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Apple TV is a Natural Play

by Andrew McCaskey
The Power in the ITunes Music Store

There has got to be some credibility in the multiple rumors that are floating concerning the pitch from Apple to various television networks and content owners to allow Apple to provide television content for a monthly $30-$40 fee through iTunes. Disney seems to be the most likely content provider to buy into the deal, based on the close relationship that Disney and Pixar have had over the years.

If there is one thing that Apple has been able to do, it is to show how to effectively sell and deliver digital content efficiently. And with close to 100million installations of the iTunes Music Store software on Windows machines, it has the penetration and delivery depth that even Hulu will envy.

One player that will be a lot more difficult to grab will be NBC Universal, especially if the proposed merger with Comcast goes into effect. That could put NBC at a significant dis-advantage with competitive material available on the iTunes platform and an expectation that even more programming be available online in some form.

It didn’t have to be that way – reasonable channel packages from cable and satellite providers that got rid of the shopper channels, television preachers, infomercial channels and similar dreck at $85 a month and moved to that $35 price point could have prevented the whole problem.

Apple just sees a consumer need and prepared a product that people will want at a price they are more than willing to pay. Nothing evil about that. {sharethis}

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CNN’s Peer-to-Peer Network

by Andrew McCaskey
Trying to Get Out in Front

If there ever was a media outlet that is trying to get out in front of the implosion in the tradtional media, it is CNN. And they do a remarkable job. They might want to have been just a bit more open on this one, before the tech world blows this out of proportion.

This being an absolutely ‘Lawyers Run Amok’ End User License agreement (EULA) that is going to get traction in the blogosphere and could easily get partially reported and pulled out of context. It is lengthy, detailed, and explicit that as soon as you choose to watch a live video event on CNN, you have just donated your machine and your bandwidth to the cause. That’s the way that P2P works, but CNN was probably the first to draw attention to it in a way that is easily parsed and distributed.

Joost was the first high visibility system with P2P distribution – but the potential adverse publicity was minimal. That may not be the case here – due in no small part to some in-depth reporting by WindowsSecrets.com. Not only was it in depth, there were some judgments embedded in the report, with headings like Deceptive Marketing, Cost shifting to ISP’s and End Users, Ludicrous Licensing terms, and Security Vulnerabilities.

Windows Secrets builds a good case that CNN has written a pretty one sided document, pushed on generally un-suspecting users, and offloading costs and responsiblity.

On second thought – maybe the lawyers didn’t run amok. They may have been guilty of clarity. And for the legal profession that is a serious conviction.

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Premature Demise Predictions

by Andrew McCaskey
As Mark Twain observed “The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated” when his obituary was accidentally published in the New York Post.

It’s the same with broadcast radio – in spite of my enthusiasm as an early adopter for Pandora and similar streaming radio like services.

early adopters of technology – at least in the podcast and blogging audience. I am reminded of that fact each time I move out of my comfort zone, and move, as my wife reminds me, closer to the real world.

First, I might note that the most popular consumption venue for radio is in the automobile. That places a widespread conversion from over the air AM or FM radio to internet delivered 3G streaming into the replacement cycle for automobiles. Right now – especially right now – replacement of automobiles is not high on the list of most people.

Adapters of any type are a pain, even to a techie. And while some of us will fool with FM adapters ( even my new $80 Belkin, one of the best is aggravating and delivers poor performance. The only satisfactory solution is a direct hard-wired audio connection and that’s not something that the early or middle majority consumer will fool with.

Finally, as compelling and novel as the richness of content is to those who have caught the fever, the majority of consumers are quite happy with what they have – and what is gently being moved their way.

It’s a generational thing – and if commercial radio is sickly, don’t count it out yet. As I mentioned on the program tonight, even the ClearChannel monoculture is not enough to kill it.

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Laptop Bags and Contest Day Five

by Andrew McCaskey

The TSA article and commentary from Computerworld are right on the money. Traveling with as many as three laptops, plus the normal geek basic load of goodies, I’m very familiar with the process.

The TSA and manufacturers have teamed up to offer bags that enable you to carry a laptop and NOTHING ELSE. No cables, no power blocks, no cube taps, no Wireless mouse, no thumb drives. This will scan beautifully. Only trouble is, it then breaks the two item carry on rule – one of which is the garmet bag/rollaboard.

