Thursday, June 5, 2008

Show #84



[Download Show #84 as MP3]

Tech Headlines [Koby] (Computers, Cameras, Cell Phones, Big News)
  • Revision3 Servers Brought Down by MediaDefender
    • In a nice "New Media" vs. "Old Media" story...
    • Here's the story
      • Revision3 is an IPTV "station" that produces several video podcasts (including my personal fav Tekzilla).
      • Revision3 utilizes BitTorrent technology to help distribute their shows
      • They recently switched to new BitTorrent (tracker)server software and left it open
      • A R3 user discovered this and informed R3
      • R3 closed the BT server to only allow downloads of their shows
      • Doing so, caused MediaDefender to essentially flood R3's BT server with "hello" packets
      • This brought down the R3 site, offices, and email server over Memorial Day weekend
    • MediaDefender is a subsiderary of Artist Direct.
    • MediaDefender uploads bad torrent files to illegal torrent sites and floods the torrent networks with bad data in order to protect the copyrights of RIAA and MPAA companies
    • They basically just assumed that since that R3 was using BitTorrent for illegitamate purposes and when they were locked out, they flooded the server with requests
    • The odd thing is, MediaDefender has a history of doing this kind of attack in the past (see Ars Technica article)
  • RIM Beats Apple in Smartphone Sales
    • in Q1 of this year, RIM has beat out Apple in smartphone sales, almost 2 to 1
    • RIM also sold the most smartphones for Q1 of 2008
    • The numbers?
      • RIM 44.5% in Q1 (up from 33.5% in previous quarter)
      • iPhone 19.2% (down from 26.7%)
      • Palm 13.2% (up from 7.9%) thanks to the Centro device
      • Samsung was in fourth
    • One might be able to attribute the lack of iPhone sales is because of the strong rumors that a new one is expected to be announced/released early next week
    • I expect that we will see different numbers for Q2 of this year, but I think that RIM might hold the number 1 spot
    • If not they'll probably get it back by the end of this year, with the release of their newest devices: Bold, Kickstart, and their touchscreen Thunder
  • AT&T touts 20% 3G Speed Increase
    • Should get speeds between 700kbps and 1.7Mbps (up from 600-1.2)
    • You'll currently only be able to get these nice new speeds with a LaptopConnect card but expect it to make its way to the handhelds soon
    • AT&T is claiming to bring the speeds up to 20Mbps by 2010
Tech Picks [Derek] (Software, Hardware, Websites, Reviews)
Gamer's Corner [Steven] (Conferences, New Developments, Game Reviews)
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