Movie download site Movielink is offering a free download of battle flick 300 to consumers who buy the deluxe edition DVD in Target stores as part of a promotion for the Warner Home Video release
Target is promoting the partnership with stickering on the DVD, and Movielink sent an e-mail to customers telling them to “Double the Power of 300” by buying the disc in Target stores to receive the free download.
Movielink also will give Target buyers the free 22-minute behind-the-scenes feature “Making of 300,” which isn’t included on the DVD.
The companies are the latest to tie DVD sales with online sales.
Last week, Starz Home Entertainment announced a promotion with sister movie subscription site Vongo and Trans World Entertainment, that ties sales in FYE stores to sales and subscriptions on Vongo.
A year ago, Wal-Mart offered consumers who purchased Warner’s Superman Returns DVD a download of the film through its Web site for several dollars more.
Sony Corp. has made some changes to its Xplod head units through the XAV-W1 which may bring joy to some customers. In a first, the W1 is a Super AudioCD (SACD) player and the first large visual jukebox designed for a car by the company. Owners with compatible audio systems can listen to music in 5.1 surround. Stereo audio is available for regular CD audio and digital files (MP3, WMA etc.)
The optical disc drive also supports the DVD format, making it possible watch DVD-Video titles on the unit's 7-inch built in touchscreen. A user can also connect an iPod or add tuners for HD Radio or Satellite Radio. The system should become available this month for $800.
Super AudioCD (SACD) is an optical audio storage standard that competes against DVD-Audio in a format war in the market for higher-fidelity digital audio than that provided by regular CD Audio. SACD has a huge advantage in that most SACD titles are hybrid discs capable of also being played in a regular CD player.
A questionable lawsuit has been filed against Apple Inc. by Larry Drury, an Illinois lawyer, on behalf of Jose Trujillo, alleging that the company defrauded Trujillo by failing to reveal details about the iPhone battery. Drury claims that Apple failed to reveal that the iPhone battery was not user-replaceable and that it would die after 300 charges. To get a new battery for an iPhone, you have to send it back to Apple at a cost of $85.95.
"This case arises out of Defendants' purposeful and fraudulent concealment to purchasers of its iPhone cellular telephone that they will be required to incur an annual fee of $85.95 as part of Defendants' battery replacement program," the complaint reads. It goes on to say that, "the iPhone battery has a durability and/or lifetime of approximately 300 charges, necessitating frequent and more than annual maintenance, repair, and/or replacement if charged regularly on a daily basis."
When the iPhone launched, Apple said that the battery would start to "lose capacity" after about 300 or 400 charges. However, the company is referring to charge cycles, which is basically a completely drained battery then charged up fully. Apple defines proper maintenance as "at least one charge cycle per month." Also, the battery won't be completely useless after 400 charges. Apple's website says that the battery will retain up to 80% of its original capacity at 400 full charge and discharge cycles.
The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) will not be intervening in Atlantic v. Boggs - a lawsuit brought against defendant Michael Boggs for allegedly sharing music without permission - as the RIAA and Boggs have agreed to dismiss the action with prejudice. The DoJ was deciding whether or not to intervene in the case as Boggs filed a counterclaim seeking a declaratory judgment that the damages sought by the RIAA ($750 per track) were unconstitutionally excessive.
Last November, defendant Marie Lindor accused the RIAA of seeking excessive damages. The judge presiding over that case (Universal v. Lindor) allowed Lindor to argue that the actual damages suffered by the record companies was around 70c per track, which is about what record companies make from each music download sale.
The record companies attempted to block Lindor from attempts to gain access to the wholesale price per track, saying it was highly confidential data. However, a lawyer for Universal later said that 70c per track was in the correct range. When Michael Boggs challenged the constitutionality of the statutory damages section of the Copyright Act in his counterclaim, the DoJ filed a motion asking the court to allow it 60 days to decide whether to intervene in the case.
Ken Graffeo, an executive VP for Universal Studios has recently made comments responding to the recent reports that Sony had purchased end caps for Blu-ray at Target stores but then called it "exclusive."
Graffeo said that "standalone HD DVD players are still much more affordable than Blu-ray players," and that more importantly, HD DVD provided a better experience for buyers and even went on to welcomed consumers to do a direct comparison for the movie 300 which is available in both formats.
Although the format war is still completely a toss-up, the Blu-ray camp would have you believe that they are running away with a victory. That is not the case now, nor will it be for awhile despite certain retailers moving to Blu-ray "exclusivity".
If Graffeo's comments do nothing else, it will at least add fuel to the format war fire that is still burning and end any speculation that Universal is moving towards Blu-ray anytime soon.
The large Chinese exporter Chinavasion has begun marketing a unique media player that is so far unnamed.
Underwater MP3 players or MP3 player accessories are nothing new but the device will be the first underwater media player to play video and it can do so up to a depth of 10 feet.
It can play ASF, MPEG and WMV but disappointingly can only hold 1 GB of content and the videos will only be shown on a 1.8 inch screen. Even more disappointingly, the battery life is bad, with only 6 hours for music and 3 hours for video.
There is no release date known or price, but we will keep you updated.
In a rare move, Microsoft's Xbox 360 title Viva Pinata will be heading to the Nintendo DS.
The game will be based off the current 360 title and Microsoft-owned developer Rare will be in charge of development.
Rare calls the new game “a full-size Viva Piñata game in your pocket, featuring not only the entire range of paper beasts from the Xbox 360 title but also a few new ones thrown in to spice things up for those familiar with the established cast.” “One of the biggest changes is obviously the control method, with stylus input transforming the way in which you interact with your menagerie. Design, nurture, instruct, protect and care for your garden and animals through direct touch,” detailed Rare. “The DS Wi-Fi service also lets you send prime Piñata specimens to your friends, making the act of parading your Doenut around in a humiliating pirate outfit easier than ever.”
Rare was originally a Nintendo-exclusive developer making such hits as Donkey Kong Country for the SNES. However, in 2002 Microsoft paid $377 million for full ownership of Rare as an exclusive Microsoft developer.
Although Microsoft has yet to make an official word on the matter, leaked ads from a few prominent retail stores have revealed that by mid-August there will in fact be a $50 USD price drop on the Xbox 360.
The Premium pack will now sell for $349.99 and include a copy of "Table Tennis." The Elite unit will only see a $30 USD drop to $449.99 while the Core unit will see a $20 USD drop to $279.99.
There have been rumors however, that Microsoft will be completely dropping the Core unit from production after it sells itself out.
Eight Mile Style LLC and Martin Affiliated LLC have sued Apple Inc. over the distribution of tracks by rapper Eminem through its iTunes music store. The issue is whether or not Apple is distributing tracks from the artist with or without his permission. Universal Studios distributes Eminem's albums, but Eight Mile Style LLC and Martin Affiliated LLC own the publishing rights and copyright so the tracks.
"Eight Mile and Martin have demanded that Apple cease and desist its reproduction and distribution and Apple has refused," the complaint reads according to The Detroit News. Experts say that there is currently a larger dispute within the industry itself about whether music publishers, who actually own the copyrights to music and not the labels, should have the final say on how it is used online.
This is not the first time that the controversial rapper and Apple have disputed. Back in 2004, an iPod/iTunes commercial used the track "Lose Yourself" despite the fact that Eminem had declined licensing it to the company. Apple went ahead and used the song anyway.
Sharp Corp. has revealed plans to spend up to $3.2 billion on a new liquid-crystal display (LCD) factory as part of a new flat-panel industrial park currently in plans. The electronics maker wants to create a "manufacturing complex for the 21st century," and is inviting other component manufacturers to participate. According to a statement from the company, the plan is to reduce distribution costs, help in production planning and promote collaboration.
Asahi Glass Co., a manufacturer of the glass known as substrate used to make LCDs, plans to participate in the center along with Dai Nippon Printing Co., which manufactures color filters. Corning Inc., a larger glass substrate maker than Asahi Glass Co., also plans to construct facilities at the center.
The factory will be located at the city of Sakai, located in the southern part of Osaka prefecture. Work is set to begin in November and the center will begin production in 2010.
Apple Inc.'s iTunes download store has sold over 3 billion legal music downloads since the service first launched in April 2003. This latest milestones comes six months after Apple announced it had sold 2 billion songs in total. It has reached its first billion sales by February 2006. Its success earned it the title of the third largest music retailer in the U.S., behind Wal-Mart and Best Buy Co.
The NPD Group determined this ranking based on units sold and not on revenues. The firm counted every 12 tracks purchased online as being the equivalent of an album bought on a physical CD. The success of the iTunes store relies heavily on Apple's iPod line-up.
Back in April, the company announced that it had sold 100 million iPods. Due to DRM restrictions, music bought from the iTunes music store (unless DRM-free at a premium rate) can only be played back on an iPod, making it the only legitimate, fully authorized resource for iPod owners to get major label music online.
Coming in way behind its US competition, AT&T has teamed up with eMusic, an independent music retailer to bring music downloads to its customer base. Trailing the efforts already in place by companies like Sprint and Verizon, AT&T takes an interesting approach at online wireless music downloads.
Coming in at about mid-range in pricing, AT&T has released information that their song downloads will cost $1.50 per Track, sitting squarely between Sprint's 99 cent deal and Verizon's $1.99 per track offering. There appears to also be a package deal where you can download 5 songs for the inflated price of $7.49.
This is a strange move for AT&T to allow only independent music to its customers as marketing strategies show that most mobile music purchases are impulse, and most impulse buys will be current billboard hits, not independent offerings. eMusic will not offer music in its catalog that is anywhere close to a mainstream billboard. Additionally, AT&T does not offer wireless music downloads to its partnered flagship, the Apple iPhone of which it has exclusive rights. Finally, the eMusic service will not work with the iPhone.
It seems that the Japanese electronics giant Sony just cant catch a break when it comes to their vulnerable PS3. Recently a company based in the US has claimed that Sony is infringing upon their patented "synchronized parallel processing with shared memory" technology. The Parallel Processing Corporation recently issued a lawsuit to a district court in Texas where it says they seek retribution for this infringement.
The patent for this technology was approved in 1991 originally to a company called International Parallel Machines, based out of Massachusettes, however The Parallel Processing Corporation claims they are the exclusive licensee for this technology.
The suing company is claiming that their organization is being caused irrepairable harm and monetary damages and seeks not only monetary compensation, but the destruction of Sony's product which is infringing on the patent. In essence, they want to be paid and destroy the PS3 from ever being produced. Bold lawsuit.
Sony has yet to make a comment on this situation as it takes a firm stand on not issuing statements on pending lawsuits. This is however nothing new to Sony who have been receiving infringement lawsuits from smaller companies since they began developing the PS3.
Disney has announced that they will be debuting a collection of Pixar short films exclusively to Blu-ray before Christmas.
The "Pixar Short Films Collection" will hit stores on November 6th and features 13 of Pixar's most popular "shorts" including 'Geri's Game,' 'For the Birds' and 'One Man Band", all of which were nominated for Oscars.
Although these shorts have appeared on the special features of standard DVD releases of Pixar movies, the collection as a whole will make its debut on Blu-ray a practice that is becoming more commonplace.
There are no specs on the release yet but we will keep you updated.
LightScribe has announced that an additional 12 hardware brands, personal computer and optical drive manufacturers, media brands and disc publishing systems manufacturers have licensed its direct disc labeling technology, bringing the total number to over 80 hardware and software companies now licensed to use the technology.
Apricorn, Ativa, Gear Head, and Sony; personal computer manufacturer MESH Computers; optical disc drive manufacturer Sony NEC Optiarc; media brands Ativa, Intenso, KODAK Media Products, and Vakoss; and disc publishing systems manufacturers Advanced Digital Research, Amtren, and Mexty Productions are among the latest to license the technology.
The growing base of disc publishing systems manufacturers represents growing application of LightScribe products in the small-to-medium business (SMB) market. Over 40 million LightScribe-enabled drives and 150 million CDs and DVDs have shipped to date. Additionally, LightScribe-enabled drive shipments account for 17% of all DVD burners manufactured
on a monthly basis.
"Recent customer research shows LightScribe in use by business and consumers alike," said Kent Henscheid, marketing manager for LightScribe. "Frequent users of optical media are particularly appreciative of LightScribe media's professional look and prefer it over other labeling methods."
Cyberlink Corp. has announced significant performance gains for playing, analyzing, and producing high-quality video content using CyberLink's leading applications, PowerDVD Ultra and PowerDirector, on systems featuring the Intel Core 2 Quad processors. The company claims the optimization improved frame-rate performance by up to 66% using PowerDVD Ultra and PowerDirector improved editing and transcoding times by up to 68%.
"The Intel Core 2 Quad processors deliver the world-class performance and energy efficiency to meet the needs for applications today and the future," said Jason Chen, country manager of Intel Taiwan. "Intel is excited to see consumers will be able to enjoy the outstanding multimedia experiences by running CyberLink's applications on Intel Core 2 Quad processor-based PCs."
"The ability to edit and play high-quality video requires a lot of processing power," said Alice H. Chang, CEO of CyberLink. "With CyberLink's optimization for Intel's advanced quad-core processors, PowerDVD and PowerDirector ensure fast production, smooth playback, and superb results."
The International record industry reacted to a recent decision by the UK Government not to press the European Commission to extend the term of copyright protection. As expected, the industry's important people had released statements to the press about the decision, which they found shocking and unfair to recording artists and companies alike. Here are some of the notable responses.
"The UK is a world-beating source of great music, so it is frustrating that on the issue of copyright term the Government has shown scant respect for British artists and the UK recording industry. Some of the greatest works of British music will soon be taken away from the artists who performed them and the companies that invested in them. Extending copyright term would promote vital investment in young talent and new music, all of which will help to secure the UK’s future as an exciting music market." John Kennedy, International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), Chairman & CEO
"This was a test of Government support for British music which it has failed. Ministers appear to have selective hearing on this issue – they have ignored the views of artists and their union, managers, record labels and now even a Parliamentary Select Committee. Opposition MPs and many Labour backbenchers understand the value of fair copyright and support term extension. We will continue to put forward the strong case for fair copyright in Europe. It is profoundly disappointing that we are forced to do so without the backing of the British Government." Geoff Taylor, Chief Executive, British Phonographic Industry (BPI).
Italian anti-piracy police have targeted an illicit distribution network operating in Catania, Sicily. While the amount of pirated goods seized totaled around 2,000 CDs and DVDs, the police officers found some other nice gadgets too. They included eight guns, five rifles, ammunition for rifles and machine guns, two kilograms of TNT and bomb making equipment.
