New and Noteworthy: PMC not good; Killer Techs of 2004; Taking a bite of Apple; Canadian iTunes cheaper

Portable Media Center = bad In his WSJ Personal Technology column, Walter Mossberg comes to the conclusion that Portable Media Center units aren't ready for prime time: "There's a tendency in the technology industry to think that, just because a product can be built, it should be built, even if all the necessary pieces to make it a success aren't in place. Sometimes these premature products eventually become hits. Sometimes they just fail." He concludes that "Unless you're a techie or a hopeless gadget freak, stay away from the Portable Media Centers for now. If you want a portable video device, you're better off buying a portable DVD player. They can be bought for half the price or less, come with larger screens, and are able to draw from an almost unlimited selection of content." More.

Killer Techs of 2004 PC Magazine rounds up their top five "killer technologies" of the year -- Skype, LCD displays, 802.11g (AirPort Extreme), Google, and the Firefox browser -- and takes AOL to task for their bare-bones "Internet PC." More.

Taking a bite of Apple A Business Week article talk's with Rio about taking on Apple and the portable player market in general: "I think we see people starting to differentiate on a variety of characteristics, whether it's about branding, youthful market, or price. Companies are looking at music and audio to enhance their product offering" More.

Canadians get iTunes bargains CNET covers the lower prices offered by the Canadian version of the iTunes Music Store: "Apple Computer, which opened the virtual doors on the Canadian store late Wednesday, is selling songs for 99 Canadian cents, which translates to about 83 U.S. cents, 16 percent less than those in the United States pay for their iTunes. It's an even bigger bargain when compared with Apple's European store, where most tracks cost 99 euro cents, which these days translates to $1.31 U.S. and a whopping $1.56 Canadian. Those in Britain pay even more, 79 pence ($1.52, or $1.81 Canadian)." What's that all aboot? (Just kidding; enjoy the deals, Canadians.) More.

Previously on MacFixIt:

• Mac OS X 10.3.6 (#17): Energy Saver preferences not remembered; Yet another slow startup time fix
• AirPort WEP Key Slot Problems: Incompatibility with some Windows networks
• QuickTime Streaming Server RTSP stream incompatible with RealPlayer
• Odds and Ends: Plugging iPod into a different FireWire port can resolve mounting issues
• Utilities Updates: SoftRAID 3.1.1; Mozilla Thunderbird 1.0rc1; File Buddy 8.0.6; more
• New and Noteworthy: Apple launches iTunes Music Store in Canada; "Not enough bang for the bug" in Mac virus writing;

Resources