Greetings from Amazon MP3,

As you have previously purchased music from Amazon MP3, we would like to ask for your participation in a short, anonymous survey. The survey asks about your music-related preferences and experiences with Amazon MP3, and should take about 5-10 minutes to complete. Your feedback is very important to us as we continue to enhance Amazon MP3 to better serve customer needs and interests.

The survey is active for a limited time only, so please respond as soon as possible. Just click the link below to begin. As our surveys are hosted by an external company, the link below does not lead to the Amazon.com site. Your information will be kept secure and confidential, and your name will not be associated with your answers. If the link is not active, or if you have concerns about authenticity and security, please type the Web address into your browser’s address bar.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/xxxxxxx

Thank you for taking the time to help improve Amazon MP3, and we appreciate your support!

Sincerely,
The Amazon MP3 Team

Here are some of the questions asked (I bolded my answers):

Why would you choose to buy digital music instead of a CD? (please pick your top reason)

To have the music immediately after purchase
Lower price
Can easily transfer to my MP3 player
Can buy individual songs, not the full album
Other (please specify):

It was difficult for me to specify just one reason for buying digital music, but I think “easy transfer to my MP3 player” has to be the top reason. I don’t listen to CDs anymore, so any purchase of a CD results in an extra step for me before I can listen to my newly purchased music. But some of the other reasons are just about as compelling.

How would you best describe your music discovery and purchasing habits with regards to Amazon MP3?

Discover and buy on Amazon MP3
Discover on Amazon MP3, buy elsewhere
Discover elsewhere, buy on Amazon MP3
Discover and buy elsewhere

Amazon’s site in general is way too busy. I have a hard time browsing on it even if I end up making purchases there after researching/discovering elsewhere.

Which technology-oriented websites do you regularly visit?

Techcrunch
Slashdot
Gizmodo
Boing Boing
Engadget
Wired News
CNET
I do not regularly visit technology-oriented websites
Other (please specify):

I visit all the sites listed but probably TechCrunch the most. Oh, and I couldn’t help but write in “TechConsumer” in the “Other” section…

Which social networking websites are you an active member of?

MySpace
Windows Live Spaces
Facebook
Friendster
LinkedIn
Classmates
I am not an active member of social networking websites
Other (please specify):

Amazon may have made a mistake by not defining “active” for this question. The two I selected I visit maybe weekly. But that’s much different usage than those that use them every hour.

Which following statements best describes your level of familiarity with MP3s?

I could describe its advantages and disadvantages
I could describe what it generally refers to
I am not familiar with the term

I’m pretty sure Amazon is hoping that few people will answer this question like I did. They are hoping to validate that MP3 is “good enough” for the masses even if plenty of better music formats exist.

Indicate the #1, #2 and #3 attributes you value most about Amazon MP3 (from the list):

MP3 downloads that play on any device (#3)
Music recommendations
Automatic import to my music library (#2)
Reliability of Amazon in general
Digital rights management-free (DRM-free) music (#1)
Offers the music I want
Ability to use my Amazon account
Low prices
One-click purchasing
Other (please specify attribute and rank):

Another tough decision, I like all the things listed above. But, first and foremost, I have to own my music (no DRM) and need its use to be as easy as possible (my #2 and #3 choices).

Is there anything you would like to see added or improved on Amazon MP3?

Why can’t I add Amazon MP3 items (single tracks or albums) to my Wishlist? As it stands, I have to use CDs for the Wishlist, which is kind of annoying.

“I think it was a one-off response to a particular situation… It was one of those things where we were in the position of everyone asking us what we were going to do. I don’t think it would have the same significance now anyway, if we chose to give something away again. It was a moment in time.”

Translation: “We didn’t make as much as we are hoping, and it would only be less if we used that model again.”

Incidentally, Radiohead never did reveal sales figures from its experiment and even responded to a third party study (calling the results false). In contrast, Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor was willing to share details on his success story. The digital version of the album Ghosts I-IV was offered for free while there was a charge for premium versions. Reznor said last month that the album had generated nearly 800,000 transactions and $1.6 million. And he had some interesting thoughts on the Radiohead experiment:

“I think the way (Radiohead) parlayed it into a marketing gimmick has certainly been shrewd… But if you look at what they did, it was very much a bait and switch, to get you to pay for a MySpace quality stream as a way to promote a very traditional record sale.”

Radiohead’s album is now on Amazon for $9.99 (or $8.90 for the download version, which is a higher quality version than what Radiohead gave away). Meanwhile, Reznor released a new NIN song for free and Cold Play released a free download ahead of their album release (which took down their website temporarily).

