iTunes Apple bashing... I can't believe I'm defending Apple

[MorganX]

There's a silly MSNBC story at http://www.msnbc.com/news/909907.asp?0cv=TA01.

The author bashes the sound quality of AAC and claims he couldn't burn an audio CD. While I'm all for lowering costs I can live with 99 cents a tune and 9.99 for most albums.

Aside from the cost issue, the authors complaints are pure FUD. He claims he couldn't play and Audio CD burned on the mac anywhere else. Well, this is simply ridiculous. An audio CD is an audio CD no matther what format the Apple Music Store uses. He probably burned a Data/MP3 CD. It played in the mac so the idiot never knew what he did. (edit: reread the article, not sure if he's trying to play a DVD in a non-DVD player. Whatever his problem is, it sounds like "his" problem.)

As for the quality of AAC, it sounds as good if not better than 192k Mp3s for me. And that's on my iPod and on CDs in my car and on my home theatre. In addition, I'm getting more bass at less power (that's right no more weak bass complaints for my iPod) since AAC and iPod 1.3. Unfortunately I converted all my 192k mp3's and all my new rips have been in AAC so I don't know if it's AAC or iPod 1.3 responsible for the boost on the low end.

I should note, I've given away 3 pair of sony headphones because they couldn't do the job. The only earbuds that work for me are Shure's e2Cs. Prior to iPod 1.3 or AAC I had to turn the volume all the way up or use bass boost, now I only need to go 80%. You're simply not going to get the kind of bass we're looking for with cheap headphones. That includes the headphones that come with the iPod.

The blatant bufoonery of this article is astounding and it's a shame MSNBC doesn't have some type of quality control. It's just plain *********.

There is nothing negative about the Music Store or the iPod except for cost, the chrome case (shameful considering the price you pay), and the new design (this one's a matter of personal taste).

For the first time I think I might buy into some of the anti-ms conspiracy talk. MSNBC + Derogatory article re: iTunes & AAC + How much MS has to lose if AAC trumps WMA = Smells like steaming *********. This just ain't right. (edit: Microsoft is upgrading the Xbox to receive MP3s from a PC. What a shame if AAC were the format of choice going forward.)

[sparkleytone]

there are a bunch of stupid articles about how bad the service is right now. at the moment, anything The Register prints is flat out propaganda against it. They have said it was a dismal offering and would rather crucify ANYTHING with ANY sort of DRM than accept the fact that it is a great compromise. but you know what? the consumers love it. and thats all that counts.

[gunb0y]

its funny... i didn't see the "(MSNBC is a microsoft nbc joint venture)" tag anywhere in the article.

i can't believe they published this. its really depressing.

[mnkeybsness]

i wish apple would complain and make them retract this guy's review. it may be possible that his CD players he was trying to use don't support burned discs...i have seen some peoples' old car cd players that wouldn't play anything burned...now that i think of it, i had an old RCA stereo that wouldn't play anything burned either.

i think this is a lot of BS...people seem to do this a lot to apple.

[e-coli]

His iTunes preferences were set wrong. He burned a data CD or an MP3 CD. It's not Apple's fault that he doesn't know what he's doing. :rolleyes:

[MorganX]

Originally posted by sparkleytone
there are a bunch of stupid articles about how bad the service is right now. at the moment, anything The Register prints is flat out propaganda against it. They have said it was a dismal offering and would rather crucify ANYTHING with ANY sort of DRM than accept the fact that it is a great compromise. but you know what? the consumers love it. and thats all that counts.

I'm pretty happy with the selection. There are many old R&B tunes I couldn't believe they had.

Janet Jackson is a glaring omission though. Wonder what's up with that.

[patrick0brien]

-I knew the article was FUD before I even read it - I'm depressed to say.

As for his playback issues, he probably burned the disk at too fast a speed.

Whatever happened to journalistic integrity? Reminds me of the OU article last week.

[morlium]

maybe he should stop downloading The Wallflowers ...

[MorganX]

Originally posted by morlium
maybe he should stop downloading The Wallflowers ...

Good point. GIGO.

Having said that, I purchased some old Brook Benton from the 60's, clearly analog masters, but the sound was incredible. Thought I was in the studio.

[evoluzione]

this guy is full of crap

"Any device that can play a DVD can play burned copies of Apple?s AAC-compressed songs."

that's not true for a start, not all DVD players will play burned cds, whatever they are made on.

bah, i'm not even gonna waste my time on him any more.

edit: additional: yeah i know, but he fails to point out that iTunes 4 is indeed FREE, an important omission. he does give the experience etc an A+

and then he slates the quality, while i've yet to figure this one out, Apple is not stupid. he's the one that's not all there I'm sure. and i'd like to know where he bought his gay cd for $12.

[Akira]

How can a guy looking that joyful and happy write a not-very-nice article ?

:p

anyway, I'm using expensive sennheiser headphones, and AAC just sounds GREAT, so what he's saying that AAC only sounds good on small computer speakers is *********.

And who cares that his The Wallflowers cd was only $2 more than downloaded from the iTunes Store on AAC? (Never heard of them, I think that explains the minor pricedifference ;) )

[Eniregnat]

His article does echo many of the sentiments raised by some members of this board.

