Macworld 2009 Roundup

I'm not a really big fan of Macintoshes but I thought I'd share with you what happened at Macworld and what is coming out this month after the announcements. So here's the run down on Macworld Expo 2009:

• [ad#ad2-right]17 Inch Mac Book Pro (Buy it From the Amazon Store) -- "$2,799, 2.66 GHz and 4 GB of RAM, 320GB hard drive" and They have a battery exchange program for those who have bad batteries.   Engadget has some really good video's of this new Laptop.  I also looked around Slashdot did a really good job on the summary of what happened at Macworld.   They are claiming it will be able to run 8 hours on battery but I will wait to see what people say after they get there hands on this.


• I-Life 09 (Buy the older version from Amazon 2008) -- Today at Macworld, Apple showed it off.  You can see the photos from Gizmodo and it looks nice.  Some of the stuff this can do is Facial Recognition, also use it with Flickr and Facebook.   Geotag Reversal so it can look up where you took the picture and pin point it on the map for later reference.  I-life 09 will cost 79$ solo or 99$ for Family.


• Garage Band 09 (Buy Garageband 2008 Tutorial DVD from Amazon) -- Some very popular guitar artists teaches you how to play a guitar.     Some Names that teach you how to play are Sting, And Noah Johns.  You will be able to buy more lessons on Itunes for 3.99 a lesson!  Not bad if you want to teach yourself.

Last thing and this is really important, Itunes will begin selling 3 tiers of songs 69 cents, 99 cents, and 1.29$ depending the popularity of the songs.  Apple also dropped 8 Million Songs from DRM.  They expect to have it up to 10 Million songs buy March.  Apple will also sell songs over the air on the Iphone 3G (Buy the Iphone 3G fro Amazon), so you no longer have to have your computer near you to buy a song.    This is about all Apple talked about at Macworld Keynote, if you have any other things that I missed buy all means leave a comment.

Rumor is that Itunes will Remove DRM!

[ad#ad2-right]A report from last week brought to AppleInsider's attention by French technology site ElectronLibre asserts that it's now "clear" Apple will spark new interest in its music store by removing DRM from tracks published by Sony, Universal and Warner on December 9th.

[Via Apple Insider]

Although, this is somewhat unlikely I've got my own theories on this.  You see If Apple did this tomorrow that would be a BIG deal, due to the fact that Microsoft will be releasing there patches on the same day.  I find it would be a momentous occasion.

[ad#ad2-left]I can only guess why and the guess is just a guess.  If Itune's did remove there DRM the same time as Microsoft Patch Tuesday, I'd have to guess they will co-inside because of the difficulty of using the DRM, Digital Rights Management, on other products.  For example, Windows Media Player .  If Apple decided to approach Microsoft and come up with a way to make sure all DRM is stripped this would be the ideal situation.   Although this is highly unlikely, I'd have to think Apple wouldn't wait till tomorrow to strip the DRM.  They know Microsoft schedule.  We will have to find out in the coming days.

GTA 4 Causes fatal error mma10, how to fix it!!

[ad#ad2-left]After seeing all this happened I thought I would help people out on how to fix it.   This seems to be a DRM problem according to some reports.  Others are thinking it is the Securerom.  Anyways the problem seems to be with the Rockstar Social Club and not to log in to that.  That will fix the problem, you will at least be able to play the single player game.  This is a temporary fix till the developers fix in the update.  This will also fix the Steam version of the game.

Is Spore Worth 49.99?

So I been doing a little digging and trying to find out what the heck people are complaining about and I found some great reviews telling me exactly why people hate EA.  They don't necessarily hate Spore or Will Wright, but the Security around The Spore game.

So In a couple of these comments.  These reviews talk about Creating the creatures and All.  I'll submit some of the reviews that I thought was relevant and let you decide for yourself.  I would however wonder the one big question?  Is Spore Worth the Money?   Here's the details that I know of right now:

[ad]

1. You can only install it 3 times before you have to call EA to get an override code.  (Although I heard rumors that if you unistall it, you will get a credit for an Install)


2. You can not Install new hardware or upgrade your hardware because if you do, it'll count as an install, According to this one person.


3. The game only allows 1 login per Install.  So you can't have more than one character and one universe according to this person.


4. Part of the Copy Protection prevents you from taking your saved games off your computer and taking it over to your friends house, according to this Person.


5. On the Mac Version, it tends to breaks subsequent versions of the system services according to this one person.

According to Amazon the reviews aren't pleasant.  I tend to agree does this mean there are going to be even more people pirating it because they don't want the DRM or Is EA going to send out a patch to fix this.  I am curious as to see how EA responds to all this NONE TOLERANCE to DRM.

After seeing all these reviews of Spore, I tend to agree with everyone.  I'll probably wait and see before I buy my copy.  All the reviews however don't look promising or even makes the games look like it wouldn't be fun.

