News written by Rich Fiscus (November, 2011)

Over the last several years, a wide variety of software has entered the market designed for creating discs in a multitude of multimedia formats. The problem is most of those tools don't offer any improvement over the open source software you can get for free.

For someone like me who is willing to invest a lot of time finding the best tools and putting together a collection of specialized software for various video, audio, and burning tools, the best results can usually be had using free and open source tools. But most people aren't like me. For the average person it's simply not worth the trouble to invest the time necessary.

If you are one of those people, Ashampoo Burning Studio may be worth a look. To be honest, when I was asked to review Ashampoo Burning Studio 11, I wasn't expecting to be impressed in the least. For just $49.99, it promises to perform many of the same operations as software costing twice as much or more.

What I didn't know then was that the reason for that price. That reason is some of the same open source tools I use all the time. Where bigger software companies either develop their own encoders and decoders, or more commonly buy off the shelf third party components, Ashampoo uses software like FFmpeg and LAME. Those are free products, aside from any patent licensing.

Last week Google's challenge for Apple's dominance in the online music world, called Google Music officially came out of beta and opened to the public.

If done well, Google Music could end up being one of their biggest and best achievements. If done poorly it could be just as big a mistake. In this article I will try to help you decide for yourself which one it is, and whether it's worth trying out if you haven't already.

As the entertainment industry pushes for legislation to punish sites for profiting from others' copyright infringement, they may be getting a first hand look from the other side.

A coalition led by producer, director, and digital distribution entrepeneur Alki David is suing CBS Interactive and CNET. CBS has owned CNET since 2008.

The plaintiffs claim CNET's operation of download sites offering P2P software makes them liable for secondary copyright infringement as defined by the Supreme Court in the Grokster case.

At first glance, it's hard to tell if this is an honest attempt to take advantage of the current law enforcement and judicial environment which has set the bar for assigning liability for copyright infringement ridiculously low. It could, instead be a brilliantly planned satirical attack on bills like PROTECT IP and SOPA, and even the ACTA intellectual property treaty.

As Google TV continues to get the lion's share of press coverage for online TV alternatives, Boxee remains arguably the most successful offering for cord cutters.

Now they are adding a crucial component to their service by integrating over the air TV and unencrypted cable TV (ClearQAM) capabilities to the Boxee Box. In January they will begin shipping a USB TV tuner accessory for their set-top box.

The tuner can be pre-ordered now from the Boxee website.

The primary focus of Boxee is on delivering free online content through their software and hardware clients. In addition to the Boxee Box, there are also Windows, OS X, and even Apple TV clients.

However, the tuner will only work with the Boxee Box.

This seems like an obvious move considering support for TV broadcasts has been a frequently requested feature from early on. If there's one major feature still missing, it would be DVR functionality.

Universal Music Group is suing National Union Fire Insurance Company of Pittsburgh for refusing to pay $45 million to cover a settlement for back royalties owed in Canada.

The facts of the original case are far from surprising if you know anything about how major labels treat artists. UMG was accused of failing to pay artists when their songs were included on compilation albums.

Instead, the royalties owed were put on a list to be paid later. The problem is those payments weren't actually made.

UMG, whose Canadian subsidiary was named in the suit along with Warner Music Canada, Sony BMG Music Canada, and EMI Music Canada, agreed to settle the class action for copyright infringement because National Union rejected their claim from the beginning.

The settlement is actually quite generous, apparently amounting to only the amount originally owed in royalties, rather than close to $6 billion they could have been liable for under Canadian coypright law.

UMG claims their insurance policy covers both the settlement and the cost of their unsuccessful defense. In their suit against National Union, UMG lawyers claim:

More than 100 noted US law professors have signed an open letter to the US House of Representatives protesting the SOPA bill (formerly E-PARASITE) which would, among other things, elminate nearly all the safe harbor protections afforded by service providers by the DMCA.

The letter highlights the same problems many people have already pointed out. In a summary of the letter, they say SOPA will:

• Redefine the standard for copyright infringement on the Internet, changing the definition of inducement in a! way that would not only conflict with Supreme Court precedent but would make YouTube, Google, and numerous other web sites liable for copyright infringement.
• Allow the government to block Internet access to any web site that "facilitated" copyright or trademark infringement - a term that the Department of Justice currently interprets to require nothing more than having a link on a web page to another site that turns out to be infringing.
• Allow any private copyright or trademark owner to interfere with the ability of web sites to host advertising or charge purchases to credit cards, putting enormous obstacles in the path of electronic commerce.

A security researcher has identified a rootkit present on smartphones manufactured for two of the biggest US carriers. Both Verizon and Sprint are selling phones which come preinstalled with CarrierIQ, which is intended to be used for analyzing network and connection problems.

However, as Trevor Eckhart points out, it can be used for much more than that. More importantly, its very existence is hidden from the user, making it difficult to detect and even harder to remove.

So what exactly can CarrierIQ do? According to Eckhart it can gather all kinds of data you may not wish to share with your carrier (via AndroidSecurityTest):

Carrier IQ is able to query any metric from a device. A metric can be a dropped call because of lack of service. The scope of the word metric is very broad though, including device type, such as manufacturer and model, available memory and battery life, the type of applications resident on the device, the geographical location of the device, the end user?s pressing of keys on the device, usage history of the device, including those that characterize a user?s interaction with a device.

One of the changes in Windows 8 is new behavior related to automatic restarts when updates are installed.

In the latest post on the Building Windows 8 blog, Farzana Rahman of the Windows Update team explained what these changes are, and why they were made.

Farzana identified the sometimes frequent notifications from Windows Update as a common complaint among Windows Users. The main problems, she says, is that most people don't want to be bothered when updates are about to be installed and they don't want their work disrupted by a restart.

In order to address these issues, a number of changes were made in Windows 8. Perhaps the most significant was moving every update which requires a restart, but which isn't considered critical, into the monthly security release.

This will result in restarts happening less often.

In addition, rather than bugging you frequently when your computer needs to be restarted following the monthly security update, you will receive notifications on the login screen for 3 days before Windows automatically restarts.

