What is apple up to?

[slofstra]

The Apple site today (Tuesday Nov. 15) has a splash screen indicating that there will be a BIG itunes announcement tomorrow. Maybe they'll be rolling out a new platform for classical music? Naw, don't think so.

My hunch guess is that they'll be augmenting their offering in a significant way as far as media is concerned. That is, I don't think it'll be merely an improvement to the interface or a bunch of tweaks. It could be on-line radio or something with more breadth like Naxos Music Library. It could be a significant increase in the size of what they offer, because what they have now is relatively pitiful. Maybe all of the above.

They did buy 'lala.com' a year ago, and shut it down some time later. I believe the announcement will relate to lala's area of expertise.

All guesswork, tomorrow we'll know.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lala_%28website%29

[HoustonDavid]

Since not all of us use Apple products, please keep us informed Henry. I am looking
at their I-pad as a potential Christmas present, since it is much more diverse than
the Kindle and other notepad products. It's more like the truly portable laptop and a
Kindle combined, which is interesting to me, at least. Maybe the price will come down
late in December as competition heats up for the Christmas buck.

[Chalkperson]

It's announcing that The Beatles Catalog is available on iTunes...

[slofstra]

It's announcing that The Beatles Catalog is available on iTunes...

Ho hum. I think Jobs ego is going out of control. The Beatles finally available in poor quality audio. Better to buy the CDs and rip them.

[slofstra]

Since not all of us use Apple products, please keep us informed Henry. I am looking
at their I-pad as a potential Christmas present, since it is much more diverse than
the Kindle and other notepad products. It's more like the truly portable laptop and a
Kindle combined, which is interesting to me, at least. Maybe the price will come down
late in December as competition heats up for the Christmas buck.

The Kindle does have a couple of advantages. It is only $139, easier to look at than an Ipad, and you can see the screen in bright daylight. Consider it as a device specifically tuned to a special purpose - that is, just reading books. I generally do prefer books to the Kindle, but my Kindle contains a number of public domain works I obtained for next to nothing, I can take them with me when I travel, and the Kindle is also very easy to read in bed.

I haven't bought an ipad because I have Internet on my notebook and also on a widescreen monitor/TV hooked to my stereo. I'm not sure I need yet another Internet portal.

I think the main question I would ask myself is this - how much time will I spend on the Internet with zero to no typing? That is, purely browsing? If it's an hour a day or more, then the Ipad is worth buying. For many people, the hour a day they used to spend with the newspaper or watching TV news is now spent browsing the Internet.
You know, a MacBook Air might be really cool too.

[Chalkperson]

I think the main question I would ask myself is this - how much time will I spend on the Internet with zero to no typing? That is, purely browsing? If it's an hour a day or more, then the Ipad is worth buying. For many people, the hour a day they used to spend with the newspaper or watching TV news is now spent browsing the Internet.
You know, a MacBook Air might be really cool too.

I have a Kindle and both the 11 inch Air and five iPads, we use the iPads at the Studio as Portfolios and the Air for showing our Animated Videos, both are great products, it's actually better to read on a Kindle IMHO because the iPads can keep you awake of you use them late at night and also it's easy to get distracted and flip to the Internet, the Kindle does it's job well and is lightweight, the iPad is, as you say, a great new alternative to the time spent reading the newspaper and watching TV, I don't have TV but used to watch a lot of Movies on BluRay, since getting an iPad I watch significantly less Movies and spend the time reading and learning instead...oh, and playing games...

[ch1525]

It's announcing that The Beatles Catalog is available on iTunes...

Ho hum. I think Jobs ego is going out of control. The Beatles finally available in poor quality audio. Better to buy the CDs and rip them.

Yeah, so stupid. The Beatles just came out with those fantastic remasterings and now Apple wants people to buy their compressed crap. When is Apple going to start offering things in lossless quality like HDTracks and others?! This would have been the perfect time to roll something like that out.

[Chalkperson]

It's announcing that The Beatles Catalog is available on iTunes...

Ho hum. I think Jobs ego is going out of control. The Beatles finally available in poor quality audio. Better to buy the CDs and rip them.

Yeah, so stupid. The Beatles just came out with those fantastic remasterings and now Apple wants people to buy their compressed crap. When is Apple going to start offering things in lossless quality like HDTracks and others?! This would have been the perfect time to roll something like that out.

It's all just an ego trip for Jobs, the media frenzy yesterday shows how out of control the Apple Hype Machine is, you are going to get bombarded with TV Ad's too, iTunes does not really make a profit, it breaks even at about a Billion dollars a year, they use it to drive iPhone/Pods Sales, that's where they really make their money, 40-60% Profit (per product) in fact, Dell makes 3-4% Profit per Computer...

I should also admit to spending a chunk of time yesterday with John Gruber and a couple of Tech Bloggers trying to figure it out, I just did not believe that the "exciting" news was about the Beatles, EMI had no choice but to go to iTunes, they are in dire financial straits and desperately need the money...

