LAS VEGAS, Jan. 7, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- (International Consumer Electronics Show) – Entropic (Nasdaq:ENTR), a world leader in semiconductor solutions for the connected home, today announced it is working with NAGRA, the digital TV division of the Kudelski Group (SIX:KUD.S) and the world's leading independent provider of content protection and multiscreen television solutions. Through this engagement, Entropic will embed NAGRA's latest NAGRA-On-Chip Security (NOCS 3) conditional access and digital rights management technology into its complete line of advanced hybrid broadcast/IP set-top box (STB) system-on-a-chip (SoC) solutions.
The NOCS 3 technology provides a unified and certified hardware root of trust by transferring key security functionality from the device to the SoC, which in turn gives Pay-TV operators the proper level of content protection required to maximize revenues by controlling access to premium content, both to secure revenues from subscribers and to protect content owners' material from illegal copying and distribution. Additionally, by moving the security functionality to the SoC, the cost and complexity of developing secure STBs is significantly reduced, which enables device manufacturers to bring new STB products to market faster.
"Our NOCS 3 technology is recognized by leading content owners as a key element for securing content on global Pay-TV networks," said Maurice van Riek, senior vice president, Content and Asset Security, NAGRA. "We partnered with Entropic because they have an advanced hybrid broadcast/IP SoC platform, which has generated a lot of interest from our customers for the next-generation set-top box solutions."
"We believe that in working with the NAGRA team, we can fully support a diverse group of set-top box manufacturers focused on advancing the delivery and content protection of global Pay-TV content," said Matt Rhodes, senior vice president, Global Marketing, Entropic. "Our goal has always been to integrate NOCS 3 support for multi-Conditional Access/Digital Rights Management into our chipsets to best empower global Pay-TV operators with the ability to deliver secure premium content and services to multiple screens within the home."
NAGRA, the digital TV division of the Kudelski Group (SIX:KUD.S), provides security and multiscreen user experience solutions for the monetization of digital media. The company offers content providers and DTV operators worldwide with secure, open, integrated platforms and applications over broadcast, broadband and mobile platforms, enabling compelling and personalized viewing experiences. Please visit www.nagra.com/dtv for more information and follow us on Twitter at @nagrakudelski
Statements in this press release that are not strictly historical in nature constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding Entropic's SoC technology, its related prospects and its role in the future of connected home entertainment. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause Entropic's actual results to be materially different from historical results or from any results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These factors include, but are not limited to, competition, risks associated with Entropic dependence on a limited number of customers and suppliers, technology risks, the risk that the market for HD video and multimedia content delivery solutions may not develop as Entropic anticipates and other factors discussed in the "Risk Factors" section of Entropic's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2013. All forward-looking statements are qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. Entropic is providing this information as of the date of this release and does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this release as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
NEW YORK, Feb. 18, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Intercept Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Intercept or the Company) (Nasdaq:ICPT), a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of novel bile acid therapeutics to treat chronic liver and intestinal diseases, today announced the appointment of Sanj K. Patel and Glenn Sblendorio to the Company's Board of Directors, effective immediately. Patel is currently the President and Chief Executive Officer of Synageva Biopharma Corp. (Nasdaq:GEVA) and Sblendorio is the President and Chief Financial Officer of The Medicines Company (Nasdaq:MDCO). With these additions, Intercept's Board of Directors is now comprised of nine directors.
"We feel very fortunate that Sanj and Glenn are joining the Board," said Mark Pruzanski, M.D., President and CEO of Intercept. "They both have a proven track record as successful company builders with particular strategic depth in drug development, commercialization and finance. We look forward to benefiting from their combined insights as we prepare for the anticipated commercial launch of OCA and continue to build value across the company's pipeline."
