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dmkemick
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Posts by dmkemick
Thoughts About Apple’s Mac App Store
Jan 8th
Although CES is in full swing, one of the biggest stories in the tech industry this week was the launch of Apple's desktop mac app store. Similar to the app store already available for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad, the mac app store promises to simplify the process of finding and installing new software for mac users. This idea has been met with all sorts of resistance from folks terrified of developers being forced into another one of Apple's "walled gardens" as a result of the tech juggernaut imposing the same content restrictions and profit sharing model associated with their mobile app initiatives. So then, was it worth it, or is this the end of software development as we know it?
The User Experience
From a user experience perspective I think that the mac app store makes perfect sense and executes its purpose wonderfully. Essentially the mac app store is just like the app store experience on the iPad, which isn't a bad thing. From the home page you get access to some of the featured apps, New and Noteworthy apps, the hottest apps and of course Staff Favorites. As a means of app discovery, particularly for normal users that don't really seek out new applications very often, the mac app store is a boon. Within minutes I had already installed my first application (the official Twitter app [], which is awesome and free by the way) and had already clued into many others that I'm looking forward to purchasing in the near future.
Impact on Developers
Those are some of the reasons that I think developers shouldn't have any fear about the mac app store. Since it does such a great job of promoting apps that lots of folks wouldn't ever be exposed to in the first place, the chances of your app's sales increasing are pretty good. There are some geekier users of the app store such as myself, and even I've come across applications I hadn't heard of before. The app store also introduces a more competitive pricing model, and we'll probably see a "race to the bottom" similar to what we saw with the iPhone and iPad stores, but this means that ultimately more units will be sold. It may not be the case that you'll make up the losses in bulk, but if your app offers value you can always stick to a higher price point.
Do I think that the mac app store represents some massive shift in software development for the mac? No. You have to remember that although Apple takes a cut this is also an incredibly compelling promotional avenue, the apps are hosted for free and all of the transactions are taken care of by Apple which takes significant financial burden off of the developers. I wouldn't be surprised if we started seeing more 1 or 2-man development teams start cropping up that focus on creating beautiful mac software just as we've seen with iOS. Plus unlike with the iOS stores you can still host your own application independently and users will still be able to download and use it. All I know is that if I developed mac software I'd be racing to get my application onto the app store, even if that meant I took a 50% cut from its original retail price.
Other Thoughts
One interesting thing that I noticed when browsing the app store is that some traditionally mobile-focused applications were cropping up, such as Mashable's news app [. I've never really even supported singular news apps on my iPad because jumping back and forth between apps to get news seemed like a chore, and I support it even less on the desktop considering there are so many great RSS news readers available. This might be a question I need to posit to you guys - would you run an app that was a port of a mobile application on your desktop? I'm not sure if I'm in love with the idea so far.
The Google CR-48 and Chrome OS
Jan 7th
In case you missed it, Google had an event not too long ago which detailed Chrome OS in-depth and, in effect, "launched" the cloud-based operating system. Chrome OS has been available for some time now, but it was never available as a product - you could download a copy of it and install it yourself, but starting this year you'll be able to purchase devices with Chrome OS pre-installed.
Chrome OS in a nutshell
If you haven't heard of Chrome OS before, it's very similar to Google's Chrome web browser. In fact, from a user interface perspective it's basically identical. The first thing you see when you login to Chrome OS is a window that looks just like the Chrome browser, and from there you can navigate the web and use various cloud services and web applications to get your computing done. The idea with Chrome OS is to work 100% on the cloud, which means you can't get a whole lot done if you don't have an internet connection, but more on that below. Chrome OS also has the existing Chrome web app store built-in, so you can run various rich web applications much like normal programs on Windows or Mac OSX.
