Show #12 - 01.14.2007
[Download Show #12 as MP3]
News
- Nintendo posts record profits
- Nintendo DS Handheld
- Nintendo Wii ($249 non-next-gen console)
- MacWorld Keynote Round Up
- Paramount Movies now in iTunes Store
- Apple TV Released (formally iTV)
- Intel Processor
- USB2, Ethernet, & WiFi B/G/N
- 40GB Hard Drive
- 720P output through HDMI
- Sync iTunes Movies to Apple TV (1 PC)
- Stream from up to 5 PCs
- iPhone Released
- iPod/Mobile Phone/Internet Communicator
- Widescreen
- Entirely touchscreen
- Thinner than the Moterola Q or Samsung Blackjack
- Runs OS X
- Fully Featured Email Client
- $499 4GB / $599 8GB
- Shipping in June (FCC Approval takes 2 months)
- Cingular, Exclusive Partner
- The Death of DRM
- Recent market signs suggest that the eventual demise of DRM
- The only real questions is when it will be replaced with something far more sinister
- A year ago, Yahoo Music GM David Goldberg urged labels to abandon DRM
- CD sales continue to drop and are down at least 15% from 2000, and current digital sales are not offsetting that lost revenue.
- eMusic, which sells only MP3s, is the no. 2 digital music reseller behind iTunes
- Amazon is rumored to be opening a MP3-only music store
- Sony Exec says “DRMs are going to become less important” as time goes on
- Apple 20x sales of #2 eMusic
- No one else can gain enough critical mass to get users to buy a player and the music, or otherwise make much of a dent in iTunes.
- The only way others can sell music playable on the iPod is if it’s DRM-free.
- The labels will see it as a poison pill, but Apple is on a roll and their lead is getting stronger over time.
- One interesting prediction that Goldberg made is that we might see DRM and DRM-free tracks being sold side by side, with DRM music sold at a discount.
- Illegal and quasi-legal alternatives may not allow that market to develop, but we’ll see. They also predict the rise of music subscription services.
Software / Hardware / Power Web Picks
- GreaseMonkey
- Add small bits of useful functionality to websites
- Remove those annoying ads
- Add options to actually save the videos rather than just play them on places like YouTube and Google Video
- Utilizes Javascript, AJAX, and other technologies
- User Created Scripts Available
- BlogDesk
- Blog posting software
- Freeware
- Works with multiple management systems (Wordpress, Drupal, etc)
- Currently does not work with Bloggar.com
- Wireless Energy Becoming a Reality
- Sheet on a desk delivers energy to devices that rest atop it.
- Selectively feeds up to 30 watts to devices.
- 30 watts is enough to drive a small laptop computer.
- Uses a magnetic field that fluxes to basically turn tiny switches on and off generating power
- 3D Printer for Your Home @ $2,400
- Machines are typically between $20K and 1.5M
- Called the "Freeform Fabricator" or "Fabber"
- Generates objects from plastics or other materials
- The creators made a community called Fab@Home that they hope will become a collection of 3D modeling enthusiasts.
Security & Privacy
- The Onion Router (TOR)
- Currently helped by the Electronic Frontier Foundation
- Utilizes peer to peer combined with high level encryption
- Helps keep you anonymous
- Works with Windows, Mac, and Linux
- How it Works
- TOR application running on your PC grabs a list of nodes (other people running the software)
- Selects a random route that is unknown to you
- Starting with the last node an encryption begins utilizing public/private key pairs
- The second to last node is encrypted with the last node's public key
- Then third to last node is encrypted with the second to last node's public key
- This happens all the way back to your PC
- At your PC the packet is padded to hide the actual size and then encrypted with the second node's public key
- When Not to Use It
- If you are playing games
- Doing anything that requires "real time" response like VPN
- Line Rider Coming to Nintendo's DS and Wii systems
- Line Rider = Crazy game where you draw lines and guy on a sled rides them
- People have created some amazing Line Rider worlds for the little rider and have uploaded videos that can be found on YouTube
- PS3 Update
- Wii outsells PS3 in Japan
- Sony missed shipping marks
- As of mid-December 2M units by end-of-year was in reach
- They only got to 1M and that was by diverting Japan stock leaving them with only 466K
- Sony says it will have shipped 6M PS3s by the end of March
Editorial ("Power Up")
- Think Like a Genius
- Visualize problems in new ways
- Da Vinci felt the first way we look at problems is usually biased
- Form relationships between dissimilar subjects
- Think in opposites
- Thinking in opposites can lead to suspending logic which often times forces new views on old ideas
- Understanding HD
- Hookups:
- Component Cables (R, G, B)
- HDMI Cables
- DVI Cables
- Coaxial Cables
- Composite / RCA Cables
- 1080i / 720p were the original standards and thus anything that is called "HD Ready" will support these formats
- In a CRT (the screens we all used to have, or may still have) a stream of electrons is shot by a gun at the glass in lines, left to right, then top to bottom
- The face of the screen would glow when the photons hit the face which was coated with phospheus.
- Reduce Bandwidth
- TV sets could not draw fast enough before image at the top started to fade
- Uneven brightness and intensity would result
- Still work in accordance with the electricity supply, (60 Hz in the US and 50 Hz in the UK and Europe)
- Interlacing:
- To overcome this problem the screen was split in half, with only half the lines, each alternate line, being refreshed each cycle.
- Signal was interlaced to deliver a full refresh every two cycles.
- So if the signal refreshes half the lines on the screen 60 times per second, you get 30 frames per second.
- The problem is distortion that occurs when things move really fast.
- Technology advanced:
- Progressive scan
- Instead of refreshing even and odd lines, the whole screen is refreshed every time.
- Larger displays
- As the display gets larger, the more important more pixels is.
- HD is nothing more than increased resolution, or more pixels.
- HD Resolutions:
- 720 x 576
- 1280 x 720
- 1920 x 1080
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