August | 2007 | Procrastinating in the Heat

Archive for August, 2007

NBC to End iTunes Sales of Its Shows

“NBC Universal, unable to come to an agreement with Apple on pricing, has decided not to renew its contract to sell digital downloads of television shows on iTunes.”Media giants have new brilliant plan for making more money from their content: by pulling them off the most popular online music + video store.That is just so sad. For NBC-Universal that is.First it was their music and now it’s their TV shows. But then the public goes, so what? Music yes, I can understand why we have to pay for music. But paying for something that is “technically” free?? At first I was a bit skeptical of Apple’s strategy in selling TV shows through its iTunes store. I mean seriously, who would want to pay per episode of TV shows?? Apparently many people like to watch the episodes over and over again the night after it was aired. We just couldn’t wait till the end of the season to get our DVD boxed sets. We had to get the show now!! But even at the current rate of $1.99 an episode, an entire 24 episode season would set you back $48 and the DVD would only cost around $35. By jacking up the prices to $4.99, a whole season would cost over a hundred dollars. Ridiculous. And TV was supposed to be free. NBC/ Universal is trying to alienate the very users who saved some of their shows from cancellation. Their attitude towards music is spreading through their video distribution and it’s pretty obvious that the music industry is doomed to fail if they don’t embrace the digital technology of today. Just as music was stolen, NBC/ Universal better understand that that content was aired free to begin with. And viewing episodes online on their website doesn’t help their case either.

Beautiful World

I was just looking around the Japanese iTunes store and came upon Utada Hikaru’s new compilation. As it turns out, my favorite J-pop singer sang the song of the new Evangelion movie. Here’s clip of the promo for the album.

The next one is from another anime “Freedom” with character designs from Katsuhiro Otomo of “Akira”.

Hurray for Hikki!!

2007: 08/30
POSTED BY: mdelamerced
CATEGORY: Uncategorized
TAGS: evangelion
iTunes
japanese
jpop
utada hikaru
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So long ATRAC, thanks for nothing

In case you missed it, Sony’s CONNECT music services based on the ATRAC audio format is finally — at long last — coming to an end. In North America and Europe, anyway.Unfortunately for the electronics giant, it’s a little too late for them to do so. The damage has already been done and the iPod rules the portable music device market and Sony isn’t even anywhere near it. I was willing to get on the mini disc bandwagon when cassette was about to die and CDs were still expensive to burn. But Sony did not develop ATRAC for the mac and I just waited for the iPod to come out and hence all my music is on Apple’s device. With Sony releasing new devices that now support the more common format, MP3, we’ll see if they can still change their fortunes around for the very back of the competition.

Here’s her take

I think that it’s only fair that we link up to Ms. South Carolina’s response to the massive viewing of her flub on the pageant. Video below.

What’s your take?

2007: 08/30
POSTED BY: mdelamerced
CATEGORY: Uncategorized
TAGS: Miss Teen USA
Today's show
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As much as I dont want to say it

She is one clueless teen. I just saw this on CNN and it has to be one of the funniest things I’ve seen since Jay Leno’s take on Larry King’s Paris Hilton post-jail interview.

I just had to keep saying “OMG OMG OMG!” I can’t believe that she got that far in the competition.

I don’t know which is worse, the clip itself or the comments that followed.Click on the link above to play the clip. It’s something I can’t describe, you have to see it to believe it.

2007: 08/29
POSTED BY: mdelamerced
CATEGORY: Uncategorized
TAGS: Jay Leno
Larry King
Paris Hilton
You Tube
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iPhone Unlocked!

While I am not surprised that the iPhone has been finally unlocked for use with other services, I am however surprised that it took this long for the device to be freed. As the video (even if it is being somewhat blurred) below will show, the iPhone has ben unlocked.

So what does this mean for everyone else? I am now even more tempted to get an iPhone if it will work with my local carrier. This is absolutely great news. But sadly the legal ramifications are now underway in preventing the release of this software. But is there enough legal muscle that you would have to go to each and every country in the world to prevent the sale of this software. Is it really worth the trouble for the guys who developed the unlocking software and Apple to go after each and every corner of the Earth over it?

Whether AT&T or Apple is able to stop the release of the iPhone unlocker, it merely delays the inevitable. Phones are going to be hacked (unlocked that is) in any and every way possible. My phones are currently locked to my carrier in my country. But nothing prevents me from going across the street to have it unlocked.

Let’s face it, we’re going to have iPhones in our hands much sooner than expected.

2007: 08/29
POSTED BY: mdelamerced
CATEGORY: gadgets
TAGS: apple
ATT
iphone
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Coffee Seer

Apparently your taste in coffee describes what kind of person you are. I recently stumbled upon the “Starbucks Oracle”. Since Starbuckhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifs is currently aiming for the 3rd place you go to aside from your house and the office, this actually says a lot.

