Re: Netflix and alternative platforms...

Prosecute the victim.

If Netflix is just building on Silverlight then there's a good chance that it is their suppliers like Microsoft that are the real patent violators here. Netflix just seems to be using someone else's software. They aren't the real "violator" here.

Re: Analysis!?

Given the history of this sort of thing, the timing and choice of target seems suspicious here. This case should have been filed sooner and probably against Apple rather than Netflix.

Re: Hmmm

Such a dual port scheme would also allow you to use expansion products for your Apple devices while also being able to charge your device. You wouldn't be left in a situation where you can't really fully take advantage of all your doodads because you'll run out of power.

Sometimes I wonder if those blindly devoted to Apple do much of anything with their overpriced tokens of conspicuous consumption.

"I only buy Monster brand cables"

> and everyone with an Apple hate on can fry their expensive gear with five dollar adapters to their heart's content.

Why would that happen?

I suppose you're a big fan of Monster cables too.

Spoiled toddler

So are you seriously excusing Apple behaving like a spoiled toddler just because people here speak their mind?

That right there is the best reason to avoid Apple then.

Apple products are designed in "The Peoples Republic of California".

Re: Curious...

It's not just a proprietary format. It's Microsoft's own proprietary format that idiots like you helped them force on the rest of us. Now that we all have data in these formats, Microsoft (and by extension you) are just giving a big f*ck you to all of us.

THIS is why you avoid proprietary formats to begin with.

Crassus Maximus could decide to stop supporting the tools necessary for you to use your own data.

The legacy support issue is quite separate from the question of whether or not MIcrosoft has really given up on vendor lock for newly created documents.

Oh the huge-manate!

What you've described sounds more like old school copyright working as it should.

Copyright terms weren't absurd. New artists weren't shaken down by the old ones that are trying to live off of the labor they did 20 years ago.

It would be far easier to manage "what is owned" if every worthless scrap of paper isn't assumed to be some masterpiece meant for publishing and exploitation.

Pedestrian users with no imagination.

> II beg to differ... many people use PVRs to watch weekly broadcasts at times convenient to them, and then delete them.

....which is still best done with more capacity rather than less. More capacity means that there is a large window between when you record something and when it is likely to be culled to make room for something else. More capacity means that you can go on holiday and not have to worry about your favorite show being there when you return.

Modern TV recordings are BIG and there's no longer an option to tweak quality settings to get more storage out of a small PVR.

Puny PVRs also make it harder to juggle the interests of multiple people on the off chance that you aren't someone that lives alone (family, roommates).

Sometimes you fight the battles you can win. It might make sense to secure the entire cabin but we know that won't happen on a civilian flight. People will get their panties in a bunch over a minor inconvenience.

That's all this really is. It just took this long for someone sufficiently powerful to run afoul of this particular rule.

Some senator was inconvenienced, so now suddenly things much change.

If you can't be unplugged long enough for a plan to get into the air then you really need to be unplugged for purely therapeutic reasons.

Reminds me of a certain recent Dr Who episode... Upgrades!

Re: Few use the "smart" features of smart TVs

>> someone claims that streaming Netflix makes a TV a "smart TV" I'll preemptively disagree. ... - you're still using your TV as a TV.

>

>Which replaces using your Windows PC as a TV.

Nope. A Roku doesn't quite manage that. Neither does an AppleTV. Both represent pre-alpha releases of what a PC was capable of doing 6 years ago. That's why those of us prone to using PCs with our TVs are not stopping any time soon.

We are demanding early adopters. We won't eat dirt. We might even pay a premium that "normal" people would refuse.

That's why there will always be a place for something that's not an appliance. That's what caused the rise of the PC to begin with. (people needed/wanted more)

Re: @Trevor

A large number of things are being lumped together her just to manufacture a number that's troll bait. They're not equivalent or interchangeable. The only bits that really are are the Macs and PCs. The rest is just silly spin, "statistics", and wishful thinking.

Although the idea that computing is more than just "secretary terminals" is hardly a new idea. So there is nothing new or shocking in these cooked numbers. They're really nothing to get excited about because nothing has actually changed.

