Posts filed under 'Hardware'
[Update 4] Time flies when you’re having fun. I’m reminded of this as I think about the fact that I’ve owned my PLAYSTATION 3 for almost a year and a half now. I almost can’t believe I’ve been enjoying it for that long, but considering how much fun I’ve had with it, it’s no wonder. But another way to look at this timeframe is by how many months it’s been since the warranty has expired. Of course, how many months doesn’t really matter, it’s really just a question of whether it is expired or not.
Unfortunately my PS3’s age falls on the wrong side of that expiry date. Unfortunate because last night, my PS3 died. I was sitting on my couch racing a virtual VW Golf GTI around a virtual track in Gran Tourismo 5: Prologue (a fantastic racing simulator, by the way) when suddenly my PS3 beeped 3 times, shut itself off and just sat there with a flashing red LED. My first thought was that the game had just crashed really bad, so I tried turning the unit back on using the DualShock 3 controller. Nothing. I then tried pressing the power button on the front of the unit, the red light turned solid indicating the system was in standby mode. Another press and the system turned on, beeped 3 times, flashed a single amber LED and promptly shut itself down again with the flashing red LED as before.
I tried everything I could think of, including letting it cool off for over a half-hour and trying again, turning off the physical power switch in the back of the unit and even resetting the unit by holding the front power button for 10 seconds while turning on the physical power in the back. I also tried swapping out my upgraded 120GB hard drive with the original 60GB hard drive that came with the unit and even tried powering it on with no hard drive installed. Same thing every time.
So I called Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA), and they’ll be shipping me a pre-paid shipping casket box for me to pack my beloved console’s remains in and send it off to be replaced. Since it’s out of warranty, it’s going to cost me $160 CDN plus tax. Not too bad considering repairing any electronics these days usually costs an arm and a leg and a new PS3 would cost me $400-500. Still, it hurts. But what hurts more is knowing that I’ll likely be without it for 7-10 days, by the time I get the shipping box, send it back and receive the replacement.
The replacement will most likely be a factory re-certified unit, which basically means refurbished. Sony assured me that the replacement is shipped out 3-4 business days after receiving the defective unit. This is a relief as I expected it to be more like 1-2 weeks. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I get a working PS3 unit in time for Grand Theft Auto IV’s release on April 29. It’s already bad enough that I can’t play Gran Tourismo 5: Prologue, which I just got 2 days ago.
I hope Sony’s standards for cosmetic beauty are strict, I’d hate to get a replacement PS3 that was in worse physical condition than mine is. The customer service operator told me they would ship my GT5P game disc back with the replacement unit, since it’s stuck in the drive with no reasonable way for me to get it out myself.
So I’m trying to look on the bright side. I still have the hard drive with all my game saves on it, which should work fine once installed in the replacement PS3 I get back. This is a good thing since I haven’t backed up my data in months. Also, not having the PS3 at home to keep me occupied will mean I have some free time to do other things, like work on my website, get out and enjoy the fresh air, and spend more time with neglected loved ones. I’m just bummed I won’t be able to taunt XBox 360 fanboys about the RROD anymore. Ah, of course I can, my PS3 will have to die at least twice before I have to worry about losing that privilege. 
Update 1 - 4/18/2008, 12:45 pm: I just received the return shipping box. I’ll be packing up my dead PS3 when I get home from work and dropping it off at the nearest Purolator depot tonight.
Update 2 - 4/20/2008, 2:30 am: I shipped my PS3 off on Friday evening. Funny thing is the paperwork that came with it, and that were emailed to me by Sony instructed me to attach a copy of my proof of purchase if my PS3 is in-warranty, but said absolutely nothing about how to provide payment if my PS3 is out of warranty. I called Sony back, and they seemed really out of touch about the whole process, which surprised me, since they supposedly have been dealing with out of warranty PS3 repairs for over 5 months now. They insisted I had the correct paperwork and that if I wanted to pay by credit card, that I should just write my card info and address on a piece of paper and include it in the box.
My confidence level in the rep I was speaking too wasn’t the highest at this point, since she had to put me on hold for several minutes to research the answer to every single one of my questions, all of which were pretty straightforward, like “how do I pay for my repair”? I wasn’t impressed and even asked for a supervisor to whom I expressed my disappointment with the poorly documented process, and the lack of training provided to the call center staff. He did apologize and understood my frustration, but said I was the first to raise an issue about the process with him. He did say he would pass my feedback on to the appropriate channels, and provided me the phone number of the repair depot in Ontario where my PS3 was being shipped so I could provide them with the credit card info by phone.
