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Switched On: Apple DVR could find its calling in iPhone
Filed under: Features, Home Entertainment
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about technology, multimedia, and digital entertainment.
A recently unearthed patent filing shows Apple is thinking beyond its current living room video vending machine, the Apple TV. Among a number of new features, the design specifies how DVR information could be sent to a portable remote control similar to Apple's existing iPod and iPhone, taking integration among its products to a new level.
And it's not just working together for the sake of some superficial "better together" marketing angle. How many times have you heard friends discussing some great new show that you missed? With the capabilities Apple illustrates, one could perhaps call up the TV listings right from their iPhone and schedule to record the next episode. What's unknown is how Apple would transfer recorded DVR shows to an iPod or iPhone -- would recordings by synced through iTunes? And, if so, would they be tied to an authorized account to discourage internet redistribution?
In fact, while the addition of DVR features might raise questions about Apple retreating from selling TV shows, it would really reflect the reality of these show purchases being opportunistic (as well as perhaps serving as a tactic to bring NBC back to the bargaining table). Besides, DVR integration with the iTunes store could lead to more revenue opportunities. In the aforementioned scenario, the DVR could offer the opportunity to buy the episodes missed so far.
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Red Zune 80 now available... but only with Zune Originals engraving
Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video
Good news for all of you who missed the red Zune 80 during its short-lived (and
somewhat delayed)
Valentine's Day cameo -- Microsoft has decided to take your money after all. Yep, the red 80 is back, and it looks like it's a permanent engagement this time. The only catch is that you've got to do it up Zune Original style, which'll set you back another
$10 - $15 on top of the usual $249, but that's the price you pay to have your player match your kicks, Dr. Hipster McHip.
Update: Apparently the Zune Originals site will sell you a custom Zune without any customizations (who knew?), so it looks like you can get crimson on the cheap if that's what you're after. Dollar dollar bill, y'all. [Thanks Micheal and Mark.]
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RFID credit cards easily hacked with $8 reader
Filed under: Misc. Gadgets
The
RFID hacks keep coming fast and furious -- hot the heels of that
Mifare / Oyster Card exploit, the crew at BoingBoing TV has posted up a little demo of how easy cracking the RFID encryption on an American Express card can be. All it takes is an $8 dollar reader easily available on eBay, some software, and the courage to walk around with a laptop waving plastic boxes at people's butt pockets, but developer Pablos Holman says he's hoping to develop a newer version that will allow him to be a little more discreet. The root of the problem is apparently the fact that the system uses local decryption rather than sending card info to a secure data center, but either way we've been
worried about this for a long time -- we're sticking to loose change and the barter system from now on. Video after the break.
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Adobe: Flash for iPhone might be a little harder than we thought
Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds
It seems that Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen isn't a developer for the firm -- or at the very least, he doesn't have a full appreciation for the height of the
fence surrounding the iPhone SDK's walled garden. The company and on-again, off-again Apple chum solidly backpedaled on the chief's comments regarding Flash for the iPhone that were made
just a day earlier, saying that "...to bring the full capabilities of Flash to the iPhone Web-browsing experience we do need to work with Apple beyond and above what is available through the SDK and the current license around it." For what it's worth, Adobe does say that it's still very much interested in doing up a Flash client, it just needs a little extra help from Apple on the side to make it happen -- so if we see this package pop up in the App Store later this year, we'll know that at least
one company's been given a free pass to break the rules.
