Announcements

HOW TO – a message from the band re: copy protection

Switchfoot’s new album Nothing Is Sound shipped from Sony with copy protection software on the CD, much to the dismay of thousands of iPod-wielding fans. The band posted a response on their official forum apologizing for the protection and detailing ways to circumvent the protection and rip their songs to PC. Switchfoot linked to open-source program CDex’s download page with instructions on disabling the autorunning protection and ripping the files to MP3. Many of Switchfoot’s fans have been upset by the copy protection measures, and it’s nice to know the artists seem to care about the issue. [via] Link.

Continue Reading September 19th, 2005 Phillip Torrone1

BusinessWeek Magazine: Best of the Web

MAKE was picked for the home section! Thanks to everyone who voted! In our travels around the Web, we come across countless sites and services. But with only 24 hours in the day, we have to settle on a relative few as places to work, play, and get things done online. These are our picks for the cream of the crop... Link.

Continue Reading September 17th, 2005 Phillip Torrone

MAKE: Advertise with Us

Mag Ads are Insanely Inexpensive – Tip: Ads in MAKE: magazine are dirt-cheap, considering the size of the magazine’s audience (50K and growing), education level (high), income (high), ad-page density (commitedly sparse), and shelf-life (three months). You can get a full page for less than $3K– chump-change for big-company advertisers, and well within reach for many small businesses or even a committed Scout troop. Link. or email .

Continue Reading September 16th, 2005 Phillip Torrone

MAKE at the Apple Store – University Village Seattle, WA

On Saturday, September 17th, MAKE will present Podcasting 101: How to Make, Produce and Publish Podcasts – 3:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. Learn what a podcast is and how to make them using your Mac and GarageBand. Also learn how to get listed in iTunes, RSS and more. I’ll also show how we make our enhanced podcasts and a lot more! Link.

Continue Reading September 13th, 2005 Phillip Torrone4

eBay Buys Skype for $4.1 Billion?

Skype-1 Well, I like Skype, I like eBay- it seems the rumors might be true– According to a BusinessWeek article, eBay will be holding an “investors conference call” at 5am PST for an announcement to be made 2 hours before. Since the eBay, Skype talks began early last week, there’s been speculation on whether or not this will happen. An article on MarketWatch, which was last updated at 11:40PM EST (Sept. 11), states eBay and Skype are in the final stages of this deal and would cost as much as $4.1 billion. Time to finsih my Skype-eBay payphone I guess. Thanks Sean! Link.

Continue Reading September 11th, 2005 Phillip Torrone1

Apple’s Big Announcement?

We’ll cover whatever is announced on Tuesday’s big Apple event, but Kevin Rose seems to have the scoop. Cingular will announce an iTunes compatible phone – the “Rocker”. New 2GB ipod called the “Nano” – it will sport a color screen and will be much smaller and thinner than a mini. Price = $199. Link.

Continue Reading September 5th, 2005 Phillip Torrone7

Single use only, modifications prohibited

The Ninth Circuit has created box-wrap patent licenses. Now the label on the box that says “single use only” is given force of law, and if you refill the cartridge you are liable for patent infringement. This from Lexmark, the company that already tried and failed to control the printer cartridge after-market using the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)…Will patent owners exploit this decision as an opportunity to impose over-reaching restrictions on formerly permitted post-sale uses, repairs, modifications, and resale? Will consumers soon confront “single use only, not for resale” notices on more and more products? Will innovators stumble over labels announcing “modifications prohibited”? Link.