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Music Media The Internet

First Napster 2.0 Review 250

Posted by michael from the new-and-improved-hah-hah-hah dept.
prostoalex writes "Matthew Fordahl from Associated Press is trying out Napster 2.0, which, according to the review, has some serious stability issues. At least for Fordahl the software 'repeatedly crashed during installation and brought down the entire computer with it.' They also have this picture of this Samsung Napster-branded digital music player."
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First Napster 2.0 Review More

First Napster 2.0 Review

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  • Bah to Napster, their time has gone. (Score:5, Funny)

    by grub ( 11606 ) <slashdot@grub.net> on Thursday October 16, 2003 @12:29PM (#7230978) Homepage Journal

    2.0 little.
    2.0 late.
    2.0 bad.

  • iTunes for Windows (Score:4, Insightful)

    by BWJones ( 18351 ) on Thursday October 16, 2003 @12:30PM (#7230982) Homepage Journal
    Well, given that S. Jobs just officially anounced iTunes for Windows, stability issues for Napster are moot for all those windows users out there.

    • As Steve Jobs said himself... "hell has frozen over" :)

      I'm currently reloading Apple's site every 20 minutes... I can't wait to place iTunes on my Wintel boxes. Not only is the ITMS the shiznit... iTunes probably the best audio media player in town.

      I'm anxiously waiting to give WinAMP a swift kick to the recycle bin :) (now, if only we can get a Linux port of iTunes)
      • now, if only we can get a Linux port of iTunes

        Well, the awful brushed metal appearance has been a GTK theme for as long as I can remember... Smart Playlists are essentially a kind of `select` statement.. and Rendezvous is an open standard with implementations on Linux.

        All you're missing is the actual store/Fairplay encryption stuff. Maybe one day they'll release that?
        • Personally, I don't care about any of those features. I like iTunes for its song and album management.

          There used to be a Linux mp3 player called Sumi (or xtunes) that had playlists, a library, tag editing, and burning features similar to iTunes' .. however I think Apple sued the developers.

          iTunes feels very much like a virtual CD case. No other audio player seems to pull this off properly.

          If anyone knows of any iTunes-ish mp3 players for linux ... please... do tell :)

    • Re:iTunes for Windows (Score:1, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Judging by Quicktime for Windows, it's going to crash with soooooo much more panache than Napster could EVER hope to.

      Quicktime on Windows has always been a steaming heap of dung. They haven't gotten it right, and they've had 5 years to do it. Suddenly iTunes for Windows is going to be usable right out of the gate?

      Can I interest you in some waterway spanning real estate in Brooklyn?
    • We are busy updating the store for you and will be back within the hour.

      New products with the iTunes launch, it seems.

    • It will be interesting to see if iTunes "just works" on Windows. I figure it wont. But will work good enough that people will like it. They will go around thinking as windows users do that they must be getting the same experience that Mac users do. That is a Totally wrong impression. And this might actually deter switchers.

      Hey folks the grass IS greener on the mac side. Come on over.
    • I have more then three computers and my portable MP3 players are just that, MP3 players. I and many people like me have no use for iTunes.
      • Well, since the best selling digital music device in the world is the iPod...

        Anyhoo, why not use iTunes to play your MP3s? It's an elegant system for organizing your library, and it doesn't cost you anything.
      • If I'm not mistaken, iTunes works with MP3 players other than the iPod. You just need an iPod to play iTMS AAC tracks and to support AutoSync of your music library.
        • Apple claims that it only works with the iPod.
          http://www.apple.com/itunes/overview.html
          • ...at present. If (when) iTMS is a hit, you can bet other MP3 makers will be asking Apple how to include support for their hardware.

            And honestly, I think Apple will provide it (for a modest fee, natch), because while iPod sales are great, iTMS sales are also great. If Apple was only interested in selling their own hardware, they wouldn't have made iTMS/iPod Windows-compatible at all.
    • Not ALL windows users. Just those that have 2000 and XP.
    • "Well, given that S. Jobs just officially anounced iTunes for Windows, stability issues for Napster are moot for all those windows users out there."

      Hate to break it to yas, but it was a moot point so long ago that it wasn't even a point, let alone iTunes being an issue. if there was a moot point anywhere here at all, I think it was the assumption that windows users will care about iTunes.

  • Wait a second... (Score:2, Insightful)

    by grasshoppa ( 657393 ) *
    A) The software is beta
    B) The issues the reviewer had seems to have been hardware related, as was stated in the article

    So, do slashdot editors READ the story they post? How about those that submit it? Do they just read half way, find something they don't like, and submit?

