Entries for September 2008

The DVD copying software from RealNetworks is now available for download at an initial price of $30. I'd get RealDVD while it's still legal.

Seems another court battle looms over the question of backing up of DVDs. Real apparently heard nasties coming from Hollywood, which has managed to get other copying software shut down. So Real says it's launching a pre-emptive strike to get a court's blessing for the software.

That sounds familiar. 321Studios filed a similar pre-emptive strike back in 2003. Fortune magazine called it "akin to jabbing a hornets' nest," as real studios rose up to put the company out of business.

Since then, an outfit called Kaleidescape, which sells a media server that stores DVD copies, won a similar case against Hollywood. Unlike 321Studios, Real also argues that it isn't breaking the code that protects DVDs and that it has layered in all sorts of copy protection.

But Hollywood is appealing the Kaleidescape ruling. RealDVD also allows the electronic copy of the disk to be shared on five devices, which Real says is an emerging standard for family or personal use.

I personally wouldn't bet big against Hollywood on this one. But RealDVD is handy software. And $30 is not a big bet.

Another online vendor is cutting off its customers by shutting down its music store and effectively shutting down the music it sold. This time it's Wal-Mart, the huge retailer that just couldn't make it in selling digital tracks.

Wal-Mart is following several others, including Yahoo and Sony, that sold music with copy protections, or digital rights management (DRM). To keep playing their music, customers had to move their accounts or copy the songs as MP3s to CD.

Wait, I'm confused. Doesn't burning the songs to disk defeat the purpose of rights management? Is Wal-Mart telling us to break the rules? It suggests, as Boing Boing reports:

"...we strongly recommend that you back up your songs by burning them to a recordable audio CD. By backing up your songs, you will be able to access them from any personal computer.

The good news is that legal digital downloads increasingly come without copy protections, such as those sold by Amazon. In fact, writes Rob Pegoraro in the Faster Forward blog:

...we're almost out of DRMed music-download stores. Napster and Rhapsody now sell only MP3 downloads but still have DRM servers up for older purchases. And, of course, Apple's iTunes still offers about half of its catalog only in DRMed, non-"iTunes Plus" form—avoid that half of its inventory and buy those songs off a DRM-free store like Amazon's MP3 site instead.

My TiVo has broken out of its box. The brand name in TV recorders, TiVo's polished software is up and running on my Windows PC, adding the cheapest TiVo yet to my household.

Software maker Nero has rewritten TiVo to run on a computer. The new software makes it simple to find and record live TV on a computer. But it isn't simple to set up.

The software from Nero, which it prefers to call "LiquidTV," does much of what a standard TiVo device does. It can be more powerful and even easier to use than a TiVo box. The PC's keyboard and DVD burner, for example, make it easier to search for programs and burn them to a disk for long-term storage. LiquidTV can also export to portable devices through the PC's USB ports.

LiquidTV does not yet include some of TiVo's Internet features, such as streaming movies from Amazon. It would be nice to have them included with support for TiVo's remote control.

Until now, getting TiVo has meant buying a box from the company itself. Or subscribers to some cable and satellite can get TiVo that works with those services. But for the vast majority, entry into TiVo's service has meant spending at least $150 for one of the company's devices. Make that $300 if you wanted to record high-definition TV.

Now, anybody can download TiVo to run on their computer when it's available later this month. It also comes with a 30-day free trial of both the software and TiVo service. Then, it will cost $100 for the program and a year's worth of TiVo service. That's compared to $130 for a year's service on a TiVo-built recorder. For another $100, Nero will throw in a TV tuner and TiVo remote.

But TiVo on a PC means all the frustrations of a Windows computer. Set up, in particular, can be laborious. TiVo needs a TV tuner installed in the computer. That makes for a multistep process with multiple opportunities for something to go wrong. It's not something I'd recommend for most consumers.

Even techies might run into problems I've encountered, including audio that sometimes falls out of sync with the video. I'm still debugging my set up, which amounts to a complicated system of computer, TV tuner, a receiver for the TiVo remote, audio and video cards, and the TiVo software. I haven't even tried to get it working with a cable or satellite box.

You get the picture, though the picture I get isn't always pretty.

I can only hope that Nero gets the software and hardware preinstalled onto computers. TiVo offers a great competitor to Windows Media Center, which comes as a feature of many home PCs that also have TV tuners preinstalled and configured.

Challenges aside, I'm glad to see TiVo on a PC. I like TiVo's friendly interface and top-notch service. I like the added power that a Windows computer brings to the TiVo service. And I expect that I'll eventually get the system stable and reliable.

But I won't be pitching my TiVo box anytime soon.

The last we had heard about Sprint's WiMax, it was saved from the grave by Google and other partners. Now, the high-speed wireless network appears to have life, at least one—as Xohm in Baltimore.