She described the process in detail, complete with pictures:

1. A message about the upcoming restart is shown in the login screen for three days or until the PC is restarted (whichever is sooner). This means you now have three days to restart the PC at your convenience. All you need to do is see the login screen once in 3 days to see the message about the upcoming restart and by default the lock screen will appear after 15-minute idle timeout.
   
   


2. In addition to the restart notification on the login screen, the Power options on the lock screen will change to ?Update and restart? immediately after the update occurs, and will include ?Update and shutdown? on days two and three, to make the message even more apparent to you. This allows you to restart your PC at your own convenience.
   
   
   
   
   


3. If after three days, the restart still has not occurred, then WU will automatically restart your PC for you. In this case, the automatic restart will happen either at the end of the three-day grace period, or, to prevent data loss if WU detects that there are critical applications open at the end of the three-day grace period, it will wait to automatically restart the next time you login. I?ll address this behavior in more depth in the next section.
   
   


4. After the restart has occurred, the message on the login screen will go away and the power options will revert to the original choices. We know people would like Windows to automatically log in after the restart, but we strongly advise against doing so, given the potential security issues with this configuration.
   
   

Even with the full details of ACTA having long since been made public, EU officials continue to deny public access to vital information about whether signing it would violate the law.

Although the majority of ACTA negotiators were from EU members, and the EU even sent representatives to the ACTA signing ceremony, a review of the treaty's legal ramifications is required before it can be ratified.

The review process is underway, with a presentation of analysis from the EP Legal Service to the Committee on International Trade (INTA) is scheduled on November 23. However, that analysis will not be released to the public.

The Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure, a non-profit group advocating against ACTA, sent a letter to INTA Chairman Vital Moreira protesting this secrecy. They believe it violates EU law.

They wrote:

On 21 June 2011, the coordinators of the INTA committee decided to ask the Parliament?s legal service an opinion on ACTA. This decision was illegal for two reasons. First, the ACTA text had already been published, the discussion should have taken place in public. Second, coordinators can prepare decisions, but can not take them.

Read more...

A service for reselling legally purchased music downloads, called ReDigi, launched in October month after several months in beta. Now they are faced with a likely legal challenge from the RIAA claiming copyright infringement. A lawsuit has yet to be filed, but the RIAA has sent a threatening letter to ReDigi.

The letter lays out a somewhat complicated case against ReDigi's service which involves two separate claims. They make two different claims against ReDigi. First they claim the fact ReDigi's sales are for copies of the original song, which is not allowed by law.

They also argue offering 30 second previews of songs offered for sale constitutes a violation of the copyright holder's performance right. This claim is significantly weaker. In fact, it's so weak as to be laughable. While royalty collection groups have made a similar claim for years, lawsuits have never been filed because of how weak it is.

Copy or Derivative Work?
Let's look at the first, more serious, claim first. The RIAA letter states (via Ars Technica):

Samsung has decided not to pursue an injunction to ban sales of the iPhone 4S in South Korea. The decision will not affect litigation in other countries.

In response to Apple patent lawsuits around the world which put Samsung's ability to sell Android smartphones in question, Samsung has sued to ban the iPhone 4S based on patent claims of their own.

The South Korean launch of the iPhone 4S was last Saturday, which would mean a request to ban it would likely have already been filed by now if it were coming.

The Chosun Ilbo, a South Korean newspaper, quoted a senior Samsung executive who said:

We concluded that we should engage in legal battles with Apple only in the global market, but not in order to gain more market share in Korea.

Despite all the success Samsung continues to have in the smartphone business, the iPhone continues to be the most popular phone in the US.

According to figures released by the NPD Group, not only was the iPhone 4 the most popular smartphone in Q3, but the iPhone 3GS retained its place at number two. What that means is that not only does the iPhone continue to lead sales of premium smartphones, with the iPhone 3GS Apple also has the most popular budget model.

This is significant if you consider there are a number of Android phones available for a similar price which are technologically superior to the iPhone 3GS. It also puts Apple's lawsuit campaign against various Android vendors, particularly Samsung, into perspective.

It's hard to imagine how it would be possible to sell more iPhones. Apple already has problems keeping up with demand. What Samsung, HTC, and others are doing isn't taking Apple customers. They're expanding the market, which clearly benefits Apple.

Retailers in the US appear to be preparing to capitalize on the wealth of smaller and cheaper Android tablets on the market to help spark sales on Black Friday.

It's hard to say whether that will ultimately be better for Android or Apple. There are a lot of cheap Android tablets, but there are reasons those tablets are cheap.

Companies like Amazon or Barnes & Noble can sell pretty good hardware for around the same price as it costs (less in Amazon's case) because they are using them to push other revenue streams. Those companies are the exception, not the rule.

If you want to gauge what a realistic price for a tablet being sold for profit instead of a sales tool, you should look at the models sold by Samsung or Asus, or newer Archos models. Tablets from those companies start at $300.

Looking through a list of Black Friday sale items, there are certainly some of those tablets represented, but there are also a few big deals likely to leave a bad impression on the buyer (via AndroidGuys):

Inaccurate predictions about new Apple products are nothing new. Apple's secrecy about new products is legendary.

At the same time, when the iPhone 4S came out it was striking just how wrong everybody was about it. While there were rumors of a new iPhone 4, normally reputable sources were indicating a redesigned iPhone with a new shape and bigger display was on the horizon.

So how did everybody get it so wrong?

According to Business Week they might not have. An unnamed source claims to have had a prototype of the mythical new iPhone in his hands.

Their source, whose story they admit has not been corroborated to date, claims the new iPhone had a bigger display and thinner profile than the iPhone 4S. He also says it may have been cancelled by Steve Jobs over concerns it would fragment the iPhone line.

It's hard to guess whether any of this is true at the moment, but it does fit in with reports from as recently as September.

At the time, it was rumored there would be two new iPhones coming out. The first was said to be basically what Business Week describes and the second was expected to be an upate of the iPhone 4 to be sold in developing markets like China.

Windows Phone may not have reached their current goal of being the number three mobile OS with consumers just yet, but among developers the story looks a little different.

