Michael Santo
Recent posts
It's been said that if you want DRM-free music, take your CD and rip it to your hard drive. But everytime you do something like this, you lose something: quality. The compression involved in creating the MP3 file reduces the fidelity of the sound. But this is something we've all become used to, and it's still as good as the original, right?...
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Colbert and Stewart on the other side of the desk? In other words, being interviewed instead of interviewing someone? That will be what happens if Google gets its way. Google wants to depose the two of them, in addition to at least 30 other witnesses, in testimony pertaining to the Viacom lawsuit leveled against Google and YouTube....
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A recent article in The Inquirer indicated that ATI, as well as other vendors, had "particularly badly" written drivers which could expose the Vista kernel to attack. This afternoon ATI plans to release a new driver package with a critical security fix in response to this issue. "The market recently discovered a potential security...
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It's called social networking iTunes-style. Today Apple unveiled web widgets designed to facilitate social networking between iTunes users. It allows customers to share their purchases, reviews, and favorite artists. Called My iTunes, the service includes three flash-based widgets that use a customers account information to create...
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I've seen it before on shows like "Law and Order" - suspects caught because of electronic bridge toll records - you said you were in place X but you were in place Y - and you could in fact have committed that murder. And so on and so forth. Well, adulterers beware: E-ZPass is now being used in divorce cases. "E-ZPass is an E-ZPass...
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No one should be surprised nowadays when a site gets hacked. Even sites that you would expect would have an extremely high level of security are vulnerable, as shown by the hacking today of the United Nations official website. Slogans accusing the US and Israel of killing children appeared on the pages reserved for statements from...
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It's no secret that despite the unveiling of Windows Vista, many continue to purchase Windows XP with their computers. For some, it's the lack of drivers or compatible software that forces them to stay with Vista; for others it may be the fact that Vista simply doesn't add enough for them to move from an OS they've used and (more or less)...
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Yes, even we posted that Thomas Martel altered his thumbs to better use the iPhone - it's been all over the Internet, and even appeared at a place as studious in their research as ZDNet. But, sorry to say, it's a hoax, and all it required was a little thought and research to debunk it. I suppose we've seen the birth of a new urban legend....
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Perhaps based on the brouhaha over the iPhone battery replacement plan, which some have said, because it was not unveiled until after the iPhone went on sale, is "lawsuit-worthy", AT&T is making sure you know absolutely everything about your iPhone bill - such that the bills themselves run into so many pages that forests are being threatened....
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Microsoft continues to push its Open XML standard, the default file format of Office 2007, as an alternative to the Open Document Format. This week, it met a setback in a vote by the INCITS. The executive committee of the International Committee for Information Technology Standards (INCITS) fell one vote shy of the nine required to...
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It's amazing that there are still Sony batteries in the world left that have not been recalled. Or at least, it seems that way. Today Toshiba annunced its second recall of Sony batteries in a month. This time around, the Consumer Product Safety Commission says 1,400 of the lithium-ion batteries containing Sony-made cells sold with...
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Today Motorola announced which carriers would be debuting the Razr2 when it launches at the end of summer - and it seems like it's hitting almost all of them. For GSM, Cingular will be carrying the Razr2 V9; for CMDA, Alltel, Sprint, and Verizon Wireless will be the carriers of the V9m. T-Mobile: no such luck, mostly due to the carrier's...
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And we thought Google promised we would never have to delete email again. After all, every time you look at the Gmail Login screen storage is creeping up, right? However, Google has decided to add paid storage upgrades for Picasa and Gmail users. For $20 per year, customers can use up to 6GB of storage, $75 for 25GB, $250 for 100GB...
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YouTube today launched its "Don't You Forget About Me" channel, which features clips asking for help in finding missing children from around the world. At the time of this writing, the channel has already been viewed over 12,000 times, despite just launching today. YouTube, which was bought by search-engine giant Google (GOOG)...
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Perhaps signalling another nail in the coffin of DRM, Universal Music Group has announced that it will begin a test program of DRM-free music sales, starting August 21st and lasting through January 31st of next year. Surprisingly, the songs will not be available through iTunes, which has already been selling DRM-free music from EMI, though...
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Way back in April, a class-action lawsuit was filed against Microsoft, alleging that Microsoft used deceptive marketing practices when it allowed computer and other hardware makers to use the term "Windows Vista Capable" on their items, when in fact the hardware was unusable with Vista. The suit really centers around personal computers labeled...
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AMD Announces Broad Software Ecosystem Support for Industry’s First x86 Native Quad-Core Solution —Windows, Linux, Solaris and VMware environments are optimizing to take advantage of AMD’s native quad-core “Barcelona” processors —...
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I'm sure you've heard about the price drop that was just announced for the Xbox 360; the Xbox 360 Premium model has dropped from $400 to $350. However, more quietly, Microsoft has also added a freebie into the mix - a hardware refresh that includes an HDMI port, previously available only on the Elite model. This was rumored at first, and...
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That was fast. Only a day after introducing their new line of aluminum and glass iMacs, Apple has released updates for them. The updates were only vaguely identified as providing "important bug fixes." Owners of the day-old 20-in. and 24-in. iMacs should install iMac Software Update 1.0, Apple said in a terse message accompanying...
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I'm guessing the Custom Search Blog team hasn't been checking it too much. For one thing, as of this writing, the last entry was 7/17/2007. Because of that, the blog was accidentally marked as spam, and then released ... after which it was promptly snapped up by a cybersquatter. The change was first noticed...
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Recently, after the deaths of four cheerleaders in a automobile accident, it was discovered that one of them, apparently the driver, had been text messaging in the car. Some legislators wondered if there should be an effort to ban both emailing and text messaging while driving. A Harris Interactive survey commissioned by mobile messaging...
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There has been much speculation recently about Windows Vista SP1 Beta, and even rumors and sightings around the web. There was also a "leak" of some pre-Beta patches a week or so ago. Microsoft has now officially released them. Microsoft still isn't commenting on when a beta of Service Pack 1 for Vista will be officially released...
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