Cool Tech Reviews

Stephen Shankland at CNET:

Linux seller Linspire has removed the $20 to $50 annual fees it charged for access to its “Click ‘N’ Run” library of software downloads, a bid to enhance the popularity of its product.

“CNR really makes using desktop Linux easy, and we want everyone to have access to this quality service,” Chief Executive Kevin Carmony said in a statement. The move was financially feasible for the company because it’s making enough revenue from premium products such as software to play DVDs, CodeWeavers’ CrossoverOffice software to run Microsoft Windows and Sun Microsystems’ StarOffice, a commercial variant of OpenOffice.org, the company said.

The library is a key feature of the company’s $60 Linspire and free Freespire Linux products. The company argues that its approach makes it easy to install new software.

And it does make it easier, particularly for users that aren’t overly proficient technically, which is what Linux need to attract if it is ever going to have broad appeal as a desktop OS.

Mark McSherry at Reuters:

SpiralFrog, a new music download service, on Tuesday said it would make Vivendi’s Universal Music Group’s catalog available for free legal downloading in the United States and Canada.

The new advertising-supported service, due to launch later this year, joins the ranks of rivals battling for a piece of the digital music market in the shadow of Apple Computer Inc’s dominant iTunes music store.

New York-based SpiralFrog said it would offer users of its free, Web-based service the ability to legally download music of Universal’s roster, which includes U2, Gwen Stefani and The Roots.

“Offering young consumers an easy-to-use alternative to pirated music sites will be compelling,” SpiralFrog Chief Executive Robin Kent said in a statement.

Kent said SpiralFrog’s business model is based on sharing income from advertising with content partners like Universal.

The company’s research revealed that consumers are willing to “pay” for their content by watching non-intrusive, contextually-relevant, targeted advertising, Kent said.

The SpiralFrog Web site won’t be ready to serve tunes until December, but it will be interesting to see how they define non-intrusive. The record companies are very insistent on getting their money so SpiralFrog is going to have to ensure that the ads get watched.

Update: Some pertinent details from Louis Hau at Forbes:

There’s a catch, of course. Actually two of them: First, consumers won’t be able to burn songs downloaded from SpiralFrog onto a blank CD. More important, all downloads will be formatted in Microsoft’s Windows Media Audio, or WMA, format. That means they’ll be playable on virtually any portable music player except the one that matters most: Apple Computer’s market-dominating iPod.

Well, you’ll be able to play them on your Windows PC at least.

Update 8/30: More details from Marshall Kirkpatrick at TechCrunch:

Spiral Frog will offer a desktop downloader for Windows Media Files (no iPods!) that can be listened to on one PC and two portable devices. Here’s the kicker - you must log in to the Spiral Frog service at least once per month, and see their ads, or your files will stop playing! The details aren’t fully set in stone, but it will be something like that. There will be links to third party sites of the record labels’ choosing if you’d like to buy your freedom to at least skip the ads.

Sounds like the ads are getting more intrusive by the second.

Spiral Frog will also offer far more than just music, but also video and other digital content. The selling point here is that users will be able to access media legally, without the malware, bad network connections and pirate’s shame that comes from other online media sources.

Well, it’s a dream.

Red Herring:

In an effort to jump-start their video pay-per-download service, Guba said Monday it has slashed the prices for buying or renting premium television shows and movies from their site.

Movie buffs can buy new studio releases for $9.99 on the same day the movie is released on DVD. Catalog movie titles cost $4.99, and TV show episodes are going for $0.49. And users can get a 24-hour movie rental for $0.99, the same price as a song on Apple’s iTunes.

Previously, new releases of films like V for Vendetta, Syriana, and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, cost $19.99 to buy, and were not available for rent.

“Nobody knows what the right price is for this stuff online,” said Guba CEO Tom McInerney. “The studios don’t know, even Apple doesn’t know.”

Mr. McInerney said the promotion has been a hit with users. Traffic on the site has increased 500 percent since the promotion began last week. “Clearly pricing does matter,” he said.

I’m not shocked at that news.

Note that per the press release:

Technical requirements: GUBA’s Premium service uses Digital Rights Management (DRM) copyright protection software developed by Microsoft. Only devices with current Windows Media technology can play GUBA’s Premium content, including most Windows PCs.

