Just when you thought asinine applications of stupid copyright laws couldn't get any dumber.

Does this mean MusicPass is already dead?

I have to say, one of my frustrations with indie developers is the myriad online experiences - some great, some horrifice - to get the download, pay and register. Something like this would be a helpful alternative. Windows only for now, Mac support promis

Has good and bad things to say, even a little bit of code to show for it

Initial impressions: I like the non-wifi wireless, non-backlit screen and long battery life. I don't like the high cost and that you can't seem to sync with your computer.

Pretty cheap, though prices are variable, DRM free and high bitrate. I see myself buying a lot of these.

This feels like a bigger deal than it actually is - end of an era, though

Ars really nails the crux of the NBC/Amazon deal - basically, it boils down to much more restrictive DRM and the ability to bundle crappy content with the (increasingly rare) good stuff

Developer tools designed for payments, including micropayments. Look out, PayPal

Not sure if this'll make me give up my emusic subscription

Some things to consider when using Amazon's S3

Amazon has a little known policy that if the price of an item drops within 30 days, they'll send you the difference. This site does all of the hard work for you! Que greasemonkey script that automates the whole thing in 5...4...

answers.amazon.com - uses mechanical turk as the backend

Looks to be the most complete Ruby/S3 library

"rails3 is a simple hack done in one hour of drone coding using the Amazon S3 Ruby API."

"Library for talking to the Amazon S3 REST API. Supports putting objects, listing buckets, generation of URLs for authenticated access to S3, ACL management, etc"

Use Amazon's simple storage web service with Ruby, and (presumably) Rails

Like a localized epinions or digg "but for real things" says Rex

SmugMug is saving between $500k and $1MM a year using Amazon for storage instead of rolling their own

"This is so much more ‘WebOS’ than Google’s walled garden."

This is amazingly cool

Artificial artificial intelligence - what happens when someone sets up an HIT to defeat captchas?

"We contend that a successful news Web site is a platform that supports social interaction around the story." NOOOOOOOO! Well, ok, but news isn't a "platform."

Fight!

Helpful for seeing what the store looks like before you get there. The UI on this app is pretty damn slick.

"Amazon is pouring so many resources into their Web services that it’s almost frightening”