david randall's Profile

adobe. hands down. after effects is the de-facto standard in 2D animation. photoshop is the standard in raster design. illustrator is the standard for vector art. imagine having full access to the patents on PDF...not to mention the apple type library. overnight, apple becomes the dominant player in design, print, video and web. they leverage adobe products to build new apps for consumers. it would ensure their health in a way no other purchase could match. what tools do you think build microsoft's website?

the irony too, is that the recording industry demonizes P2P for hurting artists deprived of royalties when in fact the labels themselves are doing most of the screwing. i remember how shocked i was when watching a "behind the music" episode to find out that a huge act like TLC actually saw a dime per CD in actual profits. 10 cents on $15? that's robbery. personally, i think itunes should make a push to get artists signed to itunes directly. this is already happening in japan where sony artists are striking individual deals with itunes for distribution. i think everyone, artists and fans alike would be better off with a direct distribution model and let's face it...isn't that why the RIAA is freaking? they're worried that their the dinosaur, which they undoubtedly are.

what is really infuriating about this is that the record companies have had a virutal monopoly on distribution since the birth of vinyl. despite early assurances that CD prices would fall, the prices today are only slightly lower than they were a decade ago despite the fact that actual production and CD costs have plummeted. record companies complain that piracy is robbing their artists of rightful profits, and i'm sure that's true....but the labels themselves do a lot of raping too. take the average $14 CD. the actual pressing of the disc plus all packaging and printing costs less than $1 per copy. the artist is luck to see 10-20 cents profit per unit. that leaves more than $12 profit for the label on a $14 cd. exactly who is the pirate here?

ichat has a lot of potential, but as you say, it has too many prerequisites. instead, it should focus on helping users balance their multimedia needs against their available bandwidth. my idea, basically, is that ichat would show you a real-time graphical representation of your available bandwidth. maybe it's a bar graph. maybe a pie chart. whatever it is, as you choose your audio and video options, you would be able to SEE how much bandwidth you're using and when you're over the limit. like itunes, ichat should start with some basic presets for dialup or broadband, video size & quality & audio quality. these basic settings should be editable so you can save custom settings which work best with your equipment. if ichat could be more flexible...it would be useable for a much larger selection of the mac OSX user base and by extension, more relevant in the marketplace. for that to happen, apple has to unlock the door and open ichat to 3rd party cameras and focus on making the tricky task of balancing options vs. bandwidth as easy as choosing some presets. david r.

the weakness of all tablets to date is that they try to replicate the functionality of a laptop, so what you get is a laptop with a touch screen. this is the wrong paradigm. as with the ipod, the tablet must be an extension of your mac, not a replacement for it. to this end, i'd think an apple tablet should 1) provide access to all your major desktop apps....mail, safari, ical, address book, calculator, stickies, etc. 2) though a high-speed wireless connection, you can access music through itunes, images through iphoto & movies through imovie 3) tablet can be wireless remote for keynote, itunes & even ipod 4) tablet can integrate with new apple consumer products like a new itunes movie store or DVR/media playback device now the tablet extends the usefulness of the iapps and the mac. it ties together your entertainment system with your computer and yes, you can do some kinds of office stuff to....but it's not about word processing. it's about access to digital information and control of all our various gizmos. give me a carbonate shell with a large 6'' OLED or better yet, LEP plastic screen. minimal ports, great battery life & a pen-optimized OS with a focus on flexibility and customization. under $1000. oooh, baby!