iPod and iTunes news

Ars technica offers a tutorial on getting videos into your iPod.

Time magazine has a funny look on how the video-enabled iPod will help the obese children of America.

A PC magazine article reviews the top digital music players in the market. It's no surprise that Apple keeps coming out on top. So the article goes into the exciting race for second place. The review covers the best in the flash-based and harddrive-based players, who gives the best sound, and even the ones least likely to be recommended. Apple's Achilles heel, according to the article, is that about 9% of iPod owners had to return their units within 12 months of purchasing the unit.

Stephen Wildstrom says that it was love at first sight for the 5G iPod, and asks what makes Apple stay competitive in the digital media market. His answer: Apple's single overarching concern for delivering a great user experience. There has been other media devices that offered video playback but it's the pain of getting content into the device that prevented these devices from becoming widely accepted. Unlike when the first iPods came out, users of the 5G iPod didn't have to wait for quite some time before content became available. The 5G iPod came out together with offerings from Disney and ABC on iTMS, as well as the video podcasts that were already available even before the video-enabled iPod came out. User-friendliness and the focus on consumers makes Apple stay on top of its competitors.

TV Critic says that the latest iPod have the broadcast industry panicking over the thought that people will stop watching television. The TV Critic feels that convenience and portability aare enough to lure people away from their 30 plus inch TV screen and to the 2.5 inch screen of the 5G iPod. I don't think these broadcast bigwigs are even thinking of panicking. There are not that many who are interested in getting an iPod so just they can watch their favorite TV programs on-the-go.

So there's no need to panic, especially since Paul Thurrott likes the 5G iPod! It's true, he really likes it. He is impressed with two things: how good the video formats are the iPod uses and the show "Lost". In his on words:

I'm suddenly hooked on the TV show "Lost." I purchased the show's premiere episode via iTunes to test the iPod, and now my wife and I are several episodes in and there's no turning back.

Scratches and scandals

Consumer Reports, after claiming 20% of Mac users have had virus in their systems, now says that the new iPods are indeed scratch-prone, and further claims that the screens are softer.

Here's one writer who feels the pain that these plaintiffs are undergoing. He plans to sue Saab and Rayban for the scratches after he used it several times.

Seriously, Macsimumnews asks the question of whether the scratchable iPod nano screen is worth the trouble of a lawsuit. The core of the lawsuit I think is that the lawyers are claiming Apple deliberately ignore the design flaw in the nano that make it scratch-prone. But the writer, who is a nano owner, says the after weeks of owning it, he has not seen any evidence that the nano is ended a scratch magnet.

APC Mag uncovers the scandal or scam that's going on in iTunes. It has something to do with some albums that may seem to be priced the same as other albums but when you look at the tracks, almost a third are actually just intros or commentatiries about the ablum or a song. Another scandal they have uncovered is that in case a person's PC with his iTunes songs in it are stolen, Apple will not allow people to re-download the songs they have downloaded before. It has something to do with right issues, an Apple executive says, and besides, music labels won't replace your collection if you get your CDs stolen. Good point. Oh, by the way, APC Mag is published by NineMSN. It figures.

Other iPod News

Sony's quarterly profit drops by almost a half. This is due to cheaper Asian rivals, getting on late in puttting out flat-panel TVs, and being really behind Apple when it comes to digital music player sales.