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Sunday, March 8, 2015

Is Apple holding back music?


We all know how Apple got its second wind from the iPod and iTunes music sales and a third from the Iphone.  But it seems Apple has, with the passing of Jobs, stagnated there when it comes to music. Yes, they have evolved, the Apple way of doing things, back into computers, and expanded into new territories from phones, home automation, to TV boxes, and even cars.  


Apple still has iTunes and not much has changed on the music front.  Mp3's are based on technology from 1992 and Apple opted for the mp4, which is based on technology from 1997.(S)  Yes, nearly two decade old technology is the basis around the core of Apple's revenue.


A lot of factors went into the development of those audio formats.  Consider the state of the internet in 1993 and 1997.  With dial up speeds and hard disk capacities, space was valuable in storage and data transmission.  Now consider the technologies annual advancement rate then multiply that by 18 years.  Average cable speeds are 10-50 Mbps (lowest in my area is 60 Mbps), and even DSL can, in a perfect world, achieve 6 Mbps. In today's market, data storage is measured mostly in Terabytes for laptops.  So why is Apple not advancing music by ditching lossy compression?


Lack of innovation. Since Jobs died, there has been a more timid approach to innovation. And by “timid”, I mean an aversion rivaled only by the Catholic churches abhorrence to contraception and suicide. They have chosen not to innovate and merely follow Google.  Apple dabbled in TVs then dropped them for the Apple TV boxes.  They waited until just about every other phone manufacturer had screens larger than four inches to release a larger screen.  Even with the small screens they never seemed to understand the importance of large capacity batteries.   






Now the most recent release of the iWatch. It has some features that sound cool, but have little functionality in the real world. Once again, early reports show a failure in the battery department only offering around 5 hours of life that isn't even a full 8 hour work day.  Then there is the user interface.  I don't see the older generation even attempting to use the watch.  Not to mention, the fashion angle they are taking.  Now the announcement of building a self driving car from scratch.  Once again following Google.  They need to reignite their core markets (iTunes and iPhone).


Why not release high quality audio files, players and similar equipment? Apple needs to get back to its roots.  Consider the ripple it would make in both of Apple’s core markets. There isn't a phone on the market designed to play high end music files.  Heck most devices can't recognize FLAC formats in favor of their ALAC made open source in 2011.  Apple bought Beats by Dre, so the headphones would tie in magnificently.  They have a distribution system.  It would give people another reason to buy phones and experience music instead of just listening.  


But what do I know.  In case you are wondering, I really like technology, but I am not an Apple fan-boy.  This is all my opinion, and when Apple wastes a small portion of $500+ billion maybe they will see. Or it could come back to its core under new leadership with Job’s vision and turn things around for the music industry.  The only problem being, high quality audio is already out there and audiophiles have made its distributors a lot of money.  Could Pono be the next Ipod?


What do you think Apple should do next? Is “HD” audio a good idea?  



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Sunday, March 1, 2015

Mpoints and how to make money with it.

Free Money March!



Mpoints is a rewards system that rewards you when you play games or use certain apps.  It isn't a fast way to make money, but adding it to a routine can add up.  The best thing to do is find apps that you would use regardless and get rewards from them.

This along with Google Opinions, Bing Rewards and SwagBucks allow you to make money(well over $30 per month) online at home to buy games, apps, music, or whatever else you can get with the gift cards.

Mpoints has a scale of 12,500 points per $5.  Point increments are between 5 and 500. On average they are 5, 10 or 15.  Crackle is probably the most popular app.



Crackle allows you to watch old Sony movies and TV shows for free.  I recommend it if you like the Shield series that came on years ago.  The movies are for a limited time and cycle with expiration dates.  A few apps(Crackle included) offer Mpoints for "Daily tap ins" and other daily tasks. Crackle is ChromeCast compatible which makes it easy to play those movies on your TV. Another app that offers a lot of points is Cut da Deck.

Short video of an Mpoints Crackle hack to boost your Mpoints. 

Cut da Deck is a game about cutting a deck of cards to reveal a card simply by tapping the screen.  You can easily get 50 points in under 2 minutes just from the tasks much more from the special offers that range from 15-350 for each task.

There are many other games that offer Mpoints.  These are just a few.  If you would like to see a full list then click here.

Have you tried Mpoints? Have you redeemed points for a reward?

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