Phones can now be conflated with desktop PCs but that doesn't alter the big picture much.

Even if consumers get broken out of their "must be DOS compatible" mindset, you still have to worry about apps and legacy apps especially. "Work" will probably still require terminals.

Re: @mutatedwombat

> You lack imagination and an understanding of how to make technology work

No. He just realizes that a toaster isn't a computer. He realizes that many devices being conflated with general purpose computers are extremely limited in functionality or usefulness and aren't being bought primarily for their computing characteristics.

They are PCs masquerading as appliances. Why contradict the manufacturer?

I would love to see Microsoft knocked down a peg as much as the next Linux Zealot but I would rather not be so obviously delusional about it.

Fanboy misses important details; more news at 11

The music industry had an entirely different marketing model and did not already have entrenched encumbents that were complete vertical monopolies including distribution to the consumer.

Someone else already brought up the problem of trying to sell Pay Per View to people that view the BBC as free.

Re: If it looks like a computer....

> So your average retired grandmother is going to get a Linux computer up and running on a TV is she?

Why not? All she has to do is plug it in.

It's not 1990.

Re: I don't want a smart TV.

> Nobody forces you to buy a Smart TV.

Therefore all ethics and morality and LAW should be ignored?

Will you still feel the same way when you are arrested because your technology is running amok and engaging in highly illegal acts on your behalf?

Standard Units?

Standard units for storage? Try these:

CD -> 800M

DVD9 -> 9G

BD35 -> 35G

So a kBD would be just shy of 4TB.

I use 35G for the BD because of the prevalence of BD videos between 25-35G. Never seen one where the main title uses up the full 50G (or even 40G).

Re: Copycat Microsoft

You know that application that actually makes an AppleTV useful?

You do realize what the first 2 letters of it stands for don't you?

Re: Three Thoughts

Your "clear purpose" there is missing a few things.

An AppleTV really does very little to get the content from your PC onto your TV. It's a lot better if you jailbreak it but who really wants to bother with that. It's the sort of thing that seems more appropriate for Linux users than Apple users and the Linux users are already using MythTV.

Microsoft realizing that the "computing appliance" that plays games can also be a "video appliance" is rather obvious actually.

The first Xbox WAS a PC. This point is especially obvious if you've ever seen the original Xbox dev kit.

It's a concept that might not play well to blithering Apple fanboys (or Linux Zealots) but that doesn't seem to be hurting the concept any.

Re: I wanted one of these

> My Win7 Acer Aspire Revo, which was less than half the price, is a bit underpowered for high-res video. And its HDMI support is patchy.

A Revo is more than capable of handling high-res video. The Nvidia GPU does all the work.

It can happily even play BluRays. That's about as rough as you're going to get in terms of high-res video.

It's stuff like Hulu and Amazon Prime that an ION box won't be able to handle (due to the weak CPU).

A pretty superficial review...

As an HTPC, there's just a little bit more than having a cable that connects to your TV. The fact that the machine is tiny may or may not make a difference depending on your setup. You might actually want a larger machine for better heat dissipation or a better GPU. How it interacts with the rest of your AV gear is important.

Talking heads like to beat this particular dead horse but I don't think any of them actually put Macs through their paces in this area.

I used to use Minis as HTPCs before it was trendy.

Re: Quality?

It doesn't matter who you try to redirect the blame at. This sort of thing should have not made it out of QA in Cupertino.

Re: If veryone did what the bearded hippie wanted....

> ... there would be know internet, no amazon, no ebay, nothing.

There is nothing about the Internet, Amazon, or Ebay that requires bending over and saying ahh for every corporate overlord that comes along. Amazon in particular benefits very much from Free Software. They probably could not run their operation without it.

Amazon probably owes it's existence to Stallman.

Re: Bearded man has informed opinion

> Apparently people shouldn't be allowed to opt-in to a service Stallman disagrees

Except that is NOT what is happening here.

