Tommy Perkins posts yet another reason to hate DRM. According to this CNET article, it can have a significant negative impact on your device's battery life - as much as 25% as you can see below.
- Creative Zen Vistion:M: 16 hours with MP3s, 12 hours with only WMA subscription tracks
- Archos Gmini 402 Camcorder: 11 hours with MP3s, 9 hours with DRM tracks
- iRiver U10: 32 hours with MP3s, 27 hours playing subscription tracks
- The iPod, playing back only FairPlay AAC tracks, "underperformed MP3s by about 8 percent."
This isn't terribly surprising, of course, given the additional processing required to validate and decrypt, but it's surely off-putting.
Oh, and if that wasn't enough, RIAA says future DRM might "threaten critical infrastructure and potentially endanger lives.