The Death of Newzbin and Limewire's dying words.

Early this week, Newzbin, the world's biggest newsgroup index service
closed it's site and put up a pathetic message saying they were out of
business, because of the legal actions against them. But this isn't
just about newzbin, this is about a whole concept, and it's being
outlawed.

For those who don't know, here is the crashcourse. Newsgroups are an
Internet medium where users host files for others to access. While I
can't say I've got a real good understanding of the architecture
behind newsgroups, their closest relative is probably the direct HTTP
Download, but from another user. Newsgroups themselves are a paid
service, but they're still huge. They're organized like forums, with
'posts' organised under categories (and organised by server). Each
'post' is a file host, generally made up of a lot of files. What
newzbin did was to provide *.nzb files. These were an index of a
newsgroup item. When opened, they would provide a list of locational
links for each file in the upload, in a format easily readable by a
specifically designed program. Newsgroups can host any file a user
uploads, meaning that material, coyrighted or otherwise, can be
downloaded by other users.

But here's the crux of the debate at hand. If Newzbin, a paid
subscription service, is not providing, or hosting any copyrighted
material for illegal download, why are they being closed down? On
newzbin, the only files available for download are *.nzb's. These
aren't actual files, so they can't be copyrighted material. Newzbin
didn't host any newsgroups or file groups. They didn't provide
download links to illegal material. They were basically an index of
files available elsewhere. So, on what grounds are they being sued.

Similarly, earlier this week, LimeWire, the popular web-bases P2P file
sharing network was crippled by a guilty decision from the courts.
Again, LimeWire provided no files, they only allowed easy indexing of
freely available information.

Despite the closure of Newzbin, one can still find all the exact same
files for download, from the exact same location, but now you just
have to go looking for it. There is no change in the actual download
of the actual files, it's just a little messier.

And yet, both networks are being pursued as if they were providing
illegal material. Part of this can be explained by the court's general
lack of technological expertise regarding the actual workings of these
networks. But a big part of it is simply a crusade against online
piracy that might've gone too far already. This is not the way to do
it. Piracy can be prevented, but only by removing the actual files or
the medium used to access them (very difficult to do) or remove the
motive (also difficult to do). Closing newzbin will only push users
onto other sites which provide a similar indexing service and not
treat the underlying cause.

However, authorities have decided to personally pursue the owners and
managers of indexing sites, rather than focus on the more pressing
issue of removing/disincentivising the actual files and download
thereof. Fools.

Blu-Ray: The Fatal Flaws keeping it from greatness

While I'm a big supporter of high-def movies and I supported Blu-Ray
from the start, I can't help but be frustrated by the few things
crippling the new format

First is compatability. Unlike DVD's Blu-Ray have already upgraded to
a new replacement standard, Profile 2.0, barely a few years into its
life. And it's problems like that that get in the way. Blu-Ray players
are constantly needing upgrades and firmware changes in order to keep
up with the latest changes in standard. On top of this, it seems that
every disc you buy/hire is running to a different format, further
complicating matters. If the format could be finally set in concrete
and left static for a while, we might have a chance

Next problem is that of DRM protection. Where DVD suffered from a lack
of digital protection, Blu-Ray has gone over the top. While a whole
new format with new hardware and new software certainly provides an
opportunity to solidify DRM capabilities, it shouldn't interfere with
the consumer experience, which it really does. For one thing, try
using a laptop with a Blu-Ray drive to playback a movie. First, you'll
need to upgrade the software (which was almost impossible to get in
the first place), then try to load it up without crashing only to find
that having paid good money for a HD movie, you can only output it via
an analog connection with 2.0 sound. All because of an instant
assumption that you are attempting to pirate the movie. Fine, protect
the movie, but let me play it.

And last is one of the more obvious ones: load times. It's simply sad
that until recently the PS3 Fat was the fastest Blu-Ray player around.
Then the PS3 Slim came along, then finally a player from Olin managed
to beat the consoles. Even on these high-end, fast load machines, it
still takes quite a long time for the disc to initialize and for any
of the features to become available. It's simply impractical.

