Michael Gracie

I’ve never touched a PSP, so I’m inclined to be ignorant on the subject (what’s new?), but rumor has it Sony’s handheld gaming console will soon be Skype-capable. Despite my cluelessness with regard to gaming, I’d imagine that killing zombies while voice-chatting via Skype might eat up quite a bit of bandwidth.  This might be okay if you are at home on your Comcast 4MB connection, but everyone in the coffee shop is going to slow you down (as well as kick your ass for screaming “shoot, shoot, shoot” all the time).Is the combination a wireless carrier killer? I think not - the juice just isn’t there. With WiMAX or 3G, ubiquitously available? Maybe…someday. Wireless phones are picking up where landlines left off - they’re already killing the dial tone (although even the smallest players still act like nothing’s wrong). Cell signal reliability and voice quality still have room for major improvement, and that’s what the carriers should be concentrating on for their mainstream base while everyone chases their tails with toys. And yes, I did suggest that Research In Motion and Skype might be a good combination, but that was more for the messaging prospects.It’ll be fun for gamers, but that’s about it.

UPDATE: More “Skype will kill the cell phone calls.” The 3 Skypephone technically could be, although gaining mass share will be difficult.

Sony decided it would be a really neat idea to install destructive, impossible to remove without reformatting, rootkits on their CDs. They were curious as to what people listened to, and how. It didn’t work out well.

But there is a silver-lining here, at least for Sony. They’ve settled with two states for a paltry $1.5 million, and it sounds like bureaucrats have set up the standard hoops aflame for you to jump through to see if you are entitled to any of the dough.

I wonder just how many people had their computers trashed before the rootkit fiasco went public…

Sony’s rootkit debacle didn’t turn out that bad for them after all. Despite the lawyers jumping on the opportunity and Microsoft putting the product on its spyware list, the company comes out smelling like a rose (at least if your nose is that of a shareholder).

The settlement - if you jump through hoops, joining the class group and getting on a list, you get a free CD and a few restricted downloads. Wow!

Some people likely spent days (if not weeks) cleaning up systems as a result of this issue - lots of lost productivity and likely lots of lost money. A new CD? Some folks are pissed. I ask “what did you expect?”

Either history is going to start repeating itself in internet time, or some people are just plain stupid. Despite the hammering Sony has taken over the rootkit fiasco, someone decided to put more of the same on a popular DVD.

The rooting is going on within the German edition of Mr. and Mrs. Smith (you know, the one where Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt shoot each other up on stage, then hook up in the dressing room).

Luckily, it isn’t on the US (region 1, english) version, at least not yet. The lawyers aren’t as quick to the punch in Germany as they are in America.

I love it when folks state the obvious. In this case though, they do go into some technical details to balance their argument, otherwise I wouldn’t have bothered. Sony may be in legal trouble? No way!

Some day a few Sony executives are going to look back at the rootkit fiasco, and considering the sheer stupidity of the move, wonder why they are unemployed.

The birds are circling, and circling bigtime. Big security firms classified Sony’s CDs as spyware, and that was all she wrote. The Electronic Frontier Foundation is suing the company for damaging PCs, and state attorney general offices are getting in the act as well.

This all seems timely, but Sony (and its music brethren) may also be doing a little lobbying along the way. The latest anti-spyware bill to pass a Senate committee specifically targets remote installs of spyware, and popping a plastic platter full of shitty music into your computer could hardly be classified as remote.

Sony BMG has been bouncing talking point about their DRM fiasco faster than the Bush Administration, but no matter. Microsoft has now joined CA and Symantec in classifying the stuff as malware in their anti-spyware application, aptly named Windows Defender.

The big boy sandbox is becoming a very hostile place to play.

Sony is in some hot water over the revelations regarding its rootkits and their affect on Windows machines. Now MacInTouch is saying the rootkit issue may affect Macs as well.

Of course only a less-than-self-aware Mac user would just run any old app called Start.app, agree to a EULA after typing in an admin password, and let it fly. I am glad I know myself so well, but still I hope it isn’t true.

The good news here is that the lawyers will have more reason to chase Sony, particularly considering how many Windows users are leaving for OS X.

Didn’t take long: A week after Sony’s spyware-like DRM was discovered, class action attorneys are investigating Sony and the XCP2 copy protection. I received this email from Ethan Preston, a long-time Spamroll reader (and attorney)…
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