Oh the promise of Digital Rights Management. Ever since the dawn of technology, DRM of some form has existed with the promise being that if large companies supported it, the removal of basic (and somewhat fundamental) consumer fair use and rights would be made irrelevant. The likes of Apple and Microsoft aren't exactly going to kill their own music services and DRM servers, in turn locking you out of music you've actually paid money for. Are they?

Sadly, that's not entirely the case. Whilst Apple understands the PR nosedive that would follow any attempt to 'disable' DRMed purchases, Microsoft perhaps does not. Today they've announced that, effective August 31st 2008 "[Microsoft] will no longer be able to support the retrieval of license keys for the songs ... purchased from MSN Music or the authorization of additional computers" which basically means this: once you've activated your allocated number of computers for the music you've paid your hard-earned cash for, you can kiss you music goodbye if you ever change your computer or operating system. Yes, you can still burn your tunes to a CD and re-import them in another (DRM-free) format. But the questions remains, why should this even be necessary?

Time and time again, DRM has proven not only totally ineffective in preventing piracy but also a method by which legitimate paying customers get treated as criminals for doing the right thing. If there's one thing consumers are repeatedly learning the hard way is that ultimately DRM only shafts paying customers. There is but one question now: how long will it take the labels to realize that DRM is about as welcome at the digital party as Lynne Spears at the Parent of the Year awards....

[Via Ars Technica]

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is renowned for his developer evangelism, and is well known in the tech community for his rousing, if presumably fruity-smelling, cheerleading on stage. Clearly, the active lifestyle maintained at conferences is something that Microsoft wants to instill in all developers, leading to their latest online offering: 'Active-Build Live Developer Workouts Beta'.

According to Microsoft, "when we looked away from the Windows Vista team, we realised that most developers spend a serious amount of time in front of their computers, y'know, coding. To aid our developers further, we've launched Active-Build Live Developer Workouts Beta with a whole series of fitness videos from Steve Ballmer himself".

The service, included with every MSDN subscription, takes the form of a YouTube-esque player, a desktop client that prompts developers to take a break, as well as links to the Zune Marketplace to download videos for on-the-go use.

Sources at Microsoft say that distribution talks are 'ongoing' with a number of other providers to further the reach of the series, and that in a moment of post-workout delusion Ballmer attempted to negotiate with Apple for an iTunes release. Senior executives at Apple, speaking on condition of anonymity, are reportedly clueless on how to proceeed: "The iTunes intern who brought up the idea, along with [Apple CEO] Steve Jobs, are both currently under sedation after an internal meeting. It would appear that the videos fell somewhat below [Jobs'] 'impeccable taste threshold' and until Steve is fit to return to work and fire the intern, we're not sure how to proceed on any projects, internal or otherwise."

As usual, Apple PR declined to comment on 'market speculation', however recent rumours indicate that John Hodgman will appear once again at the start of Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference keynote in an OK-GO-inspired Mac/PC 'Treadmill' Advert.

Here at Download Squad HQ, we're (sadly) all-too-often reminded of the archaic buffoonery found in the world of big-business digital music and video. Whether it's the notion that DRM prevents piracy (hint: it doesn't) or the fact that by being blood-relatives of mafia bigshots label executives you are likely to escape a kneecapping lawsuit, the music industry has never been short of controversy as it struggles with piracy.

Since the dawn of Napster, the music industry has been crying, nay screaming, out for a digital music czar. Someone who 'gets' the digital arena. Someone who's been around the block, and never missed a beat (if you'll excuse the terrible pun) when it comes to the digital domain. So of course when Warner Music yelled from the rooftop 'We've got a Digital Music Guru!!', we believed that all equilibrium in the world had been restored. And then we read about this digital guru's next big plan, and our jubilation promptly turned sour.

Earlier in the year, at least one blogger was stopped by drooling unprepared TSA agents rightly wary of the so-far-unseen beast known as a MacBook Air. Of course, the incident brought to the TSA's attention the fact that the MacBook Air might not be your conventional laptop, and that agents might mis-identify the machines as something more suspect. Thankfully, the administration responded, giving MacBook Airs the green light, and promised to try and X-ray a MacBook Air.

True to their word, the TSA has announced that they have indeed X-rayed an Air, and published a video for all the Apple-loving readers clearly wanting to gaze in awe at an X-ray of Cupertino's finest. By now you're wondering: "Why on earth is this posted here at Download Squad. I don't want to see no photos of a MacBook Air!". So here's where this tale takes a rather ironic turn: the video's certainly online, but for Mac-using fans (arguably the main target audience of the video) it's something of a non-starter because the video can only be found in the most Mac-incompatible format known to man: Windows Media Video - the antithesis of Mac-friendliness, surely?

