Copy Controls Under Siege

Plus: Strange Bluetooth headphones and in-car Wi-Fi access.

You can contact PC World Senior Editor Eric Dahl at eric_dahl@pcworld.com.

Eric Dahl

Hacking DRM

The Buzz: Blu-ray, HD DVD, and Windows Vista have a few things in common. They all sport shiny new copy protection technology, and all are major targets for pirates. This year is shaping up as a turning point in the development of DRM (digital rights management). The HD movie DRM scheme AACS (you have to love an industry that calls a content-restriction system "access") is already under attack: The BackupHDDVD tool lets PC users make unencrypted copies of AACS-protected HD DVD content (Blu-ray also uses AACS, so it may be vulnerable as well). And hackers played with ways to trick Vista's product activation even before its retail release. (Such efforts aren't new: Researchers exposed holes in HDCP--DRM for HD content coming via DVI or HDMI ports--way back in 2001.)

Bottom Line: If current trends continue, record labels will be able to point to encouraging numbers from their tests of DRM-free music at the same time all these DRM hacks are making news. The optimist in me sees a way to a saner future here, but I've never listened to him that much. Expect more DMCA lawsuits and dueling product and hack updates than ever before.

Wireless Headphones

The Buzz: The war on wires continues as Bluetooth draws a bead on your MP3 player's headphones. iPod-focused Bluetooth headphones have been around, but a new crop of wireless wonders is bringing better design and sound quality to the table. Etymotic is among the first to offer serious sound quality, via its $299 ety8 in-ear phones. But unless your fashion icon is Star Trek's Lt. Uhura, you may prefer a pair that doesn't have little boxes sticking out of your ears. Blue-trek's sportier design with built-in play, fast-forward, pause, and volume controls may be a better fit for people who are less obsessed with audio quality.

Bottom Line: Too bad neither model has a built-in mic for use with your cell phone. Bluetooth headphones should be most attractive to the headset set, but who wants to carry two different earpieces around?

Wi-Fi Hits the Road

The Buzz: Here's an odd twist in the mobile Net access game: Avis has partnered with the firm AutoNet to begin offering Wi-Fi access in its rental cars. AutoNet's In-Car Router connects to 3G networks and then distributes that bandwidth to any Wi-Fi-equipped gadgets in the car. (Hope none of those devices are in the driver's hands.)

Bottom Line: You'd have to be a pretty wired family or travel group to need a router in your car. And anyone that wired probably already has a 3G PC Card to use with connection-sharing software--and would know that mobile WiMax, if it ever arrives, should blow this device out of the water.

External Laptop Power

Bulky, desktop-replacement gaming notebooks are okay for just lugging around. But for a laptop that actually fits on your lap, you have to give up something--usually some graphics and audio power. In May, Asus's XG Station will let users connect their laptops to desktop graphics hardware for a big boost in performance. The external device packs its own audio processing hardware along with a PCI Express x16 slot to house a desktop graphics card. (It's rumored to ship with a GeForce 7900 GS installed.) Connect the XG Station to a laptop via an ExpressCard slot, add a monitor, and presto--instant gaming machine.

Here\Now

SUGARCODES: Handy command-line interface for faster Web navigation.

USB SHARING: The $60 Tornado and its software connects two PCs for file sharing over USB.

BRICK DRIVE: Stackable, Lego-styled external 300GB hard drives ($140) from LaCie.

TAG2FIND: Beta app lets you organize local files via tags instead of folders.

PROFILELINKER: Like Trillian for social networks, this lets you up-date profiles on many sites at once.