Engadget is reporting that German authorities have shut down the Meizu booth at CeBIT on concerns of piracy. These concerns stemmed from the Meizu M8, which is undoubtedly an iPhone rip off- from the form factor down to the little nuances of the touch interface.

Update: Readers are pointing out that the reason for the shut down is because of MP3 codec licensing issues. The same thing SanDisk had a problem with last year. My apologies for miss reporting this. However, I still stand my my strong words of Meizu being a thief of intellectual property.

As you know, I am by no means a fan of the iPhone, but I really have no tolerance for this kind of obvious piracy. It saddens me that companies like Meizu try to steal and profit from other peoples hard work, ideas, and innovation. It is blatant theft and dishonestly. Shame on you Meizu.

In support of intellectual property rights and creativity, I would much rather see someone buy an iPhone than a Meizu M8.

You iPod fanboys (fanboys not users) never cease to surprise and amaze me. Apple just announced a price drop on the screenless iPod Suffle. From reading your over hyped reader comments on Digg and Engadget you would think that your fascist leader crapped another bar of gold. But what you fanboys are missing aside from the basic reasoning skills are the other players that do not cloud your minds with a barrage of marketing; in other words, MP3 players that are smart consumer choices.

So with this news, I thought that this would be the best time to put the iPod in the ring with a smarter choice and show you that despite the price cut, the iPod Shuffle is still an overpriced shiny object.

It's no secret that consumers aren't the only ones who detest digital rights management (DRM). No one likes to be told what they can and cannot do with music they've legally purchased and downloaded. And today, record label EMI (one of the "big four") announced that it will soon be doing something about it.

Well, sort of. Beginning in May, EMI will be serving up its entire digital catalog completely unshackled and in higher quality. First to receive the new offering will be (surprise!) the Apple iTunes Store, who will sell its patrons DRM-free 256kbps AAC tracks for $1.29 apiece alongside DRM-full 128kbps tunes (also in AAC) for the standard $0.99 price. The price of full EMI albums and music videos will not change, even though they will available sans DRM, and consumers can "upgrade" (i.e., remove the DRM from) already purchased songs for a fee of $0.30/each.

Although this is certainly a step in the right direction (and Microsoft may be next to follow suit), forgive us for being less than thrilled over the upcoming availability of more expensive music encoded in a format that few players actually support.

[Press Release (Apple) | Press Release (EMI)]

Here is another CEO telling it like it is. I am a big fan of this guy and his forward thinking. Robertson founded MP3.com, MP3Tunes, and Linspire, so he is no stranger to digital distribution. In his open letter to Jobs, he makes some really good suggestions that would open up iTunes and the iPod to other hardware and other software / music services. He also suggests selling songs in MP3 format, ensuring compatibility with all digital audio players. Last, Robertson suggests releasing a version of iTunes for Linux and even offers to engineer to the platform for free.

Now Michael, get back to your roots and do something to give the digital audio industry a shake-up once again, like with MP3.com. Check out the full letter; it is worth the read.

[Letter to Jobs]

The notorious patent dispute has been settled quietly behind closed doors. I am happy that Creative got some extra dough in the bank to spend on R&D and marketing, because I really do think that Creative makes some outstanding MP3 players. However, I am not happy that the American patent system is extremely flawed and has again been exploited. You can read about my opinion on the case in this post titled "Apple Copied Creative, Who Cares?" from a few months ago when the case first broke.

On a different and slightly twisted note, according to this deal, Creative will begin to sell iPod accessories later this year. Yeah, that might be a big double-yoo tee eff, but for Creative, why not? Why not tap this extremely lucrative majority market share? They have nothing to lose and everything to gain with this deal.

…and bravo to you Mr. Jobs and Mr. Sim for settling out of court. Keep up the nice clean fight.

[Press Release]