Martin Gordon's Blog

Despite being a day late, I still want to comment on the iPod announcements made yesterday.

iPod shuffle
New colors and no storage bump on the shuffles gets a huge yawn from me.

iPod nano
The actual nano looks much better than those leaked shots that were floating around a few weeks ago. There was no storage upgrade for these guys either, only price drops to $149 and $199 for the 4 and 8 GB version, respectively. Video finally comes to the nano, but with such a tiny screen I wonder how useful it will actually be. Still, having the nano hooked up to a TV via video out makes for a very portable DVD player replacement.

iPod classic
80 GB storage for $249 (and 160 GB for $349) makes the 6th Generation iPod (or 1st Generation iPod classic?) quite the monster. The standard iPod form factor has become, as the name suggests, a classic and I'm glad Apple stuck with it instead of forcing everyone to the touch screen.

iPod UI
The new iPod UI is an incremental upgrade, with the most notable feature being Cover Flow (which I don't find much use for personally). The new UI also marks the first time that the nano and classic have reached software feature parity (video on the nano also means complete feature parity), so it'll be interesting to see if Apple considers the nano/classic "complete". Prior to yesterday's announcement, it had been two years since both devices saw a significant upgrade, and I wonder if it'll be just as long before we see the next big change for these two lines.

iPod touch
I couldn't make up my mind over whether I thought Apple would actually release a phoneless iPhone this soon. On the one hand, pricing would have been tricky - either it would be priced too low to cannibalize iPhone sales or priced too high to make it a terrible value. On the other hand, there was only so much further Apple could take the iPod classic before it had to enlarge the screen (thereby necessitating removal of the click wheel). I personally dislike the design of the device. The chrome border is gone in lieu of either a matte metal or plastic (hard to tell from the shots) and the iPhone's scratch-resistant matte back is gone for the iPod's iconic scratch-prone shiny metal back. Further, the upper bezel looks disproportionate without the earpiece and the WiFi antenna's plastic covering makes the back of the device asymmetric. Other minor things I noticed (and am apathetic about) are that the sleep/wake button has switched sides and that the headphone jack is on the bottom of the device.

iTunes WiFi Store
Apple is ever slowly creeping into tablet/UMPC space and the touch was the second step in that direction. Instead of working down from the desktop, as Microsoft has done (with limited success), Apple has worked up from the iPod. It's apparent from the name: this isn't a MacBook nano, it's an iPod touch. Unveiling the iTunes WiFi Store and partnering with Starbucks is a small step into building Apple's mobile eco-system, something other device makers have either not attempted or have been unsuccessful at. This will be the touch/iPhone killer feature, and perhaps the future of mobile advertising - truly contextual advertising and services that supplement a brick and mortar's main operations. It's not the device that will reach out to the world, but the world that will reach in to your device.

That said, I don't see myself using the WiFi Store that much since I don't use the iTunes Store much to begin with. However, if the WiFi store allows for over-the-air podcast downloading, then I'll be all over it.

Ringtones
I'm tech-savvy enough to not need iTunes to walk me through making ringtones, but I would argue against those complaining about the price. The extra $.99 is something I see as AT&T having a hand in. Still, $2 for both the song and ringtone is a good deal compared to the $2-$3 one might pay for a ringtone-only otherwise.

iPhone at $399
Though Apple announced during their last earnings call that margins would be lower this season, no one saw this coming. The market is interpreting it as a sign that iPhones aren't selling as well as Apple would like. The original 5 GB iPod dropped 25% five months after introduction (from $399 to $299), so large cuts aren't completely out of the ordinary for Apple. I see the price drop as something Apple planned all along as a way to aggressively go after market share after milking early adopters for an extra $200 and as a way control demand during launch.

