Apple, Napster Swap Jabs Over Security Flaws

Apple, Napster Swap Jabs Over Security Flaws

Apparently, Steve Jobs sent a message to top record industry executives directing them to "a Web page detailing how to convert Napster's rental tunes into permanent downloads." I'm not sure what page he is referring to but it could be something like All-Streaming-Media.

Napster CEO Chris Gorog jabbed back by pointing out that the same technique could be used to capture iTunes music and in fact, it's even easier to unlock most iTunes downloads using Hymn. Hymn is open-source, free software that attempts to remove the Digital Rights Management (DRM) from Apple's AAC files. Of course once the DRM is removed, users can swap files with their friends or move the music on to (unauthorized) machines.

There has been an ongoing battle between Apple and Hymn. I can't believe that Jobs would be so dense as to throw rocks from his glass house. I thought Steve was smarter than that.

Impressive Bird Brain

Animal Planet has a great video clip of an African grey parrot named Einstein. African greys are one of the most intelligent species in the world. They rank right up there with dolphins and chimpanzees. The San Diego Wild Animal Park has a daily bird show featuring an African Grey named Bruce Nadell. Bruce will spout off words and sounds in response to natural language commands just like Einstein. The trainer likes to rapid fire commands at Bruce to show off his wide vocabulary and speed. I highly recommend going to see that show.

Most birds aren't as fluent as the Bud Light cockatoo you saw on the Superbowl ad, but that was obviously faked. That bird had a Spanish accent and everybody knows that cockatoos come from Australia (like iocane powder).

Can an Apprentice Break Rules?

The last episode of The Apprentice featured one of many tasks that required creating buzz. I'm dumbfounded that nobody leveraged the internet to do that job. I can go to Google, search for "blog apprentice" and churn up over 250,000 hits. Why wasn't anybody on those blogs posting comments the night before, urging people to come out to their events? Why limit it geographically to a park in NYC? How about a 1 day, worldwide contest? Did anybody call newspapers and TV stations? Honestly I think they could have gotten a bigger turn out just by walking down the street saying, we're filming The Apprentice over there today. Why give away anything at all? Put the money into entertainment and advertising.

OBEX for the LG PM-325

As it turns out, Sprint PCS subscribers are not alone in our quest of OBEX enabled handsets. The Verizon Motorola v710 has been available since August. It is the second CDMA Bluetooth handset in North America (the first being the Sony Ericsson T608).

Surprise, surprise, no OBEX on the v710.  It has dial-Up Networking (DUN) and Handsfree only. There were some blatant communications from Motorola and Verizon that flatly stated OBEX was removed at Verizon's request. Lots of rumors were flying about Verizon releasing a new firmware version that would enable OBEX again.

For those not familiar with the story, the OBEX part of the Bluetooth protocol is what allows phones to exchange business cards, synchronize data with PCs, and generally work nicely with other Bluetooth devices like the Acrua TL. It is something of a mystery why carriers such as Sprint and Verizon have chosen to leave these features out of the LG PM-325 and the v710.

Jonathan Zdziarski started a cash prize to the first hacker to enable OBEX support. In the mean time, Verizon Wireless customers in California started a class action lawsuit to enable OBEX.

The prize was never claimed and the case is still open. However, somebody has indeed succeeded in hacking the v710 firmware to enable serial data over Bluetooth. With the new firmware they can sync wirelessly using special PC software (counterpart to SnapSync).

Apparently the new firmware was created by merging the v710 software with another Motorola phone from a different market that had the features enabled. While it doesn't get them OBEX, it still eliminates the need for the cable (though you need the cable to re-flash the phone). It seems possible that they will eventually get OBEX working.

The Bluetooth Treo 650 was also crippled when it first hit the stores. You couldn't use the DUN profile. Somebody at TreoCentral hacked it. Sprint later enabled it for everybody.

Coffee Break for The Apprentice

I have to say, I just love watching The Apprentice. I guess it's because I love to analyze things and I like trying to solve tough problems. Today is no exception.

In the most recent episode, the teams were given a $75,000 budget to devise and execute a marketing campaign for Nestle Taster's Choice Coffee. The Donald urged the teams to think big. I think both teams came up short.

Shopping via MIDlet

Paul Golding would like the assistance of his mobile phone while shopping. I'll refrain from quoting his entire article, but I wanted to explore the concept a bit and see what's currently possible.

Dali Artwork

I purchased these two Salvador Dali prints from The Divine Comedy series. These are watercolor prints from wood engravings. There is some dispute over Dali's involvement in the actual creation of the wood plates but the artwork is certainly his. "The Divine Comedy" was published by Joseph Foret and was carved and printed by Les Heures Claires, arguably the finest printer ever of art books. Foret required Dali to oversee the work on the 100 different woodblock prints. He pencil signed all of the prints in the first 100 books of the tirade.

The signatures on my prints are signed in the block meaning it is basically a stamp of Dali's name. I've seen pencil signed prints from this series for sale on the internet for about 4 to 8 times the cost of block signed prints.

To celebrate the 700th anniversary of Dante's birth, the government of Italy planned to issue a special edition of The Divine Comedy. For this issue, Dali created 101 watercolors between 1951 and 1960. In 1954, La Libreria della Stato published a brochure with seven of the paintings reproduced full size as lithographs, together with sample pages of the text. The prints are 16 1/2 inches x 11 inches with narrow margins. Due to the opposition these prints created, the Italian government dropped the project and postage stamps were issued instead. Several years later, Joseph Foret, in Paris, who had previously published other Dali suites such as Don Quichotte, started production of the prints by wood engraving. Master engravers worked from 1959 - 1963 to carve 3500 separate wood blocks for the 100 prints. The Divine Comedy project was then taken over and completed by Jean Estrade of Les Heures Claires.