The Birth of the Ipod
September 9, 2008 2:45 PM Subscribe
You may have never heard of Kane Kramer, but it's likely you use the product and online store he patented. In 1979.
Ha, I knew it. Britons invented everything first. It's the Americans who come along and make all the money off it...
posted by EndsOfInvention at 2:56 PM on September 9, 2008
posted by EndsOfInvention at 2:56 PM on September 9, 2008
What a cool story. I wonder if how pissed/proud he is that his invention is so ubiquitous now.
I also give Douglas Adams credit for envisioning the laptop-and-internet phenomenon back in 1978 when he first described "The Guide."
So yeah, Britons have the ideas, and Americans (the the Japanese) know how to reach the markets with them.
posted by Navelgazer at 3:05 PM on September 9, 2008
I also give Douglas Adams credit for envisioning the laptop-and-internet phenomenon back in 1978 when he first described "The Guide."
So yeah, Britons have the ideas, and Americans (the the Japanese) know how to reach the markets with them.
posted by Navelgazer at 3:05 PM on September 9, 2008
I found myself weirdly gut-wrenched that it takes us so long to act on new ideas, even these days.
Is it just me, or does that last paragraph fall apart a bit?
posted by batmonkey at 3:06 PM on September 9, 2008
Is it just me, or does that last paragraph fall apart a bit?
posted by batmonkey at 3:06 PM on September 9, 2008
The iPod was not invented in 2001 in Cupertino, California. It was invented in England in 1979, by “serial inventor” Kane Kramer.
It's interesting how the advent of the iPod has made everyone forget about every portable MP3 player that preceded it. Apple hit the market, what, 3 years after the first companies had product on the street? I had one of those. A "diamond rio" or some such. It was pretty crappy.
posted by mr_roboto at 3:08 PM on September 9, 2008 [3 favorites]
It's interesting how the advent of the iPod has made everyone forget about every portable MP3 player that preceded it. Apple hit the market, what, 3 years after the first companies had product on the street? I had one of those. A "diamond rio" or some such. It was pretty crappy.
posted by mr_roboto at 3:08 PM on September 9, 2008 [3 favorites]
Now Kramer is working on something called the "Bully Button", a wearable recording device which can be discretely activated by kids (or adults) when they are set upon by bullies.
That's gonna work just about once.
posted by kuujjuarapik at 3:08 PM on September 9, 2008 [7 favorites]
That's gonna work just about once.
posted by kuujjuarapik at 3:08 PM on September 9, 2008 [7 favorites]
I don't think a diagram of something that no real technology existed to make work counts as invention?
posted by A189Nut at 3:13 PM on September 9, 2008
posted by A189Nut at 3:13 PM on September 9, 2008
Yeah, one thing is to think of something first, another is to actually produce the thing and design it well enough that anybody actually wants to use it.
posted by sveskemus at 3:18 PM on September 9, 2008
posted by sveskemus at 3:18 PM on September 9, 2008
They had four working prototypes.
posted by nonreflectiveobject at 3:19 PM on September 9, 2008
posted by nonreflectiveobject at 3:19 PM on September 9, 2008
I actually bought the first hard-drive based portable MP3 player when it came out back in 1999 . It was a massive brick compared to modern players and it didn't even have a backlight for the display, but it was nice to be able to put several gigabytes of music on a single device and carry it around instead of a stack of CDs.
Compaq designed it, and for being the first device out there it was actually pretty good compared to the first few competitors. They even designed a very iPod-like successor for the device but the project was canned. Of course the iPod came out a while later and blew everyone out of the water, to the point where nowadays people don't even remember the old PJB, Archos, or Creative players that were around before it.
I think it's a common misunderstanding that the key to success is to think of a great idea that nobody has thought of before and pursue it. Instead, the key is to take a rather obvious idea that many people have thought of, and come up with a great plan to execute it. That's what Apple was able to do better than anyone else in the industry, and really that's what all successful companies do. Yes, someone somewhere has thought of it first, but that's relatively easy compared to beating everyone else to the punch when the idea has become common knowledge.
posted by burnmp3s at 3:25 PM on September 9, 2008 [1 favorite]
Compaq designed it, and for being the first device out there it was actually pretty good compared to the first few competitors. They even designed a very iPod-like successor for the device but the project was canned. Of course the iPod came out a while later and blew everyone out of the water, to the point where nowadays people don't even remember the old PJB, Archos, or Creative players that were around before it.
