Mon - September 6, 2004

Why 2005 won't be like 1995

Will Microsoft's entry to the legal music download fray see off Apple's iTunes Music Store?

I keep trying to understand how people keep applying the IT scenario of 1995 to the music download business of upcoming 2005.

This is in reference to many pundits saying that while Apple may have the lead in legal music downloads with its iTunes/iPod combination, the entry now of Microsoft into the music business will see a replay of the OS wars which eventually saw Apple dwindle to perhaps 10% of desktop/laptops in use (notice I am not saying market share, as in quarterly sales.)

Frankly, I find this simplistic analysis an example of journalistic laziness. It also buys into an idea that near-monopolies in one domain who enter another must win out in time. In Microsoft's case, beside its near monopoly of the desktop operating system, it also has enormous cash reserves to hold-out and take on losses while its competitors try to nimbly outwit it through innovation. The Xbox gaming platform is one such example, as it likely loses money for Microsoft while generating loyalty from its users, which the company will eventually draw on at some future point.

Microsoft principally makes its money through the sale of its Windows operating system, licensed for use on most new desktop and laptop PCs sold; and from its Office software offering, which has established a virtual monopoly in the corporate world.

There are hints however that the Microsoft (MS) of 2005 will not necessarily be like the MS of 1995. In those days, MS had everything to gain and nothing lose in terms of market share with respect to the operating system in use on most PCs.

In 2005, MS products will likely see a dip in their use, albeit a small one. Its products are under threat by Open Source applications, especially in the web browser arena, where MS has essentially stopped innovating. As well as from Governments wanting greater use of the Linux platform.

Internet search remains dominated by Google despite much chatter about MS developing a competitor, again with the threat it will be integrated into Windows.

And now we see MS entering the music market by matching the price of downloads at the going rate (99c), and attempting to match the look and feel of Apple's iTunes Music Store (iTMS).

I see iTMS as fulfilling at least three purposes for Apple:

1. Bringing an Apple software application to the Windows platform allowing that huge population to see Apple in action with all its famed ease of use Apple users take for granted; something too infrequently seen in the Windows world where "it's good enough" seems to be the tacit assumption at work.

2. Bringing an Apple hardware "widget" into the Windows world, where consumers who may have avoided the Apple brand for all sorts of reasons, want to use it due initially to its cachet. My guess is that within minutes, hours or days (I have no idea how long it really takes) these Windows-based users develop a tacit awareness of Apple design and usability philosophies in action. Once you have sampled this kind of quality, it may not be so easy to accept lesser quality.

If they have sampled the iPod/iTunes competition before buying an iPod, it will be very hard - for the sake of say $100 - to ignore the iPod in favour of something from Dell, Creative or Rio that purports to also allow them to listen to music. Which they do. But at some other experiential level, many Windows users who pony up the premium for the iPod (even if they still think erroneously that Apple computers are double the price of similarly powered brand PCs) will not begrudge Apple a relatively affordable premium - again, once they feel the iPod/iTunes "widget" in action.

My guess is that for many the "whole widget solution" which Apple offers with iTunes/iPod will come as a revelation. For those who go on to explore further than just music, and look at the finer details under the hood, they will come away deeply impressed with how Apple thinks about its products, and by definition how it relates to its customers. My guess is that a proportion of such Windows users will eventually come to consider Apple's computers the next time they consider upgrading or adding a new PC. (Not to mention the security advantages of having a mixed network even in a domestic setup).

3. Raising the esteem in which Apple is held by the business and corporate community. It's one thing for Apple to say in its boilerplate text in its PR releases that it invented the personal computer market, or that it will innovate its way out of the post-dotcom doldrums, it's another to bring to the market definite examples of Apple's capacities.

By being the first to develop a successful means for consumers to easily download commercial music, despite MS saying it was going to get there first sooner or later, the corporate world sits up and pays attention to the so-called 2% market share company.

But the numbers for the iTMS/iPod are way way different to that tiny percentage. By definition, Apple must be seen as a savvy player, not just a company making pretty but incompatible computers for niche creative markets.

Now when a new iMac is released it's not just the Mac online and paper publications that comment about it, but the business community sits up and takes notice, because it's a "new" Apple product, not because it's a new iMac.

Time will tell whether the new design will capitalise on the many Windows users using Apple products by dint of the iTMS/iPod combo, and who now will not be averse to touching other Apple products. It's as if a boundary has been breached, and like a strict dieter who loses restraint, it's now time to enjoy the forbidden fruit (pardon the biblical allegory but it does fit here).

If they walk into an Apple store perhaps on their way to purchase an iPod accessory, how many will avoid looking and then playing with the new iMac? I expect to see Apple stores really push iTunes, and already we're seeing advertising from Apple making the link between the iPod and iMac (..."from the developers of the iPod").

Currently, Apple's innovation sees it dominate the legal music download business as well as the mp3 player market, despite the proliferation of the Microsoft Windows media proprietary protocol known as WMA. Mind you, the mp3 protocol is probably still the dominant one due to the billions of mp3s out there in peer-to-peer networks. These are compatible with iTunes and the iPod. It remains true that the iPod has always been an mp3 player, as well as playing CD-standard AIFF and WAV amongst others.

All MSN legal music downloads comes in the WMA format, incompatible "off the bat" with the iPod. Microsoft in its tacit acknowledgment of the iPod's market leadership, offered a help page for moving its files onto the iPod using a number of steps (as compared to synching the iPod with iTunes). It has since removed that advice, perhaps under advice from its legal or marketing departments.

