I think that Sony's trying to cater to the publishers, most of whom want to run their own connection systems to charge customers (or not) by themselves. Companies such as Squeenix, Capcom, etc, all probably have their own ideas about how to charge clients, and don't want a middle man.
However, as the success of Live demonstrates, having a centralized system can be a very good thing. I don't use Live myself, but if I didn't have three wonderful little rug rats and if they had a good MMO attached to it (say like WoW of FFXI - coming soon) with voice support, I'd use it.
The question is - how will publishers react? Will they go "Good - we get to do what we want" and make for the PS3, or just use MS's easy to use and so far working Live system?
Probably not - from what we've been hearing, there may be an inventory shortage to being with, so all of the first adapters (and those who just want to bu one to sell on eBay - not that I'm considering that *cough*) will allow Microsoft to do a "We sold out because we rock!" (the same way that Nokia claimed with the original N-gage - granted, the 360 is cooler, but....)
Anyway - if if I had planned on picking up an Xbox 360 anytime soon, I'm pretty certain to wait until Morrowind IV is fully available now with the delay (especially as they don't port their games to OS X, so the console versions have been useful to me). I'm not sure of any "must buys" coming out for that system - but then again, neither does the PS3 or the Revolution have a "buy me now" attached to them so far.
I'm starting to wonder if gamers are now realizing that you have to wait six months before consoles become useful - and what that will mean for console manufacturers.
Of course, this is all just my opinion. I could be wrong.
I mean, that would be a huge deal if I couldn't get songs at 40% of the price elsewhere!
*sigh* The sad thing is, people will totally buy into this. I mean, they get it *now* instead of later. I've always been surprised at the ROKR didn't use something and better looking that could have used this, like taking the Razor phone, adding an extra inch for the scroll wheel so it would look like an iPod Nano as a flip phone.
Then Apple could have gotten the "I gotta have it *now*" market with a link to download the songs later (maybe at a 10% increase in price for the "on the road" download service or something). Instead, there was that - thing that was a horrible mix of mobile phone company greed and Apple's frustration with their model.
Well, we'll have to see what happens. If music on cell phones really takes off, I wonder if battery life will have to increase as well to make up for it (and all of the "tv on phones" services that are coming out).\
Of course, this is all just my opinion. I could be wrong.
The last (and so far, first time) I went to Comic-Con was this summer of 2005, and I was surprised by how many women were there. And not just the classical "geek girl" (bad haircut, bad acne, overweight, etc, etc, etc), but how many smart, excited, interesting, and - to display an unfortunate level of sexism perhaps - cute geek girls there were running booths, going to events, buying things, and the like. There were whole sections that seemed to be made just for women. Not in a "ooo - pink!" kind of way or trashy romance, but stories that appeal to more than guys looking for giant breasts, but stories about relationships, or the infamous yaoi booths.
But girl geekhood is not just regulated to "romance". One lady I went with drooled with me over the Terminator 2 arm replica, and this was a woman that most slashdotters would not pick out as the "geek" of a group of similiar attractive women.
Personally, I think it's a great thing. Not just because it increases the chances of future geeks to breed and multiply, but it gives an extra dimension to geek hood. Sure, Star Trek was good, but once the sexes became more equal and women could wear more than short skirts, it got better. I've never liked my heroines with just big giggly breasts and chain mail bikinis. With more geek girls, we still have the stereotypes, but I've been seeing deeper and more interesting stories in my geek world. I wonder how well "Serenity" and "Buffy" would have been if Mr. Whedon hadn't tapped into both the male and female side of geekhood. It's been easier to show my wife good geek stuff (like "Battlestar Gallactica") as it looks to include the sexes instead of pretend one doesn't exist.
So, welcome to our new female geek overlords! While I love my wife dearly, I do wish you ladies had been in greater numbers a decade ago - but at least now I have hope for my two boys, and most importantly, my lovely little geek daughter - because now she can play in my world too.
I agree - the doctor in this case is really just using the iPod as a portable hard drive. All physicians have to know is "plug in iPod, pictures go in. Plug in iPod, and select the picture you want to see". The software takes care of the rest.
There's nothing stopping someone from modifying the display software to encrypt the messages. I work in health care (systems and security architecture), and this would be a simple enough add-on.
Besides, people stealing the iPod are more likely to wipe out the files and just use it as a music player than spend time looking at some guy's X-ray images. (Unless they *really* get off on those kind of things.)
I've been working on a project to secure this communications in a health care environment - this way, veterans at home with disabilities can still communicate with their fellow veterans/health care physicians, but in a secure environment so HIPAA guidelines are met. I'll have to show this to my boss, but this is encouraging.