I think it's a common misunderstanding that the key to success is to think of a great idea that nobody has thought of before and pursue it. Instead, the key is to take a rather obvious idea that many people have thought of, and come up with a great plan to execute it. That's what Apple was able to do better than anyone else in the industry, and really that's what all successful companies do. Yes, someone somewhere has thought of it first, but that's relatively easy compared to beating everyone else to the punch when the idea has become common knowledge.
posted by burnmp3s at 3:25 PM on September 9, 2008 [1 favorite]
It's interesting how the advent of the iPod has made everyone forget about every portable MP3 player that preceded it. Apple hit the market, what, 3 years after the first companies had product on the street? I had one of those. A "diamond rio" or some such. It was pretty crappy.
It's worse than that. Diamond got sued by the RIAA, and although they were ultimately victorious they were eviserated by the expense. So Apple came along into a market bought and paid for by actual innovators, and yet still get the credit for inventing MP3 players.
posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 3:31 PM on September 9, 2008 [3 favorites]
So he patented something but didn't actually create it?
Well, shit, somebody get me some coffee, some patent application forms, and some Phil Dick books. I've got a long night ahead of me.
posted by Pope Guilty at 3:31 PM on September 9, 2008 [8 favorites]
Well, shit, somebody get me some coffee, some patent application forms, and some Phil Dick books. I've got a long night ahead of me.
posted by Pope Guilty at 3:31 PM on September 9, 2008 [8 favorites]
I had one of those. A "diamond rio" or some such. It was pretty crappy.
I had one too, the terribly named PMP300. 128MB, and you put the songs on it via parallel cable. I remember thinking "If someone can put a hard drive in one of these, and make the interface better, they're going to make a ton of money."
History doesn't remember the losers.
posted by splatta at 3:31 PM on September 9, 2008
I had one too, the terribly named PMP300. 128MB, and you put the songs on it via parallel cable. I remember thinking "If someone can put a hard drive in one of these, and make the interface better, they're going to make a ton of money."
History doesn't remember the losers.
posted by splatta at 3:31 PM on September 9, 2008
Oh man, not even 128MB, 32! That's 12 songs! Uphill! Both ways!
posted by splatta at 3:32 PM on September 9, 2008 [2 favorites]
posted by splatta at 3:32 PM on September 9, 2008 [2 favorites]
I had the PMP300 as well. I dunno what you folks are complaining about - it fit in my pocket, had an HOUR of music, and I didn't have to go around burning cds every week when my tastes changed. Awesome.
(Then I fell off my bike and broke it. This would become the story of my portable music situation for the next...7 years. So far.)
posted by Lemurrhea at 3:35 PM on September 9, 2008
(Then I fell off my bike and broke it. This would become the story of my portable music situation for the next...7 years. So far.)
posted by Lemurrhea at 3:35 PM on September 9, 2008
Here's my 1893 diagram of the first LHC:
O
I want to sue someone.
posted by Dumsnill at 3:36 PM on September 9, 2008 [6 favorites]
O
I want to sue someone.
posted by Dumsnill at 3:36 PM on September 9, 2008 [6 favorites]
It's a laudable idea, but the leap into the future he made with the IXI and it's ecosystem.
This is a horrible, horrible sentence. (Found in the last paragraph)
posted by desjardins at 3:38 PM on September 9, 2008
This is a horrible, horrible sentence. (Found in the last paragraph)
posted by desjardins at 3:38 PM on September 9, 2008
This is a horrible, horrible sentence. (Found in the last paragraph)
Yep, that article could have used at least a cursory proofreading.
posted by mattholomew at 3:40 PM on September 9, 2008
Yep, that article could have used at least a cursory proofreading.
posted by mattholomew at 3:40 PM on September 9, 2008
So he patented something but didn't actually create it?
