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Takes one to know one!

That picture of Rob is priceless. Oh my oh my.

MDN Magic Word: "anyone" as is "Does anyone care about Real Networks anymore?"

Okay, so Apple created a fantastic product (the iPod), they also created software that works perfectly with it (iTunes). Due to some annoying CEO of a failing company complaining, Apple should conpletely turn around the success of a music revolution? I think not!

One word, Rob: treadmill.

MDN MW: "carbs"

He needs a life.

He truly looks a lot like Jabba the Hut in that photo!

Does anyone else see it to?

Come on people, don't leave me hangin.

Gosh, if Steve Jobs has got the head, Rob sure has the rest of the pig, just look at the donuts.

Don’t pull any punches, MDN, tell us what you really think!

great picture

IMHO, Steve Jobs should stand up and say "The day I can legitimately play an Xbox game on my Sony Playstation and vice vera, is the day I will open up the iPod"

That would shut Sony and Microsoft up.

As for Realnetworks, who gives a rats arse what they think? If the CEO of a company has to resort to name calling, then the company isn't worth caring about.

Now if we could band together, with an email-blitz to all the major websites still using both WinCrap media and (un)-Real for streaming... and .. suggest .. (nicely) that there is a better alternative (out there) .. a solution which offers better streaming transmissions.. at much lower bandwidth baggage ...
Do you think anyone will listen ?

That photo is a classic!

What's the article about?? I can't read it - I have tears in my eyes from laughing too much!!

MDN: Your response is true.

Dosen't mean Job's isn't pig headed though.

I love Apple and love this site, so please don't flame, but I see a bit of validity in the last four lines of this article. If Apple and all the other online music stores got together and made one universal DRM standard so that everything would work with everything else it would certainly put a hit on piracy. It does indeed make piracy more compelling because one DRM doesn't work with another companies DRM. I'm not going to buy a song if its not going to work somewhere else. I'd imagine I'm not the only one here who really dislikes the fact that they can't play their apple DRM'd music through other devices. Or one could buy a cool new toy that can stream the contents of their itunes music EXCEPT FOR THOSE DAMN DRM SONGS. Its not exactly all that great to me that I can't play it through my Tivo like I can with unprotected files. I want convenience from the music I buy dammit, not headaches. One universal DRM would take care of that. So I think his idea is sound.
But THEN you have to look at it from Apples side. They have the best music player on the market bar none. They have the best Mac/PC jukebox on the market bar none. The best online music store bar none. On top of that they basically own me through that DRM. It would take me weeks to rip all of my DRM'd music and then put them back at this point.
So I'll pretend I'm Glaser, "Awwww (oink) comeon Steve, sharing the DRM will help everyone and will really hurt piracy in the long run. Plus having more music stores will increase competition and drive the price of music down for consumers. See (oink) we just wanna help."
Now I'll be Steve, "Look pig, we have everything, I could basically own you right now if I wanted. If you want some done right go do it yourself, so get off of your fat ass and make your own player and software and then you can share the DRM with me and I will quickly destroy you with lower prices and even BETTER hardware. You have no chance and you know it. Grovel and beg for the DRM and sharing of my masterpiece known as ipod. Lick my black sneaker. [Glaser then licks his black sneaker]
End Scene.
So basically that ends that argument. The best music player comes as a package just as it should. The second best comes with a player and a lot of hope it will work with what you want it to.
Apple's profits could easily tell you that they will forever say "Hell no we won't go."

Lastly, Mac Daily News take is kinda off here and misleading mainly on those last four lines of the article.

...said the swine form his wallow...

Feeze, you make a damn good argument right there. I didn't even consider that. Excellent point. Although I do believe apple should allow CERTAIN other products to use their DRM (specifically the ones that advance Apples goals). I mean, the xbox does allow other devices and controllers to be attached to it for playing the DRM'd games. Thats all I'm really askin for.
Matt

Never mind the photo, the take is a pearl:

Glaser's trough has been filled recently by Microsoft; his confidence temporarily restored by the slop

Right Col.Angus,

I think that's the best MDM take ever and that this first line is a gem:-
"To the porcine Rob Glaser, the irony of calling Steve Jobs "pigheaded" seems lost."

