This strikes me as an obsolete strategy. You can't have music on an iPod, or indeed on most music players, without having the same music (and probably more of it) on your computer. Getting the music from the computer to your music system wirelessly is trivial (Airport Express, Squeezebox, etc.).
"Neat, all things I can do on the digital copy on my computer right now. Remind me again why people are interested in a physical distribution medium?"
Because it's the only way you can get high definition. I mean, think about it. "High def" downloads are half the size of a dual layer conventional DVD. You say you get 1080 lines? Plug your old 200-line VCR into your video processor, and you'll get 1080 lines with that too. Will that change as bandwidth increases? At the moment it's not increasing but decreasing. Does the word "throttling" ring a bell? How about "traffic shaping"?
I had my credit card out, and I was waiting for the Apple store to return. My first-gen iPod touch was history. No camera? Disappointment, sure. No on-board microphone? Dealbreaker. See you in September 2010.
Interesting how many people, even people with presumed gadget interest, have convinced themselves that HD Radio is inherently superior to FM. FM radio, if you're lucky enough to have a good source (meaning live music) is the highest fidelity medium available to home users: better than CD, SACD, LP, even professional open reel tape. HD is compressed sound that has all of its juice extracted. Get the difference? If you can't, it's because your FM radio was made to the same crappy standard as the HD Radio. It's true that brain dead FM engineers process the sound to within a inch of its life, but I wouldn't assume they're providing a cleaner feed to the HD transmitter.
"No plans," you say? Read between the lines. If your significant other says that she/he has "no plans" to divorce you, would you or would you not look through the Yellow Pages for a lawyer?
There are still people reinventing the square wheel! Anyone remember Dyngroove, the RCA Victor "innovation" from the 1960's? Crappy pickups and arms at the time suffered from inner-groove distortion. Dynagroove employed computers ("highly ingenious electronic brains," said RCA) to generate a reverse distortion to cancel it out. The result, for a couple of years, were RCA recordings whose last two tracks were unlistenable. After which the "electronic brains" were shelved, and Dynagroove became just a name, with the logo getting smaller and smaller month by month.
It seems to me that $300 is a lot for that much evil-looking plastic. Lily Tomlin was right...there's a danger the Earth may run out of unnatural resources.
Actually Toshiba's idea is now new. A Canadian reactor much like it was designed in 1967 and marketed from 1971. Here's the Wikipedia link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SLOWPOKE_reactor
You probably shouldn't count the PS3 shortage among Sony's (admittedly long) list of problems. Launching a product like the PS3 with insufficient stock is commonly a part of the marketing strategy. It results in long lineups and mayhem that gets on national TV. You can't buy that short of publicity, but you can get it free if you deliberately understock the retail chain.
"I've found myself using my PC for a lot of conversations lately, and I'm also considering recording a podcast to share with anyone who will listen. There are tons of USB headset / microphones out there, and I'm hoping someone has some solid recommendations based on experience. I'll consider both headsets and standalone mics, by the way, but I'd like to keep the bill under $100 if possible. Help!"
The most commented posts on Engadget over the past 24 hours.
Now that we've thrown 'em off the trail, use the form below to get in touch with the people at Engadget. Please fill in all of the required fields because they're required.