If they can fix these flaws with the combines resources of the many
and varied backers from around the world, maybe Blu-Ray can properly
dislodge DVD as the primary video playback format.

New Google Search Page coming?

Just the other day, I logged on to a common computer and did a quick Google search from IE and was greeted with a new Google!

I've been unable to replicate the new design, but it was definitely there and was definitely much better.

The Google logo has been rendered in slightly cooler colours with less gloss to the letters. More importantly, the search page has a new options pane along the left hand side. It now allows you to choose the source of results from the usuals like Web, Images, Video and News. Also, you can now search Discussions and Social Updates specificially from an easy to use bar along the left hand side which has now taken over some of the old Google options as well as adding some new ones.

You can now further tighten your search, such as choosing just Forums or Q&A's within the Discussions banner, or sorting by date posted instead of relevance. You can also (unconfirmed) still access all the usual search options (including Wonder Wheel and Timeline) with any search. More importantly, you can now also include Page Preview thumbnails beside results so you can see what the target page looks like before you choose it. The general page is also cleaner, smoother and easier to use.

Now, I don't know how I found it, but it could be the latest iteration of the refresh that started with the Google Caffeine engine upgrade. No guarantees, but it could be coming.

YouTube redesigns their video page

In a fairly unanticipated move, YouTube has released a new design for their video pages. There is now more focus on three core elements. The video is one, which now appears less cluttered. The second is comments which now sit directly below and much closer to the video itself and related videos now takes the entire right column all to itself. Ancillary functions like sharing, embed codes and other bits and pieces, as well as the description, username, user's videos etc have now moved into small bars above and below the video and into nice drop-down menus for related functions like sharing, saving (to playlists and favourites only, no direct download of course), and author/user tools.

Overall, it's not a big change, and it could take a little getting used to, but it seems like a nice refresh. The prominence of related videos is a plus for YouTube and users alike. YouTube benefits from the longer-term stays encouraged by users who are quickly distracted by the myriad of related videos and therefore see more videos, more ads and spend more time on-site, all of which is an advantage for them. For the user, it means it is now easier to find not just what you wanted in the first place, but also other things which might interest us. Since they take up the whole bar, there is also less actual looking necessary, since the whole bar is videos, with less sponsored links, less ads in annoying places and more videos, in general.

Also, the old star rating system has been converted into a thumbs up/thumbs down system like the comments feature on the previous YouTube. This is combined with a cool new feature attached to the views counter. You can now get full statistics on a series of dimensions and parameters from Insight. You can get time graphs of the videos popularity from the click of a button which is neat little innovation from the boys at Google. Speaking of comments, you can still like/dislike comments like before but you can also use the @ tag to direct comments at specific users which seems to be popping up everywhere...

The Quicklist method of creating a quick playlist of videos without any hassle has been changed to the "Up Next Queue" and despite YouTube claiming that it's a new feature, it looks pretty much the same to me. What's not so obvious is that YouTube actually populates your Up Next Queue for you. If you arrived at the video through Search, then the search results form your Queue, or if it's a subscription, your other videos from subscriptions will form your Queue which seems to be a good way of finding videos but also a good way to waste a hell of a lot of time, especially since Autoplay (playing the next movie straight after the current one finishes) is on by default.

One unforeseen (at least for us) consequence is that the actual player has changed behind the scenes. The front end is exactly the same and the only thing that hints to me that something has changed is that navigating to the video on the website on an iPhone now shows a plugin icon, which has worked previously as a Youtube Video. However, the native YouTube app still functions perfectly so maybe it's just a coincidence. I will check the mobile YouTube site, but desktop no longer works. Also, trying to run videos through services like Zamzar (online video download/conversions) results in an error coming back every time, suggesting that something might have changed...