They built five of them, according to the article.
posted by mr_roboto at 3:41 PM on September 9, 2008
They built five of them, according to the article.
posted by mr_roboto at 3:41 PM on September 9, 2008
As a few others have noted, they built working prototypes - and even though they only played about 3.5 minutes of music, that is an amazing accomplishment for 1979.
posted by mattholomew at 3:53 PM on September 9, 2008
posted by mattholomew at 3:53 PM on September 9, 2008
Also, speaking of pre-iPod MP3 players, anyone else remember those guys who made homebrew car MP3 players by rigging up desktop PCs to their car stereo systems? There was actually a pretty decent-sized scene for that until everyone realized that the whole concept was stupid and they should just buy iPods instead.
posted by burnmp3s at 3:53 PM on September 9, 2008
posted by burnmp3s at 3:53 PM on September 9, 2008
“It's interesting how the advent of the iPod has made everyone forget about every portable MP3 player that preceded it”
Yeah, I don’t get the iPod thing. I’ve got an iRiver with plenty o’memory, plays movies (with the nifty web software) and it’s got an FM radio (which is why I no longer leave the gym).
These kinds of guys amaze me. Because it’s often not the technology or equipment itself that makes the difference. I remember reading about fast trains and that ultimately the “Orange Blossom Special” or whatever train was touted as really fast - had not much to do with the actual train itself (and was often several trains) but how the routes were run and timed and scheduled.
posted by Smedleyman at 4:24 PM on September 9, 2008 [1 favorite]
Yeah, I don’t get the iPod thing. I’ve got an iRiver with plenty o’memory, plays movies (with the nifty web software) and it’s got an FM radio (which is why I no longer leave the gym).
These kinds of guys amaze me. Because it’s often not the technology or equipment itself that makes the difference. I remember reading about fast trains and that ultimately the “Orange Blossom Special” or whatever train was touted as really fast - had not much to do with the actual train itself (and was often several trains) but how the routes were run and timed and scheduled.
posted by Smedleyman at 4:24 PM on September 9, 2008 [1 favorite]
It's interesting how the advent of the iPod has made everyone forget about every portable MP3 player that preceded it. Apple hit the market, what, 3 years after the first companies had product on the street? I had one of those. A "diamond rio" or some such. It was pretty crappy.
A friend of mine still has a Diamond Rio. 32Mb and a mini-USB (I think) cable, and she still uses it for running. 32Mb is like... 10 songs?
It was something like $400, and she was the only person I know who had such a thing as an MP3-player for about two years.
I remember when Apple announced the iPod. I was watching the introduction and I remember saying "That's it? Apple's now making an MP3 player? Big deal."
I was so wrong.
posted by rokusan at 4:31 PM on September 9, 2008
A friend of mine still has a Diamond Rio. 32Mb and a mini-USB (I think) cable, and she still uses it for running. 32Mb is like... 10 songs?
It was something like $400, and she was the only person I know who had such a thing as an MP3-player for about two years.
I remember when Apple announced the iPod. I was watching the introduction and I remember saying "That's it? Apple's now making an MP3 player? Big deal."
I was so wrong.
posted by rokusan at 4:31 PM on September 9, 2008
Huh. Their html's broken too: see "Development of the first MP3 player," though I think they really mean "first portable digital music player." The linked PDF is a bit meatier.
I'm curious about the actual hardware specs: cheap credit-card-sized storage of, say, megabytes was kind of unheard of then, I think. Right now, the usual size for MP3 is 128kbps, roughly one megabyte per minute. That's pretty compressed: testing that in the early nineties took a pretty hefty machine for the time.
posted by Pronoiac at 4:48 PM on September 9, 2008
I'm curious about the actual hardware specs: cheap credit-card-sized storage of, say, megabytes was kind of unheard of then, I think. Right now, the usual size for MP3 is 128kbps, roughly one megabyte per minute. That's pretty compressed: testing that in the early nineties took a pretty hefty machine for the time.
