Camibra

I totally agree about these things being pegged to say the US dollar for an example. They are not using any more effort to 'ship' the DL to us here in Oz vs someone in the US where our dollar is on-par. This has unfortunately always been the way but only now where our dollar is so strong. US dollar is so weak more-like, we have Aussie issues to come in the next few years from this BTW, just saying this now. It is not an Ozzie government thing that will cause it, it is the devaluation of the US dollar that makes our Ozzie dollar seem more than it is worth - so after a certain amount of time we will get hit in the arse when their dollar regains its stature once again... No matter who is in government at that time, it is mostly not their fault.

lancer1993

I agree is more a case of weak US dollar but issue is still there that right now local online customers are being ripped off and not just from Apple. Maybe more competition from others is the way to go, especial those who offer non DRM music that can be loaded onto any players including the iPod. Adding music to iTunes is just a matter of double clicking on the songs, then re-syncing your player.

Camibra

The thing with iTunes is that they own a monopoly on DL music/video, any other site that tries to compete will never any time soon get equal to them due to the fact that ONLY iPods work with that site to DL anything from it, so you must own an iPod to use the site, most people do not know any better or that there are easier and better/cheaper alternatives out there that do not compromise quality at all and just go and 'buy an iPod/use iTunes etc etc' That is one thing that I hate about Apple. Yes you could go to another site as you have said before but why bother when iTunes owns more rights than the others do? So just buy an iPod and be done with it. The other sites have no DRM, much cheaper, work on ANY brand PMP inc Apple PMP's, they even have lossless files cheaper than low-quality DRM coded AAC/MP3 from iTunes...

Another thing is the recent cop-out that Steve Jobs did when Apple released their latest laptop. It has no touch screen on it. He TELLS you that YOU do not want a touch screen that is vertical - most laptops nowadays that have touchscreens on them fold so that the laptop becomes a tablet, duh! Not Apple though. Also no BD burner, I see heaps of Laptops now that have SSD drives and BD burners plus touchscreens. SSD is another thing he harped-on about, not that special, a fair few laptops have been using SSD for a while now... I think that one major reason why they did not incorporate a touch screen into that new laptop is simply the FACT that it could detract people from buying the iPad - tell me that you disagree with the latter part of this post Craig and I will give you an apple (granny smith.) It is simple marketing. I can not think of a good example at the moment but imagine a company has an established product that does a specific task (touchscreen tablet for example) then they could have brought out a much more powerful product that does that and is much more (the new laptop) which other brands already produce and have done for a few years now. The tablet would be at risk of losing sales if their other product could do the same thing and MUCH more for comparable price. THIS is why the new laptop of theirs has no touchscreen. Sure, someone could make an application and solder in a screen that makes it a touchscreen - that is not the point, you can do that with any LCD screen if you wish using any computer with the right applications. The point is they like all companies exist purely to make their shareholders money, not to make lovely gadgets and devices to your specification. You must research and look around for those few devices that suit your needs - as I do when I buy these things. So far I have not been let down in my research and purchasing of these gadgets and devices. My PMP is now 3 years old and still going strong. I upgraded its storage with another 8GB on top of its 8GB internal. When new firmware comes out I could upgrade it further, not that I need more space - I don't need 120GB of space for music that I would never want to listen to just so that I have it on me anywhere I am. I mainly use .FLAC lossless files and still 16GB total space (inc the micro SD card ) is enough for my needs. Which is driving in the car and while walking around at work having it playing in my pocket with the internal speakers. I know it has outlasted several iPods at my work - of various grades, 2 nano's, 1 heavy big fat one that have 120GB or something in them and a micro thing that looks like a USB flash stick. All are the same age or newer and used less than mine is or equally as much as mine is yet mine is in better condition. Not an iPod. The latest iPods finally have caught up partially to my PMP, they have FM radio at-last! Can they record from it as mine can? I do not know... Yes, I know the latest ones also can record video - but mine is not an iPod and is over 3 years old, which iPods that are over 3 years old could record video back then? None, so that is a non-issue.

