I finally received my Airport Express today. Set up was a snap, even with my lackluster BT service. (I'm using the Hermstedt XDSL modem as well, which has also made my life a lot easier.)

The most impressive aspect of the Airport Express is the size, as you can see from the picture. It's basically the same size as the power adapter for my PowerBook.



Apple has done an excellent job with the Airport Express. Connecting my printer, an HP Laserjet 1010, was a matter of clicks as well, even though it is not listed on the Airport Express compatibility chart. Connecting my stereo was equally as simple.

I purchased a Netgear base station last Christmas and it continually dropped the signal and needed to be restarted. It was also a pain in the neck to set up.

Five stars for the Airport Express- I highly recommend it.

(A bigger picture of the AC adapter/Airport Express is available at my Beta TechBytes site on TypePad)

There's a nice new service out there called Streamload . This would solve *many* of my current file storage and distribution problems.

"SEND.  RECEIVE.  ACCESS.  STORE.

You have the power to control your files anywhere, anytime. Fast, unlimited, inexpensive, this is the power of the internet used for your convenience — for your needs — for your demanding lifestyle. This is the power of Streamload. Life without limits."

One interesting twist is that you get 10GB of storage FREE. Your pricing plan is based on how much you download per month. For an offsite backup solution, the $4.95/month gives you 10GB of storage and 2GB of downloads per month. If you want to be able to upload and download the full 10GB it's only $9.95 per month.

(That beats the pants off of Apple's $100 per year for a paltry 100MB of online storage. Even my USB flash drive offers more storage than that.)

This is very similar to the type of service that I posted over at my ipod blog a few weeks ago saying that Apple needed to introduce...

Here's to innovative companies making Apple look like Microsoft. Well, even Microsoft is looking better than Apple these days as far as online services are concerned ... (see rant below)

This is a copy of an email I sent Apple earlier today:

Dear .Mac Team,

It's been slow on the .Mac improvement front lately, except for the pretty facelift. My email still loses sent emails, and I have not received any response regarding that after 2 months. It only took 3 months to resolve an issue with iSync that was on the server side. Not bad for $100 a year.

I've pasted below a very friendly email from Microsoft regarding my free Hotmail account. I hope to see some improvement in .Mac soon. Renewal time is approaching you know...

For once, I wish .Mac would actually pull through and offer something resembling value for my money instead of expecting me to prop up Apple's stock price by shoveling sub-par services to the Mac faithful.

Jason

"Dear MSN® Hotmail® Member:

As a valued MSN Hotmail Member, you will receive your storage upgrade automatically in the coming days. Over the month of August we will upgrade the storage capacity of your e-mail account to 250 MB - that's 125 times your current storage limit! We will also increase your attachment size from 1MB to 10MB. This means you will be able to store and attach more than ever and it's free!

But that's not all.

Last month, we upgraded your e-mail account's anti-virus protection. This makes MSN Hotmail, the only free global e-mail service that both scans and cleans incoming and outgoing email for viruses and worms.


We'd like to thank you for being a valued MSN Hotmail Member and look forward to telling you about even more exciting changes to your Hotmail e-mail account in the coming months. In the meantime, we hope you enjoy your new larger inbox!

Thank you,

MSN Hotmail Member Services"

A recent article on CNN regarding Real's reverse engineering of Apple's FairPlay points out:

"Harmony (Real's product) could help iPod sales," says Charlie Wolf, an analyst with Needham & Co. "It could also take some sales away from the iTunes store, but it's the iPod that makes the money." "They need [an answer] that doesn't sound anti-consumer and yet preserves the system they've built for themselves," Bernoff says. "I can't think of a response that satisfies both of those requirements."

Well, I certainly I can.

1. Ignore Real.
2. Make FairPlay and the iTunes Music Store better.
3. License FairPlay.

Ignore them like the fly they are: small, but annoying. Apple needs to focus on making iTunes and the iPod better. As a result, FairPlay (and the iPod) will be updated and changed over the course of time. Since Real's Harmony is essentially a reverse-engineered hack, it will break and songs purchased through Real will no longer work on iPods.

By licensing FairPlay to other parties, say in six months time, if Real decides to continue to provide music using their "hack", they are the ones that will end up looking incredibly stupid and cheap for not licensing FairPlay from Apple. The iTunes music store has always been a loss-leader (or break-even leader) for Apple, and I agree that having a variety of ways to buy music for my Mac and iPod is a good thing. Apple is obviously aggressively expanding its iPod World Domination to phones and PCs, and a licensing/SDK could open up new distribution and revenue opportunities for Apple and others (such as buying and downloading songs via 3G or Wap portals on those fancy new Motorola phones from Orange, Vodafone, Verizon,etc.).

Apple legal is probably itching to deliver a cease and desist order, but I think that might backfire. By using this three-step plan Apple takes the moral high-road, increases the attractiveness of the iPod to customers, increases revenue and expands the iPod/iTunes ecosystem. It's a clear winner for everyone but Real.