I called the toll free number for the repair depot, and the phone was promptly answered by a guy who shall remain anonymous to protect his job. After bringing him up to speed with my situation, he told me that he couldn’t take my cc info until they had received my PS3. He did confirm that there was definitely two different sets of paperwork/instructions for in and out of warranty repairs, and agreed that I had been provided the wrong ones. He instructed me to simply attach a copy of my receipt to the form as it instructed. When they receive it, they assume the in-warranty status has already been confirmed by the call centre and don’t bother checking the purchase date, so my repair would be covered under warranty.
So I did as I was instructed and am keeping my fingers crossed. I’ll be sure to update this article with the outcome of this ordeal.
Update 3 - 4/22/2008, 10:30 am: According to the online repair status website, my replacement PS3 was shipped this morning! So with a little luck, I should have it by tomorrow. Best part is, I was never contacted to provide payment, so looks like the guy I spoke to at the depot knew what he was talking about.
As an aside, the shipping and repairs are all handled through Purolator. Like many consumer electronics manufacturers these days, Sony has contracted out the shipping and repairs of their Playstation products, at least here in Canada. I don’t blame them, Purolator probably does it all cheaper and far more efficiently than Sony could do it themselves. This also explains why Sony’s support staff are somewhat clueless as to the actual behind the scenes process.
Update 4 - 4/24/2008, 10:35 am: Good news! I received my replacement PLAYSTATION 3 yesterday afternoon and there was no charge for it! The bad news is I tried reinstalling my 120GB hard disk that I had removed before shipping the unit back, and when I powered the unit up, it displayed a message saying that the hard disk needed to be formatted in order to be used. Crap. I sat for a moment wondering if there was anything I could do–nothing came to mind. So I went ahead and formatted it.
I dug out the old USB hard drive that I had last used to back up my PS3, and restored the last backup dated October 30, 2007. So I’ve lost about 5 months worth of game saves. Not the end of the world as I had finished a few games recently and already traded them in. The saves I will miss most are from Oblivion, which I had recently finished the main quest in, but still planned to go back and try to finish all the side missions. Probably about 10-20 hours of gameplay lost. The second worst loss is my progress in Assassin’s Creed, which I have been already been having a hard time motivating myself to play with all the other great games vying for my attention *cough* Call of Duty 4 *cough*. With the new COD4 maps coming out today and Grand Theft Auto IV hitting stores next week, I’m afraid my chances of picking up Assassin’s Creed again are getting pretty slim…
April 17th, 2008
Today at work I had to make a DOS boot disk so I could secure erase the hard disk in a really old PC before it got disposed of. I had to call upon knowledge and experience I haven’t used in years and that I’d rather hoped I would never have to again. I won’t bore you with the details, but suffice it to say, what should have been a 5 minute operation ended up wasting over an hour and a half of my time between a bad floppy disk, incorrect instructions I was given and stupidly bad source files for the scrubber utility that included a misnamed program file. So after overcoming all the other obstacles, I still had to figure out why I was getting a “bad command or filename” error in the middle of what was supposed to be an automated process.
It was really surreal, and took me back to a dark time in my life when I had to deal with those kinds of problems on a daily basis. A time I never want to have to revisit again. I feel so dirty. I’m going to have to spend an extra amount of time using my Mac to try and cleanse me of this disgusting feeling.
It amazes me that PCs still ship with floppy drives in them to this day. Apple’s first floppy drive-less computer, the original iMac will celebrate it’s 10 year anniversary this year. It’s been over 9 years since Apple dropped the 3.5″ floppy drive from all it’s products. Really punctuates the Windows PC industry’s bizarre obsession with outdated technologies, doesn’t it?
February 27th, 2008
Before I owned an iPhone, and a Nokia E61 before that, and a BlackBerry 7290 before THAT, I briefly owned a Danger HipTop on the FIDO network. I returned it and went with a BlackBerry mostly because of the sheer size of the HipTop. I just couldn’t justify carrying that brick around. If only it had been smaller, I might have kept it. I’ve long had a bit of a fascination with the HipTop series of devices from Danger, and they have improved on the size of their device over the years, but I don’t think the size improvements for the most part have kept up with the industry. They’re still fairly bulky.
That being said, they had a pretty decent hardware design concept, a very usable OS (although the interface was a tad childish for my taste) and a promising platform/application distribution strategy. But one thing they have never been is particularly successful in the overall handset market. So I’m a bit confused (and saddened) by this latest news that the Borg has gobbled up Danger, Inc.