The raids were carried out by Officers from the First GdF Operational Unit of Catania. Several stolen archaeological treasures were also uncovered. Police arrested two men and are now investigating the connection between them and members of criminal organizations closely linked to notorious mafia families.
This particular case has appeared on some anti-piracy websites, even though the number of pirated goods seized are easily beaten in an average anti-piracy raid. However, it was the other activity that was also going on that makes it such attractive news for an industry that has been talking about links between piracy and organized crime and also terrorism, for years.
Copies of NBC’s “Bionic Woman,” ABC’s “Pushing Daisies,” The CW’s “Reaper” and several other shows were available Friday for illegal download via sites such as torrent Spy, The Pirate Bay and Mininova.
Most of the titles appear to have been uploaded within the past week. The first copy of “Bionic” was listed as uploaded two days ago, while the earliest “Reaper” file was date-marked seven days ago. Other leaked shows include Fox’s midseason “The Terminator” spin-off “The Sarah Connor Chronicles,” ABC’s “Cavemen,” and NBC’s “Chuck” and “Lipstick Jungle.”
TelevisionWeek downloaded and confirmed the content of several pilot files. The videos were of reasonably high quality, akin to the Streaming programs on broadcast network Web sites.
“This baby is real and nice quality,” one user posted about "Connor" on Pirate Bay. “Wish I could say more about the content, but there is potential.”
“We’re doing everything we can to fight piracy,” said one major studio representative who declined to be identified. “Our piracy department is playing whack-a-mole with these things.”
LG.Philips LCD has patented a flexible OLED screen technology that would use oil and water to produce images. This should help to produce OLED displays at a much lower cost.
One of the current problems with OLED flexible technology is the fact that it must be produced first on glass due to the fact that it is made at a higher temperature than the melting point of its plastic substrate. The extra glass step increases production costs as well as time spent.
LG. Philips LCD says the "new displays are designed by placing oil and water contained in tiny plastic cells connected to plastic electrodes."
The patent itself says the display uses reflective electrodes formed on the first substrate alongside a transparent insulation layer. The second substrate consists of an electrode and in between two is an electrode layer formed by water and a non electrolytic layer formed by oil.
According to Dailytech, "the oil, which is opaque, sits on the water and covers the colored surface beneath. By applying an electric field, the oil is forced away from the water, making the colored surface visible and changing the pixel color."
As usual, there are no details on manufacturing date or release date and it has so far only patented the technology.
After Nicholas Paternoster, a sergeant in the US Army, filed a counterclaim against the RIAA regarding an investigation which lead to a copyright infringement suit against him, the organization's attorneys asked the judge to strike an exhibit from the court record.
The exhibit consisted of a list of shared files allegedly found on his computer. It included over 4,000 files not mentioned in the RIAA suit. Sgt. Paternoster's counterclaim alleges that the RIAA violated his privacy and tried to shame him into giving into their "unreasonable demands regarding their copyrighted materials."
The labels then asked the judge to strike the original exhibit from the record as a "professional courtesy" to Paternoster and his attorneys. The judge approved the request and the original exhibit was removed from the public record on July 26.
his is not the first time the RIAA has been caught using questionable tactics. After Oregon resident Tanya Andersen, who was mistakenly accused of copyright infringement by the record labels, was exonerated, she sued the RIAA for malicious prosecution. In her complaint, she accused the record labels of trying to contact her then eight-year-old daughter without her knowledge, even calling her elementary school under false pretenses.
Sony third party relations cheif Michael Shorrock has said that the company has purchased exclusive rights for the next game franchise by Rockstar Games, makers of the popular Grand Theft Auto and Manhunt series among many others.
According to Shorrock, a "completely new" franchise will be launched exclusive to the PlayStation 3 which should help Sony regain some credibility after losing out on a deal that placed exclusive GTA: IV content on the rival Xbox 360.
"Everyone knows to have success in this business you need to look ahead, identifying the talent and titles that are going to give consumers new kinds of gaming experiences that help set the bar for the rest of the industry," Shorrock said. "Rockstar has a heritage for doing just that."
Sony also said the game would make "heavy use of the PlayStation 3's Cell and Blu-ray technologies" but could not disclose more due to a non-disclosure agreement made with Rockstar.
JupiterResearch senior analyst Michael Gartenberg did mention that there may be more to the deal then what is known now.
"There's one interesting part of this," he said. "No one does exclusives without a really good reason and given the fact that Sony is not dominating this console cycle, I would think Sony must have paid quite a bit to get the exclusivity."
Last week at Comic-Con, the worlds biggest comic book convention, both HD DVD and Blu-ray were pushed by industry representatives.
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment hosted a Blu-ray Experience booth on the exhibition floor. Every hour, executives premiered Blu-ray clips of Spider-Man 3, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and 20 Million Miles to Earth 50th Anniversary Edition. The films ran across 52-inch TV screens via a Sony BDP-S300 set-top player, a PlayStation 3 and a Sony VAIO laptop. More than 8,000 Comic-Con attendees entered a contest to win one of the three Blu-ray hardware systems.
“This is our first big show where we are really focusing in on the consumer,” said Rich Marty, Sony VP of new business development. “It’s the perfect event to showcase Blu-ray, because you’re attracting a perfect demographic. These people love films, they love gaming and they love new technology. And the biggest titles are now coming.”
Outside the exhibition floor, studios presented panel discussions about new high-def titles. CBS DVD, distributed by Paramount Home Entertainment, trotted out Rod Roddenberry (the son of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry) to help promote the Nov. 20 bow of Star Trek: The Original Series on HD DVD.
Microsoft hasn't divulged detailed plans for the next release of its Zune music player, but a company executive last week offered hints that seem to support reports that a flash memory-based Zune and an 80GB device could be in the works.
At its annual financial analyst meeting last week, Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft's Entertainment and Devices Division, said Microsoft plans to "broaden" the Zune brand with new styles, capacity sizes, and price points as well as new features, though he did not reveal the timing of releases or exact product specifications.
Several device-centric blogs, including Zune Scene, Whiz Byte, Gadgetell, and others reported that an 80GB Zune code-named Scorpio and a flash memory-based Zune code-named Draco are currently in the works.
Zune Scene also has reported a production snag that could delay the release of the Scorpio device. According to a post on the blog late last week, the production schedule of Scorpio has been delayed due to problems with wiring. The blog also said that production on Scorpio was expected to be completed on Aug. 31 but has now been pushed back to September.
While Microsoft publicly remains optimistic about Zune's ability to compete against the iPod and other MP3 players, sources close to the company report that some inside Microsoft feel that Zune should be scrapped because it is not worth the company's investment. Microsoft said it has shipped more than 1.2 million Zune units since the product was released in November 2006, but consumers still overwhelmingly prefer Apple's iPod devices as their choice of multimedia player. Apple sold 9.8 million iPods in its quarter ended June 30th.
Amazon.com’s DVD-on-demand service CustomFlix Labs has inked a deal with the National Archives and Records Administration to make historic films, documentaries and newsreels available on disc, the company said today.
Universal newsreels from 1920 to 1967, covering everything from the death of President Franklin D. Roosevelt to the 1960 Nixon-Kennedy debate, are available starting today through CustomFlix.
"Our DVD on Demand service will make these titles readily available for purchase on Amazon.com to be enjoyed by history buffs today, as well as for future generations to come" said Dana LoPiccolo-Giles, CustomFlix co-founder and managing director.
Discs of available films are manufactured when they are ordered and shipped to customers within 24 hours.
Films are available for free at the National Archives site, but sell for around $12 on Amazon.
Once again proving that Sony are experts at spinning news in their favor, Major Nelson, Engadget and the HD DVD camp have all confirmed that gigantic retailer Target is not going Blu-ray exclusive and they will continue to sell HD DVD movie titles.
Turns out, the only news that really happened was Sony purchased end aisle placement for Blu-ray products and decided to call it "exclusive."
Official comments from Target are expected by the end of the week to settle the mess.
According to a new report by Entertainment Media Research, unauthorized music downloading is at an all-time high and the piracy is set to continue rising despite the legal efforts of the RIAA.
The report also stated that the group of consumers that are unconcerned with being sued for unauthorized downloads is growing.
The report, which was a poll of 1700 people, claims that 43% of the people now download unauthorized tracks, up 7% from 2006. Those scared of being sued due to their downloading dropped to 33% from 42% in 2006.
Stating what many have seen to be truth for a long time, the report noted that price was the key factor for the increased unauthorized downloading. As CD prices have fallen, the old perceived cost advantage of legal downloads has eroded. 84% of those polled agreed that differential pricing would help to increase sales. Older songs should be cheaper while newer, hotter singles can remain at a higher price.
John Enser, head of music at law firm Olswang, said: "As illegal downloading hits an all-time high and consumers' fear of prosecution falls, the music industry must look for more ways to encourage the public to download music legally."
The group over at AppleTVhacks.net in conjuction with FatWallet.com offered up a prize for anyone who could effectively hack the AppleTV software to allow the use of an external USB hard drive as its main storage. This hack would then allow users to have much more storage without the need to crack open the AppleTV device itself.
Armed with the 1.0 version of the AppleTV software, an Intel based Macintosh computer or Intel based Linux machine, an external hard drive and a little gusto, users can follow instructions on how to enable an external HDD as the primary source for storage. Since Apple is constantly on the verge of not giving an easy method for copyright infringement, its easy to see why a feature such as this wasn't enabled from the start.
Adopters of the Blu-Ray devices and PS3 owners alike will be able to rejoice in the near future as the Japanese porn industry will soon produce high definition media for all your adult film needs.
In the past, Sony and its major partner Disney had rejected the US adult film industry's proposal for adult content on their media because they felt there was an image to uphold. At this year's Adult Treasures Expo 2007 in Chiba, Japan however, Sony began offering more technical support for the adult film industry.
Until now, there had only been a handful of companies with rights to stamp out Blu-ray media, but a Japanese company which was in charge with a great deal of the early release Blu-Ray discs said it has partnered with a Taiwan company to produce much more media for this purpose.
This move could prove to be a decent push in the Blu-Ray camp who has appeared to be losing the race to HD-DVD. Following a fatal mistake Sony made back in the days of Betamax, their refusal to endorse the US adult film industry effectively led to the demise of the superior beta format over VHS, which had endorsed porn. With HD-DVD already on the adult bandwagon right from the gates, along with cheaper production costs and a growing list of supporters, Blu-Ray will need all the help it can get to remain in this high-definition battle.
The CW Network, previously the UPN and the WB networks, has announced that all of its upcoming 2007-2008 programming season will be broadcast in HD.
Every drama and comedy, and WWE Smackdown, will be produced in HD with surround sound so that they are broadcasted in full HD glory.
This is good news especially for wrestling fans who felt they were left out when Smackdown was originally left off the HD bandwagon. The show should move to HD in January.
Magnolia Audio Video, a regional electronics retailer owned by Best Buy, has plans to go national and transform itself into the nation's leading provider of AV Design and installation services.
The re-engineered Magnolia would operate out of a smaller footprint — 3,000-square-foot showroom/design centers located next to Best Buy stores with Magnolia Home Theater shops — and would target architects and luxury home developers in addition to consumers.
CEO Jim Tweten said the expansion would fill a need for a national custom installation chain with a recognizable brand and the financial backing of a Fortune 500 company. In the process, it will create an “end-to-end solution” covering all CE bases with Best Buy, Magnolia Home Theater and Magnolia Audio Video representing a good-better-best step-up scenario.
Magnolia will begin its transformation this summer by closing six underperforming stores and remodeling the remaining 13 by early November. The chain will then spend a year tweaking and evaluating the new operation before embarking on its expansion plans.
In a presentation at an annual meeting of the Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing (CTAM) last week, the CEO of Circuit City Stores described how a partnership with the chain could improve consumer experiences when buying and installing new hardware.
Phil Schoonover told the CTAM Summit audience that Circuit City could provide a special store to sell the hardware, with the retailer’s service division, firedog, providing installation and support services.
Concept stores include “The City” in Virginia. Schoonover demonstrated a customer experience where a buyer is approached by a sales associate with a tablet PC. The associate uses the computer to hone in on the buyer’s needs: Which room will house the TV? Where will the hardware be placed? The PC enables the associate to sketch the room, placing furniture and determining what type of TV is best: LCD in Schoonover’s case, due to bright daylight in the room.
Circuit City has 650 retail locations. With all of its TVs turned on all day, that equals 90,000 potential billboards for cable-provided services, he suggested.
This year has not been good for the Virgina based retailer. In March they announced a plan to replace over 3,000 senior employees in a move to save money.
Despite still being in beta status, Joost has announced that they've signed up 1 million viewers.
Speaking at a Skype press event in Tallinn, Estonia, Skype CEO and Joost co-founder Niklas Zennström said that the service, launched in late 2006 and formerly codenamed 'The Venice Project', was currently being tested by a million users. The figure marks the first time Joost has disclosed the audience for its service.
Joost has been funded by Zennström and cofounder Janus Friis using the money they received following Skype's sale to eBay in 2006. So far, the service has signed up a number of content providers and "around 30 Tier 1 advertisers", Zennström said.
Ensuring the service works simply despite its complex underpinnings will also be a major consideration, a problem which Zennström also sees as an ongoing issue for Skype.
"Ease of use is such an important thing for us," he said. "Ultimately, you want everything as simple as possible."
A federal judge has ruled that AT&T's U-Verse IPTV service meets the legal definition of cable service under the Cable Communications Policy Act. The 1984 law sets certain requirements that all cable operators must meet.
The ruling came as the result of a lawsuit filed by the State of Connecticut's Office of Consumer Counsel, the New England Cable and Telecommunications Association, and Cablevision. The Connecticut Department of Public Utility Control had previously ruled that U-Verse wasn't subject to the law's restrictions.
If U-Verse is considered a cable service it becomes subject to all federal regulations for cable operators. Otherwise it would be an unregulated service, much like VOIP isn't subject to standard telephone regulations.
In their complaint, the plaintiffs pointed out that U-Verse would be "nearly identical" in every way to any other cable TV service from the perspective of cable subscribers, ranging from programming available to on-demand services. AT&T argued that since it had yet to begin offering TV service, any comparisons between U-Verse and other cable offerings were just speculation.
AT&T has so far resisted signing franchise agreements with local governments. When setting up the U-Verse service in communities that have insisted on franchise agreements AT&T has either taken the issue to court or simply halted deployment altogether.
Last year, BitTorrent Inc. purchased the very popular torrent client uTorrent scaring users that felt the client would soon become obsolete or even worse, embedded with tracking devices by the MPAA and other groups. Some private torrent trackers have even banned later versions of uTorrent since the acquisition.
