The digital entertainment world is abuzz with news about DRM—what with Steve Jobs arguing the music industry should consider dropping DRM entirely, and the movie business facing a growing problem with AACS cracks. So, naturally, software giant Microsoft has stepped boldly into the fray…with yet another DRM technology dubbed PlayReady, this time aiming to satisfy the needs of the growing mobile content industry and tap into the revenue streams represented by the growing over-the-air wireless media market.
“Our wireless partners worldwide asked for a single system to power a growing array of business models and consumer scenarios—the result is Microsoft PlayReady,” said Amir Majidimehr, Microsoft’s corporate VP of Consumer Media Technology, in a statement. “With consumer demand for digital goods of all types growing exponentially, this technology delivers a foundation for the future and accelerates the transparent delivery of rich content to consumers.”
Unlike existing DRM technologies, PlayReady is designed to support a range of content business models such as subscriptions, rentals, pay-per-view, preview, and “super-distribution,” letting consumers share media to other potential customers under specific usage terms (kind of like the Zune’s play-three-times sharing feature). Microsoft has designed PlayReady to apply to a wide range of audio and video formats, including AAC, Windows Media, and H.264 video; the technology is backward compatible with Windows DRM 10, so consumers’ existing Windows Media content will continue to be usable under PlayReady. And, since it’s Microsoft, big name mobile and wireless companies are leaping to embrace PlayReady, including Verizon, AT&T, )2, Telefónica, and Bouygues Telecom.
Microsoft plans to have PlayReady “ready to go” for handset and device makers in the first half of 2007, and will offer a porting kit with source code, while partner PacketVideo will offer optimized implementations for specific handsets.
In 1950, Alan Turing asked whether machines can think. Rather than argue over definitions, he turned the question into a party game, where an interrogator trades typed messages with hidden players and tries to work out who is who. Since then, chatbots have gotten so good that they have already fooled humans in modern versions of the test.
So, four researchers from Paris Cité University asked the obvious follow-up question in a new study published in Computers in Human Behavior Reports: can AI at least catch its own kind?
Mozilla is giving Firefox’s Smart Window two new tricks. If you haven’t tried it yet, Smart Window is an optional AI mode in Firefox with a built-in chat that helps you get things done while you browse. With this update, it can fill out online forms using details from your tabs and keep an eye on websites for you.
Tired of typing the same details into every form?
The absolutely absurd idea of putting a touchscreen display on a mouse isn't exactly new. Turtle Beach already did it with its Command Series MC7, which features a 2.25-inch control screen. But apparently, even that wasn't ridiculous enough for Arctic Fox Technologies. Its new Super Mouse looks like someone took the chunky old Atari ST mouse, slapped a touchscreen and scroll wheel on it, and called it an upgrade.
The result is a rather unusual-looking mouse that is now on Kickstarter, starting at $199. And as ridiculous as it looks, some of its features are genuinely intriguing.