  • Ahh, marketers... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Shenkerian ( 577120 ) on Thursday October 16, 2003 @12:31PM (#7231000)
    That's not to say Napster 2.0, available to the public Oct. 29, 2003, has lost all traces of the old. The headphoned kitty logo is still there - in fact, everywhere.

    Even if nothing else is the same, thank goodness the logo's still there. It clearly means Napster is exactly the same. What a relief!

    • In other words, it provides opportunities to explore music. In this sense, it's similar to the old Napster, in which users could not only
      steal from each other but also chat about their collections and post messages.


      Ermmm...last I checked, I didn't take anything away from anyone else, in fact I was often welcomed to COPY files from other people.

      Get it right people, quite spreading lies!
    • Even if nothing else is the same, thank goodness the logo's still there. It clearly means Napster is exactly the same. What a relief!

      So I do get free music???
  • This must be like what a teacher feels like when a student comes to class beat up by his parents. It's just so sad.

    Oh well, on to Gnutella!
    • Gnutella is great, except it sucks. Seriously, it's hard to find a lot of stuff, stuff seems to only come thru partially, or never at all, etc.

      Sad as it is, most of the good stuff is on kazaa.

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by account_deleted ( 4530225 )
        Comment removed based on user account deletion
        • What have you been smoking?
          You're damn right in saying BitTorrent [bitconjurer.org] rocks. But what you're describing in the paragraph immediately following that sentence is not BT, but Direct Connect [sourceforge.net]. BitTorrent does not use hubs, does not require you to share anything (though you're expected to at least share what you download) and BT links are provided by public websites; they're not trying to hide from Joe Schmoe. And, unlike with DC, the more popular a file is on BitTorrent, the easier it is to get, even if just one gu
  • Napster is back, and competing with Itunes... Unfortunately selection sucks... although, the unlimited "listens" for $10 a month is attractive if you just want to have radio that plays what you want.... If they have it.
    • >> Napster is back, and competing with Itunes...
      >> Unfortunately selection sucks..

      Actually the 500000 tracks they have available is more then available on iTunes and every other legit service.
  • "Napster, which works only on Windows-based computers"

    next...

  • Standard Slashdot Response (Score:5, Funny)

    by zerocool^ ( 112121 ) on Thursday October 16, 2003 @12:33PM (#7231019) Homepage Journal
    I won't even consider it until it's ($CURRENT_PRICE/2) and until the files are ($CURRENT_BITRATE*2). And until it's in (!($CURRENT_MEDIA_FORMAT)). Plus it only is going to have bands $BAD_BANDS[1]..$BAD_BANDS[134], which I don't listen too anyway.

    And they should have thought of this ($DATE-(rand())) ago.

    ~will
  • worst. napster. ever.
  • repeatedly crashed during installation and brought down the entire computer with it.

    Sounds like a bug in the operating system as well.

    Surely the OS was sophisticated enough to allow you to kill the errant process and resume working as normal.
    • Surely the OS was sophisticated enough to allow you to kill the errant process and resume working as normal.

      You apparently missed the bit about this only running on Windows?
    • The Napster installation uses Install Shield, as do thousands of other apps, one of the benefits of a standard installer is the stability.

      If his installer was crashing, there is more then likely a problem on his system not related to Napster but perhaps became visible on the Napster install.

      Yes it uses installshield, I am a napster tester..
      • Yes it could have been installshield, but mostly no, it wasn't.

        You can extend installshield out with your own code, which I'd imagine they'd want to do to poke around the system config (burners, mp3 players, etc) and to install their DRM stuff. In fact, the fact that they said it was related to his older cd burner points directly to some sort of sniffing.
  • P2P filesharing is dead unless it can be made fully anonymous and encrypted.

    More and more corporations and universities (like mine) with fat pipes are issuing blanket bans on P2P software - and no, piping it through port 80 will not help since filetrading is still distinguishable from ordinary http traffic.

  • "Fortunately, I had another PC available and did a fresh install of Windows just to be safe. This time, Napster installed, launched and allowed me to sign in before crashing. The program ran more reliably after I started it up again."

    Wow, he's making great progress!

    Napster 2.0 is Napster in name only. Sad to say, the files you can buy are WMA files, not mp3. Bummer. Guess we can shovel this into the same pile as buymusic.com...
  • Napster online music service, which has emerged from the ashes of the old free-for-all as a legal, recording industry-sanctioned, pay-to-play store.

    It's not a phoenix flying free but bird that emerged to find a chain arond it's neck.
  • How many people do ya'll know do a fresh install "just to be sure" of Windows when installing programs? Do you windows users really do this sort of thing? Really?
  • Pay-for-play Napster sounds like Axl Rose making a GNR album without Slash. Its never as good as the original (or its replacements).