Yesterday, BT Inc. released BitTorrent 6.0, which is a rebranded uTorrent. However, uTorrent will continue to remain a standalone client and its community will not be replaced either, ever.
BT 6.0 looks just like uTorrent from the outside but now comes with BitTorrent DNA. There is also no longer a built-in search, but that can be added manually.
When asked about the future of uTorrent, CEO Ashwin Navin said this, “utorrent.com and uTorrent community will exist indefinitely. It’s vibrant and growing, and we value the feedback provided in the forums a lot. It is not our plan to fold utorrent.com into bittorrent.com, but foster growth for both independently.”
There is so far no evidence to prove that new uTorrent builds are being built with tracking code or that they are sending data packets to the MPAA, but rest assured I will be sticking with uTorrent 1.6.
In celebration of the release of "The Simpsons Movie", the infamous torrent tracker The Pirate Bay has created a temporary new logo as well as t-shirt design. As a slap in Hollywood's face, the homepage logo of TPB links you to a search string that shows many hits for pirated camcorded versions od the Simpsons Movie.
As one of the admins, Brokep writes, “The beloved movie we’ve all been waiting for is out. So to celebrate we did a new logo and t-shirt in honor of this great show.. I guess you all know what show I’m talking about!”
TPB has even temporarily renamed itself "Evergreen Bay", based off the Simpson's home address on Evergreen Terrace. In the past, TPB has been well known for rebranding their site, most recently when the leak of the latest Harry Potter book hit its site.
For those who miss it, here is the picture, with the admins drawn as if they were Simpsons characters.
In the past couple of months, both HD DVD and Blu-ray have begun offering promotions in an effort to sell more players for their respective camps. These promotions, either price drops or "five discs free" movie offers have helped to bolster sales and gain more attention for the next gen discs.
Today, LG, makers of dual-format "hybrid" HD players have finally decided to offer a free movie promotion of their own, in conjunction with Best Buy.
Any customer who purchases LG's hybrid player at Best Buy can select 10 free discs from Best Buy's complete collection of Blu-ray and HD DVD movies (excluding box sets). This is double the amount of discs of the other promotions and with hardly any limitations on the titles you can choose.
Although the LG player is an expensive $1200, the promotion should help sales, not to mention bring attention to hybrid players.
Inteset, the producer of advanced home entertainment computer hardware, has announced they will become the first company to offer hybrid HD players in their media centers.
To be specific, customers will be able to choose an as-of-now unidentified Blu-ray/HD DVD combo player as an option in its "Maximus" and "Denzel Media" servers. Each server allows users to store and play up to 6TB of media content.
The servers also include dual HDTV and SDTV tuners as well as Dolby TrueHD support. The systems also come with PowerDVD Ultra to play HD movies.
Prices are only available by contacting the company directly.
Like fellow Korean competitor LG Electronics, Dutch corporation Phillips, and Japanese display company Sharp, Samsung will be releasing improved HDTV technology later this year. All four companies are expected to introduce displays with 120Hz refresh rates and LED Backlights.
The increase to from 60Hz 120Hz for a refresh rate makes it a multiple of not just video sources at 30Hz, but also film sources at 24Hz. It leads to smoother motion, and less motion blurring.
JVC and Sharp already have displays that take advantage of the doubled frequency. This summer, Philips, LG, and Samsung all announced their respective 120-Hz technologies, with products coming by this fall.
The 71 series displays that Samsung is launching in August use a technology called McFi--short for Motion Compensated Frame Interpolation--to create new interpolated video frames and insert them between each frame of video to smooth out fast motion. Samsung's technology looks for any movement, then it creates an average of those movements to insert a frame in between them. Other HDTV makers insert a black frame in between frames, an approach Samsung claims fixes the motion-blur issue, but degrade the panel's brightness.
In stepping up their efforts to prevent piracy, Spanish police have shut down two torrent tracker sites as well as arrest the administrators.
The sites, todotorrente.com and trackertdt.com were both taken offline and their administrators were charged with "facilitating copyright infringement".
todotorrente.com had over 30,000 active users and was one of the largest tracker sites in all of Spain. Users trying to access the site are now greeted with this message (translated from Spanish by TorrentFreak):
“CLOSED BY JUDICIAL ORDER”
According to the Police, todotorrente.com was responsible for more than 500,000 € in losses to copyright holders, while the site itself made more than 30,000 € in profits. Numbers that can’t be backed up by any evidence of course, but we’re used to that.
Todotorrente.com was not the only site affected by the raids. In addition, the police took down trackertdt.com, a sister site of todotorrente.com. Gamesfive.net, another sister site, now redirects to blackdivx.org.
This is not the first time that Spanish authorities take action against BitTorrent sites. Last year, 15 administrators of BitTorrent and eDonkey sites were arrested, in the largest P2P raid in Spanish history. Most of the sites that were shut down last year (17 in total) remain unavailable up until today, however, pctorrent.com now redirects to newpct.com, one of the largest BitTorrent sites in Spain.
According to the US Patent Office, Sony has filed an application for a device interface that apparently connects a wireless PlayStation 3 Sixaxis controller to the bottom of a PSP.
Although Sony representatives were not available for comment the filing is certainly interesting. It is not completely clear what the device is capable of, but it could be intended to allow games that require dual analog controllers to by played on the PSP.
The recent announcement of a smaller PSP unit that features digital output should also be noted when thinking of the possibility of PS3 to PSP connectivity.
Sony Europe and Sky have announced a joint venture that will deliver video-on-demand content to owners of the Sony handheld PSP.
The new venture promises "a wealth of video and film content" for the over 2 million PSP owners in Ireland and the UK. If the venture is successful, than a broader European offering will be discussed, said the company.
The company also added that more details would be announced in Leizpig on August 22nd at the annual Games Convention.
We will keep you updated after the Games Convention.
Although Apple has confirmed that the much hyped iPhone will be coming to Europe by the end of 2007, they have now revealed that not all of Europe will be getting the phone.
"We plan to go into a few major countries in Europe next quarter, to move across other countries in Europe in 2008 and enter Asia in 2008 as well", said Apple chief operating officer Tim Cook.
The news will surely disappoint millions of European would-be consumers hoping to get the phone in time for the holidays.
The company also said it hoped to sell 1 million phones by the end of September with the final goal being 10 million sold by the end of 2008.
Many industry analysts believe that the European countries to receive the phone first will be the UK, France and Germany.
Last Monday US Senator Harry Reid withdrew a proposed amendment to a renewal of the Higher Education Act, which provides financial aid to US college students. The amendment would have required colleges to crack down on illegal file sharing.
The Reid amendment also would have required the education secretary to annually identify (and publicly embarrass) the 25 colleges and universities that had in the previous year received the most notices of copyright violations using institutional technology networks.
Unless it was a response to lobbying from the entertainment industry, the reasoning behind this is puzzling since these notices are really just complaints from outside parties claiming copyright infringement; in other words allegations that haven't been proven in court.
College officials had lobbied aggressively against the Reid provision, arguing that it would require colleges to buy unproven software or hardware and that it ignored the many efforts that higher education institutions have been taking to attack the problem of illegal downloading.
One IT official at a Boston-area school noted that the proposal would have created a kind of "revolving door" for anti-P2P software companies who would have, in effect, been guaranteed 25 new customers each year.
According to Sony's latest financial figures, the company is now profitable. For the quarter, Sony had revenue of over $16 billion USD with a reported profit of $808 million USD.
However, the PlayStation division of Sony, otherwise known as Sony Computer Entertainment, reported a heavy loss of $237 million USD although revenue was up 60 percent.
For the period, Sony shipped 2.7 million PS2s, 2.14 million PSPs and 710,000 PlayStation 3s. In total, for all three systems, Sony shipped 46 million games, with the majority being for the PS2.
According to the New York Times, Sony was helped greatly by the large box office sales of Spiderman 3 as well as other hits during the quarter as well as continued growing sales of LCDTVs and HDTVs
For the rest of the year, Sony hopes to ship 10 million PS2 consoles as well as 11 million PS3 units. Sony also hopes to ship 9 million PSPs, which was Sony's highest selling system for the month of June and which is being remade soon as a "lighter" version.
If you're a regular visitor to this site you're probably already aware that Ninendo's Wii has outsold both the PS3 and Xbox 360. What you may not realize is that it's not Nintendo's best selling system.
Sales figures for the first half of 2007 put the Nintendo DS as the top selling system, followed in order by the Wii, the PS2, Xbox 360, Sony PSP, and finally the PS3.
Interestingly, neither of the consoles designed around so called next-gen technology even comes close to the sales of the technologically inferior Wii. The Wii outsold the Xbox 360 by a factor of more than 3:2 and outperformed PS3 sales by nearly 3:1.
The venerable PS2 even outsold the PS3 by a nearly 2:1 margin. It's possible this is simply the result of Sony and Microsoft pricing their newest consoles out of the reach of some consumers who don't want to buy a Wii. This would seem to indicate that one or both of those consoles may eventually benefit from future sales to this group.
Sales of the PS3 have been up since Sony dropped the current US model to clearance prices, but they've said they expect those models to be gone soon, replaced by a new version that's the same price ($599) that left the current model sitting on store shelves prior to the discount.
A new site called VideoJug is determined to become the expert version of YouTube -- a place where you can find how-to videos from various experts for everything from etiquette to eBay to earthquake survival.
Most of the videos on VideoJug are professionally produced by the site. Others are submitted by users, but still vetted by VideoJug staff.
Like any other aspect of the web, video can be used for educational purposes. But such use is dependent on the veracity of the information available.
Just like traditional text based sites need to have some kind of fact checking to make sure their information is sound, video sites claiming to have educational or factual content need to make sure viewers aren't being mislead.
VideoJug's approach seems to be a good solution for this, although their fact checking process doesn't seem to be detailed anywhere on the site.
After more than a year of next-gen releases in both HD DVD and Blu-ray formats, Paramount's first releases with lossless audio - Blades of Glory and Next have been announced.
In the world of standard DVD-Video discs almost all discs are released with lossy audio, meaning some quality is lost from the original recording. This is due to the relatively large size of uncompressed audio, which is the only lossless format supported by standards.
Due to the smaller percentage of the disc required to use uncompressed audio for either hi-def format, as well as the availability of Dolby TrueHD as a mandatory audio format for HD DVD, it's fairly common for releases in both formats to include lossless audio.
Paramount's delay in using lossless audio on their discs likely stems from releasing discs in both formats. HD DVD's smaller storage capacity and inclusion of the compressed Dolby TrueHD as a mandatory audio format make that the obvious choice. However, since it's not a mandatory format for Blu-ray, another audio stream must be included on those discs if TrueHD is to be included.
This week TiVo Inc. officially announced a new, lower priced, version of it's Series3 DVR. The company will begin taking pre-orders for it on its Web site Tuesday, and units are expected to hit retail outlets by early August.
"It won't suddenly unlock the door and sell millions," said James McQuivey, a vice president and analyst at Forrester Research. "But this seems like a good way to satisfy people who want the high-quality experience that TiVo is known for - with a product that will move off store shelves."
The TiVo HD DVR has many of the same technical features as its higher-priced Series3 cousin. It has two tuners, so subscribers can record two different shows in HD at the same time while watching a third, prerecorded show. It also has two built-in slots for CableCARD, allowing users to access digital programming without a separate device from the cable TV provider.
As reported on Afterdawn earlier this month, the new model will have a smaller hard drive than the original (160GB vs 250GB), as well as a simpler remote control.
Contrary to rumors earlier in the month, The device does have an external hard drive port for expanded storage, but TiVo officials say that feature won't be activated until later.
Motorola will be working with display and imaging supplier Microvision to create mobile devices with built-in projectors.
The laser based devices will project images much smaller than conventional computer or home entertainment projectors, but still much larger than mobile device displays.
Besides increasing the size of a mobile device's display for its owner, the technology could also be used to make it easier for more than one person at a time to view content directly from a mobile device.
Rob Shaddock, Chief Technical Officer of Motorola Mobile Devices business said "Working together with Microvision, we are pursuing ways that projection technology can redefine how mobile consumers view and interact with the media they take with them."
Terms of the agreement were not disclosed, however the companies revealed they will work together initially to integrate Microvision's latest PicoP projector inside a functioning mobile device for demonstration purposes. This prototype handset will utilize Microvision's new, WVGA (854 x 480 color pixels) wide angle scanner, first demonstrated in May 2007 at the Society of Information Display annual conference.
No information was given about when the two companies plan to have working hardware to demonstrate or sell to consumers.
YouTube hopes recognition technology will be in place in September to stop the posting of copyrighted videos on the popular website, a lawyer told a judge presiding over copyright lawsuits on Friday.
Philip S. Beck, told U.S. District Judge Louis L. Stanton in Manhattan that YouTube was working "very intensely and cooperating" with major content providers on a video recognition technology as sophisticated as fingerprint technology the FBI uses.
He said the company believes the new technology goes way beyond what the law requires to stop copyright infringement.
Lawyers for plaintiffs in the two lawsuits said they welcomed any improvement that would end alleged infringement of their copyrights but believed YouTube should have acted sooner.
Donald B. Verrilli, Jr., a lawyer for Viacom International Inc., said it will take the next year to identify the extent of infringement that continues to happen on "a very massive scale."
"Perhaps the filtering mechanism will help. If so, we'll be very grateful for that," he said. He added "they acknowledge rampant activity and haven't done anything to stop it."
In April, DisplayPort became the new approved standard for PC displays but so far there has been little attention placed on the standard.
Recently however, several prominent manufacturers have announced they will be bringing DisplayPort monitors to the market in the next year including Dell and Samsung.
However, to be able to enjoy a DisplayPort monitor, you will also need a video card equipped with DisplayPort. AMD , the processor and video card maker, has announced that they will be equipping the R700 FireGL line of video cards with DisplayPort video outputs. The cards will be readily available in 2008, says the company.
The video cards should be out almost simultaneously with Samsung's announced 30 inch DisplayPort monitor as well as with Dell's yet unannounced displays.
Steve Wozniak, the man who invented Apple's first two microcomputers, is working as an advisor for a company called Hotswap.com, which reportedly has developed Compression technology that could revolutionize internet video. "I like what they're doing. It's definitely a step forward," said Wozniak, adding that he signed on as an adviser to the company to "give them ideas that come into my mind.".
Hotswap.com emerged from graduate computer science research into digital "compression" technology that its founders say can make common digital camera movie clips mimic high-definition television on Web sites.
Luke Thomas, a 21-year-old former UC Berkeley grad student and Hotswap chairman, said the often-fuzzy videos uploaded by amateurs onto YouTube.com and similar Web sites can be transformed by Hotswap's technology.
The company has already won contracts with AutoNation Inc. and with Red McCombs Enterprises' chain of auto dealerships.