At Synageva, Patel has led the effort to build a company that is focused on developing and commercializing novel breakthrough therapies for patients with rare diseases. He took Synageva public on the NASDAQ Global Market in November 2011 and has raised over $600 million in capital since 2009. Patel joined Synageva from Genzyme Corporation (1999-2008) where most recently he was the head of U.S. Sales, Marketing and Commercial Operations for Genzyme's Lysosomal Storage Disorder franchise and led the U.S. launch of Myozyme, in addition to having sales and marketing responsibility for Cerezyme, Fabrazyme and Aldurazyme. Patel was also responsible for clinical operations and development for all cross-business Genzyme products and was instrumental in the path to commercialization for several treatments. He obtained his BSc with Honors in Pure and Applied Biology (Biotechnology) from the University of the South Bank, London and completed his post-graduate business and management and research studies at Ealing College, London, and the Wellcome Foundation, respectively. Patel is a member of the Board of Directors for the Sarcoma Foundation of America.
Sblendorio has helped establish The Medicines Company as a leader in the development and worldwide commercialization of acute and intensive care therapies. He has been instrumental in building the company's global infrastructure, as well as the execution of a series of successful financings and acquisitions that have fueled the company's growth. Prior to becoming President and CFO of The Medicines Company in February 2012, Sblendorio served as its CFO and Executive Vice President from March 2006. Previously, he was Executive Vice President and CFO of Eyetech Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (2002 -2005) until it was acquired by OSI Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Sblendorio's pharmaceutical experience also includes 12 years at Hoffmann-LaRoche, Inc., a pharmaceutical company, in a variety of senior financial positions, including Vice President, Finance of Roche Molecular Systems and head of finance and controller for Amgen/Roche Europe. He currently serves as a director of Amicus Therapeutics, Inc., and Ophthotech Corporation, both public biopharmaceutical companies. Sblendorio received his B.B.A. from Pace University and his M.B.A. from Fairleigh Dickinson University.
"The Board is thrilled to welcome Sanj and Glenn, and we look forward to working with Mark and the entire Intercept team to help the company continue to build value and succeed in its development programs for PBC, NASH and other diseases with a high unmet need," said Jonathan Silverstein, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Intercept.
VAN NUYS, Calif. and LONG BEACH, N.Y., Oct. 13, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Planet Payment, Inc. (Nasdaq:PLPM), a leading provider of international and multi-currency payment processing and transaction services, and International Checkout, a leading provider of global eCommerce Solutions, today announced the launch of AsiaCheckout with UnionPay International, a leading bankcard association. AsiaCheckout is an online marketplace where U.S. merchants can offer and sell their goods to Chinese consumers.
With eCommerce sales in China continuing to rise, International Checkout and Planet Payment recognized a need in the market that wasn't being met – a marketplace comprised of U.S. brand retailers, selling their authentic products directly to Chinese consumers. Chinese online retail sales totaled $296 billion in 2013, 13% more than U.S. online retail sales.1 This represents an opportunity for significant expansion into what has become the world's largest eCommerce market. However there are also significant obstacles that can be difficult for U.S. merchants to navigate. For example, it can be a daunting task for U.S. merchants to effectively market to and attract Chinese consumers. Upgrading their payment processing to accept local payment types, as well as handling the logistics of shipping and customs, can also prove overwhelming.
Long term partners Planet Payment and International Checkout saw this as an opportunity to serve both existing and new customers and partners by creating a marketplace for U.S. brand e-tailers, www.asiacheckout.com. UnionPay International markets AsiaCheckout to their cardholders through their website, http://haigou.unionpay.com ("shop the world"). Once a Chinese consumer is directed to AsiaCheckout.com, they shop and purchase directly from the U.S. brand retailer, minimizing the risk of counterfeiting and addressing a major concern on the part of Chinese consumers purchasing Western brands in China.
Chinese consumers shopping on AsiaCheckout also enjoy the convenience of paying for their purchases using their preferred payment method. AsiaCheckout features Planet Payment's UnionPay Online Payment solution which allows Chinese consumers to use their UnionPay debit or credit card or e-bank transfer, and to shop and pay in their own currency at checkout. AsiaCheckout's Chinese language site makes the checkout process easier for consumers and both Mandarin and Cantonese speaking customer service agents will also be available to answer customer questions about their order.
AsiaCheckout takes the complexity out of delivering goods to China. E-tailers leverage International Checkout's extensive logistics network by simply shipping the merchandise to AsiaCheckout's facility in Van Nuys, CA. AsiaCheckout pays the e-tailer in US dollars, then handles the delivery of the goods on to the end purchaser, taking care of all customs and clearance procedures. Consumers have the option to pre-pay the fully landed cost. All returns are processed and handled by AsiaCheckout as well.
