the product releases. The lawsuits. That's where you'll find the clues."

Throughout the post he is at pains to point out that most of the challenges Apple face are not with the technology but with business.

Mind you, if this really is Jobs posting then if one was to be believe in the famous "Reality Distortion Field" I'd expect a video iPod by Christmas. But then again, As Seen does point to AirPort Express as being capable of doing the job. Undoubtedly a few tweaks in support for some video protocols yes but then what's to stop you downloading video to your iPod Photo and then playing back on your TV.

He's said often enough he doesn't believe in small players being effective with such immersive media as video.

As Seen On TV really has got me thinking that Jobs is sick and tired of the speculation himself and wants to steer the discussion of the geeks himself. Tough job.

Platform Wars

It's all on again with the release of Tiger, as Apple continues to trump the Wintel Yokels on the fronts where they matter ... digital entertainment.

Of course the Microsofties have always been jealous about the coolness factor that Apple engenders but this latest spat had it's beginnings with the emergence of the iPod as a genuine drop-dead hit. But when you have the device, the application and the service so nicely integrated and effortless to use, it's no wonder they're shirty.

Microsoft for their part are hampered in this because they only make the software (if you can call a repository for malware by such a harmless name) and the hardware makers in their camp are hampered because they have to rely on the bohemoth to turn out something that will deal to iTunes and quick smart. Chances of that happening are almost at the same odds as Steve Jobs sitting down to a t-bone in Palo Alto with Kevin Rollins.

The latter mentioned, from Dell, the company often compared to Buick, alos make an MP3 player, dubbed the DJ. Rollins is so steamed at Apple that he referred to the iPod as a passing fad, saying that in his day they had the Walkman. Wake up Man, the iPod is the 21st Century Walkman.

The jealousy is palpable. You see it in the way the PC centric media write about anything to do with Apple. They detest the fact that the company and Steve Jobs is now on its third coming thanks to the amazing job done with the music thing.

Nowhere is this more obvious than with Rob Glaser from Real Networks. He is a real angry, meat-eating Windows zealot who just can't help himself. So angry in fact that he had his engineers tweak his Harmony software so it would work with iPods. Not sure how many iPod owners had actually signed up to use Harmony before Apple rewrote the code to block it again, but it was a dirty, sly, behind-the-back trick that these guys have to resort to now to get market share in this segment.

I'm also unsure how Tera Patrick managed to pull this off but there is an hilarious transcript of a lunch meeting between Rob Glaser and Steve Jobs in Palo Alto right here.

MSFT Bashing

Meanwhile over at Microsoft, discontent is brewing as they play catch-up on all number of fronts. Because of their stated objective of being everywhere, Microsoft hampers itself every time. The fight for supremacy of the digital domain will move to the home and the handset within the next 10 years and don't they know it. Publicly they bet the farm on Windows and this hampers any efforts at innovation.

It's employees are some of the most active bloggers anywhere. One of them, Scobelizer was moved of course to write an open letter to BG about getting a decent MP3 player built and has been very vocal about Ballmer's decision not to support the gay rights bill in Washington State after they backed down to pressure applied by a fundamentalist church.

There's a lot more hand-wringing going on over there and guys like this spill a lot saying right there in his URL the company would be better off without Ballmer.

The employees represent the heart and soul of a company and I'd say going by the above that MS is sick, and in need of remedial surgery to revive it. They've sat on their hands on their Browser, the OS and their Server products. The Execs still talk the talk though. Look at Jim Allchin, the Windows boss, dismissing Tiger a couple of days prior to release as being nothing more than a "peripharal to the iPod". If only you could refer to Windows in such flattering terms.