I may be wrong in my history, but if memory serves me correctly- *takes a bite out of a yellow pepper* - Atari (or was it Colecovision? It's been so long ago I can't remember) originally had a "no license fee" to their system. Which leads to an overabundance of very crappy games, which lead to death of the system.
When Nintendo had their NES system, if you wanted the "Gold Sticker" of quality, you had to go through Nintendo's process and give them a cut for the licensing. Which forged a company that is profitable even today.
So, is Apple being "teh evil" by enforcing a trademark license - if you want to use the words "Made for iPod" on your product, you pay the fee that lets them decide if your item is actually worth it. Or, you can go the Gameshark route and *not* license your product and sell it as "iPod compatible, not licensed by Apple" and still make money anyway.
Personally, I think that Apple's being a touch overhanded here, but they're working with an existing model, one they hope to bring them enough money to continue to fund new products and new directions.
Of course, this is all just my opinion - I could be wrong.
No kidding - right now, the best portable games being released are on the DS, but I love my PSP in spite of Sony it seems.
A friend of mine got a 1 GB stick for $80 bucks online - I'll have to see where he found his at. There are some third party folks doing it, through - just have to look.
Interesting choice now. I sold my old iPod, and with the money I now have, I was planning on getting a new iPod with video.
The question now is, which is better:
1 iPod Nano so I can listen to all of the songs on my iTunes/Podcasts/Audiobooks, and have the 4 GB PSP add-on to my current PSP so I can have space for multiple reencoded movies to the 4 GB HDD for when I travel
OR
1 iPod with video at 60 GB space, and leave my PSP as it is with a 512 MB card for my homebrew (ah, the joys of never upgrading past 1.50 so I can use my NES/SNES/Genesis/Game Boy emulators as long as I want).
The former means I get better video quality when I travel, but I'll lose out on the iTunes television sales (and, if they start adding Veronica Mars, Mythbusters, and the Daily Show, I might be sorely tempted to use it to catch the episodes I forget to Tivo). The latter means I keep the status quo, and have more storage space.
Odds are I'll go with the latter, but at least now I have another option.
I've been hearing rumors and people running "Treo RIM Betas" for some time now - at least when I finally got my Treo 650 (and luckily, I don't seem to have some of the reset problems some have, but I will admit at least once a week - usually when I'm surfing the web - it reboots itself).
So if they want to announce this for 2006 that's fine, but are we talking "early because we're almost done" or "We're just going to do it sometime 2006 and we're just yankin' your chain again because we're really just going to do it about the same time as the Treo 700 with Palm comes out".
I'd like this, as my employer doesn't support any other mail hookup but RIM to their system, but I'm not going to hold my breath.
God, aka "The Supreme Being", "The Intelligent Designer" and "Don't Fuck With Me Pip-Squeaks" recently filed claim in federal court for patent infringement. He/She/It/They claim that patents regarding the human genome violate He/She/It/Their's intellectual property laws.
"Good grief, you little monkeys are an annoying lot," God was quoted as saying. "Between this and that jackass Jack Thompson, I'm going to have to fire up another hurricane."
Comments from the defendants were not returned at the time of this filing, as they had all turned to salt.
1. Watch the show, but it has the ads. This is free (especially for what I would term "essential" shows - news broadcasts, political debates - yes, have a "thanks to a generous donation by Corporate Fucker, maker of things that Fuck you Well, and generous taxpayers like you" at the beginning/end of the debate, just like PBS).
2. Watch the show, but pay a subscription (aka, like cable) for little-to-no ads (yes, I know there will be some ads, but if there were just one at the beginning and at the end, after I paid for it, it would be more palpable). If you want specific feeds, it's a different cost. For example, if all you care about is Sci-Fi channel, maybe that's $10, or a bundle of common shows is $30-$40, with special channels being extra.
3. Pay per episode, no ads, $2 apiece (maybe $3-$4 if it's a 2 hour special).
With a tiered system, there would suddenly be not just more convienience of watching when *I* want to watch, but also more possibility for smaller shows. As Mr. Cuban mensions, suppose that a small show - and let's take Firefly - had 50,000 viewers. All of the sudden, that's $100,000 per episode potential. Not a lot according to Hollywood, but that could be enough for a small show on a cheap budget.
All of the sudden, there could be *more* competition. Yes, boo-hoo, there would be more money out there and the cable and satellite industries would be regulated to nothing more to bandwidth providers. I feel so bad for them, and the FCC is all but dead in the water for regulation. (After all, if I seek it out, if it isn't on "public airwaves", the religious extremists fuckers who don't want to see Janet Jackson's nipple can just screw themselves. No, wait, that would be sinful as well, wouldn't it?)
A lot of this stuff is pie in the sky, but like player pianos, then radio, then television, then cable, I think that entertainment is about to make another huge shift. And, odds are, we'll have to (as Mr. Doctorow said in a recent episode in "TWiT") "drag them kicking and screaming to the money tree" - but eventually we'll all get what we want.
