fortnightly round-up
Been a bit of a slack few weeks, but to catch up – here are some notable articles (in no particular order):
DRM: Quite a storm has been raised by Sony BMG’s use of DRM on some of their audio CDS, but with the small problem that they didn’t tell buyers about it. It has even been alleged that playing a DRM protected CD installs a ‘hidden directory with cloaked files’ which cannot be uninstalled. Cue a number of disgruntled articles, and a hasty concession to reveal the contents of the said files.
OS X: v10.4.3 was made available recently and this was installed. Most immediately notable improvements include a faster loading Safari (although Saft was crippled in the process – nothing a quick update didn’t fix). So far all seems to function although there were a number of freeware apps and plug ins that I use that I haven’t managed to test yet. As with most major Tiger updates so far, the .Mac Sync has been thrown into disarray – this time Address Book contacts are fine, but Bookmark syncing got in a real mess and has now been random and erroneous duplicate entries. A full reset awaits.
PSP Media Manager: So Sony has finally provided a software solution for managing and transferring files to PSP. A bit rude that the asking price is $19.95! (How about $0.00?)
Gadgets: An interesting looking device that combines an ID card holder, along with a wireless call managing system and headphones. Only problem with such a product is that it would restrict you to using it on working days only (unless you like wearing your ID card at weekends). But if it means a lighter weight to lug around then it looks promising.
So I signed a petition for releasing Front Row on all Macs (currently it is only available on new iMacs). To be honest it seems most suited to the iMac and mini, but it probably isn’t a strong enough product to release on its own. Judging by the way Apple are keen to promote it as a digital life app, then it would seem ideally suited to being bundled with iLife – let’s see what iLife ‘06 brings...
DRM: Quite a storm has been raised by Sony BMG’s use of DRM on some of their audio CDS, but with the small problem that they didn’t tell buyers about it. It has even been alleged that playing a DRM protected CD installs a ‘hidden directory with cloaked files’ which cannot be uninstalled. Cue a number of disgruntled articles, and a hasty concession to reveal the contents of the said files.
OS X: v10.4.3 was made available recently and this was installed. Most immediately notable improvements include a faster loading Safari (although Saft was crippled in the process – nothing a quick update didn’t fix). So far all seems to function although there were a number of freeware apps and plug ins that I use that I haven’t managed to test yet. As with most major Tiger updates so far, the .Mac Sync has been thrown into disarray – this time Address Book contacts are fine, but Bookmark syncing got in a real mess and has now been random and erroneous duplicate entries. A full reset awaits.
PSP Media Manager: So Sony has finally provided a software solution for managing and transferring files to PSP. A bit rude that the asking price is $19.95! (How about $0.00?)
Gadgets: An interesting looking device that combines an ID card holder, along with a wireless call managing system and headphones. Only problem with such a product is that it would restrict you to using it on working days only (unless you like wearing your ID card at weekends). But if it means a lighter weight to lug around then it looks promising.
So I signed a petition for releasing Front Row on all Macs (currently it is only available on new iMacs). To be honest it seems most suited to the iMac and mini, but it probably isn’t a strong enough product to release on its own. Judging by the way Apple are keen to promote it as a digital life app, then it would seem ideally suited to being bundled with iLife – let’s see what iLife ‘06 brings...
This entry was posted
on Thursday, November 03, 2005 at 2:21 pm.
