Appearance: WNYC radio to debate iPod v. Zune

  I’m very excited to announce that I will be a guest on WNYC radio (93.9FM) tomorrow to talk about the merits of the iPod over the Microsoft Zune. I’ll be appearing on WNYC’s Soundcheck radio show at 2pm ET, squaring off against David Tucker from ZuneThoughts.com who will be talking up the Microsoft Zune. If you’re [...]

  I’m very excited to announce that I will be a guest on WNYC radio (93.9FM) tomorrow to talk about the merits of the iPod over the Microsoft Zune. I’ll be appearing on WNYC’s Soundcheck radio show at 2pm ET, squaring off against David Tucker from ZuneThoughts.com who will be talking up the Microsoft Zune. If you’re [...]

  • Zune HD Available on September 15

    Joshua Topolsky at Engadget: The Tegra-packing, HD Radio-playing, 720p-outputting device will come in a black, 16GB flavor for $219.99, or a beefier, “platinum” finish 32GB version clocking in at $289.99 (apparently the player will come in five additional colors, but no word on which ones, exactly). The angular industrial design is original and wholly un-Apple-like. But isn’t it odd that the word “marketplace” doesn’t quite fit on the screen in the Zune’s main menu? Clearly, the Zune HD is going to be compared to the iPod Touch. Its biggest shortcoming is that it’s just a media player and web browser; no apps, no games. The Zune HD prices look good compared to today’s iPod Touches, but not so much compared to the new camera-equipped ones Apple is set to announce next month (16/32/64 GB for $199/299/399).  â˜… 

  • Weekly App Store Picks: June 6, 2009

    The week may be drawing to a close, but here at TheAppleBlog we've got an array of apps to get your through the weekend. As ever, I've got four notable new iPhone releases from the App Store to tell you about. Before we jump in to the apps, though, let's take a look at the week that was with a quick news roundup. The week kicked off with a bit of a downer as news broke that Apple will be charging for re-downloading premium apps that you've already purchased for iPhone. It's not a big deal — it seems downloading via iTunes will still be free — but it'll be an inconvenience to users who are prone to deleting and re-downloading apps while on the go. Next up, Microsoft is well and truly on the warpath with its forthcoming Zune HD, and what's more, they're gunning for the iPod touch. The new device will have a touchscreen, web browser, Wi-Fi, HD radio and, I think, looks rather scrummy. Delicious-looking it may be, but I still don't know if that makes it a true contender. Our own Henry Balanon stepped up to the plate with a seriously impressive iPhone development resources article. He managed to squeeze in 43 different links to various resources around the 'net. Coders should head on over to the article and bookmark it immediately, it'll prove useful as a reference tool. Another new feature coming to the iPhone has been doing the rumor-rounds: Apple is integrating geo-location within Mobile Safari. Are location-aware websites the next big thing? Setting aside Google Latitude, I'm not entirely convinced. Hit up the article for Darrel Etherington's take on the matter. Pipping Apple's new devices to the post, Palm's Pre should be hitting the shelves today. Owners of the Pre will be pleased to hear that Palm's new devices will sync seamlessly with iTunes. To celebrate the recent release of Dave Matthews Band Revenge for iPhone and iPod touch, I've got three promo codes to give away. To be in with a chance of winning, leave me a comment explaining why you'd like to play this new game. Moving on to the picks, this week I've been looking at Put Things Off, Jaman Free Movie Fridays, Pocket Alan, and Terminator Salvation Lite. Put Things Off ($2.99) My essential iPhone tool for staying organized is Evernote, however sometimes I seriously consider switching; especially in the case of Put Things Off — an app that packs in the functionality I need, with great visual design too. The app allows you to focus on the tasks you need to get done on a given day, filtering everything else out of your immediate to-do list. The aesthetic strikes the right balance between satisfyingly tangible, with office-esque paper trays, and functional. My favorite feature is the auto-nag mode: putting off a task for too long moves it to your 'Today tray,' forcing you to complete a given item rather than endlessly procrastinating. Jaman Free Movie Fridays (FREE) Never turn down a free dinner and never turn down a free movie either. Free food almost always tastes scrumptious and free movies can make for unexpected fun. In the case of this app, Jaman bring you a new movie to watch every Friday. There are a few big names in there, like the complete collection of classic Superman cartoons and black and white spook-fest Nosferatu, however you won't find the latest Transformers, Terminator, or Star Trek films on the list. Most notably though, there's a great selection of independent full-length features, alongside new short films. Pocket Alan (99 cents) It's interesting that Apple seems to have no sort of process in place for protecting the intellectual property of copyright holders. Interesting but, in this case, lucky for us, as Alan Partridge has unofficially arrived on the iPhone in the shape of a handy soundboard. Essential classics such as, “Ahaa,” and, “Jurassic Park,” are there, alongside oft-forgotten, but no less amusing sound-bites, including my favorite, “Jackanackanory.” Plus, fans of Partridge with friends named Daniel will be be able to make good, repetitive use of the, “Dan,” button. Cheap and fun, nothing more than a novelty item, but a perfect toy for fans of the show. Terminator Salvation Lite (Free) Gameloft seems to have surpassed itself with its latest movie-based game. Terminator Salvation packs in convincing 3D environments, reminiscent of console games, alongside a well-designed control-system and game mechanic. Of course, the real joy is trudging through the distopyian, post-apocalyptic devastation, offing shiny silver terminators with a variety of weapons. TheAppleBlog's David Appleyard checked out the iPhone version of Terminator Salvation a few weeks back. If you're looking to try out the game without spending five bucks on the full version, download the Lite edition today. That's all the picks for this week. I'll be back in seven days with more news from the week and picks from the App Store. In the meantime, what apps have you been using this week?