In a developer survey conducted by Appcellerator, makers of the Titanium mobile development platform, with the assistance of IDC, 38% expressed interest in developing for Windows Phone. Of those, the majority were specifically saw opportunities with Nokia's new Lumia line.

While that's still a far cry from Android or iOS, it's significantly ahead of BlackBerry phones, which interested just 21% of developers.

The other big winner in the survey was Amazon, whose Kindle Fire is seen as a hot commodity among tablets. Worldwide, compared to other Android tablets, it was second only to the Galaxy Tab.

US developers were even more enthusiastic about the Kindle Fire, putting it ahead of the Galaxy Tab and nearly as high as the iPad. The price, in particular, seems to be the biggest factor.

After a revelation last week of their abusing the DMCA takedown process, Warner Brothers went into damage control mode on Friday.

Their improper DMCA takedowns, which involved files where Warner didn't own the copyrights, came to light in their case against cyberlocker service Hotfile. As part of the takedown process, the DMCA requires the sender to include:

A physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed

that the information in the notification is accurate, and under penalty of perjury, that the complaining party is authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.

With as much success as Apple has had in attracting major carriers for the iPhone, their inability to ink a deal with China Mobile stands out as perhaps their biggest failure.

China Mobile is the largest mobile carrier in the world by any objective standard. They have more than 600 million customers and their network covers more area than any other provider worldwide.

It appears the sticking point in negotiations between the two companies isn't over the phone, which would have to be modified for China Mobile's network, but rather the iTunes App Store. Specifically, it's a question of app store revenue. China Mobile wants a cut.

Citing information from Sterne Agee analyst Shaw Wu, All Things D reports that China Mobile has told Apple they are not interested in selling the iPhone without a revenue sharing deal for app store purchases.

If true, there is some irony in the situation. Apple's demand for revenue sharing with carriers was one reason they were able to secure very few carrier deals for the original iPhone. In fact, China Mobile was one of the carriers who turned them down.

Despite yesterday's report that Citigroup has managed to sell EMI in pieces, the deal still has some major hurdles to clear.

Whenever a coporate acquisition of this scale occurs, it must pass scrutiny from officials in various countries. At least one source is suggesting both parts of this deal, Universal Music Group buying EMI's recording division and Sony Music Entertainment purchasing their publishing arm, will almost certainly be rejected by European regulators.

Helen Smith, who represents an independent label trade association called IMPALA, wrote in an email (via Digital Music News):

Given that Brussels has taken a previous decision that Universal should not be any bigger, we would expect the sale to Universal to be blocked outright, even if it offers to increase the divestments it is prepared to make.

Walmart is hoping to jumpstart the Christmas shopping season a few hours early this year by starting their Black Friday sales at 10PM on Thanksgiving.

Black Friday is traditionally the most profitable sales day for US retailers. Many people consider it the official start to holiday sales, and the majority of Americans don't have to work that day, being the Friday after a national holiday.

Over the last few years, many retailers have opened their doors early in the morning on Black Friday, offering even bigger discounts for as little as an hour or two to the earliest shoppers. This year Walmart continues that trend, but the sales will start on Thursday evening.

Between 10PM and midnight on Thursday they will be offering an Xbox 360 4GB with Kinect Console plus a $50 Walmart gift card for $199.96 and an assortment of DVDs with prices starting at $1.96.

At midnight their sale will include:

• A Samsung 51" class (50.7" actual) Plasma TV for $498
• An Emerson 32" class (31.5" actual) LCD TV for $188
• A Sansui 19" class (18.5" actual) TV for $98
• An LG Blu-ray Player for $49
• A Philips Wi-Fi Blu-ray Home Theatre for $178
• An 8GB iPod Touch for $195
• A HP laptop with a 15" display and AMD Dual-Core processor for $248

Speaking to an audience of investors and industry analysts, Logitech Chairman Guerrino De Luca announced the company's Google TV set-top box, the Revue, will be discontinued once the existing stock is sold.

It will not be replaced by another product. Instead Logitech will get out of the set-top box market for the forseeable future.

Their primary mistake with the Revue, in De Luca's estimation, was not the decision to support Google in the venture, but rather the scope of his company's commitment to an immature business. He said he would do it again, but "with a significantly smaller and more prudent approach."

"It's not a mistake of intention, It's not a mistake of strategy," said De Luca, "It's a mistake of implementation of gigantic nature."

He blamed a backlash from content providers for the overall failure of Google TV so far:

Google TV is a great concept. Google TV has the potential to completely disrupt the living room, except that that was not the case when we launched Logitech Revue. Logitech Revue was launched with some... software that was definitely not complete and was not tuned to what the consumers wanted in the living room, let alone the issues with content delivery that the threat, or the perceived threat, Google poses to other content providers generated.

President Obama will not have to follow through with his threat to veto a resolution forbidding the FCC from implementing net neutrality rules. On Wednesday the senate resolution was rejected by a narrow margin.

The vote was 52 to 46 with 2 other senators not voting.

The FCC's rules were created in response to Comcast's 2008 victory over the agency in federal court. The FCC punished Comcast for throttling various types of traffic, including P2P traffic from BitTorrent.

The court found the FCC's lack of rules on the subject meant they couldn't punish the largest cable company in the US for their throttling practices.

Opposition to the new FCC rules aren't limited to the Senate, or even to opponents of net neutrality in general. Media reform activists at Free Press are suing the FCC claiming exemptions in the rules for mobile Internet providers are illegal.

As the popularity of Android has grown, so has the threat of patent infringement lawsuits against device makers.

Although Apple's lawsuits have gotten the lion's share of attention, Microsoft's threats of patent suits are arguably making just as big an impact on Android vendors.

Barnes & Noble, maker of the Android powered Nook Color and Nook Tablet, think that warrants antitrust action by the US Justice Department.

They are not alone in their criticism of Microsoft either. In a recent interview, Google's chief patent attorney characterized Microsoft's patent suit threats, which have resulted in licensing deals with major manufacturers like Samsung and Acer, as a reaction to their own failure in the market.

Barnes & Noble is going further. They are asking the DOJ to investigate Microsoft for using patents to keep new players out of the market.

Apple's iOS update to fix the battery life problems plaguing some iPhone owners hasn't done the job for everyone.

