News written by Dave Horvath (August, 2007)

With lawsuits flying around from every angle, the owner of the once famed Suprnova.org, sloncek was forced to deliver a huge blow to the BitTorrent P2P scene by shutting down the website. Once viewed as a one stop shop for all your P2P needs, Suprnova's loss to the scene made a significant impact on file-sharing everywhere.

Such is the way of the Internet, many other sites that were similar in construction sprang up and many others gained valuable regular visitors, but few were able to rise to the notoriety that was held by Suprnova. A short time ago, rumors had flown around the Internet of those P2P rebels ThePirateBay acquiring the rights to Suprnova. Today, those rumors and early leaks have been confirmed. Suprnova.org has opened to the public in the form of an open public beta.

The new owners request that its visitors keep in mind that they are still in the growing stage and there just may be some issues from the initial startup, but they offer a rather interesting tongue-in-cheek reply to those who forced the site down in the first place.

"This is how it works. Whatever you sink, we build back up. Whomever you sue, ten new pirates are recruited. Wherever you go, we are already ahead of you. You are the past and the forgotten, we are the internet and the future. y'arr!"

Japanese electronics manufacturer, Toshiba continues its release party with the unveiling of two new LCD lines to please consumers wishing tot take the high-definition plunge. The two new lines of REGZA LCD televisions comprise of the C3500 and the RF350.

The RF350 is said by Toshiba to be "design minded" and comes in two flavors. The 40-inch retailing for ¥330,000 ($2,866) or the 46-inch which tips the scales at ¥390,000 ($3,388). The C3500 is tailored to a cheaper audience with its offerings of 26-inch priced at ¥150,000 ($1,303) and 32-inches ¥170,000 ($1,476) at 1366 x 768, or 37-inch ¥250,000 ($2,171) and 42-inches ¥300,000 ($2,606) at 1920 x 1080. Both sets sport a nice array of features.

The RF350 sports 1920x1080 Resolution, 2 HDMI, ethernet ports, 1080p / 60p / 24p, 2 S-video, 3 composite connections plus digital and optical audio ports. The C3500 doesn't skimp too much, and gives potential consumers features such as 1080p / 60p / 24p formats, 2 x HDMI jacks, ethernet, S-Video, composite and standard audio inputs and outputs.

Following hot on the heels of the U.S. price drop, Microsoft has officially announced the much anticipated European price drop for their Xbox 360. The consoles will drop in price by 50 euros to 349.99 euros, similar to that of the U.s. price drop. Microsoft said in a statement that the lower price for the Xbox 360 for the Premium 20Gb model will be effective August 24th. In addition, the Elite system featuring the 120Gb hard drive and a few other high-definition features will be launched to the tune of 499.99 euros. The unit of which few actually want, the Core which has no hard drive will be cut by 20 euros to 279.99 euros.

These price cuts come just in time to help give Microsoft the much needed edge before the holiday season. With the announcement of the PS3 price drop and the onslaught of sales for the cheaper Nintendo Wii, Microsoft had to do something to gain some exposure for the 2 year old system. Microsoft hopes the price point will help also expand their market beyond its core fan base consisting mostly of young men.

Statistics recorded at the end of June put Microsoft at 5.6 million Xbox 360s sold in the U.S., compared to the 2.8 million Wiis and 1.4 million PS3s. This figure includes the one year head start Microsoft had over the other two competitors.

As I look over at my own dog who's only real talent comprised in his hyper-sensitive nose is the ability to accelerate faster than human reaction straight into an unsuspecting crotch, I wonder where did I go wrong. Lucky and Flo, the two famed dogs trained to sniff out the chemicals used in copying DVDs are in the spotlight in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. They both have received awards from the Malaysian government for their efforts in sniffing out and crippling movie pirates during their five-month campaign.

Lucky and Flo mark a momentous occasion as being the first animals ever to receive outstanding service awards for finding discs stockpiled by pirates. The Motion Picture Association was on hand to express its gratitude. The two dogs led officials to 26 separate arrests and the seizure of over $6 million worth of illegal discs. "The dogs have proven to be a major asset in our fight against the pirates and we intend to continue what Lucky and Flo have set in motion," stated S Veerasingam, Malaysia's deputy minister for domestic trade and consumer affairs.

Malaysia has long been in the eyes of the U.S. for its rampant piracy and as such, the government stepped up its efforts to reduce piracy from that region so that it could handle its negotiations of free-trade pact with the U.S. much easier.

It seems like these days high-definition content is being pushed towards consumers through many different avenues, whether it be satellite, Streaming, high capacity discs or otherwise. One company, has a bold and somewhat unbelievable idea that has the potential to push high-definition to arenas it has never gone before. NuTech wants to give its consumers high-definition programming through the plain old telephone system. Thats right, copper dial-up lines to deliver high-definition content.

The official press release seemed rather ambiguous and their website doesn't give much in way of believability towards their cause, but NuTech stands firm with their aim to "utilize a standard household phone line for secure content delivery."

More importantly, their system is said to "enable video Compression and the management and delivery of video, audio and data over a fully switched or routed network configured for ATM and Ethernet protocols utilizing connection speeds as low as 64Kbps to deliver high-definition content."

Although not available in stores until mid-September, Target.com has begun showcasing two Sony Bravia LCD televisions that will be an exclusive to the Target stores. The 26-inch and 32-inch Bravia screens will not be available through any other retailer.

Priced at a moderate $799 and $899 respectively, the LCD screens feature up to 720p Resolution and are significantly cheaper than any other Sony LCD television on the market. According to a Sony representative, there will be additional models unveiled exclusively to Target's competitor Wal-Mart in the following month.