  • Microsoft: We Couldn’t Kill the iPod, Maybe We Can Kill the iPod touch

    You’ve got to give Microsoft credit. Having failed at making the Zune an “iPod killer,” they’ve given up and are trying to make it an “iPod touch killer.” Why go after big brother when little brother has kicked your butt for two years? Beats me, you’d have to ask Microsoft. All I can do is look at the Zune HD and see what it’s about. HD Radio FM radio was touted in the original Zunes. Lots of music players added radio since it was considered a major feature the iPod lacked. Nope. Including FM didn’t make the devices more desirable than an iPod. Now it’s HD radio, which is FM (and AM) with better quality because it’s digital (remember, the word “digital” makes everything better). So Microsoft is clinging to the belief that FM radio is still what every music device needs, it was obviously just the quality of the signal that was the problem. HD Output You’d think a device with “HD” in the name would play HD video on the device, but this one doesn’t. Not sure what the point of HD on a 3.3” display would be anyway. However, it does output HD via a special dock. Here’s the process: Get an HD movie (four times the size of SD) Get the special dock (no price is listed) Hook it up to an HDTV Enjoy movie! Basically, you’re using your portable device as a source HD player. When it’s not being used as a source player (obviously not its primary purpose), it’s just a portable video player with files larger than they need to be, downscaled to fit the screen at 480 x 272. Touchscreen Two years after the iPod touch, Microsoft will have a touchscreen on their music player. To Microsoft’s credit, it’s an OLED display. Good quality stuff. To Microsoft’s discredit, it’s a cheaper 16:9 ratio. Some people make a big deal out of this (as do PC makers) because it’s a “true” HD ratio, but the reality is that when you’re not watching a video it’s nothing but a smaller display (480 x 272 instead of the touch’s 480 x 320). Wireless With Wi-Fi you can download tunes from the Zune Marketplace. Nice, but functionality that’s old hat to an iPod touch user. You can also stream music from the market place if you’re a Zune Pass subscriber (which is also a feature of current Zunes). This is a use for Zune Pass that makes sense. Seriously, it's one thing about the Zune I can give it credit for. Web Browser The web browser is a heavily customized version of Internet Explorer, so it’s probably bad. Go ahead, criticize me for bashing it when I haven’t even seen it yet, but then again no one’s seen it because the Zune HD is primarily just talk now anyway. What I have seen is IE in it’s best possible setting — IE 8 on Windows 7 — and it still falls behind Firefox, Safari, and Chrome. Heck, Opera, too. Other Stuff OS is based on Windows CE. WinCE? Wince? That’s still around? Whatever, we don’t get to see much of that either. Accelerometer Software keyboard Check out the UI. Why would your stock photo clearly show that your UI guys can’t even fit one of the menu items on the screen? It’s that small 16:9 screen, I bet. Way to show off that deficiency, guys. The bottom line: Unless you’re sucked in by “HD” in the name, the only thing that’ll grab you about this thing is the propaganda campaign Microsoft has going on for it. I wrote about this before, but Microsoft is being “old school” lately. They’re partying like it’s 1999; pre-announcing months in advance and getting the tech press in high gear. We won’t know until September — assuming Microsoft is on time — what this thing is really like, but by then it will almost certainly have a new iPod touch to compete with.

  • Microsoft confirms Zune HD coming this fall

    Microsoft on Tuesday confirmed its plans to take on the iPod Touch with a new, touch-screen Zune that will be able to surf the Web, play high-definition movies, and tune in to digital radio. The Zune HD, which will be available in the U.S. only starting this fall, features an HD Radio tuner as well as an organic light-emitting diode (OLED) touch screen, Microsoft said. It is based on Windows CE and will use a version of Internet Explorer customized for its touch screen, Microsoft said. The software maker did not announce pricing or capacity, though it said the device will use flash memory and attempt to take on Apple's high-end iPod models. "This device is created to go head to head with the iPod Touch," Chris Stephenson, general manager of global marketing for Microsoft Zune, said in a telephone interview on Tuesday. Zune buyers will also be able to play HD content on their TVs via a dock, Microsoft said. The software maker also said that at next week's E3 trade show in Los Angeles it will announce details on a new Zune-branded video service for the Xbox that will replace the current Xbox Live marketplace for TV and movies. The company didn't announce details or specifically say that content will be playable on both Zunes and the Xbox. Currently videos purchased via the Xbox can't be played on a Zune, although both stores use a similar back-end infrastructure to serve up content. Over time, Stephenson said the goal is to move toward a world in which content purchased once can be played on a variety of devices. Microsoft plans to offer the new Zune video service in a number of European markets, in addition to North America. ...