Nate Anderson points out at ARS Technica that the Baltimore launch reveals the service's flexible options:

Unlike most other wireless carriers, Sprint is offering a contract-free data service with month-to-month usage or day passes, it allows any applications and devices on its network (including VoIP), and its monthly fee can cover multiple WiMax devices on a single account.

Also interesting is that Sprint is selling the service as an alternative to wired broadband in the home. The purported download speeds of at least 2 Megabits, and a price of $30 a month, would make it a great excuse to kiss the phone and cable companies goodbye.

But reliable, wireless service—and from Sprint? I'd let others be the early adopters.

More on Blu-ray's fate, as BetaNews reports that sales of the high-def disks fell 13 percent in a recent week. While those numbers from Nielsen VideoScan might be dismissed as a one-week hiccup, the trend isn't boffo for Blu-ray.

The format faces growing competition from multiple sources. A slowing economy doesn't help, either.

After vanquishing HD DVD, the new format might double its disk sales this year over 2007. But it will still have only about 5 percent of the market, says Robin Harris in the Storage Bits blog. The only hope to save Blu-ray is to drop the high prices:

Blu-ray's modest quality advantage won't overcome the convenience of electronic delivery. If Hollywood wants to be selling DVDs in 5 years, they need to make Blu-ray an affordable standard.

This alone is almost worth going back to school. Microsoft has renewed its offer of low-priced, high-end versions of Office and Vista for college students. We're talking a mere $60 for Office Ultimate or a cool 90 percent off the asking price. The Vista Ultimate upgrade goes for $65, which is a smaller but still impressive discount of about 70 percent.

All you need is a functioning E-mail address that ends in the university-owned ".edu." For all of you alumni who still use your college addresses, Microsoft says you must be currently enrolled for at least a half-credit. It wants you to give proof if asked.

The discount alone could pay for that Landscape Architecture 101 class that you've always wanted to take.

In a chilling forecast, Gartner analyst Allen Weiner suggests TVs might start coming with the same kind of crapware that we now get on new computers. His fears are stoked by word that GE will preload its new TVs with content from NBC and its subsidiaries.

Yes, it's like turning on your PC to find myriad cheery icons offering free trials of AOL (sorry, couldn't resist), Microsoft Office or Quicken.So now we face a future where the next valuable virtual real estate could be on your plasma screen.

The long-anticipated MySpace Music launched last night, and impressions appear mostly positive. Users can stream music for free in an ad-supported feature or buy tracks through Amazon's MP3 store that come without copy protection.

The new features represent a true step forward for the social networking site, says Bruce Houghton at the Hypebot blog. But he notes that a scramble to get the service up and running has left it with an incomplete catalog that might frustrate users. Also:

A quick tour of the site showed that one of MySpace's strengths—custom designed pages -- continues to be a MySpace Music weakness. Many pages present unique challenges when trying to find how to purchase, for example.

Still, in getting launched, the service has done "something incredible," says Michael Arrington at TechCrunch:

They've created both a compelling music experience for users as well as a realistic, long term business model for labels and artists in a world where recorded music moves towards free.

The big labels own 40 percent of MySpace music and get a cut of the ads sold for the streaming service, he explains.

It's likely to become the center of the revenue ecosystem for artists, particularly unsigned artists starting to make a name for themselves.

Whole-house video has arrived at our house. Or at least almost whole-house video. We can now watch recorded TV in any room in the house using one recorder in the living room. At least we can watch from any room with a TV and an AT&T box.

It's something I've longed for. In this day of exploding video options, it shouldn't be hard or expensive to take my favorite TV recordings to another room. So far, it has been.

Critics of the Google phone say it looks too clunky. The HTC hardware does look dated. But it's mostly the software that matters. Google mostly cares about getting its Android software on many devices.

On that point, I thought it revealing when Google cofounder Sergey Brin stood up yesterday and described the phone as a great techie toy. "It's just very exciting for me as a computer geek to...have a phone that I can play with and modify and innovate on."

The software doesn't look as chic as the iPhone's. It doesn't need to be, as John Murrell explains at Good Morning Silicon Valley:

It comes down to closed vs. open. In political terms, the Apple environment is like Singapore, where some freedoms may be ceded in favor of providing a pleasant and orderly experience, and Google, with its Android platform, is like a loud and messy New England town meeting.

Apple is getting competition to more than just the iPhone in the new Google phone announced by T-Mobile. Along with the announcement came word of a new mobile version of Amazon's MP3 music store, offering a strong alternative to the iTunes store on the iPhone.

The T-Mobile G1 also features a touch-screen, slick software, and a software store that make it appear a strong competitor to other smart phones. It arrives at a competitive price of $180 with a two-year contract from T-Mobile.

Taking dead aim at the iPhone is T-Mobile's deal with Amazon. I'm already a fan of the Amazon store, where all tracks come without copy protection. The store is easy to use, a bit cheaper than Apple's, and now available for mobile phones—at least one, initially.