What can I say? I'm very impressed that Apple put this on the market at 0.99 Euros and 79p (both including VAT). I had flagged up the 79p price point as the sweet-spot and they hit the nail on head (see, reading my blog and listening to your customers *is* a good thing Steve).

I'll probably stick with the $.99 US version for now though...I mean, $0.99 is only 45p after all...

And posters advertising the service are starting to pop up around town- but still no sign of the iPod mini.

I think there should have been just one store for all of Europe. Either everyone gets their own store or everyone has to share. Why do I say that? Well, if I understood correctly, the music offered is different from country to country, which means Die Fantastischen Vier is probably not available on the UK iTunes store or Laurent Garnier is not available at the German store.

I realize from a licensing point of view this makes a lot of sense- it was probably the best they could do. But from a customer's point of view, isn't it better to have full access to the largest collection possible? This is why I think the "EuroTunes" store is the best option. Access to multiple countries' local artists and all under one roof. I'm not sure if they are planning to offer it like that or not. I guess we'll have to wait and see. As a bonus, I'll be interested in seeing the differences between the US English, UK English and European English versions.

"Apple today announced that is delaying the worldwide availability of iPod mini to July due to the much stronger than expected demand in the U.S., which it says is "far exceeding the total planned supply through the end of June." Apple says expects to ramp up its manufacturing of the iPod mini to meet worldwide demand in the July quarter." MacNN

What??

1. First up: fire the Product Manager. Four months of lost sales in inexcusable.
2. DON'T sell them all to the US. Sell them in Europe and the UK where they are MORE EXPENSIVE.
3. Fire the VP of Operations Planning. He (or his team) has consistently underestimated demand for other Apple products as well (15" Powerbook, iMac). This has cost Apple millions in lost revenue, damaged its credibility (it obviously cannot get innovative products to market) and caused superflous frustration for loyal Apple users (i.e. Me).

So, I guess this blows the "European iTunes" out of the water as well...I suppose we'll get that in the year 2006 with all the "hum, ho, wow." that "iPhoto Printing now available in Europe!" was received with last week (what a joke).

Rant off.

(BTW, did I mention my iPod is broken and that every single product I have ever purchased from Apple has broken? and usually just out of warranty?)

Gee. Thanks Steve. What's next? OS 8?

Hopefully Steven Spielberg will release E.T. shortly as well...

Apparently Apple did a poor job designing the original iPods. The Firewire port cannot handle the stress from day-to-day use of plugging and unplugging an iPod, which, over time, breaks the port. An analogy would be that the door to your car- over time- would fall off because you open and close it every day. Which is absurd.

Well, apparently this is what has happened to my iPod. It still works fine as an iPod- it just won't connect to my computer- which means I have a permanent music collection on my Pod. I've been troubleshooting this for two days and it appears that I, like many, many others, have a Firewire port that has gone bad. (I would be willing to bet that this is the main reason Apple changed the port on the iPod in the 3rd generation iPods.)

If you're looking for a replacement part iPod, email me through the "About" page- or keep your eyes on ebay. I'll be selling this iPod shortly...
--
I have tried unsuccessfully to fix my iPod. We tried to re-solder the broken firewire connections last week- with no luck. Now I have to wait for A) Apple to release the mini here in the UK or B) get one in the US or have a friend bring one over. Grrrrrr...

My .Mac iSync account has been broken for the past THREE MONTHS.

Finally, one of the monitors decided to contact me via email and solved the problem in a few days. Which is what is supposed to happen- that's the point of "Service and Support". The problem was at APPLE'S end, and was not my fault.

So, if you are considering a .Mac account, you might want to check back to see how Apple treats this case (if the past is any indication of the future, they will treat me like a red-headed stepchild). At the least, Apple should offer me 3 months of free fully-functioning .Mac service. However, I'm willing to bet I don't even get the pleasure of being spit on.

Every Apple product I have ever bought has broken- it was always Apple's fault (usually through poor design, but once through outright negligence) and they always denied it.

This is an excerpt from a Microsoft employee's blog extolling the virtues of Windows Media over Apple's media format (AAC):

"Let's say it's 2006. You have 500 songs you've bought on iTunes for your iPod. But, you are about to buy a car with a digital music player built into it. Oh, but wait, Apple doesn't make a system that plays its AAC format in a car stereo. So, now you can't buy a real digital music player in your car. Why's that? Because if you buy songs off of Apple's iTunes system, they are protected by the AAC/Fairtunes DRM system, and can't be moved to other devices that don't recognize AAC/Fairtunes. Apple has you locked into their system and their devices. (And, vice versa is true, as any Apple fan will gladly point out to you). What does that mean if you buy into Apple's system? You've gotta buy an FM transmitter that transmits songs from your iPod to your car stereo. What does that do? Greatly reduces the quality. How do I know that? Cause the Microsoft side of the fence has FM transmitters too. I saw a few on Friday. But, what we have on our side is a format (WMA) that's already being adopted by car stereo manufacturers. So, now when you buy a new song on Napster, it can play on your car stereo, or on your portable music player. Is the choice to do that important to you? If not, then you can buy an iPod and music off of iTunes."