The announcement for Target to hold the exclusive rights for these two panels was announced back in June, however it is now officially a reality. Randy Waynick, senior vice president of marketing stated that Sony would supply a unique series of models to Target, Wal-mart and other big retailers in order to tailor its offerings to specific demographics. At that time, Waynick had stated that the televisions would have rolled out within 60 days, however it seems they took a little longer than expected to get the ball rolling.

Remember the older commercial from Sony that was intended to show off the power of the PS2 by showing a fully immersed virtual reality gaming situation? The commercial showed a young man in the future battling people on the streets, swimming in a vast ocean and even playing Jai-Alai across the towering buildings. It was dubbed the Playstation 9.

Well as outlandish as the commercial may have looked at the time, far be it from Sony to think of it as merely a well thought out marketing scheme. Sony, in cooperation with scientists in San Diego have patented a technology for non-invasive brain targeting devices that essentially shoot ultrasound waves to stimulate brain tissue and create "sensory experiences" such as touch, taste, sight, smell and sound. One additional claim is that this technology could be used for a more noble cause such as allowing the blind to see, or the deaf to hear.

Admittedly, brain implants become more and more sophisticated by the day, however non-invasive brain manipulation such as this is still rather crude in design and practice. There are already techniques that employ such manipulation. One such technique is known as transcranial magnetic stimulation and relies on magnetic fields to activate nerves within the brain tissue. The problem with this technology is it cant be focused well enough to to concentrate on a small area of brain tissue, like ultrasound can.

Chinese personal media player maker, KindyElec has released a device, while not easy on the eyes, boasts some interesting features. This player, dubbed the KP701-11 is capable of receiving both analog and digital television broadcasts in DVB-T, PAL, NTSC and SECAM.

Everything that the little media player receives is brought to the user on a 7-inch TFT LED Backlit LCD screen. It also has built in support for MP1/3, DivX, MPEG4 and JPEG files. All files are saved via its own 2.5-inch 40Gb INTERNAL hard drive.

If 40Gb storage just isn't enough for you, the KP701-11 also has a multi-format card reader capable of accepting CF, SD, miniSD, MMC, RS-MMC, MS, MS Pro and MS Duo memory cards. It supports USB 1.1 and 2.0 for data transfers and even comes with a remote control in case you like to watch the full 7-inches from beyond arm's reach. Battery life is said to be in the 2 hour range and the device itself measures in at 222mm x 123mm x 27mm (8.7" x 4.8" x 1").

A coalition between the Australian Federal Police, the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft (AFACT) and Twentieth Century Fox organized a raid in hopes of tracking down an Australian citizen who apparently recorded The Simpsons movie on his cellular phone and shortly thereafter, uploaded it to the file-sharing masses. The three worked in cooperation with one another to Track down the leaked film that hit the Internet back in July, earlier than its official movie release date. As they soon found out, their raid could not keep up with the speed of the Internet and quickly fizzled away into nothingness.

Adrianne Pecotic, executive director of AFACT stated, "Within 72 hours of making and uploading this unauthorized recording, AFACT had tracked it to other Streaming sites and P2P systems where it had been illegally downloaded in excess of 110,000 times and in all probability, copied and sold as a pirate DVD all over the world."

Being no stranger to the court room, the RIAA has found themselves on the receiving end of a class action lawsuit filed by Tanya Anderson of Oregon who claims the recording organization impersonated her daughter's grandmother over the telephone in order to gain evidence towards an illegal file-sharing lawsuit. The charges filed against the RIAA are many and amount to such things as counts of negligence, fraud and misrepresentation, racketeering and corruption, abuse of the legal process, malicious prosecution, outrage and intention to inflict emotional distress, computer fraud and abuse, tresspassing, invasion of privacy, libel and slander, deceptive business practices, misuse of copyright laws and finally civil conspiracy.

The lawsuit names the RIAA as well as several companies held underneath its umbrella of business as well as MediaSentry, a firm the RIAA knows well and uses to gather information about suspected illegal music pirates. Anderson states that the non-profit organization engages in acts of intimidation through litigation to maintain a monopoly on the music industry. The lawsuit itself is said to call out MediaSentry for conducting "illegal, flawed and negligent investigations for the RIAA and its controlled member companies."

Some time ago, the RIAA had filed suit against Patti Santangelo and her two children Michelle and Robert for allegedly illegally downloading copyrighted music from the Internet. Patti, the mother, had managed to escape the lawsuit without any damages, however her children are still locked in battle with the recording industry. The lawyer of these two children has now issued a claim to bring Sharman Networks, the creator of famed P2P application KaZaA and also, AOL, which provides internet service for the Santangelo family.

The motion was filed yesterday seeking permission to name Sharman Networks and AOL as third-party defendants, effectively placing liability on these two companies for any harm that has been done to the recording industry. Sharman's application KaZaA was allegedly used by Michelle and Robert to download copyrighted material but the Santangelo's lawyer claims that KaZaA "operates in the background of one's computer", while "recklessly disregarding copyright law". He contined to claim that KaZaA uses these tactics to trap "unsuspecting uses into unintended sharing". Also according to the motion, KaZaA is alleged to have blocked all warnings from the RIAA about copyright infringement. Finally, the proposed summons dictates that Sharman had settled for over $100 million with the RIAA but failed to take Sharman's "other victims" int account during the settlement. These victims of course are users who weren't aware that their music was eing shared over the network because of the reasons above.

DivX has managed to pass a very important milestone in its run. DivX has officially shipped 100 million devices capable of playing video encoded in the DivX Codec. These DivX Certified video devices top 100 million since the DivX Certification program started in 2003.

DivX notes friendly business relations with hardware giants LG, Philips, Samsung, Sony and Thomson as key companies which helped delve out these DivX compatible devices to the general public. Specifically, over 2,500 individual products have been sent out supporting DivX. The company estimates that approximately 32% of all DVD players sold worldwide support DivX playback.

