Bad news people. Bad news. Do we really want to give Bill this much power? What are you thinking!? From CNet:

For the first time, the Windows operating system will wall off some audio and video processes almost completely from users and outside programmers, in hopes of making them harder for hackers to reach. The company is establishing digital security checks that could even shut off a computer’s connections to some monitors or televisions if antipiracy procedures that stop high-quality video copying aren’t in place.

In short, the company is bending over backward--and investing considerable technological resources--to make sure Hollywood studios are happy with the next version of Windows, which is expected to ship on new PCs by late 2006.

Do we even have to bother to mention that Russian hackers will crack this in less than 24 hours rendering the entire excercise a complete waste of time? All it will do is make our computers slower and more expensive (but thats what buying Windoze does in general). Hey, yet another reason to go out and buy that Powerbook you’ve been drooling over.

The New York Times reports that the partnership between Motorola and Apple is finally bearing fruit:

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 29 - Apple Computer and Motorola plan to unveil a long-awaited mobile phone and music player next week that will incorporate Apple’s iTunes software, a telecommunications industry analyst who has been briefed on the announcement said on Monday.

The development marks a melding of two of the digital era’s most popular devices, the cellphone and the iPod, which has become largely synonymous with the concept of downloading songs from the Internet or transferring them from compact discs.

This will be an interesting experiment in convergence: will people buying iPods decide instead to buy a cellphone with iPod-like features and/or will cellphone users want a cellphone with iPod features? BBB experts tend to think that such a device will be a failure. The iPod sells well because of its inimitable design that focuses solely on music playback. Cellphones are inherently complicated and unsavory. Combining these two just results in yet another franken-phone that no one likes.

Jack of all trades, master of none. Now if only motorola could make decent cellphones before trying to cram an iPod into one of them.

From the “Duh” department of journalism, Reuters whips up a little commentary on the latest CacheLogic report:

Traffic in the popular file-sharing network BitTorrent has fallen in the wake of a crackdown on piracy, but file sharers have merely shifted to another network, eDonkey, new data released on Monday showed.

Move along folks, nothing to see here. People like stealing music and movies, film at 11. I like how Reuters attempts to make eDonkey look hip and cool:

A study by the Cambridge-based Internet analysis firm CacheLogic found that eDonkey is now roughly on par with BitTorrent in the United States, China, Japan and Britain.

It is the dominant peer-to-peer file-sharing network in South Korea, which has the world’s highest percentage of high-speed Internet use, and also in Italy, Spain and Germany.

Anyone who is over the age of 16 and is not a certified geek has never used eDonkey. People feel like they need to wear a propeller beanie when they use it and while we here at BBB are perfectly comfortable with our geek status, we’d be very surprised if anyone who thought themselves “cool” would use it.

A frightening glimpse into the future:

Meanwhile, computers will continue to be used more and more to watch digital streaming video, eventually turning them into televisions. With no computers available to solve complex math problems, people will have no choice but to return to the abacus. Within a few months, this ancient device will be abandoned when it’s realized that there is no good way to make “abacus porn.”

However, these minor setbacks will soon be overshadowed by a stunning scientific achievement: Mars is finally explored and colonized simply because it’s an even cheaper place to produce television shows than Canada. Producers cheer this cost-saving move but, typically, some New Yorkers complain when the latest “Law & Order” series depicts Manhattan as having a jagged red landscape and two small moons.

As the old saying goes: “Where young eyeballs go, MTV is sure to follow.”

MTV’s Video Music Awards are going broadband, expanding beyond television for a new take on the typically raucous ceremony along with “bonus” performances and other original online coverage, the channel said Thursday.

Wired has a great article today on Yahoo’s new push into video search and entertainment. They start off with a great summary of the chaos Yahoo is entering into:

This onslaught is already turning the entertainment business inside out. More music videos are being watched on AOL than on MTV. Procter & Gamble is cutting down on pricey 30-second TV spots to beef up the online presence of its packaged goods. TV Guide announced in July that it would drastically cut the amount of space it devotes to listings, an acknowledgment that viewers now turn to the Internet and onscreen programming guides. And CBS is squaring off in a content-indexing smackdown with Google. Meanwhile, the guy down the block has turned his backyard into a back lot, his basement into an edit bay, and he’s landed a global distribution deal - with his ISP.

