Views from the Ivory Tower -October 2007

By Ted Bade

 

Another month and yet another special announcement from Apple. This time, as you probably know, Apple updated their line of iPods. I personally think they made some very nice improvements. As usual, Mr. Jobs put on a Keynote presentation to introduce the new iPods.

 

He started out with a couple of interesting statistics. Apple is now the #3 music retailer in the US, just above Amazon. (Wow, what a change this is. Who would have thought that a computer company would eventually move so high into the ranks of selling music?) He also pointed out that in 2006 32% of the new album releases were digital only. Interesting. To me this says that part of the recording industry is embracing digital media as a viable solution. I don’t think that CD’s will disappear in the foreseeable future, but I do see more and more independent artists being able to release their music using the digital domain rather then making a CD.

 

Apple added the ability to make and buy ring tones for the iPhone to the iTunes program. I was impressed with their solution. Most companies allow the user to buy a snippet that was produced by someone else. This piece may or may not be exactly what the user wants. Using Apple’s iTunes solution, the user can create a snippet from anywhere they choose in any participating song. I do realize there is software out there that allows the user to cut a snippet from any tune to use. This may or may not be legal, Apple’s solution is 100% legal and fees are paid.

 

Once again, Apple is leading the world by allowing the user, not the manufacturer, choose what they want. I like that. That has always been Apple’s method and that is why I use their computers. They let me, (for the most part), do things the way I like. I don’t have to follow corporate rules or live with what they want me to. I can do it myself. Yes, surely this means I can bungle the process. But at least I know I bungled it!

 

In any case, the deal with ring tones is that when you make one you like you can buy it for 99¢. Obviously one needs to already own the song to make a ring tone with it. If the user already owns the song, they don’t have to buy it again to make the ring tone, but they do have to buy it if they don’t. So cost of a ring tone without owning the song is $2 (1 for the song and 1 for the ring tone). I think that is a very fair price to get something exactly as you want it.

 

Apple updated all of its iPods, although the shuffle only got a new color scheme. Apple added a larger LCD screen to the Nano and the ability to view photos and movies. They changed the name of the standard iPod to iPod Classic, because they needed to differentiate it from the new iPod Touch. They also added capacity to the iPod classic, the high end one now offers 160 GBytes! (Who has that many songs? I don’t know, but with 160 G of space, this iPod can carry my music library and have enough space for a Macintosh backup boot volume and a ton of applications!)

 

The iPod Touch is modeled after the iPhone. It has the full sized touch screen with the ability to change orientation as you move it around. It comes in two sizes 8 and 16 G of storage. After years of wishing that Apple would make an iPod with a full sized video screen, I am really pleased by what they finally created! All I wanted was a larger screen, Apple added a number of interesting and useful abilities to the iPod Touch as well.

 

The Touch offers built in WiFi, so you can access the internet and more importantly (to Apple), the iTunes Music Store as you wander about. If you buy and download a song to the Touch, it will upload to your Mac next time you synch it. This WiFi can be used to access the Internet and the web using a version of Safari that is installed on the Touch. There is a button to get you directly into Utube (to watch their videos), and you can move the bookmarks from your Mac (or PC) into the Touch for easy access to your favorite web sites. Since this thing can run one application, Safari, I wonder why it couldn’t run several others. Perhaps someone will figure out how to make the iPod touch into a PDA!

 

Apple finally pulled coffee seller Starbucks into their plans by getting Starbucks to agree to free access to the iTunes store when entering a participating Starbucks. The deal is that you can see the artist and title of the current and past ten songs playing on the store’s audio system. If you like, you can buy the song and using Starbuck’s WiFi, download it to your Touch. Interesting, although I don’t know how much value people will see in this. If I go to Starbucks with my iPod, I am usually listening to my stuff on the iPod and not the store’s music!

 

A final bit of news that really annoyed a lot of customers was that Apple reduced the cost of the iPhone by $200! Wow. While this is a kind of slap in the face for early adopters, it is good news for people who wanted an iPhone but thought the price was out of their range. It also really ruins the plans of those people who bought an iPhone speculating they could resell it for a profit when the supply got low! In a letter to previous iPhone users, Steve Jobs explains a little about the situation. While he didn’t say it, one gets the impression that Apple worked a really good deal on components and could therefore reduce the price. Reducing the price at this time, just before the winter holidays, is a good sales move as well. In exchange for their early purchase, Apple is giving them a $100 Store credit at any Apple store. That’s nice. I know how the market can change, I was one of those who bought the original iPod 3 days before the price dropped $100! But back then it wasn’t so popular that I got a rebate!

 

Video glasses - I mentioned the video glasses a couple of time in the past. Then they were really vapor-ware, something planned, but not yet available. I recently hear that a company called Vuzix has some really cool video glasses. These glasses give you a personal and private video space. They have versions designed to connect to a video iPod or your computer. Using a product like this gives one a view as if they had a very large screen and can also come in handy for keeping what is on your screen personal.

 

Sounds like interesting gear to me. I would love to be able to see my iPod video on a virtual large screen!

 

Golly, Apple has been so busy pleasing and annoying people on their own, that there is little else to talk about! Are the exciting day of controversy and regular rumors of Apple’s demise gone forever? I don’t expect they are totally over ☺. For Mac users, these are interesting times!

 

As always, keep on using your Mac!