The playing field has officially been levelled.
According to a post by Gizmodo this evening, Microsoft has officially backpedalled on their Digital Rights Management (DRM) philosophy for the Xbox One.
From Microsoft:
An internet connection will not be required to play offline Xbox One games – After a one-time system set-up with a new Xbox One, you can play any disc based game without ever connecting online again. There is no 24 hour connection requirement and you can take your Xbox One anywhere you want and play your games, just like on Xbox 360.
Trade-in, lend, resell, gift, and rent disc based games just like you do today – There will be no limitations to using and sharing games, it will work just as it does today on Xbox 360.
In addition to buying a disc from a retailer, you can also download games from Xbox Live on day of release. If you choose to download your games, you will be able to play them offline just like you do today. Xbox One games will be playable on any Xbox One console — there will be no regional restrictions.
This brings the Microsoft philosophy right in line with Sony. While these DRM features won’t be requirements of either console, it does leave the option of DRM to game publishers. Hopefully, however, game publishers have been paying attention to the great fuck up that is Electronic Arts, and learned something from it.
I was genuinely concerned for the Xbox One after E3 last week. After seeing the strong reactions online regarding Sony’s PS4 announcements, and Microsofts seeming inability to properly communicate their vision, I wasn’t so sure their philosophy was going to have a place in the next generation console market. But this changes things.
I have no doubt that the great majority of us, whichever console we choose come Fall, will maintain a consistent connection to the internet and our experience will be richer for it. But for those who are not afforded such a luxury, the Xbox One should now be on you radar.
November can’t come soon enough.
Matt Farwell is a veteran of the Afghanistan war who worked as a co-reporter with Hastings on some of his recent pieces. He sent this eulogy to Rolling Stone: “My friend Michael Hastings died last night in a car crash in Los Angeles. Writing this feels almost ghoulish: I still haven’t processed the fact that he’s gone. Today we all feel that loss: whether we’re friends of Michael’s, or family, or colleagues or readers, the world has gotten a bit smaller. As a journalist, he specialized in speaking truth to power and laying it all out there. He was irascible in his reporting and sometimes/often/always infuriating in his writing: he lit a bright lamp for those who wanted to follow his example.”
The world just isn’t fucking fair.
You can (and should!) read some of his Rolling Stone contributions here.
Quebec’s anti-corruption cops arrested Montreal Mayor Michael Applebaum at his home around 6 a.m. Monday morning. Applebaum was chosen by city council as interim mayor in November to replace Gérald Tremblay who resigned over corruption charges. Applebaum faces “14 criminal charges, including fraud towards the government, breach of trust, conspiracy and municipal corruption,” the CBC reports. In his short time as mayor, Applebaum has already defended himself from allegations of mafia connections.
But when a Canadian mayor makes headlines for getting arrested in the shadow of Rob Ford (allegedly!) smoking crack cocaine on video, well, certain questions like ours get raised. What, exactly, is going on with our unassuming northern neighbors?
Great. Not only have we lost all our jobs to China, but now we’ve lost half-assing the job as well. We are well and truly screwed.
Looks like somebody has a case of the Mondays.
Police in Maryland are seeking the public’s assistance in tracking down a group of teen criminal masterminds who allegedly stole a Crofton woman’s credit card and then proceeded to take incriminating photo booth photos of themselves holding the card.
Criminal fucking masterminds.
Amidst the chaos that is Rob Ford Crackgate, I see one of these four possible scenarios playing out in the City of Toronto right now:
I believe the first scenario is the most likely. Chief Blairs statements this week felt way too carefully crafted and deliberate. He knew exactly the kinds of questions he was going to be asked, and he came prepared for them because they they have evidence of a crime being committed by the Mayor of Toronto and they don’t want to:
If the police are not in possession of any evidence that might implicate Mayor Ford in a crime, why not say so? If in the course of Project Traveler the alleged crack video didn’t come into their possession, would it really hurt the current investigations standing to say that? I don’t see why they wouldn’t exonerate the mayor if they could, given the fact that his name keeps popping up in a major criminal investigation. The whole statement just felt like Chief Blair wanted to say more, but couldn’t for the fact this is an incredibly sensitive issue that needs to be handled carefully and by the book.
Point 4 is probably the most unlikely. For the most part, the TPS are professionals and with the large number of officers involved in something like Project Traveller, keeping information of such calibre under wraps within the department would be incredibly difficult. Mayor Ford has made many enemies across the City of Toronto, and this kind of information would leak out immediately.
Of course it also remains possible that Toronto Police are not in possession of any video, and don’t have plans to bring changes against the mayor. Indeed the video might really be “gone”.
