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“even a moron”

Gotta love Apple’s attitude toward the ridiculous lawsuit from Apple Corps, The Beatles record label.

Giving opening arguments on Thursday, lawyers for Apple Computer asserted the company’s right to distribute music through its iTunes music store, rejecting claims by The Beatles’ Apple Corps Ltd. that doing so violated a 1991 trademark agreement.

According to the Associated Press, Apple lawyer Anthony Grabiner said the “distribution of digital entertainment content” was permitted under the agreement, in which the two companies promised not to interfere with the other’s business.

Grabiner said “even a moron in a hurry” could distinguish between the computer company’s online music business and a record label like Apple Corps.

“Data transmission is within our field of use. That’s what [the agreement] says and it is inescapable,” he said.

In his own opening arguments on Wednesday, Apple Corps’ lawyer Geoffrey Vos said Apple Computer’s music distribution business “was flatly contradictory to the provisions of the agreement.”

Vos argued that while Apple Computer is perfectly entitled to produce programs like iTunes, it should stay out of the music business if it uses the logo, a cartoonish apple with a neat bite out of its side, the AP reported. [AppleInsider]

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Networked DVR

When I first read the headline I got very excited, but then I realized this is not what I was hoping for…

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Cable operator Cablevision Systems Corp. (CVC.N) said on Monday it plans to introduce a video recording service as early as this year that aims to replace the living room digital video recorder.Digital video recorders made by such companies as Cisco Systems Inc.’s (CSCO.O) Scientific-Atlanta and TiVo Inc. (TIVO.O) allow subscribers to pause and rewind live television programs and store programs on hard drives included on their home set-top boxes. The Cablevision service, by contrast, will allow customers to store programs on servers located at Cablevision’s facilities. Cablevision said the move is designed to cut the cost of installing and fixing digital video recorders, which are prone to malfunction.It will operate over existing cable systems through customers’ current digital set top boxes. Though the company said it had not yet priced the service, it expects cost-savings to be passed on to customers. [New York Times]

I sincerely hope that Cable companies decide this is the low-end version of the DVR service and continue to offer / allow a more high end recording capability. My experience with cable DVRs has been quite good. What I would love is for a shared recording space so I can easily browse programs recorded centrally (or simply from a second box) in a different room. This technology already exists and Scientific Atlanta offers a version of the box I already use (8300HD) which enables multi-room functionality. My home has all the connective lines needed – just coax – to make this happen.

Additionally, with “recording” done on the external network, you essentially just offer an enhanced on-demand service which is fine for some instances, but defeats any hope of portability other than streaming. The EyeTV 200 I’ve recently added enables me to auto-export to iPod format which enables my content to be synced with a docked iPod – or streamed through iTunes on any other computer. If I had systems running Front Row, I’d be able to stream quite easily on my home network.

I know I am not in the majority of consumers nor do I view technology through the mass market filter, but I can’t imagine people want less from their content services and providers…

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iTune Multipass

I love this new feature! Today I ordered a pass to the Daily Show based how damn easy it is. The pricing is excellent and you get 16 shows for a considerable discount – thanks Apple and Viacom for getting how it should work.

The service is essentially paid podcasting. You pick what you want and it downloads as shows are available. Tonight I caught up the weeks episodes while commuting home and expect that tomorrow I will find tonight’s episode (which I’ve missed) auto-synched on my iPod. This could not be easier.

What’s next is obvious to me. HD or some significant boost towards at least 480p content so it’s closer to standard def TV until bandwidth can be dealt with for true HDTV on-demand / subscription services. Apple btw, is not calling this a subscription (more like a bulk buy) since the way subscription services work today is more akin to a rental and you own what iTunes delivers…

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ITMS – Instant Fullfillment

One of the killer features of the iTunes Music Store is the immediate gratification and instant fulfillment of your purchase. I just grabbed the latest Matisyahu entitled Youth and I love that while it’s actually downloading, I can begin listening.

Currently Jamming to Fire of Heaven / Altar of Earth from the album “Youth” by Matisyahu

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New Tunes

I am back from a week off on vacation and find it hard to get back into my previous groove with the number of active projects and how quickly things move when you miss a day – let alone a full week of mail and meetings.

