Comments on: iPod Declared Inferior by Computer Expert

By: David

David — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Anyone in business knows you can’t make everyone happy. Turley is obviously unhappy, and will remain so. His article offers no way to post comments, confirming, perhaps, that he prefers stewing in his own (rather cranky) broth. Of course, the astounding success of the iPod (and the adoration it has generated among PC and Mac users) tells a very different story. This is a device that people love, and people love to use. And that includes iTunes software.

We know there’s something rotten in Turley-land when he call iTunes “absolutely appalling.” Every “problem” he goes on to list goes against the grain of the remarkably easy iTunes experience. You’d have to want the software experience to go bad in order to make these mistakes.

Wherein lies the rub.

I don’t know Turley’s qualifications, but they have to be significant enough to lead to but one conclusion: Either someone paid him handsomely to irrationally criticize the iPod and iTunes, or he’s fibbed on his resume.

By: Les Posen

Les Posen — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

I was going to blog about this twit’s engineering based remarks (ahem!) but others like yourself and MacDiscussion have said it already and better. But I do like this image on MacDiscussion:

http://macdiscussion.com/discussion.php3?post_id=867&article_id_var=260

Les

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Isn’t his name Turdly?

By: Mr eel

Mr eel — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

I agree heartily with the main thrust of your post. Turley has bagged the iPod without any good arguments. Perhaps knowing that it would gain the ire of iPod heads?

Anyhow, I do have one critisism. Near the end of one paragraph you state:

“It makes me very proud to think that so many people (many of them Windows users) didn’t buy into the lies about AAC and iTunes, and realize that Apple’s audio format is the truly open one (after all, it’s not Apple’s format… it’s an industry standard) that’s capable of being used in any way imaginable. Microsoft is the company with a proprietary format that must be licensed from a single company (guess who).”

I’d like to deconstruct this statement. Firstly, saying that AAC is a truly open standard format is incorrect. It is part of the MPEG4 standards and is likewise encumbered by patents. Even though AAC isn’t owned by any one particular company, that doesn’t mean that it is really open. It is simply a standard used by a wide variety of companies. Of course the licencing may be flexible, but still it’s not “truly open”.

Secondly, the AAC files offered by Apple via the iTunes library cannot be “used in any way imaginable”. They are encumbered with the FairPlay DRM scheme, which limits what you can do with those files in some very significant ways. Viz., I can’t import my DRMed AAC files onto my non-Apple music player even if it does support the AAC format.

Apple have been able to tie music purchased in the iTunes store to their own products, which is the very definition of a closed, proprietary system.

I love my iPod and I think that AAC is an excellent audio format, but there is no way I would buy music from Apple.

By: whiteshaitan

whiteshaitan — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Somebody left off a couple of hashes off the “l ‘in the spelling. Shouldn’t that be “Turkey”? Anyways , this is probably the guy who designed the non batery backed blinking clock in VCR’s.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Oh no! Microsoft ghost writers Thurrot and Enderle joined force and created Turley! The new FUD disseminator ghost writer for Microsoft!