...more recent posts
Nintendo Wii outsells Sony PS3 5-fold in Japan
External I/O Ports
I'm doing some backups using external disks -- bare SATA II drives stuffed into USB external disk cases. One of the cases has eSATA support at SATA II speeds: 3 Gbps. At work, where I'm doing the backups, I have to live with USB 2.0 speeds -- 480 Mbps -- but at home I have a machine with an eSATA port on the back panel.
It just kind of struck me this evening ... 3 Gbps. Sweet. Screw USB. Screw Firewire. And Firewire 800 can go pound sand. 1.5 Gbps eSATA? I don't think so.
Three. Motherfucking. Gig.
How long until everything supports that data rate?
New AACS "fix" hacked in a day
In what's shaping up as an electronics industry trial of the century_between two incompatible, high-definition video-disc formats_the holdout juror is Ken Graffeo, Universal Home Video executive vice president of HD strategic marketing. And he may very well upset the whole case.
The Apple iTune DRM-free tracks contain user account info. I predicted they would do this with watermarking, but the info appears to be in the clear.
Google, EMI deal gives YouTube users access to music label's videos, clips
DVR maker TiVo swings to first-ever quarterly profit
... but subscribers down.
Apple TV to play YouTube clips
ADDED MEMORY OFFERED AS OPTION FOR CUSTOMERS
Report: Microsoft says open source violates 235 patents
In an interview with Fortune, Microsoft top lawyer Brad Smith alleges that the Linux kernel violates 42 Microsoft patents, while its user interface and other design elements infringe on a further 65. OpenOffice.org is accused of infringing 45, along with 83 more in other free and open-source programs, according to Fortune.
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