The One Laptop Per Child project has seen mixed success. With competition from similar, but more familiar-looking items from Intel and others, the OLPC found itself suddenly competing in a market it had no intention of entering. But they’re out there, they’ve had some serious orders, and despite some other speed bumps, has certainly lent a hand in increasing computer literacy in the developing world.

You may remember that the sequel to the XO laptop, as the OLPC hardware was actually called, was spied at Davos in January after its initial debut in May of 2008. It was noted at the time that there was some doubt as to whether it would be made, and now those doubts have come to glorious anti-fruition. The XO-2 is dead — but only because Negroponte decided it should be a tablet.

A couple weeks ago, a friend of mine came to me with a problem. The British distribution company handling his music video was shockingly backwards in its formatting, and was asking for a Real Media encode of the video. They didn’t specify bitrate, resolution, where it would be shown, or anything like that. Quicktime was being a bother, and we needed to use my PC to do a few encodes at this or that specification. We ended up running it through in Vegas, and going to grab a coffee while it churned out the frames.

Now, the point is not that you need a PC to encode heinous old formats, but rather that digital distribution is a weird, complex process that could use a bit of simplification. Sorenson’s Squeeze 6 appears to go to some lengths to make this happen. It’s far from the only encoding platform out there, but I think they’re moving the right direction with this version, which not only integrates tightly with your Mac, but also with SMS, Twitter, and other popular services. After all, there’s no guarantee that you’re going to be working in the same office, or even the same country, as people who need to be informed every step of the way. (link fixed)

There’s an interesting article in the current New York Review of books (predictably, a book review) detailing the history of the National Security Agency, that shadowy power-behind-the-power to which we surrender much of our privacy. That in itself is interesting, but I found the introduction a bit shocking: the NSA is constructing a datacenter in the Utah desert that they project will be storing yottabytes of surveillance data. And what is a yottabyte? I’m glad you asked.

There are a thousand gigabytes in a terabyte, a thousand terabytes in a petabyte, a thousand petabytes in an exabyte, a thousand exabytes in a zettabyte, and a thousand zettabytes in a yottabyte. In other words, a yottabyte is 1,000,000,000,000,000GB. Are you paranoid yet?

The more salient question is, of course, what are they storing that, by some estimates, is going take up thousands of times more space than all the world’s known computers combined? Don’t think they’re going to say; they didn’t grow to their current level of shadowy omniscience by disclosing things like that to the public.

I don’t know how you could forget, considering we’ve been posting Droid updates just about every day, but according to our calculations, tomorrow is October 28th: the day Droid dropped. Now, we don’t expect the Droid to set the mobile world on its head exactly, but we’re pretty sure that it’s going to be the premiere Android device — until the next premiere device comes out.

The combination of better hardware, better software, and a slim form factor gives it a leg up on pretty much every other Android device out there, unless you want the non-hardware keyboard, in which case the Hero is your best bet.

A few weeks ago, Microsoft made a minor splash by announcing they’d offer an ad-supported version of Microsoft Office. Most of the functionality would be there, but there’d be an ad down there in the corner. A tempest briefly raged in this teapot, but died down once people realized they’d been using ad-supported software for years and never even thought to complain. After all, every time you search for something — look, ads! Have a free email account? Ads here and there (targeted based on the content of your email, which surprisingly few people find disturbing), and sometimes even included in your outgoing messages. Ad-supported services and software are embedded in our technological landscape whether you realize it or not, and it’s beyond question that they’ve cultivated improvement.

So when word came down that Apple had filed a patent for what appears to be an ad-supported version of OS X, my shock abated almost instantly. In fact, I only felt more justified in backing ad-supported products. There will be objections, some legitimate, some hysterical, but I think it will become increasingly clear over the next few years that this sort of thing is not only unavoidable, but ultimately desirable. As with other major emerging concepts like globalization, peer to peer connectivity, net neutrality, and device convergence, the evolution of advertising will be denied, debated, and championed in a million different ways. And that’s okay. Like those other processes (all of them still ongoing), you don’t have to accept them right away, but it helps if you realize that resistance is futile.

