NBC Universal Unhappy with iTunes Profit

More dirt has emerged regarding the Apple/Universal deal that turned rotten. According to an article in Variety, the deal went south when NBC Universal wanted to raise the price of hot properties like "Heroes" by a dollar, to $2.99, in addition to requesting a cut of Apple's hardware profits. On both counts, Apple refused. And the head honcho of NBC Universal, Jeff Zucker, was none too happy: "Apple sold millions of dollars worth of hardware off the back of our content and made a lot of money."

Less than satisfied with his company's cut of Apple's pie--$15 million in revenue over the last year--NBC Universal opted to pull out of iTunes and spend who-knows-how-much to launch its own online video site called Hulu, which is headed into beta this week. "We don?t want to replace the dollars we were making in the analog world with pennies on the digital side." Hey, anytime someone wants to throw $15 million in pennies my way, please go right ahead.

Dual-Layer iPod Protection

With the introduction of the iPhone and the latest iPods, my inbox is overflowing with press releases about the requisite cases for all this Apple goodness. Most cases are retreads from existing lines, so -- with the exception of the shiny Reflect cases -- I usually just pass on them.

I'm willing, however, to break my self-imposed code of silence when someone makes a case that makes even my wife say "Wow." And I've got to say, iSkin's eVo⁴ Duo--

Wait, excuse me, I'm sorry, but how do you even pronounce that? Do you go up to a store counter and say "I'd like the evo-to-the-power-of-four skin?" Really, that's almost as bad as the days when Prince's name was a typographer's nightmare.

Anyway, the $35 eVo⁴ Duo looks pretty darned spiffy, and is, in fact, two skins in one. The silicone skin wraps around your iPod Classic to protect it from shocks and moisture, and the metallic-finish ViSOR layer goes over that to protect the screen from scratches. All of the iPod's ports are protected from as well. A similar design (just called the Duo) for the new Nanos is also available, for $30.

One E-Book Standard to Rule Them All

Last year I wrote about how the International Digital Publishing Forum was working on creating a unified file format for e-readers, saving publishers the trouble of having to choose from one (or, more frequently, several) of the many formats out there.

Well, they did. Last month they introduced the Open Publication Structure 2.0 and its .epub file format -- which is all well and good, except that a standard isn't worth much if you can't get enough heavyweights behind it. Enter Hachette, publishers of Stephen Colbert's I Am America (And So Can You!), the Onion's Our Dumb World and a few shelves' worth of James Patterson books, just to name a few. They're the first to announce that they're adopting the .epub format, which should instantly give it some street cred -- if enough hardware vendors also get behind it. It's the usual chicken-and-egg dilemma, but if another heavyweight publisher gets behind .epub, you'll probably find more support for the format sooner, rather than later.

Boynq's Quirky iPod System

It's true, there's a greater overpopulation of iPod speakers than even Bugaboos. But that doesn't mean I don't love me a weird-looking system.

The WakeUp alarm-clock-cum-iPod speaker from Boynq features three LCD screens that display the hour, the minute, and the radio station, each in a separate quadrant. The fourth square is the part you fill in--dock a Nano, a Classic, a Touch, even the iPhone (though the brochure says it's for iPhones produced after January 1. Huh?)

The radio comes with auto scan and nine presets, while the alarm clock has a sleep function and adjustable volume controls. There's also a remote so you can control your docked 'Pod as well as access all of the WakeUp's functions, including snooze, from bed (ooh, dangerous). Sound won't be booming from the dual 10-watt speakers, but do you really want to be rocked from your slumber that hard anyway?

L'Internet, Mon Amour

Just imagine the subject as spoken by Pepe Le Pew and you've got the idea. Word is that a recent survey has close to a quarter of Americans surveyed saying that the Internet could substitute for a significant other.

I'm waiting for a hand-wringing pundit to argue, for the thousandth time, that this is an example of how technology is alienating us from each other; and, I suppose, late-night talk-show hosts and stand-up comics will get some mileage out of the news as well. ("At least the Internet doesn't ask you if a dress makes it look fat, am I right, fellas?" Or something.)

The thing is, the study doesn't actually say what "The Internet" means. After all, one of the big draws of the online world, even from back in the pre-Web days, has always been communicating with other people. (Even spam often hinges on offering some kind of personal contact, even if you feel icky just reading the subject headings.) Really, does anyone think Internet use as necessarily anti-social behavior anymore?

Perhaps more to the point, the study (you can read the questions and results here) specifies that the trade-off would be for "a relatively short period of time." Heck, for a short period of time, many people will substitute ice cream for a significant other. What we really have here is another pointless survey that gets play pretty much only because it mentions technology. It's not like they're talking about sex with robots, but still.

GPS Versus Radar Gun: Which Will Win?

Who are you going to trust more? A police officer with quotas to fulfill, or a GPS system? In California, a 17-year-old teen named Shaun Malone was stopped for going 62 mph in a 45 mph area. But with the help of the car's GPS device manufacturer, Malone's family was able to check a log that showed him to be following the speed limit in approximately the same area where the police radared him.

