Apple Briefs

The DRM, it’s got holes in it.

The big news from today (apart from the news that will apparently be breaking tomorrow) is that the Library of Congress came out with its new list of DMCA exemptions (a task it takes up every three years).

The headline, that everyone is talking about, are the new rules on circumventing cell phone software to enable interoperability of software (a.k.a. jailbreaking).

As an IP lawyer who hasn’t jailbroken his iPhone, I latched onto a different change.  The Library of Congress now explicitly permits circumventing DRM on DVDs to incorporate short portions of the movie for “non-commercial” use.

This is highly interesting for two reasons.  First, they specifically named DVD and the CSS protection used by commercial DVDs.  That means this exemption does not apply to Blue-ray disks.

Second, the additional exemptions may usher in an era of legal de-CSS software.  Sure, DVD ripping software is fairly easy to find, and some of it can be purchased.  But the movie industry has been pursuing the companies that sell the software and winning lawsuits against them.

The threat of litigation may finally be over for vendors of DVD ripping software now that the Library of Congress has sanctioned such a broad-reaching use for the software.

Everyone now has the right to rip a movie to extract a few clips, mix them together, and throw the results up on their blog.  People have been doing that for years.  But it’s nice to know they now have the right.

Via @kcase on twitter Wednesday:

OmniFocus for iPad has been submitted to the App Store! (Latest stats are that 85% of new apps are reviewed within 7 days.)

is it too much pressure to say that I am expecting OmniFocus for iPad to be a game changer in task managers?

Yesterday FileMaker released its iPad and iPhone versions of FileMaker Go ($39.99 and $19.99 respectively).  FileMaker Go allows you to view, search, and edit FileMaker Pro records right from your iPad or iPhone.  And if you won’t have internet access where you’re going, you can also copy the database to your device and run it from there.  You can copy the database back to your desktop computer when you’re done, but it looks like an all-or-nothing proposition.  There doesn’t seem to be syncing.  You can also access a database from your DropBox account.

The release of FileMaker Go certainly muddies the decision between a standard “desktop” database and a website-driven database.  I am still undecided on the technology that will serve as the foundation for our next-generation practice management tool.  FileMaker Go certainly ups the ante on the desktop side of things.

Apparently it hasn’t all been about the iPhone 4 and iOS4 down in Cupertino.  This week Apple announced a preview of updates to the MobileMe calendar.  From the screenshots, it looks like a step in the right direction.  Currently, the MobileMe calendar is a poor knockoff of the (already poor) iCal application.  The updated calendar app looks much more like an iPad application – quite attractive and much more useful.

Apple also updated the MobileMe iDisk app.  It’s a universal app, so it runs on both iPhone and iPad.  I hadn’t been looking for this app because we use DropBox rather than MobileMe for online backup, syncing, and storage.  But is seems like a fairly capable entry into the field, so it’s worth keeping an eye on.

Now if Apple would just release new iMacs already…

Mozilla released the first full beta of Firefox 4 a few days ago.  As with Firefox 3 beta, it comes with some cool art (which, if the pattern repeats, will change to cooler, newer art when we hit beta 2).

The headline features are a more complete HTML 5 implementation, better support for (non-flash) internet video, and better performance for web applications.  No, wait, scratch that.  Actually the real headline features are that tabs have moves slightly and you can now type tab names rather than working up a sweat moving the mouse.  But the good news is that they threw in all that other stuff for free.

I plan to put the Firefox 4 beta through its paces.  I am still running into slowdowns after about a week with Safari (on several computers, so I am pretty sure its not just a single system acting funky).  In fairness, Safari did better than Firefox 3, which could only last about a couple days of my internet usage (if that!).  But I’d like to get out of the habit of restarting Safari every 5 days or so just to keep it usable.

You see, for me, a web browser isn’t just a fancy newspaper.  Something I pick up once a day, read for a bit, and put down.  It’s a workspace.  I keep a couple dozen tabs open at any one time for the various projects I am involved in.  And when I have to shut down Safari and reload all of those tabs, there’s always the chance that something goes wrong.  I want a browser that I can keep using for a month or longer without restarting, just like I do with Mac OS X.

Maybe Firefox 4 will be my savior?  Only time will tell.