Apple if they can't hook up their music with their other digital content should such convergence become popular."

-----

hahahaha.. keep holding your breath there.. convergence of.. say.. iTunes songs with.. um.. a Creative MuVo?

Yeah.

Right.

Why bother?

Glaser needs to pressuring Microsoft to open THEIR DRM to the Macintosh. Why Microsoft hasn't is totally beyond me. I assume they thought Apple would die this way, just like they don't provide Access, FrontPage, VB or Works (to the benefit of FileMaker, RapidWeaver, RealBASIC & iPage, etc). It is ironic how this strategy has backfired big time.

Or Real should write their own DRM for Windows and Macintosh and licence it in competition to Apple and Microsoft, but sell it to the music stores cheaper than anyone else (they've got the cash). Then work with hardware markers to sell their music players at a loss until they beat Apple with FINALLY some decent competition.

If Apple open their DRM the first thing that'll happen it every music store will try to modify it slightly so it becomes incompatible with each other. They want all the songs for themselves, not to interoperate. This is basic competition. And who suffers in the end - us. No, I don't want Apple to licence their DRM. If I can't get a song on iTMS there are plenty of other avenues other than propping up failing companies that can't compete.

MW: 'stay' as in things should stay as they are...

"The day I can legitimately play an Xbox game on my Sony Playstation and vice vera, is the day I will open up the iPod"

Good one feeze! No argument about that.

Steve Jobs worked out a way to make digital music into a business.

Nobody else had worked out how to do it and to this day, nobody else makes money from it.

To do this, he had to make tough decisions and negotiate with some very hostile people.

People who succeed under such circumstances are often accused of being pig-headed, but the alternative is to be a loser.

Many music users do not want any DRM - arguments about compatible DRM are like arguments about what colour bicycle a fish should ride.
I do not buy DRM music - ever - I object to the presumption of music vendors that I am a criminal and will give away or otherwise abuse non DRMed music.

I buy CDs and that allows me to do what I like with music that I have purchased - if I want to rip it to a variety of formats so it will play on PSP, ipod, PC and whatever other devices I can, No limit on what devices or how many.

DRM just means presumed guilty by the record companies - I do not give my custom to someone who pre-supposes I am thieving scum.

If you loik at what cut of the profits the artists get from music (and their cut off digital is even worse than off CD) then the big music outfits are the big thieves here.

Jabba! Jabba the Hutt is that you? You eatin' donuts man?

how one man can eat so many donuts is unbeleivable.

...MDN: it is obvious someone photoshopped that picture and no respected commentator or reporter would mention a subject's weight in their piece. So grow up sometime.

as to Real, it is not Apple's deal to make its competitors life easier. No one is going to pressure Apple until someone offers up something that is cheaper or better than what Apple offers. It is as simple as that.

Apple holds the advantage now and how long they want to keep things tight is a balancing act. Right now, other than whining, there is no market pressure to do so, so why give up $$?

My understanding is that Apple doesn't make much profit at all from the iTMS with the $.99 price; it's sort of like, buy my mp3 player and get all of these songs at a discount.

What Glaser is proposing would be similar to me walking into a bank lobby, pointing at their sign that said free gas grill with every new account, and demanding one since I just opened an account with the bank across the street! Or trying to validate a KFC coupon at a Wendy's.

He may have a point when he states that "consumers may blame Apple if they can't hook up their music with their other digital content should such convergence become popular." These consumers, all twelve or fifteen of them, may then be quite angry! But it also assumes that every other player and service will cooperate as well. If they do, it will be out of pure desperation, a last gasp before the succumb to the iPod and iTMS.