“Sure, the folks in Redmond didn’t get their grubby mitts on Yahoo! (yet), but at least they picked up a little something for their mobile division, namely: Danger. According to news just crossing the wires, the monolithic company has picked up the Sidekick-creators for an undisclosed amount, and will subsequently fold the phone-maker into its mobile wing. Is there a Windows Mobile version of the Hiptop in our future? Survey says yes.â€
There’s no doubt this has something to do with RIM and iPhone’s threat to Windows Mobile, as well as the impending Google Android threat, but at first glance, it’s difficult to understand what Danger might have to offer Microsoft.
Danger used to be a hardware designer, so Microsoft may be looking to enter the handset market with this purchase. But if they wanted a cool hardware design, they could have done better than Danger, who aren’t exactly selling HipTops by the truckload. Why not buy Motorola’s mobile business instead? Motorola is officially considering divesting itself of it’s mobile phone unit, after all. I don’t think this has to do with hardware though. For one, Danger has all but given up on the hardware, just one look at Danger’s website makes that imminently clear. Other than in a YouTube video, I can’t find pictures of their HipTop anywhere.
Microsoft also runs the risk of pissing off their existing Windows Mobile license owners. Something they can’t afford to do right now. They did that in the DAP market when they launched the Zune, which has failed to make any serious inroads against the iPod/iTunes juggernaut while at the same time weakening their existing PlaysForSure Certified for Windows Vista licensing effort (what was up with that rebranding move anyway?!?).
I also find it hard to believe that Microsoft sees any real value in Danger’s software, given that Microsoft has their own mobile phone OS. Microsoft has demonstrated long ago that it doesn’t need to pay for a good software idea, they can simply borrow it and make it their own. So what is it then?
I believe the answer to that question lies in these images from Danger’s website. One depicting the “Danger experience” and the other of their new business model:
These images depict a total solutions company. A company that can offer everyone in the ecosystem value, and more importantly provide a source of income from all levels. Microsoft’s current offerings only directly targets the OEM handset makers and the end users and completely leaves out the service providers, where most of the money is. Meanwhile, Microsoft’s two biggest competitors, RIM and Apple, have already figured out how to tap into the service provider revenue stream. RIM by providing the backbone service to it’s mobile email offering, and Apple by giving it’s partners a very compelling phone to lure subscribers with, as well as back-end services like the iTunes WiFi Store as well as email/information services through partnerships with other providers such as Google and Yahoo!.
Danger, once largely a handset OS/hardware company has already done all of the legwork to turn itself into an end-to-end solutions company. So by buying Danger, Microsoft acquires much of the knowledge, technology and relationships it needs to shift from being simply the maker/licensor of the Windows Mobile OS into a complete solutions provider in a bid to better position itself against the offerings of it’s competitors.
Overall, this seems like a smart move, but how easily it can be accomplished has yet to be seen. Danger’s technology has been about open standards and the use of Java. It’s no doubt going to take a lot of work to integrate it with Microsoft’s proprietary OS and APIs, but probably not as much work as trying to develop a similar solution from scratch, especially considering Microsoft is late to the party and was obviously completely unprepared to deal with not one, but two giants suddenly entering the market.
Unfortunately, there’s very little doubt that the current Danger mobile OS’s days are numbered, much to the sorrow of current HipTop/Sidekick fans. Less clear is the fate of the HipTop swivel screen form factor. Microsoft might choose to develop it further and use it to release it’s own handset (a.k.a., the Zune phone), or they might continue to license it out for others to build and brand as their own. What they choose to do really depends on how big the market is for the swivel device. Given that it wasn’t that wildly successful to begin with, Microsoft might just let it die a quiet death.
So HipTop/Sidekick fans, what’s worse? The form factor disappearing altogether, or living on it’s existance running the uninspiring Windows Mobile OS? Sound off in the comments or discuss it in the Art Of Geek forums!
February 11th, 2008
Holy penguins Batman! Terra Soft Solutions has just announced plans to release Yellow Dog Linux for the Sony Playstation 3! For those not familiar, Terra Soft got it’s claim to fame for it’s Yellow Dog Linux distribution for PowerPC based Macintosh computers, and even did some good business selling Macs with Linux pre-installed–the only company to ever get authorized by Apple to do so.
After Apple dropped the Intel bomb at WWDC 2005, Terra Soft has stayed commited to the Power CPU architecture. They seem to have done well for themselves by switching focus away from Apple hardware towards IBMs Power and PowerPC based servers. No doubt putting Terra Soft on the short list of favored linux developers for the IBM/Sony/Toshiba developed Cell platform. Yes, this is no unauthorized hack boys and girls, according to the Terra Soft press release, they’ve got Sony’s blessing (and even their support) to release their Linux distro for the upcoming PS3 game console:
Under basic agreement with SCEI, Terra Soft was granted a unique opportunity to develop and bring to market a complete Linux OS for the Sony PLAYSTATION 3.