For its part, Yahoo! is working with SBC and Microsoft on an IPTV/fiber-to-the-curb initiative called Project Lightspeed that uses Yahoo! software to deliver video-on-demand, instant messaging, photo collections, and music. Meanwhile, chief executive Terry Semel, who spent 24 years as an executive at Warner Bros., has recruited a crew of network personnel in Santa Monica to crack open the contractual vaults containing 50 years of rights-encumbered TV and film archives. And Yahoo! has already become the Internet home of broadcast fare like Fat Actress and The Apprentice. “They’re clearly thinking of themselves as the fifth network,” says Jeremy Allaire, founder of Brightcove, a Net video distribution startup.

As we’ve said before, BBB is always wary of PR puff-pieces and this article has little in the way of criticism but its the non-Yahoo content of the article that is most amusing. Check out this quote about Yahoo competitor (and perennial BBB idol) Google:

At a meeting with CBS last year, Google execs proudly mentioned that after working on an index of the grand old network’s video collection they had compiled a digitized database of CBS programs. Never mind that 11 million households around the country are doing essentially the same thing with their DVRs; CBS executives were aghast. The problem wasn’t so much that CBS was unaware of the TiVo phenomenon. It was Google’s Spock-like gaffe of plainly stating an obvious but painful fact: The networks’ stranglehold on content is slipping away. The meeting ended abruptly, and the Googlers were shown the door.

CBS’s reaction reminds us of the time that Bram Cohen was asked to speak at a Billboard conference in LA, as he plainly stated that the music industry was dying (in no small part due to products like his own BitTorrent) the audience simply shut down and refused to understand.

In general this article brings up one of the key sticking points about the unavoidable death of television. For a dying medium there sure is an awful lot of content out there. There are now so many channels and so many hours of programming that people have to resort to devices like Tivo to filter it for them. What Yahoo, Google, Blinkx and every other video search engine out there are trying to do is replace the role of TV Guide and your Tivo: they want to be able to find all the cool shows for you.

Why? Because in the future, whoever brings you the cool shows first becomes the new “network” of networks.

What the article lacks in hard-nosed journalism it makes up in anecdotes. Check it out.

It seems that dumping old and broken business models is coming a bit late to the music industry:

Warner Music Group is creating a new music-distribution mechanism that will rely on digital downloads instead of compact discs.

Edgar Bronfman Jr., Warner Music’s chairman and CEO, said Monday that the new mechanism will be called an “e-label,” in which artists will release music in clusters of three songs every few months rather than a CD every few years.

It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to figure out that people like paying less for fewer songs rather than being forced to purchase whole albums. You’d think with all the success Apple’s iTunes music store has had that record companies would be falling all over themselves to rush to the digital future. Alas, it is still slow going.

Wired has a cute interview with Jon Stewart and his producing partner:

Wired: Isn’t that going to pose a challenge to the traditional network model?

Stewart: But we’re not on a traditional network: We’re on the goofy, juvenile-delinquent network to begin with. We get an opportunity to produce this stuff because they make enough money selling beer that it’s worth their while to do it. I mean, we know that’s the game. I’m not suggesting we’re going to beam it out to the heavens, man, and whoever gets it, great. If they’re not making their money, we ain’t doing our show.

Stewart and company have an interesting approach to their internet fame. They choose to leave it unanalyzed. In fact they make a great analogy that their internet popularity is like the golden goose, if they try to dissect it then they will ruin it.

While they may play dumb during the interview and pretend they do not care it becomes clear that they are highly aware of the phenomenon and have taken steps to NOT stop the online trading of episodes. Take note future TV mavens, the Daily Show may just be on to something here…

At BBB we are usually disinclined to post what are essentially press releases when anyone releases a new feature/product but this new thing from Amazon made us sit up. Apparently Amazon has gone into the micropayments for literature world by initiating a service allowing short story authors to sell short works for 49 cents each. But the real interesting tidbit is the following:

No digital rights management software is needed to download and read Amazon Shorts.

Customers have three options for reading a piece:

-- View now: Takes customers to a Web page to read or print out the Amazon Short.

-- Download: Initiates the download of a PDF file.

-- E-mail: Sends the entire Amazon Short in a plain-text message to the specified e-mail address.

Kudos to Amazon for creating a system to help authors profit from short works and not fear “piracy.” Copyright holders of Books are notoriously frightened of the internet and have even gotten Google to delay their massive library scanning project. The ridiculousness is that the internet has actually saved the book marketplace from almost total obscurity and Amazon realizes that by not putting locks on the content they can promote the service more.

Has Bezos got a few more tricks up his sleeve?

The BBC is continuing its campaign to discover how to reach its audience in a post-broadcast world.