Oh, and I also agree with caddisfly. Mentioning the irony of him calling Jobs that name is okay. The donuts and slop comments were cheap shots and over the line. Geez, and you guys wonder why they call you fanatics???

Those poor donuts are about to get "Glased"

Jobs? Pigheaded? Absolutely, and thank God he is. It is his pigheaded refusal to compromise on the quality of software and hardware that make OS X, the Mac, and the iPod what they are. Not to mention the iApps, Final Cut Pro etc. It is his pigheaded insistence on the priority of the story that made all of Pixar's films smash hits. He is pigheaded, but he's not blindly so. Thank God for pigheaded people and their determination to stick to a vision in the face of naysayers. In this case I'd take it as a compliment, so everyone should stop hyperventilating over Glaser's remarks.

MW: "stand", as in everybody should take one for what they believe in. How the hell does MDN do it?

When preparing for his role in Terry Gilliam's adaptation of "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," Benicio del Toro purposefully put on forty pounds for the role. He says in the DVD's commentary track, "It's not hard to do. If you eat 18 donuts a day, you will gain weight."

I always think of that for some reason whenever MDN does a take about RealNetworks.

"If Apple open their DRM the first thing that'll happen it every music store will try to modify it slightly so it becomes incompatible with each other."

How true! If the other music "stores" (actually they're music "rent-a-centers") were concerned about interoperability they wouldn't be renting their music.

Licensing the FairPlay DRM at this point would not be a good thing.

And for the "pig-headed" comment, well, that is just bad form by Glaser. Does he spend his time inbetween donuts on the playground with 2nd graders?

MW: "now" as in "Open you DRM now, Steve Jobs, or I'll huff, and I'll puff, and I'll still be irrelevant.

He should seriously consider salads.

From that picture I think Rob is the pig head, OINK!,OINK!

Real Networks support for Mac (and Linux) is laughable compared to their Windows offerings! To say that FairPlay is proprietary and PlaysForSure is not, is just plain silly at best! Just because Microsoft licenses out their technology to 3rd parties doesn't magically make it non-proprietary!

FairPlay is cross-platform, PlaysForSure is not, end of story!!!

r those krispy kreams?


he can't be all bad...

MDN word water ...

as in drink more, eat less

Earlier this year I began uploading my audio sermons in m4a format and have them linked as Podcasts through iTunes (Podcasts:"RevNeal's Sermon Podcasts")as well as stand-alone download access on my website (http://www.RevNeal.org). Nevertheless, I STILL have nearly 5 years of Audio Sermons formatted for streaming play in RealPlayer format on my website, and I still upload a copy of each new sermon every week in Real Player format (the files are tiny in comparison to those I upload in m4a) hence the usability of Real Player is a real issue for me. True, there's not much music content on the internet for Macs in Real Player, but Real Player STILL works MUCH better than Windows Media Player on Macs for most streaming content that one wants to access on the internet; AND, it is still the most widely used (internationally speaking) method for streaming media on the planet. It is also backwards-compatible to much older computers and, if encoded correctly, streams well even for those poor souls still plagued with having only dial-up access.

Thank God there's a codec for conversion to .rm in Quicktime ... that made my life a lot easier. Real has NEVER updated their RealProducer to operate in OSX ... up until the release of the Quicktime Codec for conversion to .rm I had to boot up Classic to run RealProducer. It had become the ONLY reason why I ever used Classic, and I was getting very tired of it.

As for the whole spat for DRMs and such ... WHY should Apple change? They OWN the market.

Here's a rare photo of Rob on vacation:
http://www.ces.purdue.edu/pork/images/ansci/glasses.jpg

That pic w/ Glacier and the donuts cracked me up big time!

I couldn't stop laughing for 10 seconds. And MacJack's line was frickin' funny, too!

You guys have great sense of humor.

