I’ve made up my mind to never install Vista at home. As soon as my current desktop becomes obsolete I’m buying the phattest MacBook Pro available and going full-time OS X.

With every Microsoft OS for the past 15-years I’ve followed the same pattern:

1) I don’t want to install it.
2) I do it anyway.
3) I hate it.
4) I grow used to it.
5) New version, go to #1.

Time to break the cycle. Vista is such a clusterfuck there’s no way I can let myself become acclimated with mediocrity once again. I am not saying OS X is godsend or anything, it’s just a great alternative to Vista. Windows just not where I want to be anymore.

With the iPhone launch and all, I find this to be appropriate:

The BrownFury writes

“At an invitation only event Apple has released their new MP3 player called the iPod. iPod is the size of a deck of cards. 2.4″ wide by 4″ tall by .78″ thick 6.5 ounces. 5 GB HDD, 10 hr battery life, charged via FireWire. Works as a firewire drive as well. Works in conjunctions with iTunes 2. Here are Live updates”.

No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame.

Link

EMI is reportedly announcing plans today for dropping DRM on a large percentage of their online catalog.

From the WSJ:

In a major break with the music industry’s longstanding antipiracy strategy, EMI Group PLC is set to announce today that it plans to sell significant amounts of its catalog without anticopying software, according to people familiar with the matter.

My gut reaction was that this is an April Fools joke, but it’s a day too late for that. I can’t wait to see how it pans out.

UPDATE: The official press release is out. The end of DRM (at least for music) is neigh. GG Steve J.

I have no luck with these things.

This is the fourth iPod I’ve lost:

1. Second Gen iPod, 10GB. Battery died, replaced it and a week later the HDD crashed.
2. Third Gen iPod, 10GB. HDD crashed.
3. Second Gen iPod Mini: Battery died, replaced it and a month later the HDD crashed.
4. First Gen iPod Shuffle (above). Dropped numerous times. Ultimately just cracked into pieces.

I’ve had seven iPods total. Wasn’t I just talking about the quality of consumer electronics these days?

Someone talk me out of getting a 8GB Black Nano. Please.

Paul Thurrott on Apple TV:

For these reasons, Apple TV is recommended only for those people who have drunk the Apple Kool-Aid and decided they really like the taste and can afford the upscale lifestyle. General fans of digital media or those who are interested in accessing PC-based media from their TVs should know that there are better solutions out there.

That’s fine and all, but he also says:

For the same price, you could get an Xbox 360 and use that device to stream media from any XP or Vista-based PC, access live and recorded TV, various online music, movie, and photo services via its Media Center Extender functionality and a Media Center PC, or download rented and purchased TV shows and movies, many in high definition (unlike iTunes, which only offers standard definition video).

The Xbox 360 “tard pack” is $299, the same price as Apple TV. This does not include a hard drive, or high-definition cables (the box includes “low-def” composite cables, not component) so his point that Apple does not include cables is moot.

The $399 unit (that’s $100 more than Apple TV) comes with a hard drive (a whopping 20GB, with ~8GB free when you take it out of the box thanks to the system software), half the size of Apple’s. It also lacks HDMI output, so all content suffers from an unnecessary digital to analog conversion.

There’s also no internal wireless connection on the 360 (that’s $99 more), bringing the overall price to $100 - $200 over the price of the Apple TV.

But in all fairness, the Xbox 360 does do more:

It also plays DVD movies, and, heck, it can play high-definition video games too. Yes, the thing sounds like a wind tunnel, especially when its playing games, but it’s far more versatile and powerful device than the Apple TV. And it costs exactly the same price.

However, Paul fails to mention that the Xbox 360 has worse DVD playback quality than most $99 stand-alone units. Besides, can you really enjoy a film with the box screeching like a F16 the entire time?

As for games, not everyone looking for a media center device is in the market for a hardcore gaming console. Rewind back to 1977, it would be like buying an 8-track player with a pinball machine grafted onto it. Convergence, bleh.

Not to worry, BOHICA, Microsoft will soon roll out a $480 Xbox with a 120GB HDD and HDMI. If you add the external HD-DVD drive ($200) that’s quite an expensive (not to mention unsightly) media center device.

When you add it all up, if a high-end game machine *slash* media center device is what you’re after, you’re better off getting a Playstation 3. You get a Blu-Ray player, internal HDD, internal Wi-Fi, HDMI, and high definition gaming for $599, almost $200 less than the Microsoft solution. All in one nice, quiet package.

So, basically, I’d recommend Apple TV on the low-end, the PS3 on the high end.

It seems I spoke too soon in saying Apple TV does not support alternate codecs. Perian is an OSS component wrapper for Quicktime which supports a boatloat of formats, Xvid and DivX included.

Consider it a done deal, I’m sold. I looks like the little white box has a very bright future indeed.

I’m sad to see that Apple TV does not support Xvid or Divx. As much as I want one, I’m not going to pay $299 for a box that plays only State approved content. The same goes for the Xbox 360’s Media Center Extender functionality. Unnecessarily gimped.

I don’t see how offering alternative codecs hurts the bottom line, unless you’re from the camp that believes all Xvid content is pirated. If that’s the case, I guess all MP3 content is pirated as well, right?

Update: Somebody has already gotten Xvid to work, though it’s not a pretty solution.

The third alternative is to abolish DRMs entirely. Imagine a world where every online store sells DRM-free music encoded in open licensable formats. In such a world, any player can play music purchased from any store, and any store can sell music which is playable on all players. This is clearly the best alternative for consumers, and Apple would embrace it in a heartbeat. If the big four music companies would license Apple their music without the requirement that it be protected with a DRM, we would switch to selling only DRM-free music on our iTunes store. Every iPod ever made will play this DRM-free music. — Steve Jobs

Link

Watch Intel VP Don McDonald own himself attempting to out-simplify Apple’s Front Row remote.

I think I reached a point where I could care less about Apple’s we’re-so-secretive announcements. Where as I flipped over the iPod Nano last year, today’s product unveilings did absolutely nothing for me.

PS: Fuck iPod Hi-Fi I want one of these.