Media
Sony BMG to go far with MusicPass?
Mar 25th
After acquiring some information from Dailytech, I’ve learned that Sony BMG is developing an all-you-can-download buffet style subscription program. The files will be DRM-free, possibly even after the subscription has canceled. That’s the absolutely galling part – could someone march right in there for a month and download all the songs from the Sony BMG catalog, and then cancel and never pay another dime. …Right?

Source: http://images.dailytech.com/nimage/7696_large_Rolf%20Schmidt-Holtz.jpg
I think that it’s definitely a shame we’ve underestimated CEO Rolf Schmidt-Holtz and the entire Sony team to such an extent. If they ever plan to use such a service, I highly doubt that the downloads per month (or day) would be unlimited – perhaps they will adopt a similar pricing scheme as eMusic’s. Basically, you pay a certain price for 25 downloads per month, a higher price for a higher number. Not a bad idea, to be honest.
The only question is if this is going to be implemented into the MusicPass program. And to this, I really have no idea – on one hand, MusicPass looked as though it was an alternative to just CDs, but now I think it’ll be easy to spread the branding to an online store. I hope that they have success with this DRM-free idea, as it’s going to be the way of the future. No strings attached.
Eye Might be Watching Miro
Mar 24th
No, I know how to spell I. I just thought it’d be more interesting if I wrote it up like this, haha. Anyway, lately I’ve been getting back into the whole Internet TV thing and found a nice competitor to Joost, called Miro. Apparently, it’s been considered the Firefox of Internet TV. That’s a huge name to live up to.
I would thought that Miro’s installer came in quite a decent, acceptable size at 24.5mb. I’ve heard rumours of it being bloatware, but I figure that Miro 1.2 has stepped up the game a bit. Installation on my Vista machine was a breeze, and within five minutes of the whole process I was ready to go.
Lately, I’ve been finding Joost very unresponsive and sluggish. To be honest, this is the case with many pieces of software out there – however, this is absolutely unacceptable when it comes to watching media, when I transform from the logical-minded blogger into the irrational, emotional, human being just enjoying a good video.
Miro works very differently in comparison to Joost – where Joost streams videos (and there might lie the problem), Miro downloads them – and even though I’ll admit it takes a while longer to download, it’s much more responsive overall and thus I can admire and appreciate that. Plus, an added goodie – some clips that are downloaded are already in .mp4 format and so can be put on my iPod Video (Glassy) for additional viewing.

Also, Miro acts as a medium for playing clips that can be found on huge video networks such as Youtube and Veoh. The quality isn’t that great, but there’s definitely a lot more material available. Ahh, so many clips to choose from.

It sure does – pretty darn smoothly, in fact. I was able to download a few of their HD clips from their servers in less than half a minute, which is a great, fast time. Not as fast as real TV, but a hell of a lot faster than Joost was for me. Also, thanks to my widescreen format, the videos fit pretty nicely onto the screen – but shucks, not on the iPod’s.

