SeanTech

New iPod – I Could Cry!

My intention is not to make this an MP3 player blog, but I had to tell you about my first encounter with the new iPod, which just arrived at the San Francisco Apple store this afternoon. (So far, just 30GB, white models.)

Rarely is a product really as nice as the hype makes it out to be. This is one of those rare occasions. The 2.5-inch, 320-by-240-pixel display is one of the loveliest things I have ever seen – actually as pretty as in the pictures on Apple’s Web site. It was so beautiful, in fact, that I almost cried. (No kidding!)

Photos and a movie trailer that I viewed looked incredibly sharp, and the colors were amazingly rich. Trees appeared dark green, skies were deep blue. And in a photo of a red barn, the barn was actually red (not orange). I remember, not that long ago, when desktop LCD monitors didn't look this good.

And the viewing angle is superb – especially compared to the competition. While working on a story about digital music for the Times, I played with an Archos Gmini 402. Its 2.2-inch, 220-by-176-pixel LCD looks pretty nice if viewed from just the right angle, but appears murky in other cases. Like any LCD, the iPod's screen dims as you turn it away from you, but it remains bright enough to view comfortably at up to about a 30-degree angle in any direction – which is plenty enough for a handheld screen.

I WILL be buying one of these players, but I'm waiting for the black model. That's not only because I think it looks cooler, but also because a panel  with a black frame appears to have higher contrast - which gives photos and videos that "pop off the screen" effect.

The main selling features for me now are the greater hard drive capacity (allowing me to store MP3s ripped at higher bitrates) and the ability to display photos well. (The color screen on the previous iPod was rather lame.)

I'm not that interested in video yet, but I will feel differently in a few months. Like it or not, Apple has a way of making its wishes turn into reality. Critics have pooh-poohed video because content is scarce, but that will change. iPod owners make up a fanatical market that no smart businessperson can pass up. If Steve builds it, they will come. Video podcasts are already appearing. (I'm sorta getting into these skateboard movies.) And that's just the beginning.

iTunes 6 - What’s New

Please see the UPDATE to this article.

While Apple’s new iPod - announced on October 12 - is not yet available, iTunes 6.0 is already out. Unlike iTunes 5, which caused a host of minor and major problems for folks with PCs, iTunes 6.0 appears to be less dangerous. I've installed it successfully on two PCs running Windows XP – including one that had suffered badly from an iTunes 5 installation. But I am seeing some panicked posts on Apple’s support forum. So if all is well with your current installtion, I see keep it. But if iTunes 5 messed up your PC, you might as well give 6.0 a try. I don't think you have much (more) to lose.

Some good news for people who don't like digital rights management - protected AAC songs that have been "scrubbed" of Apple's FairPlay DRM with the free JHymn application still play in iTunes 6. That is, Apple either couldn't or chose not to make any changes that would prevent iTunes from playing the files. No word yet on whether or not songs purchased from Rhapsody and converted to FairPlay will work on the new iPod. Matt Graves at Rhapsody says they won't know until they get an iPod and try it out - probably sometime next week.

ITunes 6 also gives you the ability to "give" a song to a friend. You can select any track on the iTunes Music Store and purchase it on behalf of someone (who gets a message with instructions on how to download it). Kinda cool. But as we know, there are easier ways to give a song to a friend: both the not-so-legal way of sending them an MP3 and the method I like – encouraging them to sign up for a streaming music service (Rhapsody, Yahoo, or Napster) and letting them listen to whatever they want, including your suggestions.

And then there's video.

I downloaded an episode of Desperate Housewives and found it pretty good (the video quality, that is). I recommend configuring iTunes to open the video up in a separate QuickTime window so you can view it at a decent size onscreen. (Edit>>Preferences>>Playback. Check "Play videos" and select "in a separate window.") But don't get too carried away with the window size. The resolution isn't high enough for full-screen play.

Even if you don't think you have bought any videos yet, you may have. An album download of the White Stripes' Get Behind Me Satan that I bought a little while ago included a video for the song "White Orchid." (Good that it came for free, because I sure wouldn't have paid for it.)

Frankly, the selection of videos isn't too great now: Some music videos, if you're into that, and a few episodes of a few TV shows.

I'm betting on the non-Apple market to provide the real content. I don't think I'm going out on a limb by predicting a video podcast boom. My guess is that short-subject films will do a lot better on handhelds than 45-minute TV episodes. In addition to future podcasts, there is a wealth of great video (lots of it short subject) online already - from sources like Akimbo, Brigthcove, DaveTV, and (especially) iFilm. I've asked all those companies about iPod/iTunes compatibility. No definitive word yet, but some interesting hints.

Josh Goldman, CEO of Akimbo says:

As of now, our video is delivered in WM9 format, however our system was designed to be able to send video in any format depending on the characteristics of the device.

Jeremy Allaire, CEO of Brightcove, says:

We think this is very positive, I can't comment on any specific relationship with Apple.

Brightcove's service is format agnostic for downloads, so you can expect to see us supporting MPEG-4 that is Apple compatible.

Oliver Eberle, CIO of DaveTV, says:

We haven't approached Apple about content yet, btw. Most of our content is in wmv format and would need to be converted.

ITunes supports Apple's QuickTime and the nonproprietary MPEG-4 formats. Not surprisingly, it does not support Real Video or Microsoft's Windows Media Video format.

No word yet from iFilm, but they already offer videos in all three main formats: QuickTime, Real Video, and Windows Media Video.