Source:
Engadget

Known for the distribution of anime to South East Asia, Singapore based Odex Pt. Ltd is responsible for handing out such acclaimed titles as Bleach, Full Metal Alchemist, Mobile Suit Gundam and Chrono Crusade to otaku in the South East. This year, a decision was made to target file sharing groups over BitTorrent after claiming sales had dropped some 70% in just two years.

Opex used a tracking system to collect the IP addresses of anyone known to be sharing their licensed works over the BitTorrent protocol. They then took this information and forced StarHub, and Internet Service Provider, to give them the information of 1000 BitTorrent users accused of infringing on their copyrights. Previously, a simliar ISP by the name of SingNet was also forced to reveal its customer details.

StarHub did, however put up a fight with attempting to keep its customer information private. The pressure from the court was found to be too great and they had agreed, in closed chambers, to hand over the information. Michael Sim, spokesman for StarHub said, "In the instance of Odex, they have satisfied the court of their need for the information. As such, we will comply with the court order"

For some of us it doesn't seem all that long ago, but the revolutionary Compact Disc is officially 25 years old. Although, development of the disc dates back many years, the official date in which the Compact Disc was unleashed upon the world stands at August 17, 1982.

The format was co-developed by Philips and Sony and opened up a new pressing plant in Hanover, Germany. The very first audio CD to be pressed at that plant intended for production belonged to ABBA's The Visitors. Although production of the Compact Disc began in August of 1982, it wasn't offically brought to the market, only in Japan, until November of the same year. The US and Europe didn't see this bright new format until March of 1983.

It seems the UK took hold of the format almost immediately and in 1985, Dire Straits released their album Brothers in Arms which was bought up by early adopters of the format. This milestone was important because it marked the first time a CD was produced using a digital master.

Other digital albums proved to be even more popular with Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon rumored to have its own CD pressing plant to keep up with demand for the hyperdimensional sounds of Floyd.

The pioneer in music television, MTV Networks has announced plans to invest some $500 million in video games, wanting to grab hold of a part of the $30 billion market. Their main goal in seeking out the video game market is to reach their consumers everywhere they spend money. This is in part of a two year global strategy to incorporate game development at the inception of all new programming plans and not as an afterthought.

"As we take our brands narrow and deep to serve our targeted, niche audiences, we're putting well over $500 million behind building our games business across all of the brands in our portfolio," said MTV Chairman and Chief Executive Judy McGrath. Ms. McGrath also stated that she'd like to see more games developed based on the ideas behind the network's shows.

Some analysts feel that this is a bad move for a media organization to get into video game development. Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter stated that "Media companies are crazy trying to bring video-game development in house. They act like anyone can do this. The fact is not everyone can."

Dispite reports that MTV has been gradually losing its audience, the executives there feel that bringing video games into the foray will hold the attention of the younger audiences as well as adults.

Several record labels such as Sony Music and Universal Music have been courting with the idea brought about by a Seattle based company called Activated Content which places audio Watermarks on MP3 files. The purpose of these watermarks range from digital tracking of content, to marketing matrix that allow companies to get statistics on who has listened to their particular audio.

Audio watermarking works by placing an audio stream within the music itself that is not perceptible by the human ear, but can be read and deciphered by audio tracking software much easier than DRM standards. Since it becomes part of the audio, and not merely another layer within the audio, it becomes harder to strip it away, thereby leaving its mark to sit with the intended consumer. Should this same mark show up on another person's device, this could then give easier legal grounds for record companies to go after music pirates. The CEO of Activated Content states that it would take a user with a supercomputer and about a month's worth of time to be able to successfully Track down and remove an inserted watermark.

As the worldwide leader in liquid crystal displays, Sharp has announced that it will soon launch its new D64U series of AQUOS LCD televisions featuring a new slim line casing. The new line of TVs will give consumers the ability to have a bigger display, but on a much smaller footprint than previous models.

The D64U series will comprise of LCDs in 62-, 52-, 46-, and 42-inch displays all capable of displaying a true 1080p Resolution. Bob Scaglione, senior VP of Product and Marketing for Sharp said, "The AQUOS LCD TV Line has always set the standard in technology and picture quality. Today, we set a new standard in design. With its graceful, space-saving design and full-HD resolution, Sharp’s AQUOS D64U series provides the ultimate home entertainment experience with the perfect balance of style and performance."

Sharp has re-engineered the LDC displays it currently offers to bring consumers a display that is being touted as the thinnest LCD in the industry and they have also managed to shave 25% of the weight.

Literature publisher HarperCollins announced Wednesday that it will offer several iPhone compatible digital books on its website for savvy iPhone web surfers. Most of the books that will be made available will become live from late August, into September and accessible through HarperCollins' mobile website.

iPhone users will be able to use the Browse Inside feature on the website to preview the first 10 pages of the first two Chapters of the books it has publishing rights on. In 2006, HarperCollins began stockpiling literature in its digital libraries and now hosts some 10,000 titles available.

Should an iPhone subscriber preview the books and want to read more, they can simply purchase the book through their phone and it will download for their reading pleasure. Initially, the only books that will be available through a trial period are "The Burnt House" by Faye Kellerman, "Now and Forever" by Ray Bradbury and "Obama" by David Mendell.

Source:
Reuters

It was announced today that electronic retail mogul, Best Buy will strike a deal with designer Liz Claiborne to design and sell electronic gadgets geared towards appealing to women.

The Liz Claiborne Accessories line will be offered in as many as 250 Best Buy stores across the US. These stores, once stocked, will offer items ranging from $25 to $200. Items that will be at female customer's disposal will be designer laptop bags, music players, Cell phones, business totes, and cameras. In a statement, vice president of Best Buy Liz Haesler said, "We know many of our customers want technology to be more than a simple necessity, they want their devices to reflect their sense of style".