The video game console market is like the cell phone and razor blade business. Sell your expensive console at a loss to gain market share, and make back the money on the sale of video games, services and accessories. This is the reason why Microsoft and Sony have been so protective of their consoles and tried to thwart attempts to install unauthorized home brew software on their consoles. If you are losing say $100 per console sold, and 10,000 people buy your console just to use them as an inexpensive Linux web server, then you’re going to lose $1 million on those sales, that you’re never going to recoup from those customers. Likewise, video game piracy is a big threat to profitability as well.
So what does Sony have up their sleeves? Reading the Terra Soft press release further provides some insight into just that very question.
In development of Yellow Dog Linux v5.0, Terra Soft integrated and enhanced code from Barcelona Supercomputing Center, Sony Group, and Fedora in order to offer the following:
- kernel 2.6.16
- gcc 3.4.4 and glibc 2.4
- Cell SDK 1.1
- OpenOffice.org 2.0.2
- FireFox 1.5.0 and Thunderbird 1.5.0
- Nautilus 2.1.4
… and a suite of Personal Accessories, Development Tools; Sound & Video, Internet, and Networking applications.
There’s no doubt that the idea is to turn the PS3 into a full fledged personal computer with all the basic apps most users would need/expect. Whether you’re an institutional or corporate client who wants to set up an inexpensive supercomputer cluster, or just your average home user who wants to surf the web, send/receive email and work on some Office documents, Yellow Dog Linux has everything you need right out of the box to get started.
But Linux isn’t ready for the home user, right? Will your average PS3 gamer have any clue of how to install and setup Linux on their PS3? Well Linux has come a long way over the last couple of years. Distributions like Ubuntu are making inroads into the desktop Linux market, and Linux adoption continues to grow as every new release gets more and more refined. Usability is near on-par with Windows and installation is as simple as anyone could expect. But when a company develops a Linux distro for a very specific set of hardware, it makes it easier to focus on improving ease of use. According to Terra Soft:
A single-click installer enables absolutely anyone to install without instruction. Post-install, the default suite of applications presents an intuitive, self-guided means of exploring Linux without the confusion of multiple applications in the same family. An Advanced installer mode enables selection from greater than fifteen hundred packages, as is expected from a complete Linux distribution.
Sounds like they’re catering to everyone from your average Linux novice to advanced users as well. This is a very good thing. While Microsoft is busy patching loopholes to prevent people from hacking the XBox 360 to run Linux, Sony seems to be embracing this open source OS completely. This has the potential to greatly shift the value proposition in the PS3’s favor. Now, not only are you getting an HD capable next gen game console AND BluRay movie disc player, but a personal computer with no limits on what you can run on it. It’s now obvious why Sony made sure every PS3 configuration includes a hard disk drive.
If you think Linux on the PS3 is all about attracting users though, you’re sadly mistaken. It’s probably more about developers than it is about end users. Linux has an absolutely huge following in the developer community. After all, Linux is all about developers working together to create great software. By fully supporting Linux on their upcoming console, and being the only console that does so, Sony will instantly gain the interest and support of a huge developer community, and a huge library of software which will be a recompile away from running on their hardware. Trust me, every Linux developer who has even considered buying a video game console will be counting their pennies to get a Playstation 3.
So the big question still stands. How is Sony going to make money off of the PS3? My guess is they figure they can afford to lose some money from the odd purchasers who buy a PS3 to only run Linux, because they can recoup more money from consumer PS3 sales than Microsoft can from the XBox 360 since they will also make money from BluRay movie sales, and licensing of BluRay and Cell technology to other companies. To Sony, the PS3 is an important part of winning market share in several different markets that they can’t afford to lose in. With this latest announcement from Terra Soft, Sony is finally starting to show all their cards. If Sony sees demand for Linux on PS3, can dedicated Cell based PCs and workstations be far behind?
I was sitting on the fence about which next generation game console I planned to buy (if at all). This announcement has just made my decision a lot easier for me. I currently have an XBox with a mod chip installed so I can run XBox Media Center on it for playing downloaded video content in my home theatre. But the XBox can’t handle HD video playback at 720p or higher, and my 50″ LCD projection TV is crying for HD content. Given that Microsoft is making the XBox 360 even harder to hack than it’s predecessor, I started to consider using a Mac mini to do the job of playing back video, with it’s great Front Row remote and on-screen interface. But if I can just install Linux on a PS3 then for around the same money as a Mac mini I’ll have the media playback capability, plus a sweet ass gaming console and a BluRay movie disc player. Sure, it won’t be able to run Mac software, but if I really want to do that in my living room, I’ll just use my Mac notebook. That’s what notebooks and WiFi are for after all.