I'm just curios to see: will it take 10 years of studios "getting it", or 50 years while they fight it?
From what I've seen, the excitement of "IPTV" seems to be modeled on the wrong things. "Have four screens at once! Imagine all the TV you'll get!"
I think the real magic of IPTV will be convenience. Right now, I have an iPod for Podcasts (yes, the name sucks to some people - deal with it), and a Tivo at home. For some stupid ass reason, Tivo doesn't have their Desktop software with OS X 10.4, but that's another issue.
For me, the beauty of IPTV will be watching whatever I want. Whenver I want. Did I miss "Battlestar Gallactica" or the entire first season of "Veronica Mars" (Hey, I've seen the first three episodes - good show). Or "Firefly". With IPTV, and perhaps some sort of subscription in place of my cable, I can see them. Click the button to my set top Tivo-ish device, and I can watch the episode. Or use my account to view it on my phone as I travel nationwide. Or catch it on my laptop. I wouldn't even mind commercials so much (unless they were done in an onerous fashion - ie: if I pay $2 to watch an episode, I better damn well be able to fast forward a commercial if I want).
The rest of it ("instant channel changes"? My parents had that with a regular TV - it was called "Hey, kid, change the channel") is fluff. But IPTV has a need now. Look at how many people download episodes off of the net. I'll be honest: if I missed a show (pre-Tivo days), I'd bittorrent it and catch the other episodes later. I'm still hoping that Tivo fixes its desktop software to make it 10.4 compatible so next time I hop on a plane I can watch something there instead of feeling bad for violating intellectual property law by downloading a commercial-less TV episode through a peer to peer network. (Yes, I'm not sure if it's officially illegal or not, but since I'm assuming it is not legal, I still feel bad.)
What's going to be interesting is how Microsoft reacts. Right now, Apple has a near lock on the online music industry - and if my theory is right, they're manuevering so that within 5-10 years when iPods are down to $30-$50 apiece (aka - the price of a decent portable CD player right now), they'll make their money by being the driver of online music sales through the iTunes store, thereby becoming the Microsoft of music. (Oh, I'm sure the Apple fans are going to hate me for that one.)
My guess is that Apple is now hoping to do the same thing for online video sales. I don't predict an iPod Video tomorrow, but if Apple has an "Airport Express Video" or some other type of device with a tivo-ish remote control interface (store the movies/video podcasts/etc on your PC, stream through the wireless device in a oh-so-Apple cool and simple interface), they could make a move.
Microsoft is all about the PC - everything is the PC and serves it. Apple I think has learned that, with the iPod, they can keep the PC in there, but it's a side player; without the PC, the iPod would not function, but it doesn't matter if you use Windows or Mac, Apple still makes money. If they introduced another device that was like that, Apple could continue to have the PC be important, but not the *most* important thing.
(Which is why I think their recent market share sales went from 4.5% to 6.6% or something like that according to their latest financial statement - by making the PC unimportant with their devices, they made it easier to buy a Mac. Odd idea, and I'll let someone else tell me how wrong I am.)
If they had a device like that, the studios would be, like the iPod, forced to play with them or risk being locked out. MS would rather you bu a "media center PC" - yet another big complicated expensive box for the house, which may be giving them tunnel vision in their IPTV plans. So I'm not sure if they get it - but we'll just have to wait and see.
Of course, this is all my opinion. I could be wrong.
Hm - looks like DVDShrink is Windows only (I'm an OS X bastard), but I can use MactheRipper for the same kind of thing just in two steps - rip, then reburn using toast.
Sorry to reply to myself - it's 14 days, not 30. I'm already screwed (sigh).
Good thing I'm holding onto my reciept
on
Video iPod Oct 12?
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· Score: 2, Interesting
Yes, I'd have to eat "10% of the purchase price in restocking fees", but I just got a 60 GB iPod two weeks ago.
The video side on the iPod side doesn't interest me near as much as the outport system - I'd love to be able to hook it to my TV, archive all of my DVD's to the computer (something I was planning on doing anyway, as I have young children who, though they mean well, tend to dirty the DVD's a bit, and already ruined one copy of Toy Story). Then I can just transfer movie to iPod, put iPod in other room, and have every movie at my fingertips, and my DVD's stay perfectly pristine.
Granted, this is still a rumor, and I'll take it with a grain of salt until I see product in the store - but if they do make the announcement, I'll still have another 11 days on the return policy (maybe I'll just have to "borrow" my wife's iPod Mini for a week or two - I think some groveling will be in order).
I might participate in this one (if I was going to buy a 360, of which I have no plans yet except to turn around and sell it on eBay 2 weeks before Christmas just because I'm an evil bastard) if they included voice chat.
