Developages - Development and Technology Blog

Filed under: Home Entertainment

We knew Hollywood wouldn’t let RealNetworks sell its RealDVD DVD-ripping-and-archiving software without a fight, and right on schedule, six major studios have filed a lawsuit seeking to prevent it from being sold. Of course, RealNetworks has been planning on hiding behind that Kaleidescape ruling all along, but straight CSS circumvention isn’t really what’s at the heart of the suit: according to the studio’s request for a restraining order, consumers won’t be able to contain themselves in the face of RealDVD’s voodoo magic and will start ripping rental DVDs en masse — seriously, the suit calls the incentive to do so “all but overwhelming.” Here’s a hint, guys: if you believe the temptation to do something is that strong, it probably means you can get people to pay to do it — and you should probably be working out a business model that embraces consumers instead of funding new BMWs for your lawyers while actual piracy tears down the fragile house of cards your entire industry is built on. Or you know, whatever.

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Original post by Nilay Patel

Filed under: GPS, Transportation

Though one may assume Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger would have, um, more pressing matters on his hands these days, the man has somehow found time to address a complaint put forth by a-many travelin’ Californians. Just this week Mr. Schwarzenegger signed into law a bill that was put forth earlier this year that will legalize windshield GPS mounting once more. Granted, stipulations are present, but at least you won’t be forced to point your retinas down at the cup holders in order to see your navigation system after January 1, 2009. In the new year, drivers in the Golden State will be able to suction their GPS unit in the “lower 7-inch corner farthest away from the driver or in the lower 5-inch corner closest to the driver.” If you go pressing your luck and throw it smack dab in the middle, be prepared for for whatever fine you’re due.

[Via Gadling, image courtesy of GPS Tracklog]

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals

Way back in December of 2006, NVIDIA and AMD were both pegged for potential price fixing, and nearly two years later it seems it’ll finally be paying the piper. A settlement agreement is detailed in a recently filed 8-K form, which asserts that NVIDIA would pay $850,000 into a total fund of up to $1.7 million, with AMD / ATI probably left to make up the rest. Of note, the 8-K filing does mention that all of this is still “subject to court approval,” but it’s likely that the green light will eventually be given. Outside of that, we’re also informed that NVIDIA will be handing over $112,500 to the individual plaintiffs who brought the case to court. Well, we′re glad that’s settled.

[Via CustomPC]

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

We always thought that the RIAA’s first-ever filesharing trial victory against Jammie Thomas was a little suspect since the labels weren’t required to prove that Thomas even had Kazaa installed on her machine or was the person using the account in question, and it looks like the court agrees — it’s just declared a mistrial and set aside the $222,000 judgment on the grounds that simply making copyrighted works available for download does not constitute copyright infringement. That’s a huge decision — the “making available” theory is the basis for most of the RIAA’s legal arguments — and it means that the RIAA will now have to prove the unauthorized transfer of each song it wants to collect damages on at the new trial. We’ll see what effect this has in the broader sense — we’ve got a feeling we’re in for a slew of appellate decisions on both sides of the “making available” debate — but for now it looks like the good guys are finally starting to score some points.

[Via ZDNet, thanks JagsLive]

Read - Wired article
Read - Decision [PDF]

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Original post by Nilay Patel

Filed under: Cellphones

We could start off by telling you just how much this decision will hurt Qualcomm and just how celebratory the mood must be at Broadcom, but instead, we’ll key you in on this quote: “The appeals court also rejected Qualcomm’s request for a new trial.” At long last, we may have actually heard the end of what has seemed like a never-ending battle between the aforementioned parties. Today, a US Appeals court upheld an earlier ruling that Qualcomm had indeed infringed upon two Broadcom patents while ruling that a third patent in question was invalid. The ruling is obviously a huge win for Broadcom, who will soon be bathing in Benjamins as Qualcomm is forced to pay mandatory royalties for the chips it sells during the “sunset period” ending January 31, 2009.