Don't worry though, if you don't have a Best Buy near you, they have stated that these accessories will be available to you from the retail giant's website as well.

Source:
Reuters

The owner of the once famed Allofmp3.com, Denis Kvasov has been acquitted of charges of copyright infringement stemming from his sale of bottom dollar priced MP3 files. The court in Moscow has ruled that Kvasov and his website were both working well within the limits of Russian law. Prior to being forcibly shut down in June of this year, Allofmp3.com had garnered millions of customers. Several music firms pressured Kvasov into shutting down his site and proceeded to progress with the lawsuit. Additionally, the music industry has enough influence on the US Government, that this ordeal with the website had hampered US-Russian talks over Moscow's bid to join the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Kvasov was forced to stand trial after being pressed for prosecution from EMI, Warner Music Group, and Universal, however District Judge Yekaterina Sharapova threw out the case. She stated, "The prosecution did not succeed in presenting persuasive evidence of his involvement in infringing copyright law".

During the trial, Kvasov argued that he had paid royalties from the sales he made on his site to a local organization, the Russian Multimedia and Internet Society. With starting prices of individual tracks being at $.10 and entire albums brimming to $1, its hard to say just how much of this was paid out to the firm. Western organizations like the ones who issued the lawsuit fail to recognize the Russian Multimedia and Internet Society as a sanctioned entity, therefore do not agree to accept payments from them for licensed material.

Based in Palo Alto, California, P2P leader Azureus is proud to announce that their spinoff site Vuze, a high Resolution video portal, has crossed the threshold of seven million users in just six months. Additionally, the company announced that it has gained a deal to offer the complete two seasons of The Office UK and its specials available for download and high resolution Streaming video. This is the first company to ever be given rights such as this in the United States. As a promotion, the first episode will be available for free. This program joines an already impressive list of high-definition and standard definition BBC broadcasts.

Vuze has become the world's largest high resolution and high-definition video portal and has exploded in growth due to growing consumers who demand high-definition content. Millions of videos have been downloaded from Vuze every month and July saw a growth of over 100% compared to previous months.

The folks over at Microsoft have got an uphill battle when it comes to high-definition content and their Windows Vista product. Computer researcher and author of a paper outlining the shortcomings of Vista entitled "The longest suicide note in history", Peter Gutmann argued over Vista's content protection and DRM standards at a symposium in Boston on wednesday.

Gutmann had brought up that Vista appears to be so locked down with DRM standards that users are finding it impossible to view any HD content from their machines if they do not specifically meet Microsoft's strict standards. One of these standards are a graphics card that supports HDCP or High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection, a form of DRM developed by Intel. If a user does not have a graphics card that actively supports HDCP, their premium high-definition content, whether obtained legally, recorded with their own high-definition equipment or otherwise, is throttled in quality and displayed at much less than high-definition.

Microsoft acknowledged that the quality of content labeled as premium would be lowered if it were requested by the copyright holders, namely the movie stuidos. However, Microsofts content protection scheme is so strict that its even forcing legally obtained and legally recorded high-definition content to be cut back. Microsoft defended this action stating that its merely a common feature in many different playback devices.

Osaka, Japan based manufacturer Matsushita, maker of the Panasonic brand of televisions and worlds largest supplier of plasma TVs has announced that it will revamp its policy about providing televisions at and larger than 37 inches in LCD. Previously, Matsushita had held fast to the belief that anything larger than 32 inches would be better served up as a plasma display. Subsequently, they've been losing out on a strong market growth while the demand for large LCD TVs has risen.

With this announcement, Matsushita has unveiled its latest 37-inch LCD television which will go on sale in Japan on September 1st. Price is estimated at 300,000 yen ($2,500) and is expected to be offered to oversees markets by as early as the end of this year.

At one time, plasma displays had dominated the large flat television market with cheaper prices and better picture quality. Recently however, LCD has gained a lot of ground by offering bigger models at cheaper prices thanks in part to companies introducing larger more cost-efficient production lines.

The global market for LCD sales was up 54% from last year to $13.6 billion for the period of January to March. In contrast, plasma TV sales have fallen 9% to $3.6 billion, according to DisplaySearch. With this type of change in market trends, its no wonder why Matsushita wanted a piece of that action.

Current and potential customers of the satellite company Dish Networks will be treated to an upgrade that allows for USB external storage for their ViP622 MPEG4 High Definition DVR today. Officially launching this service, Dish Networks will allow its customers to plug in an external USB hard drive and transfer content directly from their DVR receiver to the hard drive for viewing at a later date. Customers will be asked to pay a one-time $39.99 "enabling fee" for this service. The software is available today, however customers will not be able to subscribe to this service until the 15th of August.

Additionally, and coinciding with the release of the USB storage, Dish Networks is opening a new feature that enables the ethernet port on the back of their VIP622 receivers so users can "phone home" via the Internet. Although, most savvy satellite users know how to use their satellite systems without the use of a phone line, this service will also make the necessity for a landline to be connected to your box a thing of the past. Also, scheduling things like pay-per-view can be done remotely and no longer require you to dial in. Enabling ethernet on the back of their devices also is the next logical step in the launch of their new service, DishONLINE Video On Demand slated for September.

Someone in the marketing department over at Sony could possibly be searching for a new job as they have been reprimanded over and advertisement that ran in the UK shortly after the launch of the PS3. The UK's Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) ruled that the PS3's advert which was broadcast on the internet shortly after the European launch, "potentially glamorised violence and could lead to anti-social behaviour."

