Sunday, January 16, 2005
News
Do Tiny Music Players Drown Out Real Life?
Apple's Baby To Shake Computer Market To Core
Aqua OpenOffice.org 2.0 Cancelled
One iPod, Many Uses
Scientists use it. Deejays use it. Why, even thieves use it. Apple's iPod, it appears, is not just an accessory for playing music.
Just For Kicks
Ever since fitness instructor Haley Wong started using her iPod to provide music for her aerobics classes, she has shed more than 4kg. From her backpack, that is.
Homework Porter
Previously, Rachel Yeo would burn her projects onto CDs to be taken home. Now she just plugs her iPod into one of the Macs at school and downloads her work directly onto the portable hard drive.
A Music Spinner
When master of ceremonies Jeffrey Low needs some background music for an event, more often than not, he turns to his 20GB iPod rather than his stack of CDs.
Band's Best Friend
Musician Jack Ho find sthe iPod indispensable when his band EIC rehearses.
Frills And Thrills
New little add-ons for the iPod seem to show up almost every week.
Opinion
Geeks Aside, Apple Is Gospel Of Simplicity
I cried — not out of sentimentality, but because at long last, a computer finally had listened to me.
iPod Shuffles Hard To Get? Blame Word-Of-Mouth Networks
Here's a company selling a flash-based MP3 player that's very similar to tons that have been out there for months, if not years. But, notice how fast word has spread that Apple had a hot new product...
Apple's Inspirational Marketing
Why The iPod Is Music To Apple's Ears
Apple's stellar results are a truly remarkable milestone for the company: they are also a wake up call to its rivals.
iPod Shuffle Fashions
The only way for Apple to compete [in the smaller-cheaper player market] is to use Apple's design experience and move the Shuffle into becoming a fashion necklace, a piece of jewelry or a branded clothing accessory.
Thinking May Not Be All It's Thought To Be
Feel the ripple in the zeitgeist? Two new slogans are busily burrowing their way into popular culture. Steven P. Jobs introduced one last week: "Life is random."
After 20 Years, Finally Capitalizing On Cool
Apple is well positioned for the future. When consumers open their wallets to buy things that have machine intelligence, or provide digital entertainment, or link to the Internet — that is, just about everything in a household that is not edible — they are likely to be drawn to the company with cachet, offering the best-designed, best-engineered, easiest-to-use products, priced affordably thanks to Mr. Moore's old law and Mr. Jobs's new pragmatism. They'll turn to the company that best knows how to meld hardware and software, the company embodied int he ecstatically happy hipster silhouette. The company that is, in a word, cool.
Review
Shuffle: Music Or Podcasts?
Chalk one up for Apple, once again they've thought wholistically and it shows.
Sidetrack
What Is The Opposite Of Microsoft?
Microsoft wanted everyone in the world to use Windows Media Player. How did they try? By going to all the media companies and convince them to use Windows Media format so that you and I have no choice but to subscribe to Microsoft's vision in order to watch, listen, and read.
Apple didn't try to out-license Microsoft. Instead, Apple went the other way: by making the coolest and most useful platform, so that you and I will choose the platform and embrace Apple's vision. No content from the big media companies? Doesn't matter. Apple will create the music store, and the users will fill in the rest with MP3s and podcasts. Who needs Windows Media Player and Microsoft?
Joe Wilcox: Rather than watch Sonic X [on] Saturday morning, [my 10-year-old daughter] is making her own entertainment.