Apple built into its iTunes the capacity to convert non-DRM WMA files into mp3 or AAC file protocols.

MS touts the "advantage" of its online store being that its files are compatible with more than 70 iPod-like music devices which will play WAV but not AAC with the DRM wrapping which is a product of the iTMS.

On the surface, that appears to be a winning combination for MS: proprietary WMA files playable using the bundled Windows Media Player application; and more personal players than the two Apple sells - the iPod and iPod mini.

This is also the basis for industry pundits saying that given time, MS will come to dominate the music download market like it does with all other markets it enters, albeit even if it is its usual late self.

But the facts are that it doesn't always win the market lead, not matter how long and how much money it throws around. Witness Microsoft Money vs. Quicken, Xbox versus Playstation vs Nintendo vs Sega, MSN vs. AOL. In 2002, MS entered the wi-fi market with hardware two years after Apple. It no longer makes its own brand of wi-fi gear.

Now if I owned an iPod and was a Windows user, what would compel me to shop at the MSN music store? Cheaper downloads, such as the temporary 49c effort by a seemingly more disenfranchised Real Audio? No, MS prices are same 99c, not even 89c as others are offering. So it's not going to lure me away from my iPod by having cheaper music.

Perhaps choice then. The iTMS has a million songs for sale, MSN says it will release that many "soon". So that's no reason to switch yet, and if there are tunes on MS not yet on iTMS I can locate the advice from MS stored somewhere in the Google archives to get it onto the iPod one way or the other.

Ah, perhaps that wonderful choice of 70 music players, most cheaper than the iPod. That's the go, isn't it?

Hmm... Well as a friend of mine discovered when she moved from Melbourne to LA to find more desirable men than the nebbishes she was dating at home, she discovered that there were so many more nebbishes in LA to get past to find the few "nice guys" that absolute numbers didn't offer the hoped for solution to her single status.

Actually, it also parallels the argument that "there is so much more software for Windows than for the Mac." It's true. In absolute terms, there are more - many more. Just like there are many more spare parts manufacturers for GM and Ford cars, than there are for BMW, Mercedes, Honda and perhaps Toyota.

You can buy "genuine" replacement parts, or generic brands. It's your choice.

But in the software world, in terms of the dominant software in use by most Windows users, once you install MS Office and use the security-flawed Internet Explorer, you are mainly left with niche accounting, database and specialist business software, not of interest to the consumer who wants to surf the web, email, IM, scan photos, and make leaflets or newsletters.

You can use Office for the Mac with seamless file-swapping with Windows users, and there are many web browsers available, with tabbing and in the case of Safari, built in RSS soon to come.

Most consumers will find that almost all uses they can conceive of will be available in the Apple world. And in most cases, with usability far in excess of similar Windows programs, for which the iLife applications are a prime example, especially in how they integrate. Even the blog software I use integrates with iLife making it easy for me to incorporate photos, movies, and sound files.

Having 70 compatible music players may appear to offer freedom of choice, but once you start playing with these options, my guess is that a side by side comparison with the iPod will only produce one winner, and people will pony up the extra dollars.

Not all will, and in my recent trip to NYC, I saw plenty of people walking the avenues with large round CD/mp3 players. But I saw (perhaps was drawn to see) many more people with white headphone wires streaming from the handbags, or iPod-minis conspicuously displayed on their belts or arms.

Perhaps the final question to ask is whether Microsoft has within its corporate DNA an understanding of the complex music making and listening market in the way Apple does.

Or will it turn its full corporate attention to to its next Windows operating system, in the form of Longhorn, which, to meet its 2006 introduction date has seen MS announce some very important and significant deletions (WinFS, the store and search file system) which were to have seen Longhorn leap way ahead of the current XP system?

To my admittedly biased eyes and ears, there is nothing compellingly different about Microsoft's music offerings for me to dump my iPod. And that's despite the fact that the iTMS is unavailable here, while WMA-based music services are...

No, Microsoft will have to innovate its way to market leadership rather than count on absolute numbers of Windows users. Especially since the iTMS/iPod experience must be such a compelling one to Windows users.

With Hewlett-Packard on board by bundling iTunes with its desktop and portable PCs, and selling its own "iPod by Apple", a breach in the MS near-monopoly has occurred.

Perhaps in time, if the Sony Connect/minidisc "whole widget" concept fails, we may see more discussions between Sony and Apple CEOs than occurred recently on a Hawaii golf course.

Who knows if Apple needs Sony on side to succeed? So far, that's not been the case, and it's more likely Sony will need a successful partner if it is to be a major player in the market it could have owned, given its long-term Walkman leadership. How it lost its way will be the subject of MBA case studies in the same way that the success of iTMS/iPod has been.

2005 will be very interesting for commercial music, and consumer purchases. Will Apple "repeat" the operating system "mistakes" as so many are predicting? Or has Apple's leadership incorporated ten years of learning, so that 2005 won't be like 1995?

If I were Microsoft or Real, I would concentrate on what they do best, just like Apple has. If they don't then, for sure, 2005 won't be like 1995.

Posted at 07:40 AM     |

Fri - September 3, 2004

Skype's no hype - disruptive technology at work

From the developers of Kazaa comes more technology to upset the big end of town...

We're back in Manhattan, having spent some time in Monroe county, north of the city.