The ad itself featured a character named Kovac who was brandishing a weapon and beside him, the words "Kovac mercenary or misunderstood?". Additionally, the PS3 had a tagline that read "This is living". The ASA felt that this direct relation to the violent images displayed and Sony's tagline for the PS3 envoked a sense that brandishing a gun and being misunderstood is a celebrated way of life. The ASA received several complaints and began and investigation that led to the decision that Sony had broken advertising rules by relating responsibility and violence.

The ASA directed sony that all future adverts must feature an amendment to avoid similar incidents from happening. No word yet on what this amendment should contain. When asked, a Sony representative responded with, "We acknowledge the recent ASA ruling in relation to the PlayStation 3 brand advertisement and the recommendation contained within."

Have you ever thought that you're just not getting enough from your Netflix account? Have you realized that you've grown tired of waiting for the movies to come in the mail and turned towards their online Watch Now feature; only to be put off by the fact that you cant do anything more with the movie but watch it on your PC? Well, the folks over at FairUse4WM have got a cure to your itch.

We here at Afterdawn do not condone this type of thing, but should you ever want to Rip the Watch Now stream from Netflix, someone has come up with a way to do it. This person has found a workaround that enables you to not only decrypt the DRM encrypted movies, but save them to your hard drive for future viewing. Now, reading over the process, its easy to see that it could either be quite easy or down right frustrating depending on your individual experience, but this is merely the first revision.

Tools you will need are simply, Windows Media Player 11, FairUse4WM, Notepad and a Netflix account. A broadband connection would make things a lot easier as well, as I don't particularly think someone with a dial up connection would fair very well at ripping a data stream such as this. While following the process, you can then strip the DRM and watch the movies at your leisure as well as on any video playing device of your choosing. Of course, there are issues with this procedure's legality, should one be so inclined, one could exploit this.

Its nothing new for smaller companies to issue frivolous lawsuits once a successful product has been launched by a powerful conglomerate. Although, this newest one just might have some warrant. SP Technologies has taken out a lawsuit on Apple over its new iPhone and the touch-screen keyboard that is the heart of controlling the device. Looking through a patent filing from 2000 by SP Technologies, it states that the company had developed a "method of providing a user interface for receiving information from a user using a user immutable graphical keyboard linked to an input area."

Of course, people sue over patents all the time and Apple wasn't the first company to incorporate a touch-screen input device. The suit was filed in Tyler, Texas on Thursday. Texas seems to have become the state of choice for all patent suits recently. It just might be because judges tend to be lenient on the smaller companies.

This comes just a few weeks after a lawsuit was entered about the iPhone's battery. The lawsuit was taken out against Apple in the name of one iPhone owner, Jose Trujillo who claimed Apple defrauded him by failing to reveal that the iPhone battery was not user-replaceable, and that it would die after 300 charges.

A couple of Taiwanese researchers seem to have come a great deal closer towards solving the problem of faded images when viewing an LCD display from an angle. Many people can immediately relate to this circumstance as its difficult not to have been subjected to LCD displays. Everything from cellular phones, to personal gaming devices, laptops and HDTVs suffer from the same problem that Wayne Cheng and Chih-Nan Wu are trying to solve.

Initially, LCD designers took for granted that people may be, at some point, viewing the panels at anything other than straight on. In fact, recent studies showed that between digital camera displays and laptop monitors, the average viewer studies the LCD at an average of 40 degrees off-center or more. Many early developers made LCD panels so that the Pixels pointed straight out towards the viewer, however Cheng and Wu hope to change that.

The prototype features a small camera that sits beside the LCD and tracks the position of the viewer's head. It then makes tiny adjustments to the liquid crystals themselves and pivots toward the viewer for the best possible picture quality. Future developments of the new LCD display will miniaturize the camera by implementing infrared sensore instead of standard lenses. This will allow the display to Track the position of the viewer's eyes to fine tune the display even more. This would also enable this technology to be integrated into devices that use much smaller LCD screens.

A federal court ruling that has been enacted in California since 2005 stating that video games should be labeled depending on content and are not allowed to be sold to minors was overturned by a federal judge today. The judge cited the original law as unconstitutional. Almost immediately, the Governator, Arnold Schwarzenegger said that he would do what he could to immediately appeal the ruling.

Governor Schwarzenegger had given a great deal of support towards the original 2005 bill, regardless of the fact that he, himself has appeared in a number of violent feature films. Legislators of the time argued that violence in video games could lead to psychological harm and give way to violent and irrational behavior.

The Video Software Dealers Association and the Entertainment Software Association had quickly sued to try and Block the bill, stating that video games and their content is protected under the First Amendment and therefore should not be censored or denied to a consumer demographic.

Judge Ronald Whyte who oversaw and granted the injunction stated, "At this point, there has been no showing that violent video games as defined in the Act, in the absence of other violent media, cause injury to children. In addition, the evidence does not establish that video games, because of their interactive nature or otherwise, are any more harmful than violent television, movies, Internet sites or other speech-related exposures. Although some reputable professional individuals and organizations have expressed particular concern about the interactive nature of video games, there is no generally accepted study that supports that concern."

Fans of the recording service, TiVo may have already noticed that their website is sporting the new TiVo 2.5 logo. This, coupled with many different suggestions on their website coudl mean that they are gearing up to launch TiVoToGo version 2.5 to the masses. Unfortunately, the download link on the website still points back to the old version of TiVoToGo.

This update is important because it will offer support for Windows Vista as well as support for playing DivX/XviD formats for web video conversions. Additionally, it will allow users to convert individual shows from theird Desktop Now Playing list at anytime to any profile by simply right clicking the file. Unfortunately that final feature is not yet available for TiVo HD or the Series3 machines. One final feature of note though is a higher Resolution support for people wishing to browse photo slideshows through their devices.

