iPod, Podcasts, and iPod accessories
I have talked about all of these in the past, but I am starting to think that apple is working hard at trying to corner the whole of the digital entertainment market. They will be there when the TiVo or other DVR companies produce a DVR that when hooked to a network that has a computer that has iTunes on it, and send the shows to the computer, or some how integrates its listing in the iTunes Library, then the shows you record off of the TV would end up on your iPod (if you have a iPod video, I don’t have one, and I will admit I don’t plan on getting one for now my 3rd generation 40Gb iPod works the way I want it to, no more no less)
Also with all the accessories (I am in this case thinking of things like the iHome and portable speakers for the iPod), out there, the iPod is no longer just a portable music device, as many of the new mp3 players are, but it has morphed into a storage device that happens to have a mp3 decoder in it. I think that some day soon you will see on a car ad that it has listed that it “has a doc for your iPod” so you can “charge and listen to your iPod at the same time”.
Now on to podcasts, with the many podcasts out there, commercial talk show could be hurt. Even the popular talk shows out there now, have made available (as be it you have to be a subscriber to their sites) as a Podcast (you do need to use their software for the pay/”free with your paid subscription” podcasts) So now you can get all your talk shows on your iPod and listen when and where, no need to be tied to the radio stations line up.
Going on that last point, and the DVR stuff, TV is also moving in that area, where one does not have to be tied to the line up that the TV stations have, you can watch what you want when you want. Entertainment is now becoming more and more “On-Demand” (to steal comcasts’ term). Apple now is selling shows in the iTMS, and I heard that comcast might soon be doing On-Demand shows for $.99 per episodes, so you can pick what you want when you want it (I hope they have all the star treks available that way soon). The one problem I have with Comcasts’ way, is that after 24 hours, you loss the things you get via On-Demand, that is why I think Apple’s way is nicer, but I hope that Apple has (or will have in the near future) a way to burn them to a normal DVD so you can play it on a normal TV, or some way to play from the computer to the TV, but you might need a new device to use as a remote control to control you iTunes Library.
Finally with all the stuff Apple is adding to iTunes, I think they might want to think about changing the name of iTunes, to something that is more descriptive of what it is now, since it is for more then just Tunes.
