music, macs and mets ... mostly.
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Yeah, the iPhone changed everything. Now the new Google iPhone application with voice recognition changes the iPhone in a very fundamental and useful way. Google’s voice recognition not only works, it rocks.
Here’s the intro video from Google:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=y3z7Tw1K17A&fmt=18
Have you tried it? Drop a comment.
National Hockey League games are among the first programming to be offered through Apple’s iTunes video download service to launch Wednesday, Apple Canada has announced.
CBC: Apple launches video downloading in Canada with slate of TV programs
full story
Hello, Apple?
Please, please, please let iTunes use .Mac sync services (formerly iSync) to synchronize podcast subscriptions across multiple machines. Individual podcast episode’s “new/not new” status should also be synced.
Isn’t this a no-brainer?
In today’s Big News™, EMI announced that it will make high-quality, DRM-free music available in the iTunes Store.
From MacNN:
The Cupertino-based company will make individual AAC format tracks available from EMI artists at twice the sound quality of existing downloads and without any digital right management (DRM technology). Pricing will be $1.29/€1.29/£0.99; however, iTunes will continue to offer consumers the ability to pay $0.99/€0.99/£0.79 for standard sound quality tracks with DRM still applied. Complete albums from EMI Music artists purchased on the iTunes Store will automatically be sold at the higher sound quality and DRM-free, with no change in the price. The new higher-quality, DRM-free songs will be available in May.
I haven’t bought much music from the iTunes Store lately because in my opinion tracks encoded at 128k sound awful. The fact that EMI/Apple are keeping the per-album cost of the higher-fidelity, DRM-free music the same as the lower-quality DRM version, means they probably just got a customer back.
As for people who buy single tracks here and there, will they be motivated to buy a higher-priced version of the same song to get higher-fidelity without DRM? I don’t think so. They’ll likely be happy buying the cheaper, standard-quality DRM version.
So, on the one hand Apple can offer listeners like me higher quality, DRM-free music without a price hike (for full albums), while on the other hand, they can continue to offer the single track buyer songs at the same 99¢ (which the major labels have been pressuring Apple to raise for some time).
All ’round, probably a smart move for Apple.
Knowing that other major labels and indies are likely to follow suit, what are you thinking today if you manage the Zune Store?
UPDATE: Post and comments from Michael Geist
In an open letter titled “Thoughts on Music”, Steve Jobs challenges the major labels on iTunes Store DRM and gives Bill Gates the finger. Strategically, it’s a very interesting volley. Here’s John Gruber reading between the lines.
‘Back home after an absolutley wonderful trip to Costa Rica with family and friends.
On our way home we had a six hour layover in Atlanta. While Jacinthe was engrossed in her book, and Luca was busy with some rented DVDs, I was reminded what a great travel companion the iPod video can be. Time flew by as I caught up on episodes of 30 Rock, Rome, Studio 60 and the Henry Rollins Show ;-)
Recently, some friends and co-workers asked me about the best way of getting video on the iPod, especially given the Canadian version of the iTunes Store doesn’t sell TV shows or feature length films. So here are a few (Mac) applications I’ve come to depend on to get great looking video onto the iPod:
‘Member those ugly, over-priced tour t-shirts we used to buy at arena rock shows? They were usually black with white sleeves and silkscreened with the band’s logo and most recent album art. We’d wear them to school the day after a show like a badge of honour.
Well in that very same spirit, I had to don my Apple button-down shirt this morning in acknowledgment of Steve Jobs’ monumental, industry-disrupting announcement yesterday.
iPhone: 3 - Zune: 0