Though GPS records aren't normally accepted as evidence, Malone--along with his uncle Roger Rude, a retired deputy--is giving it the college try. Rude has submitted a written statement that argues the radar gun could have been accidentally tracking another vehicle or calibrated incorrectly. Meanwhile, a local police officer says that GPS could be equally problematic, since satellite signal delays mean that drivers could be altering their speeds. A ruling is expected in two weeks.

Incidentally, the GPS system in Malone's car was installed for this very reason, only it was his parents who wanted to keep tabs on their son. In fact, they had requested that an email be sent to them whenever he drove faster than 70mph, which he did once--and was grounded for it.

Another Task for Your iPhone: Minding the House

Let's see: phone, media player, Web browser -- isn't there another function for the iPhone? Oh, right: concierge. Cliqk, a "digital lifestyle services" firm (i.e., throw enough money at them and they'll figure out how to make things with chips do whatever you want) have developed new, special customizations for the iPhone.

Well, maybe not so new. It seems that aside from Cliqk-exclusive ringtones, they're offering the same home-automation goodies that the digiterati have been promised since the earliest days of X10 controllers: home monitoring, lighting, temperature, and the like, all controlled from outside the house. As always, I ask myself: is it really worth all the effort just so someone doesn't have to endure the five whole minutes before the inside temperature is regulated? But hey, at least with an iPhone as a remote controller they can look good while being impatient.

Get Facebookin' from Your BlackBerry

Are you an obsessive Facebooker? Soon you'll be able to have notifications like "Hillary Clinton added you as a friend on Facebook" pushed directly to your BlackBerry, email style. You can also send and receive messages, pokes, pics and posts, manage your friends list, and change your status, all while you're running for the train. If you happen to have a BlackBerry that's actually equipped with a camera, you can caption and upload photos taken with the phone's camera. T-Mobile users have at the app first, which should be downloadable from facebook.com later today.

TiVo Hooks Up with Western Digital

Last week I mentioned TiVo's 9.2 system software update, which gives hoarding DVR owners a sanctioned way to plug in an external hard drive through the eSATA port on the Series3 and TiVo HD boxes. At the time it wasn't clear what TiVo considers to be a "verified" drive, but now we know: There's only one drive, and it's the My DVR Expander from WD (Western Digital). Despite sporting a name meant for two-year-olds, the drive is actually quite beefy, with 500GB of storage that can take up to 300 hours of SD programs or 60 hours of delicious HD. At $200, the price doesn't seem all that bad either.

The 9.2 update also brings a few other goodies to Series3 and TiVo HD DVRs, including TiVoToGo (finally), multiroom viewing, and progressive downloads, which allows you to start watching TiVoCast and Amazon Unbox once enough content has been buffered. Now where's my update?

Buy Napster on AT&T

AT&T's been quite active lately, from lightening up their ironclad cell phone contract policies to getting the exclusive on that thing you've probably heard of that Apple just announced they sold almost 1.4 million of.

File this one under the what-took-you-so-long category. Starting mid-November, non-iPhone AT&T subscribers--yes, there are some--will be able to purchase songs from Napster over the air. Tunes will cost $1.99 each, or you can buy a bundle of five songs for $7.49 (Sprint sells songs for just 99 cents. I'm just saying?)

Still, this is a vast improvement over the previous option, which involved subscribing to Napster, then transferring music over from your PC to your phone, which kinda defeated the purpose of that whole wireless connectivity thing. AT&T also offers music purchases via eMusic, but the ability to buy from Napster is more appealing to those of us who aren't cool enough to keep up on the indie scene.

USBTV Changes Its Name, Makes Its Debut

It wasn't so much a "where are they now" than a "where have you been?" In January Sandisk announced the USBTV, a USB-drive-size portable video player. Sorry, did I say USB-drive-size? It actually was a USB drive: download your DivX, XviD or MPEG-4 video from your PC, walk over to the TV, plug it in, and there you go. Originally slated for a spring/summer release, the USBTV was finally released today, but with a new name: TakeTV. The TakeTV comes with composite and S-Video outputs and a remote control.

So what took you so long, TakeTV? If I had to venture a guess, I'd say it was brokering deals with CBS, Showtime, and other broadcasters. Today also sees the launch of the public beta of Fanfare, a website featuring officially sanctioned downloadable video, with the content a mix of free and paid. Of course this means some form of DRM.

The TakeTV comes in 4 GB and 8 GB models, at $99 and $149 respectively.

The Evolution of Digital Music, Part II

Perhaps the most disappointing music-related news in the last week was that Universal Music Group (UMG) is looking to launch their own music service, dubbed Total Music, to rival iTunes. Not that rivalling iTunes is a bad thing; I'm all for a little competition, especially since Apple set the bar so high.

What bothers me is the attitude of Universal going into this. Jean-Bernard Levy, the CEO of Vivendi Universal SA (UMG's parent company), has expressed his displeasure with Apple's contract, in which Universal takes a mere 29 cents for every 99-cent track sold.

I'm trying to understand -- why is this bad, exactly? I haven't been able to put my hands on a definitive source, but I'm pretty sure that labels get just a little over a third of the retail price of a CD anyway. Factor in the relative cheapness of producing downloadable music (you don't have to manufacture and ship bits of plastic and metal for every song sold), and that 30% take seems pretty fair.