October 17th, 2006
Something strange is going on at Apple these days. First there was that un-Job’s like shared performance at WWDC’06, then Apple releases a new high-end 24″ iMac with little fanfare a week before a scheduled press event. Now we have Steve Jobs trotting out on stage wearing a black dress shirt? Where the hell is the black mock turtleneck?!? To top that all off, just to throw us all off, not only did Steve bring back his “one more thing…” encore, which was curiously absent from the WWDC’06 keynote, but he followed that up with “there’s one last thing”! Highly irregular.
Apple has been growing in leaps and bounds over the last 2 years, and I think they are finally starting to embrace the fact that they are a consumer and corporate powerhouse. They’ve got everyone’s attention, so it isn’t necessary to make a big deal out of every product revision. People know what an iMac is, and sure, a 24″ model is an impressive addition to the line-up, along with faster processors, but they don’t need to waste time and effort telling people about it, because people will find out about it just the same. One of the side benefits is that product sales should take less of a hit leading up to major annual events such as MacWorld and WWDC as people come to realize that those events are no longer synonymous with new Macs or iPods. With the fierce pace of new product development going on at Apple, it had to happen sooner or later. More PR time is needed to show off new products, so established product lines can afford to take a back seat from the PR machine.
As for Steve Job’s change in wardrobe, I suspect being on Disney’s board may be influencing him to try new things. Either that or his supplier of mock turtlenecks has discontinued the style. Regardless, my only questions are what took him so long, and would it kill you to try a different colour? Baby steps I suppose. At this rate, we’ll see him in a blue dress shirt in about 4 or 5 years.
Say hello to the new iPods
Yesterday’s announcement was all about Apple’s consumer electronics and media business. Apple took the wraps off upgrades to all three iPod lines, beginning with the top end hard disk based iPod. The new 5.5G iPod, which is available immediately, offers higher capacity on the high end (80GB, up from 60GB) and better battery life for both models. When watching video, Apple claims the 30GB model will provide 3.5 hours of viewing, up from 2, and the 80GB model provides 6.5 hours of viewing time, up from 3 hours–a very welcome improvement for those who felt the previous model’s battery life was anemic for watching videos. A brighter screen, new software features and some useful tweaks to the UI such as a navigation aid that displays the location in the alphabet in translucent letters as you scroll through your music round out this update. The latter feature was seemingly borrowed from the recently leaked details on Microsoft’s yet to launch Zune device. This illustrates one problem Microsoft will have competing with Apple: if they are going to always be behind in getting new features to market, and are unable to keep their details secret, Apple is always going to be able to beat them to the punch.
The biggest news regarding the new 5G iPod has got to be the addition of games that can be purchased and downloaded off of the iTunes music store. Nine titles are available, including classics like Bejeweled, Pac-Man, Tetris, Mahjong and Texas Hold-Em were announced, although more will likely follow. These new games look nothing like the simple games which have shipped on the iPods previously. They are graphically rich and colourful, looking as good or better than the latest mobile phone games. Like the addition of video, the game implementation continues to demonstrate Apple’s ability to add value and functionality to the iPod product line without detracting from the product’s core appeal as a music player. Improvements such as gapless playback, music search and redesigned earbuds are testament to the fact that Apple hasn’t forgotten what people primarily buy iPods for.
While the current generation iPod isn’t going to be a challenger to the Sony PSP or Nintendo DS, it’s clear that Apple is waking up to the commercial potential of mobile gaming. Sony and Nintendo would be wise to keep an eye on Apple’s movements in this space. Sales of games for mobile phones are earmarked to be $2.4 billion USD this year and are expected to reach $7.2 billion a year by 2011. The new iPod game offerings seem intended get a piece of that pie. As the iPod gets more and more power and storage, we may see it become a more serious game platform in the future, and the iTunes Store is a killer distribution model for a video games, given how much of a problem the video game industry has with keeping up with demand of hot titles.
This also marks the first time Apple has allowed third parties, like EA, to write software for the iPod, although they still maintain control over what software makes it onto the iPod via the iTunes Store, for now. The choice to allow the games to play on all 5G iPods indicates that Apple is viewing it more as a new revenue stream and not just a means to sell new iPods, otherwise they could have easily excluded the previous models in order to force owners to upgrade. In fact, with new lower prices of $299 and $399 CDN ($249 and $349 US), it’s not hard to imagine that Apple may be starting to look to the iPod as the razor that will help them sell more media (the razor blades) via the iTunes Store.
