I used it a few days ago from Boston to NYC and back. The Wifi was very good - except the stretch between NYC and New Rochelle. When we couldn't get Wifi - the conductor told us we'd get a signal when we hit New Rochelle. Sure enough, he was correct. It was a very busy train, and connection speeds were decent. I was even doing things like yum installs and all worked very smoothly! :-)

If this even comes to light (which I doubt it will) - the way these things go is as follows, based off recent history and similar products. It will not be a "flying car", but rather a "roadable helicopter". This means it will require a helicopter pilot's license. This won't be something you buy at you local dealership, get your license at a local DMV, and you and all your neighbors will be commuting to work in your flying cars. They will probably take-off and land at places helicopters are now permitted (airports), and serve as an alternative means of transport and storage before/after doing so.

But that didn't make anything more "open" - it just moved the proprietary stuff to needing to be done special for iOS devices. This is the exact wrong direction to go in. If there was an HTML5 DRM standard, services could have used that to work for iOS. Instead, they need to create their own proprietary iOS application. Can you imagine what the world would be like if every platform did this?

Hmmm...A head scratchier

Let's try to figure this one out...

The new CEO - a woman who just gave birth (or is about to?) - and has publicly cracked-down on people putting time in at home comes up with a Maternity/Paternity policy....

Which one is that?

We already have these things (closed-source client side apps and plug-ins). Nothing we do will take these away. They're not going to "spread" anymore than they are now - because anyone and everyone who needs/wants it does.

All we can hope to do is to make them run correctly - and across all devices. If you don't like DRM - no one is forcing you to use DRM services/apps.

Do you honestly think that you're going to win this battle - and that high-budget content producers are just going to start forking over all their content, without any kind of protection?! "Ideals" aside - what are you trying to accomplish here?! Do you want to perpetuate the mish-mash of methods by which plug-ins are shoehorned into browsers to make the world run??

RMS Said: " If the DRM is implemented in the operating system, this could result in distribution of works that can't be played at all on a free operating system such as GNU/Linux.'"

...so...

If we standardize it in the browser (HTML5) - we won't have to implement it in the OS.

I don't like DRM either - but I would like my services like Amazon, Hulu, Netflix or whatever to work across all my devices. As much as I would love to have these services simply unprotect all their content - I don't think they'll do it, and I wouldn't if I were them. If they choose to bog-down their services with anti-ad-skipping technologies and nasty things of the such (which Amazon and Netflix do NOT btw) - those service who don't will win out.

Steep learning curve aside - not a freaking bad idea! I think the drawback is - people who do Morse fast don't actually use a "button" - they use one of those bigger clickity-clackity things that seem to allow them to go faster. A simple "button" might slow them down - at least a bit.

Netflix is a big enough of a company that they've put their plug-in into my DVD burner, my Tivo, an app on my iPhone, and plug-in's for my browser.

Great.

If some other company or service started today - they'd have a VERY steep curve to go and create plug-ins for all such devices. They would NEVER work across any OLD/existing devices. So I'd argue the lack of DRM standards are helping incumbent services maintain their monopolistic market dominance.

I agree. But if a service elects to use it anyway - why not just give them a standardized way to do it - that will work across all devices, rather than making them jump through hoops, creating different plug-ins for all sorts of devices, many of which are less-trivial than others. (Think writing a Firefox plug-in vs. a Tivo or Wii plug-in).

If the services deem this as "sufficient" protection, give them a way to do it. If you're "pissed-off" by the way a particular service choose to implement it, and the restrictions they impose, you are welcome to not use their service. But at least you would be able to run a service that you *did* choose to use on a wide variety of HTML-5 compatible devices.

As it stands today - they can still design DRM that pisses you off, but have less options on what to view them on.

Great example: DVDs are a PITA - they don't let you rewind, or fast-forward through ads. I don't like them - so I don't buy, rent or watch them. With Netflix, I don't "own" the content - but they don't force me to watch ads. For the price they charge, It's a good service and a good deal - so I use them. Netflix is a big enough of a company that they've put their plug-in into my DVD burner, my Tivo, an app on my iPhone, and plug-in's for my browser. Great.

If some other company or service started today - they'd have a VERY steep curve to go and create plug-ins for all such devices - and they would NOT work across any OLD devices.So I'd argue the lack of DRM standards are helping incumbent services maintain their monopolistic market dominance.

No, it would merely *allow* one to play DRM protected content. If you don't like the protection, don't use that services content. Service do all this today, they just need *proprietary* plug-ins to do so.

Then if you are faced with purchasing content with such restrictions: don't.

However, if someone wants to have a video service that let's you do all that - maybe you'd elect to patronize them.

Give people the choice and the means to create and offer products and services that will work in a standardized way. Then it's up to the consumer to device what they'll use.

Yes - I *am* forced to do this, despite the existence of an HTML-standard DRM. But today I'm forced to do it via some very device-specific plug-ins that only work on a fraction of my devices. For this reason, so many devices won't even let me play the content at all - so I am left with *less* choice as a result, and I *still* have to sit through crappy ads.

If you don't like the ads - don't use the service - but don't think you're going to prevent the publishers/distrubutors/whoever remove them altogether - except maybe with your pocket-book. Patronize services who give you what you want.

How is it "hobbling" the technology. If you don't like the DRM aspect of it - don't watch protected content with it. It's not going to have any affect on you.

What does HTML5 standards have to do with DVDs?