ETA: Sorry about the rant, Apple are not the only ones who do this, they are just the most recent ones that get on my nerves. A guy at my work hates Nestle for similar reasons yet he is a hypocrite for he uses Apple and refuses to see they are doing the same thing. One thing he says is 'Nestle with their Nespresso machine force users to buy their and only their products for the patented proprietary cartridge means you are frozen into buying their and only their cartridges of coffee for the Nespresso when you could buy another brand and use any coffee from anywhere even grind your own fresh beans.' His iPod is the exact same thing - proprietary plug, ONLY iPods can access the iTunes website forcing users who want stuff from there to buy an iPod...etc etc etc He doesn't see that it is exactly the same evil marketing. My non-Apple brand PMP is much like the coffee machines that can use any coffee without being locked-into a rigid monopoly. Yes you can also upload music from other lesser sites and *coughs* onto the iPod as with all other PMPs but you can not use any other PMP other than an iPod on iTunes...

lancer1993

Yeah some RANT, I think we are scaring off the girls LOL

Yes Apple has positioned their lines vary well with the iPad v laptops and neither shall mix, most who buy computers (PC or Mac) are simple so confuse easily Now where is my apple

Interestingly it might be the software and not hardware that is the limiting factor. I was watching that BBC Click program yesterday (it's streamed online free as well) and they said one of the let downs for most other table devices was the OS and not the hardware. So maybe having a separate iOS like Apple is doing is the right way to go as it works better than most others out there? Even though they could adapt the OS X (and some have) is not as good end user experience, it would be like a lot of the Win7 adaptations from Netbook to table.

Apple has positioned the MacBook Air as it's SSD laptop computer but interestingly they now offer SSD on the iMac and Mac Pro lines as an options, not sure about the other laptops.

I agree Apple needs to pull it's head out of the sand when it comes to BluRay, more so than touchscreen for it's other computers. A 27inch iMac with BD and would make a great lounge room computer with it's wireless mouse/KB and touch pad. Some have already made aps for the iPhone/iPad that can control your Mac over a local wifi connection.

Oh but the Nespresso ads with George Clooney are fun

The same could be said about other thing like printers (even though there are after market ink for those) and smart phones. You buy Apple, Windows or the others and you're locked into buying aps for that phone. Its business and Apple has positioned it's self very nicely with it's iTunes store with music and apps, building an industry of after market products, it's hard to go into most stores without seeing something iPod/iPhone related from covers to docks.

I'm sure some one is working on after market pods for the Nespresso machines

ETA Just ordered that RAM online from a Mac seller in the US who I've used before. And the cost including FedEx shipping is about half that of local shops.

Camibra

I will send you some dried apple in a bag - not allowed to send fruit across borders in Oz due to fruit fly. I think you're right about the girls!

One thing to consider while looking at the past history to see where the future lies is the fact that all empires, whether they be Roman Empires, Mayan Empires or big businesses such as IBM, GM in the US or even Apple, they rise and fall all the time - one day MS will fall completely, Apple will also fall completely one day. All quick risers and the biggest of the big fall. It is just how it goes. I can see the quick rising of Apple as a bad thing for their future, the quicker they rise the easier it is to slip up in one area and they could very easily fall HARD. I have seen this happen before and was shocked, now I see a trend with these sort of companies - they rise high, get complacent then lose customers for they start to wake up and see what is going on and drop the brand like a hot potato. Apple are at this point right now. It is only a matter of time until people drop them.

Seeing their stuff everywhere in shops means sheeple have no real choice but to use them for they can't be bothered to look around for a better price on something that does the same or even more things with same quality for much less $$$. This also means more sales to them. It is akin to back when Telecom (Telstra) owned prettty-much everything phone related and you had no choice but to use Telecom/Telstra or not have a phone. The old Mobile ones in the 90s could only be used with Telecom/Telstra, you had no choice. Same thing here. It has a funny side when 70% of all PMPs look the same (iPod's), at my work I am the only non-sheeple person and most of the iPods at my work are the 120GB huge heavy fat silver backed one - too-big to fit in your pocket and the weight would make you walk on an angle! All the time people take home the wrong one for they all look the same! So funny! Can not mistake mine for theirs, although one co-worker did a freudian-slip and called my PMP an Apple-brand PMP (iPod) and didn't realise what he said! I say PMP - which is the device name such as saying CD player - I do not say the brand name or model name such as 'Walkman' or 'SONY'. Or saying 'LG' instead of saying 'Televison'. Or saying 'XBOX360' instead of 'console'. They all go by the model name, not device name which covers all brands that make that sort of device - PMP is all players that are small, play music files, video files, text files etc. Their iPod/my PMP are all PMPs. I do not call mine my 'e100'. That is what I should do if I were them but I call it by what the device actually is. It is a PMP, their Ipods are PMPs. Gets stupidly irritating hearing them all say the product model name all the time vs saying the device name - another Apple marketing brain-washing tool. You say Mac and not a PC - even though it is your Personal Computer. It is not someone else's computer, it is yours, yours personally. It is a computer, it is a Personal Computer that you own personally. It is your PC.

