Pico Cassette

[catzambia]

The pico cassette is a cartridge that you plug into your phone via the headphone jack, and it transmits data to your phone using audio signals. The plan seems to be that this will merely be a "key" to data that is stored in the cloud. Although there is no reason that the data can't be stored on the cartridge. Physical copies of games for our phones anyone?   :{P

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2015/09/finally-game-cartridges-you-can-plug-in-to-your-smart-phone/?mbid=synd_moz_videogamesgen2

[jameshumphries47]

waste of time if you ask me 

[ManWithBeard1990]

So it's a form of DRM if I understand it correctly. Kill it with fire.

[catzambia]

So it's a form of DRM if I understand it correctly. Kill it with fire.

steam is drm

[CatCloud]

steam is drm

And people don't like it either.

[Swndlr]

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/11724-read-before-posting-in-this-section/

[cesrai]

steam is drm

And ? DRM sucks GOG is the best.

[Toddwjp]

so basically stupid since they could have just made it usb and work with everything (with a power pass through for charging)

[DeScruff]

So. Its equivalent to these old things:

But it uses a headphone jack instead of a printer port or Serial port.

As for the whole "sending data as audio". We used to do that in the 80s with the Commodores and ZX spectrum. It really sucked, granted that might be because the limitations of cassette tapes. I just know that so much can go wrong if the volume isn't just right, and who even knows what is the data rate of a headphone jack vs a Oh I dunno SD card?

[GoldSrc]

I don't see this getting that much attention though.

 

This came to my mind

[catzambia]

 

One person in the comments of the article linked to another site that estimated the bandwidth of an audio jack to be 19kbps. http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=89454

[Builder]

So it's a form of DRM if I understand it correctly. Kill it with fire.

 

And ? DRM sucks GOG is the best.

 

Having to use media containing DRM software is a tradeoff you make for added value in a capitalist society. The added value here is being able to play the same game using the same hardware on many different phones, something that is not possible with games downloaded from phone app stores.

 

DRM done well is not even noticed by the consumer, such as with Steam, Netflix, and Spotify. The added value of Steam is having all of your games organized in one place and frequently getting to buy new games at absurdly low prices. With Netflix and Spotify, you have more than a lifetime's worth of media available to you for a nominal monthly fee. These are opportunities not available with DRM-free media.

 

I'm not pro-DRM. But if you're going to be anti-DRM, at least recognize that DRM is always a tradeoff for added value.

 

If you're going to be anti-DRM, at least have the guts to be anti-capitalist as well.

[AnnoyedShelf]

Meh.  The only real use for this technology that I think is actually viable is using it to upgrade the "firmware" on analog DAW's.

[DeScruff]

One person in the comments of the article linked to another site that estimated the bandwidth of an audio jack to be 19kbps. http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=89454

Well! Move over USB type C! The future is 3.5mm audio jacks!

... Actually that made me just think of something... Would it be possible to use a USB C flash drive, on a phone that uses USB C for charging?

If so... that sorta fixes the lack of external storage on phones.

[cesrai]

Having to use media containing DRM software is a tradeoff you make for added value in a capitalist society. The added value here is being able to play the same game using the same hardware on many different phones, something that is not possible with games downloaded from phone app stores.

DRM done well is not even noticed by the consumer, such as with Steam, Netflix, and Spotify. The added value of Steam is having all of your games organized in one place and frequently getting to buy new games at absurdly low prices. With Netflix and Spotify, you have more than a lifetime's worth of media available to you for a nominal monthly fee. These are opportunities not available with DRM-free media.

I'm not pro-DRM. But if you're going to be anti-DRM, at least recognize that DRM is always a tradeoff for added value.

If you're going to be anti-DRM, at least have the guts to be anti-capitalist as well.

With no DRM like the one GOG has I can play for example Trine 2 on many PCs without having to dowbload the game installer once unlike Steam. So I don't know what benift DRM adds here.

And GOG itseld does a good job managing my games and now they have GOG galaxy it's even better.

GOG also has great deals from time to time ( I got prince of Persia games for so cheap on there ).

I see no benift for DRM at all here.

With Netflix and Hulu I can't say anything cause I haven't used them and they aren't available for me.

Also about the capitilast thing I got no idea what that's even supposed to mean.

[Dabombinable]

I don't see this getting that much attention though.

 

This came to my mind

iPod eat your heart out.

[Guest]

It's a neat idea.

But only to the point that I'd look at it and be amused, not actually go and buy one.

The fact that transfer of data takes a special app is a big drawback in my book.

[ManWithBeard1990]

Having to use media containing DRM software is a tradeoff you make for added value in a capitalist society. The added value here is being able to play the same game using the same hardware on many different phones, something that is not possible with games downloaded from phone app stores.

 

DRM done well is not even noticed by the consumer, such as with Steam, Netflix, and Spotify. The added value of Steam is having all of your games organized in one place and frequently getting to buy new games at absurdly low prices. With Netflix and Spotify, you have more than a lifetime's worth of media available to you for a nominal monthly fee. These are opportunities not available with DRM-free media.

 

I'm not pro-DRM. But if you're going to be anti-DRM, at least recognize that DRM is always a tradeoff for added value.

 

If you're going to be anti-DRM, at least have the guts to be anti-capitalist as well.

Well, even you must admit that dongles like this are stupid. You need to insert it to play the game, so you can't play it if you can't find it, but the data isn't on there, it still takes up valuable space on your phone or worse, gets downloaded from the cloud over and over again.