Posted in Rants, Technology

VLC is on the iPhone, but soon could be leaving

Let me give you a quick rundown of VLC is, for those of you that have no idea what it is. VLC stands for VideoLan Client. Basically the idea behind VLC is that it can play almost everything you throw at it, video and audio. If you have some sort of video that won’t play anywhere else, download VLC (direct link to 1.1.4 32bit version) and try playing it on that thing. It’s been called the Swiss Army Knife of video players by Patrick Norton. It is an open source and free program to download and I highly recommend it!

Well VLC has always been a popular client on the desktop of most PCs, Macs and Linux boxes for years. I will say that if you have any sort of video files that may contain **cough** **cough** movies or **cough** **cough** tv shows, this is the player you want to play them. Even the new rage of .mkv files has been able to implemented into the compatible codecs that are playable on this thing. Well, VLC wanted to move onto the iOS platform so that could expand its horizons, only problem is that VLC by itself (the company that wrote the program) couldn’t because it is a non-profit organization and therefore could not get a developer status for the Apple world. So VLC went to Applidium and asked them to distribute the app under it’s name, and they said YES! So Applidium took the code and ported it over for the iPhone.

So now we have an app that can play unknown file formats to the stock iPhone, and we can have some of those movies that we have purchased and made digital copies of, and put them on our phones along side the iPhone formatted .m4v, .mp4 or .mov files. OR, for some of us who don’t have a DVR and miss shows because we don’t subscribe to cable, and the show isn’t available on the network website, Hulu or iTunes (Big Bang Theory, I’m looking at you); we may go elsewhere to find the show that we love. So the iPhone is now a better smartphone because it can play all sorts of formats, like its competition! So iPhone users everywhere (well newer devices) rejoice!

But wait, it seems we have a dissenter among the ranks! It seems that the developer of the VLC app, Rémi Denis-Courmont, had sent papers to Apple citing copyright infringement. Basically saying that the app VLC is released under the GPLv2, and it should be free of any “locks” that Apple store distributes with it’s apps. So the company that wrote the app, asked for HELP to GET ON THE IPHONE, that company helps and it gets there, then you go an KICK THEM IN THE MOUTH!!!!!! Are you freaking kidding me????? If you go onto read the papers, Rémi goes on to blame Applidium for their involvement as well, as they knew that DRM exists, but were going to release the app as FREE in the App Store. So it is still FREE!!! So the only problem is that the app is still “locked” into your iTunes account, but its FREE!!!!!!!!!!!!

This developer is completely retarded. I understand his stance, but he is biting at nibbles here and making a mountain out of a mole hill!!! They have made the iPhone a better platform for it, but because he wants to be nit picky on the details, we may soon see the app get pulled all together because Apple doesn’t want to have to deal with all of the debacle that this guy is creating. Apple is basically just an innocent bystander, and has all rights to pull the app, all thanks to this idiot.

The only thing I can find on this guy, is the email address [vlc-devel@videolan.org], someone please comment below if you can find something else and tell this guy to back off!!!!

UPDATE:
Rémi Denis-Courmont
remi at remlab.net
http://www.remlab.net
http://fi.linkedin.com/in/remidenis

via [ArsTechnica] [Boy Genius Report] [Engadget]

Posted in Apple, Rants, Technology

Netflix killed the DVD today

Ok, So I am totally stealing the title idea from TechCrunch, but it looks like physical media is on it’s way out the door with the news that Netflix is testing Streaming Only plans in certain areas.. It seems that Hollywood no longer wants us to hold on to their movies, and for everything to be in the cloud, so that there is no hard copies in the wild to be copied and passed around. Now this seems a little ahead of it’s time, but this idea is completely plausible. With the announcement of the MacBook Air, and there be no physical CD in the package, it seems Apple wants to get rid of the physical media as well. They don’t want to get rid of the software, as it was also announced the Mac App Store would soon be online as well. The idea there is that we will all be able to keep up with the latest via the updates there, and never have to insert another CD or DVD again. Even Windows is looking to update to a disc-less software store in the future.

The idea seems a little far fetched, but not completely crazy at this point. I was reading the newsletter that GDGT puts out and Ryan Block made a really good point, on the fact that will there be enough of the big companies to join forces with Apple and t he 70/30 split (read the story here). I agree with him and say that big companies like Adobe won’t want to join forces and take such a large chunk away from the business that they already generate on their own. The other issue is that these big companies are being ousted by smaller companies that offer open and free solutions that many consumers will easily choose over paying money for something that can be done for free.

I see the idea that Apple is trying to do and the idea that Netflix is trying to do, and somehow will gain majority rule in the near future. As the majority is usually stupid, they will follow what Apple will tell them to do. If Apple (Steve Jobs) tells you having CDs is bad, then we will all believe. We see this evident now in the fact that Steve (whoops, Apple) tells us that Flash is bad, even though a LOT of web out there is flash based, but it isn’t supported on their most popular devices. We now see evidence of this with the new Mac Book Airs shipping. Now the caveat is that we can go and install the software after we do it manually, but they aren’t going to help the cause.

I just think the major players fighting against piracy are having a secret party somewhere and are celebrating that we soon won’t be able to own a disc of any kind..