Numerous posts to the thread for the issue on Apple's support forums complain that the fix has not changed anything. A few people have even said the problem is worse with iOS 5.0.1.

These forum posts do not tell us how effective the fix has been overall. As anyone who has ever worked in a customer service position can tell you, it's much more likely you will hear from angry customers than satisfied customers.

And yet some people have said the problem is fixed, while others have noted a slight improvement. But for every one of those posts to that thread, there are many more complaints:

3gs: with the iOS 5.0 battery was good.
sinds the new update iOS 5.0.1 Battery life is shorter!!

Yesterday I applied the Fix 5.0.1.

Do you guys remember the "ANTENNAGATE" Fix where Apple was just has changed the display for the signal bars strength? ROFL?

Read more...

Apple has released iOS 5.0.1 which includes their promised fix for the battery life issues some iPhone owners have reported.

In addition, the update includes a fix for an issue reported by Charlie Miller, a noted security researcher, which makes it possible for an app to run unsigned code from a third party website.

You may recognize Miller's name from our report about his banning from the iOS App Developer program two days ago for revealing this exact vulnerability. Apparently the problem was important enough to fix, but not important enough to justify acknowledging publicly, or even to Mr. Miller.

You can find the entire list of fixes in iOS 5.0.1 on the Apple website.

According to Macrumors, US iTunes users may not be getting the update automatically yet. They have a complete list of download links for every supported device on their website.

Yesterday Adobe announced they are giving up on Flash as a mobile platform and concentrating their efforts on HTML5 and Javascript alternatives.

The announcement came during a meeting with industry analysts as part of a presentation about a company wide change in product strategy.

Beginning with the launch of the original iPhone, Adobe has tried unsuccessfully to find a place for Flash in the mobile device space. Resistance from Apple, detailed in numerous statements from Steve Jobs, kept Flash from the iPhone.

When a full version of the platform was finally released for Android last year the performance problems experienced by many users seemed to confirm Jobs' assessment of Flash as unsuitable for low powered mobile devices.

At the same time, HTML5 has been embraced across the full range of mobile operating systems, making it the obvious choice for a cross platform development solution. It was only a matter of time before Adobe would be forced to give up on mobile Flash.

Adobe signalled their new direction last month when they acquired a mobile development company called Nitobi whose apps tie together web standards like HTML5, Javascript, and Ajax with SDKs for various mobile platforms using an app framework called PhoneGap.

US cable broadand providers and a number of technology companies are working with the FCC on a joint effor to deliver computers with broadband connections to poor Americans.

The new initiative, called Connect to Compete, brings together members of the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, software companies like Microsoft, retailers such as Best Buy, and online services which include job search sites CareerBuilder.com and Monster.com to offer a variety of services for low income families.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski announced the initiative today in a speech delivered at a Washington DC public school. Among the highlights of the program is a plan for cable operators across the country to offer Internet service for $10 per month to low income households.

Families who have children enrolled in the government's free and reduced price lunch program who don't already have Internet acces will be eligible for the program.

In addition, Redmantech will be offering refurbished desktop and laptop computers to those same families for $150. The computers will have Intel Core2Duo processors, run Windows 7, and include Microsoft Office.

In the latest update to the Building Windows 8 blog, Pat Stemen, who heads the Windows Kernel team, talks about improvements in the next version of Windows designed to lower power consumption.

With its focus on becoming viable for tablets, power consumption is more important for Windows 8 than any previous version of the Microsoft's flagship OS. No matter how good the interface is, a tablet OS that drains batteries too quickly has no value.

Microsoft's focus with Windows 8, says Stemen, is primarily on reducing power consumption when the computer is in an idle state. That is, when it isn't doing anything.

By doing that, he says, you also reduce the power consumption the rest of the time.

In many ways this is actually about the hardware. Modern mobile processors, such as the ARM chips used in most smartphones and tablets, are already optimized to use minimal power as often as possible.

The role of Windows, according to Stemen, is primarily to get out of the way and, "Let the hardware shine." To accomplish this, the Metro Style UI takes a different approach to background processes to allow a computer, such as a tablet, to spend more time idle.

The result is that the computer spends more time in a continuous idle state. This is important, says Stemen, because it takes a certain amount of time before the hardware decides to change states from active to idle.

As Google waits to clear the regulatory hurdles for acquiring Motorola Mobility, they continue to answer questions about what it will mean for other Android device makers.

Immediately after Google announced the buyout agreement in August, Samsung executives gathered to discuss the ramifications of the deal.

Now Google Chairman Eric Schmidt has made a trip to Samsung's home country of South Korea to deliver the message that Android vendors need not fear his company's Motorola acquisition.

In a statement to the Korean media, Schmidt spoke of his message to companies like Samsung and HTC. He said (via Reuters):

In general, with all of our partners, we told them that the Motorola deal will close and we will run it sufficiently and independently, that it will not violate the openness of Android.

President Obama has promised to veto any legislation which would forbid the FCC from enacting net neutrality rules.

This week the Senate is expected to officially weigh in on the net neutrality debate by voting on a resolution with exactly that purpose. Earlier this year a similar resolution passed the House of Representatives.

In an official statement on the resolution, President Obama defended the new FCC policy:

The rule at issue resulted from a process that brought together parties on all sides of this issue ? from consumer groups to technology companies to broadband providers ? to enable their voices to be heard. Notably, the Federal Communications Commission?s rule reflected a constructive effort to build a consensus around what safeguards and protections were reasonable and necessary to ensure that the Internet continues to attract investment and to spur innovation. Disapproval of the rule would threaten those values and cast uncertainty over those innovative new businesses that are a critical part of the Nation?s economic recovery.

A company called VirnetX didn't wait for the ink to dry on their new VPN patent before suing Apple for infringing on it at the beginning of the month.

VirnetX is a typical non-practicing entity (ie patent troll) whose sole business is to be suing other companies for infringement and charging other people who actually do make products. VirnetX's patents, including this new one, revolve around VPNs.

VirnetX's previous lawsuits include multiple victories against Microsoft and a case against Apple which is still pending.

