Rise In iPod Sales Causes Fall Of Western/Eastern Civilization

Comment from: Mr. Peabody
“…the explosion in the sales of iPods and other portable media devices is more than coincidental,’ …’” And yet coincidence is exactly what you have. Correlating data and making assumptions based on those correlations is not exactly high science, well actually it is, but – here’s the point, it takes years of repeated outcomes to even begin to say, with any degree of accuracy, that two desparate studies actually show demonstrative interactivity, especially social studies of any kind.

But you gotta love it anyway. Remember they did this with Niki because in the real world some people did in fact get shot and/or stabbed so that the robber could have the expensive shoes the victim was wearing. Of course I could probably incure the same treatment if I were to walk into the same violent area waving a $100 dollar bill too – And of course there was the little problem that during this period of time crime was actually going down – so… What?

One way or the other we’re going to demonize what’s popular in every generation: gadgets, music, art in general, blah blah blah. It’s not all bad because we should think about how loud we’re listening to our iPods, and how flagrantly we wave them around while walking down the street, or whether we can hear on-coming traffic or not, but the tone of all of these leaps to conclusions are that somehow this thing is single handedly responsible for the demise of western, eastern, northern and southern culture, and to that, or anything that implies that my personal responsbilities to myself and my fellow persons is not in my control is bunk. Be educated, be smart, assume repsonsibility for yourself and others, and throw crap like this where it belongs. — flush…

IN RESPONSE TO:

Friday, September 28, 2007 – 09:35 AM EDT  —  Apple Stock Quote: 154.50 (0.00, +0%)

Are Apple iPods responsible for violent iCrime wave?

Thursday, September 27, 2007 – 11:03 PM EDT

“The Urban Institute, a research organization based in Washington, has released an interesting report that suggests that the proliferation of iPods helps account for the nationwide rise in violent crime in 2005 and 2006,” Sewell Chan blogs for The New York Times. “The report suggests that ‘the rise in violent offending and the explosion in the sales of iPods and other portable media devices is more than coincidental,’ and asks, rather provocatively, ‘Is There an iCrime Wave?’”

Chan reports, “The report notes that nationally, violent crime fell every year from 1993 to 2004, before rising in 2005 and 2006, just as ‘America’s streets filled with millions of people visibly wearing, and being distracted by, expensive electronic gear.’”

Chan reports, “Of course, as any social scientist will tell you, correlation and causation are not the same thing. The report’s authors, John Roman and Aaron Chalfin, acknowledge in the report that ‘rigorous empirical tests’ of any theory for the two-year-old rise in violent crime ‘are not possible.’”

Chan reports, “But they offer three tantalizing observations… [along with] four reasons iPod owners might be particularly susceptible to crime.”

Full article here.

The “Is There an iCrime Wave?” report itself (pdf) is here.

MacDailyNews Take: Rather than blaming an inanimate object, we blame the criminals’ parents (or lack thereof).

iPhone Outsells – Most Everything In Its Class

Comment from: Mr. Peabody
@baukunst

Your comment inspires me to wonder what would happen if VOiP were in such a state that a telephone developer could distribute their product with service without having to get into bed with the big cell phone companies. I wonder how close we are to a possibility like that. With phones that have WiFi built in it seems like the infra-structure is there, of course coverage would be nowhere near what cellular coverage is now, but if the demand for it was great enough perhaps that would drive the WiFi infrastructure to expand much faster. That would be a good thing not only for voice communications but for wireless computing in general.

IN RESPONSE TO:

Comment from: baukunst
The real problem is AT&T;.
I walked into an AT&T;store this weekend 
to check out the plans before walking across
the street to the Apple Store, and I was so
disappointed with AT&T;that I walked out.
The iPhone is the most gorgeous object I 
have seen in a long time, but AT&T;is a
horrible match.
I’m waiting until some changes happen.

Tuesday, September 04, 2007 – 11:59 AM EDT  —  Apple Stock Quote: 142.85 (+4.37, +3.16%)

Apple iPhone outsells all so-called ‘smartphones’ in U.S. in July

Tuesday, September 04, 2007 – 10:15 AM EDT
“Apple Inc’s iPhone outsold all smartphones in the United States in July, its first full month on sale, accounting for 1.8 percent of all U.S. mobile handset sales, research group iSuppli said on Tuesday,” Reuters reports.

”iSuppli reiterated its forecast that Apple would sell 4.5 million iPhones this year, rising to more than 30 million in 2011,” Reuters reports.

”The two models of the iPhone [4GB and 8GB] on the market sold more than Research in Motion’s Blackberry series, the entire Palm portfolio and any individual smartphone model from Motorola, Nokia or Samsung,” Reuters reports.

”Most buyers of iPhones in the United States in July were male, under 35 and had a college degree, iSuppli said,” Reuters reports. “A quarter of those who bought an iPhone switched to operator AT&T, which has an exclusive service agreement for the iPhone in the United States.”

