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Apple iTunes/iPod: the next generation (Mac/PC) By Eliot Van Buskirk (October 16, 2003)
The iPod learns some new tricks But first, let's talk about the two new iPod accessories since the 1.4 million iPod owners out there (31 percent of the MP3-player market) have been waiting for them with bated breath. Interestingly, both devices are made by Belkin, not Apple. The first is a $49 voice-recorder attachment. You snap the small module onto the top of a dockable iPod to add a microphone and a 16mm speaker. The player can then record memos, meetings, and lectures in WAV or AIFF, and syncing automatically uploads the files to iTunes. Afterward, they're ready for archiving, e-mailing, or burning to CD.
The standard iTunes Music Store usage rights--access from up to three computers, unlimited track burning, and file transfer to as many iPods as you like--now belong to Mac and Windows customers alike. And a recent partnership with Audible--winner of a CNET Editors' Choice award--has added 5,000 AAC audiobooks (encoded in mono at 32Kbps) to the service's almost 400,000 current music selections, which are still available for 99 cents per song and $9.99 per album. Users can also now e-mail each other gift certificates, and the new Allowance feature lets you give a certain amount of music to your kids each month. The latter could be a big hit with parents who want to stop their children from downloading songs illegally without granting them access to the credit card account. The prices for both of these new services range from $10 to $200, in $10 increments. Finally, Jobs announced celebrity playlists, which function similarly to the suspended Uplister service. You can browse celebrities' favorite songs, listen to the free 30-second samples (just like with all the tracks on the site), then purchase the songs à la carte or en masse. Apple invents the future--again Jobs told the assembled press that Apple hopes to sell 100 million songs by next April. This is a lofty goal, but the excellence of the iTunes software and store on both platforms, as well as Apple's new, high-profile deals with Pepsi and AOL, give the company a good chance at success. | ||||||||
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