"We are thrilled to be partnering with Planet Payment to launch AsiaCheckout," said Kathy Beteta, EVP at International Checkout. "As a company that specializes in offering global eCommerce solutions, we believe AsiaCheckout answers a need in the international marketplace which is not currently being met. U.S. merchants need a stream-lined, cost-effective method for expansion into China, and this solution provides that easy access to the world's largest eCommerce market."
"Planet Payment is excited to launch AsiaCheckout with our long-time partner International Checkout," said Paul Levine, President, Planet Payment Solutions. "We believe that there is tremendous value for U.S. merchants being able to reach Chinese online shoppers and AsiaCheckout provides them with all the necessary tools to do so."
AsiaCheckout hand-picked a number of prestigious brands to be part of the launch on October 13th, 2014, including Dr. Martens, an iconic footwear brand. "Our goal is to make shopping from our online store as convenient as possible for all our customers, and AsiaCheckout allows us to provide seamless checkout for Chinese consumers in their local payment type, in addition to offering customer service in Mandarin and Cantonese," said Kristi Wirebaugh, E-Commerce Manager at Dr. Martens. "Dr. Martens is a well-known brand worldwide and we are eager to start actively marketing to the Chinese market with the help of AsiaCheckout." U.S. Merchants can apply to participate on AsiaCheckout by visiting www.asiacheckoutsolutions.com and completing the questionnaire on the Contact Us Page.
Since 2003, International Checkout (IC) has been the must have global ecommerce solution for U.S. brands and retailers. By eliminating the risks and hurdles associated with international payment and fulfillment, IC enables its clients to gain access to the quickly growing world market with ease. Via a simple connection to IC's management system, e-tailers enable international shoppers to enjoy a first class localized shopping experience while maintaining brand integrity. For more information on International Checkout visit http://internationalcheckoutsolutions.com/.
Planet Payment is a leading provider of international payment and transaction processing and multi-currency processing services. We provide our services in 23 countries and territories across the Asia Pacific region, the Americas, the Middle East, Africa and Europe, primarily through our more than 60 acquiring bank and processor customers. Our point-of-sale and e-commerce services help merchants sell more goods and services to consumers, and together with our ATM services are integrated within the payment card transaction flow enabling our acquiring customers, their merchants and consumers to shop, pay, transact and reconcile payment transactions in multiple currencies, geographies and channels.
Tom Frieden, former head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has been arrested in Brooklyn, New York amid allegations of forcible touching, sex abuse and harassment, August 24, 2018.
Tom Frieden, former head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has been arrested amid allegations of forcible touching, sex abuse and harassment.
CNBC confirmed that Frieden was arrested on those charges after inappropriately touching a woman in October 2017.
Local media reported that the Frieden groped the woman in his Brooklyn home and that the woman reported the incident in July.
NYPD officers from Brooklyn's special victims division arrested Frieden on Friday morning. He is expected in court later in the day.
Frieden was director of the CDC between 2009 and 2017, leading the agency as it worked to end the Ebola epidemic and an outbreak of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis. He was also previously New York City Health Commissioner from 2002 and 2009.
Frieden now serves as president and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives, a global health non-profit, which is an initiative of Vital Strategies. Jose Castro, president and CEO of Vital Strategies, said in a statement that in April Frieden mentioned allegations against him of inappropriate behavior.
Castro said Vital Strategies tapped an external expert to conduct an investigation and interview Resolve to Save Live staffers. That probe concluded that there had been no misconduct in the workplace, Castro said.
"In April of this year, Dr. Tom Frieden, who heads our Resolve to Save Lives Initiative, informed me that a non-work-related friend of his and his family of more than 30 years accused him of inappropriate physical contact.
I have known and worked closely with Dr. Frieden for nearly 30 years and have seen first-hand that he has the highest ethical standards both personally and professionally. In all of my experiences with him, there have never been any concerns or reports of inappropriate conduct.
