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I guess I should say something about the iPod, Apple's new portable MP3 player. It certainly represents no "breakthrough" as the pre-release hype had everyone wound up to expect. But it is an incremental improvement. Sure, you can get a nomad with 20 gigs of storage, but the nomad is big and heavy. And ugly. The iPod, with 5 gigs of storage (enough for roughly 1,000 songs) is truly portable. Its firewire connection (instead of the USB connection most "portable" devices have) transfers music fast. Downloading 20 gigs into a nomad over USB would take forever. And O.K., at $399 the iPod is expensive, but this is an Apple product so that should come as no surprise.
The real question is about digital rights management. Computing devices that attempt to secure intellectual property are going to be more complex while having less utility than devices which do not. The ethical questions can be debated endlessly, but I think this much is clear: the market will reward general purpose computing devices that don't police their own users over devices that foil simple, legal and fundamental uses of the device merely in an effort to stop the possibility of misuse. Consider the market potential of an automobile equipped with a cut off so that it couldn't go faster than 65. This would assure that drivers do not break the law, but who would buy such a car? Yet the computer industry seems intent on offering us just such crippled products. It's certainly not your "rights" which "digital rights management" schemes are trying to protect.
Steve Jobs was quoted in one New York Times article as mentioning that there was some unspecified technology in place that would prevent users from uploading songs from the iPod to a different computer than the one from which the song was downloaded. But the quote was vague, and nothing in the iPod specs seems to back this up. This HTP thread discusses the issue in some detail. My best guess at this point (no one has an iPod yet) is that there is some tiny bit of friction built into the device to curtail trading of music files, but not much. And maybe none. This is the direction Apple needs to be heading, and perhaps that is what Jobs' means when he says Apple makes devices that "just work." I think most people are under estimating how vulnerable Microsoft is on this point. Of course, I'm not sure Apple won't blow it.
Do I want one? Sure. But I won't be buying one. I don't really listen to music when I'm moving around. I'd rather put the $400 towards an iBook or TiBook which would then give me all the capabilities of the iPod (minus the extreme front pocket portability) plus being a computer in it's own right. I think the iPod is only attractive to people who work out at a gym, or to people who like cool gadgets and to whom $400 is no big deal (I miss on both counts.) But if you're looking to buy me a present I'd sure be happy to get one for free.
Did anybody else feel that? I don't know what time it was, but I was completely asleep last night when I was woken up by a violent shock to our building. Not like something falling on the roof, but the whole building shaking. Very strong. Not really the sort of thing you want to feel these days. I can't find anything in the news though...
Maybe an earthquake?
A sonic boom from a low flying military jet?
Definitely something big. At least on the lower east side.
Here are 10 photos from our trip up to Indian Lake in the Adirondack State Park. Five hours from NYC. We stayed in a small cabin right on the water. We took a couple hikes, a rather long trip in two row boats, and ate pretty much constantly. C beat us all at cards. Beautiful spot we will return to next year.