[John F]

It's not about audio fidelity, it's about the iPod, right? Over 220 million of the little beasts out there, all over the world. This deal is surely big money in the bank for Apple as the Beatles jump to the top of iTunes's download charts. Steve Jobs ain't so dumb.

[Chalkperson]

It's not about audio fidelity, it's about the iPod, right? Over 220 million of the little beasts out there, all over the world. This deal is surely big money in the bank for Apple as the Beatles jump to the top of iTunes's download charts. Steve Jobs ain't so dumb.

The songs are available in the MP4 format, that's better than MP3, there is a hope that when Apple opens it's Billion Dollar Cloud Based Data Center in North Carolina relatively soon they might begin to stockpile Lossless Audio Files, it will take a few years for the Internet to become fast enough to be able to Dowlnoad Lossless Files easily but there is some hope that Jobs, who is actually a bona fide Audiophile, will begin the long task of updating their Library...

[slofstra]

It's announcing that The Beatles Catalog is available on iTunes...

Ho hum. I think Jobs ego is going out of control. The Beatles finally available in poor quality audio. Better to buy the CDs and rip them.

Yeah, so stupid. The Beatles just came out with those fantastic remasterings and now Apple wants people to buy their compressed crap. When is Apple going to start offering things in lossless quality like HDTracks and others?! This would have been the perfect time to roll something like that out.

Exactly my feelings, Chad. I'm surprised EMI went along with this when they had held out so long. I guess they're strapped for the revenue.

[slofstra]

It's announcing that The Beatles Catalog is available on iTunes...

Ho hum. I think Jobs ego is going out of control. The Beatles finally available in poor quality audio. Better to buy the CDs and rip them.

Yeah, so stupid. The Beatles just came out with those fantastic remasterings and now Apple wants people to buy their compressed crap. When is Apple going to start offering things in lossless quality like HDTracks and others?! This would have been the perfect time to roll something like that out.

It's all just an ego trip for Jobs, the media frenzy yesterday shows how out of control the Apple Hype Machine is, you are going to get bombarded with TV Ad's too, iTunes does not really make a profit, it breaks even at about a Billion dollars a year, they use it to drive iPhone/Pods Sales, that's where they really make their money, 40-60% Profit (per product) in fact, Dell makes 3-4% Profit per Computer...

I should also admit to spending a chunk of time yesterday with John Gruber and a couple of Tech Bloggers trying to figure it out, I just did not believe that the "exciting" news was about the Beatles, EMI had no choice but to go to iTunes, they are in dire financial straits and desperately need the money...

I didn't think that was it either, although it was on the grapevine.

[slofstra]

It's not about audio fidelity, it's about the iPod, right? Over 220 million of the little beasts out there, all over the world. This deal is surely big money in the bank for Apple as the Beatles jump to the top of iTunes's download charts. Steve Jobs ain't so dumb.

The songs are available in the MP4 format, that's better than MP3, there is a hope that when Apple opens it's Billion Dollar Cloud Based Data Center in North Carolina relatively soon they might begin to stockpile Lossless Audio Files, it will take a few years for the Internet to become fast enough to be able to Dowlnoad Lossless Files easily but there is some hope that Jobs, who is actually a bona fide Audiophile, will begin the long task of updating their Library...

Don't they come down in AAC - 128k bps or something like that. That pales next to 320K MP3 offered by Amazon, although in Canada we cannot get Amazon's downloads. I like itunes video download service. I've bought some HD BBC programs and have 3 seasons of Top Gear. It takes a while to download but it's bullet proof and the video quality is very good. However, the selection of video is only adequate.

Jobs has been a little cocky. Sure Flash is a rubbishy video player, but making the competition mad is never very useful. Not to mention his digs at BlackBerry. The Bold is THE most reliable, well designed, easy to use smartphone out there (and I use an Android). No antenna problems at RIM; they've had embedded antennas for many years.

[Chalkperson]

Fox News calls the Beatles "Manchester's Favourite Mopheads"...always accurate reporting from those chaps at Fox...

http://www.metro.co.uk/music/847406-the ... -us-report

[ch1525]

Fox News calls the Beatles "Manchester's Favourite Mopheads"...always accurate reporting from those chaps at Fox...

http://www.metro.co.uk/music/847406-the ... -us-report

Couldn't they be both Manchester and Liverpool's favourite mopheads?! Fox didn't say they were "FROM" Manchester!

[living_stradivarius]

The Beatles Rock Band release last year was MUCH more exciting

Fox News calls the Beatles "Manchester's Favourite Mopheads"...always accurate reporting from those chaps at Fox...

http://www.metro.co.uk/music/847406-the ... -us-report

[Chalkperson]

Fox News calls the Beatles "Manchester's Favourite Mopheads"...always accurate reporting from those chaps at Fox...

http://www.metro.co.uk/music/847406-the ... -us-report

Couldn't they be both Manchester and Liverpool's favourite mopheads?! Fox didn't say they were "FROM" Manchester!

They are Liverpudlians, there is great rivalry between those two Cities...