So really, it's not the principle of the thing, it's the money. Not that that's inherently bad -- companies do try to make money, after all -- but it seems to me that Universal's main concern that they just aren't raking in enough of it. Why else would they come up with a scheme like offering "free" music that's actually subsidized by a slight bump in audio player prices? (And would this mean that people who have other players wouldn't be able to use Total Music?)

The Total Music plan is, plain and simple, a cash grab. Look at it this way: Right now, very little of the music I buy comes from the Universal or any of the another major music labels. And yet if Total Music were running, part of the cost of the MP3 player I bought this week would go to them. (I knew Microsoft shouldn't have encouraged them.) What Universal's looking for is a means of guaranteed income, regardless of whether their product is in demand or not. It's a system designed to be entirely in their favor, with little consideration for the consumer. I guess they've forgotten that their business was built on creating things that people like.

You know, I'm not a huge fan of SpiralFrog's execution ("free" shouldn't mean "free until you stop visiting"), but their premise is a bit more honest. If Universal's music becomes less popular, they (presumably) get a small share of the ad revenue. Compensation is tied to performance; the happier customers are, the better they do.

The music industry needs to come up with new ideas to survive; I not only get that, I encourage it. But their ideas need to be really innovative and consider the needs and wants of tech-savvy audience they're courting. It's the 21st century, and audience approval is still an arbiter of success more than ever -- if anything, music producers and distributors should know that. Now if only they'd actually use that expertise.

High-Tech Vest Lets Gamers Take a Hit

Sure it sucks to get killed while playing a shoot-'em-up, but you know you can just get up and start over again. But what if you actually felt all that carnage? Would it make you think twice before charging in?

Don the 3rdSpace gaming vest, and you'll be feeling gunshots, missile attacks, kicks, punches, and other types of body impact. Designed by a surgeon, the vest was originally created for use in the medical field to poke and prod patients in order to get a sense for what they were feeling. Since then, the vest has been adapted for the game industry, capable of delivering hits and shots exactly where you would feel them. Utilizing air pouches--four on front, four in back--the vest nudges and jabs gamers at eight different contact points. Click here for a video of one of our editors sporting the vest at E For All.

The vest, uh, hits in November for $189, and will ship with Call of Duty. Another vest is also in the works, this one aimed at flight and driving sims.

Die Hard DVD to Feature Digital Copies

The other day I reported that the upcoming Harry Potter DVD release would come with digital versions of the movie for your PC and unnamed portable devices. Add "Live Free or Die Hard" to that list of one (now two): According to the Hollywood Reporter, 20th Century Fox is slated to announce that the special-edition disc will come with an electronic download of the movie for PC and portable play.

Available on November 20 (Potter is hitting December 11), the fourth "Die Hard" movie DVD is just the beginning: The studio says that it is planning to release this "killer app" for other movie releases down the road. Here's how it'll work: You'll insert Disc 2 into your computer, select the Digital Copy feature, then enter a serial number. You then choose whether you want to watch the movie on your computer or a connected player; the movie should be ready in a matter of minutes.

Unfortunately, the video is only compatible with Windows PCs and PlaysForSure devices, but that's OK--we Mac and iPod users have gotten used to playing in our own sandbox.

The Evolution of Digital Music, Part I

I've been thinking a lot about music over the last week. Partly because I discovered both Amy Winehouse and Sharon Jones in the space of 48 hours, partly because my son has rediscovered the pleasures of Massive Attack's Mezzanine album, but mostly because of news from the music industry.

Last week Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails (okay, practically speaking Reznor is Nine Inch Nails) announced that he's walking away from his record label; it's speculated that he'll sell his music online on his own, in much the same way that Radiohead started doing just last Wednesday (buyers can pay what they consider a fair price for their In Rainbows album). Meanwhile, Oasis and Jamiroquai, both of whom are currently free of recording contracts, are considering giving their music away (again, presumably online).

It's worth mentioning that both the pay-what-you-want and here-just-take-it schemes have been done before; it's just that in this case, these plans involve four bands who have done very well for themselves and are likely to continue doing so. While some consider (or at least hope) this the beginning of a new era, others think that it's a luxury that only those that have established followings can afford.

I'm not so sure either case is true. Look at the example of Jonathan Coulton, who simply produces good music, puts it up on his website, gets good word of mouth, and as a result has a career. Is he rich? No. Is that the point? Most definitely not. Consider that most of the people behind the musical acts you hear actually aren't rich -- Courtney Love did a great breakdown of the music industry seven years ago that's still required reading -- and you begin to wonder why anyone with reasonable talent would bother with a recording contract at all.

Ah, but there is a reason. Not everyone can market music the way an experienced label can. Not everyone can broker licensing deals or get great concert venues. Depending on the kind of musical career you want, the big four players can be a worthwhile consideration.

