Hard News: Music's emerging digital market
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On the other hand, if you follow the iHype you would think the problems world hunger, war and ugly clothes had been solved and would continue to be solved if we only let the nice Mr. Jobs get on with managing our lives.
Kyle, I have tried Apple's computers, honestly. But whilst the nice factor lasts five minutes the constraints last forever.
There's two contradictory statements. I don't use an apple computer, but Steve Jobs is managing my life? Did he take over your PC as well?
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I'll buy an iPad in July, and use to to read books, comics and magazines, watch video, play games, do email, web browsing, light word processing, etc. Were I suitably talented, I might want the Korg synthesiser app, or Autodesk's Sketchbook Pro. I'm quite keen on Wikipanion. I'm sure I'll find many other things I want to do with it.
The thing is I don't get is... where? I mean you have an iPhone, and you have a desktop Mac, right? So where is the intermediate place where one uses an iPad? While standing at the kitchen bench? In the driveway? Unless I suppose this thing superseded the laptop. But what happens if you're doing actual work outside the home, I mean more than light word-processing?
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The thing is I don't get is... where? I mean you have an iPhone, and you have a desktop Mac, right? So where is the intermediate place where one uses an iPad? While standing at the kitchen bench? In the driveway? Unless I suppose this thing suprseded the laptop. But what happens if you're doing actual work outside the home, I mean more than light word-processing?
Well, firstly, it's sort of my job to have media gadgets (it certainly doesn't require me to drive a car less than 10 years old, on the other hand). But the iPad's a superior reading device to a laptop, by miles. I currently subscribe to the New Yorker and Vanity Fair -- I'd consider switching those to digital subscriptions. I imagine it'll be a lounge-room device, but I could see it being a suitable form factor to sit on the kitchen sill with a recipe on it.
The full iWorks productivity suite is available for iPad, but I couldn't say how much I'd use it without having tried it. I'd certainly take it on business trips.
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Well, firstly, it's sort of my job to have media gadgets
That is one of the most perturbing sentences I've ever read!
I imagine it'll be a lounge-room device, but I could see it being a suitable form factor to sit on the kitchen sill with a recipe on it.
A loungeroom device? Is this what the world media have been hammering us with for months? Something to sit on the kitchen sill with a recipe on? (And incidentally, you know what else has the right form factor for that? A bloody recipe book. Or a printout if it's a recipe you found on the net.)
I mean whilst definitely not my thing I kind of understood the hype behind the iPhone. But this is verging on the obscene. And again, not the object itself - I really don't care about it either way. But the tonnage of coverage on it. There's something wrong going on here, or is it just me?
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(I should have qualified that "perturbing" statement. I meant that while it is your job to have media gadgets, maybe it's not everyone's? Although sometimes it feels like it is. And that could be in part because not many technology writers set aside the fact it's their job to own media gadgets when they write about gadgets.)
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A loungeroom device? Is this what the world media have been hammering us with for months? Something to sit on the kitchen sill with a recipe on? (And incidentally, you know what else has the right form factor for that? A bloody recipe book. Or a printout if it's a recipe you found on the net.)
I feel like I'm being hectored now.
It just looks like a multi-function media device I'd like to use, at home and on the road. And it is quite remarkable to use -- fast, clear and simple. I haven't felt the need to buy one ahead of local release or anything, but I can see plenty of things I'd like to do with one.
I'm also a bit puzzled about Don's declaration of iPad "fail" on YouTube. Nearly everything on YouTube is available as straight H.264 (and you can thank Apple nudging YouTube along there) and I happily watched 720p HD YouTube on the iPad I played with.
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I feel like I'm being hectored now.
I have that effect on people sometimes. Actually I think this time it was a genuine attempt at hectoring. I was a little frustrated to be honest in the Media7 ep. with McVicar which was so desperately stretched for time to find some of that time taken by a piece on the iPad. I think it's a media obsession that needs to be critiqued.
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iTunes is great for making your own comps though.
the evolution of the Mix Ape
a central, funded, NZ music archive
I thought the National Library (maybe Turnbull or Hocken) archived all NZ releases (and ephemera) - might be a simple, and supportive, step for them to make that available somehow - perhaps along the NZ film/on screen model...
If national library already has the hard copies, that's a large step towards such a thing right there.
I'm surprised there isn't the equivalent of ISBN system for "published" songs/albums...I went into Borders Chch shop for the first time yesterday - I wonder who buys a lot of what they have available, not to say that that there wasn't anything I wanted there
(in fact bought a book of PK Dick's writings on philosophy and other matters) - though I might go to a local retailer, like Madras Cafe Books, for a coupla others I saw at Borders (and in case ya hadn't heard Smiths Bookshop has moved south down Manchester St to 117 - end of the 3 floors of books era!)Meanwhile the last independent Record/CD shops in New Plymouth and Blenheim have closed
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ISID (I see it differently)
Well, firstly, it's sort of my job to have media gadgets
Oh. See you had me confused, for a while it looked as though your job was to only have Jobs gadgets :-)
I feel like I'm being hectored now.
Not half as much as those without iSomethings. I think Gio captures the puzzlement I was trying to express.
Mike Riversdale has a nice take on alternative approaches... It's not anti-Apple, it's pro-choice.
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I feel that I must come to Russell's defence now, having poked him about the fanboi aspect. I think that anything that eats into McVicar's media time a good thing. As a media commentator, Russ almost has an obligation to cover such things, even if the iPad is the Lady Gaga of the media device world.