G1 owners will be able to browse Amazon's 6 million tracks across the T-Mobile network. The iTunes store is offline for iPhone users not on a Wi-Fi network. G1 users must be on a Wi-Fi network to download the music itself.

The G1 has other unique capabilities, such as spinning the phone to spin around street-level photos available on Google Maps. And its tight integration with other Google applications looks promising. All of those are applications that could appear soon on other phones, including through the software store that Apple offers for the iPhone. Similarly, we can expect the Amazon store to appear on other phones.

But don't expect it to appear at Apple's App Store.

There is one compelling argument in favor of SanDisk's effort to sell music on a new medium: The players are ready and waiting.

The chip maker has announced that the four leading record companies will market albums on memory chips. Tunes will come prerecorded on tiny micro SD cards that can slip into the slots on many cellphones and music players.

Never before has a new medium entered such a vast market of players. Hundreds of millions of cellphones and players already have the slots to hold and play the new cards. That doesn't count the billion PCs that can play the unprotected MP3 music on the SD chips. Hundreds of millions more of each will be sold this year.

"It's a sea change compared to any format that's come before," says Daniel Schreiber, who manages SanDisk's audio/visual division. Vinyl records, tapes, CDs, and DVDs all were chickens without eggs (or the other way around.) Initially, too few consumers had the players and sales were sparse.

Just ask people trying to peddle Blu-ray disks. It's a slog until more players get sold.

The initiative does have to overcome many issues, including an ungainly name. We can hope "slotMusic" doesn't appear in actual marketing campaigns.

More important, anyone has to doubt the roaring success of any physical medium in an age of digital downloads. I live in a household that frequently pulls entertainment from the Internet. Music, TV shows, and movies all come across the Web, and legally.

Consumers, meanwhile, are getting used to buying a favorite single track. SanDisk's slotMusic will be albums of music. And not too many at first. Selection will be limited as the studios experiment.

But SanDisk doesn't count on dominating the music market. "The days of single modes of consumption are over," Schreiber says. SanDisk hopes the medium gets a significant slice of the market so it can sell more chips. How significant is the question.

It's notable that SanDisk has signed up the four biggest record companies at launch. They sense a chance to get music into the now-empty media players on phones. It's still too difficult today to get tracks onto most handsets and even many music players. Software is balky, cables clunky, and over-the-air downloads pricey.

The exception, of course, is for music bought from Apple's iTunes and its iPods and iPhones. Apple, not surprisingly, isn't part of today's announcement.

I don't usually carry an iPhone. I also don't carry music on my company issued BlackBerry, despite its media player. Cheap music on a chip is an impulse I might make when on the move. People will overlook shortcomings for the sake of convenience.

Cheap is the key word there. SanDisk isn't talking prices, saying retailers will set those when the chips go on sale later this year. One credible report suggests the prices would range between $7 and $10. Another says they'll be around $15 an album.

The first means success. The second doesn't. With all the choices, it's hard to understand why we'd pay a premium for music on a chip.

Google's new smartphone software could quickly capture 4 percent of the U.S. market, Strategy Analytics says. But that may depend on the price of the phones, which the analysts said have to be well under $200 to be a roaring success.

T-Mobile will give details tomorrow about the first phone based on the Google-backed Android software. It reportedly will go on sale sometime in October for $200.

While that isn't "well below" the two-century mark, expect the handset to sell briskly when it hits the market. The HTC-made phone is the most anticipated new model since the launch of Apple's iPhone more than a year ago.

As an analyst at Strategy Analytics said: "Google has the brand power in the U.S.A. to make a big impact at launch."

Microsoft's ad campaign has quickly moved on from Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld, and none too soon. The early commercials left me more troubled than entertained, much less informed.

The latest commercial goes straight after Apple's "Mac vs. PC" ads. It's at least more to the point, though the Los Angeles Times calls it "still fuzzy."

I call it sad. Sad that Microsoft hasn't come close yet to Apple's marketing wits. The ad tries to buck up Windows by showing it has diverse, worldwide users. I think it does more to reinforce the image problems that dog Windows.

The beauty of the Mac ads is their common theme and focused message. They're also clean and simple, much like the Mac's reputation as a computer.

Microsoft's campaign so far is a jumble. First, obscure ads with Seinfeld and Gates that nobody understood. Now a commercial that is a mishmash of people, images and situations.

Muddled and complicated. Much like how Windows is perceived.

The transition to digital TV will help spur electronics buying for the holidays, keeping that sector well ahead of an otherwise lagging retail business. Gadget retailers can hope to see their sales jump 4 percent. The broader retail market will grow only 1.5 percent for the season, which would be the worst since 1991, say forecasters at TNS Retail Forward.

Now, the forecast was probably put together before the financial fears enveloped Wall Street. But it seems safe to say that a different fear—of losing TV after the switch to digital—will likely boost the sale of new TVs and related gear this fall.