Using Hotwire, which few locals seem to know about, we located a mid-town hotel for a couple of nights before leaving for home. When we noted Hotwire was offering a 4.5 star hotel for USD139 a night, we took it without knowing what or where exactly. Turns out after we took the plunge to be the InterContinental's The Barclay on 48th and Lexington. It's near the Waldorf Astoria, and after we did a day's shopping and visiting, returning was a security nightmare since the US Pres. is in town for the Republican National Convention and he is likely staying there.

In fact our hotel is a nominated RNC hotel, and I am guessing we took advantage of someone's cancelling to get a cheap room rate where it often runs $300 and up. Nearby is the Marriott, Radisson, Benjamin and Metropolitan hotels. It is also a home for players in the US Tennis Open currently playing in Flushing Meadow in Queens, so we have a curious mix here of delegates to the convention and tennis players and support staff.

Anyone on the road as these people are will of course be wanting to phone home or make contact within the city. If you're from another country, using your cell phone to send and receive calls is too expensive for anything but quickies, or emergency calls. And using hotel phones is also expensive unless you also use a phonecard. But it takes forever to dial a number, having to first enter a 1800 number then codes then your number to dial. And if it is busy, you start again. Ugh!

So when I noticed that Skype had released a beta for the Mac OS Panther, I downloaded it immediately. Skype is a VoIP service allowing chats to be made computer to computer (actually more like an Instant Messenger), or phone calls between internet-connected computer and landline or cell phone. The IM function is free, while the latter requires an investment in Euros to be deposited.

The download and installation of Skype went without a hitch (it's a 3.5MB dmg file), but purchasing credits was not easy. Safari's pop-blocker was likely the culprit, but I couldn't get the Skype homepage to accept my AMEX card to buy credits. Switching to Firefox saved the day and I had 10 Euros of calls in no time, but only after switching to Diners Club too. I also used the online help chat system to let them know Safari was having problems.

I placed my first call to Australia. I simply typed in +6139xxx-xxxx and it started ringing with an American ring tone. But when it was answered the sound was clear as a bell, with me talking into my Powerbook's built-in mic. and the other person disbelieving I was not using a handset.

Today, I placed a call using +1646xxx-xxxx to a local NYC cellphone, and bingo! it worked on that too! Again, surprising the receiver with its quality. A little delay, but an excellent quality. I spoke for an average of 3 minutes on both occasions, and the total cost to me was 0.14 euros. That's USD 17c!

I'll repeat that: I made a 4'39" call to Australia, and a 2'43" call to a New York cellphone, and it cost in total 17c.

Of course, you have to factor in our daily rate for hotel high speed connection, but we would have taken that anyway, regardless of having Skype installed.

The Mac version appears to be deficient in many features found in the more mature Windows app., but it is really beta now.

This is truly disruptive technology in action. While I didn't do anything utterly breakthrough given how commonplace talking on the phone is, I have to say I felt like some of those folk who first starting using the humble phone a hundred years ago, and thinking of the possibilities it meant for business and social life.

In New York where every corner allows for wi-fi connection from unprotected Airport-type 802.11x devices, how soon before Palm Tungsten/wifi devices are helping us make very cheap phone calls?

Hmm... what would happen if the iPod became wi-fi equipped, allowing it to be used with a special version of Skype (which does exist for the PocketPC platform) and bluetooth equipped headphones. Now that's disruptive!

If you want to find out more about Skype and its co-founder Niklas Zennstrom, you can hear him speak at this year's Supernova 2004 here courtesy of Doug Kaye's IT Conversations. Doug's site has also just posted the mp3 of a discussion between lawyers and analysts, Mike Masnick, Rafat Ali, Jason Schultz and Derek Slater entitled: Apple vs. Real vs. Microsoft - Law and IT. You can hear it here.

So sad to leave NYC which we love so much - but hoping to return again soon. I think it's visit 15 for me!

Posted at 11:47 AM     |

Sun - August 15, 2004

Truth in Advertising: "SOHO is the domain of Windows - forget Linux, and don't even mention the Mac". Says who?

"Special Advertising reports" in glossy newspaper magazines require special skepticism when considering their "advice".

There are all sorts of ways for product makers to get their wares into the public's awareness.

They can take out advertisements where it's clear who is advertising what - like a shop advertising a service, or a manufacturer advertising a new range of products.

Sometimes, when shops advertise products, the manufacturer will offer kickbacks or some subsidy for the advertisement, or even take care of the lot, especially if the advertisement features its sole products. To my eye, such behind-the-scenes deals is neither here nor there, although proprietors of competing retailers may take another view.

Here in Australia, we have had so-called "cash for comments" scandals, where well-known and well-paid radio talk-back hosts have boosted certain products and canned others, only for contracts with the former to come into the public domain, clearly outlining the relationship - hence "cash for comments." This is seen as disturbing the relationship between trusted public affairs commentators and their public.

It's OK for the commentator to state they are now delivering an advertisement on behalf of company X. But when they sneak in positive comments for them, and badmouth company X's competitors without revealing they are on X's payroll, it stinks.

Occasionally, print journalists are caught out doing the same, writing so-called "advertorials" where they laud a product (often based on PR releases they have slightly modified) with the outfit they have praised taking out paid advertisements.

The other technique is to write a feature story - often a supplement or lift-out - which is often titled "Special Advertising report". The copy then reads like a magazine story, except the products mentioned have paid to be included, although that fact is never mentioned. The article looks and feels like the genuine article, in the sense that it is written by a journalist in a style one usually sees in the main magazine.