Am I upset that I paid $599? Absolutely not. I was perfectly paying that amount and the price drop doesn't change that. I don't see Apple owing me anything much more than I see BMW paying me for the depreciation of my car when the 2008 models come out (in fact, I'm paying them for the depreciation). Price drops and technology progressing are facts of life. The only thing that I might be upset about is that the cost of entry to the iPhone Club has gone down and iPhone owners who felt a sense of superiority and exclusivity as a result of ownership just dropped a few rungs on the social ladder now that the iPhone is accessible to "regular" people. I am not in that group. I see adoption of the iPhone (or Mobile OS X platform in general) a good thing for users, both in terms of a greater demand for new software features or an increased pressure on other device makers to make better devices.

Technorati Tags: Apple, iPhone, iPod nano, iPod touch, iPod classic, iTunes, iTunes WiFi Store

Aaron Swartz points to Bandwagon, an OS X app that seamlessly backs up your iTunes library to a service built on top of Amazon S3. It'll be available on Feb 22, and bloggers can get a free account for posting about the service before it launches.

Technorati Tags: Bandwagon, iTunes, Apple, OS X, music, backup, Amazon, S3

I'm just about done watching every episode of Robert Scoble's ScobleShow put out so far. As someone who hasn't touched his DSLR in a very long time, my favorite (and most inspiring) episodes are the Photowalking with Thomas Hawk series of videos.

The best part of his show is that it works. I've subscribed to Thomas Hawk's Digital Connection and checked out Zoomr (though I'm still partial to Flickr). And while I haven't checked out all of the companies he's featured, I have checked out a few of them (Become.com [video] and Cuts [video]). And while I probably would have checked those sites out if Robert would have linked to them on his blog instead, they are a lot more memorable if I can put a face to the site I might just look at a handful of times. In other words, the stickiness factor of video is much higher than that of text.

My concerns about video podcasts apply to the medium in general, not just Robert's show, but I think it's worthwhile to mention them here:

One of my big concerns with video podcasts, and particularly ones so full of content, is the inability to comment effectively. While I can easily quote a section of one of Robert's blog posts, it's currently impossible to similarly comment on a particular snippet of video without making people download the entire show and manually search for the part I'm commenting on. Perhaps Cuts (a video-editing app featured on the ScobleShow) could help with this.

Another factor affecting the amount I comment is that the iTunes -> web browser link isn't quite there. I know that Ze Frank and Rocketboom have active communities, for example, but they're non-existent to me because of the effort it takes (yes, I'm lazy) to go from a given video in iTunes to that video's comments. Contrast this to the simplicity of the NetNewsWire -> web browser link, where I can just push the right arrow and have the post load up for me in the background.

Finally, I feel that Robert's videos are a bit too long. The product demo episodes have been short enough and require video so I'll watch those straight through. The interview episodes tend to be a lot longer and keep my attention for less time. My main concern with those is that they often don't convey any visual information - I can keep them playing behind a bunch of windows and not miss anything by just listening to the audio.

All that said, Robert's show does give us some great behind-the-scenes content as well as also providing footage for those of us not in the Bay Area with which to refine our mental images. Unless I fall too far behind (which doesn't look likely given my ever-decreasing count of unlistened podcasts), I don't see myself unsubscribing any time soon.

Technorati Tags: Robert Scoble, ScobleShow, video podcast, vidcast, Thomas Hawk, Zoomr, Become.com, Cuts, Ze Frank, Rocketboom, iTunes, video

I was going to do a regular "report the facts" post on Apple's announcements today but I was busy with submitting resumes and didn't have a chance to. So I'll just post my thoughts on the whole thing.

The 5.5G iPods are a solid upgrade, but Apple didn't really show much improvement for a the year span between the 5G announcement and their successors. Apple did let us lowly 5G owners have downloadable games (but only because they can charge $5 a pop for them) and the long overdue gapless playback, but would it really have hurt much to give us the search feature?

The new nanos look very nice and bring back a lot of memories from when the minis ruled the world. It's a great tribute to the colorful ones that'll be a whole lot less scratch-prone than the 1G nanos. With both the 8GB nano and 30GB iPod sitting at $249, it's makes the nano vs video decision a whole lot tougher. It is an excellent hedge move by Apple in that they are now that much more indifferent as to the sale of a nano vs a full-size iPod (differing margins notwithstanding).

