Category: Consumer Electronics

How Long Before This is Hacked?

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I dunno, 15-20 minutes?

NBC unveils self-destructing, ad-addled anti-iTunes service
Published Thursday 20th September 2007 19:29 GMT“
By Cade Metz in San Francisco
Published Thursday 20th September 2007 19:29 GMT

Less than a month after its very public breakup with Apple iTunes (http://www.theregister.com/2007/08/31/apple_and_nbc_go_at_it/), NBC Universal has announced its own rights-restricting video download service.

With the new NBC Direct, due for beta testing sometime in October, you’ll have the power to download shows like “The Office” and “Heroes” immediately after they’re broadcast on national television – without paying a penny. But don’t get too excited. You can’t view these videos on more than one Windows PC. They’re riddled with commercials you can’t skip. And they self-destruct after seven days.

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You got a love it. Take all the worst features of bloody mindedly stupid DRM, and wrap it all up in one tight package.

What the Hell Were the Israeli Defense Forces Thinking???

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I came across this in Aviation Week’s “Washington Outlook” news sumary:

During last year’s fighting in Lebanon, the Syria listening post monitored private cell phone conversations from Israeli soldiers that gave Hezbollah enough information to locate and identify ground units even though Israeli military radios remained secure.

They let their soldiers go into battle wearing cell phones???? They let their soldiers use them?

What the hell were they thinking? Even if the phone is “off” you can turn it on remotely (it’s a method of bugging people).

They let their soldiers carry emitters that painted targets on their backs!!

Another Senseless Packaging Injury

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Well Charlie, aka “the human metronome”, just got a belated birthday gift from his friend Jonathan, one of those simple electronic drum kits.*

Unfortunately, it was literally screwed into the cardboard box, and the drum sticks were kept in place with some rather tight wire ties.

I did what I was supposed to, using some shears to clip the wire ties, but in attempting to gain purchase, the shears slipped, and I punctured my left thumb. It bled for about ½ hour, though it was not particularly painful.

Whoever came up with these packaging schemes should be staked to an anthill by their tongue.

*No headphone jack, or MIDI port, or any such, but thankfully, Charlie is good about keeping the volume down.

HP Ships Hybrid Blu-ray/HD DVD Drives

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I’m still betting (for bragging rights only) on HD-DVD, and it’s interesting that a Blue-ray early adopter, HP, is now hedging its bets.

This runs the opposite indication as Blockbuster’s decision to go Blue-ray.

FWIW, my advice is to sit tight until one or the other conclusively wins in the next 18-24 months.

HP coughs up surprise update to desktop PC range

By Kelly Fiveash
Published Tuesday 26th June 2007 11:46 GMT

HP has quietly snuck through an update to its home desktop PC range with the computer giant now officially shipping its media centre systems with hybrid Blu-ray/HD DVD drives.

The firm has added the drives to both its Intel (m8010y) and AMD (m8100e) processor-powered Pavilion media centre models.

HP’s decision to adopt the Blu-ray format, which is already backed by Sony as well as many of the Hollywood studios, alongside high definition DVD could satisfy consumers who are stuck with having to make a choice between the two competing formats.

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Can the Paperless Office Be Far Behind?

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In the early 1990s, the concept of the “Paperless Office” was all the rage.

In fact, the opposite happened. Paper use soared with the introduction of computers, prompting many wags to say. “We’ll have a paperless toilet before we have a paperless office.“

We now have a paperless toilet.

Paperless toilets rolled out in Britain

By HELEN PIDD

This was the best toilet experience of my life. I went for an innocent loo break between sushi courses and ended up road-testing the lavatorial equivalent of Nasa’s Space Shuttle. In place of the toilet roll, there was a control panel.

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And in the “F%$@ the Consumer” Category.

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They really don’t realize how they are driving consumers to Bit Torrent, do they?

If I wanted to make a tape of my LP for my boom box in 1981, that was simple, and now they want to prevent this.

The customer base is increasingly technically savvy, and they increasingly understand how the industry is all about ripping off the artist, so they do not see the industry as benefiting anyone but themselves.

The regime required for the future will make Beria’s NKVD look like a kiddie show.

DVD ripping to be rendered impossible?
By James Sherwood
Published Monday 25th June 2007 12:52 GMT

Buying a DVD and then copying it for use on your PSP, iPod or laptop could soon become impossible, if the DVD Copy Control Association gets its way.

The association wants to amend the licence underpinning the use of its DVD copy-protection technology, CSS (Content Scrambling System). This would, if successful, oblige you to have the original disc in your DVD drive every time you watched it.

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However, the move is already prompting industry opposition. Michael Malcolm, CEO of Kaleidescape, a company that manufactures video servers to copy DVDs legally for use in multi-room display systems, has already written an open letter to the US Senate, claiming such a move could destroy businesses like his.
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Neat Tech, Two Mics for Clearer Sound

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It sounds obvious when you hear about it, but this one actually sounds patentable.

Bluetooth headsets to get dual mics
Aussie developers use secondary mics for noise suppression
By Bryan Betts → More by this author
Published Sunday 10th June 2007 09:02 GMT

Adding a second microphone to a Bluetooth headset significantly improves its ability to capture speech by making it more effective at noise cancellation and suppression, according to Australian audio software developer Dynamic Hearing.

The company has added a multi-mic feature called VoiceField to its Atlas audio processing software for CSR’s Bluetooth silicon. VoiceField uses two microphones, one in the usual place to capture the user’s speech, and the other located elsewhere to pick up the background noise.

The software in effect subtracts the latter from the former, leaving what Dynamic Hearing’s CEO, Dr Elaine Saunders, called “an extremely clean transmit signal”.

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Cable Box Interoperability Standards To Go Into Effect, July 1

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This is a major profit center, and one of the reasons that I’m still doing analogue basic cable.

Rent or Own? The New Cable-TV Dilemma – WSJ.com

Soon, Subscribers Will Have
Option to Buy Set-Top Boxes;
Pros and Cons of Cablecards
By COREY BOLES

A generation ago, federal regulators opened the way for consumers to buy telephones rather than rent them from the phone company. Now, the government has its sights on the television set-top boxes that consumers rent from cable or satellite companies.

Beginning July 1, the Federal Communications Commission has ordered cable companies to supply only set-top boxes that can accept a so-called cablecard that slides into the set-top box and determines a customer’s level of access to cable service. The change is meant to give consumers nationwide the option of buying their own set-top boxes — or TVs that can use the cablecard — rather than renting one.

That new freedom may soon trigger an old question: Is it better to own or rent? On average, cable companies charge $5 a month for a regular set-top box and $7 for one with a built-in digital video recorder, or DVR. The National Cable & Telecommunications Association estimates those costs will increase to $8 and $10, respectively, for a set-top box with a slot for a cablecard.

A standard box with no recording capability, meanwhile, would likely retail for around $130 — the cost of renting for a little more than a year, according to Ian Olgeirson, a Denver-based cable analyst with SNL Kagan, a market-research company. The price of a DVR that can use a cablecard is expected to be much higher. TiVo Inc. sells a version for $700 but plans a less-expensive model.