No indication when the next version of TiVoToGo will become available, but the way things appear on their site, it could be anytime now.

Source:
Engadget

A federal judge in San Diego, California today reversed a jury's decision which decided two patents held by Alcatel were infringed upon by Microsoft's Windows Media Player. Both of these patents deal with how audio is converted into MP3. Alcatel sued Microsoft claiming that the technology they used was stolen by Microsoft and used within Windows Media Player. Alcatel is stating that they will appeal the decision and Microsoft replied by saying the judge's reversal was a victory for consumers.

Mary Lou Ambrus of Alcatel-Lucent stated in response to the ruling, "This reversal of the judge's own pre-trial and post-trial rulings is shocking and disturbing." Judge Rudi Brewster said that Microsoft did not breach any patent laws because they had already paid a German company $16 billion to use one of the patents in question. The judge decided that since the German company didn't directly sue Microsoft, then no infringement was committed. Additionally, the judge was unable to justify the fine associated with the lawsuit. If Alcatel-Lucent would have been successful with its lawsuit, it would have been awarded upwards of $1.5 billion. The judge stated that should they file a new claim, he would not recognize that amount of money.

The first round of negotiations are underway between Amazon and a music site known as AmieStreet. Started by three Brown University students, AmieStreet has a unique approach at selling music via its website. Their model consists of new music being uploaded and begins with a price of zero cents. The first time the Track is downloaded, it receives a price to it and incrimentally goes up depending on its popularity within the site. The pricing will eventually hit a maximum of 98 cents. This is in stark contrast to popular music sites like iTunes where it has a standard of 99 cents per track, no matter how popular the tune is.

The senior vice president of business for Amazon stated, "The idea of having customers directly influence the price of songs is an interesting and novel approach to selling digital music."

The exact terms of this negotiation for AmieStreet, which started only last October, have not been disclosed. Amazon, however leads the race to purchase the start-up ahead of a few unnamed private investors. Amazon has already stated that by next spring, it will open its own music site and has already agreed to carry music from EMI Group.

Looks like Microsoft is taking another step towards appeasing its faithful clientbase who have been stricken with defective and overheated Xbox 360s by making the process for replacement a bit easier. This weekend, Microsoft launched a new website that seems to replace the standard service.xbox.com in which, unfortunately, so many users have become accustomed to using.

According to Microsoft's Gamerscore Blog, customers can register an Xbox 360, begin a repair process for a defective unit and track the status of the repair online. Microsoft is also announcing that its offering customers who sign up for this service a whopping $5 credit for out of warranty repairs.

Xbox 360 owners in places outside the US will have to wait for something similar to come to them as it is only available to American customers and you must have a Windows Live ID to sign in to the website.

This new website is just yet another step for Microsoft to make their customer service approach towards their mistake a bit easier for the consumer. Within the past year, Microsoft extended the standard console warranty by a year, expanded the services in which the warranty covers and extended warranty coverage as a whole to three years. This is all in response to the infamous Red Ring of Death that has plagued many happy or unhappy Xbox 360 owners.

Leading the way for the HD-DVD camp, Toshiba has made the announcement of the third-generation HD-DVD player, the HD-A3X official. Once thought to have been put on the back burner until the CEDIA conference, Toshiba has decided to go forward with its best player yet.

Pricing for the player appears to be right in-line with last generation players with the exception of the top of the line model. The HD-A3 will come in at $299, the HD-A30 at $399, and the HD-A35$499. This is in stark comparison to the top of the line HD-XA2 which has an MSRP of $799. The HD-A3 hasn't really changed this time around, but the upgraded versions of it include a few extras including 24p support which delivers a true 24 frames per second with Progressive scanning. The HD-A20 and HD-XA2 are expected to receive an update to their Firmware that will enable 24p support this September. Additionally, these new players will be able to connect via CE-Link to offer even better possible picture quality.

It seems that ever since Google acquired YouTube there has been nothing but lawsuit after lawsuit. Well, in a recent class action lawsuit opened up against the Internet giant, a lone journalist has joined the ranks of several prominent organizations in an attempt to stop Google and YouTube from broadcasting and encouraging users to have access to copyrighted material.

Bob Tur, a journalist who had originally opened up a copyright lawsuit against YouTube decided to join forces with England's Premier Soccer League. In his decision to drop the individual suit against YouTube he stated, "I carried the ball against YouTube for a year now. After careful analysis and consideration, I have concluded that the (Premier League) class action is the most effective way for independent copyright holders to secure the judicial remedies that I am seeking."

The law firms handling this class action suit has also recently announced a couple of key players to enter the foray. Most notably the National Music Publishers Association which is the largest music publishing association in the United States, the UK's Rugby Football League as well as the Finnish Football Association.

Talks have begun between mobile phone giant, Nokia and everyone's favorite conglomerate, Microsoft to discuss adding DRM software onto Nokia's Series 60 and Series 40 mobile device platforms. This of course brings forth speculation that Nokie will make the plunge into the world of music downloads. Nokia is stating that the means of having this DRM in place will allow customers to buy content directly through one of its handsets and then transfer it to a PC.

It was reported earlier by serveral news sites that Nokia is potentially about to launch its own service for downloading media content. The speculated launch date for this would happen on August 29th.

Nokia has not mentioned what content will be readily available to its two mobile devices slated for digital rights lockdown or which file formats will be acceptable for the devices to play. It could potentially have quite a few key formats to knock around as PlayReady, Microsoft's DRM software, already supports taking the fun out of WMA, WMV, AAC, AAC+, AMR and H.264.

Have you ever spent the time obtaining an album that you sought after, only to find out that the files are all in FLAC format?(click here for instructions on how to play FLAC directly without converting). FLAC is a fine format, until you realize you can't play it in your hungry iPod. This article will allow you to successfully convert FLAC files to a standard, high-quality MP3 files using free software you probably already have.