Vital Strategies is committed to a workplace that is free of sexual harassment. As such, even though she is not an employee, earlier this month we conducted a thorough investigation by an external expert, which included an in-depth interview with every staff member on the Resolve to Save Lives team to determine whether there are any concerns about inappropriate behavior. This assessment determined there have been no incidents of workplace harassment.
Vital Strategies greatly values the work Dr. Frieden does to advance public health and he has my full confidence."
The emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) could be the "worst event in the history of our civilization" unless society finds a way to control its development, high-profile physicist Stephen Hawking said Monday.
He made the comments during a talk at the Web Summit technology conference in Lisbon, Portugal, in which he said, "computers can, in theory, emulate human intelligence, and exceed it."
Hawking talked up the potential of AI to help undo damage done to the natural world, or eradicate poverty and disease, with every aspect of society being "transformed."
"Success in creating effective AI, could be the biggest event in the history of our civilization. Or the worst. We just don't know. So we cannot know if we will be infinitely helped by AI, or ignored by it and side-lined, or conceivably destroyed by it," Hawking said during the speech.
Hawking explained that to avoid this potential reality, creators of AI need to "employ best practice and effective management."
The scientist highlighted some of the legislative work being carried out in Europe, particularly proposals put forward by lawmakers earlier this year to establish new rules around AI and robotics. Members of the European Parliament said European Union-wide rules were needed on the matter.
"I am an optimist and I believe that we can create AI for the good of the world. That it can work in harmony with us. We simply need to be aware of the dangers, identify them, employ the best possible practice and management, and prepare for its consequences well in advance," Hawking said.
It's not the first time the British physicist has warned on the dangers of AI. And he joins a chorus of other major voices in science and technology to speak about their concerns. Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk recently said that AI could cause a third world war, and even proposed that humans must merge with machines in order to remain relevant in the future.
And others have proposed ways to deal with AI. Microsoft founder Bill Gates said robots should face income tax.
Some major figures have argued against the doomsday scenarios. Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said he is "really optimistic" about the future of AI.
Ray Dalio, Bridgewater Associates discusses why he thinks holding cash is a bad idea, when the markets may be in late cycle behavior and how a change in interest rates may result in a bear market.
Microsoft confirms it is planning to open its first New York City flagship store -- just blocks from Apple's flagship shop known as the Cube.
This Manhattanite had almost given up hope. But five years after kicking off its retail-store push, Microsoft officials confirmed Sunday that the company will create a flagship retail store in New York City.
Microsoft will open a full-size store on Fifth Avenue, officials told The Wall Street Journal. Microsoft execs did not provide a date as to when the store will open.
In August, the New York Daily News reported that Microsoft was negotiating to take control of the former Fendi store on Fifth Avenue. The Fendi store, located at 677 Fifth Avenue (near 53rd Street) is five blocks away from Apple's Fifth Avenue Store (near 58th Street).
Microsoft currently operates a kiosk, or "specialty store," in Columbus Circle in Manhattan, but still has no full-size store here. The company does have a few full-size stores in the New York area. Microsoft opened a full-size retail store in Times Square when it launched its original Surface tablets in 2012, but ended up closing it several months later.
Microsoft currently has more than 100 retail stores listed on its Microsoft Store location page, with specialty and full-size stores located in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico. Microsoft still hasn't opened any retail stores beyond these locations. Apple has hundreds of stores located throughout the world, with four of of its flagship stores located in Manhattan.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella told Wall Street and press during the company's Q4 fiscal 2014 earnings call that he considered retail stores to be a "supporting," not a core, business for the company. Lately, much of the company's retail focus has been on working with Best Buy and Staples to create dedicated Microsoft store-within-a-store outlets.
Microsoft officially announced its retail-store launch plan back in February 2009. At that time, the company appointed David Porter (a former Dreamworks Animation and Wal-mart exec) as corporate vice president of retail stores. Microsoft's strategy has been to open its stores as close to Apple stores as possible as it expands its retail presence. Full-size Microsoft Stores sell Windows PCs, Windows Phones, Xboxes, Microsoft and third-party software, games, peripherals and more.
This story originally posted as "Microsoft confirms plans to open Fifth Avenue New York flagship store" on ZDNet.