In addition to the lawsuit, VirnetX has filed a complaint with the International Trade Commission seeking to ban imports of the allegedly infringing products.

According to their latest suit, Apple has been willfully infringing on VirnetX's brand new patent for several years. If you look at the patent, it certainly seems likely Apple has been using the method VirnetX claims to have invented.

VirnetX CEO and President Kendall Larsen has released a laughable statement on the ITC complaint saying, "We look forward to the ITC vindicating our substantial and significant efforts to innovate."

Analysts at Gartner have identified subscription services as a growing market for the music industry over the next several years.

It's no secret the music industry is undergoing significant changes sparked by the move from physical media to online distribution. As Gartner's Mike McGuire says, "Music labels, artists, publishers and new distribution intermediaries are developing new business models to address consumers' changing behavior."

What's interesting about their analysis is it shows growth in downloads from services like iTunes slowing, while subscription services are taking off. This year, they say, susbscription services will account for just over $500 million in revenue, compared to more than $3.6 billion for downloads.

More significantly, they predict subscription revenue to grow by more than 50% next year to over $800 million, while download revenue will only increase by around 6%. By 2015 they expect subscriptions to account for more $2 billion in revenue, more than half their forecast for download services.

They outline several key challenges for content owners, including diversifying services to meet consumer demand, ensuring easy access to content through cloud services, and simplifying the process by which consumers discover new music.

The US Senate may be voting to overturn the Federal Communication Commission's net neutrality rules some time this week.

Last week a number of senators drafted a resolution formally disapproving of the rules, which were prompted by a federal court decision overturning a FCC ruling against Comcast over throttling P2P traffic. The court pointed out Comcast had violated no FCC rules.

Late last year, the FCC drafted net neutrality rules, but didn't add them to the Federal Register, a requirement before they can go into effect, until September of this year. They are scheduled to take effect this month.

The full Senate is expected to vote on the resolution this week, but would not have any authority unless the president signs off on it, which is highly unlikely. If the president didn't approve of the rules, they wouldn't have been drafted in the first place.

In September, after the rules were officially published, one of the bill's sponsors, released a statement saying:

During the years when Nokia's Symbian ruled the world smartphone market, you might not have even known they existed if you lived in the US.

Prior to the iPhone, the US smartphone market was dominated by RIM's BlackBerry, with its enterprise email integration, and a small number of Windows Mobile phones.

Nokia never seemed interested in establishing the kind of carrier relationships required to be a major presence in the US market. In hindsight that may seem short sighted, but at the time it seemed to make sense considering how well Nokia's smartphones sold globally.

But when the US smartphone market exploded with the first iPhone, Nokia's lack of carrier partnerships effectively locked them out of this new major market, and unable to remain competitive worldwide as a result.

They appear to be preparing to correct that weakness with their Windows Phone handsets. Even though their Windows Phones aren't expected in the US until some time next year, a job opening posted on the Nokia website suggests they are already positioning themselves for success in the market.

The job, which has a title of 'WP Developer Evangelist', includes the following description:

Companies who wish to have a presence on Google+ now have that option through a new feature announced yesterday called Google+ Pages.

Official pages for everything from companies to bands have been a part of social networking services like Facebook for a long time, but Google+ initially focused exclusively on individuals.

With the introduction of Google+ Pages Google is focusing on integration with other communication services provided by the company, such as real time chat.

In addition, they are emphasizing the ability to get your Google+ Page indexed by their industry leading search engine through a feature called DirectConnect. Google Senior Vice President of Engineering Vic Gundotra explained on the company's blog:

People search on Google billions of times a day, and very often, they're looking for businesses and brands. Today's launch of Google+ Pages can help people transform their queries into meaningful connections, so we're rolling out two ways to add pages to circles from Google search. The first is by including Google+ pages in search results, and the second is a new feature called Direct Connect.

Maybe you're watching a movie trailer, or you just heard that your favorite band is coming to town. In both cases you want to connect with them right now, and Direct Connect makes it easy?even automatic. Just go to Google and search for [+], followed by the page you're interested in (like +Angry Birds). We'll take you to their Google+ page, and if you want, we?ll add them to your circles.

Security research Charlie Miller recently found a problem in iOS which could allow an app to give remote access to a device.

After receiving no response from Apple when he reported the problem more than two weeks ago, Miller submitted an app to the iTunes App Store which takes advantage of the vulnerabililty. He then went public with the information, after which Apple rewarded him for his trouble by kicking him out of the iOS Developer Program.

In an article published yesterday, Miller was quoted, saying: (via Forbes):

Now you could have a program in the App Store like Angry Birds that can run new code on your phone that Apple never had a chance to check. With this bug, you can't be assured of anything you download from the App Store behaving nicely.

When Chuck D filed a lawsuit against Universal Music Group last week, the implications for that company were obvious.

If his suit is successful, which seems likely based on recent precedents, it could result in UMG facing a huge new royalty burden to pay numerous artists who signed standard recording contracts in the days before iTunes. But it could end up having an even bigger impact on another label.

EMI, the smallest of the big four labels, is currently owned by Citigroup. They took over the struggling company when previous owner, Terra Firma, defaulted on loan payments.

Citigroup has no interest in owning a record label, and is looking for a buyer. But with the threat of a huge royalty liability hanging over the company, that would become more difficult.

Digital Music News has spoken to people involved in negotiations to buy EMI, and they believe potential buyers will demand protection against that possibility. One source told them, "This could be accomplished through mechanisms like graduated payments, it could be done through clawbacks or sunsetting."

Slowly but surely, Google is going on the offensive to defend Android from the threat of patent lawsuits.

Google's position in this fight is arguably weaker than either of those companies. This has presented problems for major Android device manufacturers. Between Apple, who refuses to license their own patents to anyone, and Microsoft trying to make money from Android in place of having their own successful mobile OS, the very existence of Android could be at stake.

Google Patent Counsel, Tim Porter, argued the company's case to San Francisco Chronicle columnist James Temple. In the process, he directed a number of criticisms against not just the companies who pose that threat, but also patent system itself.

Reacting to the numerous license agreements Microsoft has made with Android device makers, he said:

Unfortunately, the way it works is you don't know what patents cover until courts declare that in litigation. What that means is people have to make decisions about whether to fight or whether to reach agreements.