There’s a huge variety of stuff available – from the tech-savvy channels to discovery. The content is interesting if the subject floats your boat, and they’re all pretty good quality.
The other movie clips you decide to download from Youtube and Veoh take an amazingly long time though – for their small sizes, they’re very sluggish (around 30.1kb/s). I’m definitely not impressed, but this can’t be helped by Miro because they have nothing to do with such a speed – they’re just the mediums, after all.
At the moment, I haven’t gone through Channels yet, but I’ll be adding that to the article soon enough.
Another interesting aspect of Miro – you can upload your own channel on there! Now I’m not sure if CutEdge is going to have its own RSS video feed on Miro anytime soon, but for all you aspiring directors and/or producers, this is a great opportunity for all of you.
Miro – if you’ve got more than 3Mbps connection, I’ll definitely recommend you get it. However, if you’re on the lower end of the spectrum, I suggest that you leave your computer on at night to download some of this stuff. If you haven’t got cable television (or digital cable) or just want high-quality videos to download to your computer or iPod for viewing, give Miro a try!
Visit:
ZLoop: Are we Looking at the Future of Social Networking?
Mar 21st
The social networking landscape is growing bleak. With Facebook and Myspace dominating the market, developers hoping to break into this potential gold mine are forced to do it with a new approach. An example of a successful new concept being implemented into the internet would be Ning, a portal where users can create their own social networks. Recently, I came into contact with a new social network called ZLoop, and you’re just going to have to keep reading to see what sets it apart from the rest of those darned social networks. Trust me, it’s definitely interesting.
A week ago, ZLoop evangelist Mr. Brett Meyers contacted me and made me aware of a new up and coming social network, called ZLoop. ZLoop’s main feature that sets it apart from all the other social networks is called a Loop, which is essentially a group or community of people. Membership is purely invitational, which sort of limits the amount of undesirable spam users. Through the Loop, you can transfer files, hold discussions, and potentially meet new people within your Loop. Now that I’m done conveying the main idea of ZLoop to you, I want to move on to issues that you will perhaps have encountered.
Another Facebook?
After talking to a few friends about ZLoop, I was asked what the difference was between ZLoop and Facebook. I actually posed such a question to Meyers through our pre-ZLoop question/answer session. Let’s not beat around the bush – they’re both extremely similar:
- Facebook and ZLoop both use a single GUI in order to keep order and adaptability. Otherwise, a well-intentioned “theme is self-expression” mantra would end up leading to the cluttered, messy, and very disorienting space we call MySpace.
- Facebook and ZLoop are both used to replicate real life relationships – it is a Facebook faux-pas to add friends online that you don’t know in real life, and the same goes for ZLoop. In fact, I think it’s somewhat impossible to add friends that you have no connection with through ZLoop, because you won’t be able to find them.
However, this is where the differences lie:
- What kind of relationships do each focus upon?
- Facebook suggests you join a network during the sign-up process. However, that can be completely negligible and you will probably still be able to find your friends. Thus, I’ve concluded that Facebook focuses on one-on-one relationships. Sure, there’s the network – but you don’t do anything with the people in it. Sure, there are groups – you join what you believe in, but you have no real connection with the other people in the group asides from the shared beliefs – which hasn’t kept members from becoming awfully hostile.
- ZLoop on the other hand, rallies the network together. It is more of a community-based network instead of an individual-based one, as you are required to join a Loop in order to join ZLoop, and thus you already start off in a Loop. Even though there still could be people you don’t know, the discussions are moderated carefully by the administrators as well as members – as members are given the power to report a post. It’s much more like a forum, but it’s got a lot more functionality (ie. again with the file-sharing, event-planning, etc.).
- Privacy
- Facebook allows you to see practically anybody’s profile in your network – as long as they don’t have privacy set up. I can’t tell you how the thought of some complete stranger reading about my hobbies and interests disturbs me – I don’t know why, it just doesn’t seem right.
- ZLoop’s relationships are much different. There is no public wall. In fact, the relationship is very similar to a Loop with just two people in it – that way, nobody can see the conversations the two of you held, or the files you transferred, etcetera.
Hopefully, that clears up the confusion about ZLoop being another Facebook. They’re completely different, asides from having a few common, but minor traits that made Facebook famous.
Copy-Ning?
I’m embarassed to admit it, but I somehow got the impression that ZLoop and Ning were very similar. In terms of nature, they might be quite alike, as they draw communities together – but again, Ning is a networking site to meet new people with, whereas ZLoop replicates real-life relationships and takes it to an online dimension. ‘Nuff said.
Back That Loop Idea