Something sinister is being installed by default. The clueless and the unwary won't be aware of what's going on here. They will be spied on without their knowledge or consent. That is why the parallels to Microsoft are being drawn here. This is precisely the sort of thing you expect from Microsoft or some random bit of Windows shareware.

It's an OS level default rather than something that requires a "spy on me please" button.

Re: More Green Drives

What's supposed to be the time frame on that? I have one of those drives. When should I expect it to die?

It seems to be chugging along fine.

It doesn't host / or /var though.

Re: Meh Consumer NAS

I have a similar "home built" NAS that's nothing more than a ready made box from a web vendor that has a hot swap rack shoved into it. It has a respectable amount of bays and can easily and cheaply accommodate more. This box can saturate a GigE connection. I wonder if any of the "appliances" can manage that.

Are you kidding?

2 hours of HD video in a nicely packaged consumer format is 35GB.

A few trips to some picture worthy destinations and you can easily eat up a mere 600G just with homemade vacation videos. Never mind accumulating stuff you might have paid for from places like Walmart, Amazon, or iTunes.

Re: Apple needs TV networks more than TV networks need Apple

That's not the problem.

The problem is that the cable providers own the data networks.

You are trying to unseat the platform owner. It's a lot like Netscape trying to unseat Microsoft.

If I decide to go crazy with my Roku, my local physical monopoly can just go crazy with the bandwidth caps. Plus current tech already limits what you can do with HD material.

Re: Just trying to protect their balliwick

Apple is really the only vendor that pushes it's own exclusive ecosystem and suffers from NIH syndrome. Most other vendors at least try to be more flexible. Although ARM hardware will only let you do so much.

Most other video appliances are closer to an HTPC that is MORE compatible rather than less.

Playing video formats from across the pond is a good example of this.

DRM is a problem but most other services are hardware agnostic.

Re: nope

No. The problem for Apple is how do they stop this sort of thing from happening again.

This is an Apple QA failure and there's really no way to whitewash it.

If the shoe were on the other foot, you would be screaming bloody murder and declaring how an Apple curated solution would avoid such nonsense.

Re: Blu Ray

That still leaves rentals. Physical media may seem "quaint" but it's still the most effective transport mechanism available. Streaming formats are inferior either in terms of quality or their ability to actually be streamed. I recently experienced that with a high quality stream. It looked pretty good but playing it in real time just didn't work.

Spinny disks allow for fewer compromises when you're actually watching the content.

Netflix streaming quality is generally pretty crappy and their selection isn't much better. Plus the lack of personal property rights on "streams" means that companies like Netflix are always at the mercy of upstream content owners. That's why their spinny disk library is much more comprehensive.

Re: I run a company....

You don't even have to be hired by Google. You can be an independent accountant and still make out like a bandit by fleeing into the private sector. Mine is an ex-IRS auditor. So some of the skills do trickle down and are available for "the little guy" to take advantage of.

The tax code is much easier to personally exploit as a "non-employee" than a member of the Google collective..

Re: Randoid bolllocks eh?

Can't comment on the UK tax code being from the other side of the pond. However, all of this nonsense with proles trying to defend the rights of corporations reminds me of scenes from the show Tudors. It shows a complete lack of understanding of how businesses are run and how the tax code already favors them. The poor and powerless are desperately shilling for the high and mighty and the King.

Re: She has options

...yes her choices are "anal probing" or "being cast out".

Great list of so-called "choices" there.

According to you it's all good. Doesn't matter if it's someone like Stalin or Hitler in charge. They always have the choice to go live in the ghetto or get themselves a nice farm in Lancaster county.

Re: Yeah, but...

The problem with streamers is content. You have to fight with legacy monpolies that have no interest in seeing you succeed. That includes both the content and the delivery mechanism (network). While the mechanics are pretty simple, you can be starved for content.

Any device that can be a cheap PVR client for Tivo or MCE or MythTV quickly has a leg up on any device that doesn't. The same goes for playing "legacy" content the user my have on hand.

However the price point the market will actually bear seems to be about $100. So there's not a lot for companies to work with. Although Sage was already there a long time ago.

