OT ipods

And the fact that your machine is virus-free (without additional software or intervention), has a long battery life, is robust (iBooks are considerably better made thant the cheap laptops I've poked at in PC World)...

Remember how much Sony wanted for the proper, magnesium Vaios. And they didn't even have 6-pin firewire ports ;)

Richard

WHAT DRM?!

iTunes ONLY applies DRM to music bought via iTMS. That's it. Your MP3s ripped yourself are completely free from DRM, and at least on Macs, we can still rip CDs with that crappy protection software on.

Richard

As is mine.

As is mine.

As is mine (it's a Thinkpad X31 btw).

Don't get all techie with me! ;)

Yes, that's the one.

As can I.

By the way, are you sure it's not phoning home? ;)

So don't buy music from iTMS. Or use a DRM remover if you care that much.

Yes. I have the music store browser closed. However, I don't care if it does; I own my music, and frankly, they have no way of knowing that an MP3 on my computer is ripped from a CD I own, or downloaded. If it is phoning home, it might be telling iTMS that I like Atom & His Package, or Cocteau Twins, or DeathBoy, and providing valuable marketing information which ensures they offer obscure tracks I would like to buy in future and might not be able to find on CD/Vinyl.

Richard

I was serious with the Starbucks comment :D If I get the 9 cell optional battery I can see 8+ hours out of mine on battery! As it is, I have to deal with a mere 5 :-) I dunno about robust, several people I know with a Mac laptop (there is a LOT of them here, Media students are covering the place like a disease) say the screen catch broke so they couldn't put them into sleep mode (although to be fair we're talking 3 people, all fixed under guarantee). That breathing thing the light does when they're suspended is well cool. But then, I had a Medion Toys R Us special, and it's still going strong over 3 years down the line, and its a 2.8 P4, not even a mobile chip!

It came out of the box with Linux on, did it?

4.5 hours? WITH the combo drive/stereo speakers attached? (The iBook has the speakers built in, and the optical drive. I hate laptops with 'optional' optical drives; especially when the list price for said drive was $299 for a Combo drive). And the price... without the Combo drive/dock, it was $2,369! To have the internal combo drive and stereo speakers, you had to add $498 of options. So - $2,866 for the Lenovo/IBM, or $1,999 for the iBook which had everything in one package, faster WiFi...

Of course, people chose the iBook because of the looks/brand. It has nothing to do with it being cheaper, or more suited to the Starbucks-demographic usage (the Thinkpad has Gigabit Ethernet which the iBook lacks, and PC-Card/CF slots, which mean spending a few quid on an external reader - wanting PC-cards for interfacing means a 15" PowerBook, which IIRC was $2,899 but had a DVD-RW drive and metal case as well as chassis).

Hinge design looks worse than the iBook/Powerbook design, at 1.25" (without optical drive) vs. 1.2" thickness with an optical drive, and over 5lbs weight and 3"+ thickness with the dock (and therefore optical drive...

But then, how can you possibly judge whether or not a product is worthy of being damned as "style over substance" without understanding the technology.

I buy the best product for the task (in fact, I often don't have to buy it; I review kit as part of my job). I like Apple for a good reason, not because I'm blinded by the branding. I'm more than happy for people to dislike Apple for a good reason, but misinformation and lack of understanding of the product is another matter entirely.

Richard

I can get 20 hours out of my iPaq HX4700 with optional battery, and do most of the writing I do on a laptop with it, poking interweb, that sort of thing...

The screen catch thing - I can only suggest that they're probably a bit special. I've never broken the catch on a laptop yet, be it my 1987 Tosh

1200, or my PowerBook. It's simple enough to operate. Some iBooks had a build quality issue (warranty was extended to cover it) where the logic boards would fail causing apparent failure to wake from sleep, so I wouldn't be surprised if people with older G3 iBooks had had that problem.

Richard

And yet you failed.

How do you know what it is sending?

Precisely. You've bought it and you can't even choose what you do with it. You can only do what they'll allow you to.

Which includes burning to a conventional audio CD. Unprotected. Or listening to it on your iPod.

And I reiterate - iTunes is NOT iTunes Music Store. They are different things. iTunes Music Store is optional. You need never buy a track from there, ever; you can even download the free material without an Apple ID/account.

If you can find me a legal buy to own model covering the range of artists that Apple do which delivers the music in a tolerably high quality without DRM, I'll be very surprised.

Richard

That's the point of copyright material, you don't have the right to do with it as you please. When you rip a CD to MP3 you are infringing copyright. The fact you cam get away with it is not the same as having the right to do it.

Wikipedia is a useful source of information but it's a collaboration of unverified amateurs, not an authoritative text. For example your link above links to a page that starts "This article is about Free Software as defined by the sociopolitical Free Software movement;" - indicating it is a biased article.

maybe you should look at the website - the button says it all. Halfway down on the left, black text on a grey rounded corner rectangular button.

It was designed with people who are focussed on and motivated by the products overall success, not a group of people modifying it for their own ends and means.

Yes. And Yes.

Erm, but you pay for that robustness. I never recommend cheap laptops - I use Tecras for myself, and recommend those, and Panasonic Toughbooks, to my clients.

That seems to bother you - are you involved in illegal activity?

cheaper too.

If you are ripping it in order to listen to it yourself it's considered fair use.

I'll take your response to mean no. You can't be sure, can you?

Another great selective snip. Again, you have remarkable faith in the ethics of large corporations.