It seems that voice chat is a missing feature in a lot of MMORPGs. I wouldn't mind having a "ignore all by default" feature, and be able to turn it on for individuals that I get to know. This would reduce the vocal asshattedness (you know - people screaming out "You nigger asshole" and other activities that you can only perform when being an anonymous 13 year old), and let me talk to people I meet to have useful plans/strategy/discussions without having to find the keyboard all the time.
Of course, that's just my opinion. I could be wrong, but that's something that might get me to consider playing FFXI on the 360.
lately, I've been wondering why this is. It seems that "geek hood" is actually approaching a phenomenon. When people ask me what I do for a living, I'll usually give them a grin and say "Oh, I'm a professional geek". To which I usually get the response:
"Oh? What kind?"
Not a look of disdain that those growing up before, say, the 1990's might have received. Part of this I think it because of the dot-com boom (and bust): people saw that geeks could become millionaires, and if there's anything that influences people to do something it's money.
But the other thing is how much technology affects our lives. Cell phones and the Internet are on everyone's minds - you can't go 10 minutes without one some days. Because of this, geeks are now something of mystical wizards, the people who bring these cool "toys" to the masses to play with, including their iPods, the current status symbol, which 5 years ago was purely a geek music toy.
And because of this, I think that society is slowly starting to see the benefits of intelligence. Where before "egg headed intellectuals" would have been scoffed, intelligent activities are starting to aquire some respect. Look at TV shows: the most popular ones weren't just mindless driven, they were shows like "Lost" and "Battlestar Gallactica" and yes, "Desperate Housewives" (which I haven't watched), shows which contain very complex relationships and huge shades of gray in character.
The most popular books: Harry Potter, a book about a geek (a kid who likes to go to school and is best friend with the school uber-geek - a geek girl no less). Manga is becoming popular - I went into a bookstore and saw two whole isles, with 14 - 20 year olds hanging around - and not just the ugly ones, but cheerleaders looking at what once was only "nerd" material talking about how cute so-and-so is.
This isn't to say that those who are smart or different are entering Utopia - look at the current "Intelligent Design" debates and issues with extreme religious people trying to convert government to their way of thinking (as a religious person, this behavior really irks me. There's a reason why the "Render under Ceaser speak was made, and it's still applies, folks), or corporations muddling science (global warming? Where? Have another Hummer!) -
But things are getting better. Saying "I'm a professional geek" makes me the guy at parties people want to talk to. They ask about security, or about games they're playing (amazing how many executives have a PS2 these days), or just computer talk about their iPods or whatever. Yeah, they don't think I can play basketball, but that's ok.
I don't have to - I'm a geek.
Of course, this is all just my opinion. I could be wrong.
Doing their wants against customer wants
on
Palm's Mistakes
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· Score: 5, Insightful
After reading the article, I agree with most of the points, but think it can really be summed up in one way:
Palm did what they wanted, not what the customers wanted.
All the way back when Palms first arrived in my previous job, people wanted to:
Sync their calendars/todos/contacts list.
Simple enough. But then it became:
Sync their calendars/todos/contacts with what their secretary put in for them.
What a mess! There were trade off of Palms, then came the network sync which never really worked right. And that was the key thing: even if Palm put it in, it just "didn't quite work right". Syncing with Outlook? Well, sure - though they prefer you use their Palm Desktop, and even then the Outlook sync just "didn't quite work right".
Palm wanted the universe to revolve around them and their Palm Desktop software. Users just wanted to sync the damn this with their existing Notes/Exchange/Groupwise information. They offered some sort of server system, but it had no plugins - they expected users just to do it.
When Blackberry came along, they Got It: people want to have the same calendar/contacts/todos/email information as on their existing clients - of which is most popular in Outlook. So they did that. Put it in the cradle, push a button, and done. If you want to get your email, have the IT geeks install a piece of software to talk to the Exchange server and you could get email wherever you were.
It was simple. And it was what people wanted.
I've liked Palm for some time. I have book readers for entertainment, knowledge, and scripture reading on mine. Palm is the only one out of the big three - Palm, RIM, and Microsoft - that let me sync fairly easily to my Mac box. If one of the other two let me do that without having to buy third party hardware, I'll do that. Heck, I'll probably switch to the Treo 700 anyway or its equivalent in a couple of years anyway when its time to retire my Treo 650.
Because then, I'll have my email/contacts/todos/calendar all on one device in a simple manner.
Anyway, that's why I think Palm lost out: their software became too difficult to use for too many users, while other people, even if their software wasn't as good in some ways, just made it work.
Of course, that's just my opinion. I could be wrong.
