appletalker forum [apple mac discussion and troubleshooting] News

Re: Apple Live Streaming Event 01/09/2010

no_email@example.com (i5m) — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 21:55:07 GMT

What the FUCK have they done?

Looks like a bloated crap Windows app.

iphone - today we have naming of ports

no_email@example.com (madra) — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 20:10:52 GMT

OK. on seeing that my iphone had two tiny 'grilled' ports on the bottom and one on the front, at the top, i naturally assumed that the two bottom ones were stereo mics and the top one on the front was an earpiece [ie. speaker].

subsequent playing around has shown me that the two on the bottom are a single speaker and a mic. so what is the one on the front of the phone for then?

Re: Apple Live Streaming Event 01/09/2010

no_email@example.com (Navegador) — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 19:23:36 GMT

Given the jolly-roger nature of much of my music collection I think I'll pass the chance to deliberately let Apple know what I've got stored in my iTunes collection.

Just updated iTunes and I have to say the vertical window controls annoyed me immensely, for some reason. It's just, uh, "untidy". If I want untidy-looking apps I can always use linux! After all I'm sorta *paying* Apple to keep interfaces nice and tidy for me.

Re: Apple Live Streaming Event 01/09/2010

no_email@example.com (madra) — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 19:10:10 GMT

oh yes. i can totally see why they've done it that way from their point of view. but to describe it as 'facebook meets itunes and twitter' and try and dress the whole thing up as some kind of global "social networking for music lovers" when it's really just 'social networking for people who want to swap music available in the itunes store' is a bit disingenuous.

Re: Apple Live Streaming Event 01/09/2010

no_email@example.com (Speckledstone) — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 19:05:30 GMT

Well, to be fair, if I were in charge of a digital download service that just initiated a social networking feature, I probably wouldn't think twice about not allowing one to list tunes/artists (as favorites) that couldn't be purchased through said service. Doing otherwise would setup a situation of frustration for your customers. By only allowing people to favorite tunes/artists available through iTunes they are guaranteeing that links to purchase songs are going to work through iTunes.
After all, Apple is a business so everything they do (at some level) is an attempt to boost sales.

Re: Apple Live Streaming Event 01/09/2010

no_email@example.com (madra) — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 16:35:01 GMT

hmmm... i wonder if lady gaga's record company have just signed a big distribution deal with apple, by any chance?

... and now you come to mention it, the last few times i've clicked into the itunes store it's had a big advert for katy perry [whoever the feck she is?] on the homepage too. this is more nauseatingly cynical than i thought!

<--- QFE

Re: Apple Live Streaming Event 01/09/2010

no_email@example.com (i5m) — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 16:10:27 GMT

I've heard talk (read tweets) that everyone seems to get Lady Gaga as their top following suggestion.

Re: Apple Live Streaming Event 01/09/2010

no_email@example.com (madra) — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 16:08:25 GMT

well, i've just updated to itunes10 on my home comp and thought i'd give ping a whirl. i'm not that bothered if someone knows my real name and i dinnae intend to give it any confidential info, so what the heck.

i fill in the form and it asks me to pick what genres of music i like.

there is no 'punk' or 'hard rock' so i choose 'alternative', 'blues' and 'rock'

itunes throws up a page of ridiculous commercial pap and kiddy-rock and 'recommends' i follow those bands. er.... no thanks

uncanny! - this is exactly the kind of music i'm NOT into:

so i try the search box instead and search for stiff little fingers [my fave band]...

i then try; anti-nowhere league, UK subs, sex pistols, the clash, jimi hendrix. each one throws up the same 'no results' error. OK. maybe some of my fave punk bands are a bit obscure, but jimi hendrix, fer feck's sake!

you may say i didnae give it a fair go [although i gave it more of a run-out than speck ] but really! - what a load of crap. apple are trying to sell this as some kind of social network for music lovers, but it looks to me like a really pitiful attempt to bump up sales in itunes. what's the bet that the only bands who the search results find are ones whose tunes are available on itunes?... and that the whole ping network revolves around recommending stuff to your friends that they can then buy from itunes?

apple are becoming more and more like micro$oft every day, in their increasing "how can we make a few bucks more off this?" attitude to absolutely everything they make or do. i think i'm going to christen a new 'moneygrabber' vewrsion of their company name. how about "app£e" or "appl€"?

as timothy leary might have said: "ping - itunes'd in. turned on. pissed off"

Re: Apple Live Streaming Event 01/09/2010

no_email@example.com (madra) — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 11:21:47 GMT

i've just got itunes10 myself.

i was just setting up my new work imac, so i ran software update [as i always do with a new mac] and lo' and behold i've got itunes10.

no first impressions yet, as i havenae done more than glance at it.