The redesigned iPod nano has gone back to the aluminum case design from the old iPod mini, a very welcome change, given how much negative PR Apple got regarding the first generation nano’s tendency to be easily scratching. Unbelievably, the new nano is even thinner than the previous one, while doubling the storage capacity (2,4 and 8GB) and nearly doubling the battery life (from 14 to 24 hours) at the same price points. The new nano also has a brighter screen, text search and letter index display from the 5.5G iPod. In another tribute to the iPod mini, the 2G nano is available in 5 different colours: the 2GB model in silver only, the 4GB model in blue, green, pink or silver, and the 8GB model in black only. All models are available immediately priced at $169, $229 and $299 CDN ($149, $199 and $249 US). There is no doubt in my mind that the 2G iPod nano will be even more successful than it’s predecessors, the 1G nano and iPod mini. Both of which were hugely successful in their time. Apple is doing it’s part by promoting the 2G iPod nano with a new TV, transit, billboard and magazine advertising blitz.
Of all the iPods, the shuffle has gone through the greatest redesign. Like it’s bigger brother, the nano, the shuffle is now clad in aluminum, but has been shrunk to a fraction of the size of the old pack of gum sized model. It’s truly an amazingly small device, which Apple has dubbed the world’s smallest mp3 player. The unit also features a built-in clip for affixing it to clothing. Gone are the built-in USB connector (a step back, from the convenience standpoint, IMHO), which has been replaced by a charging/syncing USB dock which appears to use the headphone jack for connectivity and power. The new shuffle will be available in October in a 1GB model only for $89 CDN ($79 US) and is otherwise feature-identical to the models it replaces. The new shuffle is a major improvement overall from the previous model, but I think it will lose a bit of it’s appeal for those who saw the shuffle as a combination flash thumb drive and mp3 player. Having to carry around the sync/charge cable and dock on long trips makes the new shuffle a little less road warrior friendly, but the smaller size will make up for that somewhat.
iTunes the software, iTunes the store
The second part of yesterday’s announcement focused on an updated version of iTunes software and updates to the iTunes Store. iTunes 7, available as a free download now for Windows and Mac, is a major update with some nice UI tweaks and much wanted features such as gapless playback, support for multiple libraries on multiple hard disks and a “backup to disc” feature. iTunes 7 will also automatically download–for free–any missing artwork for songs in your library, provided you have an iTunes Store account, and the song exists in the iTunes store. This feature alone will be worth the upgrade for a lot of people.
The sources list is now broken up into categories with separate library items for Music, Movies, TV Shows, Podcasts, Audiobooks, etc. There is a Store category which contains iTunes Store, Purchased Music and a new downloads manager. A devices category will display any connected iPods or iTunes compatible phones, and you can now manage all device settings from here instead of having to go into the iTunes preferences. They have even integrated the iPod updater into iTunes, so you no longer have to run a separate utility to update or initialize your iPod, as seen in the picture on the right (click to enlarge).
Two new views have been added, both designed to let you explore your music visually using album art. Album view (top image on the left, click to enlarge) displays each album’s songs next to the album cover, if available, and is pretty much like sorting your list by album, only with the addition of the artwork being displayed to the left side of each album.
The second new view is by far the most impressive feature of iTunes 7, cover flow view (bottom picture on the left, click to enlarge). Cover flow view shows you all your album cover art and allows you to flip through your albums quickly in a fluid 3D animated view that has to be seen to be believed. You can use your mouse scroll wheel, two finger trackpad scrolling or the scroll bar to quickly flip through your entire collection visually. I can see why they added the free artwork download feature. This view mode would be useless if you didn’t have any artwork. Of course those of you who haven’t been bothered to enter artist and album ID3 tags for most of your music are going to have a new reason to want to clean up their music library.
Another new feature that will be much heralded by iPod users is the ability to sync the purchased media on your iPod with more than one authorized computer. Great for keeping the music on your work and home computers up to date, although it appears that Apple hasn’t changed it’s stance on not making music piracy easy since this feature only works with purchased content. All in all, I’m impressed with this new version of iTunes, and I think it’s safe to say it’s one of the biggest updates iTunes has ever seen, helping to ensure iTunes maintains it’s supremacy.