posted by Pronoiac at 4:48 PM on September 9, 2008
Ha, I knew it. Britons invented everything first. It's the Americans who come along and make all the money off it...
posted by EndsOfInvention
Eponysterical!
posted by ericb at 4:50 PM on September 9, 2008 [1 favorite]
posted by EndsOfInvention
Eponysterical!
posted by ericb at 4:50 PM on September 9, 2008 [1 favorite]
I'm kind of curiopus as to waht this 3 minutes of music actually consisted of.
posted by Artw at 4:50 PM on September 9, 2008
posted by Artw at 4:50 PM on September 9, 2008
burnmp3s: "Also, speaking of pre-iPod MP3 players, anyone else remember those guys who made homebrew car MP3 players by rigging up desktop PCs to their car stereo systems? There was actually a pretty decent-sized scene for that until everyone realized that the whole concept was stupid and they should just buy iPods instead."
The concept wasn't stupid, it just got outmoded. I mean the first iPod didn't come out until 2001 and I was seeing MP3 playing car mods in what, 1998? That's at least 3 years ahead of the curve. I had a CD/MP3 player then but I was really tempted with these things so I wouldn't have to change discs ever. Tho all my MP3s at the time fit onto like 6 discs.
posted by MrBobaFett at 4:58 PM on September 9, 2008
The concept wasn't stupid, it just got outmoded. I mean the first iPod didn't come out until 2001 and I was seeing MP3 playing car mods in what, 1998? That's at least 3 years ahead of the curve. I had a CD/MP3 player then but I was really tempted with these things so I wouldn't have to change discs ever. Tho all my MP3s at the time fit onto like 6 discs.
posted by MrBobaFett at 4:58 PM on September 9, 2008
The more I think about it, the more I realize that Apple (and I'm a devotee) has never been the great innovator as far as actual new ideas are concerned. Steve Jobs' great skill is in recognizing innovations that either can't or won't go anywhere in they're current state and then making them marketable and revolutionary. And sometimes he isn't even great about that.
6 or 7 years ago I saw a bit about Apple's evolution for a business course, and part of it was Jobs talking about his trip to the Palo Alto Research Center.
Wikipedia disagrees with me here about the origins of GUI, but as this piece explained it, PARC was part of a deal to get Xerox out of some anti-trust litigation, and was not permitted to actually market any of their achievements, and so at one point invited Jobs to take a look at what they'd been working on. One of those things was the Graphical User Interface, which immediately entranced Jobs, and was the inspiration for the Apple II in 1984.
As Jobs himself admits, however, there were a number of other major innovations on display that day which didn't hold his interest as much, and which he's probably still kicking himself over. One of these was a primitive version of the internet. While the engineers at PARC showed him a demonstration, in obs' own words, "I didn't even see that," so entranced was he by the possibilities of GUI.
Later in the documentary, we see Jobs unveiling the Apple II with the less-than-perfect tag line, "Insanely Great!" Just down from him on the dais is a young Bill Gates, who would of course take the GUI idea over to a new company which would almost put Apple out of business.
SO yeah, Apple doesn't do much in the way of innovation themselves, and in their own way are probably more like Sony in taking other ideas and bringing them to the masses (except that Apple has been smart enough not to try to get into the home console wars) but it's notable, I think, that it appears that Apple has been above board with this. They didn't steal GUI - it was handed to them and they simply made it popular. They didn't steal the iPod, they built their machine and business model around a brilliant lapsed patent that didn't go anywhere. (Kramer didn't seem to realize just how much cache in the music industry, and how much initial infrastructure, he would have needed in order to get the industry to switch to his new standard which also required a new type of secure machine in any record store willing to get on board.)
So Jobs is more geek than inventor - he's also a great businessman, and we all seem to like our iPods, so what's ths big deal?
posted by Navelgazer at 4:58 PM on September 9, 2008
6 or 7 years ago I saw a bit about Apple's evolution for a business course, and part of it was Jobs talking about his trip to the Palo Alto Research Center.