But what Radiohead, Reznor, and Coulton -- especially Coulton -- prove is that the Internet, combined with digital recording technology, has given everyone new options. The labels can no longer assume that their traditional all-or-nothing approach is best. The next Jonathan Coulton might decide that he or she wants to use, say, Warner's clout in getting their work into movie and TV soundtracks. The next Trent Reznor might just want Universal's distribution reach. A more modular approach to making and selling music might be in the offing, and the major players would be wise to become a little more flexible as others look to these pioneering musicians' examples.

TiVo Endorses External Storage

Enterprising TiVo Series3 owners have been hacking their boxes to enable the use of their locked eSATA port for some time now. But those of us who are too scared to screw with our TiVo boxes have been doing the watch/delete/organize dance for some time now as we try to avoid hitting our storage ceilings.

Well TiVo has now given us the blessing to go ahead and add external storage. With the 9.2 system software update, TiVo is finally endorsing the use of that port on both the Series3 machine and the TiVo HD box. Customers will need to plug in a "verified" drive, though it's not yet clear what TiVo means by that, whether there will be a list of approved devices or TiVo will sell its own.

Also, if you're an Amazon Unbox user, the 9.2 update brings another bit of good news: You can now start watching movies as they download, rather than having to wait 20 years for the download to finish. TiVo, you are rockin' my world today--even more than you already do.

AT&T Loosens the Contract Noose

Want to get out of your AT&T wireless contract? It will still cost you--but not as exorbitantly as before. Instead of charging a flat $175 fee for ditching early, the rate will be prorated depending on how much longer you're shackled to your contract (but not till next year, so before you say "see ya!" you might want to hold out just a little bit longer?) And if you change your calling plan mid contract? Starting in November, you can do so without having to extend your contract or begin anew.

AT&T joins Verizon Wireless in easing up on contract restrictions, claiming this is an issue of flexibility and fairness. But the cellular community has been getting some heat about this issue lately, with consumer groups supporting legislation introduced in the Senate that would require wireless companies to prorate early termination fees as well as allow people out of their contract if they do so within 30 days of signing up.

I have no intention of ditching my iPhone anytime soon (20 more months and counting on my contract!), but do these changes give you more of an incentive to get out of your contract early?

Rock On with an MP3-Playing Guitar

Rule number one of being a rock star: Always carry your guitar around with you. That job just got a little easier thanks to the URock, a ?49 ($102) guitar and amp set you can use to bust out the tunes. Easier because the URock guitar is actually a 1 GB MP3/WMA player, and the amp is, not surprisingly, the speaker. We're definitely not talking about a full-sized axe here, either -- that little triangle next to the amp in the picture is an actual guitar pick. A tiny guitar stand completes the serious-musician image; so while it won't make you the next Noel Gallagher, at least the URock makes your rock-god dreams a little more portable.

Classic Shows Come to the Web

Got some time to burn at work? Add TV Land to your list of time-wasting Web destinations. Known for airing reruns targeted toward Baby Boomers, TV Land joins the growing cabal of networks streaming television shows over the Web. But here it's all about the nostalgia factor. The pickings are currently slim, with just five episodes each of "Leave It to Beaver," "The Andy Griffith Show," and "Gunsmoke." But the network plans to expand its offerings in the next few months by adding "The Beverly Hillbillies," "Hogan's Heroes," and, representing the more recent past, "Just Shoot Me." And considering the fact that they also have access to shows like "The Brady Bunch," "Little House on the Prairie," and "Three's Company," the possibilities for entertainment could be endless.

Keep Tabs on Yourself

Some people like to extensively plot out where they're going to be; for them, there's Google Maps. Others prefer to make note of where they've been; for them, there's the $189 Trackstick II. Tote the 4.5''x1.25''x.75'' device around with you and it keeps track of everywhere you go. Import the data into Google Earth, and you can trace where you've been. Sounds like fun for travelers, but for the self-surveillance obsessive (I'm thinking of Hasan Elahi here), the two AAA batteries that power it might not be enough.

Harry Potter DVD Offers Up Extras

Consumers planning to snap up the upcoming Harry Potter DVD "Order of the Phoenix" should actually be getting a little bit of a bonus. Warner Brothers announced that the DVD will also include two digital versions of the movie: one for your PC and one for your portable device. Cool--but the details are a bit sketch right now. For instance, which portable players will be supported? Where will you download the files from? And how much will the DVD cost?

For one thing, it's not clear whether the files will actually be contained on a DVD, or if this entitles you to download them from somewhere else. Also, Warner neglected to mention compatibility--if the portable copy is encoded using Windows Media DRM, it won't play on an iPod, which, last I checked, has become a world superpower. Finally, pricing has yet to be revealed, which means we may end up paying a premium for this extra content. In theory, it's a good idea, but many factors could make it go south. In any case, all should be revealed as we slide closer to the DVD's December 11 release date.

Another Chance at Lifetime TiVo

If you passed on the initial Series3 HD TiVo, we don't blame you. It was (and still is) exorbitantly expensive. But that also means you missed out on the first window of opportunity for transferring your lifetime TiVo subscription to the new box.

Well, for a limited time, TiVo is offering the same deal. All you have to do is buy one of TiVo's new $300 HD boxes, pony up an additional $199, and you can transfer the lifetime service from your old DVR to the new one. And in case you're not ready to let go of your aging box just yet, TiVo will continue to deliver service to it for another year.

