As many of you already know, the crew manning the keyboards at the 1115.org secret command bunker rely heavily on products made by Apple Computer. We’ve already spilleda good amount of virtual ink disussing Apple’s products and iTunes Music Store, but several recent developments in Mac-land are worthy of discussion.
1. New iPods: With Steve Jobs’ face peering down from the cover of Newsweek this week, there’s no denying that the iPod has cemented its place as the digital music player to beat. In a welcome development, the recently-introduced fourth generation models have improved battery life and are $100 cheaper than the models they replace. With 20gb iPods going for within $50 of comparable competitors (Such as this Dell model), Apple has really hit a sweet spot as far as value is concerned.
Just a few days ago, Sony was getting a lot of press regarding its new “iPod Killer” digital music players. But the Sony players, like most Sony digital music devices, have an Achilles heel:
As with Sony’s other players, the NW-HD1 plays songs in the company’s proprietary ATRAC format only, meaning it is not compatible with other online stores and cannot play tunes in the popular MP3 format.
And unfortunately, Sony users will only be able to buy music from the Sony Connect service, which the Washington Post has labeled an “embarrassment” for it’s kludgy interface, inconsistent selection and control-freak licensing issues. And Sony’s ATRAC uses 48-bit encoding—far less than the 128-bit encoding of Apple’s AAC format—which brings up concerns about sound quality. When you consider the iPod’s new price drop (which makes the 40gb iPod and 20gB Digital Walkman direct competitors), I predict that Apple will continue to set the standard for digital music players.
2. Mac OSX Setup Assistant: Recently, I was lucky enough to replace my old Mac G4 with a new Power Mac G5. Based on past experience, I expected that it would take at least an entire day to transfer over all of my files, applications, settings, serial numbers and passwords—and I knew that I would be reaching for the Advil before everything was said and done.
But thanks to a new Mac OSX Setup Assistant that Apple includes on new G5s, I had the machine up and running in about an hour. By connecting a firewire cable to my old computer, the G5 automatically transferred all of my applications and documents to the new machine, including the passwords and authorizations. This is a classic example of technology that every computer manufacturer should be providing, but it took Apple to offer it first. Setting up a new machine shouldn’t have to be a mess of aggravation and lost productivity, and it’s fantastic that someone realized that and did something about it.
3. Another Reason to Vote For John Kerry: From Time Magazine, I present John Kerry, Powerbook user. I wonder if Al Gore (who sits on the Apple board of directors) has anything to do with this…
(photo found by Dean Genome)