However, the writing is clearly biased since it mentions products by name as examples, and one can only assume this was not done randomly but because payment was made.

It does require the reader to remain skeptical, that in fact the writer is boosting the product rather than being critical.

I found an example of such writing this weekend (August 14-15) and it angered me for its misleading the average reader, in my opinion. I also wonder who paid for the advertisement and whether newspapers ought to be required to declare this.

The article was about Working from Home, and what was needed to equip a Home Office. It was written by former News Corporation IT editor Ian Grayson, whose work has appeared in that publisher's Tuesday IT edition of The Australian newspaper.

After describing the hardware a home office PC might require in terms of CPU speed, hard drive size, and RAM requirement, Grayson offers a paragraph on the preferred operating system (OS):

"The vast majority of computers being sold come with Microsoft 's Windows XP operating system. Windows XP provides a range of features, including a comprehensive online help system and wizards that guide the user through tasks such as connecting to the internet or setting up a small office network. Windows also incorporates an update feature where, once connected to the Internet, the software can automatically check for new versions or patches designed to fix any identified problems. While it is possible to replace Windows with other types of operating systems, such as Linux, its compatibility with most office software products makes it a natural choice for home and small office users."


Now does anything strike you as odd about this paragraph? I think even the most vociferous booster of Linux would give their best friend who is putting together a home office sage advice about Linux not being quite ready for this particular domain of use. But would they say Windows is your "natural" (=no need to think further) choice? I think not! What is missing from this picture then? Oh yes, the possibility of using the Mac OS in the small office/home office (SOHO) environment like tens of thousands of people do!

Why was the Macintosh platform omitted from Grayson's article?

Probably because the article was paid for in part or in full by Microsoft Australia is my guess - but it's only a guess as there is no declaration of who paid for this advertising feature. Or perhaps it was Grayson's attempt to stay within Microsoft's good graces.

What peripherals are mentioned by Grayson that might also spell the lack of utility for Linux for the SOHO, as well as software products?

Let's see what's mentioned in the body of the article:

1. We see a picture of the Epson Stylus CX5300 multipurpose copier/scanner/printer (the article is preceded by a full page advertisement for Epson laser printers)

2. A picture of Lexar storage medium in the form of the JumpDrive USB thumbdrive (a full-page advertisement for Lexar media appears in the article)

3. Mention of a Canon laser printer (LBP-1210), Brother fax copier (737MC), and HP's multifunction PSC2410.

There are mentions too of external hard drives by name (Maxtor - and a full page advertisement) and Iomega's REV drive.

Now what do all these mentioned peripherals have in common?

1. The Epson is Windows and Mac compatible, for OS 9 and X.

2. All the media are Windows and Mac compatible

3. The Canon has been downrated by one independent site for the following reason:
"However the lack of ethernet and Mac support does limit this printers appeal."

The HP is Windows and Mac compatible, both OS 9 and X.

So much for needing Windows to run necessary peripherals in the SOHO environment.


But more importantly what was left out of this advertorial?

As much as it advocated the use of high-speed "always on" cable or ADSL internet connectivity, no mention was made of how to protect that "natural" Windows system from malware, spyware, and virus attacks, for which the Mac at this time seems immune, and which any fair article would have mentioned, including hardware and software-based firewalls. But this was never meant to be a fair article, was it?

For me the choice of Windows has the natural SOHO choice is so off the planet, as to make me laugh and cry at the same time. What a poor effort from Grayson! I hope he was paid well for this piece of journalistic whoring.

For the SOHO operator without a paid IT department to look after technical issues, umpteen monthly security updates, and almost daily virus checks and pop-up nonsense, the Mac is not the natural choice, but the logical and rational choice to consider. If you have loads of software based in Windows and it would require more to crossover than the hardware costs, stay with Windows. If your Windows accountancy or invoice software is what your vendors, suppliers or accountant demands, then stay with Windows.

But, if you're starting from scratch, don't have the above limitations on you, or are just heartily sick of the security updates, pop-ups and malware, then you owe it to yourself to ignore Grayson's paid-for advice, and visit a Mac dealer or visit a Mac networking club and ask the right questions. Such as if Microsoft Office is available for the Mac. (It is and arguably better than that for Windows - and you can easily exchange files). Check out if MYOB, and Quickbooks is available for the Mac, or mind-mapping software, or notetaking software or cross-platform database apps... They are.

If you go with Windows because all your friends run it, and you can pirate their's, then I wish you good luck because it may well be a means of making a vital business decision you may come to regret. My guess is more people are moving to self-employed SOHO in a sea-change from corporate life and are migrating from the Windows environment to the Mac, than from Mac to Windows. Perhaps it is a way to say, "I'm outa here and independent", or something else.

But there is one thing to keep in mind: initial outlay is only part of your financial consideration. You need to estimate how much your system will cost your business (hardware, software, downtime, tech support etc) over its three year life cycle. And which OS will get out of your way when you want to get creative or get work done.

If you want an opinion about the Windows versus Mac for small business, you can read David Coursey's 2003 column. He has a history of being a Windows booster who came late to the Mac party.

Or why not just skip that and go straight to Microsoft's own website to see what it has to say about the Mac and SOHO. Here is a paragraph from its Macinstosh Business Unit homepage:

"Extensive research conducted with thousands of people reveals that Mac users tend to be home users, students, teachers, creative professionals, and small-business operators. That's why Office v. X for Mac is more likely to present features for working directly with a document than, say, features that let users retrieve information from a corporate data warehouse."