Now, while it may seem a bit obnox to have to pay almost $200 to re-up something that was supposed to last a lifetime, consider the alternative: TiVo's cheapest subscription plan is a $299 3-year deal. So if you've been thinking of upgrading your DVR to HD, and you're pretty sure you're going to use it for several years, this may be the time to cut the Series2 loose. You've got exactly four weeks to mull it over--the offer ends November 8.

The Music Industry Still Doesn't Want Me to Buy Their Product

After my complaint about how buying digital music is in some ways harder that buying music in the real world, a few people have given me some suggestions as to how I could get my hands on the MP3s I want to buy legally.

Actually, as a longtime media junkie I already have such a system in place. Since before the Internet was as common as Brangelina on the cover of People, I've had a network of friends and relatives who will buy stuff for me and put it in the mail if I want it, and of course I do the same. If I really wanted to start stocking up on Amazon's MP3s, I'd get one of my American cohorts to buy them for me and send them on a CD.

Or rather, I would if it was legal.

See, Amazon has an end-user license agreement (EULA), which, like most EULAs, is pretty much ignored by the people who are legally bound by it. As Seattle Times columnist Brier Dudley points out, that EULA is actually pretty restrictive. Here's the two salient parts:

"2.1 License. Upon your payment of our fees for Digital Content, we grant you a non-exclusive, non-transferable license to use the Digital Content for your personal, non-commercial, entertainment use, subject to and in accordance with the terms of this Agreement. You may copy, store, transfer and burn the Digital Content only for your personal, non-commercial, entertainment use."

And in section 2.2, "You agree not to infringe the rights of the Digital Content's copyright owners and to comply with all applicable laws in your use of the Digital Content. Except as set forth in Section 2.1 above, you agree that you will not redistribute, transmit, assign, sell, broadcast, rent, share, lend, modify, adapt, edit, sub-license or otherwise transfer or use the Digital Content." (Read the entire agreement here.)

So after you agree "not to infringe the rights of the Digital Content's copyright owners and to comply with all applicable laws in your use of the Digital Content," which is a fair request, you're then required to curtail some of your existing rights. Sure, you shouldn't be able to redistribute, transmit or share the music you paid for, but shouldn't you be able to sell it or give it away if you so choose? I can sell or give away a CD I buy; why not digital versions of the same songs?

(I should note that eMusic has similar requirements, though put more succinctly in its agreement: "By enrolling in the Service, you acknowledge and agree that you have no right to provide any files obtained through the Service to any other party or through any other means. You may only make copies of any file obtained through the Service for your own personal use.")

These contracts are really a form of CYA protection for Amazon and eMusic, but that doesn't make me feel any better. As someone who has regularly crossed the border and received shipments from abroad, I'm used to my goods being opened and inspected occasionally, sometimes rather thoroughly. Do I need the headache of a music industry lawsuit? Not particularly. Until all this gets sorted out, I'll just have to spend my money elsewhere.

Morning TV Goes 3D

How much do you really want to see Regis Philbin in the third dimension? Probably not all that much, but nevertheless, that's what you're going to get if you tune in to this year's Halloween episode of "Live with Regis and Kelly." But this isn't going to be your ordinary morning chatfest. Special stunts will appear throughout the show, inspired by old 3D movies. Think hijinks like water spray or spears flying straight at your face.

To view the show in 3D, head over to a Walgreens photo department and pick up a set of the free special glasses, which will be housed inside boxes featuring pictures of the Reege and his co-host Kelly Ripa. Only five million pairs will be made available nationwide, so you better hit up your local Walgreens pretty soon. If you don't live within striking distance of a Walgreens, you can send in for a pair by visiting the show's website.

When First Isn't Really First

So I'm skimming through press releases and I come across one from Gateway claiming that their XHD3000 Extreme HD display is "the world's first Quad-HD display." And I wonder, how can that be when I stood in front of Barco's Quad HD display two months ago?

Spend enough time studying any kind of history and you'll quickly learn that many so-called "firsts" actually aren't. Spend enough time around marketers and PR people and you notice just how many adjectives get trotted out in marketing materials, sometimes for dubious reasons. Wanting to get to the bottom of this declaration, I e-mailed Gateway's press contact and asked her to explain the contradiction. The first sentence of her reply was definitive: "The XHD3000 is the world's first Quad HD display." Then came the second: "Here's our rationale." Ah.

"The other display products that are higher than HD resolutions are not capable of connecting to typical HD sources such as HD-DVD players, Blu-Ray players, Satellite receivers, HD cable set top boxes, etc.," she continued. "As such, they cannot be considered HD displays, but only high-resolution computer monitors."

She also went on to explain that even the argument that a PC piping HD content to earlier monitors wouldn't make the cut, as they don't have HDCP support, so they're effectively unusable for consumers.

In a certain sense, Gateway is right. From the perspective of consumers, their target audience, the XHD3000 is the first Quad HD display they can use without jumping through all kinds of hoops. But so far as I'm concerned, if you're going to claim "first," you can't add all kinds of rationalizations after the fact. If you say "first Quad HD," then you should be the first Quad HD, period. The alternatives are to qualify the statement up front ("first consumer-level Quad HD") or to not make it at all.

