Category: Announcements

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EMI Music and Apple Offers DRM-Free Digital Music Download

London, 2 April 2007

EMI Music today announces that it is making all of its music catalogue at a higher quality (higher bitrate) and free of Digital Rights Management (DRM) restrictions. EMI Music is giving an option to online music retailer to sell the DRM-free music in the format of their choice. EMI Music group is giving customers the option to purchase music with DRM at a lower price with lower bitrate or to purchase DRM-free music at higher bitrate.

Apple‘s iTunes Store is the first online music store to bring EMI’s offering to the consumer. The pricing and offers are good only for tracks by EMI Artists:

  • Individual track encoded in 128 kbps AAC with Apple FairPlay DRM costs $0.99/€0.99/£0.79
  • Individual track encoded in DRM-free 256 kbps AAC costs $0.99/€0.99/£0.79
  • iTunes customers can upgrade their previoulsly purchased 128 kbps AAC with DRM to DRM-free 256 kbps AAC for only $0.30/€0.30/£0.20 per track
  • Complete album purchased on iTunes is automatically sold as DRM-free 256 kbps AAC at no extra costs

EMI Music will still employ DRM on digital music subscriptions, due to the nature of the service itself.

In addition to the deal with Apple, EMI also states that such deal will be made available to other online music store. EMI has given online music stores the options to encode the songs in the format of their choice (AAC, MP3, WMA, or any other unprotected format).

On February 6th, 2007, Apple published Steve Jobs’ open letter on Music and Digital Rights Management (DRM). In the letter, Steve Jobs calls for the removal of DRM from online music store, noting that music has been sold without any digital restrictions for years in the forms of records, tapes, and CD. EMI Music then contacted Apple to offer DRM-free digital music download.

EMI Music Group Press Release:
http://www.emigroup.com/Press/2007/press18.htm

Related:
http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughtsonmusic/

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Apple Inc. Turns 31

Founded by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne on April 1st, 1976, Apple Inc. turns 31 year old today.

Apple Inc. 31 year old

Happy Birthday, Apple.

The year 2007 is a significant year for Apple Inc.
During MacWorld San Francisco 2007 keynote, Steve Jobs announced name change from Apple Computer Inc. to Apple Inc.

Apple released AppleTV in mid-March, after it was announced on MacWorld San Francisco 2007. It was originally scheduled for release in February, but for some reasons that Apple wouldn’t provide it was delayed till March.

Two other products from Apple is coming in 2007. The first one is the much anticipated Apple iPhone, as it was announced on MacWorld San Francisco 2007. Apple has been rumored to have been working on a mobile phone for the past 3 years. Steve Jobs revealed the existence of the project and announced its scheduled release sometimes in June 2007. The Apple iPhone has been dominating the tech news starting with the rumors of its existence, its announcement, and the trademark lawsuit filed by Cisco. Apple and Cisco settled the dispute in a relatively short time after. Both company agreed upon the usage of iPhone trademark.

The other product coming in 2007 is Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. Currently it is tracking for Spring 2007 release date. Remember, Spring Season ends on June 20th. It is speculated that Apple will release Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard during Apple’s WorldWide Developer Conference, taking place on June 11 to June 15. Mac community hungers for any news regarding anything Mac and anything Apple. One rumor stated that Leopard would be delayed until october due to some dubious reasons. So far, Apple has been tight lipped about Leopard release date. One thing remains the same: Apple affirms that Leopard will be released in Spring 2007.

For Apple, the year 2007 is the beginning of “The Next 30 Years”.

http://www.apple.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc.

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South Park: Season 11 Episode 5 – “Fantastic Easter Special”

South Park: Season 11 Episode 5 – “Fantastic Easter Special”
Original Air Date: 2007-04-04

Note:

From South Park Studios: (announced on April 1st, 2007)

Determined to get the real story behind why he has to decorate eggs for Easter, Stan falls in with an eccentric society that guards a legendary secret.

From Comedy Central Press Release:

It’s a “fantastic easter special” on an all-new “South Park” on Wednesday, April 4 at 10:00 P.M.

Stan refuses to decorate another Easter egg in an all-new “South Park” entitled, “Fantastic Easter Special,” premiering on Wednesday, April 4 at 10:00 p.m. (ET/PT) on Comedy Central.

Season 11 Episode 5 - Season 11 Episode 5 -

Discussion about the episode, here.

South Park Season 11 on iTunes Store – UNCENSORED (available on Saturday April 07th, 2007)

If you are looking for South Park episode, you can get it at iTunes Store instead of downloading the AVI or RM files off torrents from site likes mrtwig.net.

Remember downloading TV episodes off torrents is generally frowned upon by the TV networks or Viacom. Viacom will sue you and YouTube and Google and everyone. It’d be very very very wrong to download South Park episodes off torrent sites such as mrtwig.net where you can find high quality South Park episodes in AVI and RM. So please, do not download the episode torrent from site like mrtwig.net where the high quality AVI and RM torrents are posted within the hour after the episode aired on Comedy Central.

You may be able to find the “Fantastic Easter Special” torrent at sites like mininova, but remember that Comedy Central and Viacom don’t want you to do so.