Restrictions: GUBA Premium content is only available to users in the US due to international copyright ownership restrictions. Purchased videos are owned in perpetuity but cannot be burned to DVD due to current restrictions of the DRM software.

That’s a change from the previous Guba DVD limitation and actually the Guba FAQ indicates that their content comes with various different licensing terms. It just appears that this movie special is one of the more restrictive. Frankly, I’m not sure that I really would want an extensive movie collection tied to a particular PC, but maybe if you just view it as a on-demand video rental alternative, it’s OK.

Catherine Holahan has a review at BusinessWeek online which makes a similar assessment, but observes that Guba has a lot of free content that might be worth investigating.

From the Sophos Web site:

Removing rootkits without compromising system integrity is particularly challenging and needs to be done with care. Our free software, Sophos Anti-Rootkit, finds and removes any rootkit that is hidden on your computer.
…
Using Sophos Anti-Rootkit is straightforward. Whether you use its simple graphical user interface or run it from the command line you can easily detect and eliminate any rootkits on your computer.

Get more information and download it by following the link.

Microsoft and Electronics Arts launched Madden NFL 07 for the Xbox 360 with a lot of hoopla yesterday and Matt Slagle of the Associated Press delivers a review:

Football video game junkies have been anxiously waiting for this week’s release of “Madden NFL 07″ by Electronic Arts Inc. The annual release of this video game franchise has become an event in itself.

But is this year’s supposed latest and greatest any good? After all, spending $59.99 on a new E-rated Xbox 360 version of the game is asking a lot — especially if you were burned by last year’s crummy version, which lacked many of the key features found in the older consoles.

A lot of annoyances remain, and there’s plenty of room for more polish and refinement. But at least the only “next-gen” console on the market finally has a decent football game.

Hit the link for the details, but there are some evident graphics problems that are overshone by the controls:

These issues aside, anyone who’s played sports video games can tell you that the graphics don’t matter if the controls stink.

Fortunately, this is where “Madden 07″ shines.

The controls are probably going to be a bit overwhelming to newcomers, but they become incredibly precise with practice.

Much more by following the link. Not exactly an A+ grade, but at least a B.

The number of VoIP services continues to increase rapidly and the prices are spiralling down to free. Michael Arrington at TechCrunch has the latest:

The VOIP wars are already crowded with more competitors than can possibly build a business. Well capitalized players like Vonage and Skype battle with nimble startups like Gizmo and Jajah in a race for relevance. All have their own twists on the idea of cheap or free calls using the internet. The most recent entrant, Hullo, is a worthy addition to the crowd. Hullo is most like Jajah, with a few notable differences.

Jajah allows easy phone-to-phone calls from their website. It has a somewhat complicated pricing structure, but the important thing to know is that it is free or damn close to free for most calls in the US and Europe. To make a call, you type in your phone number and the phone number you are calling. A moment later your phone rings. Pick it up and the person you are calling is ringing on the other end. From that point on it’s a normal phone call. Jajah generally requires you to initiate calls from their website, although they do have an Outlook plugin, firefox extension and Mac address book plugin as well to ease the process of calling. Simple, straightforward, cheap.

Hullo is a little different. The actual process of having a call is the same as Jajah - first your phone rings, then the person calling you. But as Alec Saunders notes in his review, it does a lot more, too.

First of all, it’s impossible to spend money on the service, at least for now. Everything is free.

That part sounds good as do the features described in the rest of the article and in the Alec Sunders review linked above. I especially like the conference calling capability, but here’s a quote from Saunders about the real bottom line:

Best of all, all North American calls are free, whether you make them on the softclient, or on a handset, and whether you make them to another hullo member, or to a non-member. When compared to Skype, this means you can make a free call from any handset as well as a PC. And when compared to Gizmo, you can make a free call to anybody, not just another Gizmo member. This up’s the ante significantly in the price spat Skype and Gizmo started.

The company is focusing their launch on the college and high school crowd. The features have been designed recognizing that young people are increasingly the most sophisticated users of mobile phones. hullo’s feature set makes it easy to use those phones to socialize, arrange events, or stay in touch with friends and family who might live in different cities. It’s not hard to imagine how appealing this will be for students away from home for the first time.

And appealing to everyone else too. I wonder how long it can stay free?