Support Our Site
Get Better Gear!
- Notability For iPad: Much More Than A Note Taking App from Ginger Labs, Inc, US$0.99
- Scosche’s RH656m Headphones With Microphone Are Wonderful from Scosche, US$129.99
- IPEVO’s Typi Folio Case & Keyboard for iPad is First-rate from IPEVO, US$79.99
- Scosche’s boomSTREAM BT Speaker: Features & Compromises from Scosche, US$99.95
- FX Photo Studio HD: iPad Painting of Effects Made Easy from MacPhun LLC, US1.99
Top 5 Free Apps
iTunes New Music Releases
Top 5 Paid Apps
Discover New Music
- Red Hot Chili Peppers
- Revolting Cocks
It's hard to believe it's been more than a decade since Ministry founder and front man Al Jourgensen's side project Revolting Cocks released any new material. 2006 brings us Cocked and Loaded
- Alanis Morissette
- Ten years after the original release, comes the traditional celebratory acoustic re-recording. The album has held up remarkably well. While it is not as meaningful to me as it was when I was sixteen,
- Weather Report
- This is Weather Reports quintessential line-up captured live. Jaco Pastorious and Peter Erskine join Wayne Shorter and, of course, Joe Zawinul to create this masterpiece.
- Barenaked Ladies
- These guys know how to put on a live show, and whomever recorded this knows how to capture one. Rock Spectacle is one of the warmest-sounding recordings I've ever heard, and totally fills a room at a
Reader Specials
Visit Deals On The Web for the best deals on all consumer electronics, iPods, and more!
News
Real CEO Attacks Apple "Pigheadedness," Urges iTunes Openness
Monday, December 5th, 2005 at 2:00 PM - by Bryan Chaffin
Apple Computer's refusal to license FairPlay, i.e. allowing iPods to play downloaded music from services other than iTunes and allowing iTunes downloads to play on players other than iPods, amounts to "pigheadedness" on the part of Steve Jobs, according to RealNetworks CEO Rob Glaser. As reported by CNet News, Mr. Glaser made the comments at the Digital Living Room conference, where he also said that Apple's refusal to cooperate with other online music services promoted piracy.
"We think Apple Computer, and Steve personally, are making a mistake by making the software proprietary," Mr. Glaser said when asked if Apple's position was hurting RealNetworks.
He also said that RealNetworks would continue catering to users of Macintosh computers. "There's no reason we should penalize Apple customers for Steve's pigheadeness." On Monday, RealNetworks moved its Rhapsody music service to be a Web-based operation that included support for the Mac platform. Rhapsody had until then been Windows-only.
Acknowledging that Apple's iPod is the best digital media device (according to a similar report at BusinessWeek), Mr. Glaser warned that "this worm will turn," meaning that other digital media device makers would eventually catch up to and surpass the iPod.
In the meanwhile, he called for the music industry to pressure Apple towards opening up iTunes and the iPod.
"Steve makes for a good pinata because he's taken a position against interoperability," Mr. Glaser said. "[The music industry] should be pressuring him to change because they have leverage over him. Apple being on its own in term of interoperability makes piracy more compelling for consumers. Because, hey, if I take all my MP3s from this illegal site or that illegal site, they'll work on the iPod or anything else. Whereas if I buy them legitimately, they'll only work at one place."
Before heading RealNetworks, Mr. Glazer was an executive at Redmond, WA based Microsoft, a company built on a business model of licensing its software to any and all comers. This might explain his inability to recognize what even Wall Street has praised, and that's Apple's ability to insure a quality user experience to iPod and iTunes users by controlling the hardware and the software.
Heretofore, that has been recognized as one of the prime reasons that the company has been able to dominate the digital media device and online music download markets.
Recent Headlines
- Reading, Writing, & Saving the World
- Free Retro Gaming for iOS - Activision’s Kaboom!
- Apple Adds Chomp Bits to iOS 6 App Store Discovery
- Notability For iPad: Much More Than A Note Taking App
- Scosche’s RH656m Headphones With Microphone Are Wonderful
- Tim Cook & Larry Page Reportedly Discuss Patents
- Analysis: Amazon Kindle Fire Sold Out, Kindle Fire 2 Pic Leaked
Post Your Comments