UK law differs somewhat from US law, so each time a UK users copies their own CD to iTunes, they are breaking the law.
The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) is the UKs leading progressive think tank. Since 1988, they have been at the forefront of progressive debate and policymaking in the UK.
The IPPR have recently been putting pressure on the UK Chancellor to change the law, so that if you own an original CD, a backup for personal use would be legal.
“UK copyright law should be changed to include a private right to copy that protects users of ipod and other MP3 players, according to a new report published today (Sunday) by the Institute for Public Policy Research (ippr). The UK’s current copyright laws mean that millions of Brits break the law each year when they copy their CDs onto their computers.”
The full report can be read here.

Hot on the heels of the Product Red iPod. The latest video “Long Way 2 Go” by Cassie features a snazzy red MacBook. Could this be a sneaky glimpse of a Product Red MacBook, or is it more likely a colorized standard MacBook?

Warning ! This video is not for the easily offended.

EazyDraw, quoted as ‘MacDraw on Steroids’ moved to a new version 2.1 today.

New features in V2.1 include a Free Transform capability to apply shear, skew, stretch and rotate distortions to images and other graphics. Soft bitmap shadows, an added shadow method for very high quality drop shadows. Expanded Arrows support for user defined arrows; plus the ability to apply shapes as “brushes” along the path of any graphic, including a progressive sequential distortion transform applied to successive shapes along a path. The new custom Arrow menu is provided with over 20 new Factory arrow shapes. Revamped Dash palette that allows the user unlimited capability to define any sequence of line-space dash patterns.
Also added is the ability to save named, Arrows, Dashes, Gradients, Shadows and Transforms. Significant performance improvement for large drawings and working with groups of thousands of graphics. Smart Zoom toolbar button that displays the zoom percentage in the user customizable toolbar.

All the new features are fully documented in the online help and explained in more detail here on the EazyDraw website. To download the new version 2.1.3 navigate to the Hot News section.

A Business Wire report today states that a new survey conducted by ABI Research has shown that many prospective MP3 player buyers-even owners of iPods-would be likely to choose Microsoft’s Zune player. 1725 teenage and adult US residents were asked whether they planned to buy an MP3 player in the next 12 months. Of those responding that they were likely to do so, 58% of those identifying themselves as existing iPod owners and 59% of those who owned other brands said they would be “somewhat likely” or “extremely likely” to choose a Microsoft Zune player over an iPod or another brand of MP3 player.

“Our conclusion,” says principal analyst Steve Wilson “is that iPod users don’t display the same passionate loyalty to iPods that Macintosh users have historically shown for their Apple products.” Only 15% of iPod owners said they were “not very likely” or “not at all likely” to choose Zune.

So is Zune attractive enough to build anything like iPod’s massive sales record? ABI Research believes that a critical factor will be whether or not Microsoft can differentiate the Zune from competing products in some meaningful way. One differentiator, Zune’s Wi-Fi peer-to-peer sharing, which Microsoft is playing up heavily, “isn’t all that compelling, at least not now,” notes Wilson. “There’s a lot more you could do with that capability.”

But given the results of ABI Research’s survey, Apple will need to make some big announcements in 2007 if it is to maintain its edge in the industry. Says Wilson, “Apple needs a new high-end device that works really well and looks really cool, because other brands are catching up.”

Methodology: data contained within this report is derived from a Web-based survey among a nationally-balanced and demographically-representative sample of 1,725 online consumers (age 18 and older). The consumer survey was conducted in October 2006. Respondents were provided a photo and description of the Microsoft Zune device before being asked about their likelihood to choose it over a competitive MP3 player.

I Don’t Buy It

While ABI is without a doubt a reputable research firm, I just don’t take their survey findings all too seriously. Although we’ll have a better picture of the real stats sometime in January, I doubt that we’ll even see Microsoft’s Zune register a gain of more than low single digits this holiday season.