Read more...

A German court issued an injunction against Apple, banning them from selling any mobile devices in the country... sort of.

The injuction was granted in a lawsuit against Apple, alleging the iPhone and iPad both infringe on Motorola patents. It was issued after Apple failed to appear in court.

While that sounds like a big deal for Apple, and in the end it could be, as Florian Mueller at FOSS Patents points out, the situation is much more complicated than it sounds.

First, there's the injunction itself. Apple has issued an extermely ambiguous statement on the matter, saying (via FOSS Patents):

This is a procedural issue and has nothing to do with the merits of the case. It does not affect our ability to do business or sell products in Germany at this time.

Blockbuster Express is rolling out new pricing for their disc rental kiosks, hiking prices from $1 to $2 for so-called "Hot Movies."

Hot Movies are major releases which have been out for between 29 and 90 days. The price for keeping a disc longer than 24 hours will remain at $1.

In addition, a program which has been in testing in a few markets, offering new releases on the same date they are released for sale, is expanding to all locations. New releases rent for $3 with an additional $1 per day after the first.

Under the new pricing scheme, which they are calling the 3-2-1 Plan, all prices will return to the flat $1 per night after 90 days.

It is understandable why Blockbuster Express would want to differentiate themselves from other rental outlets by offering new releases right away. But it's questionable how much much of an advantage that will be at such a high price.

In any case, it's unlikely to do anything to meet the studios' stated goal of selling more discs, which is the reasoning behind the ridiculous rental windows in the first place.

As expected, Barnes & Noble unveiled their new Android-powered tablet today. The Nook Tablet is the successor to their wildly successful Nook Color.

Like its predecessor, it features a 7" display with a resolution of 1024x600. This is the same as Amazon's competing 7" tablet, the Kindle Fire.

Also like the Kindle Fire, the Nook Tablet is powered by a 1GHz dual core processor, but the Barnes & Noble tablet has 1GB of RAM, twice that of the Kindle Fire.

It is also significantly better when it comes to storage. Where the Amazon tablet has just 8GB of internal storage and no expansion slot, the Nook Tablet includes 16GB onboard and accepts SD cards up to 32GB.

Battery life on the Nook Tablet also seems impressive, with Barnes & Noble claiming it will be capable of 11.5 hours of reading or 9 hours of video playback.

The Nook Tablet also offers free Wi-Fi from both Barnes & Noble and AT&T hotspots.

Specs aside, the most obvious differences between the two tablets is price. Amazon is selling the Kindle Fire at a loss, for just $199. The Nook Tablet will cost you $249, so the question is whether it is worth the extra $50.

Chuck D of Public Enemy fame is the latest artist to sue his label alleging they are cheating him out of royalties from music downloads.

The issue, as with other artists who have sued, is whether downloads, including those from services like iTunes or Amazon's MP3 Shop as well as ringtones, should be counted as sales or licenses.

It's an issue which could cost the labels a lot of money due to the fact pre-iTunes recording contracts do not, obviously, have any royalty terms for downloads. In a similar case involving Eminem, a federal appeals court ruled that downloads clearly count as licensing, rather than sales.

This is significant because the royalty rate for licensing is much higher. Based on the contract terms disclosed in Chuck D's lawsuit, Universal Music Group would be required to pay him almost 50% of all the money they collect from each download.

Essentially, this is a case of the labels wanting to treat downloads in whatever way gives them the most power and makes them the most money. On one hand, they argue downloads are not sales when a consumer wants to sell them. Therefore the first sale doctrine does not apply. But when they pay the artist, they argue the opposite case, calling them sales to pay lower royalties.

Google may be looking for a new way to make the transition from traditional to Internet TV.

Google TV, their Internet-based TV service was launched last year, but has yet to be a success by any objective measure. At the end of last month they announced version 2.0 of the service, but with few people currently using the service, it remains to be seen if it can get traction in the market.

Considering a recent report about their plans to setup a cable TV service, maybe their purchase of Motorola Mobility is the key to that succes.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Google's Jeremy Stern is negotiating with media companies as part of a plan to offer cable TV service in Kansas City, Missouri and Kansas City, Kansas. The service would use the same transmission lines they are already planning for a high speed Internet offering in the area.

Coupled with the Motorola Mobility acquisition, it could clear the two biggest hurdles Google TV has faced since its inception; a lack of content provider cooperation and a lack of consumers with Google TV capable devices.

EMI continues to lose their fight to prove MP3tunes is liable for copyright infringement.

Responding to a filing from EMI lawyers in which they argued the judge was mistaken about two key points in the case, a federal judge reaffirmed his original decision.

The first contested point was whether the DMCA covers recordings released prior to 1972. These recordings are covered by state, rather than federal copyright law. The second is whether MP3tunes' policy for cancelling the accounts of repeat infringers fulfilled their DMCA obligations.

Not surprisingly, the judge ruled that his previous decision was correct on both issues. He also agreed with his earlier ruling that MP3tunes failure to remove songs from users' lockers following DMCA notices does, in fact, make them guilty of contributory copyright infringement.

In addition, he upheld his own decision that MP3tunes founder Michael Robertson is liable for his own personal use of a MP3tunes file locker for infringement.

On his personal blog, Robertson mused about why EMI's lawyers would waste their time (and EMI's money) presenting the same argument before the same judge a second time. He suggested it may be a case of EMI's lawyers taking advantage of the company's management and ownership turmoil.

As the entertainment industry in the US lobbies for PROTECT-IP, the E-PARASITE Act, ACTA, and numerous other legal measures designed to give them control over technology, they have released a report showing why they don't need any of them.

According to the report from the International Intellectual Property Association, whose members include the MPAA, RIAA, Business Software Alliance, Entertainment Software Association, Association of American Publishers, Independent Film & Television Alliance, and National Music Publishers' Association, copyright industries are doing just fine.

In fact they're doing better than fine. The report boasts about how copyright industries are doing better than the rest of the economy.

