The New Intellectual

The New Intellectual : Many words have been granted me, and some are wise, and some are false, but only three are holy: "I will it!"

Updated: 11/2/2002; 1:38:47 PM.

Monday, October 14, 2002

Consumers face cash for content call. How users will access content and services will provide the next battleground for broadband providers. [BBC News | TECHNOLOGY] I think the way to go with this is just a subscription service. It's been said before and I'll say it again. Charge me a flat fee, say $15-$20 a month for all the tv/movies/music I can download. It could even be a little higher. You could do a 2 tier service where for $15 you could download all you want but use it only on 1 computer. Where for $25 you could do whatever you wanted with it. This really is an affordable solution and a money making one once the infrastructure is in place. Make it a searchable index with options like Title, Actor, Plot, Genre, Director, etc. Using the Gnutella or KazaA clients as a jumping off point would be a good idea, people are already comfortable with the interface. A service like this would definately make the new Media Center PC's more attractive. My desktop is already well equiped to handle the data and as HD space increases it wouldn't be a problem especially if it was encoded in something like the Microsoft 9 Series codec. Someone is going to figure this model out and in the not too distant future. I have a feeling it's going to be a partnership between Microsoft and the media companies. This space is still wide open though for someone else to get the jump on and would be incredibly lucrative.
comment [] 9:29:45 PM

The keyboard that isn't there. Forget laptops and fiddly data entry devices¸ soon an uncluttered table top will be all you need to set up a mobile office. [BBC News | TECHNOLOGY] I saw this a few months back on TV. This I suppose could be a useful app for those on the go who don't want to bring along the fold out keyboard but I don't see a whole lot of use for this. Really I'd rather just speak to my computer. Sometimes I feel that technologies like these are taking away from the ones we should be working on like reliable voice recognition. But I do have to admit, this is kinda cool in a Hackers sort of way.
comment [] 9:22:00 PM