But there is another scenario we need to consider. Given the fact that only a small handful of people have seen this alleged crack tape, we need to consider the idea that this entire thing is a hoax. To fake an iPhone video of Mayor Ford smoking crack really wouldn’t be all that difficult for someone who knew what they we’re doing. I mean, remember Human Bird Wings? This scenario remains entirely plausible.
Hopefully one of these scenarios (or a variation of such) plays out soon, so the City of Toronto can finally put this matter to rest.
In the meantime, let’s not assault the man.
Last week was a week of revelations.
Early Thursday morning a series of raids unfolded across the GTA targeting two Toronto gangs, the Dixon City Bloods and the Dixon Goonies, and a network of drug and gun smugglers. The investigation, dubbed Project Traveler, has been ongoing since last summer. Through the raids Police seized 40 firearms, over $3 million in drugs, and more than $500,000 in cash. 43 suspects are facing over 300 charges, including charges of murder and attempted murder.
Policing are calling this investigation a significant blow to the organizations involved, leaving them “significantly downgraded”.
The raids themselves are not that unusual. They happen pretty regularly in the GTA, at least a few times a year, and very often on the same scale as we saw Thursday.
What’s unusual about this investigation is it’s possible connection to Mayor Rob Ford.
According to CTV News sources Toronto Police became aware of the alleged Rob Ford crack tape during the course of Project Traveler, weeks before the story became public. Individuals who were under surveillance during the investigation openly discussed the video and Rob Ford’s presence in it.
We know a major area of focus for Toronto Police during the Project Traveler investigation was an apartment block located on Dixon Rd, the very same apartment block that Rob Ford reportedly stated to his staff the video could be found.
And we know that two of the individuals pictured in this now infamous photograph have been arrested as part of this investigation. The third individual, Anthony Smith, was shot and killed outside a Toronto nightclub earlier this year.
Police Chief Bill Blair held a press conference following the raids on Thursday, and as you can imagine all the media wanted to talk about was Rob Ford. Chief Blair had a very carefully worded statement and refused to answer media questions regarding a possible connection to the mayor. He dismissed their questions stating it would be irresponsible for him to comment on the situation and that “All of the evidence will come out in court, where it belongs.”
He did however confirm in a interview with CBC News that the infamous photo of Ford and the men tied to Project Traveler is indeed real.
I know that many of us, myself included, have been very quick to believe these drug allegations despite the fact none of us have had the chance to see the alleged crack video. You can believe that I will be one of the first to offer Ford an apology should these allegations turn out to be false.
But as it stands, we know that three out the four men in the infamous photograph have been arrested or killed. We know that two (generally) respectable media outlets have confirmed the existence of this video, and we know that Toronto police have been aware of it for some time. The fact that Chief Blair has offered no exoneration of Mayor Ford in his public statements is in itself a powerful statement.
We know Project Traveller has been ongoing for sometime, and I’m not going to argue that the raids have a direct connection to the Mayor. We know they don’t. However, the question of what evidence against Rob Ford might have been accidentally uncovered during the course this investigation is a valid one.
The Mayor of Toronto’s name has been brought up numerous times in connection to major criminal investigation, and plenty of valid questions stand without answers.
Hopefully someone starts answering them soon.
It’s illegal to start campaigning now to be Toronto’s mayor in the 2014 election, but Olivia Chow isn’t starting now.
No one says she’s starting now, least of all her.
But she’s, um, starting now — in an unofficial kind of way.
Clues seem overwhelming. Not only has Chow topped every poll as the one to beat in the October 2014 vote, but the city buzzes with news about her “campaign” — more than six months before she can even file nomination papers.
I think she would make an excellent mayor and the City of Toronto would be lucky to have her.
Marco Arment on iOS 7…
One of my favorite patterns in our industry is when the old and established are wiped out by disruption, irrelevance, or changing fashions. Like a forest fire, clearing out the old is very destructive and shouldn’t be taken lightly. But what’s left behind is a clean slate and immense opportunity.
I don’t think we’ve ever had such an opportunity en masse on iOS. After what we saw of iOS 7 yesterday, I believe this fall, we’ll get our chance.
This is probably the most exciting thing about the new iOS. How are developers going to embrace this design new direction and what’s that going to mean for new apps? We shall see in the fall.
Yet this is no longer about the contents of a video that’s been seen only by three journalists. Toronto’s mayor, however peripherally, remains a character in a criminal tableau that now encompasses a sophisticated network of alleged drug trafficking, gun-running, robberies, a Dixon-turf street gang and attempted murders, and the mysterious plunge from a Fort McMurray apartment where police made an arrest three weeks ago linked to the alleged Ford crack video.
Thursday’s door-busting raids and Blair’s refusal to categorically remove Ford from the frame — extract him from the complex investigation — have put the mayor smack in the crosshairs of a vast criminal enterprise.
