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Microsoft’s Zune chief is leaving the company
What a coincidence, so is the Zune.
Starz: We Need To Kiss Cable Company Ass
Netflix offered Starz more than $300 million per year to renew their agreement…
Starz wanted Netflix to charge a premium price for its content in order to put the popular online video service more in line with cable and satellite providers. Protecting relationships with multiplatform video programming distributors (MVPDs) like DirecTV and Time Warner Cable is critical to Starz.
Even though the $300M offered was 10 times what Starz received yearly from the previous contract, they walked away because Netflix (rightly) held firm to no tiered pricing.
Why does Starz care what Netflix charges? Simple. The cable companies charge premium fees for Starz content, and were not happy to see that content on Netflix with no premium. Starz opted to "protect relationships" with the cable companies rather than let Netflix customers see their content.
I'd love for this decision to backfire on Starz. It would help loosen the cable companies' grip on alternate sources of content.
Music loss-leaders in digital don't work like CDs.
If you were one of the biggest sellers of CDs in America and saw the digital revolution coming, would you go into the online music business? Of course you would. And Walmart did. But now it’s closing its MP3 store
For years Walmart used low CD prices to bring foot traffic to their stores, but it doesn't work so well in the digital world.
HP's TouchPad media player, HP Play, is in beta
Based on the open source Songbird software, it has more than a passing resemblance to iTunes. Still, why not use a successful layout, and I like the look.
The article's headline is way too ambitious, though. "Who Needs iTunes?" Well, anyone who wants a store, or movies, or TV shows, or AirPlay, or books, or apps, or Genius…
Video of Green Day on the iPad: Everything worthwhile has already been invented
for a guy like Steve Jobs, when is enough, enough.
They sum up at the end by saying "In short, the iPad is stupid".
I don't care if they like the device, and their concerns on what Apple has "done" to the music industry are shared by many "old style" artists (i.e., those that started when physical media still ruled). I disagree, and think things would be much worse had Apple and others not provided a legal alternative for what was going to happen anyway, but I respect their opinion on it.
I also disagree that people are buying an iPad to figure out WTF it is. On the contrary, I believe people are buying an iPad because, once they actually use one, it's immediately obvious what it is.
What I most take exception to is the "when is enough, enough" question. To me, there's a massive shortsightedness in your views on technology when the crux of your argument is that somehow we've gone far enough with it, and apparently we can just stop now. Do these guys feel the same way about music?
Paul Thurrott: Pot, Meet Kettle
I'm glad to see that my initial reactions to this thing were accurate. Anyone who believes this thing is a game changer is a tool. I'm sorry, but that's just the way it is... That so few early reviews called this out says a lot about those reviewers.
It's laughable for Thurrott to call out other reviewers -- many of which he refers to as "Friends of Apple", as if he's not Microsoft's BFF -- for their reviews.
The only serious doubters at this stage are the idealogical ones, and Thurrott isn't even railing against that:
- He wants four (4!) speakers in the thing so it's always stereo no matter how you turn it? You're not getting stereo with speakers just a few inches apart. Any real music lover could tell you that.
- He clings to widescreen as if bestowing computers with such screens was ever more than a cost-saving measure. A 16:9 screen is worse for every task you do except watching video.
- And then there's his usual criticism that it's an Apple product, so people want it only because of Apple's super hypnotic powers. Or something. Seriously, Thurrott wanders into tin foil hat territory sometimes.
His silly notes, which will form the basis of an equally silly review, culminate in the quote above. It's astonishing that Mr. Pot, the Microsoft über shill, would feel he's in any position to call out any other reviewer on anything.
Who Needs April Fools' Day When You've Got The Onion?
You could even listen halfheartedly as your lead designer attempts to explain MP3s to you in 1998 and then immediately fire him for losing sight of the project goal. At $29.99, this thing's a bargain. No? Fine. $9.99.
Riot.
