Linked List: September 25, 2007

Tuesday, 25 September 2007

Jeebus Car Emblem 

If I were going to stick something on my car, this would be it. It ought to be “Jebus”, though. (Thanks to Nat Irons.)

15 Billion More Reasons to Worry About Facebook 

Kara Swisher:

More laughable still is that Facebook, according to the Journal story, might be holding out for a $15 billion valuation.

Why? Because I believe Silicon Valley can now be considered to be at Delusional Level Red. Or green, given all the cash that is being shoved in Facebook’s direction now.

Amazon MP3 Files Don’t Contain User-Identifying Metadata 

The Associated Press:

Bill Carr, Amazon’s vice president for digital music, said it will be up to customers to use the music they buy legally.

To help stop music piracy, Carr said some record labels add a digital watermark to MP3 files that indicate what company sold the song, and Amazon adds its own name and the item number of the song, for customer service purposes. He added that no details about the buyer or the transaction are added to the downloaded music file.

Apple’s DRM-free iTunes Plus files contain your name and email address (well, your iTunes user account ID, which is generally an email address).

Pixelmator 1.0 

Pixelmator, the HUD-a-riffic $59 bitmap image editor, ships:

Pixelmator supports more than 100 different file formats, including Photoshop images with layers, and it comes with more than 15 color correction tools and 50 Core Image-powered filters, transform tools, fill and stroke, Gradients, QuickMask mode, full-screen editing mode, Automator support, ColorSync support, Spotlight support, and much more.

I don’t mind that all the palettes are HUD-style, but it seems gratuitous that the document windows are too.

Scott McNulty Reviews Amazon MP3 

“I am not an audiophile, so both files sounded the same to me, but in my heart of hearts the Amazon track sounded better only because it has no DRM and it cost me 10 cents less.”

Macworld: Adobe to Release Mac Version of Photoshop Elements 6 in ‘Early 2008’ 

“There is no indication if the Mac version will include these same features.”

Helvetica Coffee Mug 

“Coffee, like Helvetica, is an acquired taste.” (Via Swissmiss.)

Amazon Launches ‘Public Beta’ of DRM-Free Music Download Store 

Very cool: Amazon has launched a “public beta” of Amazon MP3, a DRM-free music download store. Compares well against iTunes: singles cost $.89 or $.99, albums cost $5.99 to $9.99, and, because the format is DRM-free MP3 (encoded at a respectable 256 kbps), the files are compatible with all digital music players, as well as all operating systems. The only downside is that with just two million songs, it offers far fewer songs than iTunes. The problem there, surely, is with music labels that refuse to sell DRM-free tracks. The music labels should get their heads out of the sand and get on board with this, because unlike Amazon’s Unbox, this looks like a terrific iTunes rival.

Griffin Technology: Radio Shark 2 

I don’t know how I missed it, but I wasn’t aware that Griffin had come out with a second generation Radio Shark until I saw it mentioned as a supported input device for Rogue Amoeba’s new Radioshift app. Radio Shark is a $50 USB AM/FM radio tuner — the only one I know of that works on the Mac.

Virgin Digital Music Store to Shut Down 

Exhibit #44731 in the case against DRM:

The site now advises its customers who have purchased tracks to back them up, as they will not be able to download them again once Virgin Digital has closed. It’s unclear whether the purchasers of individual tracks will be able to access their songs without burning them to CD and reimporting them as MP3s, but it’s better to be safe than sorry if you’re one of those customers. And naturally, subscribing members will lose access altogether once their subscriptions lapse.