Monthly Archive for September, 2006



182 views

Neuros OSD, the Open Set Top Box

Published
by
Nick Dynice
on September 21, 2006
in Consumer Electronics, DRM Rant and Disruptive Business Models in Content
. 0 Comments

neros osd
(via BoingBoing) Damn, I had this idea, I swear. But I am glad someone is doing it. The open (as in open source) set-top box, the Neuros OSD running on Linux. This is the beginning of something great. Consumers are finally going to get the home audio device that will do what they want it to do.

The device has not been released yet, most of the good apps still need to written for it. And how will they get written? There are bounties for various apps: Flickr photo browser, YouTube viewer, PVR for satellite radio. I imagine someone will also make a podcast/video podcast downloader/streamer, and Tivo-like video recording features. I come home, turn on the TV, and watch my favorite shows: Ze Frank, Rocketboom, and DiggNation. That would be great. It features Ethernet (wired and wireless), USB. Pre-order here.

What about MPAA/RIAA?: Dream Scenario
You might ask if this company can stay around in the face of sue-happy-Hollywood. If they get up in arms, I have an idea. We can beat them at their own game. What if we (the free culture/hacker/open source/creative commons/blogger/podcaster community) were to come up with a way to tag content digital as Creative Commons, and make it so the device can play only Creative Commons licensed material and fair use coppies? This would be a great strategy to play right at the tipping point of the popularity of this device. When it becomes so hot and everyone has one and everyone is ditching their DVD players and DVRs for the Neuros OSD, there will be a strong demand for Creative Commons material, and traditional media outlets will need to licence Creative Commons. Copyright dies, fair use lives.

Apps: Let the Disruptive Innovation Begin!
So, there are the obvious apps mentioned above. But here is the real doom scenario for anit-free culture corporate stakeholders: built in BitTorrent with data encryption, open and built-in content purchasing platforms (DRM free of course), fair use iTMS iPod content ripper (protected M4A to MP3 converter) that auto inserts ID3 tags.

I did have my heart set on Apple’s new iTV. But why pay more for a device that does less? Why wait for Apple to make the updates that are going to be MPAA/RIAA flavored when any developer who knows and wants to can make apps for it that do what people really want?

Update:
There is a lot of criticism about paying low bounties. Cory Doctorow has replied to one of these critics with some great points.

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252 views

iPod Games for iTunes 7…iPod Apps?

Published
by
Nick Dynice
on September 14, 2006
in Consumer Electronics and My Projects
. 2 Comments

The other cool announcment Apple made yesterday was iPod games. This means that it may be possible for developers to make applications that run on the iPod. I remember getting really excited about chapter markers, but this is a much bigger deal. Ben Sinclair has taken a look at the .ipg file that is an iPod Game file, and discovered it is a zip file with audio, xml, and image files inside. Apple was thinking what I was thinking when I suggested this format and stuck it on a wiki at suggestions4ipodanditunes.com, and my proposed iiml (interactive iPod markup language) format and intreactive iPod audio file.

Ben wrote to Apple, and they have replied, stating that there are currently no plans for an iPod games SDK. I really hope this is not so that can make it so that the only way to get these files is to buy them. I bet, that in a matter of days, someone will post the instructions on how to hack these applications together. As podcasting was platform that was not intended by Apple that they embraced, iPod apps could also be a new platform that the developer/hacker/iPod user communities will exploit big time. This is the beginning of the iPod as an open source applications platform.

Update:
Interesting read, The Video Game Crash of 1983 on Wikipedia. Do they want to protect the game industry by keeping out homebrews?

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170 views

…but will it do video podcasts?

Published
by
Nick Dynice
on September 12, 2006
in Consumer Electronics and Disruptive Business Models in Content
. 0 Comments

Apple announced today that they will have a device slated for next year codenamed iTV (great summary, David). The device will be wireless as well as featuring an Ethernet and USB ports. One killer app for this device would be the ability to download video podcasts or vlogs to the device and watch them on a TV. Subscribing to them on the device itself with Apple’s own directory (like their podcast directory) would be great. In January, I suggested that Tivo should do more of this. They were offering Rocketboom at one time. I am not sure if this is still a feature.

Update:
Engadget has a photo of the presentation with Joanne of Rocketboom. This confirms that it can do video podcasts. I can’t wait! I will watch TV again (sort of).

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