Hmmm…We'll see what happens. But I'm sure a lot more is coming…

The Music Plan

I’ve been writing a lot more about audio than I ever thought I would – including a story in this week’s Times about MP3 players. In the process, I’ve put a lot of thought into how we listen to music in this crazy digital world of ours, and I’d like to share a few tips.

First, there is no grand, unified system for digital music – at least not yet. No one format has it all. Here's the breakdown:

• MP3 (or AAC or WMA) is easy to get onto a portable player, and buying music online (sometimes) means you only have to pay for the tracks you like. But the sound quality is so-so. And of course, there’s the whole Apple-vs.-the-rest-of-the-world issue. If you buy music from the iTunes store, you’re stuck buying iPods for the rest of your life.

• CDs sound much better, and you can rip them to MP3, but they are often a rip-off. CD prices are high – especially if you like only a few songs on an album.

• And the real audiophiles say that even CDs don’t cut it. They either listen to vinyl (which has plenty of problems we all know about) or they invest in “high definition” recordings: Super Audio CD or DVD-Audio. Of course, they have their own problems. You need a “universal” player that handles both formats, and there just aren’t that many titles available (a problem I reported on in the Times a few months ago).

But given this imperfect world, I think I’ve found a strategy that works pretty well. (Other suggestions welcome! That’s why blogs have a comment function.)

1) For portable music, stick with MP3s.
I have to confess to really liking iPods. I have tried some other players, and I have spoken with people who have tried a lot of other players. And the consensus is that the iPod and iTunes are as good as it gets. But it might get better in the future, and “IT” might not be a product from Apple. So I am reluctant to spend a lot of money on downloads from the iTunes store – downloads that will only play on iPods. And given my current affection for iPods, I’m even less inclined to go with the Microsoft WMA music format. That’s why I like MP3s. They play on everything. So, how to get them?

• eMusic is one of those rare companies that I wax sentimental about. It sells downloads in the good ol’ MP3 format (192 kbps, variable bit rate) at a subscription rate of $10 for 40 downloads a month. None of the big labels participate, but eMusic is hardly small. It has “750,000 tracks from more than 70,000 titles from more than 3700 record labels,” so the CEO told me. Lots of great indie music here: New Pornographers, Sufjan Stevens, Devendra Banhart, Interpol, plus early stuff from now big-time artists like Green Day and Coldplay. They also have great vintage stuff – like tons of Ray Charles and Johnny Cash.

• Bleep.com also has MP3s – nowhere near as big a collection, and the prices per track are higher, but now and then you might find a bargain. I picked up the Franz Ferdinand eponymous album for $9.99.

• Then there’s iTunes. What, iTunes? For MP3s? Well yeah, if you combine it with a program called JHymn that cracks the copy protection and can convert Apple’s AAC format to MP3. Is this legal? Probably not. Is it ethical? Depends on how you use it. If it’s just to listen to your own music, which you paid for, then it’s no different than buying legal MP3 downloads from eMusic.

• Finally, there’s theft. We all know the places to get pirated music. I personally don’t go for this. I do think the music industry is a cartel that holds prices artificially high. But I don’t think that entitles me to steal. I’m from the old school that believes civil disobedience is for important things, like stopping a war.

2. For compact discs, buy cheap
If you’re a real audiophile, you wouldn’t even consider online music. Your minimum is a CD. I’m not there yet. I mostly buy CDs for artists I can’t get on eMusic. Now we all know CDs are pricey, but there are a few places to get them cheaper than usual:

• halfoff.com – (part of eBay) spotty selection, but low prices

• eBay – you may have to wait a week or two after an album comes out to get a really good price

• gemm.com – for rare, out of print CDs, and vinyl!

• squidco.com – “sells avant-garde unusual, experimental, improvisational music CDs, magazines and books. Free shipping for all US orders.”

• aquariusrecords.org - indie, electronic, and import

• theendrecords.com - metal

• willowtip.com - metal

(Thanks Sean Cooper, Jay Hedblade, Polina Grinbaum, Stephanie Weaver, Stephanie Provines, and Andrew Peters for the great tips!)

3. For hi-def audio, stay flexible
There is a lot of contention on this issue. Some music lovers say stereo is just fine; others say 5.1 surround is nirvana. But it’s indisputable that SACD and DVD-A contain more audio data than CDs and thus have the potential to sound better, with the right equipment. It’s also very likely that high-def audio will go the way of Betamax – a great technology that nobody (or not enough bodies) cared about. Unless you’re a real sound fanatic, it’s probably not a good idea to get stuck with a pile of expensive discs that only play in your cool home theater and that have onerous copy controls that prevent you from easily ripping then to MP3. The one glimmer of hope is DualDisc – a two-sided disc format that, in many cases has DVD-A on one side, and good old CD on the other. So you can use it like a regular CD, but also get the high-def experience when the setting is right. Here are some sites to check out:

• highfidelityreview.com – for nearly every bit of news and background on high-def audio

• dualdisc.com – for the latest on this new format and the available offerings

• cduniverse.com – reasonable prices on high-def discs (also sells CDs, DVD movies, and games).

4. For any music, try before you buy
I have discovered so much music, at little cost, through streaming services. I personally like Rhapsody ($10 per month), but I must admit that Yahoo Music is quite a deal ($5 per month). They each have about a million songs that you can listen to, as much as you want, as long as you continue to subscribe. So now, if people tell me about some new artists they like, I just type in the name and give it a listen. Sometimes, that’s enough for me. If not, I go out and buy a copy.

Hope all this helps. Rock on!