The alternative is Microsoft's way - proprietary formats on closed systems. I don't see that as better, personally. Look at the 360 - ugly, noisy, unreliable and closed. They have even managed to make USB chargers and SATA hard drives proprietary.

Why the MS versus Apple comments - and another laughable Xbox bashing at any given opportunity? Its getting a bit tired. How is your opinion that an Xbox is ugly, noisy and unreliable even remotely on topic?

I wasnt exclaiming Microsoft or anyone else for that matter to be better or worse than Apple. I was making a comment about formats that wont play specifically on an Apple device.

Fanboy comments 101

The Xbox is relevant here because it is a device sold by one of Apple's nearest competitors - thankfully they haven't tried selling the Kin or the Zune here so to use those as an example would be a bit pointless. However, to criticise Apple for something that every other rival does is no better than my Xbox-bashing comments.

Whether it is a file format, a connector or an add-on, they're all as guilty as each other for trying to lock out competition - MS and Sony with their file formats, MS with their stupid controller and hard drive connectors and Apple for itunes and for insisting that the file format used on their devices is an open standard.

The Zune is supposed to be a much better music experience than the iPod Touch - although it doesn't have much in the way of Apps for it, but it is a music player first and foremost.

The Kin is a feature 'phone aimed at teenagers, who are given a 'phone by their parents. No Apps, just built in social media aggregation. It is aimed at a totally different market to smartphones, like Windows Mobile, iPhone, Android etc.

I'm not sure I understand. The 'music experience' is defined by the music. That's not going to change regardless of what make of player it's on. The interfaces may be different but that's rather peripheral compared to whether you like the music or not surely?


Apparently, the didn't check whether the market actually existed first... Besides, I find the whole 'teenagers, they don't need a proper phone, all they're interested in is FaceBook' to be astonishingly patronising.

The commentators I've heard in America say that the Zune's user interface is actually better than the iPod app on the iPhone and iPod Touch - and that was from an Android user, not a Windows fanboy!


It was a sort-of replacement for their Danger platform, so there was, theoretically a market for it. I think it is more down to the carriers pricing of the contracts, which, unlike its predecessor, are almost identical to smartphone pricing. The previous Danger platform was much cheaper than a smartphone, but allowed chatting etc. so was a good platform for parents to get their kids something a bit more than a basic 'phone, but less than a smartphone, with its higher monthly tariff costs and potential for additional costs with apps etc. getting downloaded.

With the tariff pricing being almost identical to Android and iPhone tariffs, people are going straight from normal phones to smartphones, missing out this section...

BTW, Paul Thurott had a shock this week, his kids have iPod Touches and on the 2nd day of their summer vacation, they cost him nearly $1,000 on the Apple iTunes Store!

They downloaded free app Tap Fish and then proceeded to fill out the aquarium with fish... The problem? They didn't realise that the fish cost between $100 and $200 for each bundle! (prices for fish seem to start at 79c, but they were buying the bigger bundles...

How can a game aimed squarely at kids have such ludicrous in-game pricing? And how did they manage to charge the iTunes account, without having the password? (The kids claimed they didn't know the password)

Which doesn't surprise me either...
Many (not all, but many) Linux users seem to prefer the idea of cuddling up with MS than they do Apple. As far as I can tell, Apple are that company that make a crippled Linux-like OS and why would anyone want that? MS is the company that makes the most widely distributed desktop OS and it can be used besides Linux, so where as they really don't want to, many of them will use it.
This may not be the same now, but it certainly was two or three years ago.

As to the whole media playback stuff. I don't see how this is Apple's 'fault', they have stated what they do play, and DivX isn't on the list, so live with it. People live with not being able to play various media types on other OS's by default. If one wanted a portable device that plays those media types perhaps a netbook would have been the better option...Though hindsight is a wonderful thing

On a side note, it is a shame that there isn't one universal media type out there. I wonder if any of the HTML5 video stuff will begin to introduce this standard?

I don't understand that, but then I'm more of an open source and open standards fan than a linux fan. Some of the more exciting developments in Snow Leopard have found their way into FreeBSD 8.1, thanks to Apple releasing the source code. Just because the GPL is incompatible with the more exciting software developments - ZFS, Grand Central Dispatch etc I don't see that as a good enough reason to cosy up to a company that has actively tried to destroy open source development.

Well, he does a podcast called Mac Break Weekly... As well as FLOSS Weekly and Windows Weekly... He is a huge Apple fan, but currently uses a Nexus 1 and prefers the Zune music player interface to the iPod app...

Most Linux users have more hatred for Microsoft than Apple... That said, I use all 3 and don't have any real bias.

Tat makes me happier then. He seems unbiased.



True, and perhaps the case today is more that Linux people are more appreciative of other OS's.



I think my perception may be a little out of date, it's been a while since I hung around with Linux geeks...
My view was always that Linux and Windows people have the same thing in common, both think "What is the point of Apple and Mac?", Windows people can probably live without Linux, but many Linux people live with Windows (though as Dave said, this is probably due to them not hating Windows but hating MS).

I think Apple's contributions to the Open Source community are great. Aren't they one of the core developers of CUPS? OK, some more hardcore UNIXs still use lp, but CUPS is used by many systems. Apple could have kept things like GCD and the C blocks to themselves, but they have used open source development tools for a long time and have a reputation for giving back to the community.
I completely agree with the GPL comment though. I think it's a great shame that much of the open source community are hooked on it.

Sorry, turned this into OS, open source, and licensing chatter...

Absolutely. Apple have this whole page of open sourcery here yet MS has barely anything on theirs - clicky.

Apple may keep a lot to themselves, but they pump a lot of good back into the 'nix world.

For MS open source projects you might want to go to there project list page not the highlight page. Looks like they do a bit.

I use AirVideo on the Mac Mini and it live converts non native video on the fly and streams to the iPad.

Hmm, this little snippet interested me and I though I would see what my fav. CEO has 'blathered" on the subject.

I can't find much. There was that open letter about the use of Flash on the iPad and how he thought the "open" standard (HTML5) would be more suitable and bemoaning that Flash was not coded well to run on Macs (which in my experience is dead right).

Then there was a keynote where he said that the iPhone will support just two standards for it's applications. The App. store for those that wanted a curated system and HTML5 for those that wanted to take the web app route.

Has there been any other blather?

As far as I can see he has said very little on the subject. What he has said seems to be all about HTML5

I think that VLC is coming for the iPad so that will do it.