A Pirate’s Life for Me
I love me my downloaded music. And video. And software.
You see, I’m a digital pirate. I don’t break the law by uploading these things onto the web, but I do lurk around the Usenets and pilfer what is laying about. There are hundreds of newsgroups with millions of files posted onto them every day. That’s a hell of a lot of movies, TV shows and music.
The only time that I will pay for music is when I am looking for something specific and don’t feel like trolling through 1-2 million postings on alt.binaries.multimedia.complete_cd looking for it.
In those cases, I turn to the Russian mob.
Go Music (which has just raised their prices significantly in an effort to go more semi-legit) and All Of MP3 (still $0.10 per download) in Russia severely undercut iTunes when it comes to MP3 prices. Furthermore, their downloads are in raw MP3 form, not the proprietary format that Apple uses that prevents you from copying onto more than 1 CD or 5 registered computers. Already, All Of MP3 is the second most-popular MP3 download site on the web. And iTunes may be in even more trouble soon with Yahoo’s announcement that they are launching a new download service that does not have any anti-piracy features.
Come to think of it, the cool PC vs. Mac commercials notwithstanding, I think that I’m pretty anti-Apple.
I’ve always wondered about the appeal of the iPod. Sure, it’s portable and light-weight. Yes, it allows you to carry around a lifetime’s worth of music in your pocket. But… It’s proprietary. And the players themselves are quite minimal on functionality. Every other brand of player includes FM radio and the ability to record it. All of the ones that play video files allow you to play any type of media, without hacking, instead of being forced to use iTunes to download. Some models have output slots so that you can plug them into your TV, freeing you from the 2” screen. Some newer ones even include iTrip-like functionality that allows you use any radio without wires. (The latest iteration of this is a function that allows the player to scan the local spectrum and will broadcast on an unused frequency, rather than a preset one.)
I guess that my problem with the iPod stems from Apple’s initial marketing strategy to push it’s convenience and make it hip & stylish. I think that this approach -making the iPod as much a fashion accessory as a useful tool- has driven it’s (lack of) development. A new model comes out every 6 months, with the only upgrades so far being increased memory and a video screen. Because it was first to market, is so hip and folks gravitate to what is easiest, they have been able to dominate the market almost unchallenged.
A great way to see just how stagnant Apple has become when it comes to portable media devices to by checking out AnythingButiPod.com. This based-on-vitriol site does a great job keeping track of the latest innovations that are coming. Most of this creativity has been, and still is, happening over in Asia, so there are plenty of cool toys that you can’t buy yet. But rest assured, if it’s over there, it will make it here in short order.
You see, I’m a digital pirate. I don’t break the law by uploading these things onto the web, but I do lurk around the Usenets and pilfer what is laying about. There are hundreds of newsgroups with millions of files posted onto them every day. That’s a hell of a lot of movies, TV shows and music.
The only time that I will pay for music is when I am looking for something specific and don’t feel like trolling through 1-2 million postings on alt.binaries.multimedia.complete_cd looking for it.
In those cases, I turn to the Russian mob.
Go Music (which has just raised their prices significantly in an effort to go more semi-legit) and All Of MP3 (still $0.10 per download) in Russia severely undercut iTunes when it comes to MP3 prices. Furthermore, their downloads are in raw MP3 form, not the proprietary format that Apple uses that prevents you from copying onto more than 1 CD or 5 registered computers. Already, All Of MP3 is the second most-popular MP3 download site on the web. And iTunes may be in even more trouble soon with Yahoo’s announcement that they are launching a new download service that does not have any anti-piracy features.
Come to think of it, the cool PC vs. Mac commercials notwithstanding, I think that I’m pretty anti-Apple.
I’ve always wondered about the appeal of the iPod. Sure, it’s portable and light-weight. Yes, it allows you to carry around a lifetime’s worth of music in your pocket. But… It’s proprietary. And the players themselves are quite minimal on functionality. Every other brand of player includes FM radio and the ability to record it. All of the ones that play video files allow you to play any type of media, without hacking, instead of being forced to use iTunes to download. Some models have output slots so that you can plug them into your TV, freeing you from the 2” screen. Some newer ones even include iTrip-like functionality that allows you use any radio without wires. (The latest iteration of this is a function that allows the player to scan the local spectrum and will broadcast on an unused frequency, rather than a preset one.)
I guess that my problem with the iPod stems from Apple’s initial marketing strategy to push it’s convenience and make it hip & stylish. I think that this approach -making the iPod as much a fashion accessory as a useful tool- has driven it’s (lack of) development. A new model comes out every 6 months, with the only upgrades so far being increased memory and a video screen. Because it was first to market, is so hip and folks gravitate to what is easiest, they have been able to dominate the market almost unchallenged.
A great way to see just how stagnant Apple has become when it comes to portable media devices to by checking out AnythingButiPod.com. This based-on-vitriol site does a great job keeping track of the latest innovations that are coming. Most of this creativity has been, and still is, happening over in Asia, so there are plenty of cool toys that you can’t buy yet. But rest assured, if it’s over there, it will make it here in short order.
posted by Unknown at 7:28 AM
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