MacRumors reports today that Amazon has introduced a service that provides free MP3 versions of CDs you purchase on their online store. The digital versions come through Amazon Cloud Player, and are encoded as 256 Kbps MP3 files, playable on most modern devices. Interestingly, the service will also provide — as of today — free MP3 copies of physical CDs you purchased on Amazon previously. Of course, those CDs must be actually participating in the AutoRip program.
The most obvious advantage of this service is to instantly provide digital MP3 copies of songs to customers who prefer to also own the physical media. At Amazon’s prices, this service will almost certainly bring even tighter competition to iTunes, because if I can get a CD and a free MP3 download through Amazon for the same price of the lone download on iTunes, I almost certainly will. With a CD, I can conveniently play it in my car, or to give it to a friend to borrow, for example. (more…)
During Apple’s fourth quarter earnings call yesterday, Tim Cook — the corporation’s chief-executive-officer — was asked what impact the Kindle Fire had on Apple’s iPad sales. Cook’s answer detailed that Apple had sold a record 15.4 million units in the previous quarter, hinting that the Fire had little if not any effect on the iPad’s sales. Cook went on to say that Apple does not consider ”limited function tablets and e-readers to be in the same category as the iPad” and that he believes the ecosystem for the iPad is ”in a class by itself.”
As some of the more astute readers out there might have noticed, it is currently November. However, it has not always been that way. Why I remember when, some time ago, it was October. October, the 10th month of the year (but not necessarily in our hearts), the month of pumpkins, the month of Halloween. This is a story of that month, and an event that transpired in it.