Free isn’t dead yet. And it’s not the only way. Check out “How To: Get Consumers to Buy CDs Instead of MP3s.”

Two weeks ago, HP released HP Upline, a service similar to Mozy that provides unlimited storage for $59/year. HP also released free accounts of the service, limited to 1GB and one year (Mozy does free too, but their version is 2GBs and has no expiration date). About a week and a half later, the Upline service went down for several days.

Soon after, I received an email from Mozy explaining how they’re trying to win some extra Mozy fans as a result of HP going down. So if you go to Mozy’s site and sign up, you can get 25% off biannual and annual signups (through April 30) with promo code UPLINE. (That’s better than the running deal for TechConsumer readers using promo code TECHCONSUMER to get 10% off an annual subscription or TECHCONSUMER2 to get 10% off a biannual subscription.)

It should be noted, however, that Mozy is getting pressure from more online backup/storage solutions (and let’s not forget the infamous rumor of Google coming out with a “GDrive”). Mozy does one thing, and one thing extremely well: backing up data.

But consumers are starting to look for more features (easy access from anywhere or sharing with friends). I, for one, haven’t played much with other options simply because Mozy does exactly what I need, and I’m not about to disrupt that. But that could change as my needs change. (So here’s hoping Mozy keeps up.)

For more info on what Mozy has to offer compared to other services, see this post.

This isn’t the first time I’ve heard PC gaming advocates denounce Intel’s graphics chipsets. Truth be told, they are probably just about the worst chips for 3D games out there. But does that really mean there is no place in the PC market place for adequate 2D graphics chips?

This is asinine on so many levels that I don’t even know where to start, but I will anyway. First, it is ridiculous to think that even 10% of all PCs would get used for somewhat demanding 3D games if they had capable hardware. According to Gartner, by the end of this year the worldwide install base for PCs will 1.1 billion units. That would mean that at least one billion discreet graphics cards would have been sold to people/companies/organizations that they would never use.

If you account for the fact that a decent gaming graphics card costs at least $150 (probably $200 or more really) then that would be $150,000,000,000 (or more) that would have been wasted. To put that in perspective, that is $25 billion more than Microsoft, Apple, Google, Yahoo, nVidia, Intel, AMD, and Comcast combined made in the last six years! Or said another way, we could fuel 61 million cars in the U.S. for an entire year. Saying every computer should have a capable 3D gaming video card in it is as ridiculous as saying every TV needs to have an Xbox 360/PS3/Wii built-in; it is just rhetoric.

Here is the other major problem, a $150 video card won’t be able to play any current games in three years. How many people keep their computers for three years or longer (outside of our techie circle obviously)? My parents have had the same computer for four years, and they have no plans on getting a new one any time soon. My not-even-three-years-old computer and GPU are much nicer than anything my parents, or my brother, or any of my in-laws, etc, would ever buy and even my machine chokes on any game released in the last year.

What about the power consumption on discreet graphics chips? With laptops outselling desktops, and everyone becoming so concerned with being “green” these days, does it make sense to put a power hog GPU in every computer? I like having as much battery life as possible. I also like having a quiet computer (I bought a special passively cooled graphics card in fact). Having a dedicated GPU works against both of these factors.

If you really want to fix PC gaming it needs to become more approachable. Here are my tips.

• PC gaming needs a unified platform; think Games for Windows Live and Steam together on steroids, in an “open” and extensible way. It should manage patches for every game you have installed, know what the recommended drivers are, and even update all of them for you. It should have a unified messaging/communication system. It should have all of the copy-protection mechanisms built into it.Basically it should be kind of like what Xbox Live is for the Xbox plus additional hardware management functions. It should make the PC less of a moving target platform-wise.
• Developers should put more time into optimizing the performance of their games. It is ridiculous how developers constantly put the onus on the player to upgrade (to hardware that doesn’t even exist yet, yes I’m looking at you Crytek).Think of how much more raw power you need in a gaming PC versus an Xbox 360 to get comparable performance. On consoles the developers are forced to do more with less. They can do better on PCs than they have been doing.
• There needs to be more games to fill the gap between 3D games like Crysis/CoD4/UT3 and Freecell or flash games. Current Intel 3D hardware could probably keep pace this segment of games. The XNA Game Creators Club may be able to do the trick. After playing the demo of The Dishwasher: Dead Samuri, I’d bet a lot of “casual” gamers would be enticed to buy it for $10-$15; I’d probably pay $30 or more even. It is that fun/cool/fresh.