Rad Weaver, McCombs' vice president of business development, said the company has begun using video clips with Hotswap technology for its used car listings on the Internet.
DailyMotion, a video website with traffic second only to YouTube, is going to be getting content supplied by production company RDF USA.
Max Benator, head of RDF USA's digital division said "It's really exciting because they have amazing traffic. It's been untapped by the entertainment community, so we see this as a great opportunity to be one of the first producers to get access to those eyeballs."
DailyMotion is only the latest viral-video outpost to bring professionally produced content into the fold as competitors like Break.com have already struck similar deals with NBC Universal Digital Studios. Other pro-content link-ups have been struck through acquisition, as is the case with Sony Corp.'s purchase of Grouper, which has since been rebranded Crackle and now features original content.
RDF USA isn't DailyMotion's first content deal. the company already has wrapped up "The Great Sketch Comedy Showdown," produced by Jim Biederman, who already has produced series in that genre for established TV channels, including "The Whitest Kids U Know" (Fuse) and "The Big Gay Sketch Show" (Logo).
"Our goal is to take this big bucket of user-generated content and make it a meaningful entertainment experience for the watcher," Marcus said. "Then I think there's the other side of the fence, which is working with the creative community."
CinemaNow has announced they have now added music videos from EMI, Sony BMG and Sanctuary Records to the main CinemaNow site. Included in the licensing agreements are concert performances.
Beginning in August, CinemaNow will offer video downloads, including music videos and concert performances of hit stars such as Coldplay, Lily Allen, David Bowie and the Gorillaz. Besides being available on the CinemaNow site, the downloads will be offered on the company's WatchMusicHere site as well.
From the CinemaNow press release:
With these agreements, CinemaNow and WatchMusicHere.com will offer more than 6,000 videos from SONY BMG, EMI Music, Sanctuary Records and Warner Music Group, making the site one of the largest distributors of downloadable music videos from major recording labels. The selection will also include uncut European versions of select music videos as well as concert performances from around the world. Music videos will be available for purchase on a download-to-own basis for $1.99. Select live performances and long-form videos will be available for purchase on a download-to-own basis from $9.95 - $14.95 and on rental basis from $2.99 -$3.99, all in the WMV format. ...
In what seems to be a popular trend, the popular UK retailer Woolworths has decided to move to Blu-ray exclusivity in time for the Christmas rush. The move mirrors that of Blockbuster, Target and BJ's.
According to Playthree.net, a store manager at a local Woolworths confirmed the move when confronted about a new, large Blu-ray display standing prominently in the store.
The store manager mentioned that although sales of both formats were very slow, since the European launch of the PlayStation 3, Blu-ray sales had slowly and gradually kept increasing and that the company now hoped to have Blu-ray displays in all of its best selling retail stores. The expense of moving towards Blu-ray? Woolworths will be dropping its HD DVD line completely before Christmas.
Following the moves of both Target and Blockbuster, the large chain BJ’s Wholesale Club has said it will drop HD DVD titles from its shelves and become an exclusive Blu-ray disc vendor starting in the fourth quarter of this year.
Sources familiar with the company's decision said the chain will carry only Blu-ray titles in each of its 170 stores but it may continue to sell both formats on its website.
Recently, Target made a similar move, one that would "increase the presence and support" of Blu-ray titles in its many stores, but it will continue to carry HD DVD, to a small extent.
Today the BBC launched its much anticipated download service, using software called iPlayer. Users can download a selection of programs broadcast in the last seven days and watch them for up to 30 days.
Viewers interested in using iPlayer can register for the service on Friday and a Limited number will then be invited to join. The number of users invited will increase until the full scale launch this fall when the restriction will be lifted.
The iPlayer began life in 2003 as the iMP (Integrated Media Player). "At the time, it was remarkably innovative. For the BBC to use peer-to-peer technology was revolutionary," said Simon Perry, editor of online magazine Digital Lifestyles.
"If it had just launched it then it could have blown the whole broadcast world away. Who knows what the impact would have been if it had come out before the rise of YouTube," he said.
Regardless of the timing, this is still revolutionary compared to US networks which have streaming content, but no mechanism to allow downloads, let alone time shifting for up to 30 days.
Arash Amel, an analyst with research firm Screen Digest, said "technical glitches" were inevitable when iPlayer launched, partly because rival applications experienced them and partly through his own experience of the BBC's offering.
Despite most consumers being unaware that their analog television receivers won't receive broadcast signals early in 2009, the US government has only budgeted $5 million to educate them.
John Kneuer, head of the agency responsible for assuring the transition goes smoothly told the Senate Commerce Committee today that the broadcasters are responsible for educating the public.
The transition has already begun in some key areas. Cathy Seidel, chief of the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau at the Federal Communications Commission, said that as of March 1 all television receivers shipped in the U.S. were required to have digital tuners.
By contrast, $1.5 billion has been budgeted to give vouchers for converter boxes. Initially, $990 million will be used to pay for coupons and cover administrative costs, which are capped at $110 million. An additional $510 million may be allocated, but those coupons are reserved for households that have only over-the-air television.
Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., is concerned that consumers who don't get the word would take it out on their elected representatives. "They're not going to call you," she told Kneuer. "They're going to call me. And they're going to be mad."
Blockbuster will be changing the terms of its Total Access internet rental plans to limit the number of DVDs that can be returned to stores without paying extra.
Subscribers can choose from 3 Total Access plans, for 3 DVDs, 2 DVDs, or 1 DVD at a time, which used to allow them to return an unlimited number to a brick and mortar store so their next disc will ship sooner. Due to losses in the second quarter of this year, as well as well as lower revenue compared to the same quarter last year, the company will limit the number of in-store returns for each plan.
Subscribers will have the choice to either pay an additional $1.99 for each additional movie returned to a store each month or upgrade to a higher priced subscription to get unlimited in-store returns. The new unlimited return plans, called Premium plans, will cost an additional $7 per month.
Rather than characterizing the modifications as a price hike, new CEO James Keyes stressed the limit on in-store exchanges. He also said that customers subscribing to the mail only program will also be able to take advantage of the $1.99 in-store returns.
This move comes less than a week after rival Netflix lowered prices on its own subscription plans, which only allow returns by mail since Netflix has no brick and mortar stores. Ironically, Netflix decided to lower prices after competition from Blockbuster caused them to lose subscribers for the first time in the company's short history.
Electronics giant Samsung has announced that they will begin to embed ShoZu into future cellphones.
ShoZu is a service that allows users to upload and download photos, music and videos without the need for a mobile browser.
According to Samsung, the first phone to have the service embedded will be the SCH-L760. The company also says the service allows for uploading to and downloading from YouTube, Dada, Facebook, Flickr and others. Users can also upload to FTP sites and email addresses.
More phones with the service will be announced soon, says the company.
Denon Electronics has announced that they will indeed be releasing an advanced Blu-ray player putting end to weeks of rumors.
The high end DVD-3800BDCI will include some of the most powerful, advanced features seen on a Blu-ray player to date. It will be the first player to use a Realta HQV video processor which "allows for advanced video clean-up of even the best high-def signals."
The player will also obviously include 1080p output as well as decoding for all current HD audio formats such as Dolby TrueHD, DTS HD Lossless Master Audio and uncompressed PCM, which can output to 7.1 systems.
Another first the player brings to the table is support for BD-ROM Version 1.1, which will allow for support of picture-in-picture content on upcoming Blu ray titles.
Although there is no exact release date known yet, the price tag will be a handsome $2000 USD for the DVD-3800BDCI.
On Tuesday, Limewire chairman Mark Groton had to appear in front of the Committee for Oversight and Government Reform to talk about the dangers of P2P and leaks of classified information through file sharing networks.
According to CNet however, he was "was assailed for allegedly harming national security" by Rep. Jim Cooper of Tennessee who went on to call him "naive" before saying Limewire could be used deliberately by enemies of the country. For his part, Groton promised to help redesign Limewire in an effort to avoid sharing sensitive information.
His prepared statement however, is what truly is news. Groton told the Committee that ISPs should better enforce copyright and take a stronger stance on sharing of unauthorized content. Be reminded this is coming from the chairman of a program, that at its peak, had over 30 million users illegally sharing unauthorized content.
"Internet Service Providers, ISP’s, are a unique point of control for every computer on the Internet. Universities frequently function as their own ISP’s, and a handful of universities have implemented notice based warning systems that result in the disconnection of users engaged in illegal behavior who ignore multiple warnings. These universities have sharply reduced child pornography and copyright infringement on their campus networks. Similar policies could be mandated for all ISP’s in the United States."
ABC.com has now begun beta testing a video player that will allow the network to stream its television shows in high definition.
The player, created by Move Networks, does not require, but strongly recommends a 2Mbps broadband connection, 1 GB of RAM, a video card with 128MB RAM and a monitor that can handle 1300x770 pixel resolution.
So far, only four shows are being beta tested, with one episode appearing from each. "Desperate Housewives," "Grey's Anatomy," "Lost," and "Ugly Betty" are currently available but ABC says more shows will be added soon.
Each of the episodes air with "limited commercial interruptions," but users cannot fast forward or skip the commercials that are in place.
Although the PlayStation 3, Wii and Xbox 360 dominate most current headlines, the Sony PlayStation 2 continues to be the most played system in the US as well as one of the best selling.
According to Nielsen GamePlay Metrics, the PS2 accounts for just over 42 percent of current game use in the US. The Xbox (original) holds the distinction of second place, at a distant 17 percent. The Xbox 360 is at 8 percent while the Nintendo Gamecube held at just under 6 percent.
The Wii, although enjoying incredible sales since its launch in November 2006, is played in only 4 percent of households while the PS3 stood at 1.5 percent placing ahead of the Nintendo 64 and PSOne.
Nielsen said it used 33,000 individuals from 12,000 households to get its data for the month of June.
EMI has announced they have signed a deal with the Chicago based digital agency VerveLife that will allow the company to use its massive client list for DRM-free music promotions.
The new deal will be immediately used by fast food giant Burger King which will be offering codes included with its meals that will allow consumers to download a pre-paid DRM-free EMI track from a promotional website run by Burger King.
EMI has said since moving to DRM-free, sales have risen and the label has been continually trying to get a leg up on the competition by making promotional deals and signing promotional use of its catalogue to agencies such as VerveLife.
A French high court has ruled against the Paris-based video-sharing site Dailymotion, holding it liable for a copyrighted film posted by its users.
The court noted that Dailymotion did not take the film down even after it received a letter of complaint from the producers. The court ordered the site to pay the film's producers 23,000 euros in damages and fork over a 1500 euro fine for each day the movie stays online - though Dailymotion can appeal.
Last month, the President of the High Court of the First Instance of Paris issued a "summary order" that classified MySpace as a publisher, arguing that the so-called social-networker is more than just a hosting service and should be held liable for infringing content posted to its site.
The judgement against Dailymotion was issued by a separate arm of the court, and doesn't indicate that the site is considered a publisher.
Where web-based video sharers are concerned, American courts have yet to rule on the matter, but several lawsuits against YouTube and others - including the big one from Viacom - are pending. The outcome of those suits is likely to shape the future of not just those websites, but any site that allows the public to upload content.
Starting in October, the only standalone hi-def player on Target shelves will be the Sony BDP-S300. They will continue carrying Microsoft's Xbox HD DVD Player which requires either an Xbox 360 or computer.
Target is expected to officially announce the agreement today.
Sony executives expect the company’s endcaps at Target will feature the player, titles from a variety of Blu-ray-backing studios and marketing messages promoting consumer benefits of Blu-ray.
"Target already has a strong market share for Blu-ray, where they are among our Top 5 markets," said David Bishop, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment president. "I think this will accelerate their position in the marketplace. This is going to mean more dedicated shelf space to Blu-ray titles. This will start to build the next phase of the business."
At least for now, Toshiba's HD DVD players will still be sold through the retailer's website and HD DVD movies will still be available both online and in stores, at least giving the appearance that the company isn't convinced of Blu-ray's success.
As good as this sounds for Blu-ray, and especially Sony, right now, it may ultimately provide ammunition for an investigation into the format's developers by the European Commission.
Microsoft will be reducing the price of the Xbox 360 HD DVD Player by $20 in the US starting in August. They'll also be giving away five HD DVD movies to anyone purchasing the add-on in the months of August or September.
The free discs are an extension of Toshiba's "Perfect Offer", which accompanies purchases of that company's standalone HD DVD players. The mail-in offer allows consumers to choose from fifteen titles.
The announcement was made today at ComicCon International 2007 in San Diego. The company also announced promotions for their Xbox LIVE service that will be tied into upcoming HD DVD releases.
Xbox LIVE will offer the movie 300 on demand in HD starting August 14. Xbox LIVE members will also be able to download the pilot for the hit television show Heroes in high definition before the box set for the first season is released next month.
With Sony's Playstation 3 selling well after a temporary price reduction, plus the announcement that rental giant Blockbuster will carry Blu-ray exclusively, and a similar announcement from retailer Target expected today, this may not make any difference in the success of the HD DVD format.
On a typical day, 19 percent of U.S. Internet adults watch some form of video. News ranked first and comedy second overall according to the Pew Internet and American Life Project.
Mary Madden, a senior research specialist at Pew, said news websites were key to making people feel comfortable with watching video on the internet, but younger viewers in particular were the primary attraction for younger viewers.
Older demographics are interested primarily in news, while younger viewers, who watch more online video anyway, appear to prefer comedy.
Those in the 18-29 age group are also more likely to have paid for video access at some point - but that's still only 10 percent of online video viewers in that group, slightly more than the 7 percent across all age groups.
This would seem to indicate that if Streaming video is going to be profitable, either a new marketing strategy or alternate revenue stream will need to be developed.
Sony America has announced that they have once again updated the firmware for their PlayStation 3 console, notably improving the console's Blu-ray 1080p playback over HDMI.
The latest update, version 1.90, will allow for 24Hz output for 1080p content over HDMI. The new update allows for "forced 24Hz" playback when currently some displays would automatically play at 60Hz with no options for the user.
Other small features added were 44.1/88.2/176.4kHz output for CDs, the ability to eject discs from the main menu, and the ability to change video output setting during gameplay.
In the ever escalating HD format war, Blu-ray has made the next move, with Disney offering their Blu-ray titles at 45 percent off suggested retail price.
The catalogue consists of 27 titles including the hits "Chicago", "Finding Neverland" and "Pearl Harbor".
There is no official word on how long the promotion will last, but many believe it will be for a limited time only. Currently, Amazon, Buy.com and DVDempire have the sale, so those looking for Blu-ray titles at DVD prices, may want to check it out.