I tried it about an hour ago, and it works. Scary procedure, as I:
1. Upgraded to 2.0 firmware from 1.5. 2. Installed the downloader. 3. Ran the downloader - the PSP had a weird screen. It wouldn't shut down, and just showed a screen of garbled text. I wound up having to take out the battery. 4. Put the battery back in, and turned it on. From here, I could run the 1.5 firmware installer. It went to 99% and failed. I had to take out the battery out again to reboot, and it came up fine.
So, a success. Now, there are only 3 PSP games I want to play, and one comes out next month, the other two over six months - and odds are, 2 out of 3 of those games will be made for a 2.01 firmware that removed this exploit. (Which is why the DS has 6 games coming out, two in this week alone, that I want to play, so there's a trade off.)
Slashdot Mirror
I think that Sony's trying to cater to the publishers, most of whom want to run their own connection systems to charge customers (or not) by themselves. Companies such as Squeenix, Capcom, etc, all probably have their own ideas about how to charge clients, and don't want a middle man.
However, as the success of Live demonstrates, having a centralized system can be a very good thing. I don't use Live myself, but if I didn't have three wonderful little rug rats and if they had a good MMO attached to it (say like WoW of FFXI - coming soon) with voice support, I'd use it.
The question is - how will publishers react? Will they go "Good - we get to do what we want" and make for the PS3, or just use MS's easy to use and so far working Live system?
Probably not - from what we've been hearing, there may be an inventory shortage to being with, so all of the first adapters (and those who just want to bu one to sell on eBay - not that I'm considering that *cough*) will allow Microsoft to do a "We sold out because we rock!" (the same way that Nokia claimed with the original N-gage - granted, the 360 is cooler, but ....)
Anyway - if if I had planned on picking up an Xbox 360 anytime soon, I'm pretty certain to wait until Morrowind IV is fully available now with the delay (especially as they don't port their games to OS X, so the console versions have been useful to me). I'm not sure of any "must buys" coming out for that system - but then again, neither does the PS3 or the Revolution have a "buy me now" attached to them so far.
I'm starting to wonder if gamers are now realizing that you have to wait six months before consoles become useful - and what that will mean for console manufacturers.
Of course, this is all just my opinion. I could be wrong.
I mean, that would be a huge deal if I couldn't get songs at 40% of the price elsewhere!
*sigh* The sad thing is, people will totally buy into this. I mean, they get it *now* instead of later. I've always been surprised at the ROKR didn't use something and better looking that could have used this, like taking the Razor phone, adding an extra inch for the scroll wheel so it would look like an iPod Nano as a flip phone.
Then Apple could have gotten the "I gotta have it *now*" market with a link to download the songs later (maybe at a 10% increase in price for the "on the road" download service or something). Instead, there was that - thing that was a horrible mix of mobile phone company greed and Apple's frustration with their model.
Well, we'll have to see what happens. If music on cell phones really takes off, I wonder if battery life will have to increase as well to make up for it (and all of the "tv on phones" services that are coming out).\
Of course, this is all just my opinion. I could be wrong.
The last (and so far, first time) I went to Comic-Con was this summer of 2005, and I was surprised by how many women were there. And not just the classical "geek girl" (bad haircut, bad acne, overweight, etc, etc, etc), but how many smart, excited, interesting, and - to display an unfortunate level of sexism perhaps - cute geek girls there were running booths, going to events, buying things, and the like. There were whole sections that seemed to be made just for women. Not in a "ooo - pink!" kind of way or trashy romance, but stories that appeal to more than guys looking for giant breasts, but stories about relationships, or the infamous yaoi booths.
But girl geekhood is not just regulated to "romance". One lady I went with drooled with me over the Terminator 2 arm replica, and this was a woman that most slashdotters would not pick out as the "geek" of a group of similiar attractive women.
Personally, I think it's a great thing. Not just because it increases the chances of future geeks to breed and multiply, but it gives an extra dimension to geek hood. Sure, Star Trek was good, but once the sexes became more equal and women could wear more than short skirts, it got better. I've never liked my heroines with just big giggly breasts and chain mail bikinis. With more geek girls, we still have the stereotypes, but I've been seeing deeper and more interesting stories in my geek world. I wonder how well "Serenity" and "Buffy" would have been if Mr. Whedon hadn't tapped into both the male and female side of geekhood. It's been easier to show my wife good geek stuff (like "Battlestar Gallactica") as it looks to include the sexes instead of pretend one doesn't exist.
So, welcome to our new female geek overlords! While I love my wife dearly, I do wish you ladies had been in greater numbers a decade ago - but at least now I have hope for my two boys, and most importantly, my lovely little geek daughter - because now she can play in my world too.
Seemed to work for them for quite some time now - built them quite a monopoly. I don't mean to be an ass, but just saying.