FLAC to MP3 Guide

If you want information on how to play FLAC files on your computer (Windows, Linux, Mac), then check out the following guide...

How to play FLAC files

Ever since the purchase by Cupertino, California based Google of YouTube, Google Video has played a very distant second fiddle to the free video clip structure of YouTube. One service that a handful of people just may have been subscribers to was the Google DTO/DTR (Download to own/download to rent) video service. For a nominal fee, people could purchase actual clips from Google Video and play them at their leisure through Google's special proprietary player. All of that will be coming to an end on August 15th as Google is pulling the plug on that service.

Letters were dispatched to the Google clients outlining its demise. A copy of the letter is as follows:

As a valued Google user, we're contacting you with some important information about the videos you've purchased or rented from Google Video. In an effort to improve all Google services, we will no longer offer the ability to buy or rent videos for download from Google Video, ending the DTO/DTR (download-to-own/rent) program. This change will be effective August 15, 2007.
To fully account for the video purchases you made before July 18, 2007, we are providing you with a Google Checkout bonus for $2.00. Your bonus expires in 60 days, and you can use it at the stores listed here: http://www.google.com/checkout/signupwelcome.html. The minimum purchase amount must be equal to or greater than your bonus amount, before shipping and tax.
After August 15, 2007, you will no longer be able to view your purchased or rented videos. Read more...

The Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA) has recently filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) over the blatant and overused statements regarding copyright infringement. The CCIA states that consumers are constantly assaulted with harsh words that in a sense violate our rights. In a statement, a representative said, "Every time an American consumer opens a book, plays a DVD or watches a wide range of broadcast programs, he or she is confronted by strong language warning of what they are not allowed to do with that product."

The complaint with the FTC states that manufacturers of a lot of the products we use today are part of a stealth campaign to intimidate consumers from exercising their fair use rights with products they have purchased. the CCIA even sites the National Football League and Major League Baseball as two major offenders who have been using this tactic for many years during their television broadcasts. The CCIA contends that many of these statements released in books, DVDs, broadcasts and other forms of entertainment grossly misrepresent the laws contained in the Fair Use Act. "By design or effect, many of these warnings are misleading and harmful to millions of American consumers, customers and businesses," said a representative.

US Democratic Senator from Arkansas, Mark Pryor has noble thoughts in mind. He wants to shield the American youth from such travesties as foul language and indecent adult content. Which is why he's submitted a proposal to expand the current coverage of the FCC's V-chip. For those who are not aware, the V-chip was put in place by the FCC in 1996 and it allows concerned parents to Block certain television shows depending on their TV rating. If a rating comes through marked for offensive language or sexual content, the V-chip, when instructed, can keep your children sheltered from viewing adult themed content.

Senator Pryor's proposal states that he feels this V-chip should be implemented on VCRs, DVD players and even the Internet itself. While this seems like an extreme endeavor, the Senator feels that where technology stands today, its not something that is impossible to do.

Senator Pryor hasn't offered up any solutions on how this V-chip will be able to magically detect a swear word on a YouTube stream or how it will, as proposed, circumvent TV ratings and block a nipple that may have passed through the TV14 rating, but insists that this type of censorship is needed for today's youth. The Senator states, "My bill simply lights a fire under the FCC to take a fresh look at new options in the marketplace."

In an obvious protest against pirating music, someone has unleashed a new, low threat trojan virus onto the Internet community that is hellbent on deleting all of your MP3 files. Known as the W32.Deletemusic, this virus does exactly as the name implies. Once activated, it will scan any drive connected to your PC and delete any music file, whether it be on your primary hard drive, flash drive, or external hard drive. Additionally, it'll attach itself to an infected drive and if that drive is inserted into another machine, it will again continue its destruction of all your music.

This isn't the first time some group has taken its aim on pirating. Over the past two years, there have been other trojans named Nopir-B and Erazer. The latter being the more vicious of the two as it wouldn't only target mp3s, but AVI, mpgs, wmvs and ZIP files.

While speculation can point this towards an RIAA cooked up trojan that thwarts would-be pirates, analysts claim that this type of thing appears to be the work of mischievous teenagers and not some larger entity.

Our good friends over at the music industry are at it again, but this time, they've seem to have hit a brick wall. Germany has refused to order its ISPs to hand over information about its clients that are suspected by the music industry for illegally downloading music from the Internet. The German court is not alone in their stance as the European Court of Justice Advocate-General is also backing their defiance.

The court located in Offenburg, Germany was asked by the music industry to hand over identification of its subscribers and suspected account information being used for copyright infringement. The court stated that the music industry's claim was disproportionate and they hadn't explained fully how these actions could be viewed as criminal cases. This ruling is shared with the opinion from the European Court of Justice in that Advocate-General Juliane Kokott has mandated, information does not have to be handed over in civil cases, only criminal cases. If the music industry cannot prove that its evidence is criminal and damaging in nature, they have no case.

A similar case earlier this year, also in Germany, had the chief prosecutor's office refusing another hand over of information because damanges had not been shown. It was also doubted that the music industry would use the evidence to produce a criminal case. It was suspected that they would only use it for civil means to sue the ISPs client base.

Once again the Japanese powerhouse Nintendo has become the leading console in Japan. Information released about July's sales figure show the Wii outselling its rival, the Sony PS3 by a margin of 4 to 1. Nintendo sold 396,752 in the five weeks comprising July compared to a scant 91,987 units by the PS3.

Even though the PS3 is loaded with superior technology, a Blu-ray player, it has remained behind the Nintendo Wii in sales since each of their respective launches. High pricing and a lackluster library of games can ultimately be blamed for the difference.

