Technical information

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downloading versus streaming for playback. Amazon offers 5 GB
of free storage in its Cloud Drive service that’s paired with your
Amazon account, but music files aren’t currently counted against
that total. You can store unlimited music at no cost, and access
via the Web, dedicated apps, and the Kindle Fire.
When you buy music from Amazon, you can automatically add
those purchased items to your Cloud Drive, but any music that
you didn’t purchase and add in that fashion has to be uploaded
directly. There’s no match functionality, and no synchronization as
you add items from sources other than Amazon to your own music
collection.
Non-purchased books, audio, apps, and video are also much
more of a pain with Amazon. Apple lets you drag all manner of
things — so long as they are in a supported format and not
wrapped in DRM — right into iTunes. You can use Handbrake to
rip DVDs you own or copy PDFs or what have you. Amazon allows
this, too, but there’s no management program on the desktop. You
must use USB to connect a Fire, where it shows up as a volume
on the desktop, and the manage the media by dragging it or out.
(Adding apps from non-Amazon sources requires changing a set-
ting, but it’s just a simple software switch.)
With Apple’s ecosystem, simply copying items into iTunes makes
them easily available to sync to multiple devices, and iTunes Match,
even though it requires a separate annual fee, doesn’t require
nearly as much tedious uploading, and maintains synchronization
between any new music you rip or purchase and then import into
any copy of desktop iTunes and your iCloud collection.
The Kindle Fire certainly has a lot of room to grow, and I like
this first iteration. But I’m most captivated at Amazon’s simplicity in
making media available as you want it wherever. Apple may have
cut the USB cord to iTunes, but it certainly still tethers itself to a
desktop experience split into many apps. Apple now has a bar to
meet in making media access intuitive. That’s a rare challenge.
[TidBITS 17 Nov 2011]
Garry Brooke
The Australasian Heritage Software Database is a project
to assemble documentation on software that has either been
written in Australia or New Zealand, or written by Australians
or New Zealanders. The website is at:
http://www.ourdigitalheritage.org/index.php
The project is being headed by Dr Melanie Swalwell, a
Senior Lecturer in Screen and Media at Flinders University
who has researched digital media histories.
The database is a public-compiled and accessible data-
base documenting Australian and New Zealand software his-
tory. The field of software history is enormous and largely
undocumented. Few repositories of software or documentation
exist. This project aims to collect documentation from the
public – and, where feasible, source code – in order to create
a picture of the software written locally, and to present this
online.
They want to receive information about software that
either was locally created in Australia and New Zealand, or
created by locals. It can be any Australian and/or New Zea-
land software that people are aware of, from the earliest
mainframes to the present day.
What can I do to help?
This database is compiled by the public who can enter
details they have in a form on the Database web site. People
can upload files that they own, such as screenshots or cover
art, and even source code if they have it. People don’t have
to be the owner of the software to provide what details they
have.
If you have details about locally made software, you will
helping the project a lot if you could check the Database web
site and provide those details.
Australasian Heritage Software
Database