I do not understand how this benefits anyone except the "must be thinner" fetishists. With Apple it was their usual form-over-function problem, which is at least what we expect from Apple, but why would Google follow suit?
One day we're all going to look back at open, ubiquitous standards wistfully, because they've all been consumed by capitalist dipshits.
In theory, yes, it's trivial. But it's not trivial to 99.9% of people that listen to music.
Also, I don't think it will be about preventing the re-recording of the music. Nobody wants to keep a music library anymore, just as nobody keeps a movie library. Is the music industry really losing money to "pirates" anymore?
The DRM will be used to control which devices you can listen to music on. As Jay-Z's last album was only available on his streaming service, I predict that the next gimmick will be that you can only listen on his headphones.
you don't see how it benefits people that use wireless headphones and are glad the phone has more space inside for say.. memory/battery/dissipating heat for a faster chip, etc?
we technologists have a very weird love/hate with progress. deep need to revolutionize and move forward and make progress and not do what our parents did and then.. they touch the wrong port and OH MY GOD
:)
Or maybe people think I should buy a new car? Obviously I need to buy new headphones, which sucks because mine are nice. And then these bluetooth headphones run out of batteries frequently, you need to remember to charge them, batteries don't usually last more than 3-4 years either so you are rebuying all your headphones every 3-4 years now?
I'm all for improved technology, but for me this is a step strictly backwards. It doesn't improve quality, it's far less convenient, and far more expensive.