November 30, 2006 at 9:18 am · Filed under Media Players
Zune brings a tall list of features into the ring against Apples iPod. From music sharing via wi-fi to a built in FM radio the Zune seems a stiff competitor. Unfortunately, the WiFi only connects their Zune to another Zune for downloading music.
Well, that still seems pretty cool but you can only listen to the shared song 3 times. To keep it you now need to purchase it. Sure, the artists need to make money but teasing us just doesn’t seem fair.
Why can’t I use WiFi to connect my Zune to my computer? I would imagine Microsoft will add this but at this point the Zune lacks this functionality. A no brainer for the next Zune!
That’s right, iPod and Google seem to be getting a bit friendly these days. I think Google knows how to pick a winner and this is proof of that.
According to Google’s VP of European Operations, Nikesh Arora, iPods increasing storage size will give the little device no limits when it comes to ramping up space capacity.
From the original source: “Arora said, by 2012, iPods could launch at similar prices to those on
sale now and yet be capable of holding a whole year’s worth of video
releases. Around 10 years down the line that could be expanded,
creating iPods that can hold all the music ever sold commercially.”
* Technorati is now tracking more than 57 Million blogs.
* Spam-, splog- and sping-fighting efforts at Technorati are paying dividends in terms of the reduction of garbage in our indexes, even if it does seem to impact overall growth rates.
* Today, the blogosphere is doubling in size approximately every 230 days.
* About 100,000 new weblogs were created each day, again down slightly quarter-over-quarter but probably due in part to spam fighting efforts.
* About 4% of new splogs get past Technorati’s filters, even if it is only for a few hours or days.
* There is a strong correlation between the aging and post frequency of blogs and their authority and Technorati ranking.
* The globalization of the blogosphere continues. Our data appears to show both English and Spanish languages are a more universal blog language than the other two most dominant language, Japanese and Chinese, which seem to be more regionally localized.
* Coincident with a rise in blog posts about escalating Middle East tensions throughout the summer and fall, Farsi has moved into the top 10 languages of the blogosphere, indicating that blogging continues to play a critical role in debates about the important issues of our times.
It’s kind of hard to imagine 100,000 new blogs being launched everyday. The blogosphere never ceases to amaze me.
This week has been a little odd for me with my web finds. I just can’t seem to shake these weird finds that keep coming up. First, there was the Girl Poop Pants story, and now bananas have their own suit cases.
I think a picture could probably sum up the new and improved Banana Guard.
My question is… does anyone else think this whole banana case thing looks a little…ummm…kinky?
Microsoft seems to have simply gotten in too much of a hurry to jump on the media player bandwagon with its new “iPod Killer”, the Zune. It’s almost as if they needed to release a Beta version to a few of us junkies so we could have at least tried to help them through this painful episode with a little less tears. That obviously didn’t happen.
Here we are a day or two after Zune went on the shelves and the AppleInsider is confirming that Zune isn’t even compatible with Windows Vista. That’s right, the big bad Zune won’t even work with Microsoft’s new OS that should start hitting machines shortly.
Talk about rushing out the door with shirt on backwards! I almost feel kind of sorry for the Zune folks. I mean… who would have thought it would be THIS bad? iPod, it’s your turn. Let’s see what you got!
Is this for real? Tonight I pulled up Technorati and found that one of the top ten searches was “Girl Poop Pants“. Because curiosity kills the cat I had to take a look. Be warned, it’s pretty foul, this is what I found.
How on earth did a page like that hit the Technorati top search list? Am I missing something?
That’s what you’ll be hearing from any store owner or bank manager in Japan should you decide to grab something that isn’t yours and make a run for it.
Recently we’ve watched a plethora of revenue sharing sites sprout throughout the great big www, but this is the first Digg like social networking site that I’ve seen that offers a 50-50 split on all Google Adsense with its users.
PlugIM first caught my attention when the administrator added a story from one of my blogs and I followed the link to the site. At first glance I figured I was looking at another Digg copycat script running a site that probably had no visitors, but after a few days and a decent amount of free bonus traffic coming from the PlugIM page I decided I should have a better look around.
Unlike Digg, these newer communities have an advantage for rookie bookmarkers like me. We can actually get in now and build ourselves a little group without fear of Digg trolls coming to beat us down because we aren’t a part of their crew.
Plus, you get to have your Adsense code floating around on someone else’s pages for a little simple participation in the community. I think this is probably the direction we’ll see the Internet shift in moving forward and I for one am very happy to see the social community embrace its user friendliness and unselfish practices.
I think most of us watching the whole iPod killer wannabe come out of the gate knew all too well what the DRM feature Zune shoves in our face was about. The DRM program in the Zune media player kills any file after its third play if it wasn’t purchased, regardless of where the file came from. What this means is that any indy band or individual looking to market their own music (in my case it is trance that I create and offer for free) will be dead in the water with this new “iPod Killer”. Personally, I knew what was behind the surface… money.
I kind of giggle every time I read something like this. There was a day when I was actually curious to see how well Zune would perform in its infancy, but that day has long passed. When the Software giant Microsoft can’t even find a base that doesn’t pack an iPod they just might want to re-think the whole “we killed your cool toy” marketing ploy.
With a highly successful opening debut in Japan, PlayStation 3 is now officially out of the gate and working on setting a pace which I’m quite certain will be hard to match.
The new gamer Nirvana, PlayStation 3, has a somewhat steep price tag at about $425.00 USD. Coming out later than expected, following the cheaper and already highly successful XBox 360, I have to wonder if Microsoft will finally enjoy a comfy edge in the console market.
