Oh, when did iTunes music go all DRM-free?
Also, iTunes music is in AAC format, which I shunned many years ago because it was only supported by iPods. Now, just about everything seems to support it, including my stuff.
Hello iTunes, we can be friends now.
A friend just bought an iPad. I’m trying to describe to him from memory how to get PDFs into iBooks using iTunes. My stuttering, confused explanation told him everything he needed to know about iTunes’ ease of use. In the end, I suggested he just email the PDFs to his iPad.
Because fuck iTunes.
I changed the blog layout a bit. I don’t particularly like what I’ve made, but I just wanted a theme no one else had, instead of the mildly customised Tumblr default. Now it’s a moderately customised Tumblr default. Also, turns out Mobile Safari doesn’t display the gradients. I don’t know why, but let’s hope iOS 5 fixes it before I have to.
There may be no reason for this post other than the fact that I am currently supposed to be doing something really boring.
It was with shame last night that I noticed myself scouring the reports from WWDC ‘10 for news of a next generation iPod Touch (there was none, incidentally).
It all began a couple of years ago, someone brought one in to work. I was on the lookout for a new MP3 player, having used one of these since 2001…
Yeah, I got all the ladies.
It was a PDA, to help me organise my busy jet-setting lifestyle, which involved cycling to work, doing menial IT tasks for teachers in an age where floppy disks were still the primary medium of data transfer, and then cycling home again.
It cost me £500, so I made damn sure I used the hell out of it, which mainly involved to-do lists, solitaire, birthday reminders, reading books (yes, I read books on it) and listening to MP3s.
Strangely, by 2008, it didn’t seem all that much of an antique. PDAs still did pretty much the same thing, with pretty much the same hardware and software. Then I saw an iPod Touch and realised that someone had made a PDA that wasn’t clunky to use. It did all the same stuff as my PDA, except it was lighter, had a battery that lasted for days, had a better screen, and made me look like less of an epic geek. And cost half as much.
So, I immediately bought one, and realised afterward that I had finally entered the House of Apple. Two weeks ago I took delivery of an iPad. Last night I was thinking about my next iPod Touch.
You got me, Apple. Using your computers feels like driving a car using only the pedals and gearstick, while wearing a Michelin Man suit. Your little iDevices, though, are exactly what I wanted mobile devices to be like in the 21st Century.
Yes, that’s right, the headline declares that the mystery is solved. What mystery? Why the mystery of why the iPhone is always showing the time 9:42 in adverts and photos.
Yes, I know, it’s the question that been sweeping the world.
The Apple iNews generator is clearly still running perfectly. What does that make this? News about iNews? Oh god, isn’t that just more iNews?
Apple released another product in January, but it’s not for the general public, it’s specifically tailored for IT News outlets. It’s called iNews, and it allows journalists to automatically generate articles based around Apple products, without any thought required. In the absence of any actual news, iNews can furnish even the laziest journalist with several paragraphs of aimless text.
Let’s look at some of the output from iNews that’s been appearing on major “news” sites.
I’m already sick of hearing about Apple’s tablet, and it’s not even been announced yet. It’s not even an official product.
Jesus. This is what it’s come to.
I was looking forward to it at first, because I quite like the iPod Touch. “At first” was about a year ago. Speculation has reached fever pitch, websites have filled page after page with nothing but tedious non-news, even guessing games on what the god damn thing is going to be called are rife. This all basically consists of slavishly pouring over records of Apple’s trademark, patent and domain name registrations. That’s IT journalism for you.
A few months ago, the realisation hit me that this was going to be an expensive product that I wasn’t going to want to wave around in public, and therefore it’s not particularly useful to me. Suddenly, the Kindle looks very attractive. We’ll see, I guess. I think this thing’s being announced sometime today. I should probably know that, it’s been rammed in my face enough, but apathy set in weeks ago. They might have already announced it, I don’t think I’d be able to tell, because the level of frothing would be roughly the same.
http://gizmodo.com/5252436/beautiful-steve-jobs-portrait-made-of-classic-apple-typefaces
From now on, all Steve Jobs pictures need to have a messiah dinner-plate head-glow, because that’s basically where we’re headed
I promised myself that there’d be no more eye-rolling posts about irritating Apple-stroking, but then I saw this:
“Apple has confronted first the music labels and then the mobile phone carriers, forcing change on two of the world’s most monopolistic and hidebound industries. Apple papers our cities with dancing silhouettes and exhorts us in banners to “think different.” Apple is not just a source of profits; it’s a source of joy.”
Seriously. Come on.
Source: http://blog.wired.com/business/2009/04/the-end-of-inno.html
Look, I’m all for springing boners for the odd bit of nice gadgetry now and again, but why the bejesus is the Digg technology category always flooded with stories about anything that Apple does? When the iPhone came out, every man and his blog seemed to have an opinion on it, which Digg readers seem to lap up. Bloggers would write rubbish articles with nothing relevant in them. Even yesterday we had an alarmist article about how iPhone caches your screen so it can zoom it back in quickly when you switch apps, and if someone stole your phone and had the necessary skills they could browse some deleted cache files see what apps you’ve been looking at. Quite how someone looking at pictures of your apps is a bigger deal than someone actually having your phone in the first place (and thus access to all the apps on it) is a little beyond me. Not to mention Safari’s internet cache wasn’t brought up. Not to mention that every internet browser ever made has been caching users’ pages on laptops and desktops for over a decade. Let’s all merrily fill our pants about the iPhone.
Last month, it was iTunes. OOOH WHAT’S APPLE GOT IN STORE FOR ITUNES 8? Kevin Rose made a few hot predictions, and good for him. Personally, I had a suspicion we were in for more slate-grey, and a mostly unchanged user experience. Amazingly I was correct. Not to worry, now we can talk about what Apple should do for iTunes 9.
Or let’s talk about the new iPods. Yes, let’s. Actually, let’s not, because they’re exactly the same as before, but with a slightly altered shape. I bought an iPod Touch recently myself because, as I mentioned before, boners and technology. Somehow, Digg was able to tell me before time that the new iPod Touch had an internal speaker and, brace yourselves, a slightly curved back. When I heard this news, I immediately binned my existing iPod Touch, because there was simply no point in owning one that didn’t have a curved back. The one on mine is all flat and boring, and not at all useful. Thanks for keeping me in the loop, internet.
And here we are today. Apple is doing something else, everyone! Look! Computer nerds like myself are often pigeonholed for being obsessive about technology. Honestly, it’s the Apple folk who are giving us a bad name these days. Computer Hobbiest clubs of the 80s are long gone, the beardy long-haired socially-inept stereotype has been receding, replaced with professionals who treat technology as an industry tool. Except the Apple folk who, for some reason, whenever a new piece of Apple technology is announced, hinted at or even speculated on, immediately digg every related article they see while nursing uncontrollable boners and weeping with joy. Not cool, guys. Relax. It’s just another overpriced laptop.
Oh yeah, here’s the link, if you can afford to regularly spooge money on new MacBooks:
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/10/09/sources_latest_macbook_pro_photo_is_the_real_deal.html