The iTunes Music Store has been re-christened as simply The iTunes Store, finally dropping the term “music” from it’s name, a logical move given they have sold TV shows for nearly a year and the addition of games. Even more logical since yesterday’s announcement of the addition of feature length motion pictures to the iTunes store. No big surprise given Apple’s choice of theme for the event. I think everyone saw this coming, especially after the launch of Amazon’s Unbox movie download service, which I covered in a previous article. As predicted, Apple’s initial offering is limited to Disney owned properties, including Disney, Pixar, Touchstone Pictures and Miramax films.
Steve Jobs was quick to point out that when iTunes launched TV program downloads, they started with only 1 network and 5 shows, but less than a year later they have grown that library to 220 shows on 40 networks. No doubt they will gain support from the other major studios over time. Movies, like TV programs are only available in the US for now, but Apple plans to go international in 2007.
Pricing is pretty much what was predicted, and similar to Amazon’s offering, with the exception of a lower price of $12.99 US for new releases when pre-ordered and during opening week, going up to $14.99 after the first week. Older titles will sell for $9.99 US every day. New releases will go on sale at the same time as the DVD release, which is important if Apple and Disney hope to offer an alternative to DVD. So far Apple has stuck with it’s strategy of only selling content, staying away from the rental model that Amazon Unbox offers. This is a positive for Unbox, as it will likely allow Amazon to stay relevant by differentiating itself in the face of competition from iTunes’ 800lb gorilla.
Apple has also upped the resolution of all video downloads to 640×480 from 320×240, for a 4x increase in resolution. I haven’t been able to nail down exactly what Amazon’s Unbox video resolution is, they say it’s DVD quality, which should mean 720×480, but no one has any exact numbers yet, so the jury is out on whether they have a slight advantage or not. Regardless, the bump in resolution is a welcome improvement. Video now also features “Dolby Surround”, I can only assume that means Dolby Digital, but can’t say for sure. I just feel sorry for anyone who has purchased a lot of video content from the iTunes Store at the lower resolution. No mention was made if those customers will be allowed to download the higher-res version. I wouldn’t hold my breath though. Usage rights is the same as for TV shows and music, 5 computers and an unlimited number of iPods. Like Amazon’s offering, movie purchases cannot be burned to standard DVD video disks, although they can be streamed over a home network and played on a TV connected to any Mac via Mac OS X’s FrontRow interface and Apple remote. But…
…there’s just one last thing.
In usual Apple style, Jobs saved the most interesting announcement for last, although it came in the form of a sneak peak rather than a product announcement. Apple’s final link to the video playback puzzle, the box that will allow you to play your iTunes Store TV and movie purchases on your big screan TV, is a box code named “iTV” which is expected to launch in the first quarter of 2007. Resembling a half-height Mac mini, this box will connect to a TV via HDMI or component video, and has analog and digital optical audio outputs. A built-in power supply means no external transformer to clutter the space behind your home entertainment center. Connectivity comes in the form of ethernet, 802.11 wifi (they didn’t specify which flavor, I suspect this means it may be the upcoming N variety) and a USB 2 port, presumably for hooking up an iPod or maybe an optional optical drive.
The whole thing will operate using the now standard Apple 6-button remote using an on-screen interface similar to FrontRow, although slightly reworked. Steve Jobs demoed it, and it just worked and worked well. The only thing I think that is missing is an optical drive for playing back your content that you’ve backed up to DVD or CD media. The way the device was presented, it required everything to be on your computer. Unless Apple releases some kind of ‘XRaid Home’ media server, this is going to be a pain as it will require you to load the media you want to watch onto one of your Macs or PCs, unless they release a stackable DVD drive option for it that plugs into the USB 2 port. More advanced users will be better off with a Mac mini in their home theatre setup because of the wider support for formats and the ability to play DVDs and media stored on CD and DVD-R. But a lot can happen in 4-6 months, and it’s possible Apple might make changes based on feedback they get. They sort of tied their hands by pre-announcing the price, $299 US, making the iTV a more consumer friendly, lower priced alternative to a Mac mini.
Impressions, MIA
My overall impression of yesterday’s “It’s Showtime†event was that it was a strong update of it’s extremely successful iPod/iTunes business lines, which extends Apple into new territory: feature film and mobile games. The announcement was an even bigger deal from the standpoint of drawing a clearer picture of Apple’s strategy for the next year. If Apple’s midas touch can indeed be applied to these new markets, it’s not hard to imagine them becoming considerable revenue streams going forward, helping to cement Apple’s dominance in digital media even further. It appears the rumors of the decline of the iPod and iTunes store were greatly exaggerated. Apple now has an 88% market share of the legal US download market, up from 82% in May. Apple is the number 5 seller of ALL music in the US, moving up behind the likes of Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Target and Amazon. No small feat, given that Apple only sells digital media online whereas the other 4 resellers on the list still pawn physical CDs.
