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Techno Bob

You ship it, they rip it …

Interesting business model that’s being spawned by the iPod/portable digital music craze. These guys offer to burn your entire CD collection and send it back to you so you can easily put it on your iPod. Cool idea, but I’m not sure if the pricing is quite there. At about $1/CD, that adds up if you own a lot of music.

Then again, I’m still transferring my CDs to my computer after several days, and I’m only in the C’s.

Now Playing: Elube Changó (Son Afro) from the album A Toda Cuba Le Gusta by Afro Cuban All Stars

Categories
Techno Bob

Bruising the Apple

Despite my glowing (fawning?) posts on all things Apple, Mock sees fit to diss the iPod. He raises some valid points, worth checking out. Here’s my response to him.

In defense of the ipod

Just read your savaging of the ipod.

http://www2.mocktech.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=13

Overall, I see your point. But I still have to point out the advantages to it. At least for some users. Mainly: I’m not as focused on “on the go” music as I am portable music. I like the idea of having my CD collection available in the office, in my car and anywhere else that I can plug in. My 40 gig ipod does just that, plus it serves as a secondary backup for my Apple computer. 256 mb isn’t what I’m chasing here. I want multiple CDs available. I played my ipod all day at the office today on battery power, which impressed me. And I intend to get a power adapter so I’m not limited by battery life.

I am worried about the reports that the battery craps out after 18 months. But it’s not the first time a product has shipped with flaws. I’m on my third Tivo. First one had a bad modem, which I had to replace. Then I bought a series II. The hard drive died on it so I had to have it replaced. But I love the technology so much I’m willing to take that risk. Being an early adopter can be painful sometimes …

As for the Mac vs. PC debate. I realize it’s akin to a religious war. But I started on Mac, shifted to PC for about 8 years and have just gone back to Mac, at least at home. It has flaws, but it’s so much easier to use and so much more fun than the Dell that I’m dumping that I suspect I’ll be bi-technical from here. I need the PC for work, etc. But when I’m looking to have fun, I’ll be using my Mac.

Categories
Techno Bob

An Apple a day …

My Mac continues to astound me. I’ve started moving my digital photo archive into iPhoto, a very cool database approach to storing digital images. It also has a feature that makes it easy to publish a slideshow to my .Mac account. Here’s my first test, using, of course, photos of my Big Green Egg. It couldn’t have been easier to publish the photos. I need to geek around a bit to see if I can adjust a few things, but I’m impressed.

From a business perspective, Mac also gets it. They have managed to sell me a .Mac membership, and I’ve already downloaded numerous CDs and songs from their online music store. I’m buying gadgets and add-ons for my iPod. This stuff is like crack. And it’s legal.

My one disappointment was the Apple Airport Extreme wireless base station. I couldn’t get it to work in a reliable manner with my PC/Mac network, and I’m going to sell it.