If you want to check out the video, then be sure to download the Flip4Mac QuickTime components from Microsoft before heading on to the TSA blog.

[Via This Week in Tech]

After a long invite-only beta, and a recent general-public release, Pownce has finally released their full-blown API that allows 3rd-party applications to post to the Pownce service. Back in our initial run-down of Pownce, the lack of a complete API was one of our major criticisms of the initial launch, and the basic Pownce API that's been around for a fair while merely allowed 'reading' of API data, not the 'posting' of updates. This meant you had to use either the mobile or Pownce websites, or the Adobe Integrated Runtime application, which some of us are less than fond of.

For better or worse, competitor Twitter has always stayed ahead of Pownce with a more comprehensive API (something that in our opinion made the Pownce/Twitter debate a one-horse-race until now) and now that Pownce is fully open to the developer masses, it'll certainly be interesting to see what applications appear. Talking of which, the first that we've seen is a rather handy 'Pownce it!' bookmarklet for quickly and easily sending links to your Pownce account. Sweet!

Pownce developer Leah Culver, apologizing for the delay to the API, says "We've taken great care to provide the best experience for developers". Given Twitter's continuing instability, it'll be interesting to see developers put the Pownce API through its paces, and see whether Twitter's instability will eventually begin to undermine the API-headstart that's attracted so many users (not to mention developers) to the service.

[Tip of the hat to Download Squad alumnus David Chartier for pointing out the bookmarklet]

For all the talk of Facebook being the $15-billion dollar social network de jour, it would appear that the heavyweight may be losing its touch, at least in the UK. The BBC quotes Nielsen Online figures for last month, showing Facebook dropping from 8.9 million to 8.5 million visitors -- the first drop in visitors since records started for Facebook in July 2006.

Now, the drop of just 400,00 may not be all that substantial, but some of us here at Download Squad know of folks still rather mad at being unable to close their accounts (well, at least of free will) and certainly among contacts of ours there is, shall we say, a weariness with Facebook right now. Whether that translates into a continual drop in Facebook's visitor numbers, or this is just a monthly lull (perhaps brought on by friends posting less than endearing photos after the New Year) is anyone's guess.

Update: Facebook have since got in touch to say: "The number of users for Facebook continues to climb in the UK. Our internal monthly active user numbers rose between December and January in the UK and are now at more than 8.3 million. Facebook tracks active monthly users, rather than registered user or unique visitors. Active users reflect those who have used the site in the past 30 days."

So you've got the Monday blues, and are looking for Download Squad to find you something stimulating, perhaps even intellectual to waste some time with? Look no further for we've got the perfect thing for you. "How Many Countries Can You Name" is a very simple, yet effective game in which all you need to do is think of, and type into your browser, as many countries names as you possibly can. In five minutes. With nearly 300 countries in the world, it's just as much a game of 'how fast can you type?' as it is 'just how many countries can you name?'

In the name of research (honest!), we've been playing with this a little, and managed to get the number of remaining (i.e. un-named) countries down towards the 200 mark, but we're sure that readers can do better!

[Via unEASYsilence]

Sony's Connect music store has been around a fair while, in fact, a fair while longer than perhaps some of us expected. Sony -- a company once so powerful and successful in portable music -- cooked up the Connect service as a response to Apple's all-powerful iTunes Store. The plan was a store to supply music to the dozen or so users who bought one of its NetMD or MP3 players, and couldn't play media on these devices in a format other than Sony's proprietary ATRAC-3 format.*

Of course, Sony is also a record-label and (as with all of Sony's digital music efforts) the Connect service was clearly put in front of some executives who were absolutely terrified of the 'Cloverfield monster' otherwise known as piracy. The executives, so hell-bent on protecting their content, forgot that actually they had to sell the service to the public and decided that they'd allow Connect, but that the DRM would be so visible and limited that no-one would dare think of pirating music again. If you hadn't guessed, here at Download Squad, some of us have 'issues' with Sony's digital mis-steps -- issues best explained in another post -- so we'll skip forward to the present day.

