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Filed under: Audio, Social Software, Web

We're gonna need a bigger boat: Grooveshark attacks your desktop


Damn you, Grooveshark! I've been doing just fine without any Adobe Air applications installed on my system. But you come along and release a standalone interface, and now I'm hooked.

As Sebastien reported with Waver, the Grooveshark Air app seems to be a bit more smooth and responsive than the browser-based version. Whatever the reason, as a guy that runs on unstable, developer-channel browsers that have a penchant for crashing, it's nice to have my streaming audio running stably in its own app.

The app's system tray icon provides pause, skip, and previous controls, and notifications with album art and track info can also be set to appear in whichever corner you prefer.

Grooveshark Desktop is currently for VIPs only. If you have a $3/month paid account, just sign in and head to your account page (or click here) to download Desktop. Adobe Air is required, but as long as you have the Flash Player plugin the install just takes a couple of clicks and some patience.

So now I've got a great out-of-browser way to access Grooveshark on my desktop. I wonder when I'll be able to do this on my iPod Touch? Soon, I hope.

Filed under: Audio, News, Web services

Is the webcast royalty fiasco really about mandatory DRM?


Webcasted radio has been taking it on the chin lately, with a proposal to institute insane royalty rates that would effectively spell the end of many popular broadcasters. Those royalty rates were supposed to go into effect this week, but a temporary reprieve and hopes of a new deal kept internet radio thumping along. Everyone sighed relief, but Ars Technica reports that the picture may not be so rosy after all.

SoundExhange, the royalty clearing house set up by the RIAA, has ferreted in a clause to the new agreement which would require DRM for licensed streaming audio. That means, simply put, that you won't be listening to internet radio on any platform SoundExchange doesn't like, or with any player not equipped with (and there for paying license fees to include) proprietary content protection schemes.

Pardon our language but, that just sounds yuckie.

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The World's Hardest Game 2.0 - Time Waster

So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do. Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game. The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...

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