  • Forbes Prints Insanely Self Serving Attack on iTunes by MediaNet CEO Alan McGlade

    Daniel Eran DilgerForbes, best known to many readers as the soapbox Daniel Lyons used to promote--perhaps unwittingly--a pro-Microsoft agenda backing SCO and vilifying Linux and open source, has taken another opportunity to present outrageously false information serving the interests of Microsoft: an impassioned outcry of rage over the success of iTunes.This time, rather than using a journalist Forbes gave its bullhorn to Alan McGlade, the CEO of MediaNet Digital. Although not identified as such by Forbes, his company supplies the music library behind MTV's Urge, Yahoo, FYE, and the Zune Marketplace, all of which are Microsoft’s partner Windows Media DRM stores. I wonder if he has anything bad to say about Apple and its music business?[Daniel Lyons: Fake Steve Jobs and the SCO Shill Who Hated Linux]Tear Down This Wall!In a rapturous plea to abandon Apple, McGlade complained that "In a flat, digital world, walls don't need to be torn down. Thanks to online file sharing and social networking, people are able to go over, under and through walls." No doubt the company stocking Microsoft's Windows Media stores would like nothing more than an open playing field where everyone could compete. Oh wait, companies already can. Stores like eMusic profitably sell MP3s online next to iTunes, and Apple has made no efforts to erect barriers to sales of open music on the iPod. Apple does stop DRM providers from using the iPod, and this incenses DRM providers like Real and Microsoft.The other problem for companies selling egregious DRM is that customers hate their business models. People don't want to pay to rent music, or they would be. They have had lots of opportunity to do so.McGlade is bitter to have partnered with Microsoft--the most deviously anticompetitive and monopolistic company in technology and the biggest proponent of the most restrictive types of DRM--only to lose out in the music business to more permissive and liberal stores like Apple's iTunes and the popular iPod, which will not support anti-consumer Windows Media DRM at all.[Of Apple And Oranges - Forbes]McGlade Cries Over His Own DRM Failure. McGlade weeps out a portrait of his own failure, writing, "How is it then that one of the world's most innovative technology companies has managed to erect its own exclusive, and so far impregnable, kingdom? A relatively small percentage of world music sales occur through digital downloads. But, those that do, happen mainly through iTunes, Apple's online music store. "It's hard to remember any one company establishing such total control over a segment of our culture as Apple has on digital music. The iPod accounts for 70% of personal music player sales, while iTunes is estimated to direct more than three-quarters of all music downloads."Yes it is easy to forget about Microsoft when you are bound to the company's teat. With some objective perspective, perhaps even McGlade could recognize that he bought into a deal that was 'guaranteed to win' because of Microsoft's 97% monopoly hold over computers worldwide. But he lost, and miserably so, as he points out. Now he wants the market to pay him without having to compete. McGlade expects the world to ‘correct’ his defeat because he is simply owned profits for offering DRM in partnership with Microsoft. Sorry McGlade, you have to earn your money.[Microsoft’s Outrageous Office Profits]Double Locked Down!"Apple has maximized its dominance of the digital music market with a double lockdown." McGlade says, but leaves it somewhat unclear what either of those locks are. "The combined clout of iPod and iTunes is mutually reinforcing and gives Apple enormous marketing leverage." Is the iPod at all locked to iTunes music? No, in fact we know, as McGlade earlier pointed out, that downloads only amount to a small percentage of music on all music players, including iPods. Most music comes from users’ own CDs.McGlades' comment is particularly saturated in hypocrisy because the stores he represents--as a competitor to iTunes--are mostly geared toward subscription plans, and therefore lock users to to a specific store and lock them to a monthly fee. That's the real double lock down, but McGlade doesn't want his readers to think about that. He just wants their money.[BBC Prints Irresponsible Rubbish on Apple]Remember: Apple is the New Microsoft.McGlade then describes how Apple is defining popular music, and that it has the power to promote music on the front page of iTunes. He warns that "as digital devices diversify [through the imminent adoption of Microsoft-partnered players]... music lovers will inevitably seek digital music from a multiplicity of sources [selling music from MediaNet]."This makes lots of sense! I know when I find a grocery store offering good deals on everything I need, I run to competitors to see if I can pay more to sign up for subscription memberships that will bill me whether or not I shop with them.McGlade then describes Apple as the Orwellian "Big Brother of the digital music scene." In case you didn’t get the memo that’s being passed around by every flack in the business of shilling, Apple is the New Microsoft, and so consumers should revile the company and flee to the safe harbor of Microsoft, which is now, logically, less of a Microsoft than Apple.Forbes’ Lisa DiCarlo paints ugly pictures of Apple at every opportunity, but really outdid herself with the 2005 headline “Is Apple The New Microsoft?â€? which castigated Apple for its lawsuits against bloggers. In the same year, Daniel Lyons advised in Forbes’ “Attack of the Blogsâ€? that, “you can't stop bloggers from launching an allout attack on you or your business if that's what they decide to do--but you can defend yourself.â€? So which is it Forbes?Since then, the idea that “Apple is the New Microsoftâ€? has been aped by such objective thinkers as Paul Thurrott of Windows Supersite, and supreme shill Mike Elgan, the former editor of PCWorld. How they can claim that Apple is bad for being like the company they have made excuses for over the last two decades is difficult to explain. Fortunately, they’re still wrong.