Yesterday, word got out of Apple’s new iFrame standard, which purports to expedite video editing by keeping the video in “the same format used on a computer.” Really, it’s nothing but a resolution and wrapper. So why am I losing my mind over it? Because the way iFrame is being positioned and propagated is misleading and harmful to consumers. Oh I know, what an alarmist, right? It’s just a video format! But with personal video becoming more and more ubiquitous and invading class after class of gadgets, these former trivialities are becoming more important by the day.

And for once, we are actually gravitating towards a couple unified standards in both encoding and resolution — and then Apple butts in with this ugly stepchild of a format.

The whole world was bullish on iTunes LPs when they were announced; I called it a black eye for the majors, whose CMX format has yet to be popularized. But the hype was curbed when it was discovered that there was a $10,000 fee associated with the service, putting it completely out of reach for less affluent artists and small labels who can’t afford that price for promotion.

Luckily for them, Apple was nice enough to make the format rather basic. It turns out anyone versed in a little HTML and Javascript can put together an LP that’s just as good as a “real” one. It’s not as simple as drag-and-drop, and without Apple’s proprietary TuneKit library, some functionality is difficult or impossible to replicate at this point. But iTunesLP.net is trying to collect all the information you need into a few tutorials and demo files.

It wasn’t long ago that we heard about the imminent demise of one of the net’s most infamous and venerable sites: Geocities. At the time, we could see the pendulum hanging from the rafters, but earlier this week it was set a-swinging and the site will die quietly and gallantly on October 26th. Of course, while the sites will no longer be accessible at Geocities itself, they will be preserved in our hearts — and on the Internet Archive, of course.

It was only two weeks ago that the Windows 7 Launch Party video cut a burning swath across the internet, leaving only scorched sensibilities and a feeling that you’d lost something fundamental never to be regained.

We lied to ourselves then that it couldn’t be more than a blip on the radar, a PR pitch gone awry and furtively uploaded, unfit for human consumption as it was — a tainted morsel of the promotional meat grinder. And to be honest, I was ready to let it lie.

But it wasn’t just a morsel. Little did we know, the Windows 7 launch sausage factory would be squeezing gristle into our inboxes regularly — and now they’ve gone and sent us party favors.

The other day, I went on a short tour of some of Microsoft’s Labs, where they do everything from rapid prototypes of new products to acoustic testing in anechoic chambers. Most of my time was spent in the Applied Sciences group’s labs, where they are working on some seriously interesting devices.

And they’re not just into mice; in fact, the lab’s specialty seemed to be anything to do with optics and/or input. This lab worked on Project Natal, and also on the pressure-sensitive keyboard I wrote about a while back.

They were kind enough to show me all these crazy multi-touch mice, and, when I was too inept to demo even one of them solo, offered to go through them with me on video.

PSP what? Nobody cares about that old thing. Honestly, do you want to carry around yet another heavy, fragile, state-of-the-art toy? No. What you need (what this country needs) is a cheap little handheld Genesis sporting 20 of the system’s greatest semi-hits. No need to worry about managed copies, DRM, firmware updates, or UMD transfer — just hit the power button and you’ll be playing Altered Beast or Sonic & Knuckles before you can say “Seeegaaaa!”

It’s Saturday. Relax and check out the video while you digest brunch.

Bezos may have apologized, but the stink of Amazon’s unprecedented act of cyberburglary is still strong enough that people aren’t likely to forget any time soon. It’s a good thing, then, that Amazon has struck while the iron is still slightly hot by announcing the terms under which they will consider themselves justified in making your book an unbook.

Nobody likes the idea of having a corporation forcefully take back something they legitimately purchased (whether it was legitimately offered is not their concern), but the truth is that e-books and other “virtual property” will have to be subject to some of the same laws and restrictions as real property. I can’t think of many situations where the police would be justified in entering my house and removing an item I had purchased, without my consent, but that’s what judges and warrants are for. Amazon is, for the most part, its own judge (and extraction team), but they haven’t left too many doors open for more Orwellian tomfoolery.