Reuters reports, “‘While iSuppli has not collected historical information on this topic, it’s likely that the speed of the iPhone’s rise to competitive dominance in its segment is unprecedented in the history of the mobile-handset market,’ iSuppli said.”

Full article here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader "Magicpony" for the heads up.]

MacDailyNews Take: Bloodbath.

Get Your Fake iPhones…

Comment from: Mr. Peabody
@peter huges

Yes, I was wondering just how good the after purchase experience could possibly be, I mean this technology isn’t child’s-play.

So basically you get a $300 device for about $200, and other than a cool startup sequence and a few icons that look similar, you have no where near the actual functionality of the real thing.

And it seems to me that $200 for a fake is mighty steep, wouldn’t they be better positioned at about $50 bucks? Seriously.

IN RESPONSE TO:

Tuesday, September 11, 2007 – 10:38 AM EDT  —  Apple Stock Quote: 136.23 (-0.48, -0.35%)

iPhone knockoffs steal sales in Asia

Tuesday, September 11, 2007 – 10:10 AM EDT

“At the end of an alley in Taiwan’s most violent city, a black Mercedes-Benz sedan blocks a sliding- glass door that opens only from within. Inside, technophiles can buy iPhone knockoffs for two-thirds the legitimate price,” John Liu and Chinmei Sung report for Bloomberg.

”With a touch-screen and Apple Inc.’s logo on the back, the ‘iClones’ look just like the real thing,” Liu andSung report. “Apple won’t offer iPhones — which combine a phone, music and video player with wireless Internet — in Asia until 2008. The owner of the shop in Sanchung, near Taipei, says he began selling ‘aifungs’ in December, six months before the iPhone went on sale in the U.S.”

”The clones show how fast Asian counterfeiters move. ‘Ben’ says his company designed the fakes from pictures posted on the Internet before Apple Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone in January,” Liu andSung report. “Knockoffs cost the global economy $650 billion annually, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce estimates. Apple spokeswoman Jennifer Bowcock wouldn’t discuss how much the company loses as a result of phony products.

”‘The longer Apple delays, the more the pirates can rip the company off,’ says Chialin Lu, an analyst at Yuanta Core Pacific Securities Co. in Taipei,” Liu andSung report.

”Cupertino, California-based Apple, which said yesterday it sold its millionth iPhone, intends to fight back. ‘We are committed to pursuing counterfeiters and others who steal from us and deceive our customers,’ Bowcock says. On its Web site, Apple asks consumers to report fake hardware to counterfeit@apple.com,” Liu andSung report.

Full article here.

HTC CEO Proclaims Advantage Over iPhone

Comment from: Mr. Peabody
“HTC, in contrast, understands the different needs of cellular operators and so can tweak its handsets as necessary.”

Yeah ’cause what the end user wants takes at least a back seat to what’s convenient for the service providers… Should I, the endlessly-nickle-and-dimed end user, also start offering burnt sacrifices to the cellular providers to make sure I compensate for any annoyance I might be, or have been throughout my cellular-using life? It sounds like HTC already does this, rather than advocating for what the people who buy their products want and need.

If I had not seen this one crazy comment my response to the article would have been – isn’t competition great, but FUD is either bought and paid for, and then distributed by those who have been paid to do so, or it’s the sign of people with penis envy who are self proclaimed inventors that don’t have a clue and must steal other people’s ideas and try and repackage them to look like their own.

Now, how about some real competition – someone, anyone? Palm?

IN RESPONSE TO:

Tuesday, September 11, 2007 – 11:00 AM EDT  —  Apple Stock Quote: 135.88 (-0.83, -0.61%)

HTC CEO Chou sees ‘huge advantage’ over Apple iPhone, calls Apple’s phone design ‘quite weak’

Tuesday, September 11, 2007 – 09:25 AM EDT
“HTC Chief Executive Peter Chou says his company has what it takes to stand up to its challengers, especially the one from America. ‘The iPhone definitely has the most hype and the most talk,’ he says. While ‘we are not as famous as Apple,’ he adds, all the attention that the iPhone has generated ‘is a hugely positive impact to HTC,’” Bruce Einhorn reports for BusinessWeek.

”And why is that? Chou says the popularity of the iPhone’s touch screen will lead people to pay more attention to the same sort of innovation that HTC launched in its most high-end model, the HTC Touch,” Einhorn reports. “The new screen, which eliminates the need for a stylus, ‘makes the whole navigation experience so much simpler, so much more intuitive,’ he says.”

Einhorn reports, “While the technology is similar, Chou believes that HTC ultimately will have an edge in its fight against the iPhone because of its experience working with telecom operators over the past 10 years. Apple may call its device a phone but Chou doesn’t think that, as a handset, it’s up to HTC standards. ‘The iPhone design is very beautiful,’ he concedes. ‘However, the phone design is quite weak; it’s very, very basic.’ HTC, in contrast, understands the different needs of cellular operators and so can tweak its handsets as necessary. That, claims Chou, gives HTC ‘a huge advantage.’”