Feel free to tell me if I'm being too picky. But don't you think that if someone is using an absolute to sell you a $1,700 piece of equipment, then it should actually mean what it says?

OnStar Plays God with Your Car

How much would it tick off a car thief if all of a sudden, during the getaway, the engine started to lose power and the vehicle began to decelerate? Quite a bit, I imagine. OnStar is well on its way to god status by introducing Stolen Vehicle Slowdown, a new technology that is capable of transmitting a signal to a vehicle and corresponding with its powertrain system to reduce fuel flow to the engine and eventually decrease the speed of the car. The slowdown would happen at a safe and gradual level, so that coppers could safely follow and apprehend the thieves. (No more Dukes of Hazzard type chases.)

The tech, which is set to debut in 1.6 million 2009 model GM cars, works in conjunction with OnStar's Stolen Vehicle Location service (needed initially to pinpoint the whereabouts of the car). A direct line of sight is required in order to activate the tech, and according to the site, "Safeguards will be in place to ensure that the correct vehicle is slowed down." Uh, let's hope so. That sure would suck to be the clueless guy driving behind.

The Problem With Second-Hand Games

All right, raise your hand if you've ever walked into a store and bought a second-hand gadget or software in the last year. Is that everyone? Okay, now listen: You're all part of the problem. At least, that's been the ongoing, low-key complaint of manufacturers and publishers for years. After all, the reasoning goes that if you buy a second-hand copy of Paper Mario for $10, you'll skip spending $50 on the latest Zelda -- and since none of that $10 goes to Nintendo, it's two problems for the price of one. The person who sold the game to the retailer is happy, the retailer's happy, and the person who bought the game from the retailer is happy, while the people who make the item actually moving through this chain are, perhaps, less happy.

Here's something that might make them a little more cranky: a recent survey revealed that 59% of gamers who play console games at least once a week bought at least one used game in the previous year; many of the folks within that segment also said that buying a used game kept them from buying at least one game they'd initially planned to buy new. The end result is that about 5% to 15% of all used games bought ate into potential sales of new games.

But is this really a problem? The study may well be accurate, but I still have a problem with the conclusions drawn from it. Whenever an industry gets testy about consumer habits, as often as not there's the assumption that we're all in some kind of closed-system, zero-sum game. Consider the RIAA's stand on file sharing and casual copying: every copied CD or song represents a lost sale. Of course, that's not true. Some people download songs they would never have bought otherwise, and some download them as a form of try-before-you-buy. That sort of gray area exists in the game world as well.

The people who make the software and hardware that gets sold this way may grumble, but I think if they take the long view they'll realize that second-hand games and hardware work to everyone's benefit. When we sold our Nintendo 64 after upgrading to a GameCube, Nintendo "lost out" on an immediate sale, but they still gained another Nintendo-playing household. They may buy most of their games second-hand, but any that they buy new (or that others buy for them) translates into sales Nintendo might not have made otherwise -- and if they liked their N64, they may well have upgraded to a GameCube or a Wii. Knowing that we could offset the price of a new console by selling the old one made us more inclined to buy the GameCube earlier. And having a comfortable resale business provides the retailers with another revenue stream that helps keep them afloat during the ups and downs of the industry, and keeps people coming into the stores, where they'll discover new games.

The real question is, instead of grumbling, what can manufacturers and publishers do to take advantage of this system? Look at the publishing industry, for example: when they're pitching to advertisers, a publication will often refer to their "pass-around" rate -- that is, the amount of times that one purchased copy will be passed along to someone else, which of course makes eyeball-hungry advertisers happy. Passing material around is exactly the kind of behavior that would make organizations like the RIAA apoplectic, but the publishing industry realizes that it's the nature of the medium and of their customers -- so they've worked it into their business model. Will the games industry find a way to do something similar?

Funeral for an Electronic Friend

Yesterday I laid to rest an old friend: a Toshiba V-8500C, my family's first VCR, a 30 lb. clunker of a Betamax. The thing was built like a tank, sounded like one (pressing any of the transport controls resulted in a "clunk" noise that was at once satisfying and irritating) -- and was one of the most beloved electronic devices in our household. I'll miss it.

Bought in 1981 or 1982, the V-8500C worked nonstop until the mid-1990s, when a smaller apartment meant I didn't have room to carry it around; it spent most of the rest of its life in a box back at my parents' home. That VCR had a lot of influence in my life: I learned as much about cinema from watching tapes on it as I did from going to repertory cinemas; I learned about the physics of motion and the art of animation (as well as the mysteries of 3:2 pulldown) thanks to its crystal-clear freeze-frame and variable-speed slow-mo; I learned the basics of editing thanks to its flying erase head, which allowed near-seamless cuts.

