mip's scan

Let Your Content Go with YahooGo

Yahoo just launched/made availble their suite of tools called YahooGo.  I spoke about it in today's podcast so you can get details on the service there or via their site.  I saw it early this morning and have thought about it a bit and decided I'd put some additional thoughts down now that I've had some time to turn it over in my head.  Firstly, I like the fact that Yahoo is doing this as it demonstrates that they get it in terms of the emerging nature of content.  Consumers / users want content, be it music, photos, video or television programming, to move seamlessly across the various devices they may consume it on.   It seems to be a theme I've been echoing in the last little while, which is "set content free" and you get better content.  YahooGo does this and takes into consideration the three screens I've talked about in the past, as YahooGo is for TVs, PCs and Cellphones.  I'm rather disappointed to see such a limited (i.e., one) release of YahooGo for cellphones.  They need to broaden that for it to make any sense at all. 

It's a clear shot at Microsoft's Media Center and Apple Frontrow.  It's a bit more robust it seems than Frontrow as it has the DVR capabilities but I'm not sure how effective the implementation or experience is, yet.  I will test it this evening.  I'll get back to you with my verdict after that.

If you've been looking for a way to connect your PC to your TV but don't have Media Center or a new Mac, than check out YahooGo.

Berkeley iTunes U Available to Everyone

I spoke about this early today in my weekly podcast but thought it was important enough to post about it today as well, especially for those who are only readers of mip's scan.  Somewhile back Apple created this concept of iTunes U that would allow universities to create sites within iTunes where students could subscribe to podcasts of lectures.  A number of univerisities have been doing it but Berkeley has now made this available to everyone. 

ACCESS & DOWNLOAD COURSES on your computer or MP3 player
LISTEN TO EVENTS about the Arts, Education, Politics, Science and Technology
BE CONNECTED with what's happening at UC Berkeley

This is really great.  In my book, anything that let's content "travel" (and by that I mean sets it free, you know, makes it widely available) is a good thing.  I liked the wide range of faculties you could tune into, everything from Computer Science, Engineering through to the the Arts.  Within each of the faculties the number of courses is a bit sparse but that will grow over time no doubt.  In the courses that are listed and that I sampled, there were lots of lectures to listen to. 

I really think this type of thing will transform education and I'll be interested to see what universities in Canada do with this type of thing.  As well, I'd love to hear from any students who may have actually augmented their year with this type of content.

To check it out, just click here and follow the link from Berkeley's page which will launch iTunes for you.

PSP Update Now Available

For those of you with Sony PSP's in hand, an update has been made available.  Added features in the update are:

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

		Macromedia® Flash® content can now be displayed in [Internet Browser].
			You must perform an activation procedure under [System Settings] to enable Flash® content to be displayed.
			The system supports Macromedia® Flash® Player 6; however, some features are not supported.
		[Connection Settings] has been added as a setting under [Settings] in [Internet Browser] > [Tools].
		Audio content from [RSS Channel] can now be saved on Memory Stick Duo™ media.
		[Automatic] has been added as an option under [Rate] in the control panel of [LocationFree™ Player]. For details on the LocationFree™ Base Station, visit http://www.sony.com/locationfree/ownerslounge/psp.

             

                                                                                                                                               

A new file extension has been added to playable AAC formats.

               

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

		[Enable Flash® Player] has been added as a setting under [System Settings].
			You must be connected to the Internet to activate this setting.
		Options to display simplified Chinese or traditional Chinese characters have been added under [System Settings] > [System Language].
		[RSS Channel Settings] has been added as a setting.
		[UMD™Video L/R Button] has been added as an option under [Video Settings].

Really nice to see them opening up the music file formats and the inclusion/enabling of Flash 6 in this update.  To get it, simply click here.

mip's mid-week update

Hi everyone!

Thanks for joining me, I'm you host Michael Ianni-Palarchio, better known as mip and it's Wednesday and that means it is time for the MID-WEEK UPDATE!  (Insert your own applause here ok.  :-)

Lot of interesting things to talk about in today's show like:

• New Service/Suite of tools from Yahoo called YahooGo
• The Future of Movie Content
• Berkeley U Now Available to Everyone in iTunes
• PSP Update Available and What it Provides
• Linspire is Going to Give Away Freespire

To download today's show just click on the link Download apr26_midweek_update.mp3 or you can subscribe to us in iTunes as well.

iPod Format Movies on BluRay Discs?

Now this is what I was talking about.  This is about freeing content.  Yesterday I shared my thoughts around the it being a dumb bad limiting idea to create films in 3D with the main driver being a way to force people to only watch movies in movie theaters. 

I was worried that people in Hollywood would revert back to their skittish stance on digital movies.  Now I hear that perhaps future movies on BluRay discs may contain a copy of the movie in iPod-rady format as well. 

This is awesome, this is progressive.  This sets content free.  What better way to combat illegal downloads than to give people high quality, readily available versions on discs they already bought.  Now I know that this is still just a rumor, but it wouldn't surprise me that this is what Apple is trying to do.  It's like what I said Sony should have done - bundled a PSP-ready disc in every DVD case.  They missed the boat, hopefully Apple (and Hollywood) will not. 

The Future of Movies

I read an interesting article that covered a speech that James Cameron gave recently at the National Association of Broadcasters' (NAB) Digital Cinema Summit.  The key focus of his speech was that digital cinema was a good thing because it enabled the production and delivery of 3D films, which would be the saviour of movies. 

"...Digital 3-D is a revolutionary form of showmanship that is within our grasp. It can get people off their butts and away from their portable devices and get people back in the theaters where they belong."