I agree - the doctor in this case is really just using the iPod as a portable hard drive. All physicians have to know is "plug in iPod, pictures go in. Plug in iPod, and select the picture you want to see". The software takes care of the rest.
There's nothing stopping someone from modifying the display software to encrypt the messages. I work in health care (systems and security architecture), and this would be a simple enough add-on.
Besides, people stealing the iPod are more likely to wipe out the files and just use it as a music player than spend time looking at some guy's X-ray images. (Unless they *really* get off on those kind of things.)
I've been working on a project to secure this communications in a health care environment - this way, veterans at home with disabilities can still communicate with their fellow veterans/health care physicians, but in a secure environment so HIPAA guidelines are met. I'll have to show this to my boss, but this is encouraging.
I may be wrong in my history, but if memory serves me correctly-
*takes a bite out of a yellow pepper*
- Atari (or was it Colecovision? It's been so long ago I can't remember) originally had a "no license fee" to their system. Which leads to an overabundance of very crappy games, which lead to death of the system.
When Nintendo had their NES system, if you wanted the "Gold Sticker" of quality, you had to go through Nintendo's process and give them a cut for the licensing. Which forged a company that is profitable even today.
So, is Apple being "teh evil" by enforcing a trademark license - if you want to use the words "Made for iPod" on your product, you pay the fee that lets them decide if your item is actually worth it. Or, you can go the Gameshark route and *not* license your product and sell it as "iPod compatible, not licensed by Apple" and still make money anyway.
Personally, I think that Apple's being a touch overhanded here, but they're working with an existing model, one they hope to bring them enough money to continue to fund new products and new directions.
Of course, this is all just my opinion - I could be wrong.
No kidding - right now, the best portable games being released are on the DS, but I love my PSP in spite of Sony it seems.
A friend of mine got a 1 GB stick for $80 bucks online - I'll have to see where he found his at. There are some third party folks doing it, through - just have to look.
Interesting choice now. I sold my old iPod, and with the money I now have, I was planning on getting a new iPod with video.
The question now is, which is better:
1 iPod Nano so I can listen to all of the songs on my iTunes/Podcasts/Audiobooks, and have the 4 GB PSP add-on to my current PSP so I can have space for multiple reencoded movies to the 4 GB HDD for when I travel
OR
1 iPod with video at 60 GB space, and leave my PSP as it is with a 512 MB card for my homebrew (ah, the joys of never upgrading past 1.50 so I can use my NES/SNES/Genesis/Game Boy emulators as long as I want).
The former means I get better video quality when I travel, but I'll lose out on the iTunes television sales (and, if they start adding Veronica Mars, Mythbusters, and the Daily Show, I might be sorely tempted to use it to catch the episodes I forget to Tivo). The latter means I keep the status quo, and have more storage space.
Odds are I'll go with the latter, but at least now I have another option.
Do you have the link to that? I'd love to see it.
I've been hearing rumors and people running "Treo RIM Betas" for some time now - at least when I finally got my Treo 650 (and luckily, I don't seem to have some of the reset problems some have, but I will admit at least once a week - usually when I'm surfing the web - it reboots itself).
So if they want to announce this for 2006 that's fine, but are we talking "early because we're almost done" or "We're just going to do it sometime 2006 and we're just yankin' your chain again because we're really just going to do it about the same time as the Treo 700 with Palm comes out".
I'd like this, as my employer doesn't support any other mail hookup but RIM to their system, but I'm not going to hold my breath.
God, aka "The Supreme Being", "The Intelligent Designer" and "Don't Fuck With Me Pip-Squeaks" recently filed claim in federal court for patent infringement. He/She/It/They claim that patents regarding the human genome violate He/She/It/Their's intellectual property laws.
"Good grief, you little monkeys are an annoying lot," God was quoted as saying. "Between this and that jackass Jack Thompson, I'm going to have to fire up another hurricane."
Comments from the defendants were not returned at the time of this filing, as they had all turned to salt.
Wait - wouldn't that mean the Intelligent Designer would actually claim Prior Art then?
PS: Love your sig. I have a copy of the song sung by the Eva cast out on a street corner. Pretty cool.
A tiered system:
1. Watch the show, but it has the ads. This is free (especially for what I would term "essential" shows - news broadcasts, political debates - yes, have a "thanks to a generous donation by Corporate Fucker, maker of things that Fuck you Well, and generous taxpayers like you" at the beginning/end of the debate, just like PBS).
2. Watch the show, but pay a subscription (aka, like cable) for little-to-no ads (yes, I know there will be some ads, but if there were just one at the beginning and at the end, after I paid for it, it would be more palpable). If you want specific feeds, it's a different cost. For example, if all you care about is Sci-Fi channel, maybe that's $10, or a bundle of common shows is $30-$40, with special channels being extra.