On the subject of how poor economic conditions are affecting copyright industries, the report says:

For the entire period 2007-2010, the U.S. core copyright industries, in real terms, grew at a compound annual growth rate of 1.10%. During the same period, the total U.S. copyright industries grew at a compound annual growth rate of 1.47%. By contrast, the U.S. economy?s compound annual growth rate over the period 2007 through 2010 was only 0.05%.

Read more...

Samsung's desparation patent lawsuits accusing Apple of infringing on 3G patents has caught the attention of European regulators.

According to a filing by Apple in the two companies' US patent case, the European Commission has reached out to Apple as part of an investigation into Samsung's licensing of essential mobile technology.

Specifically, they are trying to determine if Samsung is violating FRAND (Fair, Reasonable, And Non Discriminatory) licensing rules.

The commission confirmed this in a statement, saying (via Reuters):

The Commission has indeed sent requests for information to Apple and Samsung concerning the enforcement of standards-essential patents in the mobile telephony sector.

Antitrust lawsuits opposing the buyout of T-Mobile USA by AT&T will be allowed to continue thanks to a ruling by a federal judge.

Sprint and C-Spire (formerly Cellular South) are seeking to block the purchase on the grounds it will give AT&T the ability to get exclusive handset deals.

Although several portions of both companies' complaints were thrown out by the judge, The Washington Post reports both carriers will be allowed to continue pursuing their lawsuits on some of their claims.

The suits are in addition to the antitrust action being pursued by the Justice Department.

AT&T is currently the second largest of four US mobile carriers who provide nationwide coverage. Sprint is the third largest, followed by T-Mobile.

C-Spire Wireless is a regional carrier located in the southeastern part of the country.

Apple has released a beta of iOS 5.0.1 to developers which to addresses the battery life problems experienced by some iPhone owners.

Yesterday the company announced they had found the culprit behind the issue, which results in the iPhone battery significantly faster than normal. The problem doesn't affect all phones.

This update also adds multitasking gestures to the original iPad, a feature which was added in a beta of iOS 4.3, disabled in the final release version, and then enabled again, only for iPad 2 owners, in iOS 5.

According to the release notes (via Mac Rumors):

iOS 5.0.1 beta contains improvements and other bug fixes including:
- Fixes bugs affecting battery life
- Adds Multitasking Gestures for original iPad
- Resolves bugs with Documents in the Cloud
- Improves voice recognition for Australian users using dictation
- Contains security improvements

iOS 5.0.1 beta introduces a new way for developers to specify files that should remain on device, even in low storage situations.

Amazon has added a new feature targetted specifically at Kindle owners to their Amazon Prime program.

Amazon Prime is a subscription service which already gave members access to streaming video in addition to free 2 day shipping. Now they are adding a lending library usable only on their Kindle eReaders.

Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com Founder and CEO said of the new service:

Owning a Kindle just got even better. Today, we're introducing a new Prime benefit built for Kindle: The Kindle Owners' Lending Library. Prime Members now have exclusive access to a huge library of books to read on any Kindle device at no additional cost and with no due dates.

A new whitepaper from wireless services firm WDS points out some potential problems for carriers who sell Android smartphones.

The paper, based on analysis of 600,000 support calls to mobile carriers, details some mistakes they have made in selecting, marketing, and updating Android phones.

It concentrates primarily on the effects of hardware and software fragmentation caused by Google's relative lack of control over phone manufacturing standards and OS update rollouts.

They found 12.6% of Android support calls ended up with a hardware fault being diagnosed, costing carriers approximately $2 billion a year. In large part they chalk this up to failure by carriers to adequately test phones before choosing to offer them to customers.

More than 25% of smartphones, they say, are manufactured by relatively unknown manufacturers, and most of them run Android.

By comparison, support calls for BlackBerry phones had a 5.5% rate of hardware faults, iPhones 8%, and Windows Phone 7 came in at 11%. They suggest the difference between Android and Windows Phone likely stems from the tighter hardware control exercised by Microsoft.

The report also warns operators about the issues which can be caused by OS updates, or the lack of them. Citing an October 2011 study, they say, "of 18 Android devices from the US, 10 were at least two major versions behind within their two-year contract period."

Apple is rumored to be planning an overhaul of their entire product line next year.

Citing an unnamed source in Apple's supply chain, Digitimes reported the company has already ordered parts for 2 new iPad prototypes, and will have enough components ready to build 2 million units by year's end.

This seems to match another recent rumor that Apple would be releasing a smaller tablet to compete with Amazon's Kindle Fire.

The source indicated the new iPhone would ship some time in the second half of next year. That is to be expected considering the current model has been available for less than a month and has yet to launch in most countries.

It makes sense that Apple would redesign both products right now, given the increasing competition in the tablet industry and the fact the iPhone 4S is essentially just an upgraded iPhone 4.

There are also rumors that Steve Jobs put significant effort into an iPhone redesign as one of his last projects before his death in October.

The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) is a US law intended to prevent the collection and use of personal information from children under the age of 13.

A new report from the University of Illinois At Chicago finds that the measures taken by services like Facebook to comply with the law have resulted in it being largely ineffective.

The report, based on a survey of US parents with children between the ages of 10 and 14, looks specifically at how parents view Facebook's minimum age requirement. Like many websites, Facebook requires users to be at least 13 years old to join in order to avoid any COPPA compliance issues.

It should come as no surprise to anyone that large numbers of children younger than 13 sign up for Facebook accounts. The report found their parents are almost always aware of the child's Facebook activity.

In fact, the majority actually helped their child create the account, almost always with the knowledge that it was against Facebook's terms of service. What almost none of them were aware of was the reason for Facebook's policy.

After announcing last week that they had changed their minds about selling their PC division, it now seems HP is also sticking around in the tablet market for the time being.

No, they aren't bringing back the TouchPad. Their latest tablet, announced today, is the Windows 7 powered Slate 2.

The 1.5 pound Slate 2 is an update to the Slate 500, released in March of 2010. However, at $699, it will be a full $100 cheaper.

Like the original, it has a 8.9" display and is powered by an Intel Atom processor. The 32GB SSD is half the size of the original's 64GB hard drive.

The HP Slate 2 will go on sale later this month.

As Yahoo continues to search for a plan to return to their former glory, one former company executive explained why that's not going to happen.