I scrunched my face up a bit puzzled. Why on earth would a company that makes a product (i.e., Hollywood and their product is movies) want to make it so that they would intentionally limit the use and/or enjoyment of that product.  The movies that people buy and view on their portable devices makes up a huge amount of the industries revenue.  And that is growing...

By 2009, our forecast model predicts a worldwide retail value of  US$ 50 Billion, with a Compound Annual Growth Rate of 5.4% for annual sales value of Hollywood Video Content sold at retail. 

Why would you want to cut into that?  If you want to pack movie theaters you don't do it by pissing customers off that something they've seen in theater can't be watched at home on their home entertainment system, or a laptop or iPod or whatever else becomes available.  That alienates people. 

The second point of his speech carries a fundamental flaw as well.

"...one of the strongest reasons I've been pushing 3-D for the past few years because it offers a powerful experience which you can only have in the movie theater."

No matter what kind of experience you deliver via 3D in a theater, given time, it will become available for the home theater.  Look at the home theaters today - they rival what you get in a movie theater in terms of sound and quality of the visuals (and the popcorn is cheaper).  I find it sad that he finds the strongest reason to make 3D film is a scheme to lock customers in.  Wouldn't the strongest reason be because it delivers unique, entertaining, breathtaking and enjoyable content?  It always gets back to that eh?  The content.  Good content will drive people to consume the product.  Good content will get consumed in theaters, at home and on portable devices.  Hopefully Hollywood will understand that and explain it to Mr. Cameron.

To read the entire article I was referencing just click here.

Xbox 360: How Elder Scrolls Blew Me Away

Lots of my friends and family seem puzzled that I didn't get an Xbox 360, yet.  I still enjoy hours on fun on my Xbox and my PS2.  The main reason I haven't gotten a 360 yet is that I don't have a hi-def TV which I think is critical if you're going to enjoy the fantastic graphics the 360 brings to gaming. 

In truth, I haven't really seen a lot of games yet either that just give me that itch - until this past weekend.  I saw yesterday one of the most amazing games I've seen in a really long time.  Enter a game called Elder Scrolls IV. 

I'm not going to post some long game review here.  It's not what I do.  If you want to read about the game itself, check out a review here.
What I will say about the game is this: it really does a good job of leveraging the strengths of this great systems Microsoft has delivered.  It's a role-playing game and it is expansive.  I love games that have huge worlds like this one.  There seems to be a lot of sequences that need to load but they aren't long so I didn't mind it.  The onboard hard drive is key for this type of expansive world without the load time waits.  Note to Sony - if you deliver a PS3 without a hard drive, you'll be dead in the water.  Next generation games will demand/require a hard drive.

New MacBook Pro Launched

Let me guess...you didn't buy a MacBook Pro because you were waiting for Apple's next release? Well get moving. The 17" version has JUST been made available on the Apple Online Store.
Click here to check it out.

Satellite Radio Starting to "Get It"?

Remember when I wrote a post back in February talking about satellite radio floundering because it's a tech that just doesn't make sense (to me at least).  I ended that article with four suggestions that satellite radio companies needed to take in order to make their technology and business offering competitive and attractive.

1. they should stream or make available their content over the web as well.  This will increase their reach globally as opposed to serving only the market where they have satellite coverage. 
2. they need to build a device that not only picks up the satellite feed and lets you listen - you have to be able to set times and programs you'd like to record for listening to later
3. they need to have a way for podcasters to easily become part of their line up.  Then you'll have a viral marketing effect where people listening to podcasts will hear about the satellite service.  A good example is Adam Curry on Sirius radio.
4. They have to figure out how I can create truly custom streaming radio channels via satellite.  Something like Pandora for satellite.  That would really rock. 

Well perhaps someone read my post and took some of my advice.  Ha ha.  Probably not, but it is nice to see that a new device has hit the scene and it satisfies my suggestion #2 which is to allow the device to record content.  Enter the Pioneer Inno, an XM Satellite radio that lets you record and put mp3 files on it.  With 1GB of storage on it you can record up to 50 hours of content.  So perhaps there is hope for satellite radio after-all.  They seem to be listening to consumer needs.  So that's one suggestion down, three more to go.  ;-)

Backup Your Files With Mozy

I always stress to people how important it is to backup their files.  Too many times I've gone to people's home or offices to assist in recovering a crashed PC but not being able to retrieve their important files.  Ever have that happen to you?  I use a number of ways to backup files.  I'm a bit of a fanatic when it comes to that. 

That's why this new services I've been testing has got me smiling.  It's called Mozy and it'll let you back up 2GB of data for free.  It's got a nice little client application you download after you've signed up for the service.  I like how you can specific specific folders to be backed-up, like My Documents for example, or you can select "Backup Sets", things like Spreadsheets, Photos, etc.  By selecting a Backup Set, you'll have all the files on your computer of that type backed up.  I did some tests and deleted files and then went to recover.  It's a piece of cake.  To recovery you simply login to the Mozy on the web and select the file(s) that you want to restore to your PC.  To see a sample, checkout the screen capture I took. Extra marks for Mozy for building a search so if you don't know where a missing file might have been  you just type in the name and it finds it in the backup.  That is awesome.  It is case sensitive though so I found I was having to try variations of the file name, but that was no big deal.

I know what you're asking.  "But is is secure mip?"  Short answer: yes.  Long answer for the need-to-know-crowd....

When you use Mozy, your files are encrypted on your PC using 448-bit Blowfish encryption and then transferred the Mozy servers using 128-bit Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encryption. You have the option of using a Mozy key, or your own private key to encrypt your data.

So if you're looking for a way to backup your data, check out Mozy.  Even if you already backup your data, this is a great way to augment your current process.  2GB is free and you can purchase additional space like 5GB, 10GB and 20GB all at very reasonable yearly subscription rates.