Hollywood, Microsoft align on new Windows

08/31/2005 - 02:42 PM >> Convergence, Copyfight, Tech & Society

Bad news people. Bad news. Do we really want to give Bill this much power? What are you thinking!? From CNet:

For the first time, the Windows operating system will wall off some audio and video processes almost completely from users and outside programmers, in hopes of making them harder for hackers to reach. The company is establishing digital security checks that could even shut off a computer’s connections to some monitors or televisions if antipiracy procedures that stop high-quality video copying aren’t in place.

In short, the company is bending over backward--and investing considerable technological resources--to make sure Hollywood studios are happy with the next version of Windows, which is expected to ship on new PCs by late 2006.

Do we even have to bother to mention that Russian hackers will crack this in less than 24 hours rendering the entire excercise a complete waste of time? All it will do is make our computers slower and more expensive (but thats what buying Windoze does in general). Hey, yet another reason to go out and buy that Powerbook you’ve been drooling over.

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The iPod Cellphone is Here (Finally!)

08/31/2005 - 01:37 PM >> Future Formats, Tech Trends, Wireless

The New York Times reports that the partnership between Motorola and Apple is finally bearing fruit:

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 29 - Apple Computer and Motorola plan to unveil a long-awaited mobile phone and music player next week that will incorporate Apple’s iTunes software, a telecommunications industry analyst who has been briefed on the announcement said on Monday.

The development marks a melding of two of the digital era’s most popular devices, the cellphone and the iPod, which has become largely synonymous with the concept of downloading songs from the Internet or transferring them from compact discs.

This will be an interesting experiment in convergence: will people buying iPods decide instead to buy a cellphone with iPod-like features and/or will cellphone users want a cellphone with iPod features? BBB experts tend to think that such a device will be a failure. The iPod sells well because of its inimitable design that focuses solely on music playback. Cellphones are inherently complicated and unsavory. Combining these two just results in yet another franken-phone that no one likes.

Jack of all trades, master of none. Now if only motorola could make decent cellphones before trying to cram an iPod into one of them.

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Piracy crackdown spurs file-sharing shift

08/29/2005 - 08:51 AM >> Broadband, Copyfight, Tech & Society

From the “Duh” department of journalism, Reuters whips up a little commentary on the latest CacheLogic report:

Traffic in the popular file-sharing network BitTorrent has fallen in the wake of a crackdown on piracy, but file sharers have merely shifted to another network, eDonkey, new data released on Monday showed.

Move along folks, nothing to see here. People like stealing music and movies, film at 11. I like how Reuters attempts to make eDonkey look hip and cool:

A study by the Cambridge-based Internet analysis firm CacheLogic found that eDonkey is now roughly on par with BitTorrent in the United States, China, Japan and Britain.

It is the dominant peer-to-peer file-sharing network in South Korea, which has the world’s highest percentage of high-speed Internet use, and also in Italy, Spain and Germany.

Anyone who is over the age of 16 and is not a certified geek has never used eDonkey. People feel like they need to wear a propeller beanie when they use it and while we here at BBB are perfectly comfortable with our geek status, we’d be very surprised if anyone who thought themselves “cool” would use it.

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The Future of Television

08/25/2005 - 10:02 AM >> Death of TV, Hack the Planet, The Digital Revolution

A frightening glimpse into the future:

Meanwhile, computers will continue to be used more and more to watch digital streaming video, eventually turning them into televisions. With no computers available to solve complex math problems, people will have no choice but to return to the abacus. Within a few months, this ancient device will be abandoned when it’s realized that there is no good way to make “abacus porn.”

However, these minor setbacks will soon be overshadowed by a stunning scientific achievement: Mars is finally explored and colonized simply because it’s an even cheaper place to produce television shows than Canada. Producers cheer this cost-saving move but, typically, some New Yorkers complain when the latest “Law & Order” series depicts Manhattan as having a jagged red landscape and two small moons.

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MTV Adds Broadband Coverage for VMAs

08/25/2005 - 08:24 AM >> Death of TV, Future Formats, Tech & Society

As the old saying goes: “Where young eyeballs go, MTV is sure to follow.”

MTV’s Video Music Awards are going broadband, expanding beyond television for a new take on the typically raucous ceremony along with “bonus” performances and other original online coverage, the channel said Thursday.

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Yahoo! Enters the Online Media Fray

08/24/2005 - 09:16 AM >> Death of TV, Future Formats, Tech Trends

Wired has a great article today on Yahoo’s new push into video search and entertainment. They start off with a great summary of the chaos Yahoo is entering into:

This onslaught is already turning the entertainment business inside out. More music videos are being watched on AOL than on MTV. Procter & Gamble is cutting down on pricey 30-second TV spots to beef up the online presence of its packaged goods. TV Guide announced in July that it would drastically cut the amount of space it devotes to listings, an acknowledgment that viewers now turn to the Internet and onscreen programming guides. And CBS is squaring off in a content-indexing smackdown with Google. Meanwhile, the guy down the block has turned his backyard into a back lot, his basement into an edit bay, and he’s landed a global distribution deal - with his ISP.

For its part, Yahoo! is working with SBC and Microsoft on an IPTV/fiber-to-the-curb initiative called Project Lightspeed that uses Yahoo! software to deliver video-on-demand, instant messaging, photo collections, and music. Meanwhile, chief executive Terry Semel, who spent 24 years as an executive at Warner Bros., has recruited a crew of network personnel in Santa Monica to crack open the contractual vaults containing 50 years of rights-encumbered TV and film archives. And Yahoo! has already become the Internet home of broadcast fare like Fat Actress and The Apprentice. “They’re clearly thinking of themselves as the fifth network,” says Jeremy Allaire, founder of Brightcove, a Net video distribution startup.