AT&T and eMusic are planning on launching a mobile download service, one that should be significant for its industry.
Beginning at the end of this month, the service will allow customers to download five tracks per month at a set price of $7.49. What makes the new service special is that the tracks will most likely be DRM-free. Most current mobile services have DRM that makes it almost impossible to copy the files to other devices, even your PC. A DRM-free service would most likely attract customers tired of the restrictions of the competition.
There is however, like always, a catch. The only compatible phones at the moment are the Samsung A707, A717, A727 and the Nokia N75.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, a price cut for the Xbox 360 could come as soon as August 8th.
The price drop would be a reasonable $50 USD but it is unknown whether the price dip would be for all 360 models or only certain ones such as the $479 USD Elite.
It is also unknown why the announcement was passed up at this year's E3 but analysts believe the price drop will be in unison with the release of the latest Madden, always a top seller.
Microsoft has so far declined to comment on the rumors or the sources but said they had nothing to announce at this time.
The move would certainly help Microsoft to counter Sony's recent price drop for its PlayStation 3 console and it would be the first pricing change since the system launched in late 2005 but we will keep you notified of more updates as they become available.
According to China's state run media, the production lines used to create pirated DVDs are imported from outside the country and run by highly secretive gangs.
The statement comes after Chinese and US officials dismantled a multi-billion dollar software piracy operation in China.
"Illegal production lines are the source of pirated discs and to seize these lines can effectively wipe out pirated discs in China," Chinese police official Xu Hu was quoted as saying by the Xinhua news agency.
But "most of the illegal production lines are smuggled from overseas and some were using edge-cutting technologies," Xu added. "The lines are clustered in the developed coastal regions of China and most are hidden in dark rooms and even caves."
According to Xu, Chinese police have shut down 231 production lines since 1996, but since no details were given regarding the number of operations still believed to exist, it's hard to determine how much difference that's made.
The Chinese are generally considered the world leaders in copyright infringement, with the majority of all DVDs and software sold in the country being pirated.
Henry Waxman, chairman of the House of Representatives' Government Reform Committee, characterized peer to peer file sharing networks as national security threats. The comments were made during a hearing about the technology, which was apparently used to share classified documents.
He also said that he is considering laws to address the problem, but didn't give any details as to what those laws might entail.
The comments seem to contradict the testimony of Mary Koelbel Engle, the associate director for advertising practices in the Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of Consumer Protection. She said her agency has found in its studies of peer-to-peer network use that risks to sensitive information "stem largely from how individuals use the technology rather than being inherent in the technology itself."
Daniel Mintz, chief information officer for the Department of Transportation, also testified, saying that the key to preventing such incidents is "to make sure we're really pushing the policy," which requires written authorization for installation of P2P programs on government machines.
There was no mention of manilla envelope, briefcase, or automobile manufacturers, despite these technologies all being used for the unauthorized distribution of classified documents in the past.
Politicians with a limited understanding of the technology they're determined to regulate is nothing new. Less than 2 weeks ago Ted Stevens, Chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, called the internet a "series of tubes", adding that an internet was sent to him by his staff, but it's delivery was delayed "because it got tangled up with all these things going on the Internet commercially."
Ministers yesterday issued a response to recommendations made by the Parliamentary culture'n'media committee, which said the government should push the European Union for a copyright term of "at least 70 years". The suggestion was rejected on the grounds that most works that would be affected have previously signed contracts assigning their royalties to record labels, and therefore wouldn't benefit from the extension.
Overall the response is a mixed bag for consumers. It mentions the possibility of legalizing "format shifting", which would allow the copying copyrighted recordings from one format to another.
It's currently illegal in the UK to even Rip a CD or convert songs to MP3 format. Besides allowing both of those practices, considered commonplace in most parts of the world, it would also be beneficial to audiophiles with older, analog recording they'd like to convert to newer digial formats. Both HD DVD and Blu-ray support lossless audio Compression originally designed for the high quality DVD-Audio format, and this could finally open the door for owners of older vinyl records to copy them to digital formats.
Yesterday the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed suit against Universal Music Publishing Group, asking a federal court to protect the fair use and free speech rights of a mother who posted a short video of her toddler son dancing to a Prince song on the Internet.
In February Stephanie Lenz uploaded a 29 second clip of her son bouncing around to the song "Let's Go Crazy," which is heard playing in the background. Last month YouTube informed Lenz that it had removed the video from its website after Universal claimed that the recording infringed a copyright controlled by the music company.
The lawsuit asks for a declaratory judgment that Lenz's home video does not infringe any Universal copyright, as well as damages and injunctive relief restraining Universal from bringing further copyright claims in connection with the video.
"Universal's takedown notice doesn't even pass the laugh test," said EFF Staff Attorney Corynne McSherry. "Copyright holders should be held accountable when they undermine non-infringing, fair uses like this video."
The lawsuit asks for a declaratory judgment that Lenz's home video does not infringe any Universal copyright, as well as damages and injunctive relief restraining Universal from bringing further copyright claims in connection with the video.
According to data figures by NPD Group, since its price drop over a week ago, sales of the Sony PlayStation 3 have skyrocketed 135 percent.
Sony says the numbers are a combination of sales from the company's five largest retailers. As an added bonus, total hardware sales were up 161 percent, software was up 15 percent, and peripherals were up 60 percent.
The price of the 60 GB model of the console dropped to $499, a hundred dollar price dip.
"The new price on the 60 GB PS3, coupled with our very strong software showing from E3, is certainly paying dividends in terms of impressive sales across the board at retail," said Jack Tretton, president and CEO of Sony America.
Tretton continued, "This jump in sales bodes very well for us heading into the fall as we launch an impressive arsenal of hardware and software, leading off with the new 80 GB PS3 in August along with the unveiling of highly anticipated games such as Lair and Warhawk. That will be followed by Heavenly Sword in September and six more exclusive first-party PS3 games in October, including Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction."
For the month of June, PS3 sales jumped 21 percent from May's sales with just under 100,000 sold.
The FBI and China's Public Security Bureau have led an investigation that has led to the discovery and disbandment of a $2 billion global software piracy ring in southern China. The syndicate is considered one of the largest in the world.
Microsoft, for its part, assisted in providing the FBI with information that led to arrests and confiscations of pirated software.
Software counterfeited by the ring was found on five continents and 26 individual countries. 13 separate products were produced by the syndicate, the most notable being Windows Vista Premium and Office 2007, both from Microsoft.
So far, authorities have traced 55,000 copies back to the ring but investigators believe the total output of the group is about 5 million discs.
"This case should serve as a wake-up call to counterfeiters," Microsoft general counsel Brad Smith said. "Customers around the world are turning you in, governments and law enforcement have had enough, and private companies will act decisively to protect intellectual property."
Microsoft went as far as to say that countries around the world should see a "significant decrease" in the amount of available pirated software thanks to the latest busts.
Nokia, the mobile phone giant, has purchased the media sharing site Twango in an effort to create a mobile-oriented site such as that at Lifeblog.
The acquisition will make it much easier for Nokia owners to potentially upload their photos, videos and other documents.
For those unfamiliar, Twango is very similar to Flickr but instead supports more multimedia components as well as using "channel" terminology instead of the usual photo "sets".
Nokia also expressed hope that N-Series users will use the site as a social network as well as a media sharing site. The name Twango however, may be on the way out. "As we grow Twango into a global service we may decide on a name that is more suitable," says the company.
MusicNet has announced that they will be making over 1 million DRM-free tracks available on Yahoo! Music Unlimited as well as on URGE. MusicNet currently powers the libraries of both legal download services.
Along with the catalogue of EMI, the DRM-free tracks will be from independent labels such as Righteous Babe, Nettwerk, Madacy, Nitro, and many others.
The company said the tracks would be in MP3 format but did not give the bitrate at which they can be downloaded. Although the exact date was not set for the launch the company confirmed it would be by the end of this quarter.
Authorities in Russia are seeking jail time for the owner of AllofMP3.com, Denis Kvasov and he can be facing up to three years. Along with the time, he could face a 15 million ruble fine ($600,000 USD) as well as made to pay restitution to EMI, Warner, and Universal. His site, AllofMP3, was closed last month after mounting pressure from US authorities forced Russian officials to act.
Mediaservices, the company behind AllofMP3 has launched a new site however, MP3Sparks, which is identical to its fallen sister site. Russia also has alot to lose considering the site was specifically mentioned in a list of milestones they must hit before they are allowed into the World Trade Organization. The other milestones include more crackdowns on piracy.
Yesterday Netflix announced that the number of subscribers to their DVD rental service dropped in the second quarter of this year. This is the first quarter in the company's history that subscriptions to the industry leading online rental service have dropped.
This follows their announcement on Sunday of a $1 price decrease to match the pricing of Blockbuster's online rental program. Industry analysts blame competition from Blockbuster for the loss of subscribers. The company still reported a profit of $17 million.
In the past, Netflix has seemed somewhat resistant to competition, at least in part due to their patents for using an automated queue of movies to be delivered and selling subscriptions to rent a specific number of items at a time. They've even managed to not only compete with Wal-Mart, but even get the retail giant in their corner after the fight.
Echostar is taking FTA set-top distributor Viewtech of Oceanside, Calif., and its founder and president, Jung Kwak to court for allegedly “distributing the requisite piracy technology and information to select individuals on Web sites or Internet discussion forums, who then offer the pirate software to consumers for download.”
The lawsuit was filed July 13 by EchoStar and its NagraStar unit, which provides Dish’s descrambler microprocessor “smart cards.”
The suit, alleging violations of state and federal law, asks the court: to issue an injunction to bar Viewtech from trafficking in FTA receivers and pirate software; for an order impounding all electronic copies of the software; for damages; and for an accounting and restitution by Viewtech for all of the gain and profit it derived by its allegedly illegal actions.
FTA set-tops can receive satellite signals that are either not scrambled or are scrambled but are available free-of-charge, typically ethnic and religious programming.
Viewtech is one of the top four FTA sellers, according to a report on FTA set-tops by The Carmel Group, “in large measure because of its superior customer service and support.”
“Whichever manufacturer provide the best piracy support, best features and functions at a price below $200 per FTA unit is going to sell a lot of FTA units,” The Carmel Group said. “This means companies like Dish Network in the United States and Bell ExpressVu in Canada are losing a lot of subscriber revenue … the FTA manufacturers and others associated with the multichannel-TV-piracy business are delivering a lot of illegal gains.”
Netflix has announced a price decrease of $1 per month for its two most popular plans. The 3 DVD at a time plan will drop to $16.99 a month, while the single disc at a time plan will be $8.99.
The cuts, which match rival Blockbuster's online only plans, are the second this year. Earlier in the year the price for the two DVD per month and two disc at a time plans also dropped $1.
Acknowledging Blockbuster has been eroding its market share, Netflix in April warned Wall Street that it won't add as many subscribers this year as it originally envisioned. The company has added 4.5 million subscribers since lowering the price of its 3-DVD plan from just under $22 in November 2004. The company is also making a lot more money, with earnings of $49 million last year compared to a $6.5 million profit in 2003.
Last year Blockbuster added an option for subscribers to pay an additional $1 per month, in return for which they can return movies to Blockbuster's traditional brick and mortar rental outlets and even pick up some movies from those stores. Online rental has at least a two day turnaround time as discs have to be sent and received through the mail.
In an interview published in Spectrum, a publication published by the IEEE, Mark Cuban says of YouTube, "They will be rolled right into Google Video, and Google Video will have ways to evaluate the video before it's posted, and that will be fine." He also adds "if I'm wrong, and the safe harbor laws apply, then I'll create a business leveraging that."
Cuban, probably best known for being the outspoken owner of NBA franchise The Dallas Mavericks, does know a thing or two about digital media and online distribution. The 48 year old billionaire first came to national attention when Broadcast.com, the company he helped run, went public and he became wealthy literally in one day. Later he made headlines again when the company was sold to Yahoo for nearly 6 billion dollars.
Besides YouTube, he also weighs in on the DMCA, file sharing, and the future of movie theaters. Regarding the DMCA he says "For example, say somebody came up with a different way of dealing with garage door openers, and they got sued over it under this Digital Millennium Copyright law. That's ridiculous."
He mentioned that he doesn't have the patience to download from a file sharing service, but apparently does check BitTorrent to see if movies from his company, 2929 Entertainment, are being pirated. When asked what he does when he finds them he responded "Nothing. Cause those kids weren't gonna spend the money anyways."
According to a report from The Carmel Group, by the year 2010 more than 50% of cable television subscribers will have DVRs.
The report projects that within the next three years, the number of cable-subscribing homes in the US with DVRs will grow to 32 million. Currently the number is less than 18 million, which is close to 30% of all subscribers.
It also said that in 2001 nine out of ten top cable providers weren't interested in providing the set top recorders, but consumer demand has changed their minds, and industry adoption of the technology has been rapid.
The secret has been recognizing the upswing in demand among consumers. Carmel Group chairman Jimmy Schaeffler compares user demand to that of black-and-white TV viewers who switch to color: "People who get used to watching TVs with a DVR don't want to return to watching TV without a DVR."
Unlike most video sharing sites, whose target audience is anyone and everyone, The Daily Reel's new REELEDin section is specifically designed to connect the people behind the videos with potential employers.
Launched last fall, The Daily Reel originally started as an online video guide; finding and promoting select videos from video sharing sites. It's since turned into a place for anyone from Hollywood studios to website executives to find new talent.
REELEDin allows visitors to create either a Creative or Employer account, depending on whether they're looking to market their own talent or find new talent to hire. But the point is more than just showcasing videos. It's also intended to be a social network that connects up and coming talent with their more experienced peers.
According to the site's FAQ, "REELEDin is primarily for the online filmmaker who is looking to legitimize his or her content, whether that be learning how to make money off of it, getting it exposed better to the people who matter, or improving the content itself. REELEDin is also for the n00bs to online vid as well, especially those looking to get access to those who know what they’re doing."
Hitachi has introduced the world's first camcorder that can record directly to 1080p Blu-ray disc.
The camcorder will record to small, three inch BD-R/RE discs that are capable of storing up to 7GB of data. Although that number is far smaller than what regular sized Blu-ray discs can handle, 25-50GB, it is still much higher than a three inch DVD.
The device has a 5.3-megapixel CMOS sensor that can capture images in full blown 1080p and so the camcorder should take full advantage of Blu-ray. The device will also use AVC/H.264 MPEG-4 encoding for better compression but it is also equipped with MPEG-2 as a standard definition fallback.
No word yet on the release date or price, but insiders believe it will be out before the holiday rush.
According to the results of TiVo's 6 month old StopWatch ratings program, DVR users are watching movie previews they could easily skip.