CR-48
As I mentioned above Google will be partnering with hardware manufacturers to preload Chrome OS on certain devices available later this year, but at the Chrome OS launch even they also unveiled their own custom laptop running Chrome OS that is being used for testing purposes. As is usually the case, everyone in the audience had an opportunity to take one home for free, but Google also opened availability up to the public. It makes sense, they want to have as many folks try Chrome OS as possible so that they can work out the kinks before people start spending money on the hardware. The sign-up page is still available as of the day I'm writing this post, so head on over and if you'd like to try the CR-48 out. Not everyone gets picked but who knows, you might get lucky!
My Thoughts
It seems like Chrome OS is the perfect operating system for someone who needs a thin client. Say for instance you're a traveling business person, or someone who just needs a modest computer for meetings. However it could also have big implications in various areas, such as schools. Presumably when hardware running Chrome OS is released for purchase it will be a much more inexpensive alternative to traditional computers, I'm just wondering where they'll fit in the grand scheme of things with the prevalence of tablets lately. Even Google has its own tablet play, not the hardware per se but more and more Android-based tablets are coming out every month. So really, I'm just kind of curious about which attributes will cause a person to buy a Chrome OS device over a tablet. Some obvious benefits are larger displays, physical keyboards and not having the burden of storing information locally since the device is entirely cloud-based. In the end what will make or break Chrome OS will be the apps. If folks can get an experience that's very close to a traditional desktop computer for cheap then it could take off.
My hope is that when these devices come out they're super cheap...I'm talking sub $200. Since you need an internet connection for them to be used I wouldn't be surprised if they were subsidized, or even if they came free with a data package from one of the major wireless providers like Verizon (the CR-48 has a Verizon data connection). My worry is that Chrome OS was mostly developed and conceived of when netbooks were the big thing, but since that time the popularity of netbooks have died down and tablets are taking off.
As a web developer I'm very interested in what folks think about the CR-48 and Chrome OS in general. How much of your computing takes place while you're on the web? Do you think you could use ONLY the web to get your computing done? Would you buy a Chrome OS device? Leave a comment below and let me know!
TRON Legacy, Olivia Wilde is My New Girlfriend, Etc.
Jan 6th
This isn't the most timely post but I saw TRON Legacy about a week and a half ago and I wanted to comment on it. Let me start off by saying I'm not someone that grew up loving TRON. It was a bit before my time truthfully, and I'd only really seen bits and pieces of the original until about a week before I saw TRON Legacy. For that reason just know that I'm looking at it through whatever the opposite of rose-colored glasses are.
The original TRON had some really exciting and cool ideas, and stayed just true enough to the topic at hand to keep geeks like me into it without completely blowing the casual watcher out of the picture. Even in 2010 it was visually unique, though dated, but overall I enjoyed it and was impressed that a film like that could come out when it did.
Legacy
So then, what did I think of TRON Legacy? I thought it was excellent. Well worth the money spent to go and see it, that's for sure. Although the story does miss some opportunities that I've heard discussed, such as drawing off of changes to the real-world tech industry in the past twenty years and applying that to the new, updated TRON universe, but it was still cohesive and enjoyable.
Where the movie really shines though, true to its older brother, is in the audio and visual department. TRON Legacy is the reason 3D in the cinema works. It's truly stunning, and something that words don't really do justice. The look and feel of Legacy has enough similarities with the original to clearly tie it back in, but it also gets an upgrade to make it relevant in 2010 (and for the next 20 years).
Add to that the excellent soundtrack which was entirely created by the electronic duo Daft Punk (how perfect is that, by the way?) and you're in for a truly excellent ride. I had listened to the soundtrack before seeing the movie and enjoyed it quite a bit, so sitting in the theater with my 3D glasses on I actually got the chills a couple times when some truly incredible stuff was going down to tunes that I recognized. The soundtrack itself is something to behold, and although I don't think TRON Legacy is a glorified Daft Punk video as some have put it (and I still haven't decided if that's a bad thing in and of itself?), the movie would be different without it.
Another reason to see it is Olivia Wilde, who is gorgeous in the film. I've liked her ever since I she played Jenny on The Black Donnellys a ways back, a show that I loved but was unfortunately cancelled after one season, so to see her killing it on screen again is awesome. Cause seriously? She's smokin'.