[Via Reuters]

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Original post by Darren Murph

Just how effective is that Burger King ad in the game NFL Street?

Considering that more than a third (36%) of gamers actually bought, talked about or sought information about a product after seeing an ad in a videogame, per Nielsen Games, a case can be made that they are very effective.

(And who can forget that the King has his own game!)

Of 534 active videogamers surveyed, 11% said they purchased a brand that was advertised in a game. Some 19% said they talked about it after seeing an ad, and 10% said they recommended the product. 

Coke was most recalled by the Nielsen panel, then Nike, Burger King, Axe, Pepsi and Pontiac. 

Burger King isn′t using games to sell Whoppers, but to pursue what it calls “extended brand interaction.” The fast feeder has advertised in top sellers like NFL Street, provided players hidden codes to access the “Burger King Challenge″ in Need for Speed and inserted the King into Fight Night. The creepy King served as a corner man that players can pick for their fighters.

Activision′s Guitar Hero series was the most popular game among gamers who remembered specific advertisers, followed by Need for Speed, the Madden football series, Grand Theft Auto titles, the NCAA Football series and Tony Hawk games. 

Guess I better go back to these and see what ads I missed!

More at BrandWeek.

Tags: axe, brandweek, burger king, coke, fight night, grand theft auto, guitar hero, madden, ncaa, need for speed, nfl street, nike, pepsi, pontiac, tony hawk

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Original post by nafiz

Filed under: Gaming, Handhelds

Be still our hearts! After months upon months (upon months) of waiting, the tight-knit team behind the ultra-potent Pandora gaming handheld has finally divulged the information we′ve been clamoring for: the ARM Cortex ʒ-powered device will begin shipping before Christmas 2008 for £199.99 in the UK. The first batch will consist of 3,000 units, and the team is hoping that all of those will be sold out before the first one leaves the dock. There’s no word on how costly it′ll be for Americans, though we′re crossing our fingers that it′ll sell for a few bucks less than the $360 we find when simply converting pounds to dollars.

[Thanks, Andri]

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Displays

NOR_/D’s TouchKit is a modular multitouch development kit that aims to “make multitouch readily available in an open source fashion.” If that sounds awfully familiar, you’re probably thinking of its sister project Cubit, both of which are hoping to get multitouch into the mainstream as quickly as humanly possible. The kit itself is composed of hardware and software aspects, and of course, source files are provided for poking, prodding and researching. Interested? It’ll be $1,580 shipped with a “fully assembled, frameless 70- x 50-centimeter multitouch screen, a calibrated infra-red camera, and the full base software pack.”

[Via Gizmag]

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Good news, open source fans — copyleft licenses just got a big boost from the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which ruled last week that the open source Artistic License is valid and enforceable, and that violating the terms of the license constitutes copyright infringement. (You might be familiar with the Artistic License — it’s what governs Perl.) That’s a big deal, as it’s the first open source license to get put to the test — while traditional EULAs have been upheld for years, open licenses hadn’t been directly litigated like this yet, and it means that similar licenses like the GPL and Creative Commons now stand on firmer ground. As you’d expect, OSS advocates like Lawrence Lessig and the Open Source Initiative are all pretty pumped about the ruling, with Lessig calling it “huge and important news.” We’d agree wholeheartedly, but here’s some food for thought while you celebrate in the comments: if you’re okay with FOSS software developers enforcing open-source license agreements, are you also okay with commercial software developers enforcing their own EULA restrictions? We can think of one in particular that seems to have people pretty ticked off.

