Apr 15th, 2009 at 12:59pm
by Joe Rybicki.
As a result of a new agreement between online music retailers and the recording industry, all three major sellers of music downloads have adjusted their pricing. Whereas before the majority of songs were sold for $.89 or $.99 per track, now iTunes, Amazon, and Wal-Mart are all offering downloads in a range of prices dictated by popularity and other factors. Here’s how the prices run down:
- iTunes Music Store
downloads now cost $.69, $.99, or $1.29 per track. Apple has mitigated the pain a bit here by making every track available as a higher-quality sound file than before and stripping away the five-device limit that was once standard in the iTunes Store. But on the flip side, anecdotal evidence seems to indicate far more tracks priced at $1.29 than $.69.
- Amazon
MP3 downloads now cost $.79, $.99 or $1.29 per song. Amazon’s approach seems to be to apply the lower prices a bit more freely than at iTunes, and Amazon’s songs have never had play restrictions attached.
- And Wal-Mart comes in on the low end here with downloads offered at $.64, $.94, and $1.24. The retail giant also offers specific pages highlighting songs available at the different price points.
Are you able to find what you listen to at the lower price points? Or has this change made buying music more expensive for you?
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Apr 10th, 2009 at 3:02pm
by Joe Rybicki.
Nintendo’s Wii has been turning heads since it was originally released in 2006. The mostly motion-based controls took a radically different approach to game-system design, and it hooked millions of folks who never have considered themselves “gamers” (and probably still don’t).
But if there’s been one big complaint about the system itself, it’s that the controls can be a little unresponsive. That changes in July, when Nintendo releases the Wii MotionPlus adaptor, a little box that plugs into the end of the Wii remote and allows for true one-to-one movement control.
The MotionPlus is launching alongside a new Wii Sports game called Wii Sports Resort
, which collects a bunch of lighthearted, summer-themed games that all make use of the enhanced control of the MotionPlus. One game, for example, has you throwing frisbees to a cute little dog who will chase them down — and the angle of your hand dictates the angle of the frisbee’s movement. Another is a wave-runner game where you twist the Wii remote like the throttle of a jet-ski. And my favorite: a sword-fighting game where the in-game sword mirrors your own movement exactly.
Nintendo hasn’t announced pricing yet, but I’d be surprised if it’s more than the price of Wii Play
— which is to say, about 50 bucks.
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Apr 8th, 2009 at 12:12pm
by Joe Rybicki.
If you are a child of the ’80s, chances are you spent some face time with an Apple II. These computers were mainstays of school computer classes in the mid ’80s, classes that usually included some light programming:
10 PRINT “HELLO!”
20 GOTO 10
…and, if you were lucky, perhaps an educational game like Lemonade Stand or The Oregon Trail. These state-of-the-art machines could display 16 different colors with their 64 kilobytes of memory, and ran at speeds just over 1 Megahertz. (By contrast, Apple recently released a device that includes two thousand times the memory, displays about a million times as many colors, and runs over six hundred times as fast. And it’s a phone.)
Now, Macworld reports that thanks to near-incomprehensible advances in technology, you can play an assortment of games for old Apple machines in your web browser with the Virtual Apple emulator. They even have Lemonade Stand and The Oregon Trail.
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Feb 27th, 2009 at 4:32pm
by Joe Rybicki.
Some interesting news for gamblers and poker aficionados: Reuters is reporting that the U.S. could stand to rake in around 5 billion dollars a year by lifting the ban on internet gambling that went into effect in 2006. Citing a study by accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, the report indicates that these numbers could lay the groundwork for a re-evaluation of internet gambling legislation here.
Now, before we go any further, a disclaimer: I love gambling. Love it. I especially love poker, which I play every chance I get. Before the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 went into effect, making it illegal for U.S. banks to do business with poker sites, I played poker online regularly (for very small stakes, but still). I believe that poker is a game of skill more than chance, and I find the fact that it is for all intents and purposes illegal to play online here — and pretty much only here — faintly ridiculous.So understand that I do indeed have a horse in this race, as it were.
But it’s also important to note that this study isn’t coming from fringe sources. Reuters is one of the preeminent news organizations in the world, and PwC has a sterling reputation as well. And if these numbers are correct, this could be a relatively painless way of shaving a bit off the government’s budget deficit.
It seems to me that we can scarcely afford not to re-evaluate the UIGEA. But then, I’m clearly biased. What do you think?
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