Presidential candidate Barack Obama reached out to the smart mobs in new and effective ways that contributed significantly to his victory. It seems inevitable that the crowd will now be eager to direct its wisdom into his administration. Here is a pioneering project in that venue: BigDialog: Ask the President-Elect is a post-election method to keep the public participating in the governing by the new President. In a techPresident post — White House 2.0: The Public is Knocking on the Door – Micah Sifry sketches the project. Here are some basics for harnessing of this here comes everybody method:

[The projects] seek to crowd-source the process of putting pressing questions before the President-elect and identifying the top priorities of the public. . . .

The site builds on our experience during the primaries with 10Questions.com and is designed to take video and text questions for the President-elect and then enable users to vote the best questions to the top. If we manage to get the President-elect to respond, users will then get the opportunity to rate his responsiveness.

The French music industry body Société civile des Producteurs de Phonogrammes en France (SPPF) is suing four US based developers of P-to-P applications, including the BitTorrent client Vuze, Limewire and Morpheus and Shareaza. (The latter is the one that is stimulating vitriol in the tech blogosphere as it is developed by open source development platform SourceForge.)

Under newly revised French law the US companies can be tried in the France as their applications have not implemented filtering mechanisms to block out copyrighted material.

A couple of arguments are being leveled at the SPPF. The first that these applications aren’t designed for copyright infringement. It’s not the fault of the developers that they are being used as such. This argument of course has been since the original Napster trial. I’m sorry, but it just doesn’t wash. However much there is legitimate usage, the vast majority of usage is not legitimate. All the developers need to do is support their claims off innocence by embedding filtering mechanisms into their apps. If they counter claim that this would restrict the liberty of their users, then they can’t any longer argue that they don’t support illegitimate usage of their technology.

Another argument being aired is that the music industry should stop being so hung up on trying to get paid online, indeed one story eve referred to "the Music Industry's obsession with copyright”. That’s like saying "the car industry's obsession with cars". Copyright is the oxygen of the music industry. Without it there is no industry. Sure there may be cases for changing some industry practices but copyright remains the essence of making money from music.

Music cannot just be ‘for free’ anymore than cars or houses can ‘just be for free’. If people aren’t paid they don’t make the product. Sure music will still exist, but you’ll swap nicely programmed download stores and well stocked high street stores for buskers and millions upon millions of artist pages, all clamouring for your attention. Perhaps that sounds appealing? The problem is, most of them would sound a fraction as good as they would if they’d been able to give up their day jobs and been given proper equipment, studio time, mentoring and artist development support. And even those that would still manage to sound ok, would struggle to find their way to your PC or mobile screen as they wouldn’t have any marketing support to help them get there.

I’ll close with an account of how we first ended up with music copyright collection, which says as much to today’s ‘music should be free’ argument as it did then, 150 years ago:

“In 1847, the composer Ernest Bourget visited the Paris Concert Café Ambassadeurs in the company of his colleague Victor Parizot. At the time, Bourget was a popular composer of chansons and chansonnettes comiques. Among other pieces, the orchestra played the music of Bourget. When the waiter presented the composer with the bill for the sugared water that he and his colleague had consumed as the fashionable luxury drink of the period, Bourget refused to pay claiming that the orchestra had repeatedly played his music - without paying anything: and so [took the] sugared water in return for playing his piece. The dispute between the composer and the owner was brought before the court. On 8th September 1847, the Tribunal de Commerce de la Seine prohibited the owner from playing works of the composer without his consent. The exclusive right of the author to public performances that had been anchored in the French law of 1791 was thus put into practice for the first time. And on 26th April 1849 the Cour d'Appel de Paris sentenced the owner of Ambassadeurs to pay compensation - i.e. in this case royalties - to Bourget.”

Designed to attach to a keychain, the lightweight and waterproof Blizzard Authenticator is an electronic device that generates a six-digit security code at the press of a button. This code is unique, valid only once, and active for a limited time; it must be provided along with the account name and password when signing in to the World of Warcraft account linked to it.

This is about the best quick coverage I've seen, courtesy of paidContent. My first take is over at the Forrester blog.

I'm on the bus. There's a horrible, fingernails-on-chalkboard screech every time the vehicle comes to a stop. A big guy next to me is hacking up buckets of phlegm. A teenage girl behind me is whining into the pink RAZR plastered to her face. But it's OK. In a few seconds, it will all disappear. I plug the Bluetooth adapter into my iPod, switch on the square wireless earphones, and pop the buds in my auditory canals. Ah, the sweet sounds of solitude -- just me and my personal playlist. When I get up to leave, I usually stumble as the bus lurches, but with this setup, there's no catching a thumb on a wire, no earbuds flying into a stranger's lap. The buds stay put, and I'm on my way. Sure, they look silly, but my long hair hides them well. Anyway, looking a bit goofy is worth a blissful morning commute. -- Aria Pearson
[RATING: 8/10] [RETAIL: $299] [ etymotic.com ]

The Windows Mobile team has confirmed that the upcoming IE Mobile 6 browser or "IE 6 on 6" will not be made available as a separate download for current WinMo 6.1 smartphones. Instead, the update will only show up on devices released starting at the end of this year or in early 2009. The reason, according to Microsoft, is that "the rich media experiences that IE Mobile 6 enables require more powerful, advanced devices." IE doesn't have a whole lot of fans, but if you already have a WinMo smartphone it would suck to miss out on what appears to be a huuuge improvement. [Mobile Burn]

The single most effective way to save energy is to power down your system after saving your game if necessary when not actively playing. If you own a console with a powersaving feature such as auto power-off after a preset time, use it.

