currybetdotnet Apple archive

Will last.fm ever ask for the last time?
I love last.fm. You love last.fm. Everybody loves last.fm. It is a cool poster child for the Web 2.0 generation, and the fact that they built their business model on avoiding paying streaming royalties in the UK as much as possible is neither here nor there to most people. But... ...installing the application on your Windows XP PC can be really sucky. The problem is that the Last.fm application seems to pay no attention to the account settings on the...

Read the full post - Published September 21, 2008 in Apple, Application design, Microsoft, Music, Usability

Trying out Silverlight - FAIL
I try and be platform neutral and agnostic as much as possible. This blog runs on a Debian Linux server from Bytemark, I work on a MacBook, my main PC is a Dell running Windows XP, and I get to play with the Linux-based Eee PC that my wife takes everywhere. My star sign is Libra and I like a balance in my OS experience. So I was fairly open-minded about trying out Microsoft's Silverlight. There has been some (inevitable...

Read the full post - Published August 31, 2008 in Apple, Linux, Microsoft

'Spyware!' or 'How I ditched Windows and learned to love the Mac'
I'm one of those people who have been happily running Windows on PCs since the early nineties, and have never had any problems with virus infections, adware, spyware, or other malicious programs. In fact, I'd quite got myself into the self-righteous position of thinking that anybody who did have problems clearly didn't know what they were doing with computers. So, it was somewhat dispiriting last month to discover that my laptop was riddled with a horrible infection. I know exactly...

Read the full post - Published March 21, 2008 in Apple, Microsoft

Never mind the MacBook Air hype - it's happy 25th birthday to the Apple Lisa
Over the last few days I've steadfastly avoided writing about the blogging and twittering hype around Macworld. This is not especially because I'm an Apple naysayer, but I'm certainly not a fanatic. I think Apple make some very good products with some gorgeous packaging, but I also think they enjoy an incredible 'brand halo' which allows them to get away relatively uncriticised for quite major flaws like battery life and replacement issues, and over-charging UK customers on iTunes. [1] One...

Read the full post - Published January 19, 2008 in Apple, Nostalgia

Apple iPhone hits Greece ahead of the O2 deal in the UK
Everyone might be waiting for tomorrow with baited breath as Apple finally announce that the iPhone will be available in the UK, but Greece has got there first. Yep, apparently mum is already no longer the word in Heraklion (just a couple of hours down the road from where I live) and in Volos Sugarenia has blogged a Greek advert for the iPhone from their local store - at an eye-watering €749. Meanwhile, jimeh has a picture uploaded to Flickr...

Read the full post - Published September 17, 2007 in Apple, Greece

iTunes Miniatures playlist
Back in 1980, Morgan Fisher curated an album called "Miniatures". It consisted of fifty-one tiny tracks by various artists including people like Kevin Coyne, Michael Nyman, Ivor Cutler and Robert Fripp. Everything on the album was under a minute long I've recently hit upon the modern digital DIY equivalent - making a microtunes "Miniatures" playlist on iTunes - although I did have to extend the time limit slightly. I sorted my music library by track duration, shortest first, and the...

Read the full post - Published July 31, 2007 in Apple, Music

'Cancel' just doesn't seem to mean 'Cancel' for iTunes 7.2 on Windows
I've mentioned before that I haven't exactly been seeing eye-to-eye with iTunes 7.2 on my PC. It keeps getting upset and sparking Windows error dialogue messages if I run it without my iPod attached first, and won't quit without warning me every single time that iSproggler is using the iTunes scripting interface, am I sure I want to quit? More seriously though, I don't like the way that Apple do not follow the standard Windows OS conventions with some of...

Read the full post - Published July 13, 2007 in Apple, Application design, Microsoft, Music, Usability

Musical social networking (slight return)
Finally at the weekend my personal weekly chart on Last.fm was updated - for the first time since December 2005, when I was last a regular scrobbler. That rather eclectic mix, featuring such obscurities as TOT and iLiKETRAiNS was replaced by a chart which looks rather more like my staple musical fare. Having got enough cable to finally hook up my main PC to the internet via the phone socket for the first time in 18 months, I've also downloaded...

Read the full post - Published June 20, 2007 in Apple, Music, Web

Slacker equivalent already on the market in Europe - meet Sony and Vodafone's Radio DJ
There has been a bit of a buzz around the announcement of a service called Slacker in the USA, which will be a device which plays personalised radio stations to the user on the go. Matt Marshall at VentureBeat even touted it as a potential "iPod killer". As I read through the promised feature-set, I started to get a little nagging voice in my head, saying "Hang on, isn't....this....what...I..do?" Because for the last few months I've been working on...

Read the full post - Published March 14, 2007 in Apple, Mobiles, Music, Radio, Sony

The depressing DRM debates on the BBC's backstage.bbc.co.uk mailing list
Since the announcement that the BBC's iPlayer would contain elements of Microsoft's DRM, and that any forthcoming versions for the Apple or Linux OS would also need to incoporate some type of DRM, a debate has been raging on the backstage.bbc.co.uk mailing list. Opinion is broadly split into two camps. There are those who understand that in order to facilitate any kind of on demand service, the BBC needs to protect the interests of the rights-owners involved in making...

Read the full post - Published March 6, 2007 in Apple, BBC, DRM, Linux, Microsoft, iPlayer

Buy the so-called "Complete" Depeche Mode iTunes box set? No thanks, Apple

Published February 16, 2007 in Apple, Music

Thoughts on being locked out of my iPod's content by Apple's DRM

Published February 15, 2007 in Apple, DRM, Music

Beatles digital downloads facing a ticking copyright time-bomb

Published February 13, 2007 in Apple, Music

BBC News in a copywriting fix over copyright

Published February 8, 2007 in Apple, BBC, Music

Coverage of the Apple and Cisco iPhone trademark battle

Published January 17, 2007 in Apple, Mobiles

iPhone and the blindness of the Apple fans

Published January 16, 2007 in Accessibility, Apple, Mobiles

Getting Sony's SonicStage for Christmas

Published January 15, 2007 in Apple, DRM, Music, Sony

Sony loses DRM court case in France over the Sony Connect store

Published January 10, 2007 in Apple, DRM, Music, Sony

Docking the iPod after a long gap

Published August 1, 2006 in Apple, Music

The software used to access the BBC homepage: Beta software, edge products and conclusions - part 6

Published October 22, 2005 in Apple, BBC, Linux, Microsoft

The software used to access the BBC homepage: Browser share - part 5

Published October 22, 2005 in Apple, BBC, Linux, Microsoft

The software used to access the BBC homepage: Browser share - part 4

Published October 22, 2005 in Apple, BBC, Linux, Microsoft

The software used to access the BBC homepage: Windows, Mac, Linux and legacy OS share - part 3

Published October 22, 2005 in Apple, BBC, Linux, Microsoft

The software used to access the BBC homepage: Operating systems - part 2

Published October 22, 2005 in Apple, BBC, Linux, Microsoft

The software used to access the BBC homepage

Published October 22, 2005 in Apple, Articles, BBC, Linux, Microsoft, Popular

Listening to iPods can make you deaf

Published May 11, 2005 in Apple, Evening Standard, The Independent

A gallery, a monument, a museum and a spot of shopping - Day-tripping in London

Published April 27, 2005 in Apple, London Underground, Other, Transport

"I hate Macs" says salesperson

Published November 21, 2003 in Apple, Microsoft