So what of the widescreen, touch screen iPod and Apple iPhone? Most reputable sources didn’t expect Apple to announce either at yesterday’s event, and the word on the street is we shouldn’t expect to see either until some time next year, if at all. I still have my doubts of whether a touch screen iPod will actually see the light of day, given the tendency of touch screens to attract scratches and fingerprints, but I’m not willing to rule it out completely. I think the iPhone would be a sure-fire hit. There are so many people who are dissatisfied with their cell phone experience, that would gladly ditch it for a mobile phone with the iPod’s industrial design and simplicity. Pressure in the mp3 player market from newer mobile phones with competing capacities to the lower-end iPods will most likely eventually force Apple to enter that space, but not before they are good and ready. The mobile phone market is a fiercely competitive and complex market. If Apple enters it, it will have to be from an aggressive position, not a defensive one, which means they have to make sure they’ve done their homework.
September 13th, 2006
Tom’s Hardware has posted detailed benchmarks and comparisons of the upcoming Intel Core 2 Quadro quad-core cpu vs. the Core 2 Duo/Extreme, Pentium Extreme Edition and AMD Athlon 64 FX. In addition to the benchmarks, they have some interesting observations about the state of the x86 CPU war between Intel and AMD.
While the unreleased Intel quad-core chip has a very promising showing in the application, media and math scores, it doesn’t appear to be the optimal choice for gamers, most likely due to the penchant for game developers to only optimize for a maximum of two cores. Regardless, the chip shows some very impressive performance scores which will no doubt only get better over time as applications and games get written to take advantage of more than two cores. One thing is for certain, Intel is hitting AMD back where it hurts and AMD is going to have to work hard to try and regain the performance crown since ceding it to Intel.
Tom’s Hardware thinks that Intel won’t be able to squeeze any more cores into the package using the current dual-core dies, and provides some insight on how Intel will progress from here:
It is thus safe to say that Intel has reached its limit with dual dies and four cores with 65-nm production. A slimmed-down version with 2 MB temporary storage each would make four chips feasible, but then the maximum power dissipation of over 200 W would no longer be economically justifiable. We are confident that the next step will be to get four processors on a single die with shared L2 cache.
But that is just the beginning. The conversion to 45-nanometer production technology is slated for mid-2007, and starting in 2009, thanks to EUV lithography, Intel plans to manufacture 32-nanometer devices, at which point - if everything works as envisioned - the company could have a two-year technology edge over most other chipmakers.
It’s good to see competition is alive and well in the microprocessor space. It’s amazing how much Intel has changed from a few short years ago when they were happy to focus on incremental increases in clock frequency to boost performance. Many recall the initial Pentium 4’s which were outperformed by the older Pentium III chips at the same clock speeds, and saw it as proof that Intel was losing it’s ability to innovate. With the shift to the Core architecture, Intel has proven that you can teach an old dog new tricks. The days of single digit performance improvements appear to be behind us:
For me, working with one of the first quad core systems was amazing. No matter how many applications you run at the same time, the system reacts to user commands quickly. Some applications require half the time to finish tasks. To me, it’s like being catapulted a year into the future and is unlike the past few years when computing power increased only marginally. Intel pumped out 30% more performance with Core 2 Duo and will double that again with Core 2 Quadro soon.
I have to say, I’ve been very impressed with the Intel Core Duo in my MacBook Pro. I don’t ever remember seeing such a noticeable performance boost when upgrading from one computer to another, mind you I kind of skipped a generation on the Mac side, having never owned a PowerPC G5 based machine since they never did build a PowerBook G5. But the fact that I am using a notebook makes the performance that much more impressive. If Tom’s Hardware is to be believed, it won’t be the last time I feel that way.
So where is AMD’s response to the Intel Core 2 Quadro? The article closes off with a sneak peak of AMD’s 4×4 platform as provided by AMD themselves, who were unable to provide any release details, but Tom’s Hardware expects them “…sooner than later.†Meanwhile, Intel is expected to throw down the Core 2 Quadro gauntlet around October of this year with a pricetag of $1,000 US for the top-end 2.66GHz part. With Apple choosing to go Xeon in the Mac Pro, and notebook-class Merom Core 2 Duo in the new iMac, it has yet to be seen what plans Apple has for the Core 2 Quadro, if at all. A quad-core headless iMac would be on many Mac geeks Christmas lists if it were to materialize. Maybe in the form of a cube?
September 11th, 2006
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