BREAKING: 8-Core Mac Pro released by Apple

in

Its 8:46 am. The Apple Store went down at 7:30 am and just reappeared online with the announcement that Apple has now released their Dual Quad Core Processors for sale. Thats right - 8 cores in one tower.

Go to the apple store for more Mac Pro info.

From the site:

Meet the latest addition to the Mac Pro family: The world’s first 3.0GHz, 8-core Intel Xeon-based Mac Pro. Consider the bar officially raised.

Eight cores or four

Opt for the 8-core Mac Pro and you get the power of two Quad-Core Intel Xeon “Clovertown” processors running at 3.0GHz. Or choose a quad-core Mac Pro featuring two Dual-Core Intel Xeon “Woodcrest” processors and decide how fast they fly: 2.0GHz, 2.66GHz, or 3.0GHz. At 3.0GHz, the quad-core Mac Pro runs up to 2x faster than the Power Mac G5 Quad.

How Can New Satellite Radio Merger Analysis Be ‘Independent’ When The NAB Paid For It?

in

Research firm, The Carmel Group, has come out with a new report that supposedly tries to show why having XM and Sirius merge would be bad for consumers. The group also put out a similar report back when DirecTV and EchoStar tried to merge -- and some credit that report with killing off that merger. What the report apparently tries to highlight is that as Sirius and XM competed with each other, they continually tried to one-up each other with new features and services -- thus suggesting that competition between the two was strong. Now, obviously, we feel that competition like this does drive innovation, but it brushes aside the fact that competition also comes from terrestrial radio, iPods and other forms of entertainment. The folks over at Orbitcast point out that they could just as easily create a report highlighting how terrestrial radio has changed as it competes with satellite radio as well. Still, the silliest thing about this "research" is that the press is reporting that this is an "independent" report -- despite being funded by the NAB. We've already covered some of the dirty tricks the NAB is pulling in trying to prevent the merger, but to call a report that they funded "independent" isn't exactly realistic. The group is squarely against the merger, though the stronger they come out against the merger, the weaker their argument is. If they really believe that satellite radio doesn't compete with terrestrial radio (who the NAB represents), then why are they so concerned about the merger? If it would really lead to higher prices for consumers and less service, wouldn't that be a good thing for terrestrial radio? It would mean that more people would stick with good old fashioned terrestrial radio rather than bailing for satellite radio.

(Via Techdirt.)

Daylight Saving Change Saved No Power

in

Brett writes "Results from energy companies are coming in, and the word is that moving Daylight Saving Time forward three weeks had no measurable impact on power consumption. The attempt by the US Congress to make it look like they were doing something about the energy crisis has been exposed as the waste it is. But the new DST is probably here to stay — letting the bill expire would mean re-patching a lot of systems again next year. So much for saving energy."

(Via Slashdot.)

WEP Broken Even Worse

in

collin.m writes in with news of results out of Darmstadt. Erik Tews and others there have demonstrated how to recover a 104-bit WEP key in under a minute, requiring the capture of fewer than 10% the number of packets the previous best method called for. The paper is here (PDF). Quoting: "We were able to extend Klein's attack and optimize it for usage against WEP. Using our version, it is possible to recover a 104 bit WEP key with probability 50% using just 40,000 captured packets... for 85,000 data packets [the success probability is] about 95%... 40,000 packets can be captured in less than one minute under good condition. The actual computation takes about 3 seconds and 3 MB main memory on a Pentium-M 1.7 GHz..."

(Via Slashdot.)

iTunes Store will sell ENTIRE EMI CATALOG DRM-free!!11!1ONE!

in

Cory Doctorow:
Hallelujah! Apple and EMI just announced that they will be selling DRM-free Apple songs through the iTunes Music Store. The songs will cost 130 percent of the price of the existing crippled songs, and you'll get to choose. Weirdly, Apple seems to have sold this move to EMI by saying that the DRM-free version will be a "premium" offering for audiophiles who want higher-quality music. I think that audiophiles are probably the people who have the least trouble keeping up with the latest tips for efficiently ripping the DRM off of their music -- the people who really need DRM-free music are the punters who can't even spell DRM.

This is some of the best news I've heard all year. DefectiveByDesign is soliciting ideas for a thank-you gift to Steve Jobs. This may just be a sneaky way of hiking music prices, but hell, it's a whole lot more than I thought we'd get. What's more, Apple pricing DRM-free music at $1.29 means that the $0.79-0.99 DRM-free MP3s from competing indie music stores will get a huge price advantage.

I could not be happier right now. I really hope Apple decides to make a web-based version of the iTunes store so that I can buy iTunes tracks in the future using Ubuntu Linux (I know, it's been ages and I still haven't written my "switching to Linux" article, it's in the pipe, but here's the story: I switched, it's awesome, I love it).


Jobs, who stressed the need for higher-quality music with the rise of high-fidelity home speaker systems, called EMI's move "the next big step forward in the digital-music revolution--the movement to completely interoperable DRM-free music." He added that "Apple will reach out to all the major and independent labels to give them the same opportunity" and suggested that half of iTunes' music tracks will be available in both DRM-loaded and DRM-free form by the end of 2007.