While I happen to agree with Mr. Wilson’s assessment that Apple needs to release a really cool next gen iPod next year, I think that’s all but assured. A number of Apple’s published patents covered by MacNN have confirmed that Apple has a number of great features on the horizon. The most recent of these patents in fact illustrates a chameleonic form of the iPod which will introduce a next generation of device controls which are known as virtual controls. Virtual controls are light based thereby doing away with physical controls that are present on today’s iPod’s. The patent describes that the user will be able to change the functionality of their iPod from that of an MP3 player to that of a PDA, cell phone, games player or GPS device on-the-fly. So yes Mr. Wilson, Apple will likely be launching a really cool high-end iPod by this time next year, if not a lot earlier. Time will tell.

Yet without going too far out into the future, I’ll leave it for now that I just don’t buy into the survey’s results that 58% of iPod owners could switch to Microsoft’s Zune. It just sounds like a lot of hot air and hopeful thinking on the part of Redmond, in my humble opinion, and nothing more. The question is, however, do you buy into today’s survey findings.

Written and researched by Neo.

Apple Authorised Reseller ‘GBM Digital Technologies Limited‘ is opening a new store in Manchester, UK. The new ‘Digital Store Manchester‘ is opening on November 11th 2006. Located at One Piccadilly Gardens, Manchester, M1 1RG with some great offers for the Christmas season. Offers include a free iPod case and armband on selected iPods, plus 0% finance over 12 months on qualifying Macs. Of note is the 3D illustration of the shop layout, showing a very similar layout to that of an actual Apple Store. Most stores follow a similar layout to make the buying experience as Apple-like as possible.

Ever wonder what is behind the doors of the big buildings that belong to the telecommunication giants? Recently InfoWorld and Salon.com reported on an interesting room that exists in the St. Louis Network Operations Center of AT&T. For those of you not familiar with the Internet backbones that run throughout the USA, this data center is a major intersection of Internet Data.

Found in a dark corner of this building is a room that only government officials and AT&T employees with top-secret security clearance can access. What’s behind the door you may ask, well very few know, because the room’s tight security includes a biometric mantrap, with retinal and fingerprint scanners. According to Salon.com sources, employees assigned to the room have the task of “monitoring network traffic.”

This room is one of many that came into existence in 2002, shortly after network data monitoring became commonplace in an effort to “detect terror threats.”

The real question is who monitors the guys in the sealed room to ensure they are not reading things they shouldn’t?

Apple Computer has had three major marketing campaign runs that have changed the way the world looks at Apple Computer. ” Think Different,” “Switcher,” and most recently the PC and Mac guys. With the two most recent campaigns Apple has focused on the fear that many PC users have of getting a virus, leading users to believe that using a Mac on the Internet is like living in a small country town instead of the big city. Simply put, use a Mac and you will be safe from the dangers of the scary Internet. For the most part this has always been true. As Mac users we are fairly safe from viruses and spyware, or so we are lead to believe.

The safety that resides in the Mac community is based on its size, and that our hardware and software is completely different. The Mac community is changing and it is changing fast. We are no longer as different as we once were and our numbers are growing rapidly. This fact has been present for a number of years but was not a huge concern because the internet script kiddies (hackers who base thir hacks off of prebuilt applications that require little or no computer knowledge to use) had yet to see anything that targeted the Macintosh. Today things are different.

During my weekly trips to the local monster chain bookstore I always make a point of checking out all the new computer magazines to catch up on any events that I may have missed. I always make a special point to keep an eye out for the hacker magazines that all the wanna be hackers across the globe pick up. While flipping through one I found a very interesting article titled “iPod Sneakiness.” This article was focused on targeting unsuspecting computer users who are more then happy to let someone plug in an iPod for a quick charge. The article provides details on configuring the iPod as a hacking tool to automatically collect data in the background while it is charging. Very much like a DVD can automatically play when inserted into your computer, an iPod can automatically complete tasks as well, such as gathering passwords and personal information.

Although this has always been possible it is important to make note that Apple products are now gaining attention in the computer underground. For Mac users the coming years are going to end up showing just how unsafe our Mac community may be. Although you may feel it is a waste of money to purchase, install, and update regularly a respected virus scanning application, just remember that virus scanning software only protects you from what it knows about. If you don’t update virus software you may never know about the new virus out there.