Re: well, i couldnae hold out any longer...

no_email@example.com (Speckledstone) — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 08:06:56 GMT

Sounds like a pretty sweet deal, madra. For myself, the selling point of the iPhone was the fact that I wouldn't be restricted to wifi only connections for data. If that wasn't so important to me, I probably would have stuck with my old PAYG phone / touch combo.

But, I figured "Why pay for texts (either PAYG or in some plan) if I'm already paying for data?" So, I'm saving some cash by telling my carrier to block all incoming and outgoing texts... I'll just use email for texting.

Re: Apple Live Streaming Event 01/09/2010

no_email@example.com (Speckledstone) — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 07:54:53 GMT

iTunes 10 first impressions:
-I like the new look... Very clean and not overdone.
-Seems like the app itself launches faster.
-Syncing appears to take the same amount of time (the syncs I've done only added one song and a few apps).
-Apple rearranged the close/minimize/expand buttons vertically instead of the system-wide horizontal fashion. Not good for consistency, but it does separate those buttons from the main controls (play/pause, forward, backward).
-I fired up ping and the first thing it asks for is first and last name... Being one who isn't much of a social networking fan and one who tends to prefer a bit of (or at least the impression of) anonymity , that's as far as I got.

Re: well, i couldnae hold out any longer...

no_email@example.com (madra) — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 07:42:44 GMT

i havenae setup data yet. well, i've filled in the appropriate details in the manual setup, but it's not working. i think i might have to ring my carrier and ask them to activate it. i'd only use that in an emergency anyway as, not being on a proper data plan, it's charged by the MB.

i'm on ASDAmobile PAYG tariff:

but i also get 500 free web texts a month, as part of my broadband package with O2*. so, unless i needed to use data, i'll barely be spending anything on my phone - especially as i tend to text rather than call and have access to wifi at home and work.

[* i'm getting that broadband package for £7,50 a month, coz wee sis works for O2 ]

Re: well, i couldnae hold out any longer...

no_email@example.com (Speckledstone) — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 07:16:25 GMT

@ madra

So, service-wise, what exactly are you paying for? I caught that you're on PAYG for the phone and texting, but what about data?

Re: well, i couldnae hold out any longer...

no_email@example.com (madra) — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 07:00:12 GMT

my 'bullet-proof' case still hasnae arrived yet [damned bank holiday weekend over here - always causes a postal backlog]. so i'm just hoping i can manage to keep my phone-wrecking tendencies at bay 'til it does.

as far as the iphone is concerned, i used to think exactly the same; "way too overpriced. not for the likes of me". but a year or two of having an ipod touch made me 'think different' [pun intended ]. looking at the iphone as a fancy phone, yes - it is a ridiculously overpriced fashion accessory. this is the image the detractors [mostly android fanbois it seems, these days] like to paint. however, my experience with the ipod touch has made me come to realise that i've been looking at it the wrong way round; the iphone isnae an expensive phone with a few extra goodies thrown in. it's a micro-laptop, which happens to be able to make phonecalls too.

the fact that a significant number of iphone users do just have one as a status symbol and never use it for anything more that making phonecalls and dabbling with a few of the more obvious offerings from the app store does not lessen the potential of the product, any more than the fact that my mammy uses her macbook almost exclusively for internet, email, looking at photos from her digital camera and doing a bit of writing make the MB any less suitable for doing other stuff like web development or image manipulation.

the big caveat is that, as far as i'm concerned, jailbreaking is an absolute must. someone i read on the intarwebs said something along the lines of "an un-jailbroken iphone is only half an iphone" and i agree. if i hadnae had previous experience of running a jailbroken ipod touch for such a long time, with rarely a problem and with the vastly increased functionality jailbreaking brings, i might have been wary about jailbreaking my new iphone, for fear of bricking it or rendering it completely unstable. but, because of this previous experience, i jailbroke my iphone within about 20mins of first setting it up.

so yeah £300-£500 is steep for a phone - far too steep for me. but £300-£500 for an apple micro-laptop [i may have to patent that name ] starts to look like much more of a bargain.

anyway, the price of the handset itself was never the biggest hurdle for me. if i want something badly enough, i'll save up for it and i have no problems with buying stuff like this 2nd-hand. what was always the deal-breaker for me was these bloody tied contracts that apple have imposed. no way was i going to pay around £30 a month when, with my usual mobile phone usage, i could easily make £30 credit last me about four months. neither did i didnae fancy buying a hacked about software-carrier-unlocked phone and living with the constant worry that a firmware or software update might 'brick' it. but now, i reckon, is a great time to go hunting for 2nd-hand bargains. lots of folks are coming to the end of their tied contract periods with their 3GSs and the phone companies are trying to hold onto them by offering free [or cheap] upgrades to iphone4. at the end of their contracts people can get their existing iphones unlocked for free. so as a result, there are suddenly a lot of carrier-unlocked [or even better in my case, apple-unlocked] 3GSs coming onto the 2nd-hand market.

i willnae be interested in the iphone4 for a year or two - 'til it's got a few revisions under its belt, the niggles have been ironed out and the inevitable "we've made it faster and doubled the capacity" iphone4 rev2 and 3 come along. so i'm quite happy to have bagged myself a 3GS at a reasonable price and no ongoing cost of ownership, save whatever PAYG credit i stick on there from time to time.

i'd say go for it!