I at least have some fresh tunes to keep things lively on my iPod…

Arctic Monkeys – Whatever People Say I Am Thats What I Am Not

I read about these guys in the NYT earlier in the week and I am very pleased with my first listen of these British punk rockers. The sound is clean and the songs infectious.

Cat Power – The Greatest

A really nice and deep sound for Cat, which is a change from some of her earlier works. I really dig this Memphis soul sound

Matisyahu – Shake Off the Dust… Arise and also Live at Stubbs

I had caught Matisyahu on Sirius while driving, but was not able to imprint the name, even on a second pass on another drive. It was not until I caught a Conan O’Brien appearance about two weeks ago, that things finally clicked. Matisyahu is Hasidic Jew Reggae singer and has to be heard to be understood. I find myself in a great mood with each listen. There’s a new release (Youth) coming in March and I’ll definitely be looking to get it as soon as it’s released.

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Audio Tools

I’ve added a few new tools of note to my gadget bag and thought I’d share…

First, Ashley was kind enough to get me a new 60GB 5G iPod and it’s a wonderful change from my previous 3G 40GB model. I love the color, size and resolution of the screen. The overall size is remarkable – expecially compared to my previous full size iPod. The only negative thing I can consider is that in video mode the battery life is MUCH shorter than I might like. It’s probably around 3 hours total if you do video, so plan accordingly. I was watching Battlestar Gallactica on my flight west last week and had to end before I was really ready when the battery gave out.

On my return I decided I finally deserved some real headphones and picked up a pair of Shure E4c E4c Sound Isolating Earphones. the sound improvement is simply remarkable compared to my older Sony Fontopia headphones which I liked and in fact had used through a second pair. The Shure headphones blow the doors off previous headphones I’ve tried. I used the foam ear pieces on my flight back but have since tried all the parts and find that the smallest rubber (black) fit my ears best. I love them and will be using these on my (1 hour) commute and through all my travels.

For iTunes, I added an audio plugin called Volume Logic which I would also recommend. It’s a significant sound enhancer and makes on computer listening that much better.

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The Pandora Project

I don’t know how I missed this until now, but the Pandora Project is a very cool music recommendation service.  I’ve been listening much more to Podcasts lately on my Nano and missing some new juice in the music department… Pandora is just what I need to track some new stuff – as well as stuff I know I already like.

With a simple selection of either an artist or song, you begin a personalized stream of music based on the qualities of that track.  What comes next is interesting… Definitely not what you might expect – which is the idea!  You can say whether you like or dislike things which of course further enables the recommendation engine.

The system runs in Flash via the browser, so as long as you have a decent connection you can get some good tunes flowing.  Pandora could easily replace my iTunes Radio listening as well as the desire to login to Sirius for some tunes there.  It’s nice to be more in control of the experience — especially when on a system that is not easily connected to my home collection.

The Pandora Project is a spawn of The Music Genome Project which as the site states:

On January 6, 2000 a group of musicians and music-loving technologists came together with the idea of creating the most comprehensive analysis of music ever.

Together we set out to capture the essence of music at the most fundamental level. We ended up assembling literally hundreds of musical attributes or “genes” into a very large Music Genome. Taken together these genes capture the unique and magical musical identity of a song – everything from melody, harmony and rhythm, to instrumentation, orchestration, arrangement, lyrics, and of course the rich world of singing and vocal harmony. It’s not about what a band looks like, or what genre they supposedly belong to, or about who buys their records – it’s about what each individual song sounds like.

Over the past 5 years, we’ve carefully listened to the songs of over 10,000 different artists – ranging from popular to obscure – and analyzed the musical qualities of each song one attribute at a time. This work continues each and every day as we endeavor to include all the great new stuff coming out of studios, clubs and garages around the world.

I’d say it’s a very successful experiment in my new and limited exposure to the system.  I can already see the need / desire for plugins to work with iTunes that would allow me to carry this through a more localized application.  I could also see an extension of this (with DRM of course) that would allow for programming of iPods in Podcast format, but by single track which would allow ratings to be tabulated and tracked back up so you could continue to get more and more refined selections.

