...more recent posts
U.S. senators join battle over Internet royalty rates
Fri May 11, 2007 5:48 AM IST160
By Sue Zeidler
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Two senators fired the latest salvo in a battle over copyright payments for Web radio broadcasters on Thursday with a bill to annul a pending royalty rate increase they say threatens the fledgling industry.
Bill would nullify Internet radio royalty increase
were #15!
VC-1 can be licensed, but virtually no royalty cash goes to Microsoft
Microsoft claimed to have invented Windows Media Video 9, and tried to undermine the acceptance of MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 by saying WMV9 would be cheaper. (They also said it was better, which was, how to say, "optimistic".)
In an attempt to broaden the acceptance of WMV9, Microsoft went to SMPTE to have it turned into an open standard, called VC-1. In the process, it became clear that WMV9, um, "shared" some technology with AVC. Almost all of the essential patents belong to other companies.
Apple Hits The 100-Million Mark With iPod
April 02, 2007 — IDG News Service — A news conference in London later Monday by Apple's Steve Jobs and EMI Group could see the announcement that the first of the four big music labels will ditch digital rights management (DRM).
Ever since invitations went out to the event, scheduled for 1 p.m. local time (noon GMT) at EMI's London headquarters, speculation in the media and online has centered on two possibilities: the Beatles catalog coming to the iTunes Music Store, or EMI ditching DRM. The latter is fast becoming the favorite, especially after The Wall Street Journal said such an announcement would come at the event.
DRM is applied to many downloads to prevent illegal copying or sharing of the content, but it also prevents legal copying and can tie users into a certain product or technology. For example, Apple's iPod won't play DRM-protected songs purchased from anything but the iTunes Music Store, while owners of Creative Technology's devices aren't able to use the iTunes store because those downloads are incompatible.
Jobs called for an end to the use of DRM on music files in a blog-like posting on the Apple homepage in February. In it he argued that consumers would benefit because any player would be able to play music from any online music store and not be restricted as it is currently.
"This is clearly the best alternative for consumers, and Apple would embrace it in a heartbeat," he wrote.
google T1SP
Yahoo Mail to introduce limitless account size
Apple TV Has Landed -- Wow, requires a 16:9 television, which in the US means an HDTV. Not sure I would have gone that way. And I have trouble with the "iPod for your TV" analogy. My iPod has a disk twice the capacity of the Apple TV. Where do you even get a 40 Gig drive these days, from "Ye Old Computer Shoppe"? But I may have to get one anyway.
Cable TV embraces an old foe: antenna
Planned device may give industry leverage when it negotiates fees for local broadcasts
Apple TV projected to surpass TiVo, Netflix
Flash drives being used in bigger devices
I've seen some articles popping up on this topic. This is from USA Today, so the PR is catching. Here's a blurb from a CEA newsletter that sounds like a flash manufacturer's press release ...
Flash drives transition into larger electronicsFlash is fragile, so they oughta watch with the throwing of the stones. Flash is fragile in a different way. It wears out due to write cycles. Given the way OS's like to fuck with files all the time, using flash with a general purpose OS is something to watch out for. Having a RAM disk absorb the thrashing and then writing to the flash on a much, much, much less frequent basis may result in a reliable disc-less system. Just popping in flash to replace the hard drive and hoping for the best is not so good.
Durable and consumer-friendly flash drives are making the transition from smaller devices, such as cameras and cell phones, into larger electronics. Sony's new Vaio UX Premium and two Samsung laptops replace fragile hard drives with the more stable and energy-efficient flash offerings.
By the way, when did you last do a backup?
I've been meaning to get up to speed on VoIP, but haven't really ever found the time. I know Skype must be pretty easy, but again, I haven't ever used it. There has just been some barrier there for me, and I'm generally a pretty early adopter of on line technology. But MagicJack sounds like it might be lowering the bar enough for me to take the plunge.
Techs, telcos team up to set Internet TV standard
A word of explanation: "Open IPTV Forum" isn't about having open, non-proprietary IPTV for the end-consumer. It's about having open, non-proprietary systems components for the service providers to choose from to build their closed, proprietary service delivery platforms.
Analogous organization: DVB, which sets standards used by a variety of satellite, terrestrial, and mobile TV systems ... some of which are "open" from the end consumer's perspective.
Will Apple TV Be Bigger than the iPhone?
EU may force single mobile TV standard on cellular carriers
Shares of BigBand Networks Spike After Pricing of $139 Million IPO
BigBand is a developer of technology that allows cable TV providers and telephone companies to offer video, voice and data services.
The Redwood City, Calif.-based company has raised more than $100 million from investors, and achieved profitability last year.
Its clients include Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cox and Rogers Cable.
Nice to see an IPO in this space. Although with $100M in at least some of the VCs got less than the 10-1 pop that they dream of.