So do yourself and go see TRON in the theater. Nowadays with the 50" LED HDTV's folks can buy there's less and less reason to actually visit a movie theater, but TRON Legacy is one of them.
How Rdio.com Made My Life Better
Jan 5th
The subheading for this post would be "and why maintaining your brand or product's online persona is so important." I didn't use that in the title because it would have made for one hell-of-a-long title. Here goes.
The Backstory
So a few months ago I wrote a post about Rdio.com. In it I labeled some of the things I liked about the service and some of the things I wasn't particularly happy about. I believe I posted a link to it on Twitter with the hashtag #rdio, and Todd Berman of Rdio came along and read it, which was very flattering. He also took the time to leave a comment, and he helped me out with some of the issues I listed (I have since stricken out my incorrect statements in that post). At the time I was on a free trial of the music streaming service, and to be honest I don't think I would have just let my trial run out without subscribing and paying to continue to use it.
Ever Since Then...
...I've been a paying customer, and I use Rdio literally everyday (in fact I'm using it as I write this). Part of that is because it's an excellent service, one that I've grown to love and become more familiar with over time. They've also added features and improved things along the way, which is awesome. However, another part of that is that Todd took the time to seek out folks using his company's product, interact with them, and provide an excellent online "customer service" experience. The fact that he took the time out to read and comment on some schmuck's blog post gave me the confidence that he was passionate about the company's product and wanted to use customer feedback to improve it in the future.
I'm An Album Guy
Just to recap some of the reasons I've grown to love Rdio, let me first say I'm an album person. I'm not the type of music listener that will just buy a couple of hits from a new album, I like to listen to the whole thing because some romantic part of my brain thinks that an album itself is one complete work. For that reason, Rdio saves me a heck of a lot of money.
When I do buy music I tend to buy MP3s since most of the time I'm listening to it I'm using a digital device of some sort, and if I really need to have a disc I can just burn it myself. Despite that, new MP3 albums are usually around $10, which is twice the base monthly subscription to Rdio. If you're a music lover like me there's a good chance you buy a couple of albums a month, so you can see how the savings would stack rather importantly. Even if you're just a casual listener, MP3 downloads of songs are generally $0.99, so your choice is buying 5 songs from Amazon MP3 or having access to Rdio's entire library. Pretty obvious choice to me!
Discovery
Finally, Rdio has exposed me to a TON of new music that I wouldn't normally listen to. In the past, if the choice was between spending $10 on an album that I may or may not like, or listening to something I already had in my collection that I loved, I'd generally save the cash and skip the album unless it was recommended to me by a friend. However, with Rdio, you can dabble here and there to find new favorites without worrying about breaking the bank.
Additionally it's great for those one-off songs that you just want to listen to because you thought of it. For instance, the other day I woke up with "Jessie's Girl" stuck in my head so I headed over to Rdio and gave it a few listens. I'm not ashamed to admit it. 
The 2nd Generation Apple TV Post
Jan 4th
Christmas gifts at were all about TV boxes in 2010. My brother received a Logitech Revue from my family, which is powered by Google TV, and I received an Apple TV which is powered by iOS. It kind of makes sense in a way, if there's an Apple "fanboy" at the company that'd certainly be me, and Donny loves Google. That said, this isn't going to be a post comparing the two devices. Instead, I'm going to discuss some of the pros and cons of the Apple TV in case you're considering picking one up.
Form Factor
Apple certainly knows how to make beautiful, small products. The Apple TV is no exception, and the 2nd generation model is freaking tiny. It's a small black box that's about a quarter of the size of the original Apple TV, about a 20th the size of my Xbox 360 and it kind of just fades into my entertainment center. Some folks were sad to see the aluminum enclosure go but I think the average person will be happy that the box really doesn't stick out like sore thumb. It's easy to integrate into your existing setup. As far as ports go, you have:
Power- HDMI
- Micro-USB
- Optical Audio
- Ethernet (also works with wifi)
Accessories
There really isn't much to be said here. With the Apple TV you get the small aluminum remote pictured above, some manuals, apple stickers (of course) and a power cable. That's it. The power cord doesn't have a big brick with it because that's been built into the unit itself, and so all you really have to do is plug in a couple of cables and you're set to go. One obvious missing accessory is an HDMI cable. It's kind of annoying that they didn't just include one (you have to supply your own), but I knew that in advance. It's very un-Apple like to have a product that a buyer might not be able to use right out of the box for whatever reason, so I'm kind of surprised they didn't just include the cable.