MacDailyNews Take: Sounds like a load of horse shit to us. As if Apple can’t master the unfathomably complex task of correctly matching devices to carriers. We think Cupertino’s engineers will somehow manage. It all looks nice in print, but what about reality; in actual use? Lazy and/or inept media outlets that just take HTC’s word for it and dutifully report that the technology is “similar” to Apple’s are exactly what HTC’s banking on; that’s where HTC is getting all of it’s “positive impact.” We prefer reality, so let’s take a direct look at Apple’s iPhone vs. the HTC Touch to see just how “similar” HTC’s technology really is (it’s not, even though they pray people will believe otherwise – while the screen may not require a stylus, the crappy, non-multi-touch Windows Mobile-based hodgepodge of a user interface frequently does – unless your fingertips resemble pencil points that are 1mm in diameter). Does a direct comparison of the devices in actual use really generate “a hugely positive impact” for HTC?

Full article, with the ludicrous subtitle “High Tech Computer struggles to stay ahead of the competition, namely Apple,” here.

MacDailyNews Take: We guess it would be quite a struggle to “stay ahead” when you’re already so hopelessly far behind.

More On MS/Paramount Payola

This post and the two following it are out of order
Comment from: Mr. Peabody
One last shot across the bow, Aye, I see matey… You guys have to be trolls, I am just so familiar with that Microsoft minion tone of voice.

Yes VC-1 is one of the three primary formats (perhaps the only three), that Blu-ray authoring officially supports, but MPEG4 (alias h.264) is the preffered format, and so far seems to be the most common among commercially released disks.

Now to my real point – I think it is very funny watching nay-sayers of Blu-ray try and distance themselves from MS. The post immediately prior to this one starts with a quote that would have us believe that MS is simply one of many, and nothing more than a supporter. If you will simply check your facts carefully I am certain that you will finally get it through your apparently non-vested heads that MS did in fact invent the VC-1 technology from the ground up, and if MS had no direct hand in the Paramount payoff it is only because there were others there to do it for them. And if you actually want me to believe that they [MS] essentially had no knowledge before the fact then you would be asking me to lie.

Come on guys, who do you think you’re kidding? Here I’ll provide a way out for you: To say that you simply want HDDVD instead of Blu-ray, and for no other reason, now that I can live and let live, but if you think that you can try and disconnect from MS in order to justify your preferences, then you’re setting yourself up to get hit with the truth, no matter how unpalatable. Trying to distance your stand from MS, or argue away 20 extra GB of storage is either uninformed or a ruse.

Which ever format “wins” will most likely also become the more common standard for home storage and authoring as well, if not the default, and this of course makes the whole debate ever more important. I want to get the most storage per dollar spent and Blu-ray will always win out, hands down over HDDVD.

Now get back to your Seattle home office and let the consumer decide if they want to pay less for more or not.

IN RESPONSE TO:

Comment from:
Some FYI on VC-1:

Just some info I found easily on the ‘net:

”Although widely considered to be Microsoft’s product, there are actually 15 companies in the VC-1 patent pool (as of August 17, 2006). As an SMPTE standard, VC-1 is open to implementation by anyone, although implementers are hypothetically required to pay licensing fees to the MPEG LA, LLC licensing body or directly to its members, who claim to hold essential patents on the format (since it is a non-exclusive licensing body).[1]

Both HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc have adopted VC-1 as a mandatory video standard, meaning their video playback devices will be capable of decoding and playing video-content compressed using VC-1.”

Above quote found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VC-1

”The VC-1 essential patent holders currently include DAEWOO Electronics Corporation, France Telecom, societe anonyme, Fujitsu Limited, Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V., LG Electronics Inc., Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. (Panasonic), Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, Microsoft Corporation, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT), Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., Sharp Corporation, Sony Corporation, Telenor ASA, Toshiba Corporation, and Victor Company of Japan, Limited (JVC).”

Above quote found at: www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2006/08/17/1812679.htm

Personally, I don’t hate any companies. I find that so many people limit themselves to so much potential enjoyment and fun by taking a strong stand against a non-biological entity (such as a corporation). If Blu-ray contained the standards and offerings that HD DVD now does, AND had 20gb more space… (and maybe also was a bit less expensive) then I would be saying Blu-ray is superior. But that’s just not the case.

I don’t have anything vested in either of the camps. I don’t stand to lose anything based on who “wins the war.” If Blu-ray becomes the industry standard and no more HD DVDs are produced, my HD DVDs will still work. My HD DVD player did not cost me much in the first place. So, I will not have lost anything. I’m just honestly stating that, from my viewpoint as a consumer, I think HD DVD is offering a lot more to consumers (as a format), and I’m not ashamed to say so. I don’t mind if people want to label me as a “Microsoft supporter,” or some covert MS spy that’s seeking to dupe the general public with misinformation. If that’s the cost of me being honest about what I believe the better High-Def format is, that’s a price I’m more than willing to pay.

IN RESPONSE TO:

Various posts responding to:
Original MDN Post