FocuSoft Tech Blog

FocuSoft Tech Blog

SNES PC Case Mod scores endless style wins; can never bring back your childhood

Posted: 15 Jun 2009 07:22 PM PDT

7ec640d20amod 1.jpg SNES PC Case Mod scores endless style wins; can never bring back your childhood

Face it, not all mods are created equal. Take this SNES PC Case Mod, for instance, built by quangDX and DuPPs (their real names? we think not). Sure, they could’ve just crammed some PC guts in there and called it a day, but with love, care and some Lego spacers, they’ve crafted a true piece of art.

The gutted Super Mario World cartridge acts as a slot-loading CD drive, there’s a perfect lineup of connectivity in the back, and the real piece of magic: USB extenders disguised as regular controller plugs, and a reworked SNES controller to plug into ‘em. The main guts are courtesy of an Acer Aspire One, and even the webcam and mic have been crammed into the front of that poor shredded cartridge. This is how it’s done, folks.

[Via Gossip Gamers]

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SNES PC Case Mod scores endless style wins; can never bring back your childhood originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 15 Jun 2009 21:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Universal Music and Virgin Media, shoveling more dirt onto DRM’s grave?

Posted: 15 Jun 2009 07:17 PM PDT

Virgin Media logo The major record companies’ retreat from DRM took another step today, when Universal Music Group and Virgin Media, a leading broadband provider in the U.K., announced what amounted to a DRM-free, all-you-can-eat subscription music service. Although it’s still vaporware and confined to the U.K., the new service strikes me as a big deal, with some equally large caveats.

Unlike Napster or Rhapsody, which essentially provide access to an unlimited library of music for a monthly fee, the Virgin Media service will let people acquire an unlimited amount of music. (The service is due later this year, the companies said; Virgin is still trying to round up licenses from other labels and music publishers.) An offer like that could completely trump today’s subscription offerings, which have struggled to win acceptance among mainstream consumers. It’s simple to explain and requires no change in music fans’ approach to collecting tunes. But this brings us to caveat No. 1, which is pricing. There was no indication from the companies today what they planned to charge for the service, but it’s likely to be considerably more than what Nokia collects for its DRM-based “Comes With Music” phones (where the downloads are nailed to the user’s phone and/or PC). My back-of-the-envelope calculation was that “Comes With Music” carries an $8 to $16 monthly premium for two years’ worth of unlimited downloads from all four major record companies. I know there’s some argument that music fans aren’t hugely sensitive to prices, but I have trouble believing they’ll tolerate ISP rates that are 40% or 50% higher so they can download tracks guilt-free.

In addition to the hint of trial-ballooning, the deal has the whiff of a quid pro quo. Universal agreed to offer DRM-free downloads, and in return Virgin agreed to take more steps to counter file-sharing. In particular, Virgin agreed to “educate file sharers about online piracy” and temporarily suspend Internet access for “persistent offenders.” Here is caveat No. 2. As Gartner analyst Mike McGuire ably put it, “How do they determine who is naughty and nice?” The entertainment industry is eager to have ISPs warn their customers who are detected sharing copyrighted files, then sanction them if they don’t stop. French lawmakers went so far as to enact a three-strikes-and-you-lose-your-Net-access law, only to have jurists there quickly declare it to be unconstitutional. The fundamental problem is, as the famous New Yorker cartoon observed, Internet traffic data might tell you which account was sharing files, but not who was seated at the computer. In fact, if the account holder has an unsecured wireless router, good luck finding the computer that did the sharing. So if Virgin is agreeing to cut off someone’s Internet access administratively, without access to the courts or some independent arbitrator, it’s teeing itself up for a beatdown in the press and Parliament, because mistakes will be made — that’s inevitable — and Internet service is becoming almost as vital to some users as electricity. McGuire again: “It’s like they want to give the consumer all the convenience of DRM-free files but they really, really don’t trust the consumer.”

Caveat No. 3 is that the DRM-free files could still be watermarked or otherwise outfitted with the name of the person whose Virgin account was used to obtain them. Unwitting (and careless) users with wireless routers could find their names on songs that pop up on Limewire. In light of the potential administrative penalties noted in the previous paragraph, this could prove problematic.