As we’ve said before, BBB is always wary of PR puff-pieces and this article has little in the way of criticism but its the non-Yahoo content of the article that is most amusing. Check out this quote about Yahoo competitor (and perennial BBB idol) Google:

At a meeting with CBS last year, Google execs proudly mentioned that after working on an index of the grand old network’s video collection they had compiled a digitized database of CBS programs. Never mind that 11 million households around the country are doing essentially the same thing with their DVRs; CBS executives were aghast. The problem wasn’t so much that CBS was unaware of the TiVo phenomenon. It was Google’s Spock-like gaffe of plainly stating an obvious but painful fact: The networks’ stranglehold on content is slipping away. The meeting ended abruptly, and the Googlers were shown the door.

CBS’s reaction reminds us of the time that Bram Cohen was asked to speak at a Billboard conference in LA, as he plainly stated that the music industry was dying (in no small part due to products like his own BitTorrent) the audience simply shut down and refused to understand.

In general this article brings up one of the key sticking points about the unavoidable death of television. For a dying medium there sure is an awful lot of content out there. There are now so many channels and so many hours of programming that people have to resort to devices like Tivo to filter it for them. What Yahoo, Google, Blinkx and every other video search engine out there are trying to do is replace the role of TV Guide and your Tivo: they want to be able to find all the cool shows for you.

Why? Because in the future, whoever brings you the cool shows first becomes the new “network” of networks.

What the article lacks in hard-nosed journalism it makes up in anecdotes. Check it out.

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Warner Music Creates ‘e-label’

08/24/2005 - 06:00 AM >> Future Formats, The Digital Revolution, Tech Trends

It seems that dumping old and broken business models is coming a bit late to the music industry:

Warner Music Group is creating a new music-distribution mechanism that will rely on digital downloads instead of compact discs.

Edgar Bronfman Jr., Warner Music’s chairman and CEO, said Monday that the new mechanism will be called an “e-label,” in which artists will release music in clusters of three songs every few months rather than a CD every few years.

It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to figure out that people like paying less for fewer songs rather than being forced to purchase whole albums. You’d think with all the success Apple’s iTunes music store has had that record companies would be falling all over themselves to rush to the digital future. Alas, it is still slow going.

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Jon Stewart on Internet TV Distribution

08/23/2005 - 12:42 PM >> Copyfight, Death of TV, Future Formats

Wired has a cute interview with Jon Stewart and his producing partner:

Wired: Isn’t that going to pose a challenge to the traditional network model?

Stewart: But we’re not on a traditional network: We’re on the goofy, juvenile-delinquent network to begin with. We get an opportunity to produce this stuff because they make enough money selling beer that it’s worth their while to do it. I mean, we know that’s the game. I’m not suggesting we’re going to beam it out to the heavens, man, and whoever gets it, great. If they’re not making their money, we ain’t doing our show.

Stewart and company have an interesting approach to their internet fame. They choose to leave it unanalyzed. In fact they make a great analogy that their internet popularity is like the golden goose, if they try to dissect it then they will ruin it.

While they may play dumb during the interview and pretend they do not care it becomes clear that they are highly aware of the phenomenon and have taken steps to NOT stop the online trading of episodes. Take note future TV mavens, the Daily Show may just be on to something here…

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Amazon offers short stories for 49 cents

08/23/2005 - 06:30 AM >> Copyfight, Future Formats, Tech Trends

At BBB we are usually disinclined to post what are essentially press releases when anyone releases a new feature/product but this new thing from Amazon made us sit up. Apparently Amazon has gone into the micropayments for literature world by initiating a service allowing short story authors to sell short works for 49 cents each. But the real interesting tidbit is the following:

No digital rights management software is needed to download and read Amazon Shorts.

Customers have three options for reading a piece:

-- View now: Takes customers to a Web page to read or print out the Amazon Short.

-- Download: Initiates the download of a PDF file.

-- E-mail: Sends the entire Amazon Short in a plain-text message to the specified e-mail address.

Kudos to Amazon for creating a system to help authors profit from short works and not fear “piracy.” Copyright holders of Books are notoriously frightened of the internet and have even gotten Google to delay their massive library scanning project. The ridiculousness is that the internet has actually saved the book marketplace from almost total obscurity and Amazon realizes that by not putting locks on the content they can promote the service more.

Has Bezos got a few more tricks up his sleeve?

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BBC’s ‘Doctor Who’ & ‘Red Dwarf’ Now on Cell Phones

08/22/2005 - 10:19 AM >> Death of TV, Future Formats, Wireless

The BBC is continuing its campaign to discover how to reach its audience in a post-broadcast world.

The BBC is selling classic episodes of “Doctor Who” and “Red Dwarf” for viewing on mobile phones, anticipating that fans of cult science fiction are often among the first to adopt new technology.

The BBC has been pursuing many different technology initiatives at once, in a hit-or-miss approach. While not all of the BBC’s new projects will result in a windfall of profits they are clearly ready to position themselves for a world in which broadcast TV is rendered irrelevant by internet-based on-demand downloads. The BBC is smart to pursue Sci-Fi geeks first as they are more than willing to be the guinea pigs to work out all the bugs of the new cell phone TV architecture.

Long live Dr. Who!

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