User Experience & Interface
From an interface perspective the Apple TV is all Apple. It's clean, simple to navigate and very easy to use. The first thing you're presented with are a slew of movie and TV covers that are selectable if something looks interesting. Below that are just 5 main menus:
- Movies
- TV Shows
- Internet
- Computers
- Settings
And that's it. You can drill down into each menu depending on what you're looking for. Movies and TV Shows are fairly obvious, Internet gives you access to Netflix, Youtube, podcasts, your Mobile Me account if you have one, Flickr pictures and also streaming internet radio. From the Computers menu you can gain access to the music and movies contained on any of your computers that have home sharing enabled, and finally the Settings menu is exactly what it sounds like.
Since I received the Apple TV I've watched a couple of movies using the iTunes streaming service, and I have to say my experience has been middling. The first movie I watched was Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, and as I was watching it had to stop to buffer multiple times. The quality was exceptional, it's just that a 2 hour movie turned into a 3 hour movie because a couple of times I had to step away for a while to let it buffer. I'm using wifi so the performance might be better with an ethernet connection and that was also during the holiday so it might just have been a case of the servers being overloaded. I later watched Inception - again the quality was amazing. This time I let the movie buffer for a while before watching it and I didn't run into any hiccups.
I have yet to watch a TV show with it because, to be honest, the streaming selection isn't great. To compare I went to the iTunes Store on my computer and was able to find a lot of what I was looking for, but those shows are for physical downloads. Hopefully Apple will step the content up moving forward.
Netflix works great on the Apple TV and the interface melds itself right into the rest of the unit. I've watched a few episodes of Arrested Development and some movies and the quality is great plus there are no buffering hiccups. Same thing for YouTube videos, home sharing and the streaming radio - all work exceptionally well.
Air Share and iPad Integration
My absolute favorite part of using the Apple TV is how well it integrates with my iPad and other computers. With Air Share you can instantly start streaming video playing on one of your networked computers or iOS devices on your television. Say, for example, I'm watching a digital copy of a blu-ray on my iPad. All I have to do is tap a little button like the one to the left and it instantly starts playing on my TV. It's pretty incredible. The most impressive part is that there's almost zero buffering involved.
But that's not all! Apple also has a really handy free application on the App Store called Remote. With it you can completely control your Apple TV's playback, including play/pause, scrubbing foreward and backward in the movie...even information like movie chapters gets pulled in automatically. The best part is using the iPad's on-screen keyboard to input text rather than the remote that comes with the unit which can take forever. Not to mention interacting with your TV by swiping your fingers back and forth on the iPad is straight up cool.
Conclusion
For only $99 the 2nd Generation Apple TV is a powerful little box. In some ways it might seem like a box that just lets you pay Apple more money, and if you don't have content on your computers, aren't a Netflix user or heavy into YouTube it probably will be exactly that. Since Christmas I think I've spent $10 on movie rentals but otherwise I'm enjoying mostly free content. I'm not sure how well it'd work with PC computers though, so if you're not an Apple computer user you might want to take that into account before pulling the trigger.
Instapaper: I Wish I Used It More
Jan 3rd
This post is more of an observation than anything else, and the thought could probably be wrapped up more in a tweet than a long-form blog post. Don't worry though, I'm going to blog about it anyways. If you haven't heard of yet, it's a way of saving content on the web for later use. For instance, say you're browsing your favorite website and you see a few articles that you don't really have time to read right now, Instapaper will save a copy of the article that you can read at a later date and, best yet, you don't even need an internet connection to read it! This has been a boon for folks that travel a lot. Just save some content before you leave and when it's safe to break out your iPad on the plane load up Instapaper to read that article you've been looking forward to.