Hmm, sounds like Microsoft gets how the Mac is ideal for the SOHO environment. Oh, and if you want to know if Macs are reliable, why not go to PC Magazine's Annual review and see why its readers rated Apple products No. 1.

"...Apple's impressive reliability scores are at least a point higher than the industry averages. Nearly all respondents to our survey who supplied quotes about their Apple desktops found them extremely reliable. Compared with other brands, a much lower percentage of Apple desktop systems needed repairs over the last year."

Update (August 24, 2004): "Apple Computer reported the highest score among personal computer makers in U.S. customer satisfaction for 2004, according to the results from the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), released Tuesday. Apple's score improved by four points for a second consecutive year... (Apple) has the highest score any PC manufacturer has achieved in the 11 years of ACSI measurement," said Professor Claes Fornell, Director, National Quality Research Center, University of Michigan Business School. "Much of this is due to successful innovation and a lot of it."

Although Dell has been supplanted by Apple as the industry leader in customer satisfaction, it remains the most consistently high-scoring
computer manufacturer with a score of 79, up 1%, Prof. Fornell said.

The ACSI is a national economic indicator of customer evaluations of the quality of products and services available to household consumers in the United States. It is updated each quarter with new measures for different sectors of the economy replacing data from the prior year. The overall ACSI score for a given quarter factors in scores from about 200 companies in 40 industries and from government agencies over the previous four quarters.

Posted at 06:03 PM     |

Wed - July 21, 2004

How do you know when a gadget becomes an iCon?

... by the various ways it's referred to, which sets it apart from its competitors: Apple's iPod.

Last Monday I had the pleasure of speaking to the local Victorian Macintosh group who had invited me to present a section on iTunes. Others presented on iPhoto, and down the track there will be presentations on iDVD, iMovie and Garageband.

I used Keynote and gave a brief history of iTunes which was launched in January 2001 as an OS 9 app. with a strong family resemblance to Cassidy and Green's SoundJam. No surprises there since the same developer was responsible for both.

I also embedded some Quicktime movies showing Israeli Folk dancing - circles, partners, and lines - and described how iTunes is well up to the task of programming a night's session and how the playlists and metadata can be used to help categorise the dances. Someone in the audience actually stated they recall their children being exposed to IFD in their state school!

The group were pleased when I mentioned that the combination of iTunes, Mac laptops, and iPods were now being used by several dance groups in Melbourne as a result of my early adoption of iTunes.

I didn't get through 90% of the material I wanted, but many seemed quite pleased with the historical aspects I focused on, including showing the original "Rip.Mix.Burn" ad first shown in March, 2001. This is when Apple introduced CD burners into iMacs when the Wintel world was seeing burners more for copying CDs and making backups rather than as an element of a digital hub. (Are you really surprised?)

One thing I did show was how iTunes was Applescript-able and there was a site devoted especially to getting more out of iTunes using scripts. One allows you to wake your Mac from Sleep using a certain track and a selected time, and another allows the current iTunes playing track to appear by name and artist at the bottom of the Safari browser window when you're surfing! The site is Doug's Applescripts for iTunes.

In fact, my presentation, which was about getting more from iTunes in general, was informed via an essay I had written for my Knowledge Management studies, where I focussed on the iTunes Music store and its meaning regarding Technology and Society. I think I interpreted "getting more" quite broadly!

One of the slides I included in my presentation is below. It is one of a number of questions I was asked when participating in an online survey. Does anything leap out at you?

So, what do you notice? It's like one of the popular magazine's IQ test: "Which one doesn't fit with the others?"

Ah yes! Apple's iPod stands out - all the others are generic descriptors, while the iPod is the only named product!

To my eye, that's the sign of a marketing iCon! To be given an entire category on your own, a unique descriptor, says you OWN this market.

Now here's another! I was walking near my home last night, when I noticed the Tattersall's (Lottery Agency) electronic sign in East Caulfield, which carries product advertisements and news. Lo and behold, I looked up to see this:

So, I did two things.

I took a picture (using the great Optio S4 digital camera from Pentax) and bought a lottery ticket. (Update: A loser).

Now, can you imagine the same sign saying iRiver introduces updated H-120 mp3 player? I think not! The spelling of iPod was even correct: not IPOD, or Ipod, or IPod.

And what an interesting juxtaposition too! Because above the Apple iPod story, is written the header, "News on the move". How appropriate, especially since I so often walk with my iPod (as I was last night) and listening to recordings of news broadcasts, especially IT and Mac stuff, like Doug Kaye's IT conversations and Shawn King's "Your Mac Life".

So here have been a couple of ways of knowing when a product has reached a significant place in the communal mindset, apart from the front covers of news magazines:

We know there is a term for when a television show reaches a peak then it's all down hill from there. It's called "Jumping the Shark", named after an episode of "Happy Days", which then went off its game from there!

So what's the term when a product has "made it" and reaches iConic status? To be podded?

(Update: July 22): If you've come here from "Your Mac Life" or my first mention in MacSurfer, you might want to read my piece about the iPod posted to this blog soon after COMDEX earlier in 2004 when the HP/iPod announcement was made. The referred-to pictures of HP CEO Carly Fiorini were lost when my blog software crashed (do a Google for "Carly iPod" and you'll see lots of her holding up an HPBlue 3g iPod). But to read my post about the history of the iPod and a very funny list discussion of idiot prognosticators predicting how Apple got it so wrong with the iPod on its release in October, 2001, go here and have a good laugh. Just as well so many used pseudonyms to protect their identities.