Perhaps most relevant for regular Digital World readers, I learned that gadget partisanship -- any kind of partisanship, I suppose -- is fueled as much by ignorance as anything else. We got our first VHS player about six years after the Beta, and using both of them on a regular basis put the lie to many of the myths about both players. For instance, was Betamax video quality really superior to VHS? Kinda yes and kinda no. Where VHS had SP, LP and EP (otherwise known as SLP), Betamax had Beta I, Beta II and Beta III. Beta II was pretty much the equivalent to SP, so one could argue that the superior Beta I decided the contest -- except that almost no Beta machines actually recorded in Beta I. That kind of nuance -- combined with the fact that most consumers honestly didn't care about video quality -- still echoes today, when people get worked up about whether, say, the iPod deserves its popularity.

Aside from all that, there's one other important detail. That VCR worked continuously for around 15 years, and required less than $200 of repairs during its entire lifespan. Ignoring arguments about how "things were built better in the old days" (a sentiment I have to agree with, as I'm still using a 39-year-old stereo receiver that works just fine), it seems to me that it's pretty difficult to do that with any electronic device that's come out in the last decade or so. It's not impossible -- a DVD player from 1996 will still play DVDs made today -- but there's little to encourage us to stick with a device for that long. Is that a good thing, a bad thing, or an unimportant thing? Do you have any gadgets you've held on to (and used) for more than two decades? And if so, do you have any sentimental attachments to them at all?

Another Way to Wear Earbuds

When I saw this press release, I was disappointed to discover that the Lobies were not, in fact, some bizarre award for ear, nose and throat specialists. Rather, they're earpieces for people who generally find earbuds a nuisance. Slide the earbuds into the Lobies, then hook the Lobies over your ears like they were colorful Bluetooth headsets, and voila -- instant earphones. They're made of thermoplastic Elastomer, which Acousticlobe describes as "gel-like" and otherwise likens to nirvana for your ears.

The Lobies are $12 a pop and come in eight different colors.

Nike iPod Control Watch Hits the Streets

Add another accessory to the small-but-slowly-growing Nike+iPod ecosystem. The Nike Amp+ watch is a futuristic-looking piece of tech that may or may not jibe with your aesthetic. Besides telling the time using a series of LEDs, the Amp+ includes ever-so-subtle raised buttons that let you control your iPod Nano (unfortunately, it doesn't display any running stats like time, distance, or calories burned--you'll still get those fed to you through your earphones). You can also hit a button on the left just as you hit that brutal hill to fire up your motivational song. The watch comes in four colors--black and gray, black and red, blue, or green--and a polyurethane strap can be hacked to fit your wrist size. Runners can now get in on the action for $79.

Zune 2.0 Piques My Interest, Lighting Doesn't Strike Me Dead

I spent a fair amount of time yesterday in an utter state of disbelief. For the first time since... hmmm... actually, for the first time ever, I found myself actively interested in not one, but two Microsoft products.

I'm speaking, of course, of yesterday's announcement concerning the second generation of Zune players and music download store. We already knew that Microsoft was going to make the players better (you can insert your own joke about how they couldn't have made them worse), but we didn't really know how. It turns out that while they didn't quite make an iPod killer the second time around, they did come up with something that, like the new iPods, I actually want to try out.

In terms of the hardware, the big draw is the expanded wireless functionality, something Zune bashers (and that includes me) have been griping about pretty much since the beginning. It's not quite as full-featured as I'd like -- where's the ability to buy music while at your favorite hotspot, for example? -- but the ability to update podcasts and music without having to sort through my tangle of cables is appealing. The improved wireless music sharing (tracks downloaded from another Zune can be played three times) is a better compromise than the old three-days-or-three-plays straitjacket, but for now there's still that question of actually finding someone else with a Zune.

The wireless feature will be made available to Zune 1.0 owners via a firmware update, which is nice; but the other reason I'm curious to try the new hardware is the control pad, which will work more and less like the iPod's click wheel. More because it will work with gestures, like the iPod; less because you won't need to rotate your finger in a circle to navigate. I happen to love the iPod click wheel, so I'm wondering how much of an improvement this will be, if at all. If you don't need to rotate, then why bother with a circular shape?

More than anything else, though, I'm astounded by the decision to sell DRM-free music on the Zune Marketplace. Actually, just selling DRM-free music is a no-brainer these days; what's truly amazing is that Microsoft opted to avoid using their own Windows Media format and went with MP3s. It's likely that I won't get to actually try the new Marketplace for a while (thanks to the whole Canadian problem), but I applaud the fact that they're opening up their ecosystem a little. I think it'll still be some time before the Zune is truly an iPod killer, but at the very least this last bit of news should provoke some interesting responses from the folks at Apple. While I'm reluctant to make any real declarations based on a product that isn't actually out yet (and that I haven't tried myself), at least on paper the media player market just got a lot more interesting.

Garmin Provides GPS to Smartphones

Want GPS on your phone, without having to pay outlandish fees for the privilege? Garmin's Mobile XT software gives you turn-by-turn directions, housed on a microSD that you can slide into GPS-equipped smartphones (including the HP iPaq hw6500/6900 series, the Nokia N95, T-Mobile's MDA, and more). At $100, the software includes preloaded 3D maps, voice commands telling you where to turn, and millions of points of interest. You also get free access to Garmin Online, which provides info on traffic conditions, gas prices, hotels, and the weather (data plan required). And if you know someone else using the Mobile XT, you can take advantage of PeerPoints: Text your location to another phone and that person can easily view and navigate to your feet.