Why I love Instapaper...
I love Instapaper because it seems to integrate with everything. I'm an iPad user on top of being an Instapaper user, and so whenever I see an app that has "Read Later with Instapaper" functionality my heart does a little jig. In a way I guess this post ties into yesterday's about how the way we, as web users, are changing the way we take in information. Whatever it is, I just like having the ability to save information that might not be vital to me at the current moment for later perusal.
...but why I don't "use" Instapaper.
Don't get it twisted, I do use Instapaper. Like I mentioned above, I love tapping that little "read later" button and collecting news stories. However, the times that I actually launch the Instapaper application to read an article are few in number. I'm beginning to realize that Instapaper is similar to "liking" something on Facebook for me. It's the least possible amount of effort I can put into showing solidarity for something without just ignoring it altogether.
For example, I might see a headline on the Engadget app and think hey, I might want to look into buying that new gadget sometime, this information might be useful to me at some point in the future, so *bam* Instapaper. In reality I'll never read it though. Again, if you're one of the folks who worked very hard to create Instapaper I think you have a great product that I've spent money on, I guess I just need to start flying more.
Thoughts on The Shallows by Nicholas Carr
Jan 2nd
I recently finished by , and I feel somewhat obligated to put my thoughts into a blog post. I've been extremely hesitant to write this post only because I'm so inexperienced in the field and one knowledgeable person could come along and rip me to shreds with a few keystrokes. I also think that in many ways I'm biased in that I make my living from developing websites and applications that are precisely the culprit of the dramatic changes the internet are having on our brains (which I in no way refute, by the way).
My Understanding of Neuroplasticity
Basically, The Shallows details neuroplasticity, which I am now going to try to (and probably fail to) define. In essence neuroplasticity is how our brains are able to be bent and molded by our environment to more efficiently adapt to our current situation. Think of it as adaptation of the brain. In some cases the process can be relatively slow (weeks, months, even years), but scientists have proven that the "circuitry" in our brains can be reworked to operate more efficiently.
One example provided in the book was blindness. Say for instance someone becomes blind, it isn't uncommon for that person's other senses to become more precise, to be honed to compensate for the lack of vision. This is a really stupid example but if you've ever seen the movie , in which Jamie Foxx plays the blind musician Ray Charles, there's a scene in which Ray is sitting down to dinner with a woman and he mentions a hummingbird outside. The woman wasn't aware of the hummingbird, but Ray says that he can actually hear its wings fluttering. Presumably in this fictional scenario Ray's auditory senses have been increased because the synapses in his brain have been "rerouted," that is to say more of the brain's processing power has been directed to hearing. When Ray lost his vision the part of his brain that usually accepts and processes visual information didn't just die, it was instead repurposed to help Ray process information in other ways.
Now apply neuroplasticity to the average person that is exposed to information on the internet. We read facebook status updates, tweets, have message alerts on our phones, new email message alerts on our computers, we have RSS feeds that alert us whenever our favorite sites post a new article and so on. This is a huge departure from older forms of information consumption, where-in someone might sit down a read a newspaper or book. As a result, our brain is "adapting" to being constantly bombarded with small nuggets of information.
Information ADD
So what's the result? In affect, our brains have become like hummingbirds jumping from one flower bud to the next. We struggle with longer-form reading. I'll be the first to admit it, much of the time when I'm researching on the internet I won't read an entire article, I'll instead scan for the information that's useful to me, or even jump to the bottom of a blog post to find relevant links to downloads or other information.
Additionally, because information is so readily available on the internet our brains are learning to focus more on information acquisition than retention. Why, for instance, should your brain retain what the capital of The Netherlands is if you can find out in a matter of seconds by searching on Wikipedia? Again, I'm also at fault here. If I know I can easily regain access to information on the web I'm less likely to actually focus on memorization or retention.
Is This Bad?
