Archive for the “All Things Geek” CategoryI am currently a beta-tester for GameTap, and I have to admit it’s pretty cool. In fact it’s one of the only reasons I still keep my PC around. There are a lot of fun games on it you can play from a variety of different systems (PC, Sega, Coleco, Atari, etc). They’re not the newest games, but they are fun. Being a beta-tester gets you a free membership. If interested, follow the instructions below.
Lots of good Apple rumors this morning via Engadget. Fanboys and Mac-heads everywhere are drooling at the prospects.
For you non-geeks unfamiliar with the term DRM, it stands for Digital Rights Management. It’s the copy-protection scheme that prevents you from listening to a song purchased on iTunes on another audio player and vice-versa. It also regulates how many times you can burn a CD of the song, or how many devices you can listen to that song on. Leopard is the next version of Mac OS X. Mac OS X is to Apple computers what Windows is to PCs: an operating system. The current version of Mac OS X (Tiger) is arguably better than Microsoft new Posted Apr 1st 2007 10:12PM by Ryan Block Sorry Beatles fans, tomorrow may still not be your day — but to everyone else we’ve got good news. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that option number two explaining Stevie J.’s visit to London tomorrow for EMI’s quickly ballyhooed presentation is going to be exactly what’s been rumored about for weeks: the first of the major record labels is going to allow online sales of it’s digital music… wait for it… DRM-free. It sounds like savvy consumers the world over finally pounded the message home (with a little help from Jobs himself); tomorrow could mark the first great pillar of DRM crumbling under the pressure of so many end-users and nations. The only question is whether EMI will wind up regretting this decision (we sincerely doubt it), or whether this will start a domino effect with the rest of the major labels that would, in effect, spell the end of DRM forever (one can only hope). Hey, maybe EMI will even make this a twofer and offer up The Beatles DRM-free. Now that would be somethin’.
P.S. -For those without a WSJ account — while this may not necessarily end up being true, this is at very least not an April Fool’s prank. Apple’s Leopard set for June launch — WWDC? Posted Apr 2nd 2007 5:01AM by Thomas Ricker While we’re all waiting to see what Apple and EMI have in store for us later today, feast on this: the latest Leopard rumor. Dubbed an "exclusive" by Think Secret, they cite the usual "reliable sources" calling for a Leopard release in June, "most likely at or around its Worldwide Developers Conference" scheduled for 11 June — the purported iPhone launch date. Recall that during WWDC 2006, Jobs’ called for a spring release and technically, Apple has until June 21st before spring has sprung. TS’s proclamation also aligns with Gartenberg’s own confirmation of a spring release as noted last week. TS is also reinforcing the commonly held notion that Leopard will be a "more significant release than anyone expected" as there is "much more to come" in the final release than Apple has been willing to share in the developer builds. They also claim that Apple will be launching their long overdue iLife and iWork updates with "extensive Leopard-dependent features" at the same time. So does this all point to Multitouch support or a Beryl-like 3D interface? Who knows. One thing is clear, June is shaping up to be a pinnacle month for Apple and the faithful.
Like the original Napster, it was fun while it lasted. I do have to agree with Viacom though that YouTube built its business model on the popularity of copyrighted works. The question is whether or not YouTube will be able to survive without them.
I wonder if Google has a severe case of buyer’s remorse.
Remember the other day when I told you I had spent hours agonizing over whether to use Netvibes, Pageflakes, or My Yahoo! for my home page in my browser? (Yes, I have commitment issues; what of it?)
Today Yahoo! unveiled a makeover for its My Yahoo! page. I’m sure no one else cares about this news except me, but now I have to decide whether or not to switch back to My Yahoo! I hate making decisions! If you’re so inclined, you can switch to the new My Yahoo! start page here. Only a limited number of people will be allowed to switch while the site is in beta-test. 
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TiVo and Amazon Start Video Download ServicePosted by: Scott in All Things Geek, Film, Television, Music, & MediaNot a bad deal. I just downloaded "Borat" for free. I never did see it in the theaters. The download went really quick too. If you have a TiVo, you might as well go ahead and claim your free $15 in movie downloads.
I used to work for the local telecom for several years. One of the things that struck me while working there was the amount of bureaucracy that we had to put up with. As one of their Product Managers, I was dismayed at how many approvals and reviews we had to go through just to implement the simplest of changes. Like something straight out of Dilbert (whose writer Scott Adams used to work for a telecom as well), we would have meetings after meetings after meetings. I can even recall having meetings about meetings we were going to have.
Perhaps it’s no surprise then that the big telecom companies like Qwest, Verizon, and SBC/AT&T are so slow to innovate. I recently came across a new telephone service called Grand Central that I am really, really impressed with. The basic premise of Grand Central is that they provide you "one phone number for life." That’s just the tip of the iceberg though. With that phone number you can:
Does it sound like I’m impressed with Grand Central? I am. And no, I am not receiving any sort of compensation from them, nor do I know anyone from their company. I am blogging about them because, in my humble opinion, this is the kind of innovation the telecoms should have introduced ten years ago. I hope Grand Central is widely successful as a result. The video below demonstrates some of the features of Grand Central: P.S. This service is so easy to use I think even self-identified tech curmudgeon David could figure it out. |
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