Digital media: explained by others, compiled by me, presented to you

DRM backlash has been happening for years. It prompted some music distributors to shed the DRM restrictions off their music on iTunes. But it continues to cause issues and frustration for consumers. Many feel they are buying the movies, music and TV episodes, but their devices actually own it.

The latest snafu is with Sony.  In short, a fella deleted some movies off of his hard drive to make some room, but he then he couldn’t reload the content he purchased.

DRM backlash hit the new Electronic Arts game Spore, where users gave the high profile game only one star on Amazon. EA loosened its rules.

Could a solution be on the way? Major producers (except for Disney and Apple) seem to be interested to create a system that allows downloadable content on any device called DECE (Digitial Electronic Control Ecosystem). Details will be available in January but will likely employ cloud computing ideas.

As long as I can download my stuff to my iPod, Shuffle and (upcoming) iTouch without trouble, I’ll be happy.

It’s not big news that viewers are heading online more lately. Recent research shows online viewership has doubled in two years. What’s more remarkable about this study is 65% of people head to a broadcaster’s website over 41%, who log into YouTube. 

43% of those surveyed go online to watch news, and 15% for user-generated content. That’s where this gets confusing: does this survey mean they are going online to only view UGC, or to participate? Because from what I’ve read in the recently established comments sections in The Star and other online newspapers, everyone sure likes to give their 2 cents when reading the news… giving UGC a way higher rating than just 15%.

I do write an awful lot about Google. I’d stop writing about them if they wouldn’t keep coming up with cool new things that are bound to shake things up on the internets (sic.)

The first is the announcement its new web browser of Google Chrome. Just like its Google Docs application, Chrome is easy to use. It’s a great way to view websites if you’re using Windows. There’s a free beta that should be available right about… now.

This is cool because if one site crashes, the other tabs won’t be affected. No more canceling and restarting your browsers.

Google has also created a video service for the business set.  If you want to create a training video for employees, spend $50 for a premier business version of Google Apps.  It will work like YouTube, with comments and videos.

There are reports NBC didn’t make massive amounts of coin for its online Olympics coverage…. estimates are at about $5million - a whole lot less than the $1billion it reportedly made off of its traditional TV coverage. But is making $5 million online a failure? Really? Given NBC’s relatively non-user friendly approach (such as only offering its online video content by downloading a Microsoft product and, as Wall Street Journal noted, the user’s inability to share favourite videos) this amount might be quite impressive.

The games are over for another two years and Vancouver’s winter games will probably be the real test for online ad revenue for NBC, especially if it learns to open up its video player to social apps and more common video players. Yet I guess that’s what happens when you partner with Microsoft – exclusive vp rights.

The only thing I was tempted to watch online was the closing ceremonies – in particular, the bad lip-synching and weird dance moves.

Speaking of bad lip-synching and weird dance moves, check out this video of what Britney Spears’ microphone really picked up during her concerts.

I know it’s a jump in logic, but it’s something I had to share.

Google in the midst of creating a mobile phone device. I know! We just got used to the iPhone craziness. Rumour has it the first device with this software (called Android) will launch will happen in the States sometime in November. The phone is built by HTC and will include Google software and lots of other features.  

Web Monkey studies the six reasons why the iPhone will deliver where Android won’t.

There’s also some talk that it’s more than just a mobile device and might reach TV sets. The iPhone already acts as a universal remote for the Apple products, so this isn’t too big of a surprise.

This is pretty big because it’s Google, a company that offers free usage on products that have traditionally gone with a paid-for model. For example, they have a free-to-use documents path that leads users to services that work just like Word and Excel. Its Analytics service is used by many companies (and me!) as a free way to monitor website usage. Did I mention all this is free? Perhaps this phone is another device that may, or may not, shift how business is done.

Bring this up next time someone asks you why you don’t have an iPhone yet.