By far the most revolutionary update is the shuffle. No longer is the iPod relegated to the pocket or an awkward armband. The combination of the clip and weight loss make it possible to carry the iPod shuffle, literally anywhere. You can carry 240 songs with you and not even notice. It's pretty amazing.

iTunes 7 saw a whole lot of improvements that will have varying effects on people's enjoyment of their media. The reorganization and segregation of different parts of the Source list make things easier to find, and the new-fangled UI theme is pretty and refined, but consistency sticklers will rag on Apple for introducing Yet Another UI Scheme™. The blue note in the icon pays tribute to iTunes 2, which also featured a blue icon. iTunes 3 had a purple icon and iTunes 4-6 had a green icon.

The iTV is interesting, and is essentially an Airport Express for video. The shots of the "enhanced" Front Row look great, but I'm wondering how well even the new 640×480 videos will look on HDTV (this also makes me wonder whether or not the 320×240 versions will get free upgrades to 640×480).

It really looks like Apple is setting up to take over the living room like they took over our ear canals. My only concern is that the whole iTV messes with my thoughts on Apple's future and makes me really wonder what kind of innovation they'll push forth on the desktop hardware side now that the Intel transition is over.

Technorati Tags: Apple, iPod, iPod video, iPod nano, iPod shuffle, iTunes, iTunes Store, iTV, Front Row, hardware, music, video, movies

Apple's "It's Showtime!" event starts in less than three hours. The iTunes Music Store is already down in anticipation, but the online Apple Store is still a go.

I'll be in class (but with my MacBook) during the event. As always, however, MacRumors or Engadget are the best places to go for coverage in this post-"live stream" world that we live in.

Here's a small recap of what's expected to be announced:

• iTunes Movie Store, debuting with Disney movies going for $9.99-$14.99.
• iTunes 7, which will add support for the Movie Store (perhaps as a seperate item in the source menu) and will hopefully improve the video playback features.
• iPod nano with new aluminum enclosure that does better against scratches. Capacities somewhere in the 4-8GB range.
• iPod capacity upgrades. A true "video iPod" with touch screen scroll wheel is possible, but unlikely

That is what is >90% guaranteed to be announced. Any surprise announcements are anyone's guess - we've already seen fake shots of a MacTower (smaller version of the Mac Pro), the wide/touch-screen iPod video, and even a USB -> TV device named TubePort.

Technorati Tags: Apple, It's Showtime!, special event, iTunes, iTunes Music Store, MacRumors, Engadget

A Gizmodo reader observes that the circulars in today's New York Times have no iPods in them. This almost guarantees we'll see new iPods at Apple's "It's Showtime" special event on Tuesday. It's been almost a year since the nano and the 5G iPod were released, so updates are long overdue. The real question, then, is will we get all new iPods to go along with the movie store or are we going to just see capacity upgrades?

Technorati Tags: Apple, iPod, iPod nano, iTunes, movie store, special event, Gizmodo, ads, New York Times

After a relatively great blogging month (29 posts in 31 days), August has started off a bit slower. The reason is Lost. I am hooked. I just started watching it less than a week ago but I'm already 4 episodes into the second season (that's around 3-4 hours a day for those keeping track at home). The show is just so enthralling that I don't know how people could have watched this on a weekly schedule.

Lost is just the latest in a string of TV shows I picked up this summer, starting with Curb Your Enthusiasm and later The Office (US). I've noticed that though I'm pulling away from the mainstream with regard to audio and news, I'm embracing it more and more in the realm of video. Perhaps its just that audio can be produced well for cheap, whereas video requires a much larger budget. I love Ze Frank and enjoy Rocketboom but these and other short-form shows are nowhere near replacing mainstream television shows.

What I do think will change for mainstream TV is the distribution method. We're already seeing this with more and more networks adding shows to the iTunes Music Store, with ABC shows appearing on abc.com for free and (legality notwithstanding) with shows popping up here and there on YouTube.

So how exactly am I watching these shows when and how I want? Here's a hint: not by turning on the television.