• Get OEMs to position PC gaming machines in a much less hardcore way. Right now you have XPS, Alienware, Falcon Northwest, etc, all trying to position themselves as the fastest things out there, like a Ferrari maybe. How many Ferrari’s do you see around town? Yeah, not many.

  If people could get a $500 computer that couldn’t play games, or you could get it slightly upgraded in a simple easy-to-understand gaming package for $150-$200 more, I think you’d see more people upgrade. Every “gaming” PC package should include an Xbox/Games for Windows controller as well. Outside of first-person-shooters, most people like a dedicated gaming controller more; especially in the less hardcore segments.

I want to be on record for saying that this could be huge despite my own personal reservations. (I’m not a fan of posting videos of myself, though perhaps I’ll be converted sooner rather than later.) The biggest real problem is that you read faster than you watch video. This is especially true for those video commenters that tend to ramble. My solution:

There should be technology in place that automatically transcribes what people say in their video comments. The transcribed comment could be right along side the thumbnail of the video. I know that, for me at least, I’d be interested in seeing the “live” context of any particularly interesting comment. But in general? I’m not about to quadruple (at a minimum) my time reading (watching) comments on the blogs I check out.

Of course, there are also the standard problems of spam and porn. And then there are new problems like general weirdness of communicating with strangers. I do it all the time in text form, but in a video? It feels like it should be reserved for sci-fi movies. It might take some getting used to before “regular” (read: non- early adopters) people are willing to do this.

But imagine the implications if this takes off. Right now, this feature from Seesmic is available as a WordPress plugin. And just like comments can now be video, the same holds true for blog posts. Imagine then, what would happen, if this got implemented on a site like USA Today (an early adopter of comments, at least out of the traditional media group) or the New York Times.

And what about social sites like Digg, Reddit, Slashdot? Could video comments work in these communities? Is the TechCrunch implementation the beginning of video taking over content on the Internet? Or is it just an isolated incident?

You download and install the client on your computer. Then you right click on any file or folder in Windows and click on “Sling Selected Items.” This uploads your files or folders to a temporary webpage (url) that you then give out to whoever you want to receive your files.

The nice thing is that you can send any type of file (music, photos, video, etc.), any number of files, and any size of files. And outside of the quick application install, it’s as simple as can be (no configuration, no passwords, and no online accounts).

That’s not to say that I don’t have a couple of suggestions for SlingVine. For one, it’d be nice if the queue (where it shows you what you’ve sent/received) had two separate sections: one for sent and one for received. As it is, all your files (sent or received) or in the same list.

I should also mention that this is peer-to-peer (P2P) technology. If your file or set of files is larger than 50 megabytes, then the source computer needs to stay on in order for others to receive the files being sent.

When I first started using SlingVine, I did run into a snag. But I emailed SlingVine support and received a response (and fix) within an hour on a Sunday. Not that there’s any guaranteed response time, but it definitely made a first impression!

Bottom line: I think SlingVine is useful for particular situations. For me personally, I like the idea of an easy way to send a group of files while preserving file structure (something not possible with email). It’s definitely convenient.

So here’s my point: If I were running marketing at Apple, one of my main priorities, if not THE priority, would be to make it as easy as possible for the millions of disgruntled Windows users to migrate to the system that “just works.” As intuitive as Macs and OSX may be, this transition isn’t painless, so I would try to go the extra mile to smooth the way.

One issue I noticed as soon as I took my Mac out of the box was that there was no place to plug in the standard mini-plugs from my great-sounding Klipsch 5.1 speakers. The Mac has an optical audio outlet and a headphone jack. I thought there must be some adapter or other solution to this seemingly simple issue, but after some web searching, I came to the conclusion that the best option would be to add an internal sound card with the appropriate connections. The sound card vendors generally told me they “don’t support the Mac.” This doesn’t mean their products won’t work, just don’t go crying to them if you have problems.

So I called AppleCare, with the simple request: “Do you have a list, or can you just tell me where I can find a list of PCI Express Dolby 5.1 sound cards that will work in my Mac Pro?” The nice lady said no, Apple doesn’t make sound cards and cannot provide information on third-party products. I countered that I was transitioning to a Mac and just needed some help getting my new purchase set up. She was polite but firm, no help whatsoever, that’s our policy.

In the spirit of helping Windows converts make this transition (a BIG priority for Apple) I would think that it would be in Apple’s best interest to either set up their own “transition assistance team,” or at least sponsor a semi-independent web site, blog, or similar to make this move as painless as possible.

Am I missing something here? Is this rocket science? Wake up, Apple, this is where your future market growth is coming from. So here’s my free marketing advice: a relatively small investment, combined with a real committment and perhaps even an innovative marketing hook thrown in for good measure that “We at Apple will do all we can to help make your transition to the Mac as painless as possible.”