Wikipedia disagrees with me here about the origins of GUI, but as this piece explained it, PARC was part of a deal to get Xerox out of some anti-trust litigation, and was not permitted to actually market any of their achievements, and so at one point invited Jobs to take a look at what they'd been working on. One of those things was the Graphical User Interface, which immediately entranced Jobs, and was the inspiration for the Apple II in 1984.
As Jobs himself admits, however, there were a number of other major innovations on display that day which didn't hold his interest as much, and which he's probably still kicking himself over. One of these was a primitive version of the internet. While the engineers at PARC showed him a demonstration, in obs' own words, "I didn't even see that," so entranced was he by the possibilities of GUI.
Later in the documentary, we see Jobs unveiling the Apple II with the less-than-perfect tag line, "Insanely Great!" Just down from him on the dais is a young Bill Gates, who would of course take the GUI idea over to a new company which would almost put Apple out of business.
SO yeah, Apple doesn't do much in the way of innovation themselves, and in their own way are probably more like Sony in taking other ideas and bringing them to the masses (except that Apple has been smart enough not to try to get into the home console wars) but it's notable, I think, that it appears that Apple has been above board with this. They didn't steal GUI - it was handed to them and they simply made it popular. They didn't steal the iPod, they built their machine and business model around a brilliant lapsed patent that didn't go anywhere. (Kramer didn't seem to realize just how much cache in the music industry, and how much initial infrastructure, he would have needed in order to get the industry to switch to his new standard which also required a new type of secure machine in any record store willing to get on board.)
So Jobs is more geek than inventor - he's also a great businessman, and we all seem to like our iPods, so what's ths big deal?
posted by Navelgazer at 4:58 PM on September 9, 2008
To be fair, Kramer's online store is still the #1 retailer worldwide of 8-track cassettes.
posted by ericbop at 4:58 PM on September 9, 2008
posted by ericbop at 4:58 PM on September 9, 2008
FTA: "For every record or tape of conventional format sold, over one copy is made in an illegal form. . . Therefore over 100% of the total sale potential is lost."
50%, surely? "Total sale potential" could have been 100% higher, but only 50% of the "TSP" was lost...
posted by benzo8 at 5:13 PM on September 9, 2008
50%, surely? "Total sale potential" could have been 100% higher, but only 50% of the "TSP" was lost...
posted by benzo8 at 5:13 PM on September 9, 2008
I'm kind of curiopus as to waht this 3 minutes of music actually consisted of.
4'33" by John Cale. I can dupe one for you if you like.
posted by hal9k at 5:20 PM on September 9, 2008
4'33" by John Cale. I can dupe one for you if you like.
posted by hal9k at 5:20 PM on September 9, 2008
Pfft. John Cale totally ripped off John Cage, who thought of 4'33" like twenty years earlier.
posted by Bromius at 5:26 PM on September 9, 2008
posted by Bromius at 5:26 PM on September 9, 2008
(My comment appears to be blank, go back and try again)
posted by Dumsnill at 6:11 PM on September 9, 2008
Now, now. Apple never claimed to have invented the MP3 player, so it seems silly to blame them for the misattribution. The sort of people who attribute that to Apple are the same ones who think Bill Gates invented the PC.
posted by rokusan at 7:24 PM on September 9, 2008
posted by rokusan at 7:24 PM on September 9, 2008
i call total complete bullshit on this story.
if they built working prototypes, where are they? schematic? details of the technology used? photos? video? is there a patent application online? cause every article I've seen about this has the same colored pencil drawing. maybe it's all in the pdfs at the end of the article, but I can't get them to download.
there was ONE model of commercial digital sampler available at the time, the fairlight, and on it's worst sample rate (8 khz), it had a couple seconds of sample time. it was basically the size of an original IBM PC/XT/AT, and it had a $40,000 base price.
do you know how much ram cost in the 70s-80s? the article talks about tracks purchased via phone and downloaded- what was the bleeding edge modem in 1979, 300bps? even at 8khz, how on earth is that feasible? the cd wasn't even out until 1982.
the original sony walkman, however, did come out in 1979. undoubtably, this would have been inspired by that. a good idea, sure, and an uncanny prediction of technology that would arrive 20-30 years later. but there's just no way he had this back then.
