Nokia E61i

For the last two years I've been using a HP iPaq HX2790 for my agenda, and contacts. At the time I was quite pleased, until I started adding functionality to the device. So the time was right to start looking for something else. Something else meant a device without any Windows Mobile Crap. Furthermore, it should combine a phone and an organizer, AND a small QWERTY keyboard. These criteria didn't leave that many options, so I went for the Nokia E61i. A nice all-in-one device with;

• Wireless (802.11b/g)
• Bluetooth
• InfraRed
• Multiple e-mail accounts via POP3 / IMAP (as well over SSL/TLS)
• Nokia PC-Soute for Synching the device with Outlook etc.
• And lot's more

So I'll be trying to figure this thing out the next couple of weeks. I just hope that this device is a little more user friendly than the Windows Mobile devices.

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New iTunes and Updated Apple TV

A new version of iTunes has been made available (7.2) to the public. The new iTunes support the new iTunes Music Store with DRM free music files. Some sites found out that the DRM-free music does contain your iTunes account info (username and full name). Probably to make sure that you won't share you purchased music on P2P networks... More good news from Apple is the upcoming update on the Apple TV. The Apple TV will be made available with a bigger hard drive (160GB instead of 40GB). And a upcoming software updates allows the user to watch YouTube videos om the Apple TV. Now we only need native DivX/XviD support on the Apple TV.....

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iTunes Album Art

I've been using iTunes for a couple of years now. It took getting used to in the beginning. Recently, iTunes offers the ability to get the album art from the iTunes music store (you do need an account there). In the old days, I got the covers from Amazon.com, but hey, when it's automated, who am I to complain.... till now The downloaded ablum art from the iTunes store doesn't show up on the iPod... Why? Now I still have to get the album covers from Amazon (or another source), if I want the pictures to show up on my iPod. The probabe cause might be that the album art I manual download and attach to songs is actually added to the mp3, while the iTunes automated-album-art-getter is only a reference to a image on the hard drive. Well, at least I've got something to do tomorrow when it's raining.

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Lion versus Buffalo versus Crocodile

I've been to Africa three times now. I've seen lot's of animals. Even fighting elephants, but unfortunately I haven't seen any real action. Some tourists in Kruger Parc (South Africa) captured some awesome piece of action between buffalo's, lions, and a couple of crocodiles. Oh boy, this makes me want to go back to Africa right now.....

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Internet Mail Is Coming To An End

Today, the end is near. Mail servers are failing al over the world. The dutch ISP's Planet, and Chello are having sever problems with their mail server. Chello having problems is nothing new :-) . They always seem to have a problem of some sort. It's beyond coincidence that even Planet AND Gmail are having difficulties at the same time.

XS4ALL is still working as expected (otherwise you wouldn't be reading this) :-)

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Apple Files Future Touchscreen iPod Patent

AppleInsider found a filed patent by Apple that reveiles a possible future new iPod design. And again, I can't wait

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German Humor

Anyone who says that the Germans don't have a sense of humor haven't seen the hilarious movie 'Dreamship Surprise' / 'Traumschiff Surprise - Episode Eins'.  The movie is a persiflage on Star Wars, and Star Trek. It's like Naked Gun, and Spaceballs, but then way more hilarious.

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AACS 'Advantages'

The last couple of days were all about the leaked key for decrypting HD-DVD movies. This made me curious about the technology, so I headed to the AACS LA website. There's variety of white papers available, which explain the AACS concept. The same papers were used by musilix64 in making his first breakthrough on circumventing the AACS protection. But there is more to be found on their website... There's even a section which explains the Consumer Benefits of AACS.

• Support a superior viewing experience delivered by next generation media formats AACS is added to the content. The content itself will probably 'work' better without AACS.
• Enable greater flexibility to manage distribute, and play entertainment content on a wider range of devices This is a 'feature' for the publishing companies. Without the restrictive AACS protection, the content can be played on virtually every device. With AACS protection 'they' control on which device you can play the content.
• Enable groundbreaking home entertainment choices and the ability to use content on PCs and a range of CE devices AACS is added to the content. The content itself will probably 'work' better without AACS.
• Work across a variety of formats and platforms Five letters: L I N U X. AACS protected movies CANNOT be played on Linux. Only movies without the protection can be player on certain Linux players.

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More on the HD-DVD Key

The MPAA will have serious problems removing the key from the Internet. Even Google has received a letter to remove the links from their databases. Somehow, these retards have the idea that you can copyright a number. As the word spread yesterday the articles started showing up on Digg.com. Digg.com is a popular website where you can submit 'news', and others may rate it and comment on it. Within minutes the stories about this key got thousands of 'diggs'. This resulted in the fact that the moderators on Digg removed the posts. Result: Mass uproar. Kevin Rose (the Digg founder) wrote the following on his Digg blog:

But now, after seeing hundreds of stories and reading thousands of comments, you’ve made it clear. You’d rather see Digg go down fighting than bow down to a bigger company. We hear you, and effective immediately we won’t delete stories or comments containing the code and will deal with whatever the consequences might be. If we lose, then what the hell, at least we died trying.

I think that's the right attitude towards this. Hopefully, the MPAA will come to its senses (not likely), and stops harrassing the consumers with their lame-ass copy-protection. It would even be better to abandon the 'turn every consumer into a criminal' DMCA bill completely, but that's another story.... Just to be sure you got the right key:

09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0

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Illegal HEX codes

As some of you might know, the protection of Blu-Ray, and HD-DVD movies is based on a 'secret' key. You need the key to watch protected movies. The (software)players for these movies are able to 'decrypt' these keys from the disc containing the movie. So you already have these keys on the disc. They (the movie companies) just try to hide them from the user (security through obscurity). This is not strange that they use this scheme. It's just the way DRM works on these discs. Due to the lame-ass DMCA law in the United States, it's ILLEGAL to try to find the key on the disc :???: . Somehow a HD-DVD key got discovered (or leaked), and it's going around the great Internet. Several websites have been approached by lawfirms to take the pages down. This key is represented by a hexidecimal code. How the hell is it possible to declare a hexidecimal string illegal?? The same string can also be represented by a different format (e.g. BASE64). Is this also illegal? Since we dont know other hex keys for decrypting copy protected content, every other string of hex codes might also be illegal. Image this; what if the 'next' key might represent the number pi (03 14 15 92 6.....)? Does that mean that all math books need to be burned? Just another example of the fucked up DMCA law in the US. B.t.w. wondering what the last part is of the key... just use Google to search for "09 F9 11 02 9D".... Google knows he rest.

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