• Bet you didn't know: video games are good for you; study shows social, political, civic effects
• Video Game Console Energy Consumption - Who's the Energy Hog? (2006)
• Consumer group rates appliance power consumption, PS3 one of the highest
  

Now this one goes out to all the Xbox 360 Gamers, now if you love playing Halo 3 you will definitely love the all new real battle uniform. Are you a true Halo 3 fan? Before we start we just want you to know that there is a video below for you to watch so enjoy.

The DMZ is to see a little more style soon, this will happen when Republic of Korea soldiers get the all new high-tech real battle uniforms and there may possibly be all new accessories like bullet-proof helmets and a stunning new assault rifle.

The troops will don the Halo 3 like battle wear which we know for a fact Halo 3 fans will love them, these new combat uniforms will begin phase-two of development at the beginning of 2009 thanks to the Agency for Defense Development. Now watch the video.

Source

I just got this in the mail and I thought it was a quite funny idea. Shampoo bottled up in what looks like oil bottles. Nice.

Gear Head Camaro shampoo [gearheadshampoo.com]

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Hardware, Portables, Apple, Macbook Pro, MacBook, MacBook Air

Talk about being slightly touched. Arik Hesseldahl's BusinessWeek article, published today, says "...as of Nov. 19, Hewlett-Packard has beaten Apple to the punch, announcing the first multi-touch-enabled notebook PC, the tx2. I can't help but wonder whether Apple just lost an important race."

Not only did Apple not lose an important race, the tx2 isn't the first multi-touch notebook. Engadget points out that the Dell Latitude XT, which offered multi-touch technology, came on the scene back in July of '08. But even that wasn't first, because the MacBook Air was introduced on January 15th of 2008 with a multi-touch trackpad.

"Well," you say, "there's a difference between a touchable trackpad and a touchable display." You're right: one's meant to be touched and one isn't. The reason the trackpad on the MacBook Pro and he MacBook has gotten larger, smoother and glassier is because Apple is (and will continue to) inviting you to do more with it than tap and click. Multi-touch gestures on a notebook ought to be delivered via the surface that's made to be touched, not the surface made to be viewed. On the iPhone those surfaces are one & the same because there's no other option.

But really, the notion that Apple "lost an important race" by not being first is the biggest error here. Apple wasn't the first to release jukebox software, a portable music player or a mobile phone. Yet, iTunes, the iPod and the iPhone are the most successful examples of each. Apple's greatest strength is patience.

The designers and developers at Apple know you want a fully touch-enabled laptop. So do the folks at HP. The difference is that Apple's staff are patient and careful enough to execute it in exactly the right way, not just the most obvious way.

[Via MacDailyNews]

TUAWBusinessWeek: HP "out-touches" Apple originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 19 Nov 2008 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Gaming, Odds and ends, Freeware, iPhone

Part of me just wants to post this screenshot, link this app, and say "go get it," but I have a feeling that my blogging overlords here would think I was just being lazy -- they might not understand that this is a screenshot from Adventure, which is available for free on the iPhone. Anyone who ever played an Atari 2600 and owns an iPhone won't need any more explanation than that to install this.

But I don't want to be seen as lazy (any more than I already am), and so I'll also say that Adventure basically pioneered the action-adventure genre of games, and that though its art is spare and its noises are little more than bleeps and bloops, both are classic and coated with pure nostalgia. While Adventure is currently controlled on the iPhone with tilt controls, its designer will add touch controls as well in the future.

Other than that: go get it. It's free.

TUAWAdventure released for the iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 19 Nov 2008 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nicholas Carlson / Alley Insider:
PC Magazine Goes Out Of Print  —  Founded in 1982 and at times so rich with ads its issues reached as many as 600 pages, Ziff Davis's PC Magazine will issue its last print edition this January, thereafter becoming an online-only publication.  Ziff Davis, which recently exited bankruptcy will lay off seven print production employees.

Or so you thought. Petrol in Malaysia is 15c cheaper, yet fuel surcharges are still there to help MAS recover their costs. The thing is fuel surcharge (some denoted as YT) is costing more than the AIR TICKET ITSELF. Despite lowering JET 1-A going down, we are paying so dearly for these costs. Especially those who need to study, or to travel for work or business and such.

I’m updating some of the technical backend at CHAT.NU Community Blogs, where it’s like another WORDPRESS.COM thingy, less the nagware and stuff and I’ve been toying with the plugins, games and add-ons for everyone. Likewise, I came to light the new feature on Adsense, which is a referral link report,and it shows the conversions and fraud levels which is useful to see what your visitors (customers) are seeing.

Another is the implementation of Custom Search. It’s something to toy about. And those who know of it, I will be on road show again, thsi time at Melaka MITC for the SDSI program. So ..try catch me!

Greg Sandoval / CNET News:
Sources: Apple, music labels talk DRM-free songs  —  A year after iTunes began offering music without copy protection software from EMI, Apple is in discussions with the other three top recording companies about acquiring DRM-free songs, according to two music industry sources.

Samsung Gravity (SGH-T459) More Photos - View Specs

T-Mobile today unveiled the Samsung Gravity, a texting device with full slide-out QWERTY keyboard.

The Gravity features a full slide-out QWERTY keyboard and supports instant messaging, text, multimedia and video messaging. Its 1.3-megapixel camera snaps stills and video, while a microSD card slot provides extra storage space for multimedia. For wireless connectivity, Bluetooth supports headsets, carkits and stereo headphones.

The Gravity is a user-friendly messaging device that allows customers constant and easy connections with their social circles throughout their preoccupied day.

The Samsung Gravity will be available beginning Nov. 17.

- Samsung Gravity Specs

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Filed under: Cellphones

LG's fashionable Prada II (and watch) gets shown to the camera originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 Nov 2008 12:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.