[applemacdude]

This guy is full of of crap!!! He needs a big BITCH SLAP!!!!! (Or two:D ) It isnt apple's fault he ( or she )(u never know) doesnt know how to burn a fuc*en cd. Good Grief. Ignorant people these days. I hope someone btichslaps him:mad: :mad:

[MorganX]

Originally posted by Eniregnat
His article does echo many of the sentiments raised by some members of this board.

I'm sharing my purchased music for a while @ 68.102.169.55

pw: bullskip

I'd like anyone to stream it into and amp and tell me which one isn't Near CD Quality or better.

Bridge over trouble water by Aretha Franklin is from analog masters and I can hear the brushes hit the high hats. Put it to the real test, Etta James At Last.

[Gus]

Originally posted by applemacdude
This guy is full of of crap!!! He needs a big BITCH SLAP!!!!! (Or two:D ) It isnt apple's fault he ( or she )(u never know) doesnt know how to burn a fuc*en cd. Good Grief. Ignorant people these days. I hope someone btichslaps him:mad: :mad:

If that picture on that article was a she, SHE needs to quit buying CDs and pay for some plastic surgery. :)

Regards,
Gus

[5300cs]

The guy's neck is thicker than his head. I'm surprised he could even spell iTunes.. I'm sure it took a few days to type up that article, what with all them keys all over the place (there's no smiley with crossed-eyes..bummer.)

[Raiden]

correct me if im wrong, but doesnt the MS in MSNBC stand for *darth vader music* Microsoft? Could this editorial just be some small cheesy propoganda scheme of gates?

[Freg3000]

Originally posted by Raiden
correct me if im wrong, but doesnt the MS in MSNBC stand for *darth vader music* Microsoft? Could this editorial just be some small cheesy propoganda scheme of gates?

it does, it does. Sometimes there is a bias, and this an example of it.

[iJon]

Originally posted by MorganX
I'm sharing my purchased music for a while @ 68.102.169.55

pw: bullskip

I'd like anyone to stream it into and amp and tell me which one isn't Near CD Quality or better.

Bridge over trouble water by Aretha Franklin is from analog masters and I can hear the brushes hit the high hats. Put it to the real test, Etta James At Last.
if i remember reading right bought music from the music store cannot be streamed, although i can easily be wrong becuase i havent tried it, this is just what i think ir ead.

iJon

[trebblekicked]

yeah, the article was pretty weak. but i'm sure the pc heads are saying the same things about the articles that praise the service. whatever. some critics hate apple. some love em. this guy is a hater. so be it. i hope the service succeeds...it wouldn't be the first time this week apple proved a journalist wrong.

[MorganX]

Originally posted by iJon
if i remember reading right bought music from the music store cannot be streamed, although i can easily be wrong becuase i havent tried it, this is just what i think ir ead.

iJon

The purchased music playlist is one of the lists in preferences. I had users connected all day and the purchased list is the only one I was sharing, so I'm assuming it works. I connected to my own share and it streamed fine.

[iJon]

Originally posted by MorganX
The purchased music playlist is one of the lists in preferences. I had users connected all day and the purchased list is the only one I was sharing, so I'm assuming it works. I connected to my own share and it streamed fine.
hmm, thats cool, i think i read this in someone doing an article on apple music store and talking about how people have already made programs to download peoples music.

iJon

[MorganX]

Originally posted by iJon
hmm, thats cool, i think i read this in someone doing an article on apple music store and talking about how people have already made programs to download peoples music.

iJon

Yeah, I guess the iTunes sharing is just an HTTP server and you can stream to disk. I haven't looked into it much. I really would rather pay per track.

You can share purchased files, but I think that if you steal purchased files they're still protected and won't play for you from disk.

[chewbaccapits]

This guy never reveals that crapdows lags behind in this arena...He never compares the quality issue between mp3 format and AAC...He only writes about his inabiltity to burn a cd and state that ALL burned cd play on DVDs. What a moron...How can someone not believe its one-sided; msnbc!!!
You know what, with this brilliant example of writing, I can't help but think this "journalist" has an offspring:

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?threadid=25780&highlight=journalist

[Codemonkey]

Great articles that collectively removes any credibility that MSNBC tart might have had:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A50718-2003Apr28.html
http://www.forbes.com/2003/04/29/cx_ah_0429tentech.html
http://www.clarionledger.com/news/0304/29/b08.html
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,58656,00.html
http://www.audaud.com/audaud/DEC00/newsDEC13.html

[chazmox]

I am not much on conspiracy theories, however, this article does seem like a MS "shot across the bow" to discredit iTunes. I can imagine that Gates saw this come out and wish that it was something he had done - MS SO wants to be a media gateway.

Krakow takes some potshots at Apple such as the revenue peaking on initial release and then dying down and the seemingly purposely mistaken comment about where a burnt CD could be read! Of course we see his mistake - but others read his article and say "See - it doesn't play everywhere!"