In the meantime, enjoy YouTube's new back to basics look and good luck finding all the old functions!!

Assorted iPhone News

The Internet is, as usual, running wild with rumours of the iPhone 4G,
but some of them aren't so likely.

The not-really-very-appropriately-named iPhone User Guide posted a
graphic talking about what users expected would feature in the next
generation of the wildly popular iPhone. There were the weird ones
like a glowing Apple logo on the back and such things, but there were
also some notable absences.

I, for one, can almost guarantee that multitasking will probably
feature, but whether this is a firmware or hardware upgrade is
unknown. Jailbroken iPhones have had this capability for a little
while, but the main populous haven't seen it yet. And with the Palm
Pre and Motorola Droid as well as HTC's Android offerings showing some
real capability (the Droid was Engadget's gadget of the year if I'm
not mistaken) Apple will be looking for some big advances.

iBooks has a decent chance of making the jump to iPhone, but there are
still some problems on that front. For one thing, that's one of the
big points of differentiation between the iPad and the iPhone/iPod
Touch series. There is also the small matter of the Kindle app that
most agree Apple is getting paid a truckload of money to support and
leave alone.

There has also been a lot of speculation since CNET's Crave blog
posted supposed pictures of the next-gen devices and started
speculation of what exactly a small semi-reflective piece was at the
top of the phone, near the speaker. Some said it was the proximity
sensor, but there's no reason to move it from it's current, invisible
position. Could it be that Apple's finally bitten the bullet and
decided to mount a forward-facing video camera in the next iPhone.
This could lead to great potential with the idea of video calling
jumping to mind. It could also be a trigger for Apple to release an
iPhone port of iChat to the market, which would be interesting to see.

And finally, there is of course that little issue of the lawsuit. Yes,
Apple is actually suing HTC over patent violations, just as they did
with Nokia. Which makes you wonder why they're doing it? The Nokia
debacle is still not over and there on flimsy grounds. There is, of
course, also the issue of Google's (and Microsoft's) involvement. By
directly targeting Android and WM handsets, they're running a big
risk. Microsoft will stay out of it, but Google could just weigh in.
If that were to happen, Apple might just find themselves in a little
too deep...

NOTE: Sorry about the long hiatus, but now with term back in for the
final year, the timetable is getting a bit hectic...

The Progression of Closed Systems

The idea of proprietary, closed systems has been around for yonks, since some marketing idiot (who should now be stoned to death for crimes against technology) had the realisation that if people can only use your device with your products and are entirely reliant on you, you can then milk the consumer for everything they've got and make a killing. Unfortunately for him, he was in marketing so he didn't realise that the world didn't work like that. So the hacker (note: not crackers, they're idiots) community came up with the brilliant idea that why not open up the closed system and make it even better than it was before. So was born the idea of hacking devices. Some of the more well-known ones of these are the PSP and the iPhone. These are more remarkable than the millions of other devices that were swiftly cracked and taken to the masses because Sony and Apple, respectively, have both tried very hard (to varying degrees of success) to halt the free flow of hacked software and hardware.


The ultimate reason that these companies cannot win is because they are taking the entirely wrong approach to solving the problem. Take the PSP Custom Firmware example. When PSP's came out, they were very quickly hacked and custom firmwares released along with homebrew games by the hundred showing the world a new world of portable gaming...free. Then, with Firmware 1.5, it all slowed down a bit, because with this release, Sony had added a new feature: the Internet Browser. users upgraded to get this new feature because they preferred it to the hacked solution's lack of said browser. Then, with Firmware 3, we see the other approach. Sony released a new Firmware, built off a new kernel, and with security like no-one had previously seen, but there was little increase in capability. So what was the end result of this move: Hackers across the interwebs got pissed and between the lot of them, cracked it in no time at all.