posted by tremspeed at 7:24 PM on September 9, 2008
if they built working prototypes, where are they? schematic? details of the technology used? photos? video? is there a patent application online? cause every article I've seen about this has the same colored pencil drawing. maybe it's all in the pdfs at the end of the article, but I can't get them to download.
there was ONE model of commercial digital sampler available at the time, the fairlight, and on it's worst sample rate (8 khz), it had a couple seconds of sample time. it was basically the size of an original IBM PC/XT/AT, and it had a $40,000 base price.
do you know how much ram cost in the 70s-80s? the article talks about tracks purchased via phone and downloaded- what was the bleeding edge modem in 1979, 300bps? even at 8khz, how on earth is that feasible? the cd wasn't even out until 1982.
the original sony walkman, however, did come out in 1979. undoubtably, this would have been inspired by that. a good idea, sure, and an uncanny prediction of technology that would arrive 20-30 years later. but there's just no way he had this back then.
posted by tremspeed at 7:24 PM on September 9, 2008
When I built my home-brew 8085 single board computer in 1978, a 256 byte static RAM chip (I want to say a 2102, but I can't really remember the number) was maybe $5.00 - it didn't break the bank. I spent more on the glue logic for a front panel to key-in programs in binary !
But the smarter people that weren't college students used dynamic RAM, which was both more dense and cheaper.
And all his player needed was a D/A converter, not that uncommon a chip - the Fairlight would have been used only by the music provider.
One of my professors at the time brought in a little circuit that was a 1 bit memory and D/A that could play simple tunes - this was in 1976.
posted by rfs at 8:33 PM on September 9, 2008 [1 favorite]
But the smarter people that weren't college students used dynamic RAM, which was both more dense and cheaper.
And all his player needed was a D/A converter, not that uncommon a chip - the Fairlight would have been used only by the music provider.
One of my professors at the time brought in a little circuit that was a 1 bit memory and D/A that could play simple tunes - this was in 1976.
posted by rfs at 8:33 PM on September 9, 2008 [1 favorite]
I did a little calculation - 3.5 minutes of stereo sound, at half of CD quality - 22khz 8bit - would be over 8 MB of storage space required. That would not be portable in 1977.
posted by tremspeed at 8:56 PM on September 9, 2008
posted by tremspeed at 8:56 PM on September 9, 2008
this story also sounds and looks a lot like a joke to me.
And I have a Creative mp3 player today, it holds 60GB and cost about half what the equivalent Ipod did at the time. And the interface is better. I wonder why they don't even try to advertise?
posted by drjimmy11 at 10:12 PM on September 9, 2008 [1 favorite]
And I have a Creative mp3 player today, it holds 60GB and cost about half what the equivalent Ipod did at the time. And the interface is better. I wonder why they don't even try to advertise?
posted by drjimmy11 at 10:12 PM on September 9, 2008 [1 favorite]
This story looks really fishy to me, too. But it's been all over the internet for the past few days, and no one's tagged it as a hoax yet.
Man; it is fishy, though...
posted by mr_roboto at 10:44 PM on September 9, 2008
Man; it is fishy, though...
posted by mr_roboto at 10:44 PM on September 9, 2008
If it's up to 3 minutes of chip tunes then it's way less impressive.
posted by Artw at 11:02 PM on September 9, 2008
posted by Artw at 11:02 PM on September 9, 2008
Wow, I think this really bothered me. I did some digging.
I pondered this. If you wanted to do a minimal, noisy demo, you could do mono 8khz 8-bit, for 1 kilobyte/sec, & 256k would get you ... four minutes.
Then I remembered the patent. I looked up the creator's name, & found the relevant patent (#4667088). The storage would have been bubble memory. I'd forgotten about this; I haven't reality-checked the cost or data density.
The patent mentions the rate of eight megabytes for 3.5 minutes; this works out to be an average of 40 kbytes/sec. DPCM, joint stereo (not by name), & frequency subbands are mentioned for compression. This would be much closer to CD sound than the noisy shortcut I mentioned above.