Only a bureaucrat assisted by the National Luggage Dealer’s Association (founded in 1925) could have thought this one up.

MSNNC’s Incredible Flash News Reader
========== 31 Days of the Dragon ======

Today’s entry form is here.

Long weekend coming up on the 31 Days of the Dragon promotion. Since I plan to take the holiday off to add things up and polish up the random number generator on Monday, there will not be a podcast on Monday – just a web posting of the winner sometime the evening of Monday the 26th. And, if you have supplied a phone number I will be contacting the winner by phone and email. The show that will air Tuesday the 27th will be produced Monday night, and get posted so that will announce to the world.

I will also draw an alternate in the event that we do not have a response and completion of the award within 72 hours to the satisfaction of BuzzCorps LLC. I will not share that winner until the next TechPodcast Roundtable – so there is still a chance to win a nice prize. Not as nice as the one from HP, but still good.

There will be a lot of entries that you will need to keep up with this weekend. Here are the active contests that will finish up and close, as well as new ones opening:

16 May – 23 May www.last100.com
17 May – 24 May www.last100.com
18 May – 25 May www.notebooks.com
19 May – 26 May www.slashdotreview.com
20 May – 27 May www.neowin.net
21 May – 28 May www.geek.com
22 May – 29 Mau www.lockergnome.com
23 May – 30 May www.planetx64.com
24 May – 31 May www.thegreenbutton.com
25 May – 01 Jun www.thegreenbutton.com

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Digital Television Investment

by Andrew McCaskey

First of all, some words on the 31 Days of The Dragon promotion, with thanks to HP and Buzz Corps.

We had some major luck today, with a mention in the UK Guardian – and hope that at least some of you are checking out the podcast for the first time. Welcome.

The 31 days are in full swing, with contests in progress now . Each of the 31 sites has an award date, and can begin their contest seven days prior to the award date.

Please go to these sites, look up their contest info and register

02 May – 09 May www.absolutevista.com
03 May – 10 May www.arstechnica.com
04 May – 11 May www.osnn.net
05 May – 12 May www.jkontherun.com
06 May – 13 May digitalmediaphile.wordpress.com

I’ll be updating each day and keeping you informed on where to go to make sure that you have the rolling registration and maximize your chanced to win.

==========

The article on Digital Television- and the government’s interest in making sure that goes smoothly – touched on a viewpoint that I had not considered. Basically, something like 98.5% of the population has television access, and literacy rates are in the 85% range. The $40 coupon /converter box is one of the cheapest ways to reach those remaining 15%. Simple as that. And actually, not a bad thing. Especially if you are a politician.

The concluding question- how long will be be before the government pursues broadband access for these same citizens with the same vigor ?

As Boss Tweed remarked in the 1870′s – Regarding Nast’s cartoons, Tweed reportedly said, “Stop them damned pictures. I don’t care so much what the papers say about me. My constituents don’t know how to read, but they can’t help seeing them damned pictures! [1]

That might explain why there’s not quite as much emphasis on broadband.

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Good News in Transmission

by Andrew McCaskey
Two greatly encouraging articles today – one, the 100Gbps backbone test by Comcast using Wave Division multiplexing on the same fiber as a currently operating 40Gbps link, and the other – from a Verizon study – on what they call P4P – enhanced Peer to Peer transmission that can increase speed and capacity up to 600 percent compared with traditional P2P schemes.

Un-fettered by the regulatory and business model aspects – it’s a real thrill to contemplate the arrival, within a few years of routine 100Mbps DOCIS 3.0 service that will be permitted by these backbone technologies in the cable world. As the slow roll out of fiber to the home favored by Verizon continues, those sorts of speeds in the transmission world are nothing but good news.

The challenge will be: Who benefits ? This incredible capacity, held up under net neutrality – is going to be a boon to all . Slapped under proprietary content walls, the balance of power will slip once again from the edges of the network, where innovation occurs, to a hierarchical walled garden. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen ,and that the political will to make sure that it does not emerges by fall.

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Late Adopters – Better Get Ready

by Andrew McCaskey
The item on late adopters caught my eye – and that’ unusual because I am almost always on the early adopter end of the spectrum.

The real shocker was that the subject being interviewed was actually younger than I am by a few years.

