iPod

More to Mac sales than a halo

It's very easy to take a look at Apple's stellar fourth quarter and conclude that the long-awaited iPod "halo effect" is in full swing and move onto something more pressing, like handicapping the World Series.

For years as the iPod took over the digital music player market, we all wondered whether it was a one-hit wonder, whether Apple could translate that success into increased Mac market share. Millions of people who might not have used an Apple product since they spent the third grade playing Oregon Trail on an Apple II were re-introduced to Apple through … Read more

iPod growth slowing...unless you count the iPhone

Apple's earnings report today was stellar for the company and its shareholders--the 67% increase in profits over the year-ago quarter was particularly noteworthy. But I noticed that iPod sales came in short of some financial analysts' expectations. Looking back at recent Apple earnings calls on iLounge, I noticed that this was the case in Q2 and Q3 as well. (Apple's fiscal year begins Oct. 1, so this was Q4.)

More generally, iPod unit sales aren't growing as quickly as they used to. Here's year-to-year iPod unit growth for the last five quarters, again reported by iLounge: … Read more

The Last Inquiry Unicorn.

Rob Enderle opines: Changing of the guard: Sony waxes while Apple wanes

Wouldn't that be "Re-changing"? And wouldn't that also be a load of crap?

OK, Rob Enderle has been skewered to death (sadly, not literally) by many an Apple blogger, but sometimes it's nice to fall back on a classic. Something tried and true.

Sort of like returning to an old friend.

Just one that you hate vehemently.

Enderle, as is his wont, throws about 150 unrelated items up on the wall in the hopes enough of it will stick to form the pattern … Read more

Teenager claims to have easy iPod Touch jailbreak

A 13-year-old hacker claims to have developed code that would let you put third-party applications on an iPod Touch without having to take a computer science class.

AriX sent us a press release Sunday promoting iJailbreak, an automated program that allows third-party applications to run on the iPod Touch. It doesn't work for the iPhone, and it's only available for iPod Touch owners who are using Intel-based Macs. I don't have an iPod Touch at my disposal right now, so I'm unable to test whether it actually works, but some users on MacRumors.com reported that … Read more

High school students like iPods, sharing files

The latest version of financial analyst firm Piper Jaffray's biannual survey of high school students and technology states the obvious, but also contains some interesting tidbits.

Let's get the "duh" stats out of the way first. In case you were unaware, the survey confirms that Apple is a big player in the portable media player market. Eighty percent of students surveyed by Piper own a portable music player, and 82 percent of those own an iPod of some type. Of those planning to buy a music player in the next year, 78 percent plan to buy … Read more

The iPhone on the road, part 2: en route and in transit

So this month I will have traveled more than 20,000 miles via plane, train and boats to various destinations and various time zones. The iPhone has proven adept and adaptable - so long as you activate the international roaming and data plans - which you have to do in person or via AT&T's operators before you leave the country - as my friend Max found out the hard way.

Anyway, upon landing at each airport the iPhone will find the applicable AT&T network or AT&T compatible network - oftentimes in seconds. But … Read more

This day's Apple: Lawsuits, 'jailbreaks' and Nanos

From time to time, I'll post a brief summary of some interesting items I come across during the day that I don't have time to call out in more detail. If you see anything interesting out there, drop me a line at tom dot krazit at cnet dot com. Take that, you e-mail harvesters.

LEGAL DEPARTMENT: There's some news about a couple of items that will soon await new Apple General Counsel Daniel Cooperman. Information Week notes that the company has been sued over the iPhone--again--this time by a man claiming that Apple is breaking … Read more

I'm no Zune hater--really

Some people commenting on my most recent post have accused me of being a Microsoft-hater. That's ironic, given my job. (See my bio below.)

To be perfectly clear, I use a 30GB original Zune as my primary music player, after my fourth-generation iPod died about a year and a month out of warranty.

I think my Zune's onscreen interface is great. I love the way I can create on-the-fly playlists and switch to random shuffle from within any song (not possible on the fourth-generation iPod, fixed in the fifth-generation). And I prefer the way it natively plays all the WMA files on my computer. (I have a big library of vinyl ripped using Microsoft's now-discontinued Digital Media Plus Pack for Windows XP.)

But...the Zune client software is poor compared with iTunes.… Read more

Too little, too late for Zune in '07

The technology and music pundits wrote off Microsoft's Zune player immediately after it launched, and one reviewer predicted that it would be such a failure that Microsoft would quietly forget about it by the middle of 2007. I was willing to give Microsoft a little more credit, only because I don't think that the iPod and iTunes are perfect, and because I've seen how Microsoft comes from behind: it refines, improves, outspends and waits until the competition stumbles.

This evening, Microsoft unveiled version 2.0 of its Zune family, and this time, it's got a credible music player--for 2006. Unfortunately for Microsoft, it's 2007.

Updated! The iPhone's slick update lays the groundwork for physical media's demise

Finally, the iPhone's first major update!

My optimism for this 1.1.1 update was muted as, after a couple of months of waiting, I was excited for the ringtone feature that has ultimately proven lackluster. If my iPhone is in my pocket, I honestly cannot hear the ringtone portions of songs I've picked - even the jarring ones! The only reason I know I'm getting a call is because of the vibrate feature. So, with yesterday's major update, I was cautious. It should follow, however, that the speaker adjustments in the 1.1.1 update … Read more