tunequest

The iPod is supposed to be "iTunes to go" but as the little music player has advanced over the years, it still lags behind in some relatively basic features, features that have been a part of the desktop program for some time. iTunes' capabilities seem to be constantly improved and refined; its portable counterpart's behavior has remained relative unchanged, even as it has gained photo and ...

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Though sold and marketed as a portable device, I've recently been intrigued by Philips' new DCP850 DVD player with integrated iPod dock. It boasts support for standard DVD, DVD+/-R(W), VCDs, DivX files, MPEG-4 files, compact discs, MP3s and photos. It also features an SD/MMC card reader for playing movies and photos via a memory card. The iPod dock, of course, charges the iPod and allows access ...

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When it comes to digital video, I'm no novice. Several years ago, I made my own VCDs and, as the technology developed, moved to the DivX/XviD codec. I also already own a Philips DVP642 DVD player, which can play DivX/XviD-flavored AVI files in addition to standard DVDs. In fact, I have a much-neglected site dedicated to Mac users who own the DVP642. The conundrum is that, out ...

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So the much-anticipated Apple TV has shipped and, of course, the extreme early adopters are having a field day tearing the thing apart to find out what it can do. Some clever folks have already been able to install larger hard drives, more video codecs, and even the full version of Mac OS X, rendering what Cult of Mac calls a "Mac Nano." To be sure, it ...

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So, by now, large portions of the internet is abuzz with the Federal jury decision that Microsoft has been violating some of Alcatel-Lucent's patents on the MP3 file format, which ahas been the backbone of the digital music revolutions and without which iTunes and the iPod would not have been possible. I couldn't help but note the timing of the ruling, since I had been been ...

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What's more fun than speculating about the outcomes of court cases? Well, most everything. But it does pose an opportunity for a healthy debate. So let's play What If... What might happen if Cisco and Apple in up in the courtroom? Leaving aside for the time being that "iPhone" is a pretty weak name for a product that's much more than a simple phone, it does appear that ...

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So the mythical iPhone was unveiled yesterday and by all accounts, it is a revolutionary communications and portable computer device. The user interface alone is light years ahead of anything else on the market. And the technology behind it really looks phenomenal... for a phone. But even with all that legendary RDF action in effect, my own reaction is surprisingly lukewarm. Bias Alert!: I abhor the telephone ...

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I recently had the realization that December is the best time of year to discover new music. This notion came as a recognition of a couple of trends that have been building for the past few years. Firstly, I've by-and-large stopped paying attention to the cutting edge of artists and albums. In fact, unless an artist already has a trusted relationship with me, I've essentially been ignoring ...

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Even though the finale of the actual tunequest was a foreseen event, the end itself turned out to be quite abrupt. One moment there was music to listen to, the next I was all done, staring at an empty playlist. I took a day to revel in the accomplishment, then I ran into an interesting side-effect. What's next? For nearly eleven months, I had abdicated my ability to ...

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