Showing posts with label Digital Media. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Digital Media. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 31, 2008

New Year's Toy: Samsung Rant Phone


I was a late joiner to the cell phone machine. I'm not a big phone talker, don't understand the texting phenomenon, and am usually near a computer, so I didn't need internet connectivity. But with The Other Half away much of the time due to his job, the practicality became undeniable. So, about four years ago, we took the plunge.

The first phone was nice in its day, but fairly clunky now, with an extendable antennae, and a rudimentary camera. The second phone--now two years old--is basically an updated version of the first, with a slightly better camera and a sleeker appearance. But it is still just basically a utilitarian phone. No more.

This year, we've cast off our Luddite ways entirely, and have entered the digital age for reals. No, it isn't an iPhone, or that swanky new touchpad Blackberry. But it is a quantum leap for us. We got "Rant" phones, by Samsung (the same brand as the previous two). But this one is a wholly different experience. It has a sliding, full-Qwerty keyboard, a mega-pixel camera, video capability, a micro-SD card. . .it's decked out.

So, to take advantage of all of this, we've taken the leap into a full service plan, which is a big bite for someone who initially didn't even want a cell phone. But thanks to The Other Half's company discount, not too hard to swallow. Time will tell if we use the high-tech new features, but I've already pulled up Greenlee Gazette on the little screen! Maybe I'll give mobile blogging a try.

Thursday, January 10, 2008

ATT and Others Set to Filter the Internet?


In a classic case of closing the barn doors after the horses get out, media companies are frantically trying to keep their products in the form that they want them at the price they want us to pay. I understand this, honestly.

I, like most people, am totally against piracy as it pertains to movies and music on a big scale. I'll go out on a limb, and say that people who illegally obtain media, and distribute it for sale are bad. OK? I don't even like it when people download movies on those sharing sites. There's something distasteful about that to me.

The line is fuzzier when it comes to ripping CDs, copying them to your iPod, or burning a CD for your mom. And if you're only using music or video that you've already paid for on a different device, well, I don't see anything wrong with that.

So while going after the big dudes makes total sense to me, it sounds in this story like they're trying to go after the little guy. And creating roadblocks and hassles to getting legitimate media. It sounds bad.

[Excerpt]


For the last 15 years, Internet service providers have acted - to use an old cliche - as wide-open information super-highways, letting data flow uninterrupted and unimpeded between users and the Internet.

But I.S.P.’s may be about to embrace a new metaphor: traffic cop.

At a small panel discussion about digital piracy at NBC’s booth on the Consumer Electronics Show floor, representatives from NBC, Microsoft, several digital filtering companies and the telecom giant AT&T said the time was right to start filtering for copyrighted content at the network level. . .

Read more at: New York Times

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