Read - InformationWeek article
Read - Lessig blog post

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Original post by Nilay Patel

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Portable Audio

It has been a solid tick since we′ve seen a good FairPlay hack, so it’s with great pleasure that we pass along El Tunes for Ubuntu 8.04 users everywhere. Tested to work on Hardy Heron using RhythmBox (but assumed to work on any modern Linux Distro with GStreamer and a media player that utilizes GStreamer), said plug-in enables open-source aficionados to play songs purchased from the iTunes Music Store. As for limitations, the current version has no Pause / Seek support and cannot de-authorize a machine for playback, but a future version should hopefully cure those two quirks and add support for purchased video content and audio streaming to an AirTunes device. Give it a shot and let us know how it treats ya.

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Cellphones

According to the oracle-like superbrains at J. Gold Associates, Google’s Android OS and Nokia’s Symbian will “combine to provide a single open source OS,” sometime in the very near future… say, three to six months. Sure, Android is just about to launch on devices in late 2008, and Nokia just announced in June that it will be moving Symbian towards open source — and of course the two companies have no formal relationship that would come close to permitting such a collaboration. Still, J. Gold assures us this is happening, stating, “A combination of the Android and Symbian efforts would be good for the industry, good for Google and good for Symbian.” In related news, we understand a handful of similar mergers are in the offing: Linksys and Belkin, Red Hat and Ubuntu, Engadget and Gizmodo, and the inevitable one-two punch of Coke and Pepsi.

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Original post by Joshua Topolsky

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Handhelds, Laptops

Intel’s got big plans for Moblin, that Linux-based “core stack” that’s being optimized for all sort of mobile devices, from MIDs to carputers, and a big part of those plans is letting the community play a part in its development — the company is just about to release the source for the first version of Moblin, with an alpha-level release of Moblin 2 to follow. Intel says its focus right now is decidedly on Atom, but that it’s looking forward to seeing the community drive Moblin in other directions. There’s no word on what Moblin 2 will offer, but it sounds like Intel is hoping that by getting Moblin out in the open, it’ll become a de facto standard. Not a bad idea, but we’ll see how it goes.

Read - Intel getting ready to release Moblin source
Read - Intel working on Moblin 2

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Original post by Nilay Patel

Filed under: Laptops

You already know full well what these buggers look like, and you′ve even had ample time to roll that 8920 review around in your noggin. Now, the moment of truth has arrived. Both of Acer’s Gemstone Blue lappies — the 16-inch Aspire 6920 and 18.4-inch Aspire 8920 — are finally available in North America. Prospective buyers can snatch either up starting at $849 / $1,299, respectively, though real hardware junkies will insist on paying more for those high-brow components. Shamelessly, at that.

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

Don’t feel bad if the iAudio U5 hasn’t creeped into your mind since it “debuted” at IFA last September — it’s not like Cowon’s doled out any sort of marketing blitz to keep us intrigued. Nevertheless, this somewhat stylish little DAP is apparently making its way to the US of A for those who like to avoid the me-too crowd. Specs wise, you′ll find a 1.8-inch 160 x 128 resolution LCD, up to a full day of battery life, 4GB / 8GB of internal memory, MP3 / WMA / WAV playback, a built-in FM radio and voice recorder, user adjustable five-band EQ and USB connectivity. Good enough for you? Cough up $149.99 / $109.99 to snag one in 8GB or 4GB, respectively.

&nbsp

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: CES, Displays, HDTV, Home Entertainment

Runco and expensive tend to go hand in hand, so we’d expect nothing less than a five-figure price tag accompanying the firm’s new Video Xtreme VX-22i. This 1080p monster features a three-chip DLP design, O-Path technology, CinOptx premium grade lenses, Vivix II video processing, a 4,000:1 contrast ratio, 2,850 ANSI lumens and comes calibrated to ISF standards. As expected, users with a completely stuffed bank account can opt for the CineWide with Autoscope edition ($54,995), but even those who go without the aforementioned option will be forking out $39,995 for the vanilla model. If you’ve managed to get over the shock, you can place your order now (or pick up a totally more useful BMW / college education / etc.) and expect it to arrive lickety split.

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Original post by Darren Murph