The BBC is selling classic episodes of “Doctor Who” and “Red Dwarf” for viewing on mobile phones, anticipating that fans of cult science fiction are often among the first to adopt new technology.

The BBC has been pursuing many different technology initiatives at once, in a hit-or-miss approach. While not all of the BBC’s new projects will result in a windfall of profits they are clearly ready to position themselves for a world in which broadcast TV is rendered irrelevant by internet-based on-demand downloads. The BBC is smart to pursue Sci-Fi geeks first as they are more than willing to be the guinea pigs to work out all the bugs of the new cell phone TV architecture.

Long live Dr. Who!

Now that the internet has become more than just a fad, cities are realizing that cheap access to broadband is a great benefit. Unfortunately the FCC has ruled recently that the incumbent telecom companies do not have to share their copper wires with competitors. But there is a loophole: Wireless.

Philadelphia is inching towards realizing its WiFi dream, a dream that is shared by other cities like San Francisco. Today the word has come that Hewlett Packard and Earthlink are two companies that have been shortlisted for building out a Philadelphia-wide WiFi network, beating out groups that include AT&T;-led consortia.

Many cities will be jumping on the WiFi bandwagon and the trend couldn’t come at a better time for ISPs like Earthlink who will now lose access to millions of customers because of the FCC ruling.

Perhaps the resignation of his own son was too much for him or he has spent too much time in the sun? Whatever the case, Rupert Murdoch has announced that he is willing to spend a warchest of $2 Billion in Internet acquisitions. He has already bought MySpace.com and today announced he is in negotiations to buy Blinkx:

News Corp. is in negotiations to buy Blinkx, a privately held Internet search company based in San Francisco, according to people close to the world’s fourth-largest media giant.

The prospective acquisition of Blinkx is part of an aggressive bid by News Corp. to take on such Internet powerhouses as Yahoo Inc. News Corp. is trying to build a rival portal by acquiring fast-growing Web businesses and by leveraging the sites of its in-house brands, including those of local Fox TV stations, the Fox TV network and cable channels such as Fox Sports and Fox News.

He may be stir crazy but he seems to be making very wise purchases: Blinkx is considered the de facto leader in video searches on the Internet and Myspace is the fifth most popular domain on the entire Internet. Dare we say it? Perhaps good ol’ Rupey has had a premonition of the death of telelvision? That might explain his sudden need to solidify his grasp on new distribution networks (especially now that he can’t leave it to future Murdoch children).

Read more on this topic from one of our favorite informers: Om.

<div align="center"></div>

The death of TV is just one tantalizing step closer to reality. Tivo announced that they will run a trial allowing users to pre-download IFC movies direct to their TVs via the internet. Some pics of the service available at Engadget.

SAN FRANCISCO - Add TiVo Inc. to the list of companies trying to wed the Internet to television. The digital recording company is preparing to enable customers to download TV shows to their set-top boxes via the Internet — even before the shows air on TV.

TiVo has struck a deal with the Independent Film Channel to transmit several of the cable channel’s shows through a broadband connection as part of a trial program. A group of customers were asked to take part in the test and those who chose to participate will begin receiving the IFC shows next week, said TiVo spokesman Elliot Sloane.

Much has been said about Tivo over the years but the fact remains that they are one of the few successful “set-top” boxes out there. Bringing internet TV to real TVs is the only way to really eliminate traditional distribution networks. No one wants to watch “Desperate Housewives” on their laptops.

<div align="center">
</div>
DTV has just released their beta application to allow anyone to watch “internet” TV channels. It looks pretty slick. It runs on Mac OS X only right now but a Windows version is coming soon.

DTV is a new, free and open-source platform for internet television and video. An intuitive interface lets users subscribe to channels, watch video, and build a video library. Our publishing software lets you broadcast full-screen video to thousands of people at virtually no cost. The project is non-profit, free and open source, and built on open standards. A Windows version of DTV and a full website are well underway and will arrive in the next several weeks.

Try saying that title three times fast. Apparently Scoopt acts as a middleman that sells cellphone pics to news agencies and splits the profits with the snapshooter. Of course, wasn’t the whole point of the ‘net to cut out the middleman?

Who will take tomorrow’s front page photograph - a professional press photographer or a passer-by armed with a cameraphone?

Considering how crappy most phonecam photos look, we’re sure that pro photographers won’t have anything to worry about for awhile. Unless they live in Japan or South Korea in which cellphone cameras are already of professional level quality. 