StopWatch is a Nielsen-like product that measures audiences for commercials on a second-by-second basis, so that clients may determine the number of people in DVR households that are watching ads live or recorded or not at all, preferring to fast-forward them entirely or in part.
The service also counts households where commercials are rewound and viewed multiple times.
According to Todd Juenger, vice president and general manager of TiVo Audience Research & Measurement, the service is intended to augment the Nielsen TV ratings, which are the currency of the television commercial industry.
According to Todd Juenger, vice president and general manager of TiVo Audience Research & Measurement, there is not necessarily a correlation between the most-watched commercials and the most-viewed TV shows.
Online video service JumpTV Inc. said on Tuesday it would buy a U.S. college sports broadband network for $60.25 million to expand beyond its portfolio of ethnic channels.
Toronto-based JumpTV, which offers online video channels from countries including Albania, Australia, Egypt and Hong Kong, will buy the broadband network business division of XOS Technologies Inc.
The unit of Sanford, Florida-based XOS, which developed and maintains official Web sites for collegiate and professional sports teams, streams over the Internet thousands of U.S. National Collegiate Athletic Association football, basketball, volleyball, baseball and Track & Field games.
It generated about $2.45 million in revenue in the first five months of this year and logged an operating loss of $3.17 million in the same period.
last month Rivals.com, a site for fans of college and high school teams, was acquired by Yahoo Inc. of for an undisclosed price.
Advocate General Juliane Kokott, advising the European Court of Justice, said Wednesday that EU law directs governments to resist the disclosure of personal data on Internet traffic in civil cases.
A Spanish court hearing a case involving Promusicae, a group of Spanish music producers similar to the RIAA, had asked the EU court for guidance on what EU law allows.
Promusicae is trying to force Spanish ISP Telefonica to hand over the names and addresses of subscribers using IP addresses allegedly involved in sharing files on KaZaa. Telefonica maintained that it was unable to hand over the information unless it was connected to a criminal prosecution or dealt with matters of public security or national defense.
ECJ judges are expected to make their final ruling later this year. The judges follow the advocate general's recommendations in roughly 80 percent of cases, according to reports. Until the final ruling, Kokott's preliminary recommendation is non-binding.
Copyright holders in Europe may get help from a proposed revision to IPRED, the EU's IP law. If passed into law, the changes would make many forms of copyright infringement criminal rather than civil offenses, potentially making ISPs liable for copyrighted materials passed through their networks. The law would only cover "commercial" infringement, however, leaving individual file-sharers only at risk for civil cases.
As multimedia content based websites become more common, an increasing amount of content is produced and performed by people discovered on video sharing websites.
Steven Starr, a former talent agent who heads the Web video site Revver, says what he sees emerging is "a creator economy online" whereby the Internet will carve out its own slice of the action, rather than just serving as a development league for TV and film.
Even if untapped talent is not necessarily easy to find, the economics of Web entertainment startups dictates that they try hard to do it. Old-school casting calls — and Hollywood's union contracts — wouldn't work for digital media that comes together quickly and relatively cheaply.
Often these online jobs are with sites that may be a step above the user-generated videos of YouTube, but still are sorting out the economics of attracting advertising. As a result, discovery sometimes comes with modest trappings. And it often extends to people who wouldn't have made it through Hollywood's old-school gatekeepers — or even tried.
It's certainly no secret that the Web can launch new faces. The medium already has its tales of regular Janes who made it big, like Lisa Donovan, who leaped from YouTube to the cast of Fox's "MadTV," and Brooke Brodack, a Net video character signed to a TV production deal by Carson Daly.
Over 60% of iPhone users have watched video on the device according to a survey conducted by market research firm Interpret. This is more than twice the total number of Cell phone subscribers who have watched video on their phones.
Interpret reports that over half have viewed YouTube clips, while nearly half have watched music videos. News or movie previews were watched at least once by a third of respondents with iPhones.
The study shows that there's a "huge untapped opportunity for mobile video," Interpret spokesman Jason Kramer said. "If the technology is there and the user experience is right, then consumers will watch video. Apple is proving that the market is there."
When it comes to paying for content, 73% of iPhone owners expected to get paid content from Apple's online store iTunes, compared to 43% of non-users. Fully 46% of non-owners expected paid content to come cable and satellite TV providers.
According to a recent FCC filing, Toshiba is testing the first Gigabeat player with Wi-Fi and if they like the results, the player will be a direct rival to the Microsoft Zune when it is released.
The player will include a wireless transmitter, at least for local networking. The player will also include a new OS, a modern version of Windows Embedded. The filing also suggests video capability.
New other news is available as of now, but the filing shows a probable early 2008 release.
When the Zune was launched in mid-Novemeber 2006, Microsoft set a hopeful target of one million sold before June 2007. According to the company's recent quarterly financial reports, Zune sales surpassed that target and surely Microsoft is very excited by the sales.
For the period ending June 30th, over 1.2 million of the players have been sold, which is equal to about 170,000 units per month. If the units continue to sell at that pace the Zune should reach 2 million sold before the player's one-year anniversary.
Although Apple, SanDisk and Creative continue to heavily outsell the Zune, Microsoft must be proud of the market penetration the Zune has produced over the last few months. The company even proclaimed that the Zune had 11 percent market share for players with hard disks during May.
A second-gen Zune is expected to hit retail stores later this year.
LG will be releasing the second generation versions of their hybrid HD optical disc drives for PCs. The new GGW-H20LI will retail for $500 USD and can read both Blu-ray and HD DVD formats as well as write dual layer BD-R/RE at 6x. The $400 USD GGC-H20LI can read both formats as well but cannot write to Blu-ray. Both drives can write DVD+-RW as well as CD-+RW.
LG also announced that they would be offering a promotion alongside their $1200 USD Super Blu BH100 where any purchaser would get their choice of 10 free movies in any format. The company also said a second generation version of that player was in the works, with no further details provided.
Nielsen will begin testing later this month a “solo meter” that can be used to detect video and audio played on any portable media device, the company told clients in its monthly report for July. A technology test of 100 of the new meters will begin later this month.
The company also created a separate wireless division called Nielsen Wireless Vector to focus on the measurement of video and other activity on cellular devices. The division will draw data from a variety of Nielsen companies, divisions and services including the Nielsen Home Technology Report, metered TV panelists and BASES.
Both initiatives are two of several Nielsen is pursuing to measure portable media devices, which are fast becoming popular with consumers as more content becomes available to them.
TiVo is expected to start selling a budget version of their Series 3 DVR for just $300 - less than half the price of the standard model.
The differences between the new player and its $800 big brother are reportedly a 90GB reduction in hard drive capacity with no external SATA ports, no front panel display, only a single MPEG encoder (the standard model has 2), a stripped down remote, and no THX certification.
At a discount of $500 many consumers will be happy to do without those features. With a little technical expertise the hard drive limitations can even be resolved with widely available software and instructions.
There are even some rumours that an even less expensive model with approximately the same features, but an even smaller hard drive will appear at some point.
According to a US trade official, the United States is seeking consultations with China over that country's policies on music downloading and cinema rights.
In a written statement to the WTO (World Trade Organization) regarding an ongoing complaint, the U.S. said "various measures in China appear to impose market access restriction or discriminatory requirements on foreign service suppliers seeking to engage in the digital distribution of sound recordings."
According to Stephen Norton from the Office of the US Trade Representative, Music from foreign sources needs to undergo content review before being distributed in China. Chinese music doesn't have to face that process," Norton told The Associated Press. "The review delays Chinese Internet providers and Chinese consumers from accessing foreign music." He also mentioned that the same discrimination barriers exist for downloading music to mobile phones.
Since Chinese law doesn't allow foreign companies to own or invest in Chinese companies that distribute music over the internet, this is a major barrier for foreign businesses.
As a country that now boasts over 160 million internet users, China is an important market to reach. With only 12.3% of the population using the internet right now, compared to the global rate of 17.6%, it should continue to grow for some time.
When AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. report quarterly results later this month, investors will be looking for proof that their expensive video strategies are starting to pay off.
The two companies have spent billions building high speed networks designed to compete with cable companies' all-in-one video, internet, and phone packages. These networks are seen by many as key to the success of traditional telephone providers, largely due to declining fixed-line phone sales and increasing competition from cable and online services.
For the traditional 13-state territory of AT&T, the company has said it plans to connect the network to around 18 million homes by the end of 2008.
AT&T shares have risen less than 1 percent in the past 3 months to trade on Friday around $39.30. Verizon shares have risen 13 percent over the same period to around $42.45.
"As they begin delivering on the metrics and people can see the product out there in the market, there will be less of a concern about the spending," said Atlantic Equity analyst Chris Watts, adding that positive consumer reaction to Verizon's FiOS video service over the past year was already helping that company's shares.
As consumers, businesses, and technical publications ponder when Windows Vista will be capable of doing what Windows XP already does, Microsoft is already talking to its sales force about the next version of the operating system.
Tentatively being called Windows 7 (ie Windows NT version 7), there was little talk about features, but quite a bit about establishing a regular release schedule for new vesions of the #1 desktop operating system in the world.
This isn't surprising given the results of a study published earlier this month by Forrester Reasearch Inc. indicating that at least a quarter of Microsoft's corporate customers with software assurance licenses will stop using the service, and the number may end up being closer to 50%.
Software Assurance is the Microsoft program that allows customers with volume licenses for Windows automatically get upgrades when new versions come out. The problem is the time between Windows XP and Windows Vista has made customers question what they're getting for their money. This is very bad news for Microsoft since their revenue from the Software Assurance program was over $4 billion in the first quarter of this year alone.
The real question seems to be whether there will be any reason to upgrade to the next version of Windows. It can easily take more than a year to get a new operating system from initial beta test phase, before which almost all major changes must at least be ready for testing. In a three year schedule that only leaves two years to finalize changes from the last version.
CinemaNow, the legal movie and TV show download service, has upgraded their Media Manager software for the playback of CinemaNow content. The latest upgrade adds the ability for video downloads to be directly accessed by Xbox 360 owners .
The latest version can detect any Xbox 360 on your home network and the user can then download their video of choice to their PC and play it back on a TV using the 360 as a connective device.
Also enabled in the update is the ability for Windows Vista users to burn their videos to DVD, a service previously only available to customers with Windows XP.
"CinemaNow is on a mission to enable simple and fast integration into our customers' lives," said Curt Marvis, CEO of CinemaNow. "This upgrade alone makes our entire library of more than 7,000 videos available to the millions of Xbox users who are downloading movies online and watching them on their TVs."
It's been quite a while since we last ran a user survey here at AfterDawn.com. Since then a lot has changed at the site. We would be interested in knowing more about how You use AfterDawn.
Taking the survey takes no more than two minutes of your time. If you've got the time to spare, we would appreciate your input!
Update: Based on feedback received we've updated some of the questions in the survey. If you found the options in the previous survey too limited, please have a look at the new one. If you already took the "old" survey, you can fill out the new one as well.
Update 2: We received over a thousand replies over the weekend. The survey, therefore, is completed.
THX wants your digital media to give your player instructions to tweak settings for playback.
The company, which was started to help standardize movie theaters so movies would sound the way their creators intended, is hoping that their new technology, code named Blackbird, will improve the viewer's home theater experience by automatically adjusting the picture and sound properties of home theater equipment based on instructions embedded in DVDs, CDs, video games, and even downloaded content.
"This is the most ambitious thing we've tried in a long time," said Robert Hewitt, the company's vice president of sales.
Currently THX's core business is certifying car and home audio systems, video games, high-end televisions and home projectors, and DVDs. A THX certification indicates that a given product will reproduce sound exactly the way it was meant to be heard.
To make a go of Blackbird, THX executives acknowledge they must first convince Hollywood studios and electronics makers to sign on to a new format, and that's never an easy task.
Research presented at the Home Media Expo on Wednesday shows that 10% of consumers think they already have a hi-def player of some kind, while the real figure is closer to 1%.
If you've been following the development and introduction of HD DVD and Blu-ray at all over the last few years this probably comes as no surprise. In fact you may be one of the people that market research firm NPD says don't see a difference between those technologies and regular DVD. If so, you probably don't have plans to buy into either of the new formats any time soon.
Russ Crupnick, an analyst for NPD, said “Consumers are entirely confused.” He also mentioned that while smaller retailers have a good chance to increase sales by providing the needed consumer education, they should avoid investing too heavily in the next generation technologies because most consumers probably buy movies and music at so called "big box" stores.
This is in contrast to early adopters of both formats, whom Nielsen Media Research says buy most of their movies at electronics and game specialty stores.
In August Walt Disney Studios will be promoting Blu-ray releases on a 18 stop marketing blitz they're calling Disney's Magical Blu-ray Tour, which will be sponsored by Panasonic.
In a statement, Dick Cook, chairman of the Walt Disney Studios said “Disney has always put consumers first, and we are here to help everyone understand this amazing new technology.” He also adds “It is imperative that we continue to educate and engage consumers as to the advantages and exciting features that are unique to the Blu-ray disc format.”
If these events sound more like a sales pitch than an educational event it should come as no surprise given that they're bankrolled by one of Blu-ray's primary patent holders, Matsushita (owner of the Panasonic brand), and put on by one of the format's most vocal supporters among entertainment companies.
Event participants will get a first look at previews of HD versions of Disney/Pixar’s “Cars” and Disney’s “Meet the Robinsons,” as well as an opportunity to play the interactive “Liar’s Dice” game from “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest.”
The tour will be stopping in Canoga Park, Costa Mesa, San Diego and San Francisco, Calif.; Portland, Ore.; Seattle; Minneapolis; Chicago; St. Louis; Washington, D.C.; Long Island, N.Y.; Boston; Philadelphia; Indianapolis; Atlanta; Houston and Austin, Texas; and Phoenix between August 17 and December 23 of this year.
At this year's Home Media Expo in Las Vegas the HD DVD and Blu-ray organizations are trying a new strategy to win the "format war." They're marketing directly to consumers and almost ignoring retailers.
One big difference over previous years is a new group of attendees to the annual home video industry convention. Representatives from the consumer run and oriented websites are being treated to a barrage of sales pitches directly from members of the two groups.
In fact retailers weren't even invited to a party Tuesday night thrown by Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, and Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. At that party consumer representatives were given free Blu-ray players and movies.
On the HD DVD side, Microsoft and Universal Studios Home Entertainment held a panel on Wednesday demonstrating HD DVD and taking questions. Although retailers were free to attend the session, they were only promoted to consumer attendees. There was also an HD DVD player available to anynone at the show for only $99.
