With the iPad poised to be another money making device for Apple, you might be interested in a few of their devices that did not do so great.
Fox News has a pictorial history of Apple’s not so popular devices. Click here.
How many did you own?
When I say pirates, I don’t mean the swashbuckling type – I mean those individuals that sneak camcorders into the local cinema and record movies or distribute “cracked” copies of DVDs on the street or over the Internet. For years, Hollywood has claimed that “pirated” movies would ruin the industry and keep people out of theaters.
A recent article from the Electronic Frontier Foundation suggests that the cries of studio executives are blown out of proportion. The article says that Star Trek, the most downloaded movie of 2009, still made a net profit of over $100 million. The article also states that in a year when “internet piracy” was at its highest, Hollywood broke records at the box office.
As 2009 comes to a close, there is no evidence out there that “Internet piracy” is leaving us with fewer creators or fewer copyrighted works, even if you limit yourself to considering works being created by “professionals” employed by movie studios. And once you factor in all the new, noncommercial or semi-pro creators who have been empowered by the very same Internet technologies that Hollywood is blaming for “piracy,” well, it seems clear that creativity is alive and well, and that Hollywood’s demands for drastic overhauls of copyright law and broadband policy are disconnected from reality. (Full article).
Don’t get me wrong. I am NOT suggesting that anyone go out and record movies and post them on the Internet or try and sell bootlegged DVDs out of the back of a car. What I would like to see is a less draconian approach to digital rights management (DRM). There is no reason people should have to violate the law just to make backup copies of movies or music that they own.
What are your experiences with DRM? Tell me about it.
I enjoy Twitter just as much as the next person. In fact, you can follow me at twitter.com/jjhelp or click on the tab to the left. But would I buy a device that does nothing but send and receive tweets? No!
If you’re interested in picking up a TwitterPeek, you can buy it exclusively on Amazon.com for $99 or $199, depending on your desired service plan.
Click here to read more about the device.
Below you can watch Engadget.com Editor-in-chief Josh Topolsky preview the TwitterPeek mobile device on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.
I was surprised to hear the announcement that Los Angeles City Council had unanimously agreed to shift the county over to cloud computing and Google Apps starting next year. It is reported that a pilot program will begin as soon as 2010.
I was surprised because it was done without much opposition. Even with the obvious security issues facing having all of you data accessible from the Internet, the Los Angeles Chief Technical Office, Randi Levin, stated he felt the application services were adequate for the needs of the county.
During Tuesday’s city council debate on the issue, Los Angeles CTO Randi Levin went to bat for the cloud-based service, reassuring members that Gmail was safe and advanced enough for government use.
Makes me think of the phrase “good enough for government work.”
Even with the reassurances of the CTO, LA City Council voted to include a penalty if the system was breached and data was stolen. I’m sure Computer Services Corporation, the company that secured the $7.25 million deal, will work diligently to put safeguards in place to protect information.
If the project is successful it will spur the movement to cloud computing for other governmental agencies and business. If there are problems and high profile security issues that could dramatically slow the movement to the clouds for everyone.
Barnes & Noble’s has just introduced the “nook,” a new e-book reader to go alongside Amazon’s Kindle and Sony’s Reader. This new device sports a 6 inch E-ink screen and a color touchscreen to navigate content. According to preliminary information, the “nook” weighs 1 ounce more than a Kindle and has a battery life less than that of the Amazon device. However, it does offer the ability to play MP3 files through its built-in speaker.
The one feature that Barnes & Noble’s is touting most, is the ability of “nook” owners to share e-books based purchased. Copies of purchased books can be sent to friends who have installed the “nook” eReader software on their PC, Mac, iPhone, iPod or other selected device.
Imagine sitting in your car, minding your own business, when along comes a gun toting thief ordering you to hand over the keys. That happened to José Ruiz, age 33, of Lindsay California. But instead of worrying, he allowed the gunman to take the 2009 Chevrolet Tahoe knowing that his OnStar system from GM would allow authorities to recover the vehicle.
More than just reporting the vehicle’s location, a new feature of the system allowed operators at General Motors’ command center to send a message to the vehicle that brought it to a slow stop. This allowed police officers to safely apprehend the thief and return the vehicle to Mr. Ruiz.
Yesterday’s post talked about how technology companies might lead the economy out of the economic recession. And in line with that, Apple computers (APPL) reported higher than expected earnings. Much like IBM and AMD, these better than expected returns are due to higher demand for laptop computers, iPods and iPhones.
Surprisingly, the number of iPhone’s was lower than expected. However, analysts say that is due to the fact that Apple could not keep up with demand for a large portion of the quarter.
Many on Wall Street think that Apple is poised to do even better over the coming year. This is based on the opening of China to the iPhone and anticipated new products such as a netbook and tablet computer
DropBox
Put your files into your Dropbox on one computer, and they’ll be instantly available on any of your other computers that you’ve installed Dropbox on (Windows, Mac, and Linux too!) Because a copy of your files are stored on Dropbox’s secure servers, you can also access them from any computer or mobile device using the Dropbox website.
You can easily share entire folders or photo albums with Dropbox. Simply put the folders you want to share in your Dropbox, and invite people to them. You can also send people links to specific files within your Dropbox. This makes Dropbox perfect for team projects.
Try DropBox it’s Free!
Pirate Party
When you hear the term “Pirate Party” you might think of a bunch of people dressed like Captain Jack Sparrow sitting around drinking cases of Malibu Rum. However, the Pirate Party is a European political movement that was founded on the principals of maintaining the privacy of the Internet and eliminating copyrights and patents that it believes violate people’s civil liberties.
The movement started in Sweden several years ago. Since then, it now has garnered seats in the European parliament and some city council positions in Germany.
The Pirate Party believes that modern laws pertaining to electronic communication and copyright are becoming too intrusive. Laws the party are focusing on include one that allows Swedish authorities to monitor phone, email and fax traffic crossing that countries borders. The Pirate Party also opposes a European direct that allows copyright holders to discover the Internet address of file shares.
You might recall that Sweden shut down the popular file-sharing site Pirate Bay.
Do you believe that the Pirate Party is a genuine political movement with legitimate goals or people that just want music and movies for free?
To learn more about the Pirate Party, visit the Wikipedia page or their web site.
According to an article from the AP, accused Internet identify thief and hacker, Albert Gonzalez(aka the “soupnazi”), was living it up large at the National Hotel in South Beach. The luxurious hotel occupies an oceanfront location in the heart of the Art Deco district.
In addition to his nice digs, it is alleged that Gonzalez spent $75,000 on a birthday party for himself, purchased real estate and considered investing money into nightclubs. The article also says that he complained that he had to count $340,000 in twenty dollar bills by hand because is money counter broke.
Gonzalez’s lawyer, Rene Palomin Jr., did say that Gonzalez should have gotten therapy for his “computer addiction” and that federal authorities used Gonzalez like a machine to ferret out other hackers.
Gonzalez, along with others, is accused of stealing the details of over 170 million credit card accounts. He is also implicated in a scheme that garnered some 40 million accounts as well.
Click here for full article.
