A round-up
U.S. Census 2007 Statistical Abstract of the United States, as summarized by Consumerist: "Big news: We drink a lot of bottle water. More than beer, if you can believe that. The most dangerous consumer item is a bicycle, the second is a bed. Yes, 'Bicycles are involved in more accidents than any other consumer product, but beds rank a close second.' In case you were wondering, the Times tells us that this is because nearly everyone uses a bed and fewer people use bicycles. But you knew that."
Today's cell phone tip, via David Pogue via eh_notsomuch:
There are magical keystrokes that interrupt cellphone voicemail greetings. They don’t just cut short the “Hi, I’m not here right now” message--they also eliminate the 12-second digital lady who says, in an effort to run up your bill: “When you’re finished recording, you may hang up, or press 1 for more options” (and so on). Every time you use this keystroke, you’re saving yourself money.
Verizon or Cingular: press *
Sprint: press 1
T-Mobile: press #
Now, what we all need to do: Publicize the correct keystroke for your voicemail in your greeting. For example, when you get a voice mail greeting, it tells you to ‘push star at any time to skip Verizon’s gibberish.'
The 7 Wonders of Each US State. Any complaints about your home state? MA and CA are fine by me, RI seems kind of random (not that I have any better ideas), and OF COURSE 85% of the NY wonders are in that stupid metropolis which should just be annexed by NJ.
Any Solider is a wonderful way to suppost the troops by sending items to soldiers who don't get a lot of mail and/or need specific items . I am fairly sure I read about it in BUST magazine, but I could be insane.
Just last week, I asked Jeff, where can I get mp3s strings free without subscription or software requirements? I am happy to pay for songs, but I want to own them just like I would if I copied a cassette: I can listen to it any time I want with no subscription, I can make as many copies for my car or friends as I want, the song never expires, and any standard piece of equipment will play the song. The answer is that it is tough to find such a deal.
New report spells trouble for music industry, not Apple : Entitled "Few iPod Owners Are Big iTunes Buyers," a Forrest Research report looked at credit-card transactions at iTunes to better understand users' buying habits. It discovered, among other things, that people don't buy all that much - about 23 songs per iPod.
Why pay for something you can get free? But it's more than that, as shown by the fact that most people, even iPod owners, still get their legal music by and large from CDs, not online.
People want their music without restrictions, and too many legal downloads, like those from iTunes, come with restrictions. You can't copy them to another player, or you're limited to how often you can do it, or you have to jump through the hoops of burning your iTunes tracks to CD and re-ripping them to a more useful format. And iTunes works most seamlessly with just one brand of music player: Apple. Some subscription services will delete the music from your player when you cancel your subscription.
People don't want to have to match their music store with their music player any more than they want to have to match their brands of gasoline with their brands of car. They want, in short, to be able to use today's music the same ways they used yesterday's: Any way they want.
A few legal-download services understand and play nice. Emusic and Audio Lunchbox, for instance, both offer downloads with no copy protection, and with few restrictions on per-track purchases (though some artists choose to withhold certain tracks or to bundle an entire album's worth of songs as one download). Those systems work, but the major labels for the most part won't allow their wares to be sold on those sites because that's what consumers want them to do.
What the Recording Industry Association of America lacks in brains it makes up for in stubbornness, and so the most hyped among the legal options either force us to accept unacceptable restrictions, or they force us to buy eight or nine crappy songs to get a couple of good ones.
Finally, my apologies for not letting yu'all know about the Jesus Pan in time for the holiday gift giving season. 2 pans for $29.99 and you can have the image of Jesus on your grilled cheese!
Today's cell phone tip, via David Pogue via eh_notsomuch:
There are magical keystrokes that interrupt cellphone voicemail greetings. They don’t just cut short the “Hi, I’m not here right now” message--they also eliminate the 12-second digital lady who says, in an effort to run up your bill: “When you’re finished recording, you may hang up, or press 1 for more options” (and so on). Every time you use this keystroke, you’re saving yourself money.
Verizon or Cingular: press *
Sprint: press 1
T-Mobile: press #
Now, what we all need to do: Publicize the correct keystroke for your voicemail in your greeting. For example, when you get a voice mail greeting, it tells you to ‘push star at any time to skip Verizon’s gibberish.'
The 7 Wonders of Each US State. Any complaints about your home state? MA and CA are fine by me, RI seems kind of random (not that I have any better ideas), and OF COURSE 85% of the NY wonders are in that stupid metropolis which should just be annexed by NJ.
Any Solider is a wonderful way to suppost the troops by sending items to soldiers who don't get a lot of mail and/or need specific items . I am fairly sure I read about it in BUST magazine, but I could be insane.
Just last week, I asked Jeff, where can I get mp3s strings free without subscription or software requirements? I am happy to pay for songs, but I want to own them just like I would if I copied a cassette: I can listen to it any time I want with no subscription, I can make as many copies for my car or friends as I want, the song never expires, and any standard piece of equipment will play the song. The answer is that it is tough to find such a deal.
New report spells trouble for music industry, not Apple : Entitled "Few iPod Owners Are Big iTunes Buyers," a Forrest Research report looked at credit-card transactions at iTunes to better understand users' buying habits. It discovered, among other things, that people don't buy all that much - about 23 songs per iPod.
Why pay for something you can get free? But it's more than that, as shown by the fact that most people, even iPod owners, still get their legal music by and large from CDs, not online.
People want their music without restrictions, and too many legal downloads, like those from iTunes, come with restrictions. You can't copy them to another player, or you're limited to how often you can do it, or you have to jump through the hoops of burning your iTunes tracks to CD and re-ripping them to a more useful format. And iTunes works most seamlessly with just one brand of music player: Apple. Some subscription services will delete the music from your player when you cancel your subscription.
People don't want to have to match their music store with their music player any more than they want to have to match their brands of gasoline with their brands of car. They want, in short, to be able to use today's music the same ways they used yesterday's: Any way they want.
A few legal-download services understand and play nice. Emusic and Audio Lunchbox, for instance, both offer downloads with no copy protection, and with few restrictions on per-track purchases (though some artists choose to withhold certain tracks or to bundle an entire album's worth of songs as one download). Those systems work, but the major labels for the most part won't allow their wares to be sold on those sites because that's what consumers want them to do.
What the Recording Industry Association of America lacks in brains it makes up for in stubbornness, and so the most hyped among the legal options either force us to accept unacceptable restrictions, or they force us to buy eight or nine crappy songs to get a couple of good ones.
Finally, my apologies for not letting yu'all know about the Jesus Pan in time for the holiday gift giving season. 2 pans for $29.99 and you can have the image of Jesus on your grilled cheese!