"EMI is pioneering something that I think is going to become very popular," Jobs said when asked if other music labels would likely add DRM-free music to their iTunes catalog.

"What we're adding is a choice--a new choice--and people can choose whichever one they want," Jobs said regarding Apple's decision to make available two levels of sound quality and DRM restriction. Nicoli cited internal EMI tests in which higher-quality, DRM-free songs outsold its lower-quality, copy-protected counterparts 10 to 1.

Link

Update: Damien sez, "It gets better! You can upgrade existing DRMed 128kbit tracks to the new DRM-free
256kbit ones for the price difference - i.e. $0.30/€0.30/£0.20 (no
sneaky tactic to make you buy the whole track again) DRM is being removed from the music videos with no price change. Albums will be DRM-free 256kbit as default at current DRMed prices
according to EMI's press release."

(Image ganked from Engadget)

Update 2: Engadget's Ryan Block has a great, skeptical editorial about this announcement, "Apple and EMI ditching DRM is good, but it's not good enough"

But we don't believe having free, usable, uncrippled media is a feature -- it's a right. You don't pay a premium for higher quality DRM-free physical media -- DVD Audio and SACD discs costs the same as CDs (in fact, often times they come as hybrids on the same media). Asking customers to pay 30% more for no DRM and a higher bitrate is a distraction, a parlor trick to take our attention away from the philosophical issue: EMI is still selling DRMed music. EMI CEO Eric Nicoli said, "Not everybody cares about interoperability or sound quality." Since when did the two become so intrinsically linked? Sure, not everyone cares to vote either, that doesn't mean it's a premium privilege. Nicoli also stated EMI has taken the view that it must "trust consumers." It's true, today's announcement shows more trust than they ever displayed before -- but it's still conditional trust.


See also:

Steve Jobs blogs about DRM

Will Steve Jobs drop iTunes DRM in a heartbeat?

What Steve Jobs's DRM announcement means

Open letter to Steve Jobs: put your DRM where your mouth is

Macrovision sends pretty lies to Steve Jobs

Apple drops Trusted Computing

EMI changes tune on DRM-free music

EMI releases Brazilian DRM CDs that totally hose their customers

EMI abandons CD DRM

EMI wants millions and your IP address in revenge for Beachles

EMI threatens cricket fans over parody songs

US Justice Dept to Europe: Apple's DRM is off-limits

Norwegian ombudsman says Apple's iTunes DRM is illegal

Euro-RIAA justifies breaking iTunes, endorses fairy-tale of "open DRM"

Why Apple is to blame for iTunes DRM

Apple's hypocritical slam against French DRM-interop law

French DRM law gets ugly - protest May 7/2PM Place de la Bastille

Apple sued for iTunes/iPod monopoly tying

Apple and Sony sued for non-interoperable DRM

Germany and France challenge iTunes DRM

France will let MSFT play iTunes - but what about open source players?

Former Apple exec: No more DRM for me, ever

Hillary "RIAA" Rosen: iPod DRM is cruel and unfriendly!

Ballmer: iPod users are thieves

Friday: call RIAA execs and tell them "No DRM!"

Right-wing think-tank hates DRM

Music labels: DRM makes you into iTunes' love-slave

Sony: DRM cost us the Walkman

Apple's new DRM reneges on your purchase conditions, picks your pocket

Freely copy iTunes Music Store files

Real ships guerrilla DRM for the iPod

New iPod firmware shuts out Real

Anti-iTunes DRM demonstrations across the USA tomorrow

Apple steals iTunes customers' paid-for rights to stream

iPhone - the roach motel business model

DRM company vows to hack iTunes DRM

DVD Jon selling Apple DRM to Apple's competitors

Jon Lech Johansen's PyMusique re-opens iTunes Store access

How Apple's DRM works

Details on cracking Apple's iTunes DRM

Apple selling DRM'ed silence at $0.99 a pop

Silent iTunes song stripped of DRM and given away

Sony rootkit ripped off anti-DRM code to break into iTunes

Protect your investment: buy open

(Via Boing Boing.)

Web 2.0 Under Siege

in

Robert writes "Security researchers have found what they say is an entirely new kind of web-based attack, and it only targets the Ajax applications so beloved of the 'Web 2.0' movement. Fortify Software, which said it discovered the new class of vulnerability and has named it 'JavaScript hijacking', said that almost all the major Ajax toolkits have been found vulnerable. 'JavaScript Hijacking allows an unauthorized attacker to read sensitive data from a vulnerable application using a technique similar to the one commonly used to create mashups'"

(Via Slashdot.)

Iminlikewithyou, a new Web 2.0 flirting service for the facebook crowd

in

Like a lot of Web2.0 start-ups that simply automate all the fun out of dating, Iminlikewithyou has stepped back, rethought the whole courtship process. Instead, it uses technology to amplify the most organic form of human interaction: flirting. It is a web service that can be described as luscious, simple and and elegant. Did I say, addictive?

read more | digg story