The trickle of news about Microsoft’s Courier device continues, and this time there’s a bit more of a realistic walkthrough. The device is being shown to be much more of a next-generation notepad than all-purpose tablet, and that’s probably for the best; Microsoft overreaching with a device like this could result in a real crash and burn. I suppose the best way to picture the Courier is just as a web-connected organizer — you know, one of those leather-bound ones that business people used to have, and which the Courier seems clearly designed after.

Of course, with an internet connection and full-color touchscreen, much more is enabled and the device becomes much more complicated. Microsoft’s (and Pioneer’s) task has been to pare that down to a product, and it really looks like they’ve done it right. Still all renders, though.

Social media applications are increasingly abstracted from their web-app roots, be it in Adobe air or an iPhone app. Devices like the Chumby have made some inroads towards completely breaking something like Facebook away from your desktop, but they haven’t been popular enough or good enough to catch on.

I doubt that will change too much with the Lighthouse SQ7, but I’d be happy to be proved wrong. It’s just that incorporating voice recognition technology into your device seems like overreaching, as cool as it would be if it worked.

At any rate, it’s good to see companies still plugging away at what seems like a sort of awkward tweener device, but honestly, one I might like to have around. A combination alarm clock, social media doodad, and lightweight browser — fitting somewhere on the twisted continuum between tablet computer and digital picture frame.

China Unicom, the country’s second-largest carrier, will offer the iPhone starting in mid-October. And in pricing that is rather the opposite of the low upfront cost and high monthly pricing at AT&T, they’ll be selling the device almost at cost and pairing it with plans that make ours look positively extortionate.

Prices will start around $300 for an 8GB iPhone 3G, which seems a bit high until you consider the fact that they’ll be paying less than $20 per month for service.

In a rather surprising move considering Verizon’s lack of compelling handsets, the nation’s biggest wireless carrier has decided it’s going to pass on the Palm Pre, if reports are to be believed. This is a serious blow to Palm’s aspirations, and their stock took a 5% hit as if to rubber-stamp it. Although the team here is divided over Palm’s new efforts (and advertising strategy), I think we were all secretly rooting for Palm just a bit. After all, WebOS is impressive and the Pre and Pixi are solid little devices — but Verizon doesn’t think so, or at least not anymore.

Nobody can deny that sales have been underwhelming — half a million is about where I’d place them, which is no way to launch a giant-killer. That’s Verizon’s first complaint, and you can’t really blame them. Okay, strike one.

In what was ostensibly a meeting of the majors last week to advise the FCC on broadband policy, the COO of Paramount was allowed to wax ignorant for 10 minutes on piracy and file-sharing technology. As a major content provider, they should certainly have some input, but this was sheer soap-boxery. Sure, peer to peer and torrent traffic (legal and otherwise) is going to be a major driver of broadband adoption and major consumer of the resource, but Paramount’s contribution to the discussion didn’t limit itself to germane observation and reasonable speculation.

On the upside, we have a fabulous new quote on the level of Ted Stevens’ “series of tubes” that demonstrates how utterly out of touch people like Paramount’s COO are with actual Internet terminology and capabilities. Behold:

“We are uploading it essentially to a ‘cyber locker,’ which is nothing more than electronic locker on the Internet.”

Mr. Huntsberry, we are in your debt for this immortal chestnut of cyber-wisdom. That’s nothing more than electronic wisdom on the Internet, for those of you who don’t know.

Either Microsoft’s sense of humor has gotten almost British in its sophistication and dryness, or this is the worst promotional video I’ve ever seen in my life. Yes, worse than their Songsmith video. I’m beginning to think Microsoft’s marketing department really is a thousand monkeys with a thousand high definition cameras. Or are we being punk’d?

There really isn’t much debate to be had regarding sound quality: a poorly-encoded MP3 sounds the worst, and an audiophile system playing something on the medium for which it was mastered sounds the best. However, there is a whole continuum between those poles, and some people (audiophiles particularly) can’t resist using arbitrary numbers and unintelligible descriptors to differentiate those different levels of quality.