*Update* In related news, Apple seems to tweak at least some things after complaints.

According to recent Internet safety and online identity fraud research, the British Police are being informed of a new cybercrime event every 10 seconds. This accounted for over GBP 300 million in financial loss for private and business bank customers in England in 2007. However, many online computer safety specialists claim that the vast majority of online crimes are never reported because they haven’t been detected or were of a lesser severity.

They don’t risk their lives to get money, they don’t shoot at anyone any more, and they don’t do any physical harm to their victims. Today’s crime is online crime and uses computer safety holes and threats in software and equipment to sneak money from peoples’ pockets while they’re sitting right in front of their laptops. No need to shoot nor to threaten anybody. Just a few smart code snippets smuggled into the victim’s PC via email or a booby-trapped website and you are done. Simple as that.

As Marcus Ranum, the author of The Myth of Homeland Security, explains, cybercrime delivers a criminal with a means of automation and the advantage of being anonymous. The criminal needs very little in terms of information technology knowledge or hardware and can cross global borders very fast, making it more effortless to hide and harder to be prosecuted.

So remember that you, the web user, are alone responsible for your doings online. And if you get your online banking password stolen and money robbed by cybercriminals, chances are no one except you will pay for this. Your identity is already an easy enough target for those knowing how to steal it. To minimize the chance of this happening, be sure to get yourself a copy of at least some of the free antivirus and antispyware software available.

Over the past couple years, I’ve come to love music from the band Muse. British rockers with some serious talent, they have a great sound that is a mix of britpop, rock, alternative, and electronica.

What I realized is that I own all five of their albums in CD format, and that I made all of these purchases in the last two years (during which time I bought almost no CDs, as I’m more into downloading music). So why did I buy these albums as CDs rather than MP3s?

Simple. Their most recent two albums each come with a live concert on DVD. So I could buy the MP3s via Amazon for $8.99. Or I could get the CD/DVD set for $12.99. I didn’t think much about it at the time, but getting a DVD included for $4 made my brain automatically pick buying the CDs.

As for the other three earlier albums, well, they aren’t as easily available in downloadable form. And once I am “converted” enough to a band, I have no problem buying their CDs. But the key here is that the DVD bundling sold me as a CD buyer in the first place.

Now, on the back end, I have no idea how much it costs to make stuff like this happen. And I’m not about to claim that it’s automatically worth it for all bands to do this. But while Radiohead gets buzz for experimenting with new forms of distribution, I thought I should mention a perhaps overlooked old school method of getting at least me interested in buying music.

Of course, you could argue that DVDs are going away too and will soon be replaced by digital content. But even if that’s the case, it’s at a much slower pace than the same transition happening in music. So, at the very least, I think CD/DVD combos could at least slow down the CD’s death while the industry figures out what to do.

But is this just me? Does anyone else fall for CD purchases when DVDs are included?

Just like it looks in the picture above, the USB adapter is small enough that you can plug it in once and just leave it plugged in even when you pack up your laptop. I should say, though, that it does stick out ever so slightly. So if your laptop bag is a bit of a tight fit (mine is), then you might need to be careful when taking it out so that the adapter doesn’t get snagged on anything.

But that’s a small price to pay for the added convenience. Otherwise, the mouse itself is great. It’s small but not too small. (I think its shape works well.) It has a few extra buttons that can be customized via the software it comes with. Speaking of which, the software isn’t too bloated. It installs quickly and is fairly straightforward and easy to use.

The sensitivity/precision is very good (much better than my previous mouse) and is easily customizable. Even the scroll wheel speed/sensitivity can be adjusted. And the mouse comes with batteries and a nice little carrying case. (I’m always a fan of products that are prepackaged with obvious things I would use.)

I only have one minor quibble. The scroll wheel doesn’t work as a middle button. For years now I’ve been used to pressing down the scroll wheel of most any mouse and having that work as a middle button. (Its most popular use for me is in Firefox as a “open in new tab” click rather than the left click “open in existing tab” or the right click “show me a menu.” I like having all three options with three buttons.)

But there is a workaround. What’s interesting is that the scroll wheel is actually two more buttons. If you push it to the left, it clicks. Or if you push it the right, it clicks. This is instead of pushing it down as a click. So I customized both of these clicks as the middle click I’m used to. I guess it’s just a little bit of an adjustment in movement from down click to side click. And I can see how some might like the added flexibility of having two customizable buttons in the scroll wheel.

In any event, overall I think it’s a great little gadget. I give it a 9/10.