[Microsoft Surface: the Fine Clothes of a Naked Empire][Paul Thurrott's Merciless Attack on Artie MacStrawman][Myth 4: The iTunes Monopoly Myth]Forbes' Fraud in Photos.We don’t expect much from Thurrott and Elgan. We might expect more from Forbes. However, in a move that erases any suggestion that Forbes is objective and honest in the information it publishes, McGlade and Forbes put together a slide show of stomach churning, false information that goes far past disingenuous and lands directly in a patch of flat out fraud.The first slide depicts a “DRM is Killing Music" t-shirt featuring an iPod. McGlade says "It's through proprietary DRM software that Apple enforces iTunes/iPod exclusivity." Except that that is a lie. The iPod doesn’t use DRM at all unless users chose to buy tracks online, which only a minority of users do.He then notes that things are changing, starting, he says, with Universal and WalMart. He also notes that "Apple, to its credit, has embraced this shift, offering DRM-free downloads on its site. However, every other retailer chose to offer-DRM free in the open MP3 format except for Apple."This is all very convincing except for the fact that we all know that Apple shocked the industry by announcing the first DRM free deal with EMI. Other groups slinked along later, offering a few MP3s only when browsing Windows-only sites as WalMart does. Apple sells its music in AAC format, which is as open as MP3, but more technically sophisticated and easier to license. McGlade is working hard to associate DRM with the iPod, but he’s withholding the truth to do so.The second slide of misinformation depicts the clunky failure of the Zune, along with a McGlade caption that notes "Serious competition [to the iPod] has emerged in the past year or so, and its impact is beginning to be felt." No it hasn't. The Zune is a joke and a major failure. Microsoft is losing billions in its consumer electronics efforts in order to establish a monopoly position in music with Windows Media, but is failing. McGlade is just sorry to be on the losing side, and is scrambling to tell us that up is down. [Ten More Myths of Zune]More Promotional Zune Fraud.McGlade dives deeper into the toilet to fish out a third slide, which depicts a man in a wireless cafe using a Titanium PowerBook, photoshopped to obscure its Apple logo and further tampered to include what appears to be fake Intel and Windows stickers. To what further fraud will Forbes stoop?Dear Forbes: your next assignment to is photoshop a VW Beetle to look like a generic car, and then use it in an article assailing Volkswagen for being too much like General Motors in the 1970s.But what does a doctored Apple laptop at a hotspot have to do with the music industry? "Samsung, Sandisk and Microsoft's Zune were the first to innovate with features like wireless, access to music subscription services, unprecedented battery life and larger screens,â€? the caption announced. “Fast wireless puts the 'music anywhere' dream within reach.â€?The Zune did include WiFi, but it was completely worthless for anything apart from draining the battery. Microsoft limited it solely for use as a way to send exploding commercials to other Zune users. It was Apple that delivered the first and only WiFi music store, delivering the supposed 'dream' of buying music anywhere. McGlade makes no mention of this because he makes no money on sales through iTunes.[iPod vs Zune: A Buyer's Guide]Enter the iPhone."While Apple has scored another hit with the iPhone, the company will posses only a tiny segment, about 1%, of the global cellphone market in the product's first year." McGlade wrote. He should have said, "1.5% of the market in its first month," but his version sounds better for rivals. Why would he need to lie about the iPhone in a music article? "By 2008, hundreds of millions of these phones will employ standard Microsoft software that will make them compatible with most download stores and subscription services." Because that "standard Microsoft software" would sell McGlade's MusicNet content, he has to desperately overreach to suggest that the future will suddenly change and consumers will somehow get excited about Microsoft's truly awful Windows Mobile products, despite their being a complete failure on the market even prior to the release of the iPhone. Microsoft only has a tiny scrap of the smartphone market, about 5%, despite representing a broad selection of phone makers for half a decade. Apple outsold every one of those models in its debut month, selling at a premium price. That adds up to a wide spectrum of flacks, shills, and desperate CEOs ready to bad mouth Apple for their own loss in supporting Microsoft.[Secret iPhone Details Lost in a Sea of Hype and Hate][Apple: iPhone Now Costs Less than Ballmer's Lame Motorola Q]Music Anywhere.The next slide describes diverse devices that can play digital content, and depicts a Pioneer car CD player, which can play MP3 CDs and the radio. That means it can play CDs burned with iTunes, including purchased tracks, but not subscription music or WMA DRM.It strangely makes no mention of AirPort Express or Apple TV and their ability to play iTunes content wirelessly to home stereos or TV, or Apple’s lead in iPod integration with car makers, or its deals with airlines to plug the iPod into in-flight audio and video playback systems. That would undermine the intent of the photos. Besides, Forbes just printed an article by Scott Woolley which pretended that Apple TV was a huge failure compared to the massive losses behind Tivo (tens of millions per year) and Microsoft (billions).As reader Timothy Bandy pointed out, “overall, TiVo-owned subscriptions totaled 1.71 million, up 136,000 on an annual basis compared to the year ago-period.“So if Apple sold 250,000 Apple TVs, it's already doubled the amount of new customers Tivo made last year; or to put it another way, they already have 1/7th of Tivos' customer base without hardly trying. And as you pointed out, I doubt they've lost several million bucks in the process.â€?[Scott Woolley Attacks Apple TV in Forbes, Gets the Facts Wrong]Double Locked Down Subscription Services.Touting the double locked down rental music business McGlade represents, the next slide notes, "subscription services, which allow unlimited access to millions of music tracks for an average set monthly fee of $10 to $15, have been around for some time." Yes, and have failed miserably! "But with the advent of wireless-enabled players, phones and home devices, they are just now poised to deliver on an awesome promise: access to virtually all recorded music, anywhere, any time." How? Ubiquitous networking "may soon render the idea of exclusive music ownership obsolete." In other words, no CDs for you. You will rent what MusicNet sells you, and you'll like it at whatever price they set. You can rent access from any Microsoft/MusicNet store you chose, and play it on any Microsoft PlaysForSure or Zune player you pick, just not both, because they’re aren’t compatible with each other. Both are, however, double locked down.Music You Want.Speaking of which, McGlade reaches out embrace Latinos and Christian music buyers by advertising two specialty web stores that sell music from... well, you-know-who: MusicNet. For this shameless and desperate advertisement / hit piece masquerading as news, Forbes gets a Zoon, as does MusicNet and its shameless CEO, Alan McGlade. Good luck trying to sell it, they’re worthless! I crank them out like paper money.What do you think? I really like to hear from readers. Comment in the Forum or email me with your ideas. Like reading RoughlyDrafted? Share articles with your friends, link from your blog, and subscribe to my podcast! Submit to Reddit or Slashdot, or consider making a small donation supporting this site. Thanks!