Wow. This guy is actually scared. He sees a future where Micro$oft is not on every device you own- and where there's no lock-in to the Windows operating system.

After the HP deal, I could easily see Apple signing agreements with companies like Pioneer or Harmon Kardon to make AAC perfectly compatible with music purchased through the iTunes store. (Licensing is the key word to remember.)

Also, there's a nice article on Steve Jobs, Apple and Pixar in this week's Business Week that's worth your time.

Everyone knows Apple's earphones aren't very good. I looked around and decided the Sony MDR-EX71 would be the best option. they come in white, to match my iPod, and they are in-ear, effectively blocking out surrounding noise.

I ordered my Sony earphones from a Hong Kong site, iShopping4u for $50, with free shipping included. They arrived in a little over a week (it was still christmas holidays in Spain).

The Good

The earphones come with multiple sizes of the grey tips that go in your ears- allowing for a sung and comfortable fit. The sounds is really good, in my opinion. Many people say there is too much bass, but it sounds great to me- not muddy bass, but punchy clear bass. much like my Mission speakers on my home stereo.

The phones are made with an unusual rubbery, flexible material- very different from the hard plastic iPod earphones.


The Bad

The cord on the headphones is quite short. This is great if you always wear a jacket and can keep your iPod in your inner chest pocket. Otherwise, the cord is too short to keep the iPod in a lower jacket pocket or pants pocket. There is an extension included, but after adding that, the cord is way too long for daily use.

Each earbud's cord length is different. This is both a good thing and a bad thing. By making the right cord longer, it's easy to pass the right earbud behind your head, with the shorter left cord being just above the inner chest pocket of your jacket. However, when you take the earphones off, they do not wrap very well around your iPod for storage. This creates a tangled mess of earphones.

A case is provided to store the headphones, but it is completely worthless. It's an unusual tube shape and you have to wrap the cord around the outside, but just like on an iPod, the different cord lengths keep it from wrapping symmetrically and storing neatly.

The Summary

$50 for these earphones is not a good deal. Sure they sound great, but they are a real hassle to use everyday. If you're in the market for new earphones, $39 for Apple's new in-ear buds may be the best option. (I'm still disappointed that Apple is providing such awful earphones with the iPod . I mean, iPods *do* cost $300+). There is a comparison of Sony's and Apple's earphones available here.

Well, CK invited me to do some blogging on my iPod experiences over at my iPod blog. He was kind enough to sell me his old, worn-out, out-dated, under-sized iPod for a reasonable fee over Christmas. I'll be double blogging all iPod posts from here (where they will probably appear first, because I'm lazy) and at my iPod blog as well.

Hopefully the posts will be marginally more useful than a link to this page.

This isn't a new Applescript, it's just one I downloaded last night. The older iPods don't support Notes, but this script successfully sends your OmniOutliner files to your iPod. I use OmniOutliner for lots of projects and to-do lists, so this is a big plus. Also, since I can't put OmniOutliner files on my T610, this is additional functionality- not repeated functionality (like having a calendar that I can't edit on my iPod when I already have a calendar that I *can* edit on my T610).

Well, I think Apple blew the price point on this one...$249 is simply too much for this iPod. As CK said you can get a 15GB for $299...

However, I think this little guy is a good indication of where the iPod is going over the next few generations- particularly size-wise. I'm glad they got rid of those awful buttons at the top of the iPod. One of my main reasons for getting the "old school" iPod from CK was the form factor. The new miniPod has improved on the original- instead of taking a step backwards like the current 3G iPods.

I'll have to see the aluminum finish in person to judge that, but I can imagine it will be beautiful. And the fact there there is no white miniPod could mean no more white Apple products...I can't wait for the second generation of this little guy....

I'm really looking forward to the updated OmniWeb browser. I thought I had everything I needed with Safari and that no other browser could take its place. Now, I'm dying to try out the latest version of OmniWeb. It uses Safari's underpinnings (which means speed), plus adds some really neat features, like Workspaces:

"Imagine you have a lot of web pages open in your browser that you still have not viewed, but you need to restart your computer. You could bookmark all the pages and then load them all again when you next launched the browser, but that can take a lot of time and clutter up your bookmarks.



With OmniWeb's powerful new Workspaces feature, your individual browsing sessions can be saved in one convenient location. When you create a workspace, OmniWeb saves information like which web pages you have in your open in tabs, your history, and even the location of the windows on your screen. You can drag and drop the contents of one workspace to another to further organize them. Take a snapshot of a workspace and instantly restore the workspace from the snapshot, clearing away any changes made to the workspace in the meantime. Workspace files can also be emailed to other OmniWeb 5 users allowing you to easily share many websites with others using a single file."

I use tabs extensively for similar purposes, so I'm looking forward to trying this out. Also, OmniWeb incorporates thumbnail tabs... which I'm eager to test as well:



This is a good example of why Mac OS X continues to be a really exciting OS. Great software innovations keep coming along...