Never mind the Twitter speculation -- there's bigger fish to fry this morning, as Microsoft has proposed (and we must reiterate: proposed) to acquire Yahoo! Here's the quote from the Microsoft Press Release:

"Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) today announced that it has made a proposal to the Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) Board of Directors to acquire all the outstanding shares of Yahoo! common stock for per share consideration of $31 representing a total equity value of approximately $44.6 billion. Microsoft's proposal would allow the Yahoo! shareholders to elect to receive cash or a fixed number of shares of Microsoft common stock, with the total consideration payable to Yahoo! shareholders consisting of one-half cash and one-half Microsoft common stock. The offer represents a 62 percent premium above the closing price of Yahoo! common stock on Jan. 31, 2008."

Whether Yahoo! accepts the offer, or enters into negotiations, remains to be seen. First thoughts here at Download Squad? Assuming it goes ahead, what does that mean for the likes of Flickr? Does this suggest that Microsoft is choosing to acquire the momentum of an already-well-known services company instead of internally developing its Windows Live (nee MSN) services? The deal is primarily focused on the bringing together of Microsoft and Yahoo!'s advertising platforms, but the other services that form part of Yahoo! certainly add another dimension to the deal.

More on this as we have it -- Yahoo has, at the time of writing, not published any press releases about the Microsoft offer.

Update: Microsoft is to host a Press Conference Call at 05:30am PST / 08:30am EST to discuss the proposal.
Update 2: Yahoo! stock is up 60% in pre-market trading.
Update 3: Yahoo! is to "evaluate this proposal carefully and promptly in the context of Yahoo!'s strategic plans and pursue the best course of action to maximize long-term value for shareholders."

RSS is a fantastic technology, but what about 'on-the-go'? Sure, you could use Google Reader, or Newsgator Mobile, but what if you wanted to be SMS-messaged when a new post appears on a particular feed? That's where Pingie comes in.

By now, you're probably wondering what on earth the service could be used for. Let's share with you a few examples. Perhaps you're wanting to follow Download Squad's coverage of a particular operating system, category of software, or even a particular author's posts (all of which have feeds found by adding /rss.xml to the page's URL), you simply enter the Feed URL, your email address and your mobile phone number and Pingie does the rest. Easy!

Of course, when you're wanting up-to-the-minute event coverage say from sister sites' Engadget (at the Consumer Electronics Show) or TUAW (at Macworld Conference and Expo) this might just allow you to keep your finger on the pulse, no matter where you are.

[Via UNEASYsilence]

With 2008 fast approaching, if you're needing a printed calendar in time for the new year, your opportunities to grab one are fast running out. Thankfully CreativeTechs have posted three rather nifty calendars and templates for you to use. Along with a compact calendar, there's a clever business-card sized calendar to slip in your wallet and even an Adobe InDesign template if you're wanting to create something a little more bespoke in your free time.

Another few options include the basic calendar from TimeAndDate.com, Jim's Graphix 2008 Calendar and Microsoft has a plethora of Office-format calendars available to download from Microsoft Office Online.

Mac-using readers may well already know of Flip4Mac, the free Quicktime components which allow OS X users to playback Windows Media files within Quicktime. For Windows users, that may seem a bit unusual, but given that Microsoft no-longer develops Windows Media Player for Mac and actively points to the Flip4Mac site, the Telestream components are certainly welcome for those requiring access to Windows Media content on Mac OS X.

Since Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard's launch in October, users have been left without Windows Media support, however that absence is no more, for Flip4Mac is now Leopard compatible. Not only that, but the developers have also announced that the paid-for tools and plugins which allow the exporting of Windows Media content on OS X now also offer 'Export to Silverlight' options. If you're unfamiliar with Silverlight, it's Microsoft's answer to Adobe's dominant Flash format for online interactivity and media.

If you own the Flip4Mac tools already this update is, like the playback components, free and available from the Flip4Mac site.

The Macrovision name is probably one you recognise, but you're probably unsure where from. Nope, it's not Macromedia - they're now called Adobe. Macrovision is the company that has, for the past two decades, supplied copy protection and Digital Rights Management solutions to the big media companies.

Whilst a little criticism of Macrovision could be justified on any normal day, we're not here to sing a simple song of "DRM is just bad business" right now. Macrovision's Chief Evanglist, Richard Bullwinkle, has a somewhat skewed post on CNET today, under the title "Perspective: An Apple fanboy's lament'. In it, he discusses one of the hottest topics of 2007: DRM and media players. A contentious topic close to our own hearts here at Download Squad HQ. A choice quote from Mr Bullwinkle:

"When devices are standards-based, the best solutions will still win."