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FCC redefines "broadband" to mean 768Kbps, "fast" to mean "kinda slow"
Filed under: Networking
Quick, how fast is "broadband?" If you're wearing a gray suit and drove a sensible car to work this morning in Washington DC, you probably answered 200Kbps -- a pokey little number that the FCC's been using as a baseline for years now. But even bureaucrats have to get with the times every now and again, and regulators this morning voted to push the government's official broadband threshold to 768Kbps -- we'd say it should really be a full 1Mbps, but why make things simple when you can be the government? Between 768kbps and 1.5Mbps is now classified as "basic broadband," and providers are also required to break down both upload and download speeds in specific increments -- a move which should make it harder for companies like Comcast to throttle certain types of connections. ISPs also have to provide subscriber numbers broken down by census-block level, which should provide graduate students with hours of number-crunching dissertation fun in the future. The goal is to make sure the data regarding broadband adoption in the US is as accurate as possible -- it's time to
reclaim the crown, people.
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Time Machine now works with AirPort Extreme's AirDisk feature
Filed under: Wireless, Storage
Who knows why it took so long, but the latest AirPort Extreme firmware update (7.3.1, out today) finally brings Time Machine compatibility to AirDisk. In typical Apple fashion, there's no mention of it on the release notes, but the crew over at
TUAW says it's working, and commenters are confirming. We're still holding out for Time Machine to work with any NAS we want, but for now, it looks like all you Airport Extreme owners who felt like you were
getting played by the release of
Time Capsule are finally in the game -- get those USB drives ready for some hot backup nights.
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Stanford researchers cram 12,616 tiny lenses into a 3D camera
Filed under: Digital Cameras
With the megapixel race already past the point of noticeable benefit to consumers, it looks like the next camera arms race will be the number of lenses your rig sports -- a team at Stanford is working on a 3D camera that uses 12,616 micro-lenses to generate high quality 3 megapixel images with self-contained "depth maps" that measure the distance to every object in the frame. The system works by focusing each lens above four different overlapping sensor arrays, which work in concert to determine depth -- just like your eyes. Unlike similar systems, the Stanford rig is able to use that data to create a depth map without lasers, prisms, or even complex calibration, which will allow the team to shrink the tech down to compact and cellphone camera size. Once it's ubiquitous, the teams says depth map information can be used to do anything from enhancing facial recognition systems to improving robot vision, but there's still a long way to go -- the team has just started trying to work out how to manufacture the system.
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HTC Shift is finally coming to the US on the 24th with Sprint 3G
Filed under: Handhelds, Tablet PCs, Wireless
Ah, after long last, HTC's first UMPC, the Shift, is finally making its debut in the US. The early results are in: the keyboard and the Sprint EV-DO are good, but the $1,500 price tag might be a bit heavy to swallow -- especially considering our European counterparts are
paying about $400 less, and we also get to tack on another $60 per month for the 3G.
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Comcast Says FCC Powerless to Stop P2P Blocking
Nanoboy writes "Even if the FCC finds that Comcast has violated its Internet Policy Statement, it's utterly powerless to do anything about it, according to a recent filing by the cable giant. Comcast argues that Congress has not given the FCC the authority to act, that the Internet Policy Statement doesn't give it the right to deal with the issue, and that any FCC action would violate the Administrative Procedures Act of 1946. '"The congressional policy and agency practice of relying on the marketplace instead of regulation to maximize consumer welfare has been proven by experience (including the Comcast customer experience) to be enormously successful," concludes Comcast VP David L. Cohen's thinly-veiled warning to the FCC, filed on March 11. "Bearing these facts in mind should obviate the need for the Commission to test its legal authority."'"
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Ohio Investigating Possible Vote Machine Tampering Last Year
MozeeToby writes "The Columbus Dispatch is reporting on a criminal investigation currently being performed in Franklin County Ohio. It seems several voting machines listed a candidate as withdrawn from the race when in fact he wasn't. By the time the investigations tracked down which machines had been affected, the candidate's name was back on the ballot. Normally, we could dismiss this as confusion or a mistake on the part of the voter(s) who noticed it. In this case, the person who first noticed the discrepancy was Ohio Secretary of state Jennifer Brunner. Further compounding matters, the Franklin County Board of Elections had disabled virtually all logging on the machines to speed setup of the balot. Naturally, the county board remains sceptical of these accusations."
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