Meanwhile, South Park – The Complete Ninth Season DVD was released on March 06th, 2007. It includes the infamous “Trapped in A Closet” and the Emmy® Award-winning episode, “Best Friends Forever.”

South Park Studios is the official South Park site and that’s where all the new informations come from. There will be no spoilers discussed here until the episode airs.

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April Fool’s Day 2007

April 1st, 2007
It’s April Fool’s Day, or is it?

Roadrunner Records
Stone Sour Announce Next Tour, Sponsored by KFC

Google
Google TiSP
Gmail Paper

ThinkGeek
The ThinkGeek WiiHelm
SnūzNLūz – Wifi Donation Alarm Clock
Piranhaz – R/C Battle Fish
The Lonely Guy Dream Vacation Digital Photo Frame
The ThinkGeek 8-bit Tie
SurgeStix – Inhalable Caffeine Stix
Vilcus Plug Dactyloadapter

Blizzard
World of Warcraft Tinfoil Hat

TWiT
G4 Acquires TWiT

Star Trek
Star Trek Remasters to Get Facelift
New Tech for Trek: The Prism DuroSport
Breaking News: DS9 Returns to Daytime TV!
Product News: Sulu’s Against the Wall in New Novel

The Register (read more)
Apple, Google join forces for ‘ultimate phone’

Maybe I’ll add more later, or will I?

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Vista PC Reviewed: Gateway GT5404 Desktop

This Gateway® GT5404 Desktop is the first Vista PC’s I worked on shortly after Windows Vista was released.

Specifications
Processor: Intel® Pentium® D Processor 915 dual-core 64-bit processor with Intel® EM64T Technology
(2.8GHz, 800MHz FSB, 2 x 2MB L2 cache)
Operating System: Genuine Windows Vista™ Home Premium
Chipset: Intel® 945G DH Chipset(Viiv™)
Memory: 1024MB dual-channel DDR2 Memory (2 x 512MB), 533MHz (PC4200). Expandable to 2GB (2x2048MB) 667MHz (PC5300)
Video: Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 950 with up to 224MB Shared Video Memory – VGA port
Audio: 6-Channel (5.1) High-Definition Audio
Hard Drive: 250GB SATA II (7200rpm, 8MB cache)
Optical Drives: 16x multiformat dual-layer DVD±RW drive
15-in-1 Digital Media Manager™ (Memory Card Reader)
56K ITU V.92 ready fax/modem (RJ-11 port)
Intel® 10/100 Mbps Ethernet LAN (RJ-45 port)
6 USB 2.0 Ports (2 in front, 4 in back)
1 Parallel Port, 1 Serial Port
2 PS/2 Ports (Keyboard and Mouse)
3 Audio: Front/Headphone (Stereo), Microphone, Line-in/Side (Stereo)
1 PCI-E x16, 1 PCI-E x1, 2 PCI

Out of the box, Gateway GT5404 Desktop is somewhat an adequate performer. The Intel Pentium D Processor 915 dual-core is powerful enough, but some may prefer Intel Core 2 Duo processors. It comes with 1GB of RAM (2x512MB) and an integrated Intel GMA 950 with up to 224MB shared video memory. That leaves 800MB of RAM to the system. Booting Windows Vista on this PC is a little bit painful. Right of the bat Windows Vista is using 700MB-900MB of RAM and settles around 500MB.
To increase the performance of this computer, consider upgrading the Memory to at least 2GB and/or installing a decent PCI-E Video Card with minimum of dedicated 128MB of video RAM.

This computer comes with an optical mouse and a USB-powered stereo speaker. The mouse is nice enough to use. The speaker lacks low frequency and sounds terrible when it comes to music.

Considering the specifications, it should be a relatively powerful computer with the exception with the integrated graphic card. Windows Vista feels a lot sluggish on this computer. Consider turning of the Sidebar to free up some resources. The graphic adapter is having trouble driving larger LCD flat panel. I tested it using Gateway 22″ LCD, Gateway 19″ LCD, and Samsung SyncMaster 940MW. At the LCD’s native and optimized resolutions, the display looks terrible. All three LCD flat panel looks blurry using the integrated Intel Graphics. I installed a PCI-Express based nVidia GeForce 7100GS with dedicated 128MB video RAM and DVI connector. After that the display look flawless. I replaced the 2x512MB PC4200 with 2x1GB PC5300 and Windows Vista runch a lot smoother.

I decided to downgrade the Operating System to Windows XP Pro. The device drivers for Windows XP are relatively easy to find on Gateway and Intel support site. Windows XP Pro runs great on this machine, with the exception on the integrated Intel Graphics. Once again, the display looks terrible when it’s connected to the built-in video card (VGA). With the nVidia GeForce 7100GS, the display once again looks flawless.

One complaint from user of this computer is the position of the ON/OFF switch. It is located on the top right of the front panel above the optical drive. The ON/OFF swith is often mistaken for the optical drive eject button. Gateway GT5408 Desktop does have the same design with this GT5404 model.

Overall, Gateway GT5404 Desktop is a good machine with the exception with the integrated graphic adapter. I’d recommend installing a PCI-Express video card to boost the performance. If you are sticking with Windows Vista, having 2GB of RAM will help a lot.

GT5404 RAM CPUZ

More pictures will be added soon.