  • Demo of new Microsoft Zune HD (video)

    Posted by Dave MertenThe private demo of Microsoft's Zune HD touchscreen player at the D7 technology show on Thursday was characterized as particularly impressive. The Zune HD has a capacitive touchscreen like the iPod touch and responds both quickly and accurately to finger input. It even includes an HD radio. Below is a...

  • Zune HD: Trying to Compete with Yesterday's iPod Touch

    Microsoft (MSFT) is looking to go head-to-head with Apple's iPod Touch by introducing the Zune HD, a touch-screen multimedia player that will be capable of playing high definition movies, high definition radio and surfing the Web via a mobile version of Internet Explorer. Once again, when it comes to challenging Apple (AAPL), Microsoft is a day late and a dollar short on this front. For some time now, we've been talking about the iPod Touch as less of a music and video player but more of a handheld computer - capable of doing pretty much anything a PC can do by way of the apps. And already there's buzz that Apple will introduce an upgraded iPod Touch - something with a larger screen and more like a Tablet PC - at its worldwide developer's conference next month.

  • Microsoft Announces Zune HD: So What?

    Your first question might be “Isn’t Zune dead already?” Or you might be wondering “Why does Microsoft bother?” You might even be asking why there’s a report about Zune on TheAppleBlog. Well, first the news. CNET’s Ina Fried reported yesterday that Microsoft has confirmed its long-rumoured plans to launch an HD version of its portable music player in the fall. (Paul Thurrott says September 5th.) Microsoft has left no room for doubt in our minds as to how they view Zune HD. Chris Stephenson, general manager of global marketing for Microsoft Zune, said “This device is created to go head to head with the iPod Touch.” Head to head, huh? OK then. That must surely mean Zune HD supports a multi-touch UI, OTA content delivery, a rich catalogue of apps including games, a killer web browser, native personal information management functionality, world-class media management/playback software and a rock-solid software foundation on the desktop. Right? Well, it’s not really clear. It has the (admittedly beautiful) Zune UI plus the Zune software on the desktop (which is way better than Windows Media player). News of a new Zune-branded video service on the Xbox also sounds promising and suggests potential interop between the handheld device and Microsoft’s console-based video on demand service. But we will have to wait for next week’s E3 trade show to get more information on that. It will indeed have a web browser — sadly, a touch-enabled version of Mobile Internet Explorer. (It doesn't matter how they tweak the control paradigm, Pocket IE is still inexcusably bad. Ask anyone who has used a Windows Mobile device to tell you about Microsoft's mobile browser. You will see the pain in their eyes.) But no word on games. Or storage capacity. Or choice of models. We also don’t know yet how much it will cost. But we do know that it sports an OLED (480×272) 16:9 widescreen display, spits-out 720p HD content (via a dock, not included) and comes with HD Radio. Yeah, oooh, exciting. The truth is we know barely anything at all about this thing. Perhaps Microsoft hopes the early announcement will generate some useful speculation and buzz on the intertoobs before next month’s WWDC (and news of a new iPhone) steals headlines and column inches everywhere — some observers have suggested this was Palm's strategy in announcing the upcoming Pre when they did. Either way, what is there to say about the Zune HD that makes it stand-out from an iPod-saturated market? HD video output? HD Radio? Err… retro 90’s design? I’m pleased someone is trying to win a share of what has, clearly, become Apple’s market. But when the de-facto standard for portable digital media devices is the iPod Touch/iPhone, any serious competitor has to make their products at least as good as them. Right now, I don’t see anything particularly compelling about Zune HD. But that doesn't mean the compelling features aren't there — just that Microsoft is doing its usual unfocused marketing. When most other companies would have counted their losses and scrapped it years ago, Microsoft has demonstrated a stubborn dedication to this product, so it’s probably worth keeping an eye on where they take it next. You never know, Redmond might just surprise us.

