iTunes users with iPods, iPads and Mac’s will LOVE iCloud but the true winners will be the music labels. It’s rumored that Apple will have to spend $150 million to the major record labels to allow their libraries to join the cumulus clutter. What did the label’s have to do to earn that money? Nothing, how American.

Our recent acquisition of an iPad 2 had me worried that we were going to pass the limit of authorized devices allowed to playing the music I bought. From what I’ve read there isn’t such a limit anymore. But it got me thinking… my ancient iPod, the one I got 4 years ago, isn’t used much anymore. In fact, the computer doesn’t particularly recognize the music on it and doesn’t “sync” anymore. RIP to my $200 music playing machine. But if I could duplicate devices in my own household, without connecting to my account I wonder if the teenage world is doing that exponentially.

iCloud adds another layer of protection against anonymous music sharing. It virtually guarantees that any song purchased can only be used by the account that bought it. Score for the music labels. I’ve heard so many sympathy stories about the music industry tanking and want to ram my car into a brick wall each time. Was it that long ago that I could record music directly from the radio onto my cassette tape? I actually had a TOTALLY sophisticated boombox that had 2 decks, allowing me to quickly copy anything my heart desired. Can you imagine purchasing a CD and not being able to share it with your friends?

During a time when copying and sharing music was the norm, the labels seemed to figure out how to make record profits. Now that we’re required to purchase more copies of the same song they seem to be having a hard time. Cry me a river, you are getting paid $150mm to do absolutely nothing.

There is something you can do, actually. Sign up for Amazon.com or Google’s music services. They are free and both companies refuse to pay the music industry so much money to do nothing. I love the concept of iCloud but get grey hairs from the gluttonous music industry.

Amazon · Apple · Cassette · CD · google · iCloud · iPad · iPod · iTunes · Labels · Mac · Music

It seems like every other video a friend sends me is hosted on a new website, so I decided to try and figure out what the top video destinations were. Obviously, we all know that YouTube is the top dog but what about the rest? Here’s what I found, I would love to hear any others you enjoy or know about too.

1, YouTube.com
Everyone knows the name from years of watching funny videos or even sharing your own. Aside from having an Alexa rank of the #3 most visited website on the Internet it’s so popular that the name has started to turn into a verb, sort of like Google. “Did you see that new commercial? YouTube it”.

2. MegaVideo.com
If you’re anything like me you’re wondering why in the heck this would be the second site listed. However, you’ll be amazed to know that it outranks any of the subsequent video sites in Alexa, coming in at a strong #86 of overall traffic rank. Calm down though, you’re not totally losing your mind. In fact, there are 22 countries listed ahead of the US in popularity. Heck, if Algeria thinks it’s a good website why shouldn’t we?

3. Yahoo! Video
This one is tough to gauge based on the traffic rank because it’s bundled into the overall Yahoo! position. However, it’s easy to see why this is such an important site because of who is making it. Yahoo! has developed it’s brand as the leading entertainment news provider. That’s right, no news here folks… just entertainment. Just look at one of today’s top headlines, “Most-played musical artist of the decade” or another “Fate of record-setting hailstone” which leads directly to a video. One could argue that they should be the #2 but don’t forget the power of Algeria.

4. DailyMotion.com
Those Algerians are serious video watchers but their efforts seem like a single rain drop in the Pacific Northwest (because it rains a lot, let me tell you) when compared to France. The 14th most visited website in France has actually dropped a considerable amount of traffic in the last few months. Do them a favor and check out the site, oui oui!

5. Vimeo
Finally back to something I’m familiar with, and apparently other American’s too… Vimeo.com. In the past two years it’s traffic has sky-rocketed and seems to be pretty popular in the US. It’s ranking as the #110 most visited site, here in the states, seems to be a temporary move as it climbs higher and higher. Not bad for a website started less than 6 years ago, huh?

6. Hulu.com
I remember when Hulu.com was just a rumor, and how the media giants were moron’s for trying to compete with YouTube instead of just embracing them. After only three years, NBC is the one laughing now. Although you can’t upload your own video’s, Hulu is a great place to catch up on TV shows you missed or would love to watch again. It’s incredible interface makes it easy to use and variety of shows keeps you coming back. As the #41 most visited site on the Internet, Hulu could have been ranked higher. But dude, you can’t upload you cute doggie videos!

7. MySpace TV
Like the super social network, this site is slowly dying. They were too little, too late. Nevertheless, it’s hard to ignore the fact that they are still one of the most visited sites in the world. Of course, I only go there to delete SPAM that seems to fill my inbox. With MySpace trying to embrace a video platform one should wonder why Facebook doesn’t do more… hmmmm.

8. Veoh.com
If you took the acceleration value for gravity and applied it to Veoh.com you might understand what’s happened to it’s visitors. With an estimated 9.81 dropped visitors/second this one time huge hit in Japan might need to shake things up a little. Seriously, you’re missing a huge demographic in Algeria.

9. Metacafe.com
Like the little engine that could, I keep seeing this site bubble up but not quite able to play with the big boys. According to Alexa, this site is mostly popular in the middle-east and CLEARLY embracing the now renown video hunger of Algeria (OK, last time I’ll mention that). As the #204 most visited site on the Internet it might be worth checking out, it’s not too shabby.

10. Google Video
I’d be a boob if I didn’t mention Google Video. However, I’m still confused why it exists after they bought YouTube. At one point I read that they stopped support for it, yet every now and then I hear some pretty cool things they are doing with the videos. Obviously, it’s search related but that’s probably the EXACT thing we need to help us filter through all those damn doggie videos. Just kidding dad, love your doggie videos!

alexa · dailymotion.com · google · google video · hulu · internet · megavideo.com · metacafe · myspace tv · tv · veoh · video · vimeo · yahoo! video · youtube

It's cool, it's Google but it's not on Verizon yet.

If there’s any question where my four year old gets his repetitive instincts from you have to look no further than my daily, sometimes hourly, checking for any news of the Nexus One availability on Verizon. The first phone from Google is listed as available in Spring of 2010 on it’s own website. What does that mean? Rumors flew that they would announce it back in March at the annual cell phone conference. Nope. Then Verizon had big news about new phone launches so of course it would be included. Nope. In fact, the HTC Incredible has been announced for April 29th without even a peep about the Nexus One.

Rumor has it (meaning any writing on the Internet at all that I could find, true or false) that Apple is suing HTC, the maker of the Nexus One, for patent infringement. That means we won’t get word of it until that’s been settled. Dude, seriously… not cool.

There’s a difference between creating demand and exhausting enthusiastic fans. Not too long ago the Wii was so popular you couldn’t get your hands on it unless checking websites dedicated to tracking their shipment and then parking out front of a store with your coffee and McMuffin. The demand was huge for a couple years. That’s impressive. In fact, nothing significantly better has come out since. The slow movement of upgrades along with an inflow, albeit slow, of products kept society salivating for more. Those are two luxuries Google doesn’t have.

Before it’s launch I’ve already been reading about several other products that are better than the Nexus One so that by the time it comes out I won’t need it. Heck, if I wasn’t so grumpy with Apple ignoring the Flash player on it’s phone I might even take a look at the iPhone (especially since it is coming out with OS4).

Ultimately I still intend to get the Nexus One but I can’t help the poor information Google has delivered for it’s arrival on Verizon. It may not be the best phone out or severely limited on how many fingers you can use to navigate but it will be a historic purchase as it’s the first phone Google’s put it’s ugly logo on. And if you didn’t know already, I am a huge Google-whore. But come ON, where’s the Nexus One already?

Apple · availability · google · htc · incredible · iPhone · mobile · nexus one · phone · verizon