Technorati Tags: TV, television, mainstream media, msm, Lost, Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Office, ABC, Ze Frank, Rocketboom, iTunes Music Store, YouTube, distribution

Paul's post yesterday about why he pays for music made me realize something: no legitimate online music store will ever sell music in a lossless format. I originally posted this as a comment to his post, but I think it was important enough to share here:

Sadly, I don’t think we’ll ever see DRMed lossless music without serious CD-burning restrictions (read: no burning whatsoever). Once you get into the lossless realm, burning/ripping to/from CD doesn’t cause any degradation like it does with lossy formats, so it would be trivial to strip the DRM from a lossless file at the cost of a CD-R (and maybe not even that if you want to get fancy with disk images and such).

So while I do think we might get incremental upgrades in quality from iTunes et al (a small bump to 192kbps), we won’t see lossless from them because lossless = DRM-free.

Technorati Tags: music, digital, DRM, piracy, lossless, FLAC, SHN, Apple, iTunes, iTunes Music Store

The University of California, Berkeley has posted recordings of some classes on iTunes. This is a great step towards Education 2.0 (.edu + Web 2.0). Students don't have to be in the same physical room as the professor to hear the lecture anymore. Heck, the student doesn't have to be go to the same school.

Critics may complain that podcasting lectures will completely destroy class attendance. I disagree. There is definitely something about being able to see lecture slides and be able to ask questions on-the-fly and have discussions with the professor and other students. But imagine being able to learn twice as much by being able to fill in downtime with recorded lectures (see the jar of rocks metaphor).

This is only the beginning. What I see a few years down the line are many-to-many podcasts much like the way blogs work now. The professor puts out (or it happens automatically via classroom technologies) the day's lecture. Slides are timecoded so as automatically follow the audio. Students post audio comments, listenable by everyone else. Each student has their own feed for each class they're enrolled in. If I like a particular student's comments, I can subscribe to his/her feed and have their questions/comments brought to my attention. I can hear what he has to say in other classes. I can respond to them even if I'm not in that other class. I can respond on my own time.

There's no need for everyone to get together in the same room at the same time to have class. Class can happen on your time.

Technorati Tags: UC Berkeley, Berkeley, iTunes, iTunes U, education, podcast, lectures, audio, education 2.0, college, university, school, Web 2.0

Apple's big "One more thing…" media event that I mentioned last week took place today at the California Theatre in San Jose. Here's a recap of what was announced:

• New iMacs with built-in iSight video camera and remote control. New software called PhotoBooth takes advantage of the new camera by simulating old arcade photo booths with a countdown timer, "flash", and real-time effects. Another piece of new software is Front Row, a Windows Media Center-type application that gives an iPod-like interface to the music, photos, and videos on your Mac. Also comes with a remote control with 6 buttons that looks just like the iPod shuffle with an extra menu button. In addition, the iMacs feature slightly upgraded processors, a SuperDrive standard and PCI-Express graphics (the first Mac to feature PCIe) for the same $1299 for the 17" and a $100 lower price for the 20" ($1699).
• New iPods in 30 and 60 gigabyte models featuring 2.5" 320×240 pixel screens and offer video playback. They look like larger nanos but are much smaller than the previous generation iPods. Both models are now under .5" thick. Like the nano, they include the World Clock and Screen Lock apps and come in both black and white.
• iTunes 6 released 5 weeks after iTunes 5. Some minor UI issues were fixed (anti-aliasing of window corners), but the main feature is support for video syncing with the iPod (one of the iTunes 4 point releases supported video playback in iTunes itself). In addition, the iTunes Music Store has a few new features, including the ability to give music, a "Just For You" recommendations section, customer reviews, and support for the sale of videos. Music videos and Pixar short films are just $1.99 each. Apple also announced a partnership with Disney (parent company of ABC) to offer 5 TV shows for sale, including Lost and Desperate Housewives. The shows also go for $1.99 an episode and new episodes are available the day after they are broadcast. Previous seasons are available also for $1.99 an episode or $35 for the entire season.

Technorati Tags: music, apple, music video, ipod, itunes, imac, tv, video, itunes music store