Posted at 01:09 PM     |

Fri - April 30, 2004

Just the thing for dancing to those songs of prayers... now comes the ChaiPod

From this week's Melbourne Jewish News....

The only question is: "What took so long to see this?" Must be all over the F line stations in Crown Heights...

This little entry was picked up by Wired's Mac blog staffer, Leander Kahney, and there've been loads of visitors here. Ta, Leander. But if you compare my illustration above with that over at Wired, you'll notice a difference. Do you see those marks on the left in my pic. above? They don't appear on Wired's. But those marks are in fact genuine Shabbat soup stains garnered at dinner and in my view add a little authenticity to the advertisement. Nachon? Yeah, yeah, shouldn't be reading at the dinner table, but I'm a guy who takes liberties.

What's next? A Scotsman in his kilt with bagpipes, advertising the "OchAyePod? (I'll stop here before it gets silly, and any credibility I may have is shot....)

Posted at 08:31 PM     |

Mon - March 8, 2004

More talk of iPods... and folk dance

Despite its price, iPods keep falling off shelves...(into hungry hands and ears!)

Found a great article backgrounding how Apple worked with its various suppliers and designers to come up with the original iPod design, and how it insisted on only using a no-compromise approach to its construction. Published in the ElectronicsDesignChain magazine, it's a quite detailed article by Eric Sherman worthy of a read if you want to know more about the iPod.

Speaking of which, another Melbourne dance group has commenced using the iPod. Nirkoda is adding to its minidisc-based equipment with iPods so its many teachers don't need to shlep discs and equipment to their classes. Just get a couple of 20GB iPods (I suggested waiting until the iPodmini comes out as 4GB should be enough for most IFD uses), and use one master library of mp3s or mp4s on a Mac or PC with iTunes and you're in business.

On Sunday, Nirkoda entertained local Caulfield citizens in the nearby park, and all they needed to do was give the organisers the iPod to link to the PA system - or the Tannoys as my UK friends would say!


Update: Nirkoda's newsletter announced it has now also purchased a Powerbook during a time when Apple retailers were ridding themselves of End of life stock (I think) with the added incentive of offering 20GB iPods for $99 with each purchase. That's a saving of several hundred dollars! Downside is that Powerbook prices have already dropped more than the saving and been incrementally improved speed-wise for less money.

Regardless, it will change for the better the way Nirkoda programs its classes, and means the vast majority of computers used in Melbourne's highly competitive and influential (!) folk dance scene is powered by Apple products. See, cream does rise to the top!

Now if only I could locate one of those "moving signs" to link via USB with the iTunes playlist to display current and upcoming dance names!

Posted at 11:53 PM     |

Sat - February 28, 2004

Sat - February 21, 2004

Got an iPod and wanna talk about it - seriously?

If the iPod is this century's Sony Walkman, then if you wrote a book about the Walkman, you'd want to do the same about the iPod, wouldn't you?

Michael Bull lectures in Media and Communications in Sussex University (UK), and previously (2000) wrote about the Walkman in a book, Sounding out the City: Personal Stereos and the Management of Everyday Life"

Now, he wants to do the same looking at the iPod phenomenon, and is asking iPod owners to write to him about how they use it.

If you want to participate in his study, you can write to him here.

In fact, during the week I got another email from an author of Mac books, Kirk McElhearn, who lives in France. He was interested in hearing how iPods are used in folk dance circles for a book he is writing next year. Seems many people are transfixed by the tiny white (and now multi-coloured) hard drive music machine, and its impact on society.

For myself, who had been using a 'Pod since 2002, it has been fascinating to watch people diss it as an expensive toy, to a "must-have" gadget allowing people to enjoy music, audio books, interviews and whatever else, when they choose to...

Just yesterday, an acquaintance who bought one in the last month (and is a self-confessed gadget nut) expressed buyer's remorse when he read of the iRiver players and how on paper they seemed to have it all over the iPod. (Another friend waxed on lyrically during the conversation of the Philips players just around the corner). I explained a few things to him about the differences (he adored how iTunes on his Windows machine so easily synchs to the iPod, even over USB 1.1 connections), and he seemed more relaxed about his choice. I enthused about the possibility of the next iPod using Bluetooth wireless connections for the earphones, and to share with other users. Hopefully, the elegant simplicity of the iPod will be maintained in the next model.

Posted at 11:49 AM     |

Thu - February 12, 2004

My new Palm Tungsten 2, and that synching feeling

After a few years without using a Palm, it's deja vu to discover once more how to use one, and the whole world of synching comes back to me.

As part of my insurance settlement for the theft of my cell phone (we call them mobiles in Australia), I ended up getting a new Palm unit. My old one, which I'd lost ages ago in a Keff camp, was a Palm III unit I got in Boston many years ago. I spent lots of time working out how best to synch it with my Mac, keeping a diary and address book on both.

I chose the Tungsten 2 as it was the only one I could get in my settlement that also included Bluetooth to allow for wireless connectivity between the new Powerbook, my Sony Ericsson T68i phone, and my Windows 2000 PC, equipped with a USB D-Link Bluetooth adaptor. It'll be outdated in a month or two!