So far you're probably thinking that I ate this book up and that I agree with everything found within, and truthfully I do agree with most of it, and I definitely agree that neuroplasticity is a real thing that is affecting users of the web. However, unlike Nicholas Carr, I don't necessarily think it's a bad thing. In one section of the book he discusses what might be filling our memory if not facts that we need to perform well in school, or at our job. I think that is an extremely interesting question - what if rather than filling our memories with facts, we had the ability to more accurately retain our life experiences? It could be that a lot of nonsense would be easily recalled but in ways I'd rather remember the things I do on a daily basis than what the capital of an obscure country that I'll probably never visit is.
I know that the web is changing the way we think and learn. I also know that most college courses are still being taught via lectures, a thousand year old method. Although I can understand that there is a value associated with deep reading and deep thought, I highly doubt that folks are going to throw away their computers or phones anytime soon to return to books as a primary source of information. There's an incredible opportunity for someone to come up with a new way of teaching that plays to our new way of taking in information, and I'm sure that will happen sometime soon. In my opinion this change is not bad, will not lead to the end of creative thinking, and will not make us a bunch of brain-heads living in filled vats hooked intravenously to the Intertron™ of the future. We will instead focus on content that is more valuable in order to work our ways to the same product more quickly. Will it have a negative impact on our intellectual blossoming as an individual? Probably. Will we care? Probably not, and folks that do will turn to traditional sources of information to have that experience.
New Years Resolutions for 2011
Jan 1st
I hope everyone is having a very happy new year, that you had fun last night and stayed safe! Now comes the tough part, my resolutions for 2011. Truthfully I'm usually not one to hold the new year in special regard when it comes to attempting to improve my life, but I do have some goals this year that I'd like to meet. Maybe I'll check them off as I complete them so you can come back in a year and tell how much progress I have or haven't made. So here goes:
Build My Personal Brand
There was a time a couple of years ago when I would post consistently to this blog, was much more active on Twitter and Facebook and even posted weekly videos discussing tech news to YouTube. Since then a lot of that has fallen off. That's not to say I've quit entirely (well, maybe in the case of my YouTube I have), I'm just not nearly as active as I once was. I'm going to start by writing at least 5 posts here every week and work my way up...and hey, you could give me some much-needed support by leaving a comment below or following @dmkemick on Twitter!
Launch a Podcast
I've done podcasts in the past, however they were generally sort of "in-joke" podcasts made for small groups of people. This year I want to create and publicize a true podcast, either here at my website or for the company I currently work with, . At p80 we had discussed doing one and things got busy so we never really got it off the ground, however this year I might have to pound my fist on some tables to make sure it happens. Also, this sort of ties in with #1 in that I think it'll do wonders to establish a personal brand.
Drop Them Pounds
This is a fairly traditional one, I won't go into much detail, I've been slowly losing weight for a while and I hope to continue that trend in 2011. 'Nuff said.
Publish a Mobile Application
I've done work with iOS in the past and I certainly have the ability and drive to create an "app," for lack of a better term, but what really excites me is knowing that something I created gets published to an app store (note I didn't say the app store). I've had ideas for apps already, it's just now I have obligations that take priority above working on projects that produce no income...man, paying bills sucks. Anyways, I sort of wish I had jumped into mobile app development a little sooner in school so that I could have published an app for a class project. I was very close to launching one in my senior year for an independent study but things sort of got pushed to the side after I graduated.
Additional Revenue Streams
Everyone I know that has been financially successful has had to hold down at very least 2 jobs for some given amount of time. Right now I feel like I have the capacity to work more than I am so in 2011 I hope to crush it by either launching my own endeavors to expand my role at my current job or by taking up a second position.
So that's that! It goes without saying that I hope anyone who reads this has a prosperous and healthy 2011. Feel free to leave a comment below to let me know what your resolutions are, and maybe we can help each other cross some goals off our lists!
