REverberations - iPod

Laws for the companies, not the people

webmaster@reverb.com.au (reverb) — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 07:43:19 -0600

According to the SMH, Apple had this to say, amongst others, about what the proposed Copyright reform currently going through parliament would mean to ordinary Australians:

"Apple submits that the current provisions of the bill will leave the [Australian Copyright] Act still outdated and overly restrictive given today's technology and the legitimate expectations of consumers," Apple's submission said.

"Many common everyday acts of copying to ... devices, such as an iPod, computers and even to VCRs ... would still constitute an infringement under the bill's current form."

Given the silence of most of the mainstream press, it's good to see SMH finally picking up on this nasty piece of work, and that as I write it's the number two viewed story today.
A law which would punish you and I for copying CDs that we paid for and own onto iPods (or computers, or anything else really) that we paid for and own, so that we could have them in a more convenient form is a very stupid law in today's society. We already have that law, and here is the opportunity to revise it and make it relevant, but instead they are making it even more of an attack on consumers.
Record companies really don't seem to understand that they are battling against free - that's the price of a download off Bittorrent or similar, and if you want to make it worth my effort to buy a CD and own it, drop the prices and let me do what I want with the thing that I bought and I own.

Don't even get me started on paid-for digital downloads - that's not an option. The stupid Digital Restrictions Management that these things come with mean that if you bought (yes, there's that word again) a song off any existing music store, and then decided (why I don't know) that the Zune looks like a good thing to buy for Christmas to listen to music on, then you can't listen to any of your previously purchased songs!
Microsoft want you to "buy" all your music again, and rinse and repeat in few years when the same thing happens. No thanks, give me a CD that means I have the physical media as a real backup, and I can turn into any form I want. All purely for my use, or at the worst to pass a couple of songs onto a friend to recommend a new artist I've heard.

Record companies, and the idiot governments that listen to them when creating laws to govern the people, should actually listen to consumers/voters now and them.

Update 30/11/2006: Wow, that's a quick backdown, even by government standards! Maybe more of them read my blog than I thought ;)

New iPod mini

webmaster@reverb.com.au (reverb) — Thu, 24 Feb 2005 09:32:56 -0600

Don't you hate it when Apple releases new iPods for $100 cheaper than when you bought one two weeks ago? With 10 hours extra battery life and 2GB extra space!
This was for Liz's birthday, so the timing couldn't really he helped, but originally I was attempting to find a way around it.
No great problem, she loves it and we'll make good use of it anyway, and to be honest there's not that much different that we would have made much use of - she's happy with her blue one. Now we just need to find earphones that fit her ears.

Two Weeks with an iPod

webmaster@reverb.com.au (reverb) — Sun, 29 Aug 2004 13:48:00 -0500

I sat by and watch three generations of iPods come past me. As a stereo-typical early adopter of most technologies, this has been a little strange for me. My last portable audio device was an early-model Sharp mini-disc recorder which saw a lot of use during Uni. Perhaps a little too much, as its proprietary battery eventually all but fell of the perch, meaning that the hacked together charger I had for it (was an imported Japanese model) was eventually a life-line. I left it with a friend when I went overseas and upon return it was an expensive paperweight.
Less than two weeks before the iPod came into my life, I decided that some form of portable audio was necessary for my 35 or so minute walk to the station. It's so much more bearable that way. However, since we are saving for a house even the cheapest iPod was out of the question. I still beleive the price must dive before more people get their hands on these little beauties. So, I grabbed a $80 mp3-compatable CD player from Aldi. The interface was clunky, the software buggy, but the cheap cheap cheap factor worked great, and I had 150 or so songs per CD, burnt in about 10 minutes with two clicks from iTunes.
But the iPod is in a different league. I've invested plenty of hours in my mp3 collection, getting ratings, playlists and id3 tags all just right, and all that time payed off as soon as I connected the iPod for the first time. Sure, to find out that my entire collection wouldn't fit on in one go with the first message was a bit dis-heartening, but iTunes made some selections (no idea how), and then, after only a matter of minutes, there was most of my music, sorted by name, artist, genre, or whatever I wanted. Smart Playlists were in place, everything Just Worked, in that great Apple way.
Physically, the thing is gorgeous to hold and play with, so much so that the only fault I can place is that my grubby fingers constantly leave marks all over it, especially on the shiny back bit. I'm not interested in the iPod mini - this is a great size, and 4GB would be even harder to work with for me.
I think my problem is that I have too diverse musical tastes. My collection includes Elton John, 1920s Blues, Justin Timberlake, Megadeth, Pantera, DJ Tisto, Jamiroquai, The Monkees, Vivaldi and 5GB of jazz. The randomiser is life. Whatever comes up, I can click to rate it out of five, either down to 1 to delete later (quite rare, this is mostly done by now), 2 to mark as not-for-iPod, or 3-5 depending on how much I like it.
This "2 means not for iPod" thing is how I've come to deal with the "Size of music library is greater than capacity of iPod" problem. Plenty of my own CDs I've ripped (whoops, that's illegal in Australia...) contain say 3 songs I love, 3 which I don't like for one reason or another, and a few others which lie somewhere in the middle. I don't want to delete the ones I don't like, because, especially in the Jazz genre, I will often listen to an album from end to end the way the artist originally intended. Some times it just works better that way. So these "filler" songs stay on the 80GB Powerbook drive, but don't make it to the iPod.
Oh, by the way, if you own a 4G iPod and have worked out that the way they made the prices cheaper was by taking the accessories away, you can partially get this back by partaking of the current promo where if you buy Applecare for iPod you qualify for a free remote. Can't find a link but I have a PDF of it and have confirmed it direct with Apple.

Technology Upgrade #2, 2004

webmaster@reverb.com.au (reverb) — Fri, 13 Aug 2004 12:00:00 -0500

After seeing this rather unbelievable deal on offer at my old work-place Strathfield Car Radios, I am now the proud owner of:

A 20GB Click-wheek Apple iPod.
A Sony Ericsson T610 mobile pheone.
A 24 month obligation to uncle Optus.

I'm still yet to work out just how Strathfield can give the iPod away for free. As is the store manager at the store where I got my deal from. Basically I am now paying a little more per month than I was before, and I get a new phone with camera and all that sort of good stuff, along with a $500 music player thrown in.
Not that you'll find me complaining. At least until the bills arrive.