iDon’t Get It
Looks like there are quote a few anti-ipod site/movements out there. The irony is that many seem to be funded and ran by ipod competitors. I think we’ve seen this in the past - the products that win in the market do so not by bashing better products and their users; but by innovating and designing a better, more compelling product.
I’ll link to the story but not to the anti-ipod sites, they can dig for traffic from the college kids with black nails that complain about everything anyway and geeks who hate DRM because it cramps their stealing style.
By the way this is not a compelling alternative to the ipod. The winner is obvious.
Most “Geeks” don’t like DRM because they do not like being locked out of content that they have payed for or should have the right to view.
So you are an Apple and IPod fan. Imagine your horror if Microsoft began to do *exclusive* deal with the providers of a large section of popular content, including most major players in the recording, movie and television. ( Microsoft + MTV = URGE ). The exclusive part requires the media players to use Microsoft’s DRM, with no playback options for Ipods, Apple Macs.
Antitrust, you cry! But the lawsuits will take at least four years to get though the court system ( not counting appeals ) and the current administration of the DOJ and FTC are gutless.
“Geeks” want to play content on the platform they choose, and want to shift media formats to what their platforms uses, be it the Ipod, generic MP3 player, PSP, Apple, Microsoft or Linux. “Geeks” want what you want.
Real “Geeks” also want full access to there platform without the DRM locking them out.
http://itheresies.blogspot.com/2005_08_01_itheresies_archive.html
I don’t fully agree, I think “users” just want their music. Normal people don’t think of content as something they have a “right” to. That’s my point, they just want the stuff, if it means you use iTunes so what. The reason I think my point is valid…look at the number of iPods sold, the number of iPods people have “upgraded” from design to design. I’m a fan of good design and today the business supporting that is apple, one of those products is the ipod.
“Geeksâ€Â? want what you want - Not really, I don’t care. I have one platform and one device. I have no need for interoperability. I am also not necessarily the target and admit that, just like DRM-enemies need to admit that many people - the honest user of these products - don’t care. And that’s the majority, they just want it to work.
The reason the iPod works so well is because it’s overly simplified, some say stifling, I don’t agree. It works because you have limited choices, it works because it doesn’t try to be everything. To me that’s great usability, from the perspective that they have limited their world and done an excellent job working with it. MS and MS-based players feel compelled to support every bell & whistle and every machine at every level. And now that they are seeing it doesn’t work the only alternative is to attack the iPod, fine. It doesn’t matter in the end, the device and streamlined approach is compelling enough to continue dominating the market.
But that is my point. What if you could not get the content you want on your Ipod. What if Microsoft or some other industry player came along and, month by month, there was less and less content available for the Ipod to play?
Microsoft has somehow bought the content stream? If Microsoft bought all the labels, and the indies, and the movie studios, then yes I guess I’d be angry. But as of today they haven’t. Is Fairplay the best for everyone, nope. Do you have an alternative? I guess, but they are pretty crappy. Is that Apple’s fault? Nope.
iTMS != iPod.
The iPod is nothing but a music player, and now a workout aid. It has no DRM and will let you play mp3s, AAC files, apple lossless files, audible files, etc.. Bemoan its lack of support for the open source format of the week, but it’s an awesome device and does exactly what it’s meant to do very well.
Now, you want to bitch about the music store and its fairplay DRM? Fine, I’m one of the first to complain that the music/movie companies have done everything possible to delete fair use from the legal dictionary in this country, but even so Apple’s DRM model is very fair. Plus, if you don’t like the DRM it’s easy enough to burn a CD of the music and just rerip is as unprotected mp3s or AAC files, at least until jhymn gets working again.
If you want to yell at people about DRM yell at the music industry and the movie industry that wouldn’t let apple so much as look at their music catalogs without some sort of DRM system.
The iPod is not the droids you are looking for.
Not even Bill Gates himself can deny the fact that the iPod is indeed the next best think since toast bread. It’s here to stay and I’m sure everyone expects even greater things to come.