iTunes Plus (or Minus) .1
So I grabbed iTunes 7.2 today, which allows you to download the new 256K, non-DRM'ed songs from the store. I'm excited about the concept; I've gone back and forth on my stance on iTunes but I recently settled on "against", as the DRM is too annoying. But now I can buy non-DRM'ed stuff so that's awesome. It does cost $1.30 a track instead of $0.99, but I can live with that.
It's a mixed bag though. It looks to me like Apple rolled it out a bit undercooked (or the servers are overloaded). Once I went through the usual iTunes upgrade rigamarole and then turned on "iTunes Plus" it asked if I wanted to drop six bucks on upgrading my library. Turns out I have a Beastie Boys single, and a double CD of Martin Denny tunes that I bought from iTunes that are in the catalog. Cool, I was trying to figure out what was going to be in the EMI catalog that I wanted so I could be a good consumer monkey and indicate my support. I can do this instead.
Well, that's a problem. I've poked iTunes about it on and off all day. The first pass it took it only downloaded about a third of the tracks and gave me the mysterious "Unknown error 504" message on the others. And when it does this it's SUPER ANNOYING! It pops up a message, plays a "bonk" sound and starts bouncing a dock icon until I go acknowledge it. Welcome to Windows XP-style interfaces, iTunes will be your designated annoyance today. But wait it gets better! Once you click OK that releases another download stream to try another track. It probably won't work and it will go through the bounce/bonk/dialog trick again. Until you scream "ENOUGH" and hit the button to pause all downloads. Oh, that will bork any podcasts you were downloading as well. It's also been thrashing the crap out of my system while it was at it - I've had to shut iTunes down several times because while it wasn't actually downloading songs it was thrashing my net connection so badly nothing else was working.
It looks like NOW it thinks it has all the tracks. I'm not super-confident because the last time I quit iTunes it told me I still had three tracks hung. Now they are marked as downloaded, but I'm not quite sure which tracks they were. Right now if I hit "Check for Purchases" it tells me "Unable to check for purchases. An unknown error occurred (5002)."
But given enough time it seems to have worked. The new tracks are 256k, and they are now .m4a files (instead of protected .m4p files). I had a paragraph about how iTunes had falsely decided it could "upgrade" an album I ripped from CD but I just realized it's right and I'm wrong. I did buy the album from iTunes but then I burned it to CD and ripped it back to get un-DRM'ed tracks. So I figured fine, I'll try another album "upgrade" with them and got the 5002 error. Guess I'll try again later. Interesting that it can find the album I've bought even though those tracks are no longer DRM'ed.
So in general I think I'm going to like the way iTunes Plus works, once the birthing pains are over. Right now? I'm hard pressed to recommend you jump right in. Give it a few days to let the water settle and then see if the new tracks are worth the upgrade to you.
technorati tags:iTunes, Apple, DRM, music
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So I grabbed iTunes 7.2 today, which allows you to download the new 256K, non-DRM'ed songs from the store. I'm excited about the concept; I've gone back and forth on my stance on iTunes but I recently settled on "against", as the DRM is too annoying. But now I can buy non-DRM'ed stuff so that's awesome. It does cost $1.30 a track instead of $0.99, but I can live with that.
It's a mixed bag though. It looks to me like Apple rolled it out a bit undercooked (or the servers are overloaded). Once I went through the usual iTunes upgrade rigamarole and then turned on "iTunes Plus" it asked if I wanted to drop six bucks on upgrading my library. Turns out I have a Beastie Boys single, and a double CD of Martin Denny tunes that I bought from iTunes that are in the catalog. Cool, I was trying to figure out what was going to be in the EMI catalog that I wanted so I could be a good consumer monkey and indicate my support. I can do this instead.
Well, that's a problem. I've poked iTunes about it on and off all day. The first pass it took it only downloaded about a third of the tracks and gave me the mysterious "Unknown error 504" message on the others. And when it does this it's SUPER ANNOYING! It pops up a message, plays a "bonk" sound and starts bouncing a dock icon until I go acknowledge it. Welcome to Windows XP-style interfaces, iTunes will be your designated annoyance today. But wait it gets better! Once you click OK that releases another download stream to try another track. It probably won't work and it will go through the bounce/bonk/dialog trick again. Until you scream "ENOUGH" and hit the button to pause all downloads. Oh, that will bork any podcasts you were downloading as well. It's also been thrashing the crap out of my system while it was at it - I've had to shut iTunes down several times because while it wasn't actually downloading songs it was thrashing my net connection so badly nothing else was working.
It looks like NOW it thinks it has all the tracks. I'm not super-confident because the last time I quit iTunes it told me I still had three tracks hung. Now they are marked as downloaded, but I'm not quite sure which tracks they were. Right now if I hit "Check for Purchases" it tells me "Unable to check for purchases. An unknown error occurred (5002)."