By using the same User name on all the devices, I can easily synch between all the computers. Connecting to the Windows box is quicker, and many of the small shareware apps around use Windows installers. I can do the same using Virtual PC on the Mac, albeit slower. The Tungsten comes with a USB cradle where it recharges, getting about a week's power before needing a refill.

It took a while to figure out the whole Hotsync business using Bluetooth but it's now great to work without wires, and to use the Palm to surf the net, send SMSs, and get email using the T68i to log in to the Optus GPRS network.

All in all, it's been like coming home to an old friend. A little has changed, lots of stories (=software) to swap, and a wonder too how long it will be around. My guess is about a year, before I jump for a Treo 610, which is a Bluetooth equipped cell phone and Palm in one unit, allowing for use in the US, Europe and Oz. Still, it will be expensive, so I'll need to wait for a good rate with Optus or whoever, when its released next month. But it will be great to just shlep one unit around, rather than two.

Oh, one good thing about the Tungsten. It allows for my Quicktime movies to be converted into a file type playable on the Palm. Using bundled software for Mac and PC by Kinoma, I was able to show the crew at dancing a video of a dance taught that night. Lots of shaking of heads wondering where it's all going to end up.

Quite strange, since the same question was put to me today by a researcher for an Adelaide Radio station (5AA) wanting to discuss VCRs vs DVDs. Prompted by news that one leading brand is about to stop importing VHS recorders, she seemed a little surprised when I suggested a lot of the new technologies have historically gotten a push-along (referred to as a "leg-up" here) when co-opted by those selling sex-related businesses. I think I heard her pick herself off the floor when I mention how VHS, the Net and now DVDs have all been used in ground-breaking efforts by purveyors of sexually oriented materials. But I'll save that discussion for another time. (Or start here without me.)

Update (February 13): While I am enjoying playing with the Tungsten, I did realise at the time of purchase it was a model already about to be superceded. As it was (here's the buyer's remorse denial) it was such a big leap from my Palm III, that anything was an improvement. The Palm OS (operating System) was v3 at the time i last used one, and is now at v5. However, Palm has this week announced it will soon be releasing a significant upgrade to v.6 known as Cobalt, and it will stop supporting Macs. Again, a case of too few users to justify the R & D expenditure.

However, one source suggests Apple is advancing its release date for its own Palm-style device to July this year. Such devices have been rumoured for many months, especially after Apple made a serious offer to buy Palm. Rejected, it of course made a killing with the iPod which has some very basic PDA functions. But the possibility of an Apple PDA with video capacity, as a high end iPod-type devices may well be in advanced pre-production right now. You can be sure if Apple releases such a product, it will smoke much of the competition. The interesting part will be what kind of operating system it will use....

Posted at 06:08 PM     |

Thu - February 5, 2004

Melbourne PC User Group Presentation

Lest you think there is only one Apple for my eye, I presented to a few hundred PC users last night...

At the Besen Centre at Melbourne's Mt. Scopus College last night, I gave a presentation to an appreciative group of computers users. Using my Powerbook and Keynote presentation software (I never use Powerpoint in public), I took the group through a journey involving Virtual Reality and how I use the software/hardware combo in therapy with patients with specific fears.

I hadn't done this before (yes, there is a public speaking module!) but have given many talks in public. However, this was the first where I used not one but two computers, one Mac and one PC, with sound and video output. Now that's a little scary, when one hopes for the best, working with equipment that so often can obey Murphy's law.

The guys at the Melbourne PC user group, while voluntary helpers, did a super-professional job making sure all the technology worked. At one point, I had to leave the Keynote presentation on the Mac, and connect up the PC (Windows 2000) for the VR demo to take place.

All went well, it was a very appreciate audience, more used to seeing presentations about all things PC rather than psychology, but when I went over time, they were enthusiastic for me to continue.

At one point when I showed a cool VR aspect (in the large public speaking module, one can turn around and advance Powerpoint slides, then turn back to the audience to advance cue cards presented on a virtual podium), it garnered a spontaneous round of applause.

I showed the Fear of Flying module too, and the group appreciated how it combines a computer-generated airplane cabin environment with real-time video footage of the view outside the port window. Using a high quality data projector, the image displayed on the screen was huge - like a movie theatre, which added to the effect.

So, many thanks to the Melbourne PC user group for letting me test out my presentation skills. I have converted my Keynote presentation into a Quicktime movie (20MB). It is large because it incorporates other Quicktime movies I showed. There is no voice over, although the movie clips do have sound. After downloading it, use your keyboard's arrow keys to advance the slides just the way I presented.

WARNING: I include a VR demo. of the plane strike and collapse of the World Trade centre twin towers, used in a treatment protocol last year (you can read about it here). The depiction is quite graphic, so if still affected by this event, might be best to hit the forward arrow and move to the next slide.)

You can download the my presentation here.

Posted at 08:57 AM     |

Sat - January 24, 2004

Fri - January 23, 2004

Fri - January 16, 2004

New Hewlett-Packard CD labelling technology - due late 2004. No Printer needed!

Wonder if we'll see Apple licensing this technology as well as other PC makers - very nifty invention!

I have been to a number of dance camps now where my Powerbook, and those of others, has been put to use burning extra music and video CDs for choreographers who happen to run short! I do remember the days when they bought suitcases full of materials, including cassette and video tapes. Ask Shlomo Maman when you next see him the hassle that meant for him in Australia one time!

Anyway, now they bring one Master CD or VCD or even just a DV tape, and we make the CDs on site, according to the number needed. A form of JIT ("just in time") IFD process.

