Looking to download an mp3 from your CD collection (ahem)? Don't want to use BitTorrent for fear of the RIAA busting down your front door? Use Google! Of course, don't forget about seeqpod.com either!
HACKING GOOGLE: TURNING A SEARCH ENGINE INTO AN MP3 DOWNLOADER
Copy / Paste the code below into your Google search box:
-inurl:(htm|html|php) intitle:"index of" +"last modified" +"parent directory" +description +size +(wma|mp3) "<BANDNAME/SONG>"
So, it looks like a new cat-and-mouse game has erupted between Apple (trying to gouge folks for another dollar) and savvy users who want to load their iPhone with ringtone music they already own. This is quite similar to the DRM wars, where users have continued trying to remove the protections from AAC files they have purchased from iTunes.
How to sync ringtones for free under iTunes 7.4.1 – iPhone Atlas:
Apple’s release of iTunes 7.4.1 put an end to the free transfer of current AAC tracks as ringtones to the iPhone — for a day or so at least.
Of course, other tricks continue to work for adding ringtones to cellphones using Bluetooth, like the Motorola RAZR v3, especially using music from your CD collection or other mp3s.
Apple - Support - Discussions - File type not supported
A bizarre problem recently popped up after I had updated to iTunes 7.2. Suddenly, certain songs would no longer sync with the iPod, even though I had ripped them from my own CDs. These weren't iTMS purchases. And there were only 4 mp3s out of a library of nearly 4K songs that wouldn't sync over anymore.
The solution was simple (but stupid on Apple's part):
In iTunes, drag the songs to the desktop.
Then delete them from iTunes.
Re-add the files back in to iTunes.
No clue why this happened.
Once the storage comes up a bit on the new iPhone, why would anyone pay basically the same for an iPod when they can have all that’s in the iPhone and still retain iPod functionality? Apple was very smart to do this. Everyone is hooked on iPods, and folks will now see this as the next step towards being rid of separate PDAs, phones, mp3 players, etc.
I think you’re going to see other phone service providers (i.e., Alltel, Sprint, etc.) start tap dancing soon for a piece of this, or I think their business will be hurt if they don’t.
The first lawsuit has already been filed!
We'll see what happens with the new AppleTV product; I've been saying this would happen for years (i.e., the amalgamation of all "tele-" products in one unit). Soon, the TV, receiver, computer, phone, video, etc. will all be part of one unit, or at least networked and interoperable in the home. Visits to the video store (or even renting through Netflix) will be a thing of the past; video purchases and rentals will all be done "on-line" much the same way music is now bought. This is really already happening on a small scale.
Clearly, Apple has garnered many enemies over the last several years. At one time (around 1996 or 97), Apple was written off as a company soon to perish. However, Steve Jobs regained control of the company he founded and turned it around. Out were the old beige systems and in came the colorful iMacs--a great-selling hit. Then came the innovative OS X, grounded in the UNIX-based NeXT OS that Jobs once touted as the NeXT CEO. Daring, new systems and laptops appeared--some bombed and some took off. Then came the iPod, which together with iTunes (and its eventual sidekick, iTMS) revolutionized the way consumers bought music, regardless of the bitterness expressed by the old-guard, clueless record corporations.
Microsoft and others were left reeling; no longer could the competition continue to merely copy Apple, because the innovations were coming as fast as lightening-quick sucker punches. Vista is already being described as a bomb; and surprise, its graphics borrow heavily from the GUI of OS X, which has been around since 2000. Microsoft is truly an example of a giant that went to sleep after it made good business decisions; it has never made good technology decisions.
A few weeks ago, several news articles appeared that described "plummeting" sales on iTMS. The press has long had this obsession with harming Apple (link: Apple Death Knell Counter), for some reason:
Apple iTunes Sales Take a Nose Dive
Apple iTunes sales plummet 65%
Apple ITunes Sales Slid in First Half, Forrester Says
Apple responded immediately:
Apple Dismisses 'iTunes Slump' as Silly Claims
Now (as I can personally attest to the Christmas day sluggishness), we see this story:
Holiday demand overwhelms iTunes' ability to download
So which is it, media? The press has its enemies, and its tech enemy is Apple for some bizarre reason.