If you've found yourself with multiple copies of the same songs, iTunes Match provides an inexpensive and useful way to restore order to your music collection.
Years ago, I went digital with my music. I ripped all my CDs, bringing everything into Windows Media Player. I didn't start with the iPod. The Rio Karma was my main MP3 player. Over the years, my music library moved from computer to computer. It migrated into iTunes (and into iPods, iPhones, iPads....). It gained new music from purchases or the occasional rare CD that I'd buy. And my music got really messy.
I shouldn't really care that somehow, I ended up with two or three different copies of the same songs. What does it really matter, especially as storage is so cheap these days? But it did to me. It seems to matter to others, too.
After all, iTunes has a "Display Duplicates" feature, plus there's no lack of programs out there offering to "clean" or "de-duplicate" music libraries. Heck, so many people search for ways to deal with duplicate songs that it's even a Google suggestion:
I've tried some de-duplication programs in the past and didn't come away impressed. Heck, I felt downright ripped-off by one. But happy days have arrived. I found a tool that really worked, Apple's iTunes Match service. It cleared out my duplicates plus gave me the additional benefits of cloud-based music and high-quality songs, all at the same time.
iTunes Match came out last November. It checks your music library against songs that Apple sells. If there's a match, you can then download that song to another computer, mobile device or upgrade the song to the same computer, to a better quality than you might currently have.
iTunes match isn't free. It runs $24.99 per year. But that's around the price I've seen some duplicate cleaning tools charge. That alone made it worth the cost for me. I (or anyone) could pay for only one year, to do a one-time de-duplication. But I like the service enough I'll keep renewing for the other features.
To clean my library, I signed up for Match using iTunes on the computer that had my current library of music. That was a Windows PC, by the way. iTunes Match is a solution that works for both Windows and Mac. That computer had about 8,000 songs, of which around 1,800 were reported as duplicates (using the File > Display Duplicates feature in iTunes).
Some of these were duplicates for good reasons -- songs that happened to appear on more than one album, for instance. But others were songs that somehow got copied into my library twice or three times, possibly because of accidental imports over the years.
I let Match do its work over the course of a day or two. It scanned my library, then it uploaded songs as needed to create my library in the cloud. When it was done, I got a cheerful message telling me that my iTunes library -- with about 7,200 songs -- now lived in iCloud:
If you're doing the math, about 800 songs didn't make it from my computer into the cloud. I'll get back to that. But the next step in de-duplication was to pull my library back down from the cloud.
I have a separate computer that I use when traveling, a MacBook Air. I loaded up iTunes there, went to the Music area, then selected all the songs that were tagged as being in the cloud. I right clicked, selected "Download" and let the computer do its work.
Using the Display Duplicates feature, iTunes reported that I had about 300 duplicate songs, a huge drop from the 1,800 I originally started with. Most of these were "good" duplicates, where as I mentioned before, you get the same song but on different albums:
Hey, everyone needs three copies of "Blue Monday" by New Order! Actually, it would be nice if iTunes could let you download only a single copy of a song, if it's on multiple albums as with some of the examples above, and simply cross-link them behind the scenes.
Still, the main point is that almost all those "bad" duplicates that I had before were gone. From 1,800 duplicates, mostly bad, to only 300 good ones! I am still confused about how I started with 8,000 songs, lost around 1,500 duplicates yet still have 7,200 songs left rather than 6,500. I suspect that iTunes doesn't count duplicates correctly. But I do know that none of my music was lost, and I ended up with a nice, clean library. That leads to double-checking on iTunes.
If you do this, I think it's worth taking a close look after iTunes Match is done. I found a handful of cases where bad duplicates got through, the exact same song, on the exact same album, listed twice, such as with "OK Computer" from Radiohead:
In all, there were about 40 bad duplicates that I had to remove manually. Despite this, I was very happy with this tiny amount. iTunes succeeded in cleaning up my music library far beyond what I expected.
Here's a tip for manually checking on duplicates. Go to "Music" in your iTunes library, use File > Detect Duplicates. Then sort by song name, and you can easily scan to see if there are any bad duplicates of the same song, for the same album. If so, right click on one of the songs, select Delete, and you'll get an option to remove the song. Be sure to select remove from iCloud as well:
Do that, and the duplicate is gone forever. Apple has further instructions on deleting songs from iCloud here.