I would definitely pay for the priviledge…

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Amazon Rocks

It looks like Amazon has quietly rolled out a new feature called Digital Wallet that allows customers to stream full digital audio from albums they have pre-ordered. No word if the service will extend to all CDs purchased through the store, specifically CDs that are currently available, but at least it’s a step in the right direction.

eHomeUpgrade

Amazon Rocks – literally.  This was something previously discussed as an idea for iTunes as well, though instead of a stream offer physical fulfillment so you get both instant gratification and control over future formats and playback. 

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MCE vs. TiVo??

Thomas Hawk pointed me to an interesting piece written by Alex Raiano at the TiVo Blog comparing MCE to TiVo.

First, thanks for blogging on TiVo (Alex specifically), but what the hell are you thinking with this?  MCE certainly has a DVR (at least in systems that ship with TV tuners), but it’s about much more.  You only do one thing!  While it can be argued you do it very well, the MCE value proposition is clearly about more than just the recording of TV. 

Perhaps the MS marketing department needs to be reminded that while TV is easy to grok, there are also Photos, Music, Videos (your own) and the Online Spotlight which can deliver quite a bit of additional content.  Only the MS bloggers seem to actively promote this.  I think actually even with 2 tuners inside MCE loses the battle on a purely DVR front since it really just comes down to money.

A $1,200 DVR is out of the question for most people.  I completely agree.  In fact while I could probably swing a $1000 DVR, I find it’s ridiculous to even consider when I can get a dual-tuner HDTV capable recorder for 10 bucks a month from my cable company. MCE does not even record HDTV.  OTA HDTV is not good enough… I need to record premium stations like HBO, not just NBC.

Thomas immediately brings up many of the advanced features power users enjoy from a richer platform like MCE which Tivo does not even try to deal with from a feature perspective.  Sure you can network your Tivo, and add additional features to it, but this is beyond the main base purpose and I believe well beyond the capabilities of most owners. 

MCE gets weaker as you expand out since while it is a jack of all trades, it really (and unfortunately) is a master of none.  While a fully functioning PC underneath the MCE interface is attractive
to some people, this hurts you.  A PC has issues like malware, viruses
and of course device drivers and conflicts. 

Tivo is probably best as an ingredient within another platform at this point – Apple Front Row perhaps? 

In the end other than the DVR, which is the purpose of TiVo and a single feature of MCE, is the only comparable detail.  If you look purely at that TiVo clearly wins on price and picture quality, but MCE has two tuners or more in some addvanced systems.

MCE actually makes the market more complex since while a DVR is in there, it’s about selling PCs.  Speaking of which, when you get to the bunddling issue as Alex addresses … many people are starting to buy MCE devices because the software is in there, though I also wonder how much use they get from the full set of capabilities.

I started this with a point, which I think I’ve lost… Comparing the two things is a slippery slope for both sides.  If I worked for MS on MCE, I would work pretty damn hard to simplify the experience so that there was a more mass appeal.  Telegraph the benefits on a higher level and let the advanced users (your existing market) take care of sharing the benefits with each other – which happens today through community sites and enthusiastic bloggers.  Tivo – get cracking on some bundling and adding multiple HD tuners… next year is getting closer, but how much will that cable-card capable box really cost?  If around 1000 bucks, MCE creeps into mind pretty significantly.

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Extending iTunes to all your Apple Machines

I’d certainly be open to making this work on PCs as well since I use wone at work and it counts against my 5 macs. We have 4 Macs at home and my work PC pushes me right to the limit as it is. When some new Intel Macs arrive, I’m sure there will be something in our home’s technology future…

Instead of allowing three machines or five machines to unlock a iTunes song DRM, make it n+1 where n equals the number of Macs you have purchased and registered. It does two things for you that are both good for Apple and good for customers. One, it lets people know their iTunes music has a future.