This is in stark contrast to other recent technology shows, like January's CES, where both groups have spent a lot of money and time selling to retailers. It's likely due to complaints from studios since the introduction of both formats that retail sales forces don't know enough to educate consumers.
Disney owned Hollywood Records is hoping to boost CD sales by introducing a new format they're calling CDVU+ (pronounced CD View Plus) which includes content which can be downloaded from the internet. The content will include song lyrics and band photos.
Hollywood Records senior vice president of marketing Ken Bunt says "We really believe if you're going to give consumers what they want, we should do it in a way they're used to." Given the number of websites that already provide free lyrics and pictures, though, it remains to be seen if consumers will consider these "extras" worth paying for.
U.S. CD sales were down nearly 20 percent in the first half of 2007, at least partly due to ever increasing competition from video games, new home video formats, and downloadable media.
Instead of trying to breathe new life into the aging CD format, it might be wise for big entertainment companies to put their research and development funding into a viable replacement. With Disney already backing Blu-ray for hi-def video, a format which supports audio far superior to CD, that might be a good starting point.
In the wake of SunRocket's sudden cease of operations, former VoIP rivals have begun fighting over SunRocket's 200,000 displaced customers.
Vonage has started offering two months of free service to former SR customers and 8x8 and Unified Communications were selected as "preferred" providers for SR's users.
Those that move to 8x8 will not have to pay the traditional $100 activation free and those moving to Unified will be given a discounted $12.95 monthly rate. By being given the title "preferred" service provider, both companies will have to pay a fee to SR's creditors for each customer that switches.
David Reeves, the president of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, has suggested that there may be an upcoming new model of the PlayStation 3 for European customers, a model with a 120GB hard drive.
Reeves made the comments during an interview with Dagbladet, a Norwegian website. He admitted that an 80GB version for Europe would not be significant enough to pursue, but that a 120GB model would do the trick. "The difference between 60 and 80GB is very small, we just feel that going up 20GB is not worth it," said Reeves, adding, "If you go to double it, it's worth it...so maybe you'll see something a little bit later."
Reeves also talked about the upcoming "Starter Pack" instead of a price cut like North American consumers saw. “We believe added value works in the PAL territories. We don't think it's necessary to reduce the price. We think that consumers want added value in Europe. We think it's the right decision."
Phone hackers have found a way to unlock the popular Apple iPhone, less than a month after the phone hit retail stores. Currently, the iPhone is unusable without a new 2 year contract with AT&T which costs consumers a minimum of $1400 USD by the time it is over.
A group by the name of iPhone Dev Wiki has found a way to unlock the device so it can be used with any AT&T/Cingular SIM card without the need for a new contract.
“Using iASign, you'll be able to activate existing AT&T and Cingular Sims without signing a new contract,” wrote the hackers on the Wiki page.
“As a side note, we'd like to clarify that we are not even close on giving up the full unlocking, as reported on some websites. We're still up and running, but we won't comment on a possible time line. If the unlocking is possible we'll eventually find it, so stay tuned,” the Wiki page update concluded.
Scholastic Books, the publisher behind the giant Harry Potter series has gone to court in efforts to stop the leaks over the latest book of the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The book is scheduled to hit retail stores Friday at midnight.
The publisher has filed a lawsuit against DeepDiscount.com as well as a few file sharing sites including The Pirate Bay. DeepDiscount is accused of mailing out 1200 copies of the book early.
Pirated versions of the book have been on torrents and P2P all over the internet for days now but J.K. Rowling, the author of the series is begging people to keep the secrets of the book to themselves. "In a very short time, you will know EVERYTHING!" a note on her Web site read.
Note: If anyone decides to post spoilers or links to a pirated copy in the comments, commenting will be disabled and the user will be banned.
Today, Ooma finally launched its much anticipated VoIP service. Although the VoIP market is currently crowded, Ooma hopes to make its name known by offering free domestic calls for life.
The only payment you ever have to pay is the $399 USD to join the service. After paying the fee, customers receive the Ooma hardware which requires a broadband connection and will plug into a standard phone.
Ooma is the first service to use peer-to-peer technology for VoIP and uses the telephone lines of other users whenever it is possible. That feature enables Ooma to keep the service offered for free.
However good in theory the idea is, Ooma first needs to get a substantial amount of customers or their P2P type service will simply not work. In light of that fact, Ooma is starting an invitation program that lets users invite up to three friends before the hardware officially goes on sale.
The more serious problem for the company however is whether consumers will pay the $400 starting fee for a company that may not last. In recent news, SunRocket, a company that offered annual VoIP service for $200 USD, ceased operations leaving customers without service or their hard earned money.
On the last day to file comments with the FCC regarding it's upcoming decision regarding so called "Net Neutrality" a coalition of 11 consumer groups submitted a detailed recommendation. It takes on a variety of common claims by copyright holders, including specifically addressing comments made recently by NBC Universal counsel Rick Cotton and NBC's own FCC filing on the matter.
Net neutrality refers to the discussion over whether ISPs should be allowed to charge differently for different content being downloaded from the internet. NBC's FCC filing suggested that as part of their decision they should create regulations to force ISPs to Block potentially infringing traffic.
One of the more interesting topics was the difference between unauthorized and illegal copying of content. It points out that "Because an "unauthorized" use is not necessarily an illegal one, no technology or method should give the desires of a copyright holder priority over the first amendment."
Referring to Cotton's remarks that piracy causes financial hardship for corn farmers, which we reported last month, the document says "NBC's specious attempt to follow the chain of cause and affect to its absurd limits is driven by the fact that it is a minority copyright holder engaged in special pleading for government favors."
Samsung is releasing a new phone in Sourth Korea which will have not only a video camera, but also basic video editing capabilities.
The SCH-B750, which will also have a built in mobile TV receiver, will not only be able to create videos, but will also be capable of uploading them to video sharing sites.
The video camera will create videos at a resolution of 352x288 with internal editing features that include adding captions and audio. It also boasts a 8GB internal hard drive as well as accepting MicroSD flash memory cards. In addition, it boasts TV out capabilities.
The display swivels 90 degrees, making the phone appear feel more like a camera, and it's even being marketed as a "Camcorder Phone."
It will be sold through SK Telecom and will cost around 600,000 won ($655).
In response to the popular Blu-ray "five discs free" promotion, Toshiba has decided to extend their "Perfect Offer" promotion until September 30th.
The promotion, which gives customers five free HD DVD movies with the purchase of any Toshiba standalone HD DVD player, was set to finish at the end of the month.
Recently, Toshiba permanently dropped the price of their HD-A2 player to $300 USD and even more recently, Sony dropped the price of their 60GB PlayStation 3 to $500 USD making it the cheapest Blu-ray player available.
The Blu-ray camp had hoped to take a real lead in the format war with the price drop and movie promotion, but it seems the HD DVD camp is not going down without a fight. HD DVD players continue to sell at a much higher rate than standalone Blu-ray players (PS3 not included), but Blu-ray disc movie sales continue to outsell their rival.
Only time will tell where the market will go, but for now, the war continues to heat up.
A month after it hit one million sold in Europe and Australia, the PlayStation 3 has finally reached the same milestone in Japan.
According to Enterbrain, it took Sony just about 8 months to reach the milestone, over double the time it took Nintendo to reach the mark with its Wii console.
As of last week, 1.01 million units had been sold compared to just under 3 million Wiis. The Xbox 360 continued to die in Japan, selling only 420,000 since 2005.
The numbers are somewhat surprising as Sony has traditionally done well in Japan and around Asia, handily beating its rivals.
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment is offering "revenue sharing" deals for Blu-ray rentals. According to SPHE president David Bishop, “Virtually all retailers can have Blu-ray on a revenue-sharing basis."
He adds "We think it’s important to the retailer, so they are perceived as being on the cutting EDGE of new technology.” He believes it will it enables retailers to stock Blu-ray discs earlier than they might otherwise.
This seems like a very bold move in light of the European Commision's investigation into Blu-ray's developers. The investigation seems to be centered around possible anti-competitive business practices in an attempt to prevail over the competing HD DVD format.
As recently as two years ago Sony BMG Music Entertainment, the music division of the entertainment giant, paid $10 million in a settlement with the State of New York for bribing radio station employees to promote their artists. While other companies, including major Sony rival Matsushita (Panasonic), stand to gain financially from Blu-ray's success, the stakes are arguably much higher because the success of either hi-def format ensures companies holding related patents a revenue stream that could be profitable for many years to come.
In an attempt to ensure member countries don't fall behind the rest of the world, the European Union officially backing the DVB-H standard for mobile TV services. Such services are designed to broadcast directly to handheld devices.
Telecoms commissioner Viviane Reding said "We can either take the lead globally - as we did for mobile telephony based on the GSM standard developed by the European industry - or allow other regions to take the lion's share of the promised mobile TV market."
Reding warned at the beginning of the year that Europe risked losing a chance to be a global player in the burgeoning mobile TV market.
The use of the DVB-H standard will be "legally encouraged" among all 27 member states with the view to mandating use, if necessary, next year, said Ms Reding. identified 2008, with important sporting events such as the European Football Championship and the summer Olympics, as a crucial year for mobile TV.
Unfortunately for mobile viewers in the UK this could cause some problems; at least until the year 2012. That's when the portion of the UHF spectrum required for implementing the EU's DVB-H specifications will be completely available, although a spokeswoman for UK regulatory agency Ofcom says that a portion of the required frequencies will be available in 2008 or early 2009.
After almost 3 years of service, and with little warning to customers, the VoIP startup SunRocket has ceased operations leaving over 200,000 customers without phone service.
Calls to the customer support service of the company were welcomed with the following message, "We are no longer taking customer service or sales calls. Goodbye."
The VoIP company was the fourth largest provider of internet telephone services, behind Vonage, AT&T and Verizon.
Although there was little warning, the signs of trouble were there. In the last month, the CTO, CIO and CFO of the company were either fired or resigned. There was also a significant firing off employees, with over 30 laid off in the last month, a number equal to roughly a quarter of the full staff.
Reports are indicating that if customers act quickly, then can port their service to another carrier as well as keep their phonenumber, but that offer may die quickly.
As the story hit more news outlets today, an employee of the company let his feelings be known about the way the company was run, "Congratulations to the ex-AOL management (you know who you are!) that took over for a new record in running a company into the ground, and congrats to the board of directors for yet another successfully mismanaged venture," he wrote in his blog.
As prices drop on most DVDs, Warner Home Video is making retailers happy by unveiling plans for 14 DVD collections to be released in the fourth quarter of this year.
Since many of these multiple-disc sets are lavishly packaged and include exclusive add-ons, they carry pricing of $100 to $200 or more. Sets will include Harry Potter Years 1-5 Limited Edition Gift Set and The Gilmore Girls: The Complete Series.
“There are opportunities in the marketplace at a time when there is erosion in pricing,” said Jeff Baker, Warner senior VP and general manager of theatrical catalog and sales. “We are moving upwards in price" with the upcoming collections.
Such DVD collector sets represented more than $500 million in consumer purchases last year, according to Warner research. Year-to-date, the category is 7% higher in sales than the same 2006 Frame, the studio believes.
Baker also singled out Warner’s upcoming 25th anniversary Blade Runner releases, which include four-disc and five-disc configurations, as especially critical for the studio.
On Monday, Sony finally confirmed what many assumed and announced that they were ceasing production on the $500 60GB model of the PlayStation 3 in favor of the new $600 80GB model.
Dave Karraker said they will continue to sell the lower priced 60GB model until "supplies of that unit are depleted" and that "We have ample inventory to meet the immediate needs of consumers [in the US] for several months to come."
Although its not clear whether Sony will once again drop the price of the console when the 60GB model stock is depleted but for now, the company is remaining quiet on future pricing strategies.
"We won't be making any further announcements regarding our PS3 model hardware strategy in North America until the 60GB model is exhausted and market conditions are evaluated," said Karraker.
After losing a suit against an Oklahoma woman for supposedly "vicariously" aiding copyright infringement, the RIAA has been ordered to pay nearly $70,000 in legal bills for the defendant.
Deborah Foster, whose daughter Amanda the RIAA won a default judgement against because she failed to defend herself, has always said she had no knowledge of any such activity.
The RIAA had the case against her dismissed without prejudice, meaning they reserve the right to bring further action against her for the same alleged activities, which would normally protect them from paying her legal fees. However, Foster's filing against the RIAA argues that she deserved the judgement because "the RIAA makes a practice of repeatedly bringing claims and then dismissing with prejudice after inflicting substantial litigation costs on the opposing party and the judicial system."
The EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) also filed a "Friend of the Court" brief on her behalf, stating "a fee award would deter the RIAA from continuing to prosecute meritless suits that harass defendants it knows or reasonably should know are innocent."
Members of the Blu-ray camp are disputing claims that HD DVD is really as dominant force in Europe as the HD DVD camp would have you believe.
Reports have been published suggesting that in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK, HD DVD players are selling at a 3:1 rate compared to standalone Blu-ray players, not including the PlayStation 3.
The Blu-ray camp feels the reports should include PC optical drives and the PlayStation 3 which they argue would put Blu ray as the dominant HD format in Europe, somewhere at 90 percent of the market.
On Friday, hackers cracked the latest DRM protection created by Microsoft for use on its Windows Media Files.
In August 2006, a hacker by the name of "viodentia" released a program called FairUse4WM which could strip the DRM from Windows Media Files (both audio and video) allowing the downloader to play the file wherever they choose. The files could also then be converted to the format of their choice.
Microsoft then had a problem because in theory, users could sign up for one month of Napster, download one million tracks, and then strip the DRM from the downloaded tracks, leaving them with endless amounts of music for the cheap price of a one month subscription.
Microsoft then issued a patch for Windows Media and filed a lawsuit against the hackers. In the lawsuit, Microsoft claimed the hackers stole Microsoft source code to help in creating the program, but viodentia denied the allegations.
"FairUse4WM has been my own creation, and has never involved Microsoft source code. I link with Microsoft's static libraries provided with the compiler and various platform SDK files," the individual said.
The lawsuit was dropped in April because Microsoft could not discover the identity of viodentia or the others but no other cracks or programs had been released since then. With the latest update, Microsoft must once again issue a new patch.
In a paper delivered to the 2007 SERCI Congress in Berlin last week titled Forever Minus a Day? Some Theory and Empirics of Optimal Copyright, Rufus Pollock concludes that the optimal period for copyright is 14 years.
Pollock, a graduate student in Economics at Cambridge, has been researching intellectual property extensively over the last three years while working toward his PhD.
In order to determine the optimal copyright period Pollock started from the original premise of intellectual property laws, which means that the optimal period would be produce the maximum number of creative works. He then attempts to quantify factors such as the cost of production, ease and cost of copying both legally and illegaly, and ends up with an equation that suggests the optimal term of 14 years.
