iPad + iPad mini Buyers Guide

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“iTunes Sales Continue to Fall”

“In the first day April 28th iTunes sales were at 200,000 per day. By May 5th CNet were reporting that sales had topped 1,000,000 meaning 140,000 songs were been sold per day. By May 14th this figure had fallen to 125,000. While figures published in the The NY Times on May 28th translate the figure into 100,000 per day.

The decline continued from there. 5 million tracks had been sold by June 23rd meaning the average daily sales had now hit 89,000. The figure hit 6.5 million on July 22nd translating into 52,000 sales per day.

The sales figure may reflect seasonal variance and other launch hype related factors. However there is a clear decline in place and with iTunes still failing to sign up some big bands the perceived success of iTunes is not quite what all are making it out to be.”

20 comments.

BusinessWeek: Where “Think Different” Is Taking Apple

“‘It’s a paradigm shift at the company,’ says Charles Wolf, an analyst at investment firm Needham & Co. and a longtime Apple watcher (who owns shares of Apple stock). ‘They are redefining what kind of company they are.’ Indeed, the release of iPod for Windows last August established the demarcation line in an extraordinary strategic change for Apple, a company that over the past two decades has steadfastly refused to loosen its control over the creation, manufacturing, or distribution of its products.”

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BuyMusic.com not selling 300,000 songs

So, BuyMusic.com started out by saying they had 300,000 songs available for download the first day of business. IF that were true than their claim would also be true that they were “The Largest Online Music Store”. Well, Mr. Blum in the past has also stated that they were the first legal online music downloading service, which we all know to be false. So judging on BuyMusic’s track record I set out to find out how many songs BuyMusic really had ready for download. By clicking on every single category and then by clicking on “List all” I could get an accurate number. I added all the numbers together and came out with a nice figure of 200,069. Yup, that’s right, nowhere near the figure of 300,000.

You see, the problem is that Buy.com is privately owned by Scott Blum, that means that he can release no official word on how many downloads he has, how many songs available, or how many people have visited his store, etc.

So just a fair warning, every time you hear a figure come out of his mouth, take it with a very large grain of salt.

16 comments.

15GB & 30GB iPods on sale at Amazon.com

The 15GB and 30GB iPods are on sale at Amazon.com for $379.05 and $474.04 respectively. The discounted prices are not visible until you add the item to your shopping cart.

1 comment.

Booq Announces PodPaq Nappa iPod Case

pic Booq has announced the release of a new version of its PodPaq case in Nappa leather. PodPaq nappa features pockets for earbuds, Nappa leather, belt clip, removable flip-top lid, access for headphones/charging cable and fits new 3G iPods. The case sells for $49.50 and is now available for shipping.

Additional details and 11 comments.

Shortage of iPods in Australia

  • August 3, 2003
  • iPod

PC World Australia reports:

“Shoppers wanting to get their hands on the new iPod are turning to internet auction sites like ebay as Apple’s Australian stores are dogged by supply problems.

‘We’ve been flabberghasted by demand,’ Apple marketing manager, Arno Lenior, said.”

11 comments.

Toronto Star: Muzak to our ears

  • August 2, 2003
  • iPod

“Activaire, a New York-based company that provides mostly underground electronic music to high-end boutiques and galleries is at the forefront of what could be a muzak renaissance.

Companies like Activaire are using muzak — as in the background music that gets played in stores and malls — to build brand and identity, in co-ordination with other aspects of a store’s image, like its products and architecture. [...]

Once Activaire has selected a playlist, an iPod (Apple’s digital music player) full of songs is delivered to the client for $100 (U.S.) per month.”

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National Post: That new white magic

  • August 2, 2003
  • iPod
“It’s white, it’s expensive and it’s instantly habit forming. Beck uses it. So do Moby and Madonna. And Ozzie’s boy Jack. (Question: Did he take it to rehab?) It’s a shiny, sleek objet de désir whose users are just one big happily addicted family. No, it’s not cocaine or the Raelian movement: It’s Apple’s iPod, the much-fetishized music player that’s more life-altering than any drug. But how exactly does an impersonal gadget inspire such high fidelity in all who touch it?”

8 comments.

“How to make your iPod screen red!”

pic Max Feinstein has turned his 3G iPod’s LCD display into a red display. Max disassembled his iPod and placed a 40 cent piece of red transparency on top of the LCD unit - making his screen red. Note: Opening your iPod will void your warranty.

“Since my little operation, I have had no problems operating the iPod. The backlight is really sweet looking now (the blue and red colors don’t blend - it’s just red). My hold button is just fine.. the music plays correctly… I can still transfer songs to the iPod… it’s all good! Best of all, there aren’t ANY scratches on my iPod from opening it.”

26 comments.

iSkin eXo Now Shipping

Today I received my shipment confirmation for my new iSkin eXo for my 3G iPod. The iSkin was supposed to ship a couple weeks ago, but was delayed because of quality control issues with the screen protector at the factory.