New Side Project – Envy Designs
Nov 2nd
I'm not really a fan of shilling my own work but I had a lot of fun working on this website so here comes some shameless self-promotion. is a website I launched with a good friend of mine. I've done all of the web work and he's created some cool designs which, when partnered with Zazzle.com, we can sell to folks interested in some custom clothing. The nice thing about the website is that I was able to go with a more dark and grungy theme which is not something I get to do very often.
I'm still not sold on Zazzle as a product vendor because there are certainly some limitations as to how you, as a developer, can interact with your products. I've noticed for some of their bigger clients (Discovery, for example) they will open up access to iframes so you can embed your product right into your website's template. Unfortunately, the same functionality isn't available to normal joes like myself. What this means is that is really just a front end to the zazzle website. If I could use that iframe functionality visitors wouldn't ever have to leave the website and the user experience would be much less confusing.
Anyways, head on over to and take a look at the products Dan has made, you can also follow him on twitter at . We're working on setting up the standard array of social networking sites and want to improve the site over time (including adding more designs), so if you have any questions or comments as to what you'd like to see from here on in please let us know! We're addicted to using as many free solutions as possible in this venture, and it's sort of a secondary labor of love for us both. In some ways it's an experiment. Stick tuned for more updates as we go.
Rdio.com – The Good and the Bad
Oct 30th
I recently gave the music streaming website a shot so I figured I would share my thoughts in a (somewhat) brief post.
The Good:
The first thing to note is that I didn't call this post "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" for a reason. I'm a big fan of the layout and design of Rdio's website. It's clean yet modern, it gets out of your way when it needs to and it's completely useable. I also like that you can browse the website without losing connection or having to pause the song you're listening to. Very solid implementation there.
Of course the real question is whether the music actually sounds good, and to be honest I was surprised with how great it sounded. With my headphones it sounded as good or better than listening to my iTunes library. Very impressive. Also you get all of this for just 5 dollars a month so it's a great deal compared to other pay-for services on the web.
Finally is the accessibility - I like to listen to music from all of my devices, so is that a possibility? Absolutely, they have apps for all major mobile devices and even an Adobe AIR application if you want to control your tunes from your computer without using the website. I will say that it would be great if you could actually access their library of music and add songs to your queue from the app itself, that way you would never have to visit the site, but the fact that they've put the extra effort in to give users a small player as an alternative is pretty great. For now visiting the website to load up my queue and then skipping around with the player works just fine.
The Bad:
The only negative thing I have to say about Rdio.com is that the library just isn't up to par at the moment. It might be that I have a unique taste in music, but a lot of times I want to search for a song and it isn't available. For instance, I just searched for "Soul Meets Body" by Deathcab for Cutie and it's unavailable...in fact they only have one Deathcab song on the entire website. I was wrong, Rdio.com does have the Deathcab song I was looking for, I was just too lazy to scroll beyond the fold of the page. Please take a look at Todd's comment below for more details (thanks again, Todd!). I also don't really like that if they don't have the song available for streaming they still show it to you but it's only available to purchase (99 cents per track from what I've seen). I don't mind that they want to sell music, but if I'm searching for it to stream please don't lead me on by displaying songs just like you display streaming songs, just with a purchase button instead of a play button.
The Ideal:
In my opinion the ideal situation would be if a company like Amazon were to purchase Rdio.com and integrate their features and products with the music library they already have access to. I buy almost all of my music from Amazon MP3, so marrying their huge library to Rdio's service would be awesome. Of course, I would expect the monthly rate to double or possibly triple, but I would still be willing to pay that much to have access to an exhaustive amount of tunes whenever I wanted them.
Streaming music services like LaLa (which Apple acquired, so we might see streaming iTunes someday), ZunePass and Rdio perfectly fit the way I listen to most music. I'm the type of person that will randomly think of a song that may or may not be in my library, so I'll visit YouTube to find a (usually bad quality) version to listen to. If I could get access to all of that in high quality for a subscription I'd be more than happy to subscribe. I'm still not sure if I'm going to stick with Rdio or return to my YouTube browsing habits, but I hope that other competitors with more robust music libraries enter the market soon.