Now that I think about it, I don't at all put it past MS to do this and use the media in this fashion - lord knows they done other equally as nefarious things in marketing products. They are probably VERY concerned about iTunes music store coming to Windows and want to do anything to stop that.

[pgwalsh]

Here's a good article and it has more to do with Apple than just iToons. It's by Macnet2. I think it's good, but he should offer a second article on what needs to change.

http://macnet2.com/more.php?id=338_0_1_0

[MorganX]

Originally posted by pgwalsh
Here's a good article and it has more to do with Apple than just iToons. It's by Macnet2. I think it's good, but he should offer a second article on what needs to change.

http://macnet2.com/more.php?id=338_0_1_0

Thanks for the link. Fantastic read. With regards to AAC though, I'm going to buy the track he's talkign about.

Anyone who has read my posts know I have not qualms about bashing Apple when they suck. But this is just not one of them. And the proof is in the pudding.

If I download the track and it's not a worthless file and sounds great, then clearly there's something technical going on. I don't believe in magic. There is a technical answer if they are truly getting such poor quality from their AAC files purchased at the Music Store.

[Kid Red]

I hope everyone has emailed this guy to inform him of his suspected agenda and glaring mistakes concerning iTunes?

[MorganX]

Originally posted by Kid Red
I hope everyone has emailed this guy to inform him of his suspected agenda and glaring mistakes concerning iTunes?

After reading the article I think it was totally on target with the exception of his AAC experience. He didn't mention the specific "2" tracks he downloaded so I'll just grab their top 3 or 4 hits for my own evaluation.

[Taft]

Originally posted by pgwalsh
Here's a good article and it has more to do with Apple than just iToons. It's by Macnet2. I think it's good, but he should offer a second article on what needs to change.

http://macnet2.com/more.php?id=338_0_1_0

First, I have no idea about the "true quality" of AAC files. What I have is a bunch of articles saying its good (better than mp3, worse than vorbis) a few articles and opinions saying its bad (bottom of the barrel bad) and my own observation that the format is indeed an improvement over mp3 and that at a bitrate of 192 there is very little difference between the CD and the aac file. So I personally bless the format.

Second, in regards to MacNET, I think this guy's opinion has been completely clouded by a bad customer service experience.

I am not an Apple zealot to the point where I think they are infallible. They have and do make mistakes. But the tone of this article makes it clear this guys has lost all objectivity towards Apple and its products. It is a very good thing they are no longer doing reviews, IMO.

I like objetive reviews. I always read a lot of them before making technological decisions. Neither of these articles (the MSNBC or MacNET) seem to me to be objective. MSNBC made some very glaring errors (meaning they are either incompetant and objective or not objective) and MacNET's article is simple loaded with hatred towards Apple.

If you are looking for a fair consideration of the capabilities and quality of AAC files, I would go to another source. If you were me, you'd read a few different sources.

Taft

[pgwalsh]

Originally posted by Taft
First, I have no idea about the "true quality" of AAC files. What I have is a bunch of articles saying its good (better than mp3, worse than vorbis) a few articles and opinions saying its bad (bottom of the barrel bad) and my own observation that the format is indeed an improvement over mp3 and that at a bitrate of 192 there is very little difference between the CD and the aac file. So I personally bless the format.

Second, in regards to MacNET, I think this guy's opinion has been completely clouded by a bad customer service experience.

I am not an Apple zealot to the point where I think they are infallible. They have and do make mistakes. But the tone of this article makes it clear this guys has lost all objectivity towards Apple and its products. It is a very good thing they are no longer doing reviews, IMO.

I like objetive reviews. I always read a lot of them before making technological decisions. Neither of these articles (the MSNBC or MacNET) seem to me to be objective. MSNBC made some very glaring errors (meaning they are either incompetant and objective or not objective) and MacNET's article is simple loaded with hatred towards Apple.

If you are looking for a fair consideration of the capabilities and quality of AAC files, I would go to another source. If you were me, you'd read a few different sources.

Taft I agree with you that his article is based on a bad customer service experience, but the article does point out something of even greater concern. Apples ignorance. However, that part is for another forum. But I agree with him on the fact that Apple should have released iToones for Windows at the same time. It is "stupid" that they didn't. They cut off a huge portion of the market. Doh! They should have realized that with the iPod.

[MorganX]

I downloaded Tears for Fears 2 biggest hits, Shout and Sowing the seeds of love. Those are their hits to me anyway.

And the gentleman from MacNet is right. They sound like crap. I'm not even going to bother wasting a CD to test it on a Hi-Fi system. Garbage in, garbage out.

I've downloaded 44 songs including these two and these are the only two that sound like this. The others exceed my expectations.

Obviously the problem is with the encoding of these specific files and not AAC. I don't know if Apple or the record company is doing the encoding but there is a problem.

Apple needs to get on this right away, take a look at how the AAC files for these two tracks were created and acknowledge and issue. It's either a training issue or an issue with the masters.

It is curious though, this guy found two bad files in 200,000. And maybe the guy on MSNBC did too. Hmmm.

Hope Apple is listening to its customers. This one should be easy to deflate.

edit: I wonder if I can return these two songs :>