The NEW BitTorrent

On Monday, BitTorrent Inc. opened it’s new iTunes-like digital media store with minimal fanfare but a solid repertoire of material. This author took a little time to investigate the site, which can be found here. The new service is a’ la carte, with movies for rental and TV shows for purchase. All in all, the prices look pretty great. TV shows are priced comparably with iTunes at $1.99 while movie rentals are a cheap $2.99 (BTW, I hate Blockbuster and their $5 rentals…). If the service is technically sound, which I plan to try while I’m home over spring break, I see no reason why it can’t legitimately challenge iTunes, provided the media works on a solid portable media player (cough cough iPod cough).

The bonus…

Some of the content is DRM-free, as Digital Music News reports, though I can bet it won’t be major studios’ material.

Still, this is a pretty big step for the digital media market. Just imagine if something like this would’ve happened when Napster was around. We’d be so much further along in this digital transition, be it better/faster technology, more interoperability or cheaper prices. BitTorrent has been a four-letter word for many of the big media conglomerates, but now the studios and labels are willing to talk because they FINALLY see the dollar signs. Better late than never…

Well, That Didn't Take Long...

HD-DVD and Blu-Ray aren’t even that popular yet, but a hacker at the heart of the DRM war has cracked Digital Rights Management for both new media formats. Wired.com (my new favorite website) provides proof of the hack and software that will allow implementation for both Windows and Mac OSX after this jump. However, this crack doesn’t mean that the average consumer will have unfiltered access to copy the High Def. DVDs like previous software such as DeCSS and DVD X Copy. The details are a bit technical for many to understand (including me), but this find generally ensures that the process isn’t impossible since every disc uses this now-public code. This is the second big break in the fight against DRM in as many weeks along with Steve Job’s essay calling for the abandonment of DRM by the major labels. Many experts are even speculating that the big 4 may be on the verge of dropping DRM for good quite soon.

More information regarding this issue is bound to be coming soon… stay tuned.

I Tend to Think of it as Natural Selection

Don't parents teach their children at a very young age to look both ways before cross the street? Not to sound too insensitive (Really, it's terrible to lose someone you love), but maybe some people missed that. Even if you forgot that lesson, they have lighted signs that tell you when you can and can't cross the street.

CNN just posted this story that New York may ban the use of gadgets while crossing the street. The report states that three people in Brooklyn were killed by motorists after being distracted by their cell phones or iPods while crossing the street.

I can understand banning them while you drive. If you're not paying attention while driving, not only can you hurt yourself but you can also make your vehicle a bulldozer of sorts. But banning them while you walk? Other than these extreme cases which are generally rare, the worst you'll probably do is walk into a light post which will probably hurt your pride more than your face.

Surely we don't need the government to protect us from this. They need worry about protecting us from terrorism, global warming and the energy crisis, not slapping us on the hand when we walk across the street listening to music. I'll go out on a limb and say that there are less people dying from crossing the street while playing on their PSP or other gadget of choice than heart disease, cancer or even murder. Lets get those under control first, people...

Though this does shed new light on the phrase "walk and chew gum."

My Favorite Superbowl Commercials

These were awesome. But the best is at the end. That's right. The Prince Halftime Show.

iTunes for Linux? Isn't that a Paradox?

Yeah, yeah. I know. I haven't posted in long time. So sue me. It was finals, the holidays, and the start of a new semester. Give me a break. But here we go again. I'm back.

So I was getting my daily dish at Wired.com and I ran across this brief story. Basically, there’s a faction of Linux users working on a petition to have Apple release iTunes for the Linux operating system. Now, I don’t know too much about Linux (though I’m starting to try to learn and maybe I’ll actually make the switch sometime) but I do know this: Linux is an open-source based system. I 100% endorse that way of life, but why in the name of the RIAA would anyone who really, truly supports Linux and open-source want Apple software on their hard drive.

Seriously.

Have any of these people ever heard of DRM? Isn’t there a bible on Linux that specifically states that “any user found supporting Digital Rights Management of any kind shall be banished from the land of sharing and caring (okay, so I made that last part up) and uploaded to the Linux Banlist?” Maybe that’s why there’s only, at the time this article was published, 899 signatures. I will label these signers as “Linux Posers” from here on out.

The rest of the real supporters of Linux probably already found out how to circumvent the DRM on the iPods and uploaded all of their music to those nifty little machines. I’ll have to talk to one of them…