While I was pleased to have my duplicates gone, I wondered if iTunes, as part of the matching process, somehow lost some of my other songs. Nothing was lost, but there were a few songs that had errors or were ineligible for uploading, which needed to be dealt with manually.
After you sync your songs to iCloud, the computer you uploaded from will show an iCloud Status for each song. Go to "View" on the menu, select "View Options" and then tick the "iCloud Status" box. Tick the "iCloud Download" one, too, if it's not already selected.
After you've done this, you can sort all your music by iCloud Status. After my upload was done, about 5,900 of my songs had the status of "Matched." That meant these were songs that in my library that iTunes matched to songs it already had in the cloud. These songs were never pushed from my computer to iCloud, but my ownership of them was verified. That allows me to download any of them to any device I have that runs iTunes.
An important point here. Any songs that are matched, if you download them, come down fresh from Apple in 256 kbps quality and AAC format, even if they were originally in MP3 or another format. Apple explains more about this here. If you must have MP3 format, you'll need to convert the songs later. But many devices, including Apple's own, support AAC, so this shouldn't be an issue for many people.
About 1,200 songs were tagged as "Uploaded," which means iTunes didn't have matches for them in its library. Because of this, my computer uploaded them to iCloud. If I download them to another computer or back down to the same computer I uploaded from, I'll get back exactly what was uploaded.
That was the vast majority of my library. About 50 songs were tagged as "Purchased," which means I purchased them directly from iTunes and can download if necessary, as with Matched songs (I buy most of my music from Amazon, which is why my number of purchases may seem low).
Only about 15 songs got tagged as "Error," and in all of these cases, another copy of the song made it into iCloud, so there was nothing to worry about. Only five songs got tagged as "Ineligible," which meant I didn't have them in good enough quality for uploading to iCloud.
Macworld has a nice guide to iCloud status messages here, if you're looking for more guidance, and Apple also has a page about the iCloud status icons that you can also make appear.
Obviously, you'll need to take the closest look at any of your music that's flagged as "Error" or "Ineligible." You'll have to find other ways to get these songs into your iTunes library, if you recreate it fresh by downloading from iCloud.
That leads to creating that fresh, new library. If you have a separate computer, as I did, then you can download straight from iCloud. You'll only get songs that on your original computer had a status of "Matched," "Uploaded" or "Purchased." When done, that computer will have a clean, de-duplicated music library.
If you have only one computer, and you want that computer to mirror your de-duplicated library that's in iCloud, the safest option is to create a new iTunes library (see Apple's instructions here). After you do this, and you've logged into iTunes Match, all your music will be listed with little cloud icons next to the songs, similar to this:
The icons mean the songs are available for download. Select all the songs in your library, right click and choose "Download." Now your library will be recreated, from iCloud, without all those duplicates you originally had. If you're happy with your new library, you can ignore the old one or delete it, eventually.
Alternatively, you could work from within your existing library. To do that, select all your music and delete. DO NOT TICK THE DELETE FROM ICLOUD OPTION WHEN YOU DO THIS. If you also delete from iCloud, there will be nothing to download to your computer.
After you've done this, as above, all your music that had a "Matched," "Uploaded" or "Purchased" status should still be listed, with little cloud icons as shown above. That's what happened in my test of this. Select all your songs, then download.
If you work within your existing library, I recommend that to be super-safe, backup your iTunes library before doing the delete and download option.
One other benefit is that by de-duplicating, I now have a clean library I can use if I want to upload it elsewhere, such as Google Music or Amazon. By the way, I did wonder if Google Music might be a free way to do the same de-duplicating that iTunes Match does. I'm pretty sure it doesn't. I've uploaded some music there over the past year, and I can see that I have two or three copies of the exact same songs.
As I said, I was very happy with the iTunes Match process. I cleaned up my music library, plus I've enjoyed the freedom of not having to keep 30GB or more of music backed-up locally, since I have an ultimate backup in the cloud -- the iCloud, that is.