Stephen Fry, supergeek.

I recently stumbled across actor/presenter Stephen Fry's new blog. It really isn't what I would have expected. It is nearly all tech related. He owns a load of Macs, and also runs Ubuntu, Red Hat and Yellow dog linux distributions. He talks knowledgeably about the history of PDAs and smartphones, he compares the Palm OS to Pocket Windows, and writes scathing reviews of new media playing phones. As a result of the blog he's even been given a tech column in the Guardian.

His latest post is a review of a clockwork mp3 player!

Going over to the Dark Side

I've just made my first music purchase using iTunes Plus - Apple's new DRM free music downloads, at double the bitrate. And it was the same price as the normal DRM encumbered, normal bitrate tracks. They're doing a special offer on a lot of albums, so I got Dark Side of the Moon for £6.99 (I typed the dollar sign first time, too much poker!).

Last.fm goes corporate

Last.fm has been bought by CBS. For those of you that haven't tried it, it is a great way of finding new music. It will look at what you listen to, and play you similar music, or, you can search for music similar to specific artists. Given recent massive increases in charges by record companies in America, it will be interesting to see if they continue to allow Americans to access it now they are part of big business.

Today in my car

I am listening to "Ta Dah!" by Scissor Sisters.

EMI and iTunes go DRM Free

EMI have announced that they will make music downloads available without DRM restrictions. This will be done via Apple's iTunes. This is a major change of direction for a record company, and it also marks a change for Apple which, for the first time, will be selling music at different prices. The DRM free tracks will be selling for 99p, rather than the 79p the DRM encumbered music sells at. It will also be at a higher quality, 256kbps raither than the usual 128. There is also an option to upgrade previously purchased music