  • What's Next from Apple: New iPods Sept 22, iPhone OS 2.1, iTunes 8.0

    Daniel Eran Dilger Kevin Rose has been trying his hand at making broad sweeping generalizations about the next generation of iPods, but sorry, no digg. Most of his predictions are not even original, and those that are are so vague that they're really just worthless. Here's what you can really expect. Rose likes to suggest what's next from Apple, but his guesses only approach reality when they're based on leaks that occur days prior to an announcement. His flat out guesswork tends to be yet far further removed from reality, indicating that he has no special inside track on things at Apple, nor much of an imagination tempered by realistic appraisal. A month before the iPhone was unveiled, Rose predicted it would be available from CDMA providers, have a pull out keyboard, and sport two batteries, one for music and one for the phone. Of course, splitting a battery in half is not really a brilliant solution to prevent music playback from running down your phone, but the simple fact that Rose didn't know about the exclusive deal with Cingular (come on, it was Apple's only mobile partner to date) and the unlikelihood of Apple tacking on an HTC-esque keyboard makes his guesswork easy to dismiss. I had imagineered the iPhone as a web browsing iPod (“based on Nokia’s mobile contributions to Safari”) with SMS messaging features, contacts, calendar, and a camera… six months earlier. And CDMA? I recommended Apple “leave Verizon alone and partner with Cingular, TMobile, and MetroPCS using GSM technology.” The difference between my ideas and those from Rose, apart from mine being six months earlier, is that I presented mine as only reasonable ideas with some rationale behind them; Rose insisted he had special knowledge from reliable sources. Generation 6 iPods An iPhone Worth Talking About The Real iPod touch Deets. Now he's predicting new iPods. The iPod touch is supposed to get “fairly large price drops to distance itself from the $199 iPhone.” Sorry, wrong. The iPhone is only $199 in the minds of consumers. It gets a subsidy from AT&T, which is why you can't just buy one for $199 and walk out the door without signing a phone contract. The iPhone's $2,000 service contract offers plenty of distance between it and the iPod touch. The iPod touch is not possibly going to get cheaper than the iPhone for a couple reasons. First, obviously, it costs nearly as much to make. The lack of a subsidy pretty much balances out its lack of mobile radio components. Second, Apple isn't desperately trying to sell the iPod touch. It exists as a product to sell to users who can't or won't buy an iPhone because they're tied to Verizon or don't want a phone. Rose worries that the iPhone is “cannibalizing sales of the iPod,” but there's nothing more Apple would like to do than to feed every iPod user an iPhone. Sure the bonehead analysts will have another field day complaining about how there's only minor growth among iPod sales while they ignore iPhone numbers, but these guys aren't easy to reach with basic facts. Apple has been giving away the $300 iPod touch to students buying a laptop; that looks like an effort to broaden the iPhone platform. Apple wants college kids playing iPhone games and interested in creating their own iPhone software. Left to their own devices, most kids would buy the old hard drive iPod Classic because they think they need to walk around with their entire torrent library of stolen music. (Get off my lawn!) In any case, we all knew the iPod refresh was coming. I'm pretty sure they're coming on September 22. I'm also pretty sure that the 8GB iPod touch is going away, making the 16GB model the new $199 version. That outrageous price drop, facilitated by today's cheaper Flash RAM, would kill the remaining market for the hard drive-based iPod Classic, converting Apple's entire lineup to Flash RAM. Additionally, it would migrate even more iPod buyers into the installed base of iPhone App Store users and hasten the cannibalization food chain that leads toward the iPhone. The 16GB iPod touch will be sold next to the existing 32GB model, which was just released earlier this year. For that reason, I don't see a larger capacity model being introduced now. I don't see tremendous demand for carrying 64GB of music from people who are also ready to pay for 64GB of Flash. Nano 4: Zune 2007? Rose says the Nano will get a redesign that makes it look like last year's Flash RAM Zune; iLounge already predicted this a month ago, although Rose embellished his version with the idea that “the actual plastic on the outside will be curved,” presumably like a TV from the 80s. How nostalgic! I miss having a wildly distorted tube picture, almost as much as a scratchable plastic iPod screen. Oh the good ol' days. Will Apple expend significant resources to make the Nano 4 into a widescreen tall/long player and define a new 4GB hardware model to fit into a niche that is only $50 less than the new 16GB $199 iPod touch? How much room for differentiation is there under $200? Seems more likely that Apple will instead only release a cheaper version of the existing 4GB Nano that's closer to $99, leaving room for a $149 8GB Nano in between. That will pull Shuffle buyers up into splurging on a full video Nano. If you want to watch video sideways, you