Re: Isn't choice grand

Some of us actually expect our overpriced luxury branded goods to actually work as advertised.

Apple fanboys make excuses for nonsense that they would eviscerate Linux or Windows over.

Re: OMG!!

I'm not sure I even know what you are on about.

Although I am sure I can find the relevant features by using the mouse to poke around whatever interface you happen to be talking about.

Re: Isn't choice grand

Your window of opportunity for getting a refund on a Mac is very small. Beyond that you will be forced to deal with their warranty replacement system and even that will only last as long as the warranty does.

For a company that is often compared to BMW, they really don't stand behind their product.

Whether or not they are on par with Dell here isn't the point. They aren't supposed to be "just another Dell".

Furthermore, you won't get an "immediate fix". It will "stay in the shop" for awhile.

Been there. Done that. That's why I recommend putting a Mac through it's paces as soon as you can. Make sure it's not a lemon as soon as you can. Otherwise the "refund" option may simply disappear.

Re: @ZFS Fanboys:

> the arcane spells that need to be typed into the shell, and so on.

Like what RAID level you want? Yeah, I could see how that could be a bit of a burden. Then again, that crowd probably isn't even aware of NAS appliances at all.

Re: not enough bays

Intel parts aren't nearly as power hungry as they used to be. Power management is a lot better across the board. So there are fewer and fewer reasons to shell out the cash for an appliance.

...and while there are more "robust" appliances, those are even more rediculously overpriced than the small ones that are the subject at hand.

Re: @Matt

>> "Why does Oracle Linux use OCFS2?"

>

> Because ZFS' license is not compatible with the Linux kernel's GPL one,

Huh? Oracle OWNS ZFS. They own it along with everything else that was part of Sun Microsystems.

If they really wanted to use it then licensing it would not be a problem. They own it. They aren't some random 3rd party.

The fact that ZFS is not a clustered filesystem is likely why Oracle uses OCFS2 instead.

It's kind of like comparing apples and potatoes.

Re: not enough bays

Putting an array together is 5 minutes of work. You Google it once and you are set for the next 5 years or however long your setup manages to meet your requirements.

Just knowing "what buttons to push" on an appliance is going to put you way beyond the skill or comfort level of most people. The shiny happy interface (or lack of one) really isn't the biggest problem here.

4 disks just isn't enough. Not enough bays to handle redundancy or parity and hot spares and such.

Re: I don't get NAS boxes...

A n00b is going to have a problem with fixing any NAS. This goes for appliances as well as Windows boxes. There is simply no magic in Windows (or even MacOS) that hides the complexity of this stuff. "Normal people" just have trouble with the idea that they can create a shared drive under Window and use it on another machine.

Never mind anything that's really interesting.

Re: HP Proliant Micrpserver

With what I save on not using overpriced appliances, I can have a completely redundant array.

That nullfies much of the typical marketing bullet points associated with NAS appliances.

Plus you've got a whole other copy of everything.

Re: Why?!?

Why? Because he's actually built something. He has demonstrated an understanding of technology. He's shown that he has a clue.

Plus he wasn't a jerk about it. He didn't engage in artistic megalomania.

Apple makes even Microsoft look good.

> Sorry, I'm missing the bit where Flash, a closed propriatary format, helps the open web.

That closed proprietary platform is cross platform. That's more than you can say for some phone app.

It may not be perfect. It may be far from perfect. It's still better than what the Mr. Flash-Killer wants to offer you.

Re: XBMC not as scalable

> I backed up some of my DVD collection to an iTunes, spent $99 on an Apple TV box, turned it on and *it just worked* and I knew that any serious attempt to deploy XBMC in a similar fashion would not be as trivial in my time

Bullsh*t.

iTunes does squat in terms of media management. It doesn't just do BAD media management. It does NO media management.

It does not "just work".

The experience of what you are describing is nowhere near as "polished" as XBMC.

You might have better luck making up bogus nonsense about a $800 or $2400 product. AppleTV's are just too cheap. Plenty of the rest of us can run them for lulz and see how they really perform.