The company, he says, was never really that great. According to him, they were always destined to fail because they didn't plan for the future.

The executive, whom they identify only as "a former executive from Yahoo's last great era," told Business Insider the company's decline in recent years is the result of a lack of vision at the top.

He characterized Yahoo's success as a direct result of bad judgement by decision makers at other companies, saying:

The internet blew up and people were paying ridiculous sums of money to advertise on Yahoo. I remember doing this deal with Barnes and Noble, we did this 30 million dollar deal over 3 years, and they just thought they had to be there. The reality is everybody was paying too much money to be a part of Yahoo back in the go-go days. We were generating revenues that were built on false premises.

This morning a new Gmail app from Google was added to the iTunes App Store. A short time later it was yanked due to user complaints.

Among other features, the app improves on the experience of using Gmail through the standard iOS email client by supporting push notifications.

In order to enable push notifications in the default client you have to use a workaround which involves setting it up as an Exchange Server.

Push notification allows an email server to send out data on its own schedule, rather than waiting until a client requests it.

An explanation of the app's problems on the company blog doesn't go into detail or give a time table for a planned fix. It reads:

Earlier today we launched a new Gmail app for iOS. Unfortunately, it contained a bug which broke notifications and caused users to see an error message when first opening the app. We?ve removed the app while we correct the problem, and we?re working to bring you a new version soon. Everyone who?s already installed the app can continue to use it.

With all the attention Apple's lawsuits against companies like Samsung and HTC have gotten, it's easy to forget they aren't limiting themselves to targeting multinational megacorporations.

One of the smaller companies they have gone after in Spain has successfully defended themselves against accusations they violated Apple's EU Community Design rights for the iPad.

As we've detailed in the past, the design Apple registered with the EU Office For Harmonization In The Internal Market is nothing more than a thin, rectangular tablet with rounded corners, a bezel around the display, and various external connectors on the edges.

Click on a thumnail to see a larger image

In a slide presented during their Q3 earnings call, Asus disclosed plans to release a tablet running Windows 8 in Q3 of next year.

Windows 8 features a completely new UI called Metro which is intended to make it more tablet friendly. Windows 8 also adds support for ARM processors, an important step for supporting current tablet hardware.

The good news for Microsoft, at least for the moment, is the number 2 tablet OS, Android, has yet to make a significant mark. Of course that could change by the time Windows 8 launches next year.

Putting Windows on a tablet does, in theory, have some advantages over either iOS or Android. Where iOS and Android are essentially phone operating systems upscaled for tablet use, Windows 8 on a tablet will be similar in many ways to a desktop experience.

At the same time, consumers could be turned off by a lack of compatibility with existing applications due to processor and interface limitations on tablets.

From Microsoft's point of view, Asus might be the best possible partner for such a product thanks to their preference for selling tablets with keyboard and trackpad equipped docking stations. Arguably that's the best way to show of Windows 8's capabilities.

Apple has announced the iPhone 4S will be launched in South Korea and several other markets on November 11. Pre-orders in those countries will start a week earlier on November 4.

The other countries where the iPhone will be released on that date include Albania, Armenia, Bulgaria, El Salvador, Greece, Guatemala, Hong Kong, Malta, Montenegro, New Zealand, Panama, Poland, Portugal, and Romania.

South Korea is home to Samsung, a company engaged in patent battles with Apple around the world. In September a report from the Korea Times suggested Samsung would attempt to have the iPhone 4S banned in that country.

To date that doesn't appear to have happened, although it's possible they were waiting for Apple to announce a release date first. Don't be surprised if a lawsuit is filed in the next few days.

Samsung has already filed lawsuits asking for a ban of the iPhone 4S in various European countries, as well as Australia and Japan.

Samsung is once again going on the offensive in their Australian patent battle with Apple.

They are asking a judge to order Apple to hand over source code for the iPhone 4S firmware so they can examine it for violations of Samsung patents. Samsung has previously claimed Apple is being deceptive about identifying some of the hardware used in the iPhone.

The move, reported by Australia's Smart Office, is part of their effort to get the new iPhone banned in Australia. In part, their request may be motivated by recognition of the weakness of charges Apple is violating 3G patents.

As courts in Europe have already pointed out, even if Apple is violating Samsung patents for 3G technology, those patents are subject to FRAND licensing rules. FRAND, or Fair, Reasonable, And Non Discriminatory rules are applied to technology required for implementing industry standards from various organizations.

Those rules require that Samsung offer Apple reasonable license terms for their 3G-related patents.

Next week the first 2 4G (LTE) smartphones from AT&T will go on sale.

On Sunday, November 6 AT&T stores will begin selling the HTC Vivid and Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket, both of which feature both HSPA+ and LTE support.

Existing AT&T customers may be confused by the new options since AT&T has been selling phones advertised as having 4G capabilities for several months. That's because there are multiple standards marketed as 4G.

HSPA+ is an extension of 3G standards which was AT&T's original choice for 4G service due to the relatively low upgrade costs. An aggressive advertising campaign from Verizon touting the advantages of their LTE, or Long Term Evolution, 4G network forced AT&T to rethink those plans.

Their first LTE markets went live in September. Unless you are in one of the handful of areas where AT&T has already upgraded their network to add LTE capability, there is no advantage to buying one of these new phones right now.

Currently those markets include Washington DC, Baltimore, Boston, and Chicago, plus 2 Georgia markets (Atlanta & Athens), 3 more markets in Texas (Houston, San Antonio, & Dallas-Fort Worth).

Despite being such new technology, the iPad is already gaining a foothold in US schools according to research from Piper Jaffray.

Researchers spoke with technology officials at 25 schools, all of whom indicated iPads were being used in their schools. Android, on the other hand, wasn't represented in this sample at all.

According to AppleInsider, analyst Gene Munster detailed the results at a conference on the integration of technology in the classroom:

While this may be expected due to limited availability of Android tablets early in the tablet cycle, we also see it as evidence of Apple's first mover advantage. We also see a trend in education (which is mirrored in the enterprise) that familiarity with Apple devices among students (or employees) is causing a demand pull within institutions to also provide Apple devices.