can get an iPod touch for $199. What kind of widescreen cinematic experience can you get with a long/tall Nano/Zune? When I reviewed the Flash Zune, one of the complaints was that half (but only half) of the controls reconfigure when you hold it sideways. Plus, existing iPod Games wouldn't work in the widescreen orientation; both the display and the controls would be messed up. On top of that, regular video playback would be forced to play back wide, and/or look bad because its stretched. Microsoft has no qualms with playing video in an odd aspect radio, but the iPod is made by Apple, which has some aesthetic boundaries that constrain its behavior. Winter 2007 Buyer’s Guide: Microsoft Zune 8 vs iPod Nano iPhone 2.1 Rose says Apple will also release “iPod touch 2.1 software, iPhone to get update very soon after.” We already all knew the iPhone 2.1 update was coming, and that it's going to be significant, and that it is due for release around the same time as the new iPods. Whether the new iPod touch will ship with it in advance of the iPhone would depend on whether iPhone-only features in the release hold it up, but Rose doesn't suggest any special knowledge or rationale behind this claim. iPhone 2.1 is supposed to usher in new GPS features and the push Notification system, but the real demand for downloading it will be that it fixes a major problem that currently causes third party iPhone apps to crash on launch and randomly when running. Apple needs to get this out quick before it blows the reputation of iPhone software stability in the minds of users. That's reason to believe that iPhone 2.1 might ship even before the new iPods, rather than the other way around. Because software developed using the iPhone 2.1 SDK won't run on iPhone 2.0.x, expect everyone to need to update their software to download a new generation of 2.1-only apps. This will be free for iPhone users, but might incur a nominal fee for iPod touch users due to accounting rules. Myths of Snow Leopard 3: Mac Sidelined for iPhone Ten Big New Features in Mac OS X Snow Leopard iTunes 8.0 Rose says iTunes 8.0 “it's a big update with new features,” but doesn't say what they are. He also says it will be “a real point upgrade” deserving the 8.0 name. However, there is little rhyme or reason to Apple's iTunes version numbering, and no real correlation between the amount features introduced and the version number increment. iTunes 2.0 added iPod support after ten months of iTunes 1.0, but iTunes 3.0 only added minor features the next year. It was replaced by iTunes 4.0 a year later, which added the Music Store and AAC support. Two years later, iTunes 5 introduced some cosmetic changes and was immediately replaced with iTunes 6.0 only a month later, without any major new features. Another year later, iTunes 7.0 arrived with a new look, video game support, and Coverflow. It has since seen loads of new features, from support for Apple TV to the iPhone to new iPods and new movie rentals, all of which were only numbered as minor updates. We've had iTunes 7.x for two years now, so iTunes 8.0 is not really ballsy prediction at this point. Of course, Apple is just as likely to skip ahead and release iTunes X. And if iTunes X isn't ready, we can might even get iTunes 7.8 and 7.9 over the next couple years. Oh my sides. With the likelihood of entirely new iPod touch or Nano models being quite low (after all, the Zune isn't going to get a refresh until late next year, and Apple isn't facing any tough competition at the moment), Apple's iPod announcement might end up more about a new iTunes than the iPod. Rose doesn't make any iTunes 8.0 feature predictions, instead jumping ahead to suggest that Apple is working to make sure Mac OS X 10.5.6 will provide support for Sony's BluRay, the competition to iTunes that nobody cares about. Hmm. Steve Jobs has so little regard for optical discs that he basically shunned iDVD last year when showing off iLife 08, but now he's going to resurrect BluRay and excite customers by including it on the company's laptops, where any resolution advantage it offers over DVD would be nearly invisible? Oh ho ho my sides. iTunes Unlimited? The rumor mill is talking about subscription music in the next iTunes. Steve Jobs has opposed subscription music since iTunes got started. He worked for years to convince the labels to let go of the dream of billing users to essentially listen to the radio. Subscription music has always revolved around outrageous DRM that requires the (historically Microsoft PlaysForSure) player to sync up and check in every month or lose its music. I've written up lots of reasons why subscription music was an awful idea that wouldn't fly. I doubt Apple will actually float it as rumored (“iTunes Unlimited” for $129 sounds awful). However, enough has changed in the last two years to reconsider how subscription music could be delivered. For starters, the iPhone and iPod touch are now wireless, so they can both stream and verify exploding media DRM. Apple's iTunes, modern iPods, Apple TV, and the iPhone also now already handle exploding DRM for movie rentals, which blew over last year without any complaint, although it doesn't look like iTunes' movie rentals have had a massive impact on the world due to their relatively high price point. Offering movie rentals appeared to be a requisite