In this case, John Meyer of Newform Research (opting for arbitrary numbers) has computed the effective bitrates of all the major audio formats, from wax cylinder to MP3. You can see the results in the chart pictured. His methods are scientific in a way, but also questionable. The effective bitrate of a record can sort of be calculated, since it does indeed rely on a sampling rate and frequency range among other things, but that’s not really the end of the story.

But what did he see in the clear stream below? His own image; no longer a dark, gray bird, ugly and disagreeable to look at, but a graceful and beautiful swan. —The Ugly Duckling

It’s been a long, brown trip for the Zune: from its early days (mocked and abject) to its awkward years (deemed a dead end and money pit) it’s been embattled and criticized, and rightly so. After all, here was an unpopular company with a frankly ridiculous brand it had pulled out of thin air, attempting to compete with the guys who defined the market. We’ve always been champions of the devices, despite their quirks, and of the service, despite its growing pains — and Microsoft occasionally made it pretty hard for us to stand by our favorite little misfit media player. Well, for once they just made it really easy.

Let’s not beat around the bush, now: this thing is going head-on with the iPod touch, one of the most versatile and well-liked devices on the planet. There are other PMPs, sure, but the caliber of these two devices is well beyond the best offerings from Creative, Samsung, or Sony. To make it easy on the Apple fans who are impatient to comment on this story, let me just state it right now for the record: the Zune HD is not an iPod-killer, but it is the only player out there that can go up against it and not be annihilated in the process. It’s good enough that everyone owes it to themselves to give it a look — unless you’re afraid of just how good it might be.

The Zune HD is upon us, and whether you love it or hate it, you have to admit that it is devilishly good-looking. I happen to think it’s also a great media player, based on my day with it and on previous demos, but the final judgment will come in a day or two with the full review.

In the meantime, I’m sure a lot of people have been waiting on a decent walkthrough of the Zune HD’s interface. I’ve got just that for you, in HD no less, so click that play button and get an in-depth tour of the music and video navigation, browser, and marketplace.

What a market leader and major dealer in capital does publicly with their money is revealing. One of the things I admire about Microsoft is that through their Labs and Research initiatives, they’ve done a lot of good work in fields only tangentially connected with Microsoft markets. Google has some initiatives of their own (if you didn’t know), and green power has been among their favored funding targets for a few years now.

Recently they’ve decided that solar power isn’t efficient enough. Well spotted, Google! They must have Binged it. Of course, they’re no stranger to the green. They’ve got millions invested in renewable energy, two solar power firms in particular (eSolar and BrightSolar), but they’re also calling for backup from the government and other major investors.

Facebook integration. Tweeting my music interests. AppleTV. Full-screen album extras. App management. An entire online store. Smart playlists. CD burning. Ringtone creation. Tips the scales at 88MB. All this in what is essentially the only music player on OS X. At some point enough is enough, and for me it was enough years ago. For god’s sake, Apple, all I want to do is play my music.

For years Apple has been adding to iTunes, and while some improvements have been welcome, many have simply added to the bloat. It’s time — way past time, really — for Apple to put out something lightweight and basic. I understand that iTunes is a wedge (and weapon) for Apple, and I don’t propose gutting it, but considering there are no credible alternatives to the program, it’s at the point where I feel Apple has stopped simply adding to the feature buffet, and has started force-feeding users.

There are some sweet upgrades just announced for the iPod touch, but… no camera. I guess Apple felt that would make it too good. What we have seen is a serious upgrade to the hardware. We’re also seeing a lot of new games coming out, some top-tier titles like Assassin’s Creed: Discovery, as Apple takes a shot at biting a bigger piece of the mobile gaming pie.

And of course there’s the expected price drop: 8GB for $199, 16GB for $229, 32GB for $299, and the brand new 64GB for $399. Plus, the 64GB is “50% faster” — although we know what that means when Apple says it. It does now support OpenGL|ES, which should improve game performance even further. Now, if only it had a D-pad…

Not long ago, it was revealed that the major players in the music market were working on a single-file album format, by which they could sell you albums at an inflated price but with value added: cover art, videos, interviews, and so on. Of course, Apple was already on that, and now, with the major labels’ “CMX” format still off in the future, Apple has given them a black eye by introducing iTunes LPs.