He was talking about being perfectly happy with dial-up access, AOL and an absurdly old Dell. The issue was the discontinuance of the Netscape browser option at AOL, and a forced migration to Firefox.

I have to admit that up until about a year ago I worked daily on a machine that I also had a Netscape install working – just for the quick web editing – I believe called Composer.

Add in point number two that just today I was really missing my Palm III’s functionality as I was trying to do something on the iPhone – grab a note – and realized how transparent the Palm III had been with an NT laptop from about eight or ten years ago . Of course, I’d have a rough time reading the monochrome screen – but it’s no too far from the functionality that I need today.

Then, there’s Twitter – which I refuse to run, because I can’t stand the constant interruption and flow of trivia.

He probably just got there a few years before I will.

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Vista – I’m Not Convinced

by Andrew McCaskey
I had a message from a listener today, saying in effect that I’ve been a part of the blog biased reporting of Vista.

Here’s a part of the message – and I agree in part, I’ve not been the most objective reporter:

”
I’m a regular listener of your show and normally enjoy it. During your 2/21 show you reported on Vista and it had way too much of a soundbite type reporting quality to that segment. You neglected to say why SP1 was pulled. It sounded like you made the assumption that SP1 was a failure after Mossberg tested it and that now Microsoft is pulling it. I’m sure you know that SP1 was pulled because of a problem some people had with the initial update file which is only a temporary problem. I’m getting tired of all the Vista bashers. I’ve been using it on two machines since it first came out. These machines have enough power to handle Vista and I’m blaming manufacturers for not providing drivers in order to sell updated hardware. I’m just not buying the negative view of Vista and I think you should take a look at Ed Bott’s blog to get a real perspective. Too many journalists are jumping on the Vista hating bandwagon. Don’t follow their lead without some solid experience using the OS. “

I responded

Thanks for writing. You are right in that I am probably not providing balanced coverage. I had sort of dismissed a lot of the publicity and went into the wait and see mode. In November, I purchased an ACER 5315 (the famous Walmart Black Friday machine) for my wife, who’s only use would be for web surfing and email – and possibly running a CAD program for quilters (Electric Quilt) . Our other plan was to send it to Grandma for email only. So far we have had a miserable experience with Vista Home Basic on that machine. The initialization went well – in fact she did the setup and it worked for almost two hours in the web browsing mode until a horrible sound caused her to run and turn it off. When she booted back up, there was no sound – and remained so until I located and reinstalled the audio drivers. Next, we continued to have problems with erratic keyboard and touchpad to the point where the machine is unusable. We sent the machine back to ACER for repair under warranty and it came back having passed their checks, new drivers, etc and we are still experiencing the same erratic behavior. I suspected, with only 1GB of RAM that it was totally out of working room – so I put in a Lexar 2GB USB drive and configured it to extend Vista performance. It is unable to run a Wordpad session without keyboard errors and I am getting ready to send it back to ACER again. Regardless of who (ACER, keyboard mfr, Vista) is responsible, this machine is not on its way to Grandma. I plan one more sweep through ACER, an Ubtuntu install and failing that, the dumpster.

It’s probably unfair to criticize an OS based on low end hardware – but my consumer experience with this machine has been miserable – and it is going through a channel that many consumers will fall as unsuspecting victims.

Anyway – thanks for listening to the program and a bit of my personal frustration with my first Vista experience. A year or two from now once this all shakes out, it will be a non issue.

Michael finished up the message thread

That about sums up a bad Vista experience. Rule #1, never buy a computer from Walmart, especially the lowest end one out there. Vista Home Basic is definitely a problem and Microsoft should offer a free upgrade to Home Premium, that I can agree with. I would have to equate it with running XP SP1 still when SP2 is available. It does sound like you got burned on that hardware, sort of like the early days of E-Machines when they used third tier quality hardware that all the other manufacturers were rejecting.

Like Office 2007, Vista is going to be around for quite a while so any new machine that can handle Vista should be purchased with Vista and not XP. Don’t give up yet, it works well on a machine designed for it and newer peripherals. I’m running the beta Vista SP1 and it fixed the slow file copy problem which was the only problem I have really experienced. Both machines that I upgraded are at least three years old now but they were state of the art when new.

That’s just about it: You get what you pay for and I need to move on. It’s going to be a while before I run another Vista experiment.

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