In June, the ratio of sales put the Wii on top of the PS3 6 to 1. Nintendo said that its quarterly profit has more than tripled due to outrageous demand for the Wii as well as the DS handheld unit. This in affect raised their annual profit forcast substantially. One obvious selling point is the fact that the Wii sells for less than half of the basic PS3 unit in Japan. A mere 25,000 yen ($209.90) can give you all the motion-sensing action of a Wii.

The battle, however isn't two sided. The third major player in the 30 billion dollar video game market is Microsoft's Xbox 360. This unit has struggled to grip Japanese gamers and comes in a distant third place with a mere 17,970 units sold in July.

Rumors and buzz mills alike all swarmed at the possibility that Sony would release an updated SIXAXIS controller featuring the once left out rumble technology sometime soon. These reports started flowing in from innocuous mentions of it during the moments right before the E3 show earlier this year and fueled many comments from fans and skeptics alike. Today however, Sony has stated that they have no intention on including rumble into their SIXAXIS controller for any reason.

The early reports were spurred by a report issued from GamePro in which one executive made mention of a change in the SIXAXIS. This of course made people feel that Sony just might have figured out how to include it in their controller along with its motion sensitivity. Dave Karraker, Sony's director of corporate communications stated, "We have not added rumble [to PS3], and have no announcements regarding this feature".

Mr. Karraker came back with saying that they have merely made minor adjustments to the motion sensitivity of the controller that is part of a natural evolution of controller technology. "From time to time, we make minor enhancements to the controllers for our platforms. We recently sent out to the development community some new prototypes that have a slightly enhanced sensitivity for the analog sticks and the motion sensing within the Sixaxis controller. This is not a new controller, but is part of the normal development and evolution of controllers."

Reports for some time have given way to Google taking another bold step towards global domination with its interest in the mobile phone market. Early reports had favored Google as the next company to come out with their own mobile device, dubbed GPhones. These phones would be geared towards not only placing calls, but giving users full access to Google rich features they know and love, like maps and email.

A Google spokesperson was quoted in saying that they are currently working with phone providers to "bring its services to users everywhere". There was no mention however on whether or not the company was interested in handsets. They continued with: "What our users and partners are telling us is that they want Google search and Google applications on mobile, and we are working hard every day to deliver that."

Recently Google has partnered with Apple to provide services to the iPhone. CEO of Google, Eric Schmidt even commented stating that more Google services will be rolled out for the iPhone in due time. These features could then quite easily be rolled into their own phone, if they do intend on producing one.

The Wall Street Journal released a report stating that Google has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in a project that involved in depth discussions with groups like T-Mobile and Verizon. Market research shows that the mobile phone market is an astounding $14bn market, and it would make sense that the Google machine would want a part of that.

A good deal of time has passed since people first put a version of Linux on their Sony PS3's and many uses have been found for the revised operating system. I'm not sure if any other reasons have been further away from using the PS3 for its intended purpose than what Axion Racing has begun doing with one.

No, they haven't installed small LCD panels into their race cars so the driver can practice drifts with the relative safety of the SIXAXIS controller. They've managed to get the PS3 to manage one of seven autonomous vehicle cameras to record and broadcast footage for eager onlookers who fancy the racing sport. The San Diego based company was very eager to show off that they were able to use the PS3 console for purposes other than Blu-ray playback and video games. They also expect integration with the latest video technology such as SICK laser finding devices, Bumblebee studio cameras and FLIR infrared cameras. They also claim that they would be able to integrate it rather easily with an array of Dell machines.

This certainly opens the door for creativity for moving past what the PS3 was intended to do on a grand scale, but I'm still waiting for the modification that opens the lid and cooks me breakfast when I wake up in the morning. More on that as it comes.

Looks like the battery recalls that plagued Sony were only a start of massive recalls for the Japanese company. Sony announced Thursday that it will be recalling 350,000 of its Cybershot digital cameras. The camera was originally launched as an easy point-and-shoot device that was made inexpensively and thereby enabling the masses to partake in some form of digital photography. Recently, claims have been issued that show there is a malfunction on the adhesive used on the bottom of these cameras that cause the metal EDGE on the bottom to warp. This warping could in turn lascerate the user and cause potential injury.

On Sony's website, they stated "Sony has recently discovered that some DSC-T5 Cyber-shot digital still cameras may experience peeling and warping of the metal coating on the bottom of the camera that could result in a slight cut or scratch to the user's skin."

Sony has stated that it will replace the defective part for anyone with a model matching the serial numbers between 3500001 and 3574100. Additionally, they will pay for shipping for anyone who wishes to have their cameras repaired.

The blockbuster action flick "300" looks to be on the cusp of putting to rest which format is superior in the HD-DVD/Blu-ray battle. Warner Home Video which holds the rights to the movie and offers its backing to both the HD-DVD and Blu-ray camps, has offered the movie in each format, only HD-DVD comes more feature laden than Blu-ray.

One of these features found only on the HD-DVD version is the inclusion of a bluescreen picture-in-picture version of the movie. Many may know that "300" was shot almost entirely in front of a bluescreen studio in Canada. This inclusion gives the user access to the RAW footage which appears to differ greatly from the finished product. Along with being able to visually compare the two shots at the same time, the viewer can also listen to an audio commentary by director Zack Snyder specifically designed for this feature.

The bluescreen feature can not be found on the Blu-ray version of the film not because Warner favors HD-DVD over Blu-ray. Its because the current manditory specifications on Blu-ray players do not include the ability for picture-in-picture video. As reported earlier, The Blu-ray Disc Association has mandated that all players manufacturered after October 31st of this year must support BD Java, which will then support picture-in-picture capabilities. The HD-DVD equivalent to this standard is HDi and has been enabled on all HD-DVD players for some time.