Before I go any further, Bullwinkle makes a few good points, and here he's absolutely right. Standards are a good thing, and innovation being based upon feature-sets, not lock-ins, is the way the digital media player market should be. Yet he's talking as though these mythical standards don't already exist: has he never heard of MP3 or MP4? All the main players offer support for those two standards (MP3 / AAC / MP4 / M4A):

Apple? Of course - they've almost-single handedly driven MP4 content onto the world stage - but Apple-bashers I remind you of this common misconception: it's not an Apple codec. They, like everyone else, licence it.
Microsoft? Indeed: Zunes will happily take your AAC content.
Sony? Surprisingly yes. The sloth amongst these cheetahs of the digital realm has brought AAC on board with its devices.

Mr Bullwinkle continues: "Consumer electronics manufacturers and entertainment giants need put the consumers first. They need to realize that "we" consumers don't want to repurchase our media for each new device that comes along." And again he's absolutely right. Big business needs to learn to treat its customers properly. But he's forgotten something, and this is where the web he's trying to spin really begins to unravel: we already own the content we want to put on these devices. It's called CDs and DVDs: DVDs that are protected, for the most part, by Macrovision copy protection. The very DVDs we have already bought, and been treated like criminals for buying thanks to the copy-protection you evangelise, Mr Bullwinkle. Never mind the hideous Digital Millenium Copyright Act the studios and labels forced into the constitution (and seem intent on introducing elsewhere in the world).

For all the talk of perspective from an apparent Apple fanboy, the article seems (when you look closer) to be a push for open standards that you'd believe don't exist. By the end you can't help wonder if we're to expect a Macrovision press release announcing a solution with one of these mythical new standards. What's even more ironic is that any such Macrovision proposals would not have the best interests of the consumer at heart, but the shareholders of Macrovision - and of course Mr Bullwinkle's salary.

So much for perspective, huh?

Yahoo!'s Flickr photo-sharing service (which you may well have been voting for in the Open Web Awards: Photo Sharing category) has just unveiled two spiffy new additions to their roster of tools: one for everyone, the other one left for Pro accounts only.

The new Uploadr 3.0 is the Flickr-developed tool to upload photos to the service, and is available to all members, on both Macs and PCs. The big new feature in this release is the ability to re-order photos through dragging and dropping before you click the Upload button and get the photos on their way. Not only that, but once an upload is underway, you can get started on another batch of photos within the application to prepare to upload: nifty.
The other major announcement is that Flickr is now enabling 'Stats' for Pro account holders, allowing users to see where traffic is coming from for their photostream. Flickr-rival Zooomr has offered 'Trackbacks' on photos for some time now, and it's a really neat feature, allowing you to see who's linking (and perhaps more importantly clicking) on your photos. If you're a Pro member, and you're looking for your Flickr stats without any success, however, be aware that you'll need to activate Stats on your account (by clicking here and signing in) and then waiting for 24 hours whilst the Flickr system prepares your stats.

As observant readers may recall, in August we chatted with Peter Brown of the Free Software Foundation about the BBC iPlayer, and DRM in general. The BBC iPlayer is the U.K. public broadcaster's drawn-out and vastly expensive endeavour to bring the BBC's wealth of content into the 21st century.

Until today, the entire project has been Windows-only, with Mac and Linux support missing despite having been much-debated - and required at some stage due to the BBC's remit for platform independence. As expected, the BBC is starting a new beta phase today with the introduction of a '7-day catch-up' online streaming service via Adobe Flash player to cater for all three platforms.

Whilst a seeming win for all U.K. residents, the fact remains that the BBC iPlayer is a blot on an increasingly DRM-free future. In the most recent episode of This Week in Tech, ardent DRM campaigner Cory Doctorow gives a truly excellent break-down of the iPlayer fiasco (the fun starts at 33m30s in). In short, his arguments hinge on the fact that "the BBC spends millions on blanketing the country in unencrypted digital copies of programmes' which can easily be recorded and viewed (or illicitly shared) at your leisure. Yet the BBC and rights holders' concerns over piracy in a single new mode of transmission are so great that, to paraphrase Doctorow, 'they're trying to add another inch of steel to the door of a safe, where the rest of the sides are made of toilet paper'.

Despite the fact that there are only '10,000' U.K. residents using the £130 million ($266 million) project's Windows-only client, the BBC is moving it out of beta later this month: on Christmas Day, of all days. The iPlayer remains a U.K.-only product due to the BBC's publicly-funded status. (In other words, the Brits have already paid for this content, have you? Now stop complaining).

[Via MacWorld UK]