The Amazon MP3 Store: Watch Out Apple!
With Apple’s stock at record highs and critics showering the iPhone and recent iPod updates with praise, it almost seems as if nothing can go wrong for the company. Almost. On September 26, Amazon announced the immediate release of their MP3 download store, a clear competitor with Apple’s iTunes Store. But here’s the catch: Amazon’s store has no DRM whatsoever. That means you can play the tracks you download just about anywhere: Mac or PC, iTunes or Windows Media Player, iPod, Zen, or (god forbid) Zune. The Amazon store also has the upper hand on pricing: most songs are 99 cents, the same as iTunes, but they offer the top 100 tracks for a reduced price of 89 cents each. At a glance, it appears that the Amazon store trumps the iTS in just about every aspect. So let’s take a closer look at how Amazon’s new MP3 download store stacks up against the iTS.
PithHelmet: Internet Minus the Advertising
Ads. They’re flashy, obtrusive, and probably the most despised thing in the world (or at least in the top 10.) And yet, ads are everywhere: in print, on television, on the radio, and most of all on the internet. Some internet ads are downright heinous: they hover over page content, play obnoxious sound effects, or ask you to do something ridiculous in return for offers that are obviously too good to be true. So how can you effectively avoid ads while surfing?
