After years spent whining about how the iPod was killing the music industry, rock legend Neil Young pulled his albums from Apple Music and launched his own iPod killer, the Pono Player. It was a weird pyramid shaped device that specialized in high-resolution audio, sold through its own music store, which Ars Technica memorably declared a tall, refreshing drink of snake water.
Anyone surprised to hear, then, that even as iPod sales die, Young’s Pono Player is having trouble keeping pace with it?
Secret sauce—it’s the reason Apple keeps winning where others fail, and on our newest CultCast, we discuss the recipe that keeps Apple ahead of the pack. Plus, iOS 8 rumors detail some powerful new features; whispers of an impossibly thin iPhone 6; A-list musicians praise Pono as the digital music player for audiophiles; iPad 4 makes a comeback; and we reveal our favorite Cult movies on a all-new Get To Know Your Cultist!
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CultCast #118 – The Secret Sauce
Leander Kahney – Cult of Mac Editor-in-Chief, loyal subject of the Queen.
Erfon Elijah – Cult of Mac writer and host of The CultCast.
Buster Heine – Cult of Mac writer and community manager.
iOS 8 Apple considers Notification Center Messages tweaks removing Game Center app (Discussion)
Pegatron And Foxconn Gearing Up For iPhone 6 Production [Rumor]
Apple Retires iPad 2, Replaces It With Retina Display Model
Apple Confirms The 8GB iPhone 5c Will Not Be Sold In The U.S.
In a plot ripped straight from 2005, Neil Young announced this week that he’s taking on the iPod with his new high-def audio music player, the Pono.
We had a good laugh talking about the Pono on this week’s CultCast, but after checking the Kickstarter page this morning it might be Neil who gets the last laugh as his project has already earned more than $2.5 million in pledges.
Today, there’s word that Apple is now accepting high-resolution music files for iTunes, perhaps in advance of selling music in such a format. Apple is asking sound engineers for 96 kHz, 24-bit WAV files, possibly to process it’s own “mastered for iTunes” versions, but also to perhaps start selling music in “better than CD quality” resolution and format.