Among those of us in the information underground (what, did you think like Al Gore that this was a highway?) the NYTimes ranks just above the National Enquirer in terms of technology coverage. The New York Times is quite often late to the game if it bothers to arrive at all. So you’ll understand the chuckle we all had when we saw this story on video blogging:

After blogging came photo blogging and then, suddenly last year, video blogging. Video bloggers, also known as vloggers, are people who regularly post videos on the Internet, creating primitive shows for anyone who cares to watch. Some vlogs are cooking shows, some are minidocumentaries, some are mock news programs and some are almost art films.

At this rate it will only take the New York Times about another decade to realize television is dying. In the meantime we enjoy their use of the term “vlogging” which is so last week. The new hip term kids are using these days is “vodcasts” (for video-on-demand) which for the first time is a slang that halfway makes sense. Remember folks, you heard it here first. Next year when the NYT does a front-page article on the “new” trend of vodcasting you’ll smile that smug smile of self-satisfaction.

Seems today is Death of Television Day here at BBB. (Actually every day is Death of TV day but who’s counting?) As Google and Yahoo! battle it out to see who will become the mover and shaker for online TV content, an interesting twist has developed:

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Video clips from CNN.com and ABC News will become part of Internet media company Yahoo Inc.’s free on-demand content, following agreements announced Monday.

The advertising-supported and continuously updated video will become available to all Yahoo users starting in September. Yahoo News will integrate it throughout its pages so that the clips will appear on its front page, within story pages and as appropriate within full-coverage sections.

This is just the first salvo of what will turn into the big media battles as all the Internet media gorillas figure out how best to divide the rotting, stinking carcass that we call Television. Someone get National Geographic out here, there is gonna be some gross-ass wild-pack-of-hyenas-devouring-zebra action!

Forrester Research just released a major study that examined the impact of Internet usage on other media:

While its conclusion that Internet usage detract from other media is not new, the study delves deeper than others, separating consumers into various categories, including technology “optimists” and “pessimists” and “tenured nomadic networkers.”

Folks making up the latter category have had Internet access in their networked homes for at least five years and own a laptop computer. These nomads watch just 10.8 hours of TV each week.

Basically: non-tech savvy people watch 14 hours of TV a week with tech people watching 1.5 - 3.2 hours less. However, they do not change their radio, video game or newspaper habits. Conclusion: the Internet is absolutely killing off TV (albeit slowly) while leaving other media unscathed.

Now if only we can get used to our new nickname “tenured nomadic networkers.” We think BigBrainBoys has a better ring to it, don’t you?

Bram Cohen, inventor of BitTorrent (the software that you use to pirate movies unless you have been living under a rock) is in secret negotiations with two unnamed Hollywood studios and the MPAA mothership herself:

``There is a whole new market that’s being developed with filtering tools, ways of allowing these technologies to develop while preventing copyright infringement,’’ said Dean Garfield, the MPAA’s legal affairs director. ``We’re hopeful that Bram will be a partner in moving BitTorrent in that direction.’’

Negotiations between the MPAA and BitTorrent are continuing, talks that Cohen characterizing as `friendly.’’ BitTorrent is also in discussions with two studios he declined to identify.

The article is a curious PR puff-piece because it attempts to portray the recent Supreme Court “Grokster” ruling as working in BitTorrent’s favor. For those of you who are not asleep at the wheel, the recent Grokster ruling said the following:

“For the same reasons that Sony took the staple-article doctrine of patent law as a model for its copyright safe-harbor rule, the inducement rule, too, is a sensible one for copyright. We adopt it here, holding that one who distributes a device with the object of promoting its use to infringe copyright, as shown by clear expression or other affirmative steps taken to foster infringement, is liable for the resulting acts of infringement by third parties.”

Translation: if we can prove your P2P software is used for piracy, then we can sue your ass out of existence. At this point, BitTorrent has probably jumped the shark. We wish Bram well but we just can’t picture him meshing well with studio-types. He’d show up at the parties and everything would get kind of awkward…

Heard of the Yammys? Of course not, its the awards that Yahoo! is giving up to user uploaded videos. Their five categories are:

Road Trips:
Fun vacation moments from near and far.

Office Humor:
Pranks, skits, and other office hijinks.*

Bloopers:
Send us your DOH moment!

Pets:
We want to see what Fluffy can do.

I Can’t Believe It ! (Misc):
It doesn’t fit into any of these categories, but you think we just gotta see it.

Sounds real promising. I can’t wait to watch these instead of the stupid Oscars.