3. Pay per episode, no ads, $2 apiece (maybe $3-$4 if it's a 2 hour special).
With a tiered system, there would suddenly be not just more convienience of watching when *I* want to watch, but also more possibility for smaller shows. As Mr. Cuban mensions, suppose that a small show - and let's take Firefly - had 50,000 viewers. All of the sudden, that's $100,000 per episode potential. Not a lot according to Hollywood, but that could be enough for a small show on a cheap budget.
All of the sudden, there could be *more* competition. Yes, boo-hoo, there would be more money out there and the cable and satellite industries would be regulated to nothing more to bandwidth providers. I feel so bad for them, and the FCC is all but dead in the water for regulation. (After all, if I seek it out, if it isn't on "public airwaves", the religious extremists fuckers who don't want to see Janet Jackson's nipple can just screw themselves. No, wait, that would be sinful as well, wouldn't it?)
A lot of this stuff is pie in the sky, but like player pianos, then radio, then television, then cable, I think that entertainment is about to make another huge shift. And, odds are, we'll have to (as Mr. Doctorow said in a recent episode in "TWiT") "drag them kicking and screaming to the money tree" - but eventually we'll all get what we want.
I'm just curios to see: will it take 10 years of studios "getting it", or 50 years while they fight it?
And my new 60 GB iPod is 17 days bought - with a return policy of 14 days. Maybe I should call them anyway and see if I can get lucky on a return....
From what I've seen, the excitement of "IPTV" seems to be modeled on the wrong things. "Have four screens at once! Imagine all the TV you'll get!"
I think the real magic of IPTV will be convenience. Right now, I have an iPod for Podcasts (yes, the name sucks to some people - deal with it), and a Tivo at home. For some stupid ass reason, Tivo doesn't have their Desktop software with OS X 10.4, but that's another issue.
For me, the beauty of IPTV will be watching whatever I want. Whenver I want. Did I miss "Battlestar Gallactica" or the entire first season of "Veronica Mars" (Hey, I've seen the first three episodes - good show). Or "Firefly". With IPTV, and perhaps some sort of subscription in place of my cable, I can see them. Click the button to my set top Tivo-ish device, and I can watch the episode. Or use my account to view it on my phone as I travel nationwide. Or catch it on my laptop. I wouldn't even mind commercials so much (unless they were done in an onerous fashion - ie: if I pay $2 to watch an episode, I better damn well be able to fast forward a commercial if I want).
The rest of it ("instant channel changes"? My parents had that with a regular TV - it was called "Hey, kid, change the channel") is fluff. But IPTV has a need now. Look at how many people download episodes off of the net. I'll be honest: if I missed a show (pre-Tivo days), I'd bittorrent it and catch the other episodes later. I'm still hoping that Tivo fixes its desktop software to make it 10.4 compatible so next time I hop on a plane I can watch something there instead of feeling bad for violating intellectual property law by downloading a commercial-less TV episode through a peer to peer network. (Yes, I'm not sure if it's officially illegal or not, but since I'm assuming it is not legal, I still feel bad.)
What's going to be interesting is how Microsoft reacts. Right now, Apple has a near lock on the online music industry - and if my theory is right, they're manuevering so that within 5-10 years when iPods are down to $30-$50 apiece (aka - the price of a decent portable CD player right now), they'll make their money by being the driver of online music sales through the iTunes store, thereby becoming the Microsoft of music. (Oh, I'm sure the Apple fans are going to hate me for that one.)
My guess is that Apple is now hoping to do the same thing for online video sales. I don't predict an iPod Video tomorrow, but if Apple has an "Airport Express Video" or some other type of device with a tivo-ish remote control interface (store the movies/video podcasts/etc on your PC, stream through the wireless device in a oh-so-Apple cool and simple interface), they could make a move.
Microsoft is all about the PC - everything is the PC and serves it. Apple I think has learned that, with the iPod, they can keep the PC in there, but it's a side player; without the PC, the iPod would not function, but it doesn't matter if you use Windows or Mac, Apple still makes money. If they introduced another device that was like that, Apple could continue to have the PC be important, but not the *most* important thing.
(Which is why I think their recent market share sales went from 4.5% to 6.6% or something like that according to their latest financial statement - by making the PC unimportant with their devices, they made it easier to buy a Mac. Odd idea, and I'll let someone else tell me how wrong I am.)
If they had a device like that, the studios would be, like the iPod, forced to play with them or risk being locked out. MS would rather you bu a "media center PC" - yet another big complicated expensive box for the house, which may be giving them tunnel vision in their IPTV plans. So I'm not sure if they get it - but we'll just have to wait and see.
Of course, this is all my opinion. I could be wrong.
Or, as least a hair stylist for Gates. I mean, I hate to be petty, but you'd think that $32 billion could get you a better haircut than "Bowl #4".
