Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Friday, November 09, 2007

SlySoft's latest AnyDVD beta cracks BD+

from Engadget by Darren Murph

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

Regardless of what those oh-so-knowledgeable analysts had to say, we all knew this day was coming. Yep, that highly-touted, totally "impenetrable" copy protection technology known as BD+ has officially been brought to its knees, and it's not at all surprising to hear that we have SlySoft to thank. The AnyDVD 6.1.9.6 beta has quite a comical change log too, and aside from noting that users now have the ability to backup their BD+ movies and watch titles sans the need for HDCP-compliant equipment, it also includes a candid note to Twentieth Century Fox informing the studio that its prior assumptions about BD+'s effectiveness were apparently incorrect. You know the drill, hit the read link below to try 'er out. [Thanks, Aaron]

Water Pistol Umbrella Makes the Rain a Hell of a Lot More Fun [Brilliance]

from Gizmodo by adam frucci

Holy crap, this is the coolest umbrella I've ever seen. It's got a little funnel at the top that sends rain water down the handle into the water pistol grip at the bottom. It'll keep you dry and give you the opportunity to get others wet at the same time. It appears to be just a concept at the moment, but someone needs to make some phone calls and get it into production right now. I'm not kidding, go. Now. Check a picture of it in action after the jump.

[Product Page via NotCot.org]

Cyber-Rain XCI Waters Your Lawn When The Internet Commands It [Going Green]

from Gizmodo by Sean Fallon

I love green technology, especially when it doesn't involve me lifting so much as a finger. With the Cyber-Rain XCI, you can take control of your sprinkler system across eight zones and help conserve water and a little cash at the same time. Via a wireless connection with your PC, the Cyber-Rain can make adjustments to scheduled watering times using current weather data.

If the forecast looks like rain, the unit is smart enough to suspend operations. It can even optimize its schedule based on the changing seasons. And the best part is that it isn't as expensive as you might expect. If you already have an irrigation system in place, Cyber-Rain can be added for only $295. So it may actually pay for itself in a short amount of time. [Product Page via GTW via Sci Fi Tech]

Facebook’s New Ad Platform Illegal?

from TechCrunch by Duncan Riley

We've already seen a backlash against Facebook's Social Ads platform, however something far more serious may get in the way of Mark Zuckerberg's quest for social networking domination.

According to the NY Times, Facebook's Social Ad platform may be illegal in New York under a 100 year old privacy law that states that "any person whose name, portrait, picture, or voice is used within this state for advertising purposes or for the purposes of trade without the written consent first obtained" can sue for damages, and doing so is a criminal misdemeanor.

Facebook unsurprisingly are suggesting this isn't the case, arguing that William McGeveran, the professor at the University of Minnesota Law School who came to the illegality conclusion, is taking the law too broadly. Facebook say that it would be difficult for someone used in these ads to argue against the use given they will have already identified themselves publicly, implying consent.

Whilst the lawyers can sort out the legality of Facebook's advertising program now, the real risk for Facebook is that given the growing backlash certain jurisdictions may enact laws that outlaw Facebook's program. Concern about privacy online isn't new; who doesn't remember the Government mudslinging when Google launched Gmail. The question is whether States or even the United States Government will care enough to do something about it. The chances are unlikely; law makers are far too busy trying to pass laws that would see the US Government sue Bit Torrent users to care about the privacy of those very users, but you never know.

Apple posts iPod touch 1.1.2 update -- already hacked

from Engadget by Thomas Ricker

As you'd expect, Apple has released version 1.1.2 of the iPod touch firmware hot on the jailbreak-breaking heels of its iPhone update. Early reports on MacRumors indicate a new "Add Event" functionality in the Calendar -- something that should have been included in v 1.0. Anyone else getting dirty with the firmware who wants to share changes? We'll keep you updated of course as this and the iPhone 1.1.2 status develops.

Update: Whoa, TUAW's in-house hacker -- Erica Sadun -- is reporting that v1.1.2 is already hacked on the iPod touch. That bodes well for opening up your new UK and German iPhone, eh readers? Oh, and that's a screenshot up there -- proof of the deed since that functionality is only available from your friendly third party development community.

Download - iPod1,1_1.1.2_3B48b_Restore.ipsw, 158MB

iPod Touch 1.1.2 Firmware Kinda Out [Apple]

from Gizmodo by Brian Lam

MacRumors is reporting that the iPod Touch firmware is out for some via iTunes, and it's main improvement is the added ability to create calendar appointments. Apple previously called this a bug, but in my opinion its more likely that Apple heard the complaints and added the functionality back. (The image shows old firmware's calendar.)[MacRumors]

HOWTO make a speaker out of a magnet, a cup, legos and wire

from Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow

This homebrew speaker was hacked together from some legos, wire, magnets and a plastic cup -- according to the build-log, it "performs very well"!