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As a media commentator, Russ almost has an obligation to cover such things,
As a media commentator, Russell has an obligation to do what everybody else is doing? No, I don't think so. I thought in fact it was the whole point about Media Watch and Media7 - to examine what the media are doing, critically.
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As an Italian do you have to be so "Passionate" about everything?
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Yes.
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Hugga Hector Day...
(And incidentally, you know what else has the right form factor for that? A bloody recipe book. Or a printout if it's a recipe you found on the net.)
But if you don't have the Recipe book you want on hand, and don't want to consume paper and ink for a one-off dish - but you can find it on-line well this would be a good way to do it, and less cumbersome than getting the laptop into position possibly - but hey, whatever you personally are comfortable with, each to their own...
and thanks are due to Russell for being a cultural guinea pig (a real Hector the hero even - though watch out for that heel Achilles!) and trying these things out for the rest of us - technology and society changes by perturbations and other deviations and diversions... -
You don't have to be an Apple fanboi to appreciate the impact the iPad could have - especially if you paid any attention to the difference in what was said about the iPhone before and after its launch.
There's much discussion going on about the iPad's usability, with app developers noting the difference between what they thought it would work like and what it's like to actually use for more than 30 minutes. Owning one would seem a prerequisite for more than shallow critique.
And open source advocates criticising Apple's tight integration and business model is to be expected and welcomed - it's quite a big choice.
To me it all seems pretty much like noting that Avatar changes the movie experience, whether or not you enjoyed it.
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But if you don't have the Recipe book you want on hand, and don't want to consume paper and ink for a one-off dish - but you can find it on-line well this would be a good way to do it, and less cumbersome than getting the laptop into position possibly
Well you have a point there. They should use this scenario for an iPad ad.
To me it all seems pretty much like noting that Avatar changes the movie experience, whether or not you enjoyed it.
Hehe, that would explain it - I don't think Avatar changed the movie experience at all!
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What, nothing about 3D for depth and not cheap thrills?
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As a media commentator, Russell has an obligation to do what everybody else is doing? No, I don't think so. I thought in fact it was the whole point about Media Watch and Media7 - to examine what the media are doing, critically.
I think the iPad media hype track was about 90 seconds long in the end. We wanted something lighter to go out on, which is pretty common.
Why the media interest in Apple and Jobs?
Because Apple's new hardware products have been remarkably influential over the past decade. iTunes and the iPod changed the music industry. When the iPhone launched, multi-touch interfaces were the stuff of TED talks -- now every damn phone wants to look and act like an iPhone.
Many major media organisations -- and the journalists who work in them -- hope the iPad will offer a sustainable revenue model for news and journalism. The book trade is, understandably, also interested.
This week, Apple overtook Microsoft in market cap -- and is now second only to Exxon Mobil in the US. That's pretty wild for a company whose demise has been announced repeatedly by commentators over the years.
The Apple angle in any news story, positive or negative, will be played up. Greenpeace targeted Apple with its green tech campaigns, even though other companies were just as dirty, and it worked. A host of other big brands have their phones and things made by the Chinese company Foxconn, where there has been a spate of suicides -- but it's only Apple you're hearing about.
I personally find Steve Jobs' story compelling. Unmanageable stoner gets kicked out of his own company by the suits, disappears into the wilderness, founds Next, buys Pixar, comes back, saves Apple from oblivion, oversees the creation of game-changing products, rules world.
And I've also been using Apple products for more than 30 years. There's been the odd shitter along the way, but overall those computers have been bloody good to me.
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snap - market cap
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Well you have a point there. They should use this scenario for an iPad ad.
I've got it: groovy-looking dude makes some electronic music on his iPad, uploads it to an MP3 blog, tweets about it, then takes his iPad into the kitchen to cook something special for his hot girlfriend. Then later they both get stoned and watch the cat play with the iPad, before settling down to a game of iPad Scrabble, using their iPhones as tile racks*, and finally getting in a bedroom mood with some HTML 5 alt-porn.
*Not making up this feature.
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A host of other big brands have their phones and things made by the Chinese company Foxconn, where there has been a spate of suicides -- but it's only Apple you're hearing about.
Here we go again, the iPhone as a killer device.
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I've got it
that does sound appropriately turtle-neckish
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I will one day get an iPad because I want one, it is bloody cool, and using my iPhone to scroll (phew, nearly wrote troll) blogs while watching TV is getting to be a pain.
Anyway, what are you, my mother?
And RB, while I personally appreciate your defence of Apple, since I have also used them since around 1980, I fear it is a lost cause.
'They' just don't get it ;-)
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I think the iPad media hype track was about 90 seconds long in the end. We wanted something lighter to go out on, which is pretty common.
But in the context of the preceding segment - here's something you don't get to hear about in the NZ media, and it needs more time to be talked about properly; it's actually literally the last thing that was said! - those 90 seconds on the iPad - the most talked about thing on earth - I thought were really strident.
End rant.
I've got it: groovy-looking dude makes some electronic music on his iPad, uploads it to an MP3 blog, tweets about it, then takes his iPad into the kitchen to cook something special for his hot girlfriend...
If you turn the iPad over, it doubles as a chopping board. True story.
Anyway, what are you, my mother?
I'm your annoying cousin.
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Slating the iPad...
Here we go again, the iPhone as a killer device.
...or as God would say - take two tablets and call me in a coupla thousand years...
I'll be moseying on then.
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