Re: Apple Live Streaming Event 01/09/2010

no_email@example.com (madra) — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 05:36:47 GMT

i'm a bit of an itunes-hater myself. i hate having to wait for it to launch, every time i need to do the smallest thing with my music or apps. and its automate-everything approach can be really annoying when things go wrong.

i was also a soundjam user 'back in the day' and found it a great app. i dinnae rem apple announcing any major rewrites of itumes and sometimes it does feel like apple's 'microsoft office'. they just keep bolting more and more 'stuff' onto what must by now be creaking foundations.

i like your nostalgia, nav: this modern digital audio disnae sound as good as the old digital audio!

Re: Apple Live Streaming Event 01/09/2010

no_email@example.com (Navegador) — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 03:29:08 GMT

Oh, Soundjam... I still have many mp3 files ripped using it on my old 'Indigo' iMac. Best-sounding files I've got - or maybe that's just nostalgia kicking in.

As for the iPods, no-one's mentioning the fact that the nano lost its video *playback* capabilities (never mind the previous version's little camera) but still costs $150-$180. That's a bit of a rip-off for what's essentially an iPod Shuffle with a gimmicky touch-screen.

I do like the new iPod Touch though. Expensive, but it's now close to something that I could justify buying.

Now where's the new iTunes? I've been trying to download it all day today but it doesn't turn up in Software Update and Apple's web page tells me it's 'coming soon' and points me to 9.something.

Re: Apple Live Streaming Event 01/09/2010

no_email@example.com (Speckledstone) — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 02:37:55 GMT

With all the stuff they keep adding to iTunes, I've got a feeling a complete rewrite is going to be needed soon. I hardly have any problems with iTunes myself, but I hear people complaining about it all the time. And, apparently, for what if does, it's a pretty big memory hog.

Refresh my memory... Has there been any major rewrite of iTunes or is Apple piling features on top of 10+ year-old software (SoundJam)?

Re: well, i couldnae hold out any longer...

no_email@example.com (Navegador) — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 02:37:53 GMT

Very nice, madra. And I like the "Toughbook-treatment" case you got. I'm not much into the iPhone (with it costing as much as a decent laptop over here and all) but I can see the value in replacing a couple of gadgets with an admittedly cool Apple device.

Going to the U.S. in a few days I'm tempted to abandon my frugal ways a bit and get one for a more reasonable price, but it'd necessarily have to be jailbroken (all US iPhones are locked to AT&T, even if you pay full retail price!) and I'm not too keen on that. Maybe I'll just buy one of them new iPods and keep my current cheapo Nokia after all.

Re: redmond. start your phone-o-copiers!

no_email@example.com (Speckledstone) — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 02:25:40 GMT

Quote by madra:
...as with all micro$oft junk- like a pisspoor copy of where apple [with iOS] and google [with android] were, about three years ago. i could almost feel sorry for them

I agree. With two (what's a good word to use?) premier (?) smartphone OSs on the market (iOS and Android) M$ has really got to keep those photocopiers moving quick to keep up with the competition now. In fact, it's probably more accurate to say three premier smartphone OSs because most people would consider RIM's OS in that category too.

Maybe they'll shoot for dominance in the non-smartphone market and settle for that? Although, I don't even know what the numbers are for that market... Do they still have a stranglehold, OS-wise, on the non-smartphone market?

redmond. start your phone-o-copiers!

no_email@example.com (madra) — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 22:57:04 GMT

with all the excitement around iphone 4 and all apple's new media gadgets, as announced today, i found myself wondering what microsoft were up to on this front. it's been a while since i last heard anything about zune-phone, the iphone killer

anyway, i found this preview of windoze phone 7 on engadget. even their relentless winblows fanboi-ism couldnae paper over all the cracks; it sounds -as with all micro$oft junk- like a pisspoor copy of where apple [with iOS] and google [with android] were, about three years ago. i could almost feel sorry for them

Re: Apple Live Streaming Event 01/09/2010

no_email@example.com (Oisín) — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 22:02:35 GMT

Hopefully, this ‘Ping’ thingy can be disabled. Otherwise, I think I’ll be sticking with iTunes 9 for as long as humanly possible.