One of the downsides is having to print out CD labels, which means having many printsheets and one of the labelmaking kits from Neato, Fellowes or whoever.This is the Neato one, but a Google search will show heaps of free and shareware label software to download. These boxed packages however include the paper labels, including CD jewel case labels, as well as an applicator, like the one in blue, above. You place the label with sticky side up, CD with burnt side up, and press.

Only trouble is - what happens if you run out of labels? Or you decide that you want to change the CD content, because maybe you, the choreographer revised an older dance, and it's not included on the master CD, but it is on someone's laptop?

You want to be able to make labels on the fly, and do this without having to shlep around a printer. Nu, what do you do?

Well, at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week, not only did Hewlett-Packard make some announcements about labelling its own iPods, but it made announcements about new CD labelling technology.

Apparently, one of H-P's engineers got tired and frustrated making labels for his CDs, and so invented (drum roll please)

LightScribe Direct Disc Labeling

The guts of it is the ability of the CD-burner to initially burn the data (music, video, files, etc) on the data side, then you flip the CD over (where you would put a paper label) and re-insert into the burner! The same CD-burner then burns the label side with a silk-screen quality label just like you buy commercially! No Printer needed! And no yucky tacky marker pencil labelling.

Here's what H-P says it will look like.

Of course, H-P will include it first in its own PCs, but expect the technology to be licensed to other PC makers, especially Apple since they have reinforced their relationship with music and iPod technology.

Yamaha first introduced such technology a few years back, but dropped it in 2003, I think.

Here's part of the H-P product sheet (PDF) telling the story:

A typical label-burning scenario might start with the consumer burning music tracks to a disc. During the data mastering operation, the software collects information that appears in a preview of an automatically generated disc label design. When the consumer has finished burning his music, the system verifies that the disc is a LightScribe disc. If the consumer approves the preview label design, he launches the labeling operation, removes the disc from the drive, flips it over and reloads it label side down. The system collects additional information from the drive and uses it in conjunction with the disc information to create the circular image file. The system sends the labeling commands to the drive, which the drive uses to direct the laser to write the disc label. The finished, labeled disc is ejected automatically.

H-P media releases state the technology will be released about September, 2004, and hopefully we will see IFD CDs made with this technology soon after. Read more here.

Posted at 12:28 PM     |

Wed - January 14, 2004

OK, Stop working on your computer and back-up your data - NOW!

Following my own theft and potential loss of data, I have nothing but rachmones for Australian neurologist Dr Paul Talman whose 3 years of research was stolen

The Melbourne Age newspaper today follows up a story of the theft of valuable research data stored on several stolen laptop computers and memory stick backups. They contained research information on Motor Neurone Disease. While the raw data is still available, apparently it will take years to put it together again.

Here's a section of the article:

"It's time," he said. "And about 30 of my patients will die in the next year-and-a-half. We don't care about the hardware - I mean, we care about the theft - it's the information which is so very hard to replicate."

Rod Harris, chief executive of the Motor Neurone Disease Association of Victoria, said those involved with the association were devastated by the loss. The community would be asking whoever has it to return it in any form, he said. To drop it off at a police station or give someone a ring to say where it might be found.

Now, in my case I was fortunate in having most of my data backed up on a separate hard drive which was not taken, although a CD-ROM backup I was burning to was in the laptop bag that was taken from my home. Also fortunate was that I had just installed Mac OS X 10.3 (Panther) on my Powerbook, and had switched on the new automatic iDisk synching application.

This utilises the same technology I use to upload and store the IFD dances, but the Panther install creates a virtual hard drive on the Powerbook's desktop. The first time it's created, all the 100MB or so installed on the iDisk (somewhere on Apple's servers in California I imagine) is downloaded, mirroring the file structure on the iDisk. Once done, any file or folder I create on the Powerbook and save to a local Document folder, is automatically upload to the iDisk server. This is what happened to my day's work when my Powerbook was stolen before I had a chance to manually burn it to the CD.

I imagine Dr. Talman and his research group will be looking closely at various backup strategies, while they hope some civic-minded thief or fence anonymously returns the stolen equipment. But I can just imagine how he felt when he discovered the loss.

So, stop what you're doing and backup that vital data now!

Posted at 11:18 AM     |

Tue - January 13, 2004

Catching the iPod tram...and Sir Tim Berners-Lee blogged interview

Melbourne has a great public transport system centred on its historic tram system. So why not use them as moving billboards for flash products?

Two years ago, soon after the Luxor-style iMac was released, Apple Australia leased one of Melbourne's extended trams to advertise it. In 2003, with iPods taking off, Apple did it again with an iPod tram in those funky colours...so rather than catching the iPod train, you can catch the tram instead - unique to Melbourne I think.

I took the video in Melbourne's most expensive residential area, Toorak, while getting my Silhouette specs. repaired by the boys at TrakSpex (Chris and son - seems I went to sleep with my glasses on the bed and snapped an arm...)

So, what better use to put my new (yet soon to be superceded) Sony DVcam to than experiment with it, the iPod and its namesake tram...

I was listening to Christopher Lydon's latest interview (mp3), with WWW inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee,

when I saw the tram goes past, so waited until it returned from the terminus and grabbed a juxtaposed shot.

You can see the result here - first the iMac, then the iPod tram (about a minute in). And go listen to Sir Tim sound non-plussed with Lydon's American history lesson, suggesting oh-so-subtly that European history has plenty to offer too!

Posted at 04:23 PM     |