The stores could have used ISDN, at 128 kbit/s. Using one ISDN connection to its maximum would give 4x speed, & you could use multiple connections. I haven't verified the timeline here, for its development & deployment.
The Apple vs. Burst lawsuit documentation mentioned is online. The sketch in the article is in there, & pages 9-12 seem directly relevant. Also a reminder, in case you think Diamond vs. RIAA was the last lawsuit involved in portable digital music players.
So, I take back my skepticism. This was intriguingly plausible.
posted by Pronoiac at 12:38 AM on September 10, 2008 [2 favorites]
I pondered this. If you wanted to do a minimal, noisy demo, you could do mono 8khz 8-bit, for 1 kilobyte/sec, & 256k would get you ... four minutes.
Then I remembered the patent. I looked up the creator's name, & found the relevant patent (#4667088). The storage would have been bubble memory. I'd forgotten about this; I haven't reality-checked the cost or data density.
The patent mentions the rate of eight megabytes for 3.5 minutes; this works out to be an average of 40 kbytes/sec. DPCM, joint stereo (not by name), & frequency subbands are mentioned for compression. This would be much closer to CD sound than the noisy shortcut I mentioned above.
The stores could have used ISDN, at 128 kbit/s. Using one ISDN connection to its maximum would give 4x speed, & you could use multiple connections. I haven't verified the timeline here, for its development & deployment.
The Apple vs. Burst lawsuit documentation mentioned is online. The sketch in the article is in there, & pages 9-12 seem directly relevant. Also a reminder, in case you think Diamond vs. RIAA was the last lawsuit involved in portable digital music players.
So, I take back my skepticism. This was intriguingly plausible.
posted by Pronoiac at 12:38 AM on September 10, 2008 [2 favorites]
rigging up desktop PCs to their car stereo systems
During high school, my friends and I recorded a few original and parody songs. We uploaded them to a previous incarnation of mp3.com under the band name "Bring Up the Bob". One of the songs was called Traffic Jam, and a user left a review that said "If you're listening to this on a linux-box hooked into your car stereo while stuck in traffic... don't."
(Un?)Fortunately, mp3.com did a total reboot at some point, and those recordings now only exist on a few burned cds floating around who-knows-where.
posted by owtytrof at 7:55 AM on September 10, 2008
During high school, my friends and I recorded a few original and parody songs. We uploaded them to a previous incarnation of mp3.com under the band name "Bring Up the Bob". One of the songs was called Traffic Jam, and a user left a review that said "If you're listening to this on a linux-box hooked into your car stereo while stuck in traffic... don't."
(Un?)Fortunately, mp3.com did a total reboot at some point, and those recordings now only exist on a few burned cds floating around who-knows-where.
posted by owtytrof at 7:55 AM on September 10, 2008
rigging up desktop PCs to their car stereo systems
Waves hand.. I had a full-on tower in the trunk, hooked up to an inverter, and one of those numpads you buy for a laptop plugged in to control it all. It was awesome. In 1997. These days I have a deck that takes thumb drives instead. Much easier to use, and none of the filesystem corruption problems from shutting off the tower by killing the inverter.
posted by barc0001 at 11:25 AM on September 10, 2008
Waves hand.. I had a full-on tower in the trunk, hooked up to an inverter, and one of those numpads you buy for a laptop plugged in to control it all. It was awesome. In 1997. These days I have a deck that takes thumb drives instead. Much easier to use, and none of the filesystem corruption problems from shutting off the tower by killing the inverter.
posted by barc0001 at 11:25 AM on September 10, 2008
The problem with patenting something you can't actually create in a marketable form is that it doesn't really do you any good, and may actually hold the technology back since no one else can market it if they do manage to make it. For example, this guy's patent was about two years dead when the iPod came out.
What is interesting is that in the not too distant future there are going to be a lot of public domain ideas out there thanks to the patent trolls.
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 12:46 PM on September 10, 2008
What is interesting is that in the not too distant future there are going to be a lot of public domain ideas out there thanks to the patent trolls.
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 12:46 PM on September 10, 2008
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posted by porn in the woods at 2:50 PM on September 9, 2008 [1 favorite]