25 comments.

Syllabus: iTunes and the Technology Beyond MP3

“What’s the difference between MP3-encoded sound and AAC-encoded sound? AAC became part of the MPEG-2 standard in 1997 to provide efficient encoding for surround sound audio. It supports up to 5.1 channels (Left, Center, Right, Left and Right Surround, plus a low frequency channel). Its quality at 64Kbps is comparable to MP3 at 128Kbps. MPEG-2 AAC is a continuation of the MP3 coding scheme. Like MP3, AAC exploits the psychoacoustic properties of human hearing, using sound-masking techniques to achieve efficient compression with very little noticeable degradation in audio quality. Finally, it provides a compression advantage of about 1.3 to 1.4 that of MP3 with better sound quality.”

6 comments.

First Science: Review of Etymotic ER-4P headphones

“Ear-Bud Headphones (the type you put directly in your ears) are generally fairly useless. This seemed to be one of those universal truths that was right up there with food that tastes the best being the worst for you and computers always crashing 3 seconds before you were about to save a vital document.”

Editor’s note: You can also read our review of the Etymotic ER-4S.

13 comments.

UK Guardian: iPod nail in the coffin for CDs

“First they killed off vinyl 45s. Now even the days of CD singles are numbered. In the future, laments Paul Morley, pop fans will collect nothing but lists in cyberspace. [...]

The iPod, at once a nail in the coffin and some kind of saviour, is an object that seems beautiful enough to honour the history of the popular song as a vast and varied art form, and to be the futuristic replacement to the vinyl single. It represents a brave new world in the way that the CD never did. The iPod, the place where storage becomes magic, now helps us say for sure: It’s all over.”

4 comments.

iPodSkinz Coming Soon

The company that brought you MacSkinz for Apple Macintosh G3/G4 and recently announced for 12” iBook laptops, is currently developing iPodSkinz. The ‘Skinz’ are made from form fitting plastic and come in several different designs. No pricing or shipping date is set, but we’ll announce news of iPod Skinz as soon as it becomes available. MacSkinz for 14” iBook and 12” Powerbook are will also be available soon.

9 comments.

iTrip illegal in UK

The iTrip has been deemed illegal in the UK according to AMMICRO, a UK based reseller.

“In the UK FM broadcasts are allocated for the exclusive use of licensed broadcasters. No other systems are permitted to operate within these bands. The UK authorities have allocated all existing analogue FM bands. Therefore, use of the iTrip in any FM broadcasting bands is strictly prohibited.

Use of the iTrip in the UK therefore constitutes an offence and can lead to prosecution of the User, the dealer and the seizure of all iTrips in the UK.”

20 comments.

Register: UK ‘bans’ iPod radio add-on

The Register reports that “Griffin Technologies’ iTrip iPod add-on is illegal in the UK”. It goes on to state that “While its operation in the US is permitted by the Federal Communications Commission, over here the device contravenes the UK Wireless Telegraphy Act of 1949. ”

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MacSlash: BuyMusic.com Ripping Off Artists

MacSlash reader and musician, Jody Whitesides has reported that BuyMusic.com is ripping off artists.

” Here’s what I’ve deduced… BuyMusic.com (which I will refer to as BM) got their “vast” music library of 300,000 plus songs from a company called the Orchard. The Orchard is a distribution company that has consistently shafted artists by not paying them for CD’s sold nor returning unsold CD’s or cancelling contracts. So, without the express consent of what is likely lots of the Orchards catalog, BM has put it up for sale at the bargain price of $.79 a song.”

3 comments.

Move over LimeWire, here comes Poisoned

I was on techtv.com today when I saw a download for a file-sharing program called Posioned. Basically it connects Mac users to the Gnutella, FastTrack (KaZaA), and OpenFT networks. This is good news for anyone that is sick to death of LimeWire. Hope you have a good time!

Editor’s note: Don’t steal music.

19 comments.

30GB iPod for $399

Macs Only! reports that they have overstock items for sale, including (2) 30GB iPods for $399. “They are sealed in their boxes and never opened. We are offering them to our readers before they go on eBay this Saturday.”

2 comments.

Billboard: iTunes Headed To PC, Biz Mulls Download Prices

“In the afternoon keynote session yesterday (July 29) at the Jupiter Plug.In conference in New York, Peter Lowe, Apple’s director of marketing for applications and services, said the company intends to launch a PC service with broad content-usage rights similar to those enjoyed by iTunes consumers using Mac computers. [...]

Meanwhile, Plug.In attendees questioned whether the 99 cent download model employed by Apple and others will drive the digital music business going forward. “We still have a long way to go in terms of figuring out how everyone makes money in the space,” Yahoo! Inc. VP/GM of music David Goldberg told attendees in a Billboard-moderated roundtable discussion on the state of the digital music business.”

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