The Constable on September 30th, 2008
Tthe Norwegian Consumer Council. Consumer Ombudsman Bjørn Erik Thon is, after two years of requests and meetings, giving Apple until November to make FairPlay-protected content compatible with competing portable music players.
Read the article at ArsTechnica for more details.
The Constable on August 21st, 2008
From CNET: Three Mac rumors sites have received anonymous tips that Apple is getting ready to introduce a subscription iTunes service in September.
My two cents: Doesn’t this already exist as Napster? Don’t get me wrong, I love my Napster… but I fail to see how this is some sort of crazy news. If Apple were smart about things, they would have done this long ago. It’s not like it would force anyone to use it, but the option of buying OR renting (take your pick) is a lot nicer than the forced decision to buy only, as iTunes has always been set up.
You can call me crazy if you want, but the idea of purchasing music downloads has still never made much sense to me (well, it made more sense once they started offering DRM-free content). Still, buying files that are tied to your computer or a certain player or device has never been my thing. For this reason, I think iTunes might be able to finally get a higher percentage of their iPod customers using iTunes, rather than just ripping their own CDs (or ripping someone else’s or downloading from p2p).
