I don’t know how, but I imagine it was at least partially due to the fact that I was getting ready for a flight to LA, but I somehow missed the premiere of the show Heroes. Thankfully, iTunes (as I expected) had the premiere up last night so I bought it. It was well worth $2 to have something I could watch on my iPod on the flight.
I have to say… I make no bones about my love for Apple and their products. I’ve always been an Apple fanboy. Hell, I was reading Macworld long after I didn’t have my iBook (still the biggest computer mistake I’ve ever made; when I sold it). The truth is, however, that Apple has done a brilliant thing with iTunes.
I readily admit that I don’t buy all my shows from iTunes. I’d be broke if I did. Most of the internet attainment of television shows, for me, involves heading to any one of a bunch of newsgroups and grabbing the episodes then transcoding them so they’ll play on my iPod. Unfortunately, this wasn’t an option this time because I just didn’t have the time to wait for a DivX / Xvid version to transcode even on my relatively speedy iMac desktop (or my Macbook for that matter). So, I spent the big two bucks, got a perfectly encoded copy and watched it today on the plane.
People can lose their minds over Apple and their “closed” system all they want, but nothing beats the ability to grab a television show very easily, throw it on your device, and move on with your life.
Apple has done a masterful job of turning the iPod from a music player to an all-around entertainment unit. You can enjoy your television (or at least a lot of it), Movies (Disney and their subsidiaries only, but if you think that’s going to last, you’re nuts), Games (which are quite fun and excellent time-passers), Music, Podcasts, and even Music videos. Also, your content isn’t limited to your iPod. You can enjoy it on your computer, or hook your device up to a television and enjoy it there.
Oh sure, I’m not saying anything new here. In fact, I realize that I sound so much like many other fans of Apple. I just can’t help but think that all the critics would go nuts if someone else were to come up with the same idea.
For example…
Microsoft’s Zune. I’ve written enough about it here to fill a book both here and on other sites. The Zune will not play Plays for Sure media as of right now. Zune is the representation of Microsoft closing off its system much in the way Apple has been taking heat for doing since iTunes was released. The criticism from the Apple critics, most of them Microsoft fanboys, are non existent for their Zune. They’ve conveniently forgotten that the Zune is a single manufacturer, single online store, single operating system, single storage size device.
The iPod, while being a single manufacturer device comes in 3 styles (Shuffle, Nano, and Video), 6 different sizes, and every price range from $79 to $349.
The Zune store will work on Windows.
The iTunes Store works on Windows and the Mac.
For all the criticism Apple gets for not opening up its store, it would certainly seem that one thing they’ve gotten right is the one thing Microsoft used to use as its selling point.
Choice.
Sure you only have one manufacturer with Apple, but you have a hell of a lot more choices and the next time you want to take a flight and realize you missed a premiere of a television show, you could get it for free and spend 40 minutes to an hour transcoding it…
…Or you could just download it for $2 in about 5 minutes and be on your way.
Like I said, I’m not about to start buying shows exclusively on iTunes, but when I’m in a hurry it’s a much better option and thanks to Apple (and NBC who saw the potential of digital distribution through iTunes first) I didn’t miss a show I really wanted to see and passed 40 minutes of a 5 1/2 hour flight.
[tags]apple, microsoft, ipod, zune[/tags]