But given enough time it seems to have worked. The new tracks are 256k, and they are now .m4a files (instead of protected .m4p files). I had a paragraph about how iTunes had falsely decided it could "upgrade" an album I ripped from CD but I just realized it's right and I'm wrong. I did buy the album from iTunes but then I burned it to CD and ripped it back to get un-DRM'ed tracks. So I figured fine, I'll try another album "upgrade" with them and got the 5002 error. Guess I'll try again later. Interesting that it can find the album I've bought even though those tracks are no longer DRM'ed.
So in general I think I'm going to like the way iTunes Plus works, once the birthing pains are over. Right now? I'm hard pressed to recommend you jump right in. Give it a few days to let the water settle and then see if the new tracks are worth the upgrade to you.
technorati tags:iTunes, Apple, DRM, music
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A large red label warning "Lark's Vomit"
The 16-Ton Monty Python DVD Megaset * 14 discs packed with every episode from the programme's four year run! * 16 tons of fun, including hilarious extras and exclusive highlights! * 2 MONTY PYTHON LIVE DVDs!
The 16-Ton Monty Python DVD Megaset
Yes, through Wednesday you can buy the entire Monty Python run on DVD from A&E.com for $35! When this set came out it cost like $200 - I remember wanting it but being completely unable to justify $200 on Monty Python. But $35? SO ORDERED! I saw this on BoardGameGeek originally. (It's off topic there really, but I'll forgive the poster. Just this once. :-))technorati tags:MontyPython, sale, DVD, A&E
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The 16-Ton Monty Python DVD Megaset * 14 discs packed with every episode from the programme's four year run! * 16 tons of fun, including hilarious extras and exclusive highlights! * 2 MONTY PYTHON LIVE DVDs!
The 16-Ton Monty Python DVD Megaset
Yes, through Wednesday you can buy the entire Monty Python run on DVD from A&E.com for $35! When this set came out it cost like $200 - I remember wanting it but being completely unable to justify $200 on Monty Python. But $35? SO ORDERED! I saw this on BoardGameGeek originally. (It's off topic there really, but I'll forgive the poster. Just this once. :-))
technorati tags:MontyPython, sale, DVD, A&E
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Beyond Awesome
, the news that Halo 2 Vista shipped with "accidental" partial nudity . The "accident" led the ESRB to issue warning labels for the game saying it contains "Partial Nudity."But what part, exactly, was nude? And how was it in the game "accidentally"? I'll let the ESRB explain after the jump, but be warned the explanation features a naked ass.
Coders Gone Wild: ESRB Comments on Halo 2's Naked Ass - Kotaku
I can't decide if this is funnier because of the fact that Halo now ships with a "Partial Nudity" sticker or because the ESRB is getting upset about the content of error messages inside the level editor. Either way, this cracked me up!technorati tags:Halo2, ESRB, Microsoft
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, the news that Halo 2 Vista shipped with "accidental" partial nudity . The "accident" led the ESRB to issue warning labels for the game saying it contains "Partial Nudity."But what part, exactly, was nude? And how was it in the game "accidentally"? I'll let the ESRB explain after the jump, but be warned the explanation features a naked ass.
Coders Gone Wild: ESRB Comments on Halo 2's Naked Ass - Kotaku
I can't decide if this is funnier because of the fact that Halo now ships with a "Partial Nudity" sticker or because the ESRB is getting upset about the content of error messages inside the level editor. Either way, this cracked me up!
technorati tags:Halo2, ESRB, Microsoft
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Get A Grip!
The fact that I went undefeated at the First (and so far only) MAMBA Kings Guitar Hero invitational notwithstanding, I never got through much of the Hard mode on Guitar Hero 1. Guitar Hero 2 was even worse because I had waited for the 360 version and had a slightly different guitar to contend with. Then I had to send the 360 back for repair and blah, blah, blah. But recently I read some advice which changes everything about playing Guitar Hero. Maybe everyknew knew this but me, but if that's true I'll ask why the hell you didn't tell me!
You shouldn't normally hold the guitar so your finger is on the green button. Your forefinger should rest on the red button, and then your remaining fingers can cover yellow, blue, and orange. The means your middle finger rest on the yellow button, not your ring finger. (The yellow button also has the raised pip, so it's easy to find without looking.) On easy mode this is very counter-intuitive, since it only uses green, red, and yellow. But you get used to holding the guitar this way and used to reaching (with your forefinger) for green. Then you don't have to reach with your pinky for orange when you get there, and you're not using your pinky for those damnable red/blue chords.
Now, sometimes you have to shift your grip up for some complex run of green & red notes, but you should always attempt to recenter on yellow when possible.
I just tried this for the first time, and played through several songs on Easy. It took two or three songs to get where I wasn't abysmal, and it still is costing me points on Easy, but it feels better. A weird side-effect is that it cured my last remaining controller issue. I was still having trouble activating Star Power on the 360. Not that the guitar itself didn't work or anything, but my grip would slip a little bit as I swung the neck upward and I'd often miss a note. Now, the different grip seems much more solid as I activate Star Power and I can do it comfortably in the middle of a complex (well complex for Easy mode) passage. Sweet!