If the Loop idea is still a bit fuzzy to you, I’m hoping this next segment will be able to clear things up a bit. To re-iterate, a Loop is a community where you replicate your online relationships. For example, you work for Company A, which has just created a Loop. Company A sells aPods, and you’re a junior designer. You join the new Company A Loop after hearing it announced at work, and then your buddy Joe tells you that he created a Loop just for Company A’s junior designers. You end up joining that Loop too. Your father tells you a few days after that he, too, has created a Loop – this time, for the family. So now, you’re in three Loops – and will probably end up in a bunch more.
Let’s stick with the Company A Loop:
- Thanks to Company A’s encouragement, everybody from Company A joins the Loop. The CEO sees that it’s time for the annual barbecue – he can:
- Hold a conversation asking what everyone thinks of the proposed location and date.
- Upload a .pdf file, which is an invitation showing the location and date.
- Create an Event showing the same thing.
- After the barbecue, display the photos on the Loop.
That’s just the tip of the iceberg – something similar could happen with the family, or with those junior designers. The Loop makes everything so much easier – it’s all in one universal location, not laid out through different forums and groups, and event-listings. And – dig this, you can join as many Loops as you want!
Privacy Protection
I’m really pleased with how far ZLoop went to protect user privacy. With all the buzz about Facebook profiles being scoped by potential employers, I figure they’d be darned if they didn’t do something about it – especially for such a social network that could end up so corporate-oriented. And so, ZLoop created their identity manager:
- Essentially, you start off with two identities: Professional and Social.
- Your Professional identity allows you to choose what you want people that you maintain professional relationships with to see – not those embarassing photos, but your more serious side.
- Your Social identity is the exact opposite, and lets people in on your real side.
- That’s not all – you can create more identities to serve different purposes – don’t want your company or your family to see that embarassing picture that you only want your graduating class Loop to see? Create a new Identity, and make the picture the avatar.
I’ve also already mentioned about how ZLoop doesn’t let any third-party view your profile or conversations with others, whether it be a curious friend or a scary stalker. Relationships in this case are a Loop between two people, basically. Simple enough to understand – you can hold conversations, transfer files, and do everything else you can in a Loop with that individual.
The Future
With the growing popularity of widgets, ZLoop has began development of their own widgets, called Portlets. Examples of Portlets would be the Conversation Portlet and Event Portlet that we have already spoken of. However, this is just the tip of the iceberg. With the growing popularity of ZLoop comes the development of more Portlets to suit the needs of its users.
Conclusion
I’ve started a CutEdge Loop which I’d love for you all to join by visiting this URL here. By doing this, you’re not only joining the CutEdge Loop and showing your support, but also gaining access to possibly the newest revolution out there. You can then also create your own Loops, and invite family members and friends and co-workers on board.
Although I’m not sure if this CutEdge Loop idea would work – as we don’t have any real-life relationships to maintain, I have a feeling that we’ll still turn out to be a strong community – something like a set of forums, but also as a way to get new people to meet and share their ideas and opinions through conversations. I hope to be a major participant through ZLoop, if enough people join (my expectations are low, so please sign-up).
Thus wraps up my somewhat comprehensive view into ZLoop. Hopefully, I didn’t bore you half to death – I looked through my previous draft, and ended up cutting half of the material out, but still found this to be a relatively long article. I hope you do give ZLoop a try, even if not through the CutEdge Loop, which is a great way to gain access to ZLoop. Also, pardon the lack of images – there aren’t any Loops I’m part of to show you – yet. And remember – ZLoop is unique, not just another pretty Facebook or Ning.
If you want more information on ZLoop, they’ve got a great Help/FAQ page to help the non-users get started and educated.
Visit:
https://www.zloop.com/portal/Login.html?loopkey=cutedge&keypassword=cutedge
Gamers Thrilled when Death Approaches
Mar 13th
Halo 3? Counterstrike Source? Call of Duty 4? I’m pretty sure that every single one of us have at least heard (if not played first-hand) of these games. Wired has recently published an article on the research done by Niklas Ravaja on “The Psychophysiology of James Bond: Phasic Emotional Responses to Violent Video Game Events“. After reading direct from the Wired article, I decided to post some of my own thoughts and reflections on such a discovery.
Source: http://www.videogames.net.au/images/halo-3-explosion1.JPG
To summarize, Ravaja has discovered that gamers experience pleasure in dying but don’t enjoy shooting their opponents, contrary to what the general public thinks of video games robbing humans of such a sense of shame. I must say that this is relieving to know, as there was not a chance that I would’ve given up first person shooters. What’s surprising is the enjoyment in death though, and as I thought about it the more I began to understand.
Logically speaking, it makes sense. Dying in video games isn’t exactly the same as real life, as you impart your virtual life with the knowledge you’ll be back a few minutes later at most. Also, running around in an office with a bunch of terrorists hot on your tail and a host of civilians following you and giving away your position isn’t exactly the most mentally-healthy or stress-free activity in the world, so the mind does naturally feel relieved of such stress when death takes over your character.

