Neil Young was criticising the ipod and Apple for dumbing down audio quality according to an article on MacDailyNews.
Apple has taken a detour down the convenience highway,’ Young told the Brainstorm audience after taking the stage for an interview with Time Inc. editor-in-chief John Huey. ‘Quality has taken a complete backseat - if it even gets in the car at all
The dumbing down of music was taking place long before the ipod was ever released. Much of this dumbing down takes place because of what audio engineers considered to be hot music. This, of course, isn’t hot music, it is simply music where they have taken advantage of the dynamic range available on a CD. Yeah, that’s right, the way we listened to music before the MP3, AAC, Ogg, or insert you other 3 character codec here.
The Death of Dynamic Range is a page that is frequented by people who are hearing about this for the first time. Many don’t understand dynamic range and why it is important until they read this page. But let me give you some examples if you don’t have time to read through the whole thing yourself.
This is audio they way it was meant to be. Perfectly within the bounds of the dynamic range. This was in 1983.
This is audio the crap way. Notice how you cant see the difference between peaks and valleys. This was in 1999, before the ipod was released.
I think what I am trying to say is Neil Young needs to blame the recording industry, especially those who record specifically for radio play. They are the ones killing the quality of music. It wasn’t always this way, but over almost 20 years it was hard to hear this change happening unless you paid attention to it.
There has been quite the argument going on in the Mac community about Mr. Job’s health. I understand their concerns and was quite scared about this myself. Let’s be honest, a lot of us went through the horrible time in Apple’s life known as the Mid ’90s.
Critics have argued the rough point in that time frame for Apple was because of Microsoft’s outrageous success. I don’t know if I would call it a success, but it was definately outrageous. Most of this roughness as many of the Apple faithful know is due to Job’s absence. We don’t like to talk about those days, they were painful and embarassing, it was sort of like claiming that blimps were the future of travel just after the Hindenburg disaster, we all knew it was the wave of the future but we didn’t want to scare the kids.
Now that the issue of his health has been coming up again, many of us have worried about the future of Apple in a way not seen since he was fired from the very company he started. Several articles have come out asking if his health should be a private matter. Most argue they should not be private because he is such a crucial part of Apple’s success.
Don Reisinger of Cnet harped on this point quite well.
It makes sense for his health issues to be private, right?
Think again.
Steve Jobs’ health matters are more important to Apple shareholders than Steve Ballmer’s are to Microsoft shareholders and Larry Ellison’s are to Oracle shareholders. Unlike any other CEO in this business, Steve Jobs is the key to Apple success in the past, present, and future. And without him at the helm, its future is very much in doubt.
The Sydney Morning Herald had an interesting quote about what Job’s impact would be to the stock if he left.
“He is the driving force behind Apple,” said Michael Obuchowski, a portfolio manager at New York-based Altanes Investments, which began buying Apple shares in 2006.
“Without Steve, the stock could be easily cut in half or more.”
Jonathan Ratner with the National Post understands that the company is doing well despite the health talk.
Concerns about CEO Steve Jobs’ health and the company’s refusal to comment, along with conservative fiscal 2009 gross margin guidance from Apple Inc., have led to a pullback in the stock that Citigroup analyst Richard Gardner considers a buying opportunity.
He called Apple’s third quarter results “stellar,” with year-over-year growth of 41% in computer shipments and a nearly 80% gain for flat panel iMacs signalling no signs of demand deterioration.
The absolute best comes from The New York Times. John Markoff
People who are close to Mr. Jobs say that he had a surgical procedure this year to address a problem that was contributing to a loss of weight. These people declined to be identified because Mr. Jobs had not authorized them to speak about his health.
I only hope the reports from The New York Times are true. Hopefully by the time Macworld rolls around in January we will see a healthier, fatter, pudgier Steve Jobs. That’s what all of you want, isn’t it?
I am curious about this iPhone shortage going on right now. You see, Mr. Mac ordered his iPhone on Monday, July 14. Today is Wednesday, July 23, and he still hasn’t gotten his iPhone.
I have been reading a lot about the shortage and manufacturing capacities and skyrocketing demand, but it still does not make sense. I ordered an iPhone through direct fulfilment at the AT&T store (I don’t have an apple store in my city, let’s not talk about it, this is a sour point in my relationship with my town). I still see people on twitter going on about how people are waiting in lines at the apple store for iphones.
Why is my iPhone, which I have put money down on, still on backorder when there are people going to apple stores and waiting in line for one without money already being exchanged?
The word on the street (which is what the kids are calling the Internet now) is that Apple is manufacturing a shortage to keep demand high. They are giving Apple stores a much more limited number of phones which is causing hype that the iPhone is selling out at thousands of stores.
According to TechCruch, they have a first hand account of what some customers heard while waiting in line at an AT&T store to purchase the iPhone, only to realize the store had a limited supply.
The manager got up in front of everybody and asked who was here for an iPhone. He then went on to explain that the store was only able to take orders for iPhones that would be delivered to the store in the next 5-7 days. They would take our money and when the iPhones came in we would get a call to come in and pick them up. If they were not picked up in a week, they would be shipped back and the charges reversed. He also said — and this was the kicker – that he had more iPhones in stock but he could not start selling them until Saturday morning due to his contract with Apple! And those would be on a first come, first served basis
I don’t know how much I believe this story because I went back to my AT&T store the next two days to no avail. So here I am on day 9 with my iPhone still showing as backordered while there are people standing in line for iPhones that are available at places that where previously sold out.
Twitter proof of lines outside of apple stores, while paying customers are on backorder
I want to know if this is true Apple. Are you hurting Mr. Mac because he does not have an Apple store nearby, or are you hurting him because you hate AT&T? It doesn’t really matter, because you are hurting me, Monopoly Mac.