I'm also going to work on strumming upward as well as downward while I'm slogging through easy mode songs. Once I get back to Medium I think it will see quite a payoff!
technorati tags:GuitarHero, Xbox360
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The fact that I went undefeated at the First (and so far only) MAMBA Kings Guitar Hero invitational notwithstanding, I never got through much of the Hard mode on Guitar Hero 1. Guitar Hero 2 was even worse because I had waited for the 360 version and had a slightly different guitar to contend with. Then I had to send the 360 back for repair and blah, blah, blah. But recently I read some advice which changes everything about playing Guitar Hero. Maybe everyknew knew this but me, but if that's true I'll ask why the hell you didn't tell me!
You shouldn't normally hold the guitar so your finger is on the green button. Your forefinger should rest on the red button, and then your remaining fingers can cover yellow, blue, and orange. The means your middle finger rest on the yellow button, not your ring finger. (The yellow button also has the raised pip, so it's easy to find without looking.) On easy mode this is very counter-intuitive, since it only uses green, red, and yellow. But you get used to holding the guitar this way and used to reaching (with your forefinger) for green. Then you don't have to reach with your pinky for orange when you get there, and you're not using your pinky for those damnable red/blue chords.
Now, sometimes you have to shift your grip up for some complex run of green & red notes, but you should always attempt to recenter on yellow when possible.
I just tried this for the first time, and played through several songs on Easy. It took two or three songs to get where I wasn't abysmal, and it still is costing me points on Easy, but it feels better. A weird side-effect is that it cured my last remaining controller issue. I was still having trouble activating Star Power on the 360. Not that the guitar itself didn't work or anything, but my grip would slip a little bit as I swung the neck upward and I'd often miss a note. Now, the different grip seems much more solid as I activate Star Power and I can do it comfortably in the middle of a complex (well complex for Easy mode) passage. Sweet!
I'm also going to work on strumming upward as well as downward while I'm slogging through easy mode songs. Once I get back to Medium I think it will see quite a payoff!
technorati tags:GuitarHero, Xbox360
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NPD Meltdown
Having engaged in many phone, email and IM back-and-forths with various people over the NPDs, as they're generally referred to, we've decided to bring some of those often unheard discussions to light with our newest occasional feature, Monday Morning Quarterback. Our first participant, and hopefully a regular, if his schedule permits, is the Game Head himself, Geoff Keighley. We profiled the prolific Keighley last year, and we're glad to have him aboard to kick things off, pitting his BlackBerry-fueled insights against our Palm-enabled observations. Sit back, strap in, and get ready for a wild ride.
Level Up : Monday Morning Quarterback: An Armchair Analysis of Videogame Sales for April 2007
This is worth reading - it's an extensive analysis of the NPD April numbers. I've been talking about this with a few friends - Tony and I have bet riding on whether there is a PS3 price drop before sometime-in-September (the exact date is a little fluid) among other conversations. The cheap takeaway is that A) PS3 sales are miserable, and B) the Wii continues to sell monstrously despite a software lineup that isn't much deeper than the PS3. Then there's the software list - dominated by the PS2.
There's no real way to look at these numbers that seem healthy, especially for third party publishers. They've already abandoned PS2, they've bet against the wacky Wii controller, and suddenly the "next-gen" market isn't really here. Oopsie!
technorati tags:VideoGames, PS3, Xbox360, NPD, analysis
Blogged with Flock
Having engaged in many phone, email and IM back-and-forths with various people over the NPDs, as they're generally referred to, we've decided to bring some of those often unheard discussions to light with our newest occasional feature, Monday Morning Quarterback. Our first participant, and hopefully a regular, if his schedule permits, is the Game Head himself, Geoff Keighley. We profiled the prolific Keighley last year, and we're glad to have him aboard to kick things off, pitting his BlackBerry-fueled insights against our Palm-enabled observations. Sit back, strap in, and get ready for a wild ride.
Level Up : Monday Morning Quarterback: An Armchair Analysis of Videogame Sales for April 2007
This is worth reading - it's an extensive analysis of the NPD April numbers. I've been talking about this with a few friends - Tony and I have bet riding on whether there is a PS3 price drop before sometime-in-September (the exact date is a little fluid) among other conversations. The cheap takeaway is that A) PS3 sales are miserable, and B) the Wii continues to sell monstrously despite a software lineup that isn't much deeper than the PS3. Then there's the software list - dominated by the PS2.
There's no real way to look at these numbers that seem healthy, especially for third party publishers. They've already abandoned PS2, they've bet against the wacky Wii controller, and suddenly the "next-gen" market isn't really here. Oopsie!
technorati tags:VideoGames, PS3, Xbox360, NPD, analysis
Blogged with Flock