RustyG

Posted in Rants, Technology

Sprint Users and Android Users are retarded (Seriously)

Ok, First of all.. Everyone reading this from the Sprint Users and Android Users groups, you’re all completely retarded. I vote the mayor to be the guy who wrote the article over at ANewMorning.com. I think he was just trying to get traffic to his website. To make a claim that Engadget is biased to the Apple side is completely absurd. They (Engadget) are a tech news site, just like Technorati, ArsTechnica, GDGT or even Gizmodo. Their job is to report. That’s pretty much all they do, and everynow and again have an opinion on things. So for you to say they are biased, and that is the reason why they pulled the article, is just plain stupid.

Lets start with the original article that was pulled:

iPhone or Evo: which one should you get?

The article was mysteriously pulled yesterday, and many were looking for it a few hours after it was posted. Myself included, because my At&t contract is up, and was looking to see if the EVO was a better option.

I went to Digg because the link on the Engadget website went away.. I left a comment to see if anyone had picked up a cached version of it because I wanted to read it. You will notice, a couple people left comments with links (including myself) to the bing and google cached version.

Then I get up today and I read this article over at Engadget and all seemed to be ok.

UNTIL I came across this article about how Engadget was biased…

Wow, what a stretch of the imagination. Do I hear jealousy?? Does someone want an iPhone instead of their EVO? Is someone jealous they aren’t being talked about?

WOW…

Posted in Rants, Technology

Gamer Blu-Ray Playback Issues

philipsbdp5012

gamersmallSo here I am again complaining about blu-ray discs that aren’t playing properly. I just purchased a new Philips BDP-5012 player and it already has issues. I updated to the latest firmware and still I get the same issue. All I see is a little square in the middle of the screen and get sound. Let me back up; I also just bought Gamer (2009) with the digital copy. Now I can just go ahead and download the digital copy to my iTunes and watch it that way, but I want to see the full glory of it in 1080p!! All I am asking, is that the companies that are building these blu-ray players, keep them up-to-date. Even if they are last year’s model, but it does have a net connection. So all I should do is, turn it on, and it update, and the darn thing play! Philips, I am calling you out! Please fix this issue!!!!

Posted in Rants, Technology

I like his way of thinking (current FCC chairman)

fcc-chairman-julius-genachowskiThe still fairly new FCC chairmen Julius Genachowski is rocking the airwaves brother, and I mean in a good way! At least for the bottom line. Mr. G is trying to make use of the Universal Service Fund(USF) that we all get charged on our phone bills in a new way. Currently, it is used to subsidize the phone lines for low-income households. For an AGING technology. He wants to revamp that to start paying for broadband to the curb for rural areas that we were all promised in the FREAKING 80’S (what happened to all that money AT&T????!!!!). And you begin to hear the cries and sorrows from the AT&T camps already. SHUTUP! At least someone is finally holding you accountable for what you were supposed to do with our money YEARS ago. And don’t even get me started on the whole Net Neutrality thing, that is so far gone off the end of the grand canyon, that’s not even funny. (You should read this horrible article seeming to lean towards the side against Net Neutrality from The Week{paid subscribers only}, it basically says that we are stifling innovations with Net Neutrality, which is the biggest freaking lie, grrrr… I hate even thinking about the idiot who wrote it) It seems all I hear about is how AT&T is groaning and crying and sending lobbyists after lobbyists to the capital hill and all I keep seeing is that AT&T freaking sucks!

He is even trying to free up the TV airwaves to make sure we are the world leaders in the next 10 years! Guess what? More whining and moaning from the cable companies. An economist for the Brattle Group, Coleman Bazelon, even said that if the freed up space from the TV airwaves, which by the way aren’t even being used at this current time, would be worth an estimated $64 billion dollars if they were used for wireless, where as they sit right now, only $12 billion. Are you freaking kidding me? That sounds like elementary economics to me, but NOOOOOO, cable companies don’t want to lose their strong hold. We can’t take a freaking penny from them, even if it did better mankind, it’s all about the money going into their pockets.

I honestly don’t understand why this country is still run by stuffy old white men who are cheating on their wives, squandering billions and billions of dollars on themselves, instead of speeding up the technology curve, that we are falling BEHIND the rest of the world.  I just pray that this reaches the masses, and even President Obama or Julian Genochowski:

Dear Mr President or FCC Chairman,

Thank you for pushing to have broadband to the curb, to All equally. Broadband is the future, and we as America have fallen behind, because we have allowed large corporations to squander our money on yesterday’s technologies and outdated utilities. No longer should we stand by and watch the money be wasted. Thank you Mr. Chairman for looking into revamping the USF. It needs a new direction, and we need to open innovation to everyone. We cannot be stifled by the AT&T’s and Comcast’s who ‘own’ the lines. They have to understand that innovation can come from a 12 year old child in Chicago or even a 65 year old man in Utah. We cannot block the lanes of traffic and create these so called ‘fast lanes’ that only the super rich can afford to travel on. We don’t have highways that we drive on and pay for and get no speed limits. We all drive on the same highway and we have speed limits and if you feel the need to drive faster, then you pay for going faster. That’s the way the internet should be. If I want to go faster, then I should be charged a little more, but I don’t get any special treatment. (that sounded good in my head.. after thinking on ti, i don’t know..)

I got a little carried away there, sorry. My point is, Mr Chairman, Mr President, please keep pushing and keep fighting for broadband to the curb. Make sure we keep Net Neutrality as the rule. We cannot and will not be told what we can and cannot do on the internet, just because some guy at the top wants to make the rules, because ‘they’ built the roads, and in the end just wants to put more money in his pocket. Call the cable companies and tell them that they can free up some of their airwaves for future wireless technologies, we can be the leaders in wireless technology in 10 years!

Thank You

Rusty Greer

via [Wall Street Journal] & [Engadget]