Re: Apple Live Streaming Event 01/09/2010

no_email@example.com (madra) — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 20:10:04 GMT

testing the server time

Re: Apple Live Streaming Event 01/09/2010

no_email@example.com (madra) — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 19:46:08 GMT

Quote by i5m:
...I guess so by the times on your posts...

looking at which has just made me realise the server time is an hour out. must've forgot to set BST up

hmmm... maybe i should leave it like that. it makes it look like appletalker were so 'first with the news' we announced it before steve jobs did!

Re: Apple Live Streaming Event 01/09/2010

no_email@example.com (i5m) — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 19:14:59 GMT

Thanks for the summary. I got in at 6.45pm (was event finished by then? I guess so by the times on your posts.) and tried to load it on my iPod, but got immediately scowled at for coming in and jumping straight on my iPod (suppose I should have said hello to the kids) so put it back down again. Just trying to check things out now.

Re: Apple Live Streaming Event 01/09/2010

no_email@example.com (madra) — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 18:33:42 GMT

oh - and in answer to your original question, i5m...

streaming was 'unavailable. try again later' on my laptop, every time i tried to load the page

streaming worked mostly great on my iphone, apart from one or two periods where it flickered to black screen for about 30secs.

i wonder if apple had two separate streams going - one for macs and another for iOS devices? if so, they either devoted a lot more bandwidth to the iOS one, or not as many people tuned in that way.

Re: Apple Live Streaming Event 01/09/2010

no_email@example.com (madra) — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 18:30:15 GMT

steve doing his summary now.

best ipod lineup ever [well, of course. they'd hardly make them worse than the previous ones! ]

ping - steve reckons it'll grow fast, as it's built into itunes and available for ipod/iphone to 167 million people right now [i think that's the figure he quoted]

iOS 4,2 - didnae get any screenshots for this. every time steve mentioned it, i was writing here, or transferrring other screengrabs across from my iphone. but:

- 'game centre' - presumably a dedicated games area in itunes [ipod touch is apparently the biggest selling portable games platform in the world, beating sony PSP and nintendo DS combined. apple obviously sniffing a few more $$$ here and pampering to gamers more].
- HDR built in

apple TV - pocket size. looses purchasing and storage. gains rental and streaming

so there you have it folks. whaddya think?

i reckon there's a few interesting tidbits there. the new ipod touch looks great. i might have held off on getting an iphone a bit longer if that had been available a month or so ago.

i'll probably download itunes 10 and check out ping, but i dinnae see it being a huge success. apple seem to be overlooking two important factors here:
1: a social network based on one narrow subject area [ie. music] is going to be a bit restrictive i reckon
2: a surprisingly large number of people actually really dislike itunes and use it only as and when needed [i'm not too keen on it myself]. are they going to want to spend their social networking time inside the app?

appleTV disnae really interest me in it's primary role; i'm not a big TV or movie watcher and cannae imagine ever wanting to see something so much i'd actually pay to rent it. the streaming capabilities on the other hand are interesting. i could see that being really useful in college; attach an appleTV to one of our plasma screens and then stream student work to it on presentation days at the end of briefs. much less hassle than the current practice of burning everything to DVDs and then shuffling these in a laptop attached to the screen.

Re: Apple Live Streaming Event 01/09/2010

no_email@example.com (madra) — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 18:16:32 GMT

the "one more thing"...

new appleTV. so small it fits in the palm of your hand [a quarter the size of the previous appleTV. plugs directly into your TV via two sockets [HDI lead + power]. no purchases anymore on appleTV. it's all rental now [no storage on the gadget itself]. everything streams. steve says the rental will be so cheap, you'll be able to rent a movie any time you feel like watching it - and willnae worry about not being able to store it:

rental

$4,99 - on release day for movies [will get cheaper as the movies get older]

99c - for TV shows [ABC and fox signed up so far]

can stream from netflix for free

youtube built-in

stream content off your comp

'airplay' - coming soon. will allow you to stream content from iOS device to your appleTV [via wifi, i presume]

[hmmm... in steve's world $4,99 might be the kind of money you can throw out multiple times to rent the same movie over and over again, but it sounds a bit steep to me]

new appleTV will cost $99 - down from $299 [steve's making a big thing about the price drop - but given that they've removed the storage, it must be causting them a lot less to make]

Re: Apple Live Streaming Event 01/09/2010

no_email@example.com (madra) — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 18:05:34 GMT

new version of itunes with social networking built-in. it's called "ping" and it's supposed to be music-centric. there's also an iOS version which syncs your info across.

ping - apple jumps on several bandwagons at once

sounds a bit of a weird one to me. like lastFM meets facebook. maybe i missed something tho' - the video broke up a bit while steve was introducing it, so i just caught the end.