FreeRange

59 Comments

    • ON: Mon Oct 6th 17:15 PM
      Commented on:
      MySpace Music's Growth Balloon
      This will not last. The music industry has made a very stupid move, one that is not in the best interest of artists, or the industry. "all-you-can-eat&... is not smart business and will create an even faster decline in revenues for all. This is a panic plan...
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    • ON: Fri Oct 3rd 14:21 PM
      Commented on:
      Steve Jobs' Fake Heart Attack, Courtesy of CNN
      The person that posted this false rumor was obviously a professional trader / short seller due to the way it was written. The SEC should hunt this person down and throw them in prison for a long long time. When are they going to start aggressively stopping this crap? They should ban all short selling! Period.
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    • ON: Mon Sep 29th 12:49 PM
      Commented on:
      Apple Isn't Recession-Proof
      Who's post is nonsense, especially this quote - "Apple fans are being swayed by lower prices providing comparable if not better functioning toys". These lower priced products are NOT comparable which is proven time and time again by the experts. When you look at the total Apple system / ecosystem, including clearly superior operating system, significantly higher usability (ease of use and stability, lack of downtime, not having to buy / use and maintain virus and spyware software, superior bundled software included with purchase (iLife for music, photos, video etc.), better support/more uptime, significantly less downtime fixing problems, and full integration of Apple products across the ecosystem there is no comparison, and the superior value is clear. Yes, Apple doesn't build products at the low end, but clearly provides superior value and user experience. These are not just hardware issues.
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    • ON: Mon Sep 29th 09:59 AM
      Commented on:
      iPhone Dev Problems: Whining or Real?
      It is Apple's system to protect. And developers should be focused on developing innovative programs that don't compete with Apple's own. Its that simple. Granted, there could be more transparency in the process, which should come over time. (It is still a system that is only a couple months old.) However, coming up with apps that merely tweak or replace what Apple is already providing is not innovation. Developers need to be thinking outside the box.
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    • ON: Tue Sep 23rd 08:14 AM
      Commented on:
      Will SanDisk's New 'Slot Music' Make Sense for Consumers?
      Suggestion to music industry: Put out great music on all tracks. Have your bands actually know how to play music. Develop schools for them to start with classical training in music across all genres including jazz, blues, classical. Then help them write great songs. Consumers have voted - for the majority of bands / albums they are no longer willing to pay you to buy full albums of mediocre songs to get one or two good tracks. Its a combination of quality and consumer demand. What is it you are trying to do? Heck, why not put one hundred tracks on an album and charge $150. Do you think that might work? Slot Music will fail horribly... as it should. Digital distribution is the most efficient method for delivering content, and the most profitable. (The industry is just trying to get people to buy more at one time.) You just need to deliver what people actually want to pay for - what a concept!
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    • ON: Fri Sep 19th 14:52 PM
      Commented on:
      Three New Microsoft Commercials Making PCs Cool(er)
      F.J. Taylor - great post. In particular your comments at the end regarding the passion of Mac users. There are significant reasons why Mac users are so happy with their experience. Its not just ease of use but much deeper than that. Macs are actually a lot more fun and engaging because of the incredible user interface, wonderful bundled software that is elegant and also easy to use, reliability and greatly diminished need for tech support. MS does indeed make buggy bloatware, crammed with features that 99% of users don't want or need. These new commercials are so mundane as to be laughable - they are not showing passionate users, but average everyday people talking about a very average product. It is indeed putting lipstick on the pig...
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    • ON: Fri Sep 12th 09:26 AM
      Commented on:
      6 Things Apple's Not Doing Right
      This article is absurd. Apple's hardware has always been proprietary. It is one of Apple's core strengths! Controlling the ecosystem is what makes this such a powerful platform that continues to delight consumers who rank Apple with the highest satisfaction levels in the industry. And they are doing something wrong???? Get a real job fool! Sure they have made recent missteps but they are working aggressively to fix them and to prevent them in the future. Further, you have no clue regarding your statement about "sharing files" - sharing files has always been easy between Macs and PCs. As a stockholder, I would be mad as hell if in fact they weren't aggressively protecting their intellectual property and their brand franchise. Gee, why doesn't MS, or HP or IBM just let people duplicate/clone their intellectual property without approval???
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    • ON: Fri Sep 5th 09:25 AM
      Commented on:
      Five Trends to Watch in Mobile Devices