I don’t mean to drown the announcement in cold water, and I don’t begrudge Universal’s interest in protecting its copyrights. On the contrary, it’s great to see the company trying to combat piracy by supporting a compelling legitimate service (or at least potentially compelling, depending on the price). I’m just unnerved by the prospect of ISPs becoming not just copyright watchdogs but also the muscle to enforce them.

One final McGuire thought. Universal’s move comes 10 years after Shawn Fanning introduced the pioneering Napster song-swapping network, which the company’s later CEO, Hank Barry, tried to transform into a legitimate service licensed by the labels. But Napster was never able to line up all of the majors (there were five at the time), particularly not for the radical idea of enabling music fans to download an unlimited amount of music for a flat fee. Noting Universal and Virgin’s agreement to do that very thing, McGuire said, “This is about eight years too late.”

– Jon Healey

Healey writes editorials for The Times’ Opinion Manufacturing Division.

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Universal Music and Virgin Media, shoveling more dirt onto DRM’s grave?

Twitter, NTT America hold off maintenance to keep Iran channel clear

Posted: 15 Jun 2009 07:02 PM PDT

Iran-protest

Credit: Abedin Taherkenareh / EPA

For a service that limits users to 140 characters, Twitter is finding its influence growing worldwide. The San Francisco company Monday delayed a crucial maintenance operation to accommodate the high volume of information flowing about the explosive election protests in Iran.

People both inside and outside Iran have been sending short text messages about the violence and civil disobedience that has engulfed the nation’s capital, Tehran, for the last two days. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has defended his reelection last week, but the protests have grown more intense.

In a blog post Monday afternoon, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone said his site’s scheduled maintenance would be delayed from overnight — daytime in Iran — to 2 to 3 p.m. Pacific time Tuesday, which would be the middle of the night in Iran.

The work was “a critical network upgrade [that] must be performed to ensure continued operation of Twitter,” Stone wrote. The servers that undergird the micromessaging site are run by NTT America, a division of Japanese telecommunications giant Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Co.

Stone noted that NTT America recognized “the role Twitter is currently playing as an important communication tool in Iran” and was “taking a huge risk not just for Twitter but also the other services they support worldwide.”

Twitter traffic about the situation in Iran has been dominating the service for the last several days, with topics such as IranElection, Tehran and Iranians among the most actively discussed on Twitter. News tidbits, photos and chatter about the protests have flowed around the world, becoming a key medium for news from the scene.

Twitter users worried that shutting down the service could cut off yet another information channel for those in Iran, where the government had reportedly blocked access to social media sites, such as YouTube and Facebook, in addition to cutting off mobile phone service.

– David Sarno

[via LATimes.com]

Sony working on a PSP non-game app store?

Posted: 15 Jun 2009 06:36 PM PDT

4cb1a98ab0pstore.jpg Sony working on a PSP non game app store?

Now that Sony’s committed itself to downloadable games with the PSP Go, it’s only natural to wonder where that strategy might lead — and the hot buzz says there’s an “app store” of sorts due in August at Gamescom. The new section of the Playstation Store will supposedly impose a 100MB limit on content and set prices in the $2 – $6 range, but otherwise have no restrictions, meaning devs will be free — and even encouraged — to code up non-game apps as well.

Of course, you’ll still be able to snag other PSP titles from the other parts of the store, but if this actually happens it’ll be interesting to see if Sony can channel some of the energy from the vibrant PSP homebrew scene into a more legit distribution channel. We’ll keep an eye out.

[Via Joystiq]

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Sony working on a PSP non-game app store? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 15 Jun 2009 20:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iHome’s iConnect Keyboard Combines QWERTY and iPod Docking [Keyboards]

Posted: 15 Jun 2009 06:30 PM PDT

1271ff4861nnect2.jpg iHomes iConnect Keyboard Combines QWERTY and iPod Docking [Keyboards]

Released alongside iHome’s iStand, the iConnect is an iPhone-ready keyboard with a built-in dock that allows you to sync and charge your iPhone/iPods automatically from the peripheral.

