To those that said such things couldn’t or wouldn’t happen, here’s some back up of my point.

Not so long ago I posted a blog about DRM and its evils. To me, the biggest is that DRM’ed music isn’t purchased at all. It’s only rented. Eventually, any DRM scheme that depends on heading out to the interweb to authorize the user is doomed to eventual shutdown.

According to an Engadget article MSN is already shutting down its support for the MSN Music service. They even mention iTunes (as I did), even though it was a bit of …

As a road warrior, I have struggled forever with finding the best method for getting my recorded TV programs to travel with me.  Here is the journey so far.

The number one solution has always been to throw money at the problem.  But I have tried desperately to avoid that solution.  In the end, it may be the way to go.  From what I can tell, it would be easy to get a Windows Media Center Edition PC (also called MCE, around $1,000 minimum for an MCE PC) and a compatible portable player ($200+).  But there are reasons not to go …

Is the music industry dying?  Is piracy killing it?

Confession time.  I don’t believe the music industry is dying.  Not in the least.  But I had to have a catchy title to get you to read, didn’t I?  Gotcha!

But seriously, what can be made of the music industry today?  The industry spokespeople are all up-in-arms because the sales of CDs is declining and the sales of online purchases aren’t making up the difference.  I recently had an email conversation with a friend about the current state of music and how it makes it onto our iPods.

First of all, it is my …

We talked about DRM as it applies to audio.  What about video?

Video is far trickier to deal with in terms of DRM.  There is no established DRM-free format for video like the audio CD is for music.  DVDs come with an encryption scheme called CSS, which was cracked years ago.  This is good and bad.

Now, with the advent of software for your PC that can get around CSS, users can rip video off of their DVDs to do with as they please.  This should be the way things are, and indeed this was perfectly legal (and sort of still is, …

Steve Jobs recently posted an online open letter regarding DRM that was very interesting.  What is DRM and why doesn’t it work?

DRM stands for Digital Rights Management and it’s the stuff that nightmares are made of.  It’s horrible for consumers.  It doesn’t protect the copyright holders, nor the artists.

Okay, let’s get into the meat of it, and I’ll use Steve Jobs’ letter as a guide.  DRM is software that prevents consumers of digital content, specifically music and video, from sharing that content with those that do not have the right to hear or watch the content.  Or from anyone, actually.

Let’s …

Intel is working on a new processor architecture, codenamed Olo River.  It includes an XScale processor core capable of 1GHz.

So, what is it for?

Multimedia, essentially.  The new architecture is designed to be placed in virtually any piece of A/V hardware to enhance the abilities of that device.  For instance, next generation televisions can use the Olo River processor to develop a 3D or 2D interface for the user to navigate.  Or it could connect to the internet via your ethernet LAN to download content such …

I am sure that if you ask 100 iTunes users that you will get at least 20 different responses on how iTunes could be improved. Everything from how it organizes music to the depth of “Smart Playlists”.

Anyone who spends any time listening to various podcasts has probably come across Macbreak Weekly and Alex Lindsay’s lament on how he wants iTunes’ Smart Playlists to function. Personally, I would welcome some sort of plugin that allowed users to go much further in setting up iTunes to work in a more personable fashion.
I recently got an email from a good friend …

The first step is to determine size. In order to sound good, MP3s need to be encoded around 128kbps (kilobits per second… 128 is considered “near CD quality”). So, a standard 4 minute song is 240 seconds, which means 128×240=30720kb which is about 3,840KBytes (8 bits in a byte). Now, let’s look at the 20GB model MP3 player (you can do the math to see how much the other sizes can hold). 20GB is 20,000,000,000 bytes. So, this means that 5,208 songs will fit on in 20GB. So, where’d they get the 9,900 from?

Well, most MP3 players these days …

Who wants a Zune? I mean, really? Who is this product targeting?

You’re an iPod user, through and through: Well, Mr. Gates just relented on the “iPod Killer” moniker, stating that the Zune has more modest goals. Besides, if you’re an iPod user, you can kiss goodbye all of your iTunes-purchased tracks and videos. FairPlay doesn’t play fair with the Zune.

You’re a Microsoft music consumer: Sorry again. PlaysForSure plays not at all on the Zune. You have to purchase your tracks from the Zune Marketplace now. Sorry, Rhapsody and Napster users.
You just want portable video, and the …