So it was a lazy afternoon gave it a shot over at the Starbucks Oracle and I entered one of my usual drinks

Ice tall soy mocha

And this is what it gave me:

Behold the Oracle’s wisdom:

Personality type: Hippie

In addition to being a hippie, you are a hypochondriac health nut. You secretly think that your insistence on only consuming all-natural products is because you’re so intelligent and well-informed; it’s actually because you’re a sucker. You’ve dabbled in Wicca or other pseudo-religions that attract morons and have changed your sexual orientation a few times this year. You probably live in California. Everyone who drinks tall iced soy mocha should be forced to eat a McDonald’s bacon cheeseburger.

Also drinks: Beverages with lots of marketing that says they’re herbal and organic
Can also be found at: Whole Foods, indoor rock climbing facilities

Amusing as it is, it was apparently a dead ringer description for others.

So the next time you get your cup of caffeine high, it may help that you’re giving something the Starbucks Oracle to think about.

Enjoy!

2007: 08/20
POSTED BY: mdelamerced
CATEGORY: Uncategorized
TAGS: hippie
oracle
starbucks
website
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My new favorite sites

Weekend blogging brings a certain type of peace and relaxation for me. Now why does that sound soo weird. Two things mentioned recently in one of the podcasts I listen to which happens to be Leo Laporte’http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifs twit.tv. In a recent show they mention the human search engine Mahalo and Morgan Webb’s Webb Alert (yes she was with TechTV and is now with G4). Both of which are amazing.

Let’s begin with Mahalo. The word meaning welcome in Hawaii uses people instead of algorithims in searching the web. It’s kinda like wikipedia meets digg but without the myspace attitude. One of my favorites has to be How to learn Japanese with Akira Kurosawa.

Next is Morgan Webb’s first podcast which is aptly named Webb Alert. It provides insights into tech’s daily news with a dose of Morgan on the side. It’s pretty good and I well made. The commentary is just right. If you don’t want to listen to Alex Albrecht and Kevin Rose’s drunk stupor (sometimes) whine in Diggnation then Webb Alert is for you. It’s very new compared to digg and twit and she only posts from Monday to Thursday. Here’s hoping that she covers the whole week.

Here’s the latest episode.

I’ll look around for more interesting posts on the web. But for now, I ❤ these sites.

2007: 08/12
POSTED BY: mdelamerced
CATEGORY: Uncategorized
TAGS: Akira Kurosawa
Alex Albrecht
digg
G4
Kevin Rose
Leo Laporte
Mahalo
Morgan Webb
myspace
TechTV
twit.tv
Webb Alert
wikipedia
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DSL Rant

In the wake of my DSL rant I totally lost my telephone line and internet line in mere hours after I ranted about it. The following day I had a new cable internet line connected. It’s just seriously lame. My phone finally got fixed this afternoon but my DSL is still down. Still lame in my opinion. In the past 20 days I’ve only been online for two. I absolutely refuse to pay this month’s bill or at least half of it. They can’t even get my phone working right.

What do I have to do to get decent connectivity in this country. Right now I’m blogging on my HSDPA connection at a coffeeshop while waiting for my parents’ plane to arrive.

You’d think that you’ll get better service from a company that’s been around for almost 75 years woud know customer service.

Apparently not.

2007: 08/12
POSTED BY: mdelamerced
CATEGORY: Uncategorized
TAGS: cable internet
DSL
HSDPA
PLDT
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Wow it’s been a long time since I posted

of course counting THE DAYS THAT MY STUPID DSL HAS BEEN OFF THE HOOK WHILE GETTINGLAME CUSTOMER SERVICE AT THE SAME TIME AND WONDERING WHY IT TAKES THE LARGEST PHONE COMPANY IN THE COUNTRY A WEEK TO FIX MY STUPID DSL.

end of rant

I just had to get that out of my chest. It’s the single thing that I hate most. I can stand a day or two. But a week??? There should be a law that makes that a crime.

Anyhoo, here we are again and so much has happened since my last post. The iPhone madness has finally simmered down in the United States while other countries are eagerly awaiting their iPhones (Count me as one of them). 80GB PS3 are shipping soon. Xbox discloses failure rate of consoles and extending the warranty on all consoles for 3 years whoch will cost them $1.5 Billion. Xbox chief moves to EA. Ratatouille breaks new ground in animation and storytelling. Town hall meeting at Apple later today. Will you still buy stuff “made in China”? And so on. Not bad for a month.

July had to be the my most emailed month ever. I just archived my email and it basically took a lot.

Square-Enix announces the Final Fantasy Fan Festival to be held in Anaheim this November and I’m planning on going. I’m serious about it as well. I’ve never been to one before. The last time I did something like this was attending Wondercon in the Bay area years ago when I was still into comic books. I still am actually but now I mostly collect Japanese manga. I’m so excited. I don’t plan on wearing a costume to the event. I’m just there for the fun.

Until my next post. Later everyone.