NBC-Vista copy-protection snafu reminds us why DRM stinks

The serves as a unsettling reminder that broadcasters can give instructions to the software built into DVRs, although they almost never do. Many DVRs and other, similar devices appear to be aware of the content-restriction flags set by broadcasters, even if they're not programmed to "obey" them by default. Still, broadcasters would love to have the power to stop users from recording their shows, watching them later, and most importantly, skipping commercials when they do it.

[Via Arstechnica]

Yes that is right DRM does stink, I found this article to be a great reminder of how unrealistic it is that we should need DRM. Oh well, I'm just going to have to live with DRM!!

Kindle DRM hacked to allow protected Mobipocket ebooks

We knew the Kindle's DRM would be cracked the minute we heard about it, and it looks like the first chink in the armor is here courtesy of Igor Skochinsky: he's discovered the algorithm the Kindle uses to turn regular Mobipocket books into Amazon's proprietary .azw format. The hack involves replacing a Mobipocket file's PID with one generated from your Kindle's serial number, and then setting a Kindle-specific flag that allows it to be opened. Igor's posted a couple little Python scripts to handle both of these tasks for you, and it looks like sites like Fictionwise already support the hack. That's all well and good, but we're still waiting patiently for the day when we can tether to that free EV-DO.

[Via Engadget]

I'm all about making your life simpler so this will help!! Enjoy!!

New Harry Potter DVD Comes Bundled With Portable Video

Warner Home Video announced today that Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix will be the first DVD to come bundled with multiple video formats on a single disk. In addition to the regular DVD format, the disk will include versions for both home computer viewing and playback on portable media players. There has been no word on whether DRM could be part of the equation, but keep in mind that protection schemes are typical with Warner releases.

Warner execs also noted that they will soon roll out an on-demand form of DVD burning that will help bridge the gap between in-store purchases and downloading. Again, CSS copy protection will most likely be part of the equation, but they claim that these releases would not be platform specific. It may not be perfect, but it should help movie fans who have been ripping video save a little time. Order of the Phoenix is due on store shelves December 11th.[Electronista]

I wonder how good the quality is going to be and what will be able to use it?

Downloadable files coming to next Harry Potter DVD

Users clamoring for alternate (read: easier) ways to transport commercial DVD footage to portable media players will likely enjoy knowing that the next Harry Potter DVD will reportedly feature "two downloadable digital files" for easy viewing on devices other than a vanilla DVD player. According to Jim Wuthrich, Warner senior VP of digital distribution, users can "buy the DVD and have the option of the digital copy," and apparently, he also suggested that "another studio was preparing to launch digital copies of a film tied to its DVD release." Unfortunately, details about the actual formats and whatnot weren't disclosed, so barring any unforeseen announcements, it looks like we'll be waiting for the December 11th release of Order of the Phoenix to find out exactly what this disc contains.

I wonder what it will be used for? IPOD or IPhone?

Vista SP1 Recovery Disc

One of the new administrative tools Windows Vista Service Pack 1 provides is the ability to create a recovery disc. At first, the name might fool you into thinking the type of discs system manufacturers provide to you when you purchase a new computer to restore your computer to a factory state, but this is not that. A more appropriate name would be “Windows repair disc”.

To be blunt, this tool creates merely a slimmed-down Windows installation disc. It takes a normal Windows installation disc image and strips out all the “installation” functionality leaving only the repair tools and common system files.

I wonder how this will work with Windows and the DRM? Will it even be left in the final version? I would think companies are going to like this.

Amazon launches DRM-free "Amazon MP3" music downloads

If you're into DRM-free music, you have a reason to get pretty excited today. As speculated, Amazon has launched the public beta of its new digital music portal called Amazon MP3, which will feature two million songs from 180,000 artists and 20,000 labels, all without the painful and annoying restrictions of DRM. The press release claims that the site, which will include EMI and Universal tracks (take that, Jobs), will make separate songs available for $.89 or $.99, and boasts that all of the "top 100" tracks will be priced at the former, lower amount. Albums will range in cost from $5.99 to $9.99, with the best selling albums coming in at $8.99. Of course, since there's no DRM, users are free to throw the 256Kbps MP3s on any player they like, as well as burn CDs, copy to MiniDisc, and dump to 8-track.

http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/25/amazon-launches-drm-free-amazon-mp3-music-downloads/

Hmm, this could be a contender for ITUNES

You all know the slogan: "Guns don't kill people, people kill people."

You all know the slogan: "Guns don't kill people, people kill people." At the Digital Rights Strategies conference in New York City, a similar message could be heard: "DRM doesn't anger consumers, content owners abusing DRM anger consumers."

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070923-drm-advocates-getting-nervous-about-consumer-backlash.html

I hope they get these people to realize to much DRM is a BAD thing!!