RevNeal:
I have NEVER been able to get RealPlayer to work properly on my Mac. Assuming anyone can even find the free player on Real's site, and assuming you can slog through everything that Real is shilling to get to it, and despite numerous attempts at installation, all I ever see when I click on a RealMedia formatted file is a message telling me I do not have the appropriate plug-in. RealPlayer is the ONLY piece of crap software that I have never been able to get to work properly in OS X, and I have been a Mac user for about eleven years.

Hemorrhoid Rage,

Sounds horrible. Ever since the release of OSX.4 I have not been able to get Windows Media Player to either load or play. The installer crashes. This is true on my desk top AND on my laptop. I don't know why, and while I don't much care there are, occasionally, news broadcasts on CNN I'd like to watch which I can't because I don't have a functional Windows Media Player.

As for Real Player ... I've given directions on my site for people to find the free player. It's not hard at all (2 clicks and fill out the download form and you're there) And, as for playing my files ... they're simply encoded for 28.8 so ANYONE can download/stream them even at dial up. I've had no one (be they Mac or Windows or whatever OS) tell me that there's been any problem, and since I don't have any special sound or video features with the sermon files they don't require special plug-ins other than the one that comes with Real Player. I've been doing this for almost 6 years, now ... it works.

i'm a little piggy, here's my snout

oink oink oink

oink oink oink

i love the numbers in MDN's take: "Apple matched Real's entire quarterly revenue of $82.2 million in about the first 49 hours of the quarter."

that in itself says a lot.

I'm a Mac/iPod lover. I also love this site. I say this because I care.

MDN:
I think your commentary here is a new low.

It is clear that you have a valid point, one that you have enthusiastically and repeatedly shared with this sites visitors, who are predominantly Mac users.

Even if one considers all the arguments about this site being listed among Tech news sites...etc., that would be more of a reason to be BOTH cogent and respectful in your commentary.

I just cannot see anyone reading this commentary and switching to an iPod or a Mac, they would probably be repelled by this sort of abuse.

"porcine", a photoshoped picture... What is next?

If MDN's goals are to attract people to Macs and iPods, or defend them and clarify the misinformation that exists out there, then these misinformed people are probably better served by redirecting them to other sites.

Please tone down the abuse.

Apple should just BUY Realnetworks and appoint Rob as pastry chef at the cafe'.

okay mdn
you owe me a new keyboard and theater display...!!!
ha
your take had me spewing coffee everywhere from laughter
that was an epic combo of word and image...the glased donuts?
priceless
the subliminal animal farm analogy
brilliant

Rob "Napoleon" Glaser: "All CEOs are equal, but some are more equal than others! Take that, Snowball Steve!"

Rob Glaser's reason for living for the last few years was not donuts. It was to win the Microsoft lawsuit.

The only way Apple will open up iTunes DRM is if Microsoft prevents iTunes and iPod from working on Longhorn/Vista.

Can you imagine the amount of money in that Microsoft lawsuit when Apple wins it?

For those who complain about media palying tools on OSX, although it does not do real, VLC is worth a look.

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/features.html

(Its even referenced on apple site for those who worry about open sourc / freeware "validity" http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/video/vlcmediaplayer.html
)



MDN word: value
as in VLC excellent value for money

Sounds horrible. Ever since the release of OSX.4 I have not been able to get Windows Media Player to either load or play. The installer crashes. This is true on my desk top AND on my laptop. I don't know why, and while I don't much care there are, occasionally, news broadcasts on CNN I'd like to watch which I can't because I don't have a functional Windows Media Player.

RevNeal,

If you were using the 'Modern' theme for WMP on Mac, it causes it to crash for whatever reason. This shouldn't affect the plugin though (from my experience). Your best bet would be to delete the Windows Media PLayer Prefs file under ~/Library/Preferences and it should default back to the other ugly 'default' theme.

Windows Media Player has only one unique feature;

"Buffering..."

Actually, I think Glaser looks more like Baron Vladimir Harkonnen of Dune. He hides his suspensor belt beneath his robes...