    BTW, Napster 2.0 uses windows media with DRM. Thus rendering the 6-disc mp3 changer in my car useless were I to join. I think I'll stick with mp3 for now.


  • I say we call it CRASHTER
    • The whole point of it being Napster is the name! The Roxio people thought that by renaming a service to something relatively well-known that people would flock to it.

      Taking away the name would destroy what little credibility it has in the minds of the average folk.
  • MP3ers, time to start dishin off your collection and try buying music!

    Hint: A CD with 15 tracks = 15$! Shouldn't this be CHEAPER than the real CDs? It is worse on quality, no artwork etc etc etc...

    "Move along people, nothing to see here..."

    • Re:Whohoooo! (Score:2, Informative)

      by wo1verin3 ( 473094 )
      >>Hint: A CD with 15 tracks = 15$! Shouldn't
      >>this be CHEAPER than the real CDs? It is worse
      >>on quality, no artwork etc etc etc...

      Napster, like iTunes, offers a $9.99 for the entire album.

      The $10 a month for unlimited downloads and listening (so as long as you keep subscribing) isn't too terrible either.
  • Napster, which works only on Windows-based computers, will launch with half a million songs - more than its rivals. Still, that number pales in comparison to what was available on Napster 1.0 or today's illicit file-swapping networks.

    What crap-tacular file-swapping net are you using. Any decent sized p2p has way more than 500kilo songs, and movies, and images, ect.
  • Didn't any of you watch The Italian Job [imdb.com]?

    Seth Green/Lyle is the real Napster!
    • The movie is in contention with "Cruel Intentions" for Worst Fucking Movie of All Time.

      Really. I could go on for hours about why I hate that movie so bad, but I'll just note that they played no fewer than FOUR times on my flight paths to and from Australia a few weeks ago.

      I... HATE... that movie.

      Brandon
      • Well, just exactly what were you expecting from a Mark Wahlberg/Charlize Theron movie? Or, for that matter, a Hollywood "lets use the name and the basic premise but change all the details" movie?
  • Whenever I think of "Software crashing so bad it takes down the whole computer" I think it's probably more to do with that systems own problems and unstability than the software.

    It reminds me of the time my friend tried to instal Norton Antivirus on his system and it crashed out during install and when he restarted his system hung at the waiting for local disk blurb.... The problem wasn't Norton, but rather a failing harddisk that had given plenty of signs with bad sectors, corrupt data, registry errors on
  • The only thing that really is going to matter is the Napster brand - Apple had good branding and managed to start off well. Let's see if the Kitty has some more lives left in it.
  • Now that they are incorporating DRM into Napster, how will this affect the rest of the system we install it on? Will it grant WMP access to destroy illegal MP3 files? Could it give Roxio or even worse Microsoft, permissions to obtain specific information about our drive contents or system info? I guess we will have to wait for the 2,3867,278 page EULA...

    On a seperate note, the article never mentions anything about the file format... Wonder what "special" (in the retarded sense) player we will have to use
  • Of the shambling, borg-assimilated body of the Napster cat?
  • Companies who are trying to play off the napster name:

    Do you really think that people who download songs instead of buying official albums are really interested in branding?

  • More details on the player here [bayarea.com].

    Brief summary: (1) Has 20 GB (2) $399 (3) Line-in for recording (4) FM antenna (5) Can record FM radio (6) 10 hour battery life

  • "... from a peer-to-peer network ... you're never quite sure if the file ... contains a virus."

    I keep hearing this included in the PR for the new wave of music sites. I've never heard of a virus-infected MP3 file. Am I wrong?

  • ...the old Napster, in which users could not only steal from each other...

    This is a stunning example of why using steal and theft is problematic for describing copyright infringement. The author uses the terms several times, but when trying to concretely apply it to what Napster ends up making serious complaint. How exactly did Napster users steal from each other? One user chose to make a file available to others and other users chose to take advantage of that offer. Neither user stole from the other.

  • This is sad indeed, an icon turned into another way to sell the same garbage that's been pushed on us for years.

    Ah well, back to my indie music.
  • Now might be a good time to point out that iTunes
    is now available [apple.com] for Windows.

    (Karma Whoring? What's that?)
  • I continue to be amazed that there seems to be a certain number of people that continue to pay retail++ for used electronics on Ebay. I guess these are the same people willing to pay $12+ per electronic copy of a CD online. I say these people save themselves some money and go on down to the local circuit city and get a new hard drive and good sounding CD --- and have enough money left over for lunch and a movie.
  • Why in the hell are all these places not supporting Windows 98?
  • And the Beatles? All the hits from John, Paul, George and Ringo are available - but performed on panpipes.

    If that isn't worh the price of admission alone, I don't know what is.
  • Is that a breathalyser sticking out the top?

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