      Gee, you just described the iPhone. A long article to say that everyone is going to try to copy the iPhone based on 5 of its unique features/benefits.
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    • ON: Thu Sep 4th 11:21 AM
      Commented on:
      Does Apple's iPhone Increase Browsing?
      It would be much more accurate to say the iPhone platform has been in existence just / barely over one year, rather than saying "under two years" as this article states.
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    • ON: Fri Aug 29th 10:47 AM
      Commented on:
      Record Companies Starting to Shun iTunes
      The basic cost assumptions of what it costs to "manufacture"... a CD are ridiculous and naive in the model presented in this article. Anytime you are handling a manufactured good, your costs are considerably higher. You have packaging costs, warehousing costs, inventory systems, shipping, stocking, returned product from retailers when they don't sell, defective product, instore promotion costs, costs for all the people associated with these activities, etc. etc. etc. Also, the cost to record albums has dropped dramatically in that digital equipment has enabled the recording and mixing of albums to be done much more efficiently. This is an industry that has historically been fat in their expenses, and passed down very little to their artists except at the very top tier (maybe 2 - 5% of the artists in their mix). The industry is changing dramatically and they need to adjust. Having said that, it would be in Apple's best interest, and that of the artist and industry, to sell select albums only as albums, but which ones? Who is going to play Solomon? If you try to sell them all as albums it would be a huge step backwards, and a return to piracy. Here's a concept for you music industry, have each of your acts write and produce albums on which ALL the songs are great and which consumers will therefore want to buy!

      Lastly, the biggest danger to the music industry is not single track sales, but the lack of music programs in our schools that help develop top talent and keep great artists coming. Artists that can actually carry a tune and play instruments rather than sample other peoples work! In other words, a creative renaissance!
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    • ON: Fri Aug 29th 10:23 AM
      Commented on:
      Why Apple Stock Is Poised To Go Flat - At Best
      What a pile of crap. Does this author understand anything about Apple, or just read the competitors' news releases, and listen to the shorts as they try to trash Apple.
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    • ON: Mon Aug 25th 11:33 AM
      Commented on:
      Apple's Problems - Bad to the Core?
      This article is ridiculous and misleading. To use in a report "nanos catching fire" when just 3 nanos overheated, not catching fire, out of 10's of millions sold!!!! Same with magsafe cables, it was a handful out of millions sold!!!! And then to throw in that they had a fire in one of their buildings??? The truth is, mobileme is working great for the overwhelming majority of users, leopard is a huge success (and Vista?), as is the iPhone. And by the way, Macs are still flying off the shelves and into the arms of ecstatic consumers. Guess what, when you buy a new car - "The average number of reported defects across the industry is 118 problems per 100 cars" according to JD Powers. Does that mean we shouldn't buy cars???? Shame on you for this piece of crap. There is no analysis here, just hype.
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    • ON: Wed Aug 20th 11:01 AM
      Commented on:
      Is AT&T to Blame for 3G's Performance in the iPhone?
      Ted - what's the scale/range for comparison strong to weak signal?
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    • ON: Wed Aug 20th 10:51 AM
      Commented on:
      Apple's Bipolar China Disorder
      Like other tech players that have had to concede to China's rules for conducting business in China (Google, eBay, Yahoo), if Apple needs to make changes to succeed there, including limiting content on iTunes in China, then so be it. Apple is a business and not a political entity. As a stockholder, I fully expect Apple to comply with Chinese rules and regulations, and to aggressively market their products in this rapidly rising, AND CHANGING, consumer market. Lets keep some perspective here. As a frequent visitor to China, if consumers want access to specific content, including banned music, books, web content, etc. I can assure you they find a way to get it. To say that this burden should be on Apple is at best ridiculous and shows a lack of understanding of the Chinese people and market.
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    • ON: Mon Aug 18th 12:06 PM
      Commented on:
      Apple: Great Company with Lofty Valuation - Due for Pullback
      Ridiculous - insiders sell because THEY have to pay the taxes.
      View article »
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