Source: http://worldofpwnage.com/images/cs_office0043.jpg
However, like Clive Thompson discovered, I also found the thought of dying in certain games more appealing than others. The first person shooters are fine with me, as I know that I’m hardly robbed of anything but a little dignity, but dying in Super Mario Galaxy really presses my cider as I need to re-start the level and get a hard-earned one-up taken away. My own common sense conclusion was that dying sucked even virtually when you’ve got something to lose – and it could be anything.
A little short of a psychological revelation, and certainly a ground-breaking approach to analyzing the effect first person shooters have on video games, hopefully this research leads to more proof that we as humans don’t get desensitized at people’s deaths (perhaps speculation about the player’s death is more at risk) after playing video games.
The CD’s Soul within the Platinum MusicPass
Mar 1st
CDs have arguably been the best thing that ever happened to the music industry (iTunes coming in at a close second, with Limewire, Kazaa, and other file-sharing networks ranking on the other side of the spectrum). Old-fashioned people still stuck in the 90s like myself will still believe that CDs just have more character and authenticity when compared against the same songs by the same artist encased within digital format. Seeing such values in people, record label (I believe) Sony BMG has launched a new project known as the Platinum MusicPass.

Source: http://promo.musicpass.ca/en/images/newnav_04.gif
Platinum MusicPass differs from the other services as it emphasizes on extra content: meaning it comes with the album art and pages, but also extra content such as backstage videos, music videos, and the whatnot. It offers DRM-free music, which has definitely increased in popularity as of late. The sample I downloaded from MusicPass, Take You There by Sean Kingston, proved to have the high bit-rate of 320kbps. I’d need a higher quality set of speakers to justly comment on the sound quality, but I can say it sounds great on my tinny integrated laptop speakers.
The experience so far has been quite flawless, simply select a song and download. It took less than a quarter of a minute for the song to totally download, and it’s got album art and all when played in Windows Media Player 11. All this is a part of the free sample that they’re offering – you can’t miss out on this offer (think about it – a free song!).

I think that Platinum MusicPass could do with a bolster in its marketing campaign, I hadn’t heard of it until I set foot in the Shoppers Drug Mart that happened to have a whole rack of it. However, it’s got a lot going for it – artists such as Elvis, Alicia Keys, Chris Daughtry, Chris Brown, and Sean Kingston have made their material available through the service – which is a definite plus in my books.
Platinum MusicPass is a great service that could use a bit more press. I’ve seen the commercial twice on television in the past month, but I would never have noticed it if I hadn’t heard about the Platinum MusicPass prior to watching, and I certainly would not have paid any attention to it. In case you’re wondering, the Platinum MusicPass comes in the tangible form of a card, at about the same cost of a CD, and can be found at major retailers such as Shoppers Drug Mart, Best Buy, Future Shop, Wal-Mart, and CD Plus.
And no, this isn’t a sponsored post – I’m just a huge fan of this movement. Asides from CD’s, I think that this is the way to go.
Take a look at the Platinum MusicPass at:
Monthly $5 Fee to Save the Music Industry?
Feb 20th
As of recent times, the music industry has really been cracking down on P2P users. But, as the saying goes, “When you can’t beat them, join them,” – and I think that this is a much more constructive and productive method to encountering this situation. Rather than start suing little children and other practically harmless individual P2P users, why not make them pay a reasonable sum? On a small-scale, that might not work – but with P2P growing ever so popular, I think it’ll work pretty well on a larger scale (even though we only have 30 million people up here in Canada).
The fee is expected to be charged to consumers’ Internet bills, similar to World of Warcraft, and is expected to rake in $500 million to $900 million, which is to be distributed to the artists. Not a bad concept at all, but will it wreck the entire delicate balance of Canada? First – is the $5/month fee mandatory? I think that we can safely assume it is – because P2P is so widespread in our country that it’d be difficult to verify whether someone was actually downloading music or not (even if they claim to not be downloading so as to avoid the $5/month fee).
This then, would result in a chain of crazy events; music retailers selling CD’s and the such will be seeing their loyal buyers flee away to their own desktops, and will soon meet their downfall. Call me old-fashioned, but I like my music on a CD – it’s just got that much more character, as opposed to some downloaded cyber-shot of album art, its real paper and real plastic.
I like things the way they are – people either do what is right, or what is wrong (morally speaking, legitimately we are all covered by the Canadian umbrella). It’s a choice that everyone will have to make, and brushing it away might be a solution to this problem, but the P2P sharing will eventually grow so popular that movies and games will be pirated even more, leading to more fees? What can we expect then?
I really don’t know if this is as great an idea as it sounds. I’m sure I will miss my CD’s, but if this is the only means that artists can collect their royalties, then I’m afraid I’ll have to pack up my CD case and get on a computer. I believe in people getting what they deserve, whether it be good or bad.
Halo 3 Firsthand: Wow
Feb 13th
Well, today I finally got my first taste of Halo 3. I went to a friend‘s house, as I don’t have an Xbox 360 – and he just had Halo 3 delivered to him a couple of days ago. So as you could imagine, when he stuck the disc into the socket, I was pretty darn excited. One thing I did notice – it wasn’t exactly a socket, but a normal CD-drive. I thought next-gen systems outgrew that stuff, but it’s refreshing to still see it there (I never got used to the socket on the Wii, really).

Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/30/Arbiter_crop.png
So, we played a bit of multi-player, but as you can imagine 2-person Slayer isn’t really that much fun. We then decided to play some Campaign mode – and wow, it was definitely something else. For some odd reason, I always get motion-sickness when I play Halo – well, not exactly motion-sickness, but I definitely have to take breaks in between long periods of playing, which is a problem I don’t get when playing games such as Counterstrike or Half Life 2. Could be the big TV, could be Halo. Anyway, he was Master Chief, and – wow, I was the Arbiter. I loved the addition of the Arbiter and still do, but I miss the energy swords (hammers just aren’t the same).
We finally destroyed the darn anti-air cannon when I called it quits. Initially we thought we already beat the game (apparently it’s a really short game), but upon seeing the huge ship crash we decided otherwise and I was definitely ready to hurl a bucketful. Still, tons of fun and an entertaining experience.
Mix Multiple Tracks into One Track
Feb 9th
There’s a little bug in the whole idea of having two flash items in a single WordPress post, and so Revver and Imeem refresh a couple of seconds after they’re loaded. My apologies for such an inconvenience, but hopefully you enjoy the video nonetheless.
And that’s about it. I realize that I sound very nervous and there are quite a few “and”s and “um”s, and the quality isn’t that great, but this was my first video and I hope you still learn something from it. Feel free to comment or critique.
A Quick Peek at Pandora
Dec 29th
I had a blast during my stay in the states, visiting various places and seeing sights that are hardly available in Toronto. Plus, the Winter was much milder, making the trip that much better. Unfortunately, that meant having hardly anytime to use all those services that piqued my Canadian interests! Luckily, this evening I had a chance to take a quick look at Pandora – which I must admit, is very similar to Last.fm. Thank goodness that’s still available to us.

Pandora loads very quickly, and it guides you through the whole experience very closely. The only difference between Pandora and Last.fm so far as I can see is that Last.fm needs to be downloaded onto the computer to enjoy the total experience, whereas Pandora is fine just on the internet. Basically, all you need to do is input a beloved artist and out comes the results – some new music to explore, as well as probably some of your old favourites.

Pandora’s GUI is great! It’s very user-friendly and it’s a lot more flexible than Last.fm – no need to register, no need to download the client. I’m sure that if I registered, a lot more features would have been available to me; sadly, I don’t think it’d be very realistic to sign up for a service I’m going to lose access to by tomorrow.

Being the picky listener I am, I already found one thing to whine about – the skipping limit! It was a real pain in the behind to know that I wan’t allowed to skip as many songs as I wanted to, due to some “restrictions”. Last.fm actually didn’t have this problem last time I checked. I realized I had used my quota and I gave up Pandora that instant. Might’ve been a hasty decision, but I didn’t have much of a choice anyway – I’m leaving for Canada tomorrow.

It’s probably a bit overrated by Canadians, as Pandora isn’t really that much better to use than Last.fm – in fact, they’re arguably at around the same calibur I daresay. However, I must also emphasize that I haven’t used Pandora to it’s potential yet and this is just a very quick judgment – I can be proven wrong, but it’s just a bummer to realize how restricted it is to an unregistered user. I’m still glad I had this eye-opening experience though – looks like we still can survive without Pandora. And we might have to for a while, because the RIAA hasn’t invaded Canada yet.