The brand of PMP I use has been making these players since 1999, they were the number 1 brand for MP3 players for the 2 years before your iPod came out. The first modern MP3 player (not that one from 1979) came out in 1997. A PMP is different to an MP3 player - an MP3 player only plays music. A PMP can play music, video, text files & FM radio (on most brands.) Yet people at my work dumb it down and refer to my PMP as an MP3 player - absolutely pisses me off! Yet I don't show it pisses me off, I just later in the day refer to their iPod/PMP as an MP3 player. As he/she leaves work and is about to leave it behind I say 'Don't forget your MP3 player!' Out of spite. My 'MP3 player' (PMP) can play more things than all of their iPod branded PMPs... No exaggerating either, none of theirs can play the FM radio or record from it, none can playback voice recordings from the internal mic, none of them can plug in any other PMP/iPod/phone/keyboard/tape deck/electric guitar and record from it then play back that audio, none can play FLAC lossless files either which are the main format of lossless audio available, can't just 'plug and play' from any computer without software on the computer to 'sync' it. Mine you can use those programmes or just simply plug it in, it pops up as if it were a portable USB Flash drive. Cowon brand PMPs have the best audio fidelity out of all PMPs, period. I do not own a Cowon BTW, I just know the facts about them vs all other brands. It is a bit of a sneaky thing that their CEO is the person in the Guiness Book of Records for world having THE best hearing out of everyone in the world and he personally tests every new model/line that Cowon is releasing.

With the different apps things on different smart phones - Apple's apps are 300,000 total and only 25% are free. Their store has been open for 30 months. Android apps are 120,000 and 60% are free. Their store has only been open for about 18 months.

ETA: Clarke and Dawe Christmas special - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

lancer1993

The biggest hurdle for MS will be the new cloud PCs which don't need Windows to work or Office to be productive.

People have been predicting the demise of Apple almost since the day Bill made that deal with IBM for the PC OS, I think on the computer side being a niche player has worked to their advantage only time will tell who might come up with the next big thing, maybe the cloud PC with also affect Mac's?

At least most people don't say IBM compatible any more, and with the good comes the bad. Like when you see a story of PMPs damaging your hearing or distracting people who walk into traffic 99% of the time they'll refer to the iPod and have a pic of one in the story. Now granted it's more than likely have been an iPod but you might as well blame any player back to the Walkman.

Again the thing with the iPod, iPhone and now iPad is you can buy add-ons to give FM radio, microphones for recording and more. The iPhone has a mic of course.

Still that's 75k apps to chose from, plenty of choice and it's not Apple setting the price/free, it's up to who ever is making them. I'm sure given time if the Android becomes more popular they will make people pay for them if there is money to be made.

Yes I call my computer a Mac or G5 and if I got an iMac I'd call it that even thought it uses the same PC parts inside and can run Windows natively, it's still a Mac.

Camibra

Again, Apple forcing you to buy extra clunky parts to add on so that you can use an FM radio or microphone - so more $$$ to them when they could simply have one built-in as other brands do as standard with PMPs and Tabs such as mine. They only exist to make $, as all BIG corps are. This is one more reason why it is best to support smaller tech companies that develop high end products - they need to add these functions to earn their customers loyalty, not just expect it.

I am thinking of getting Kinect for my XBOX360 Console. It will be available for Windows-powered PCs by mid next year too. Will be interesting to see what extra modifications will be made for Kinect such as home security that uses facial recognition/voice recognition etc.

PMPs also are the cause of the 'Loudness War' which is degrading music to a ridiculously bad level... Ipod is the root cause for EVERYONE has their buds in their ears and playing low-fidelity audio at a high volume which make it tinny. So bands in the mastering process of making a CD they over-amplify the tracks which cuts of the high and low end (cymbals and bass) of their end CD that is sold to fans. The music is ruined and can not be restored because their ''digital" master is the same as the final rooted CD.

Examples:





The low quality audio played from these PMPs (which almost 75% are iPods so they can get most of the blame for this) is ruining music as we know it. If you can not hear the difference or see it then get your hearing checked out asap. I can hear songs on the radio at work and say to a few people there at the time it is playing that it is clipped to HELL! Clipping is the method of turning up the volume on a recording before it is pressed onto a CD or other format. Then when I get home I download that track, open it up in Audacity and look at its Wave-pattern - yep, clipped to HELL alright... Thanks again iPod. Basically, when you see the wave pattern the more high points that look like a steep point going up or down = GOOD! When you see less of that and it is all flat or much-less-pointy bits, that is BAD - that is how most modern music post 2000 and 'remastered editions' made after 2000ish are...