concession leading up to convincing the movie studios to agree to movie sales in iTunes. Apple could sell access to subscription music directly from the iPhone and iPod touch that worked similar to movie rentals, and the labels might even allow users to freely copy rental tracks between computers linked to the same iTunes account. Such an arrangement hasn't found mainstream popularity elsewhere, but nobody else had been able to sell music prior to iTunes either. While the rumors suggest there could be a discount for MobileMe users, it would be a lot smarter to make it part of MobileMe instead. That would limit subscribers to Apple's loyal base, easing in the system rather than exposing a brand new subscription service to ten million handheld users and 150 million iTunes users and all but promising another meltdown. At least by making it part of MobileMe, Apple could add lots of subscribers and upgrade existing subscribers to a $99 “unlimited music” additional fee. Keep in mind that all this is highly speculative. I doubt “unlimited iTunes” will fly, as the idea was not leaked but rather simply invented. How Apple Could Deliver Workable iTunes Rentals The Online Music and Movie Rental Myth Rise of the iTunes Killers Myth As Long As We're Speculating… If Apple does convert its entire iPod line to Flash players, it would make sense to incorporate a new audio codec setting that maximized the amount of songs you could copy into an 8GB player. For years, Apple's major selling point on the iPod what that it offered massive hard drive storage capacity. Now it's migrating to Flash, which is more expensive but considerably more shock resistant and suitable for a handheld computer device like the iPod touch. Working to cram more music into tighter spaces would allow Apple to make the iPod touch and iPhone more competitive against a hard drive player. AAC is already optimized for low-bitrate playback. Apple also needs to add remote functionality for controlling Apple TV to iTunes, just as you can already do via the free iPhone app. And how about direct streaming of content between iTunes, Apple TV, and the iPhone, such as for movie rentals. Currently, to get a rented movie from an iPhone to Apple TV you have to do two syncs involving a middleman iTunes PC. iTunes also needs to expand on the options for syncing media to the iPod and iPhone. In addition to syncing specific playlists, it should be able to automatically sync over a smart “Party Shuffle” mix of music that fills a specific proportion of the device, such as 50% music, 10% podcasts, and then the specific movies, TV, and audio books the user selects. Then shuffle out the listened to tracks and add new music every time it's synced. Allow users to hide songs from iTunes just as you can hide photos from your iPhoto album to simplify the view without deleting anything. Add Time Machine support so you can go back to see earlier play counts and browse your media library as it appeared in the past. Add integrated support for viewing PDFs and other QuickView document types, so you could use iTunes as a metadata-rich document browser with search and playlist features. Or give Preview an iTunes metadata document database interface. More Music Deals. Add other corporate sponsors to the Starbucks deal, so you can discover their playing music and buy tunes over their WiFi link. And isn't it about time Apple and AT&T got together and hammered out that plan to open iPhones to AT&T's hotspots? I'd debit a 99 cent WiFi access fee from my iTunes account if it were necessary. What's the point of setting up $8 per hour WiFi services for the zero people who use them? And on that tangent, how about rolling out my Ubiquitous WiFi idea for allowing other mobile users to borrow your AirPort's WiFi signal? I'd also like to see Apple get AT&T to allow users to place calls over their WiFi link as a concession for not having a functional 3G network in place yet. I also think AT&T should sell or rent AirPort base stations to its millions of broadband users, with all of them open to WiFi sharing so that iPhone users could place a freaking call and access the web at faster than EDGE speeds between now and whenever AT&T actually gets 3G rolled out. Apple also really needs to deliver some sort of central media server, possibly tacked onto Apple TV. Just add a USB hard drive and have it serve up the contents as a Bonjour-discoverable iTunes library to your local network. This would allows users to dump all the media off their laptop. And then allow WiFi sync to optionally copy fresh media to the iPhone from the central media server library. There's plenty that could be tacked onto iTunes, but the biggest new thing in the iPod announcement actually might be something entirely different than last year's iPods for cheaper and a new rev to iTunes. I'll spill that in the next article. Ten Big Predictions for Apple in 2008 Did you like this article? Let me know. Comment here, in the Forum, or email me with your ideas. Like reading RoughlyDrafted? Share articles with your friends, link from your blog, and subscribe to my podcast (oh wait, I have to fix that first). It's also cool to submit my articles to Digg, Reddit, or Slashdot where more people will see them. Consider making a small donation supporting this site. Thanks!

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