Take a Real Swing at Wii Tennis

You know, it always struck me as a little odd to be swinging a rectangular block of plastic while playing a simulated tennis game. But esteemed racket-maker Prince is taking care of the sitch by releasing rackets that attach to your Wiimote. Now you can feel a little bit more like Federer while playing Wii Sports Tennis! The rackets house the Wiimote in the handle, and they are a little smaller than real tennis rackets, so hopefully they won't wreak too much havoc on your living room (though I'd still clear a wide circumference of space around you). The rackets come in three colors and will cost a scant $15 when they come out in mid November.

Junk E-Mail Has Some Use, After All

Life, they say, imitates art. But as it turns out, some biological processes appear to imitate... spam?

Anyone with an e-mail account knows that dealing with the blight of junk e-mail requires creative measures -- and that when spam falls through our sophisticated filters' cracks, we can visually identify spam pretty much instantly. An article in this week's BusinessWeek looks at how Microsoft researcher David Heckerman is combining both of these facts -- and both of his doctorates -- to develop tools for detecting, and hopefully vaccinating, HIV.

It's one of those cross-discipline bits of nerdiness that I find endlessly fascinating: Heckerman had been heading up a team developing spam-blocking technology at Microsoft when he noticed that the cycle that spammers and anti-spammers are locked into (anti-spammers come up with better tools to block spam, spammers come up with wilier tactics to circumvent them) was reminiscent of the ever-mutating virus that causes AIDS.

Remember how I said that you can tell that a message is spam at a glance? We're doing instinctively what software has to be trained (and endlessly retrained) to do: juggle a number of variables and decide if a certain combination of factors (misspelled text, certain phrases and images, subject headers) adds up to junk or another joke from your HTML-addled aunt.

With the HIV virus mutating as rapidly as it does, trying to identify it through very specific means is like catching spam only by looking for the word "Viagra."

What Heckerman has done is, with Bill Gates's blessing, started up a group within Microsoft that works with the Massachusetts General Hospital and University of Washington, among other organizations. Heckerman takes the same kind of intelligence built into spam filters and applies it to software tools that analyze viral mutations, refining their ability to accurately spot HIV. And, of course, research in one area can lead to solutions for another -- so far all we know, all this prodding at HIV might lead to a better means of dealing with spam. The ideal outcome, I suppose, would be for AIDS and spam to lead to each other's demise.

An Earphone for the iPhone

As an iPhone user, I love the fact that I can pack one gadget rather than two, whether I'm going on a long walk or heading to the airport. But it feels stupidly awkward when I'm rockin' my tunes, then have to pull the phone out and hold it up to my mouth to take a call.

V-Moda's new Vibe Duo earphones are exactly what I need. They eliminate the awkwardness by including a microphone and a control button inline that lets you take a call while listening to music, then quickly switch back to your tunes once you ditch your caller. Available in black or chrome, the $100 Vibe Duo comes with three silicon fit tips and a clip for hanging it off your person.

CBS to Create Video Montages

In the ever-continuing quest to figure out what it is we fickle viewers want to watch on the Web, CBS is planning to create mash-ups of its most popular shows, combining best-of and behind-the-scenes moments into clips that will air on the Web.

According to the Wall Street Journal, CBS has created EyeLab, a new studio that will be dedicated to producing these videos. The president of CBS Interactive claims that less than one-third of its Web viewers are interested in watching full episodes. Instead, EyeLab will concentrate on short-form videos that include clips from a show (for instance, a string of "How I Met Your Mother" high-five scenes) or perhaps a look at how a scene is shot.

So where did CBS get its inspiration for these bitty videos? A YouTube clip put together by a British man featuring David Caruso "CSI: Miami" one-liners. The video has received more than a million views, and by embedding ads into its clips, CBS is hoping to cash in on some of that ADD action.

Virgin Digital Closes, Customers Left With Dead Bits

Every so often someone asks me why I'm so hung up on buying digital music only in the DRM-free MP3 format, when even DRMed Windows Media Audio is pretty widely supported. After all, they argue, if most of my audio players support DRMed WMA, then what's the problem?

I usually have a variety of answers to this question, and surprisingly most of them are even printable. But over in the UK, Virgin Digital has made part of my case for me. After two years of selling downloadable music in the DRMed Windows Media format, they've decided that they'd really rather make money elsewhere and began shutting down their service on Friday. Virgin Digital operated on the subscription principle, where users could download as many tracks as they wanted for a monthly fee -- but those tracks were only playable so long as the subscription was paid. The trouble is, now that the service is going dark (its last day is October 19), those files will soon be unplayable.

Now, one can argue that anyone who signs up for this kind of service knows that they don't actually own the tracks. I would argue, however, that when you've kept up your end of the bargain -- that is, you keep sending in your monthly fee -- that you kind of expect the other party to keep up theirs. What's striking about this particular case is that it's not as if Virgin went bankrupt or was in financial dire straits; they've just decided to focus on their other markets. So they keep their customers' money, and the customers get wasted hard drive space.

I'll stick to my MP3s, thanks.