ETA: Fury over $500 KFC gift cards as nation battles obesity crisis | News.com.au

Whenever I have gone to KFC I see that most customers are fat or obese. :/ I am not. High metabolism.

lancer1993

You can't blame that all on the iPod and Apple, MP3 downloads were happening way before iTunes MS came along.

Also the Kinect was cracked within hours of being released.

Camibra

The users of the iPod which is almost 75% of all PMP users are the reason why record companies are clipping their music so I think the iPod holds a lot of that blame. Idiot Producers hold most of the blame though and the musicians allowing their music to be ruined so badly as well.

I wouldn't doubt the Kinect was cracked so soon - the Wiimote was cracked in less than a few days after release to do many different things than what it was designed for - some of those involved remote accellerometer surgery and dildo/vibrators that can be controlled intricately over the internet. For the Wiimote was the first modern accellerometer - since its release in 2006 (after being in development for 7 years), everyone has copied it into their gadgets and devices.



The stacks above the ship are what move it froward - wind touches the side and creates a spin which moves the ship forward - 'The Magnus Effect' is what the method is called.

lancer1993

It's witch craft I tell ya!

BTW I'm having problems with embedded clips from YT and others when using firefox, all the add-on and stuff are up-to-date and they work fine in Safari but FF 3.6.13 it's broken, hope they fix it soon!

Camibra

Works fine with my FF. Try a reboot of the computer. My FF was updated yesterday and these play just perfectly...

lancer1993

I think it's a plug-in issue as I have the same version FF on the PC and it works, like I said Safari on the Apple PC is working like it should.

ETA - did a re-start and as I thought might happen, no change.

Camibra

You were having issues with FF on the Apple PC not the Windows PC? What about using Safari on the Apple PC and the Windows PC, do they both work? What about Opera and Chrome?

Hey, a reboot is the obvious cliche that can sometimes work. Works for my Windows PC when it has been processing heaps for 3 weeks straight then give it a reboot - it runs faster. Also the Apple PC at work had to do a reboot after 1 week running - the Graphics dude was nervous as he knew I knew what was going on and tried to not talk about how his Mac crashed. I wouldn't have taken the piss out of him, even though I could have. I should have taken the piss out of them when they had no idea about that button battery on the MB though! I did mention it like I said the other day, but they looked blankly at me and ignored me - typical Apple users at my work - clueless with technology... Then when the 'Apple specialist' dropped by he said exactly what I said and they didn't even acknowledge that I said that earlier... iDiots. Apple PCs Windows PCs Ubuntu PCs the guts of how they all run are the same, so easy to work out what a possible issue is. These iDiots at work have no-clue about how their cars and computers work! The one Windows PC at work is a prime example: It has an inferior 4:3 monitor that is using an old connection that leaves trace 'ghosts' on screen. This PC runs the 2 digital printers that print directly onto the tee shirt. The Apple PCs can not run these printers. The Windows PC can. Its mouse refresh rate is so-sloooow!!! Pisses me off heaps! I did reset the monitor and mouse settings plus a few 'tweaks' on the desktop to make it a better computer but had to dumb it back down for the Apple boss who'd be 'lost' if anything were altered for the better... Still needs a better monitor for some post-editing is used on it for resizing and altering hue on prints using PS CS.

lancer1993

It's a FireFox plug-in thing...

So how old are the Mac's at your work? Maybe it's the drivers, if they don't make them then of course the printers not going to work.

Camibra

They are less than 5 years old all of them, different model desktop style ones and i-ones. The Windows PC is a joke in the setup and monitor... I could pull a better computer from my arse! If fact I did 4 years ago when I built the one I am still using!!

But, is it the FF for your Apple or Windows computer? My Windows FF update is perfect.

Apple love apps so why not make a driver for new tech such as digital t-shirt printers? But it is more than simply drivers - the printers 'talk' constantly with the Windows PC 24/7/365 and all need to be on all the time 365 days a year. If there is any downtime it must be all at once and no longer than half a day. For the inks used to print onto material is water-based so dries up very-quickly and is expensive plus the motors and mixers to keep it moving in the printer wear out easier when the ink dries up from being offline. Also, the humidity and temperature of the room needs to be a constant 27*c no more no less - I am unsure of the exact humidity requirements... Air dries out water-based inks much like house paints. So needs to remain closed and the motor spinning it constantly to keep it 'fluid'. Also, the printers need special 'keys' (not drivers - literally a metal key plus a digital USB key) that is plugged into the PC and the printer to prove that they are all real and not bootlegged in any way... If Apple wish to do something in this area - go ahead! Have a blast! It'll be fun to see them try...