Mea Vita: Carpe Diem: iPod

Showing posts with label iPod. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Apple's Worst Product Design (and it's not really that bad). Due to Steve Jobs Attire?

Without a doubt, I believe that the mic on the earphones that ship with iOS devices is currently Apple's worst designed product.

When I worked at Apple, high praise was, "This doesn't suck too bad." And, that's true, for the most part, about the earphone mic.

However, this problem is not an issue of sound quality or intended functionality. I love how a single click on the middle of the mic can either answer or hangup a phone call - or how it will pause and resume music. Two clicks of it will skip to the next song. I also love how convenient it is to have the volume adjustment on the mic too.

But, what I can't stand is the mic's industrial design. Its poor functionality reminds me of the old hockey puck mouse that shipped, for so many years, with the original iMac.

The problem with the design of the mic on the earphone cord is that it has tiny, right angle, edges that are about a sixteenth of an inch. While this is a tiny lip, it's a huge pain when trying to use the earbuds while speaking on the phone and turning your head because it constantly gets caught on my shirt collars and pulls the ear buds out of my ears. Obviously that's a distraction we can do without while driving.

The solution to this problem is obvious: simply taper the edges of the mic. It seems like a simple fix.

I wonder if Steve Jobs is overlooking this problem since he always wears an uncollared mock turtleneck shirt?

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

iPod Growth Approaches 0%

Last month, AAPL was around $200/share. In today's aftermarket, it's around $137 due to today's earnings call.

Although the drop, over the past month, was precipitated by the slowing economy. Today's drop was due to the fact that the iPod's year-over-year growth is approaching 0%; it was not due to Apple's conservative guidance for the next quarter.

Now, don't get me wrong. Apple's revenues will continue to grow and they could even surpass Microsoft's revenues in the next couple years, but iPod growth, in terms of absolute numbers, can't continue forever.

Thursday, May 31, 2007

How to Legally Convert iTunes Plus Songs to Play on any MP3 Player.

Overview
Yesterday, Apple began selling some songs, from the EMI record label (Frank Sinatra, Pink Floyd, Paul McCartney, etc), in a new format, called iTunes Plus. Since the new format isn't copy protected it means you can now buy an iTunes Plus song from the iTunes Store and play it on any MP3 player. But, there's one extra, simple, step, you'll need to do to play it on a player other than an iPod; you have to convert the song to MP3 format. Luckily, this feature is already included in iTunes.

One Step Conversion
Simply select a song or a group of songs you want to convert and ctrl-click (right click) on the selection. From the menu, simply choose Convert Selection to MP3. iTunes will make a copy of the original song, in MP3 format, and add it to your iTunes music library.

Details
The "Plus" means several things:

1. No DRM (digital rights management a.k.a. copy protection). This means you can legally make as many copies as you want under the fair-use rules of copyright.

2. Higher quality encoding. Previously, songs purchased on iTunes were encoded at 128 kbps. iTunes Plus songs are recorded at twice that sampling rate (256 kbps).

3. Thirty cents (30¢) more per song. When the iTunes store first launched, 3 songs = 1 Mocha. Even with the higher priced, DRM free songs, that formula still holds true. Plus, you can still buy songs at 99¢, with DRM, if you'd like.

Quality Encoding
In the image, above, you'll see that the original iTunes Plus song was converted, twice, to MP3 (MPEG audio file). The 4.3 MB file is the MP3 with the iTunes encoding conversion rate set to High Quality (160 Kbps) and the 6.8 MB MP3 is an MP3 file with Custom (256 kbps) encoding.

AAC vs. MP3 at 256 Kbps
Personally, I've noticed that the AAC format sounds louder than the MP3 at 256 kbps. It's interesting to note that the MP3 file, recorded at 256 kbps, is smaller than the original AAC encoding format. You can change the default encoding when importing or converting songs through iTunes' Advanced preferences.

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Zune vs. iPod

I've read some pretty iPod defensive articles on the Zune and I've read some pro Zune articles.

It's easy to point your finger at the Zune and laugh - too easy since it's such a big target. Of course, we all laughed at Windows 1.0 in 1985, 18 months after the first Mac and two years after the Lisa (Lisa was the first commercial computer with a GUI). But, who was laughing when Windows 95 shipped?

Obviously, the key for Apple is to make today's iPod obsolete with tomorrow's iPod and to keep putting distance between the iPod and Zune while learning from the Zune's successes and failures.