I didn't expect a high quality of the sound from this made-from-scratch speaker but it performs very well, better than I expected.

A speaker is just a magnet, a coil, frame and a cone or any material that can make the air vibrate. Here is the bill of materials that I used to build this speaker:

# List of materials 1 Magnet (neodymium magnet works great) # 1 Business card # Wire 32 or 34 AWG (you may use 30AWG) # Paper bond # Tape # Glue # Scissors # Ballpoint pen # Lego bricks or wood. # Ruler.

Blockbuster Planning In-Store Movie Download Kiosks [Backwards]

from Gizmodo by Matt Buchanan

Blockbuster really is falling back hard on its B&M outlets, so hard they're missing half the point of digital distribution, which is not having to drive to the store to grab a movie. Part of their revival plan is to install kiosks at B&M stores where you can download movies straight to your portable media player. Awesome! Except that I have one of those at my house: a computer.

I wouldn't really call having to trudge all the way to a Blockbuster location to jack my iPod or whatever player into a big blue box to download a movie "bypassing the need for...transferring videos from a computer." It takes the worst aspect of each form of distribution—leaving your easy chair and middling quality video that's not easy to throw up on my TV—and combines them into one totally not ideal experience. Better idea on Blockbuster's part: integrating MovieLink's direct download store with the Blockbuster site and services. That's the way digital distribution is supposed to work. If I come to your store, I expect to walk out with a piece of shiny plastic. [Electronista, Flickr]

Eee PC heads to the desktop in 2008

from Engadget by Thomas Ricker

Like your Eee PC do ya? Good, how about a desktop version to go with it? With the unexpected success of their new ultra-portable, Asus is looking to RAZR that momentum with a desktop version of the Eee PC. Jonathan Tseng, Asus president of marketing, says that the new Eee -- Easy to learn, Easy to play, Easy to Work -- will launch in 2008. Good news for us consumers but likely unwelcome tattle for Redmond. As you may have noticed, the recent onslaught of low-cost, low-powered, low-priced (Lll?) PCs are all Linux-happy slabs in order to avoid those heavy Microsoft licensing fees .

Thursday, November 08, 2007

New Earth, Home Wind Maker Raising Cash

from Earth2Tech by Alexis Madrigal

New Earth makes the prettiest small-scale wind turbine on the market — its vertical-axis design uses a double helix to capture wind energy. And the San Diego-based startup is raising money to get its eye-catching product out there. New Earth CEO Ian Gardner tells us that the company is looking to raise a series A round "in the neighborhood of $3 million to $5 million."

New Earth's 2- and 5-kilowatt turbines, sold under the Savonious brand name, are small and designed for the urban and home environment. Think of them as the Mini Cooper of wind turbines. We first read about New Earth when EcoGeek wrote about how the turbine could halve a home's energy bill.

New Earth's systems are just reaching commercialization — the company "soft-launched" in September and its first turbine was only installed in July. But Gardner tells us that already the company has "a pipeline of orders approaching seven figures in revenue," and they "should be delivering on that pipeline in early '08."

The official web site doesn't list a price but, if you trust crowdsourcing, an informative Digg commenter claimed the systems range from $6,500 to $16,500.

There's plenty of competition in the home wind power space. Southwest Wind Power, manufacturers of the Skystream turbines, has received investment from the likes of Denver's Altira Group and Chevron's (CVX) venture capital arm.

Home wind systems works well for off-grid, rural, and even suburban homes, but, despite a few rare exceptions, it's difficult to find turbines installed in the urban settings in which most people live. The fact of the matter is that they are big and quite difficult to install.

Still, wind power is an important part of a future in which distributed energy is a major component of electricity generation. Finding a solution for wind power in urban settings is a good goal, and the first step is bringing turbines to market that have a form factor that can work for cities and the urban cohorts most likely to adopt the technologies.

