Posts by JDX 6848 publicly visible posts • joined 28 May 2010
iOS means iPad too, and they let you download HD video. It's not just crappy 320x240 res stuff. They want stuff you download to only last X days, and only Y days once you start playing it; the functionality is to let you download to view without WiFi access, not to let you build an offline library.
I don't know why that's the functionality but they own the content so it's kind of their choice (no you don't own it just because you pay TV license).
Different people have different ideas. Downloading always seems pretty secondary to streaming with iPlayer even though the iPad download functionality is very well executed, I don't know if there are any stats to support that feeling though.
Netflix feel streaming is a big enough market, BBC are tasked with getting their content to license players in as many ways as possible (I suppose), not selling it.
WTF are you on about? Why is Netflix going to lose the majority of its customers for staying with DRM? The facts show that Netflix streaming is growing at a huge rate so you're just letting your idealist rhetoric get in front of the facts, which is that they are coining it and DRM has marginal impact.
I don't think "our essential freedom to use the web the way it was intended to be" included watching hi-definition streaming video. The very idea would have seemed preposterous.
Have you never considered that allowing you to save offline content skews Netflix's business also? They want to measure when and how things are watched and this affects what they pay for licenses and how much they can dictate to the content providers. If you download everything and watch it at your leisure, they lose this information.
They could change their model but why should they when streaming is the way the world is going this decade?
Did you not read the article? Netflix simply do not want to sell downloadable content. You might not like streaming-only services so you can go to another provider, but Netflix's success is proving you are in something of a minority and either the cost/profit predictions of offering this are not worth it, or they feel it would dilute their brand. It's their choice and you are perfectly free to go elsewhere.
Tom you are very narrow minded if you think DRM "can't work" if some people can get around it. The aim is not to make it impossible for you to rip it - as you say this is not feasible - but to make it hard enough that 90% of people don't know how to do it, or are put off doing it by the need to install and configure a bunch of extra software.
IE10 is now at least half-decent so there are far fewer reasons to switch from it than there were when it was Chrome Vs IE7/8 - other browsers might still be better but the difference is reduced therefore the pressure to move is also reduced. Any bundled software only needs to be "good enough" to retain users.
That doesn't help if sale of drones is unregulated and millions of the things start being used in this illegal manner... how is PC Plod going to tell who is operating the damn thing when someone reports it keeps bothering them? Hell how's he going to tell who is controlling it if he happens to be there when the drone appears? Users could fly the thing to knock off the copper's helmet with impunity!!
Though I want a drone, I can see blocking them at source is potentially the way this might go. Thought waiting for it to BE a problem first would be preferable in case it's very rare.
"@jdx: with your fit woman example where do you draw the line? If I could be upstairs in my house ogling her or hovering a drone above my property is that still allowed"
If you could see her from your house, she can expect to be observed and should shut her curtains.
Hovering a drone high above your own land... well you would not be allowed to build a high viewing platform on your garden which allows you to overlook neighbours, as far as I understand it, so I'd say this falls into that category.
You have a very naive view of humanity. You don't think a guy who gets a drone for 'honourable' (nerdy) purposes who realises a hot woman sunbathes naked in her private garden or showers with the curtain open in her un-overlooked bathroom, would abuse that? It's very easy to say people won't BUY drones to perve, and I agree (mostly). But that doesn't mean they won't use them for that...
That's what I was going to post... however I agree with his comments in this case even though I think drones are incredibly awesome and I really want one. They are such an open opportunity for perving and so on - I shouldn't have to close my curtains if my window is not overlooked.
I fear they may be banned before they properly take off (!) as a toy.
If you make decisions on "because they're Apple/MS/Google" rather than on the product being offered then you deserve what you get.
I did find it interesting that nobody in that article mentioned Android, suggesting nobody in the real world gives a toss about the OS... Android phones are often customised so maybe punters don't even realise it's the same OS?!
He does have a point though. Although our current "always on" for phones and home WiFi is "always on bit a bit spotty".
I can watch Netflix 24/7 for instance.
But this is clearly not something we're ready for yet, and we're a fairly well equipped nation... in many countries consistant broadband is a bit of a luxury.
Btw, your Apple Market share comment is totally irrelevant.
One buys a computer every 5 years versus a 2 years upgrade cycle on phones.
Um, that makes it TOTALLY irrelevant? You buy a phone 3X as often as a PC, but the fact it took Apple DECADES to even get to 10% of the laptop market isn't relevant?
It seems shortsighted to say a market cannot turn around. How many years did Apple languish at 1% of the laptop market? How dominant were Sony for cool personal audio?
As for FF OS... please, you're joking right?
I saw quite a lot of modern Nokias in Finland too, and advertised in pride-of-place in shop windows. Not that this makes Nokia less of an also-ran, but there are probably more places where it's doing better than the UK. It's not to be underestimated how much things differ between countries so basing it on the UK/US is not accurate.
Netflix HD (or superHD as they seem to call it now) is really quite good. I'm sure it's not up to blu-ray quality but on my 42" TV I never notice any artifacts or anything. So being able to get 2X as much data seems likely to make a big difference for streaming, at least.
"Not sure when Google last prevented me from viewing Streetmap, though, which kinda undercuts their argument for abuse of market position."
Not if you have the slightest understanding of the subject. MS did not stop you installing an alternative browser to IE.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