There are different two versions of the keyboard built for Windows and Macs, and although they both contain two USB ports, the Mac’s version has extra keys that allow you to quickly access applications such as iCal, iChat, Mail, Safari and Front Row. For $150, you can purchase the iConnect sometime this summer. [Lifeworks via CNet via iPodNN via Technabob]

b1d6179e28yboard.jpg iHomes iConnect Keyboard Combines QWERTY and iPod Docking [Keyboards]

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iHome’s iConnect Keyboard Combines QWERTY and iPod Docking [Keyboards]

Apple’s Simplistic iPod Marketing Trumped by Competitor’s Shamefully Blatant Sexuality [Image Cache]

Posted: 15 Jun 2009 06:00 PM PDT

Dell Latitude Z series laptop leaked, sized up in pictures

Posted: 15 Jun 2009 05:52 PM PDT

b648646347rm eng.jpg Dell Latitude Z series laptop leaked, sized up in pictures

With nary another word in terms of specs or details, one lucky forum goer at NotebookReview has posted what looks to be pics of a new, as of yet unannounced Dell Latitude Z Series laptop. Not much to say at the moment, aside from the obvious Adamo influence, but we did spot a biometric fingerprint scanner, an oddly-placed ethernet port in the back, and Windows / Intel Centrino stickers. Earlier in the thread another person, albeit lacking any physical proof of owning one, chimed in to say it’d have a 15-inch matte screen, Core 2 Duo processor, webcam with facial recognition, and DisplayPort, with a scheduled release a week from today. Judging by the ports in the pics, it’s definitely a thin one — could we be seeing Dell finally dip its toes into the CULV market? With any luck, we’ll be hearing more about this soon.

Gallery: Dell Latitude Z-Series laptop

e1efcba359mbnail.jpg Dell Latitude Z series laptop leaked, sized up in pictures 19fd4b0091mbnail.jpg Dell Latitude Z series laptop leaked, sized up in pictures 62ec03626bmbnail.jpg Dell Latitude Z series laptop leaked, sized up in pictures 95b503e7a7mbnail.jpg Dell Latitude Z series laptop leaked, sized up in pictures 2f6fc01a8bmbnail.jpg Dell Latitude Z series laptop leaked, sized up in pictures

[Thanks, Krzysiek]

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Dell Latitude Z series laptop leaked, sized up in pictures originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 15 Jun 2009 19:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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FCC says DTV transition going smoothly, few TVs shot up

Posted: 15 Jun 2009 05:41 PM PDT

1dc0d87efewah03.jpg FCC says DTV transition going smoothly, few TVs shot up

Well, the DTV transition finally went down, and after the endless delay and countless arguments, it seems as though June 12 hit with more of a whimper than a bang: the FCC says there haven’t been any widespread service disruptions, and although the agency’s toll-free help lines recorded 700,000 support calls between June 8 and June 12, most converter box issues were resolved in less than five minutes by a simple channel re-scan. Similarly, we can’t say we’ve heard of any particularly big problems out there, so really, we’re just wondering what the hell took so long.

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FCC says DTV transition going smoothly, few TVs shot up originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 15 Jun 2009 19:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Shoplifter Caught Blu-Handed With 33 Discs Down Pants [Crime]

Posted: 15 Jun 2009 05:30 PM PDT

b0d2c878c4medium.jpg Shoplifter Caught Blu Handed With 33 Discs Down Pants [Crime]

Oklahoma City police caught this woman shoplifting at a local Target with 33 Blu-ray discs shoved down her pants. I just want to know, where was she hiding the player?

And dear god, lady, have you not heard of Bittorrent? The cherry on top is that she was also charged with assault and battery. Pretty hard to put a fight up with that many movies in your panties, but I suppose it would nullify all hits below the belt. [newsok via Obscurestore]

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Shoplifter Caught Blu-Handed With 33 Discs Down Pants [Crime]

Warning: Xbox Live and Zune Services Down Midnight PST, Tonight [Xbox]

Posted: 15 Jun 2009 05:00 PM PDT

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