How Apple can appease the fanboys FOREVAH | A Whole Lotta Nothing

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Apple lobs grenade into Microsoft media center camp

APC Magazine’s Dan Warne reckons Apple is about to deftly round-house kick Microsoft’s media center strategy for six. First Apple leaves a mysterious header on the Mac Mini motherboard for a non-existent iPod dock connector. Then it brings out media center software and a video iPod at the same time. Then it recruits the head of TV recording company ElGato. When you put the pieces together, it ain’t pretty for Microsoft.  [apcmag.com]

All the stuff I love thinking about. The mini as a trojan horse, and the iPod 5G as the stealth bomber that flys directly towards Redmond.

Apple has collected the pieces, maintains software and marketing superiority … we just need the public plan of action and like lemmings we’ll flock.

Seriously though Apple will likely nail it, if they decide to roll FrontRow, plus TV beyond the dorm room through the new iMac.

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Plays for (almost) sure

The problem was that even though it had the Plays for Sure logo, it wouldn’t work with subscription content. It only took me a few minutes to figure out why. A closer look at the Plays for Sure logo indicated this device would work with downloaded content but not subscription content. Oops. No biggie. Problem was with me or as we used to say in technical support PEBKAC (problem exists between keyboard and chair). I’m actually in good company, last summer when I was at MSFT, one of the Sr. Execs made the same mistake in front of a whole room of snickering analysts and reporters. [Michael Gartenberg]

Michael Garternberg is a smart guy, but I think he’s being way too forgiving on how things get packaged and sold. The MS Plays for Sure and Music Services in general are too complex. There’s a reason why the iPod / iTunes combo works so well… it just works.

Content is content to an end user and the collective industries need to understand that we consumers (even advanced consumers) would prefer to think less about what it is they have (codec, file format, download or subscription) and more about just enjoying what we are being asked to pay for.

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ITMS Pre-Orders

smash notes the launch of ITMS pre-ordering… which is a very cool advance. I can only wonder if this is an extension of how the Podcasting feature works… Hit the link, downloads as bandwidth and product is available.

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Real’s new Rhapsody

So Real is supposedly the leader in the streaming services and today marks a major update so I figured I would check it out.

The new Rhapsody lets anyone* listen to and legally share songs, of their choosing, every month. Consumers simply download the Rhapsody jukebox software from www.rhapsody.com. Once downloaded, they can listen to 25 full tracks from Rhapsody’s library of over one million songs each month, and enjoy unlimited access to the jukebox’s other features at no additional cost. In addition, Real also announced significant enhancements to its critically-acclaimed Rhapsody Unlimited service, and added a new tier called Rhapsody To Go, designed to provide customers the ultimate experience in portable digital music. [RealNetworks]

Interestingly there is literally no way to even view a screenshot of the service thanks to some handy user-agent redirection on the Real site which takes all Mac users to the New RealPlayer 10 for Mac OS X page that has existed for quite a bit longer than just today. There is no mention within the PR that this is Windows only, though I did admittedly know that the previous version was as well.

By now you may have noticed that asterisk next to anyone from the release… it refers to US only customers… no mention of platform dependance anywhere.

The only subscription music service I current utilize is Sirius radio. I don’t want to be renting my music, though I would be interested in more complete samples pre-purchase…. paying a flat rate for the privilege does not cut it.

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XM+AOL

Om Malik notes the deal between XM and AOL, which sounds good, but you have to wonder why they are making you pay more for the option of high quality internet streaming. Sirius (I am a customer) gives it to you for free… With the XM deal, you are paying for XM AND paying for AOL and now you have to add yet another fee on top. Just give it away… loyalty marketing people! I can’t imagine every subscriber is going to use it or even close (at least not today) so the cost of handling this can’t possibly be that brutal. Perks and features are good on top of quality content programming.

Looks like there is more music coming our way on the web. AOL and XM Satellite Radio just announced a deal where AOL will stream 200CD-quality XM radio channels over the web, for a monthly fee of $5 a month. 150 Lower bit-rate channels will be available to web users for free.

Update – Should have read that more carefully last night… AOL customers get the service, but XM’s have to pay.