The point of all this is that you will never be as good or as secure as the millions of hackers around the globe are determined and skilled. Therefore, trying to secure your product from their hacking fingers is pointless. You must remove the determination. As far as I can see, the only way to stop people from hacking your product is to give them such capabilities and features that it's not worth their while to go without them.

Now, the iPhone. One of the most proprietary closed systems on the planet, Apple controls every aspect of the device, the hardware, the OS, the capabilities of the Apps and everything about the phone and it's equipment. And yet, they are regularly jailbroken and hacked by the multitude of ra1n and sn0w programs populating the darker corners of the Internet. So, what did Apple do. First was 3.0 which saw multitudes of people flock to the official OS for it's great new features. Next was 3.1.2 which was solely a security update which was met not by exodus from the jailbreak community but by stiff competition and determination from the hackers. This all culminated with GeoHot's fantastic Blackra1n, an easy-to-use 30-second jailbreak for any Apple Touch device, running any OS. So, their big move to stop jailbreaking led to it becoming a lot easier and a lot more accessible for the average user. No tricky consoles here, just one big button that says "make it ra1n" and you're done.


Of course, for Apple, one of the biggest reasons the jaibreak community are so successful is because they are getting apps for free, an income stream that Apple doesn't want to simply abandon, and Sony doesn't really want PSP owners to be simply downloading their ISO's off the net, and starving them (and the already nervous developers) of their revenue. Since, there's no real solution that keeps both sides happy, I think we've only really seen the very beginning of this.

iTunes: Apple's Elephant in the Room

When Apple released the first iPod onto the market, I don't think even they could've expected all this to happen. From a foundling product with not all that revolutionary features, iPod's now pretty much own the portable MP3 market. Initally, they faced stiff competition for the then unheard-of portable MP3 market. Now, iPods are everywhere running away with the market share in the face of only token gestures of disagreement from Microsoft and some very high-quality, but nonetheless unsuccessful new ranges of Walkmans from Sony. Now, the iPod is available in just about any size, shape, colour, format and with almost any capability you can name. And if the iPod can't do it, there's probably an app for that. So, Apple has been feverishly making bucketloads of money and trying to keep the momentum up, sometimes failing (new iPod shuffle), mostly succeeding (iPhone, ipod touch, iPod nano, etc.).



One of the big things that has let them take such commanding control over the market is the iTunes connection. By forcing iPod users to iTunes, you take more control over their actions as well as ensuring that most users will start purchasing content from the store. The initial iPods barely did anything but then the developments started rolling in. First there was music, then photos, then videos, then PIM data, then Podcasts, then Apps, Ringtones, Games, and various other extra functions. Unfortunately, fearful of losing their market momentum and iTunes users (to others like Winamp etc.). This means that they've kept essentially the same application since the first iPods, But the first iPods contained little more than music. Now, iTunes must sync multiple devices, multiple file systems, music, videos, photos, applications, PIM data and a billion other things that it was never really written to handle. Thus, we now end with what I believe to be one of the singularly worst mainstream bits of code that the world has seen on such a scale before. It's unstable, unreliable, difficult to use, requires immense resources and is generally not a very good program. Admittedly, it probably functions a bit better on Mac, but they should realise that the majority of their consumer base is currently using Windows.


My venerable old Acer Travelmate 4602 has finally been replaced by a new Dell Studio 1557, a far superior machine running all the newest gear (i7, yay!), and still iTunes 9 is slow, only starts up around 50% of the time and is a resource hog. I'm onw very relieved that I didn't try to upgrade the old machine with the new v9. On top of this, there are a multitude of things that software like that should be able to do, that it can't. Move to a new computer without ruining one's carefully organised music colletion, for example. Or to function fully without a stable internet connection. But it can't do this, or any of the other things that the Web would so dearly love.
Apple has simply been overcautious and (to an extent) greedy, trying to hold onto every scrap of market share and so simply stuffing a not-all-that-fantastic application with so much not-all-that-well-built functionality that it is just waiting for one of two things: major overhaul or catastrophic failure...