Hm - looks like DVDShrink is Windows only (I'm an OS X bastard), but I can use MactheRipper for the same kind of thing just in two steps - rip, then reburn using toast.
Thanks for the idea, though!
Sorry to reply to myself - it's 14 days, not 30. I'm already screwed (sigh).
Yes, I'd have to eat "10% of the purchase price in restocking fees", but I just got a 60 GB iPod two weeks ago.
The video side on the iPod side doesn't interest me near as much as the outport system - I'd love to be able to hook it to my TV, archive all of my DVD's to the computer (something I was planning on doing anyway, as I have young children who, though they mean well, tend to dirty the DVD's a bit, and already ruined one copy of Toy Story). Then I can just transfer movie to iPod, put iPod in other room, and have every movie at my fingertips, and my DVD's stay perfectly pristine.
Granted, this is still a rumor, and I'll take it with a grain of salt until I see product in the store - but if they do make the announcement, I'll still have another 11 days on the return policy (maybe I'll just have to "borrow" my wife's iPod Mini for a week or two - I think some groveling will be in order).
I might participate in this one (if I was going to buy a 360, of which I have no plans yet except to turn around and sell it on eBay 2 weeks before Christmas just because I'm an evil bastard) if they included voice chat.
It seems that voice chat is a missing feature in a lot of MMORPGs. I wouldn't mind having a "ignore all by default" feature, and be able to turn it on for individuals that I get to know. This would reduce the vocal asshattedness (you know - people screaming out "You nigger asshole" and other activities that you can only perform when being an anonymous 13 year old), and let me talk to people I meet to have useful plans/strategy/discussions without having to find the keyboard all the time.
Of course, that's just my opinion. I could be wrong, but that's something that might get me to consider playing FFXI on the 360.
lately, I've been wondering why this is. It seems that "geek hood" is actually approaching a phenomenon. When people ask me what I do for a living, I'll usually give them a grin and say "Oh, I'm a professional geek". To which I usually get the response:
"Oh? What kind?"
Not a look of disdain that those growing up before, say, the 1990's might have received. Part of this I think it because of the dot-com boom (and bust): people saw that geeks could become millionaires, and if there's anything that influences people to do something it's money.
But the other thing is how much technology affects our lives. Cell phones and the Internet are on everyone's minds - you can't go 10 minutes without one some days. Because of this, geeks are now something of mystical wizards, the people who bring these cool "toys" to the masses to play with, including their iPods, the current status symbol, which 5 years ago was purely a geek music toy.
And because of this, I think that society is slowly starting to see the benefits of intelligence. Where before "egg headed intellectuals" would have been scoffed, intelligent activities are starting to aquire some respect. Look at TV shows: the most popular ones weren't just mindless driven, they were shows like "Lost" and "Battlestar Gallactica" and yes, "Desperate Housewives" (which I haven't watched), shows which contain very complex relationships and huge shades of gray in character.
The most popular books: Harry Potter, a book about a geek (a kid who likes to go to school and is best friend with the school uber-geek - a geek girl no less). Manga is becoming popular - I went into a bookstore and saw two whole isles, with 14 - 20 year olds hanging around - and not just the ugly ones, but cheerleaders looking at what once was only "nerd" material talking about how cute so-and-so is.
This isn't to say that those who are smart or different are entering Utopia - look at the current "Intelligent Design" debates and issues with extreme religious people trying to convert government to their way of thinking (as a religious person, this behavior really irks me. There's a reason why the "Render under Ceaser speak was made, and it's still applies, folks), or corporations muddling science (global warming? Where? Have another Hummer!) -
But things are getting better. Saying "I'm a professional geek" makes me the guy at parties people want to talk to. They ask about security, or about games they're playing (amazing how many executives have a PS2 these days), or just computer talk about their iPods or whatever. Yeah, they don't think I can play basketball, but that's ok.
I don't have to - I'm a geek.
Of course, this is all just my opinion. I could be wrong.
I tried it about an hour ago, and it works. Scary procedure, as I:
1. Upgraded to 2.0 firmware from 1.5.
2. Installed the downloader.
3. Ran the downloader - the PSP had a weird screen. It wouldn't shut down, and just showed a screen of garbled text. I wound up having to take out the battery.
4. Put the battery back in, and turned it on. From here, I could run the 1.5 firmware installer. It went to 99% and failed. I had to take out the battery out again to reboot, and it came up fine.
So, a success. Now, there are only 3 PSP games I want to play, and one comes out next month, the other two over six months - and odds are, 2 out of 3 of those games will be made for a 2.01 firmware that removed this exploit. (Which is why the DS has 6 games coming out, two in this week alone, that I want to play, so there's a trade off.)