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Category: value

Amazon’s MP3 Store Rocks

Published September 26, 2007 by cgerrish

I’m an iPod and iTunes user. While I know how to drag files to a player and manually manage them. I find it easier to let iTunes do the work. The great part about Amazon’s MP3 store is that it integrates seamlessly with iTunes. It does require the download and installation of an application, and for some people that will be a bridge too far. But for those able to overcome that hurdle, if you’re already an Amazon customer, that’s about it.

Find a song or album and download it. It shows up in iTunes. Make a playlist and sync it with your iPhone or just sync it to your iPod. Nice. It’s the beginning of competition in the digital download market. It’s the first serious competition because it works well with Apples products. Some think this is a big problem for Apple, personally I think it’s exactly what Apple needs. They’ve had no competition. Competition will be good for both Amazon and Apple. Perhaps they can show the rest of the industry what the user experience needs to look like.

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Getting Paid

Published September 25, 2007 by cgerrish

I’ve been looking at various online payment systems. None of them are really made for the Web. And PayPal is a nightmare from which I’m trying to awake. To some extent we need a company to start from scratch with the Web in mind. Is Revolution Money the solution?

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Public Domain Cinema

Published September 25, 2007 by cgerrish

Masterpieces of the cinema are entering the public domain. There’s great promise for the creation mashups and quotation. Nosferatu has already had many new scores written for it. I remember going to an art movie house to see this film. It was a great rarity. Now you can watch the whole film on echovar.

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NY Times Rejoins the Conversation

Published September 18, 2007 by cgerrish

NY Times

I stopped linking to the NY Times, or even sending their links in email when they put up their wall. The pay-to-view section of the Times was a very poor idea. Today they announced they’ll stop charging. Jeff Jarvis called it a cyncial ploy from the beginning, content wants to free. But that’s not entirely true, online news content wants to be part of the conversation, but it can easily sit in a corner and talk to itself. The Times Select content consisted of the archive and Op-Ed writers, the Times probably learned no one cared enough about reading or linking to Maureen Dowd and Paul Krug. The conversation is quite lively without them. If the Times wants to be part of the debate around the next presidential election, the wall had to come down.

The Internet is making an evolution of democracy and free speech possible. The NY Times can participate in the conversation and stick advertising on the click flow, or they can sit on the sidelines. Welcome back.

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