Zipit Z2 Wireless Messenger Lets Teens IM For Free (Gallery) [Gadgets]

from Gizmodo by Jennifer Hooker

Zipit Wireless introduced its second stab at instant messaging without needing a computer with the Z2. The flip-open handheld device allows teens to IM their pals over Wi-Fi and supports AOL, MSN and Yahoo instant messaging services without any monthly fees. Kids can also sideload photos and their favorite tunes through the miniSD slot, or stream music directly from the internet. The Z2 will set you back $150, and according Zipit reps, will be available in the next few weeks. [Zipit Wireless]

Bluetooth Lanyard Keeps Cables at Bay, Stores Earphones [Design Concept]

from Gizmodo by Charlie White

Are your earphone cables always in auto-tangle mode? Here's a good idea from designer Jaehyung Hong: a Bluetooth lanyard with transport controls on board, letting you control your MP3 player while you're listening, and then store your earphones in its handy slot when you're not. Roll those messy cables up inside the device, keeping that spaghetti bowl of wires from tangling up so much. Neat. [Yanko Design]

Pacific Defence Pen Doubles As James Bond Bluetooth Camcorder [Penmanship]

from Gizmodo by Wilson Rothman

This working pen is ridiculously awesome, if you believe the uncorroborated early reports:
• At under 6 inches long and just a half inch thick, it records 320x240 video at 30fps, even in low light.
• You can set it to start recording video when it detects motion, or recording audio when it hears a sound.
• It takes MicroSD flash cards, and can transfer video wirelessly via Bluetooth.
• You can program it to send an alarm wirelessly to a "remote location."
Gizmag warns "some specs may be altered before final release"—I'm more concerned that there's no mention of it on Pacific Defence's website. [ Gizmag]

Nokia Successfully Tests 100Mbps Wireless Data Network [Wireless]

from Gizmodo by Wilson Rothman

Today Nokia said that in technical trials, the target of 100Mbps download speed and 50Mbps upload speed for its next-gen cellular data network "can be met," and promised initial deployment by 2010. Americans probably won't see it until later, since the 3GPP LTE (don't ask) initiative has more momentum across the Atlantic. The founding members are all Euros, though some Asian companies just joined in, including LG Electronics, NTT DoCoMo and Samsung. Still, it's grounds for excitement, since those superfast wireless data rates will get here sooner or later. (FYI: The phone pictured is Nokia's concept Aeon, and no, that's not a real 100Mbps antenna.) [Gadget Lab]

Tuesday, November 06, 2007

Is Facebook Beacon a Privacy Nightmare?

from GigaOM by Om Malik

Mark Zuckerberg & Co. stood up in front of the advertising community in New York today and unveiled Facebook Ads, an ad system that allows companies to use the Facebook social graph and to develop highly targeted ads. Large brands such as Coca-Cola (KO), Sony Pictures (SNE) and Verizon (VZ) have signed on for this effort. Part of the engine powering this new ad system is called Beacon, which takes data from 44 web destinations and mashes it up with Facebook's internal information to help build more focused advertising messages.

While it seems to be a clever idea, a quick review reveals that Beacon might turn out to be a privacy hairball for the company.

The 44 sites that have partnered with Facebook include everyone from Kongregate, LiveJournal, NYTimes (NYT), Sony Online, Blockbuster (BBI), Bluefly.com, STA Travel, The Knot, TripAdvisor, Travel Ticker, TypePad, viagogo, Vox, Yelp, WeddingChannel.com and Zappos.com.

These partner sites put a little a piece of Facebook javascript on their web site and certain information, cleverly (and innocuously) labeled as a user alert, is sent to Facebook. For instance, Fandago users can publish information about the movies they saw. It all seems like a clever idea because it lets Facebook triangulate your likes and dislikes even more, and deliver more focused ads.

Facebook Beacon provides advanced privacy controls so Facebook users can decide whether to distribute specific actions from participating sites with their friends.

Reading that line prompted the following questions, which I put to Facebook:

Can consumers opt out of this?
If yes, does their data get erased?
Will the sites for example, Fandango, stop sending all personal and any kind of information to Facebook once the user opts out?
Why didn't they make this an opt-in feature, instead of being an opt-out feature?

Their PR spokesperson emailed me this response:

Users can opt-out of Beacon on a per-site basis. They can opt-out for each action, or they can opt-out to never have an affiliated site send stories to Facebook. For instance, a user that buys The Notebook from Blockbuster can stop a story from being published about it, or she can opt-out of having Blockbuster publish any actions she takes on the Blockbuster site.

The response doesn't seem to answer my questions and basically makes it seem like users have control over this data, when in reality, this is a privacy disaster waiting to happen. The javascript on the Fandango site pops up a little screen which asks if you want to publish the information on Facebook. If you say no, your friends won't see the information, but apparently Facebook still receives it. This means that if you are a Facebook member, Facebook will know what you are doing on each of their partner sites. And there is no way for you to opt out of that. Or is there? I asked Facebook to clarify and I am still waiting for them to write back.

As for the rest of their announcement, while long and elaborate, it doesn't contain any information we haven't already seen. MySpace (NWS) has been doing brand specific-pages for a while now, in addition to using other targeting techniques.

Subscribe to: Comments (Atom)