Before arriving at the 14 year figure, the paper starts by showing that the optimal copyright term drops as production costs fall and that in general it falls over time. The calculations and conclusions in the paper are based on analysis of various studies published in the US and UK over the last 10 years and cover subjects ranging from the effects of recent copyright extensions to file sharing among college students.
Home video executives blame a nearly 5% drop in consumer spending on home video on a lack of interest in new theatrical DVD releases. Rental spending was down 3.3% from last year while sales dropped 6.5%.
The cumulative box-office of DVDs released in the first half of 2007 was off 5%, and there were fewer releases with a box-office topping $100 million. According to 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment president Mike Dunn, “Those big $100 million movies lift all boats in the category.”.
With box-office on summer releases due on DVD in the second half already up 5% over last year, home video execs are cautiously optimistic that consumer spending will end up flat in 2007, with some even predicting a small increase.
“Everybody is expecting the biggest fourth quarter ever given the strength of movies coming out this summer,” said Matt Lasorsa, New Line Home Entertainment executive VP of marketing.
Despite the growing number of Hi-Def televisions, players, and movie releases DVD sales continue to increase and dominate the market. According to Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, U.S. households went from buying 12.5 discs on average four years ago to 14.4 last year.
Sony's Grouper, a video sharing site older than YouTube which Sony bought last year to promote their home video equipment has been re-launched as Crackle.
Unlike Grouper, which focused on amateur video, Crackle will feature videos by aspiring professionals, including some funded by Sony. Among other things, Sony hopes this will attract advertisers who weren't particularly enthused by the idea of amateur video.
In order to jump start the service, Sony has even set up "Crackle Studios" which has 15 employees who will produce segments for the site. They'll also be accepting submissions from the public, although they won't be paying for them.
Sony hopes to use the service to find a new generation of filmmakers, and will be accepting proposals, which if accepted will be funded by the company.
Viewers that either don't know about Crackle or simply don't visit the site will still have a chance to see the videos on sites like AOL, MySpace, and FaceBook.
In June, the MPAAsued both YouTVpc.com and Peekvid.com even though neither site actually hosts any of the copyrighted material on its servers. Yesterday, the MPAA announced they had filed a similar lawsuit, this time against ShowStash.com, and for the same reasons.
The site indexes copyrighted material into categories such as Movies, TV shows, Anime and Cartoons. The latest releases are readily available at ShowStash just as they were at Peekvid and YouTvpc.
“ShowStash is a one-stop-shop for copyright infringement and the operators’ sole purpose is to disseminate content that has been illegally reproduced and distributed,” said John Malcolm, Executive Vice President and Director of Worldwide Anti-Piracy Operations for the MPAA. “Sites like ShowStash are breaking the law and our goal is to put these movie theft ‘entrepreneurs’ out of business for good.”
Wal-Mart has announced that it will be giving away two free Blu-ray disc movies to any customer who purchases the Sony BDP-S300 at the lowest price ever for a Blu-ray player, $488 USD.
The two movies, "Gridiron Gang" and "Open Season", are stacked on the "Five Discs Free" promo so customers will get 7 free movies just for buying the player at Wal-Mart.
The deal is available online and in stores everywhere, and should help to add fuel to HD DVD v. Blu ray war which has been heating up this month.
VeohTV, the new software from Veoh Networks, is a web browser with a twist - it only displays Internet video.
The softfware, just out of beta testing, lists videos from sites that include Fox.com, NBC.com, and YouTube in a program guide and can play them either in a small window or fullscreen.
According to Veoh Networks chief executive Dmitry, “There are full-length episodes at Fox.com, but many customers don’t know how to find them. The Web browser is fine for short clips. But if you just want to sit back and watch video on the Web, this is what you will want to use.”
VeohTV's channels each represent a single website, allowing you to find episodes of shows like Heroes, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, Bones, and 24. These shows are already offered on television network websites, but many viewers either aren't aware of it or don't know how to find them.
Shapiro would like to have advertising deals with content owners to make sure they have an incentive to provide high quality video online, he doesn't believe it's legally required since the videos are already available.
Veoh Networks' investors in the project include both Time Warner and former Disney chairman Michael Eisner, who is also on the board of directors.
Sony has announced that they will not be dropping the price of the 60GB model for European customers nor will they be releasing the 80GB model in Europe. Instead, the company will offer the console bundled with two games and an extra Sixaxis controller for the price of EUR 600.
Although the recent price cut for North American models has helped boost sales, Sony Europe decided it would be better to bundle than adjust the price. The combined MSRP of the titles and the extra controller is over EUR 100.
The new "Starter Pack" will go on sale in the UK on July 18th and in the rest of Europe on August 1st. Besides the extra controller, customers can choose two titles from a list of five that include Resistance: Fall of Man, Motorstorm, Genji: Days of the Blade, Formula One Championship Edition and Ridge Racer 7.
"With sell through of over 1.2 million units in the SCEE territories to date, PlayStation 3 has proved to be an instant and huge success," said David Reeves, president of SCEE.
Sun Microsystems said Wednesday that AT&T plans to use its Sun Fire servers and storage arrays to power its Internet Protocol television service, called U-Verse.
The deal is significant for Sun because it could be a foot in the door to eventually sell AT&T its new, advanced Sun Streaming System, which includes Sun Fire servers and other technology that can be used to stream 160,000 simultaneous IP video streams onto a network.
Sun created the Sun Streaming System to serve the emerging IPTV market. Phone companies around the world, such as AT&T, are using IP to deliver television service. And the Sun Streaming System, which can cost as much as $8 million, provides a scalable and cost-effective way to deliver video-on-demand services to thousands of homes. A deal with AT&T, the largest phone company in the United States, would be a huge validation of the technology.
"Sun can't comment on whether or not AT&T is currently evaluating the Sun Streaming System," a spokeswoman said. "But this deployment definitely provides a great opportunity for working with them in the future.
"We have engaged in a lot of litigation at Viacom, of which I have been a primary mover," Redstone told a group of reporters Friday morning, responding to remarks earlier in the day from Google CEO Eric Schmidt.
Redstone, who started his own career as a lawyer, noted several major legal battles his company has engaged in previously, including against cable TV pioneer John Malone, media and cable giant Time Warner Inc., and against longtime Hollywood mogul Barry Diller.
But Redstone insisted that he resorted to lawsuits only if absolutely necessary. "The bottom line is I hate to fight," Redstone told a group of reporters gathered on the steps of a Sun Valley hotel building, in front of a quiet pond where swans were nesting.
"I don't enjoy a battle," Redstone said. "I would rather be a lover than a fighter."
The stakes are high for both Google and Viacom in the dispute over YouTube, a hugely popular amateur video-sharing Web site that Google bought a year ago for about $1.7 billion.
Viacom claims that Google is willfully violating its copyrights by allowing users to upload clips from Viacom's TV shows. Google counters that it's obeying the law by immediately responding to requests from Viacom and other copyright holders to take down any material found to be infringing.
Nickelodeon is testing the waters of original online content with the July 22 launch of its first broadband series.
Marjorie Cohn, executive vice president original programming and development at Nickelodeon Networks, said Nick properties such as "Mr. Meaty" and "Avatar" have developed a huge following online, so introducing an original series to air exclusively on TurboNick was the next natural step.
"Just in June alone we had the highest month ever for streams, up by 535 percent from last year," Cohn said. "This is a good choice for our first online experience because of the format -- reality lends itself to content that's a little shorter."
The 15-minute, five-episode series, dubbed "Nick Cannon's Star Camp," will follow eight youngsters as they work toward success and stardom in the high-stakes world of music.
Director Debbie Allen and choreographer Fatima Robinson will join music industry legend Quincy Jones, his son Quincy Jones III, and series star Nick Cannon behind the scenes.
With TurboNick receiving triple-digit increases in viewership during the past year with a record 122 million streams in June, Cannon and the younger Jones envision the series becoming a regular viewing staple on the broadband video player, in the vein of "American Idol."
The success of newcomer Sara Bareilles is being partly attributed to iTunes offering her album for download at a discounted price of $6.99 instead of the usual $9.99.
A week after iTunes launched a new discount section on their site called "The Next Big Thing" which included Bareilles' album among other releases. Around 14,000 ownloads from the site accounted for around 80% of her total sales. By comparison, albums from Paul McCartney and the White Stripes sold around 16,000 digital copies during their first week of release earlier this year.
As music sales have moved online from traditional brick and mortar stores, music labels have complained that if iTunes would adopt a variable pricing model it would help boost industry sales. Judging from iTunes' results, including a 152% spike in sales of Atlanta rapper Unk's several month old album, they may have a point.
While labels themselves are popular targets for blame regarding sales figures, it's reasonable to believe that nearly all aspects of the fledgling online music business have room for improvement in the coming years.
Studio interest for earlier VOD releases ranges from Warner's very public tests that include releasing The Astronaut Farmer on both DVD and VOD earlier this week to Sony, the only studio that hasn't taken part in tests with Comcast to determine the results. Disney, Fox, Universal, Paramount, and Lionsgate have participated in the tests, but haven't released any results, although they have all incidated that the tests are inconclusive.
While it's possible that Warner's increased interest in VOD is related to their ownership of Time Warner Cable, although Warner president Ron Sanders points out that the current test they're running with Time Warner Cable was preceded by a test with Comcast. He also said he doesn't expect a major change in release timetable this year.
Internet broadcasters reportedly reached a temporary deal with royalty payment collectors that would put a $50,000 cap on royalty fees and delay the collection of those fees for an undetermined period of time. Congress also stepped in with the introduction of a bill that would postpone the implementation of the new fee schedule until Sept. 13.
The fees were initially supposed to go into effect on May 15, but the CRB extended that deadline to July 15. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit on Wednesday rejected a request to delay that deadline a second time.
House Small Business Committee Chairman Nydia Velasquez, D-N.Y. and ranking Republican Steve Chabot of Ohio on Thursday introduced H.R. 3015, which would delay the CRB's Internet radio royalty rate decision by 60 days, until September 13.
"A commitment has been made to negotiate reasonable royalties, recognizing the industry's long-term value and its still-developing revenue potential," according to a Friday post on SaveNetRadio.org, a coalition of Internet broadcasters.
It turns out that the much anticipated price cut for the PS3 is only a temporary measure to move the remaining stock to prepare for the new 80GB model.
Sony Computer Entertainment of America's director of corporate communications David Karraker told GameSpot, "This is absolutely not a bait and switch," he said. "We are offering a full-featured PS3 for $100 lower than the original price and will do so for months to come, allowing consumers the opportunity to acquire this model at this adjusted price."
The price cut for the 60GB PS3 was never intended to be a permanent cut for the product; it was only intended to clear out stock for the new version to be sold at the old price. GameSpot has reported that Kaz Hirai, Sony Computer Entertainment's CEO and President, has confirmed in a video interview that the 60GB PS3s are no longer in production, and that all new PS3s will be 80GB models to be sold at $599.
Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt, speaking with reporters at a hotel bar at the 25th annual Allen & Co. moguls meeting, said litigation was the foundation of the company that owns the MTV Networks, Paramount movies studio and video game developer Harmonix.
"Viacom is a company built from lawsuits, look at their history," Schmidt said on early Friday.
Schmidt's comments refer to an antitrust suit Viacom filed against Time Warner Inc. in 1989 regarding their HBO cable channel, which was eventually settled out of court for $75 million and an agreement to buy a cable system from Viacomm above market value. In addition, as part of the settlement Time Warner began making the Viacom owned Showtime channel available on more Time Warner cable systems.
Viacom has demanded that YouTube takes down thousands of segments from its popular programs including The Daily Show with John Stewart, The Colbert Report and South Park.
Schmidt said the closing off of social networks was a "transient" phase and that these companies will eventually see the value of open borders.
A new website launched Wednesday provides an organized listing of online videos on websites including YouTube, MySpace, and Google Video, organized into over 200 categories they're calling channels.
According to the sites first press release, "WeShow thrives off of the explosion of online video that has until now frustrated a significant portion of consumers on the Web," said Marcos Wettreich, CEO and founder of WeShow, in a statement. "By consolidating the highest quality and most popular content from across the Internet into a simple and personalized view of all the top quality videos from around the world, WeShow is making online video a pure entertainment experience similar to that of television."
Unlike many existing video sites that rely purely on search technologies to yield relevant content, WeShow brings a human-powered approach to filtering and organizing content. Each day, WeShow uses technology and a global team of category experts to scour more than 15 video repositories such as YouTube, MetaCafe, Google Video, MySpace, Dailymotion and many others.
The company cites a study conducted by Kelton Research in June 2007, stating that more than 60% of Americans feel overwhelmed by the sheer volume of online videos and 46 percent of these people do not watch more online videos because they dread the task of weeding through too many search results. The study also states that 96 percent of Americans cannot find the videos they are looking for when initially conducting a search for specific content and 45 percent of people only view videos when they are recommended by a friend or colleague. These people are not utilizing online video as a primary entertainment source.
Earlier this year, Clear Channel Communications Inc.'s Premiere Radio Networks unit began marketing data on the most popular downloads from illegal file-sharing networks to help radio stations shape their playlists.
Premiere's Mediabase market-research unit is working on the venture with the file-sharing research service BigChampagne LLC. BigChampagne collects the data while a Premiere sales force of about 10 people pitches the information to radio companies and stations. Premiere declined to disclose how much it charges.
Joe Fleischer, BigChampagne's vice president for sales and marketing, adds that the legality of grabbing music is a separate issue from the insight into peoples' taste the downloads offer. He also notes that the company incorporates legal, paid downloads from sites like iTunes into its data, though they represent a tiny fraction of all downloads.
Universal Music Group also looks at file-sharing data, largely for help figuring out which songs are working best or what to pitch to radio. But executives have mixed feelings about the information. "It's troubling that there is so much activity [that] it's useful" for research, says Larry Kenswil, executive vice president for business strategy.
It seems BREIN has won their battle against Demonoid although the victory is very limited. Today, BREIN announced that Leaseweb has agreed to reveal the identity of the owner of Demonoid as well as take the site offline, this time for good.
BREIN also revealed that had Leaseweb not complied with their demand, they would have faced a 50,000 Euro fine per day.
"Hosting provider Leaseweb today complied with the demands of Dutch anti-piracy organization BREIN regarding the illegal website Demonoid.com," BREIN's press statement reads. "BREIN had summoned Leaseweb in a legal procedure demanding that Demonoid.com would be made inaccessible and the identity details of the owner would be provided to BREIN. The hearing was to take place in the District Court of Amsterdam tomorrow."
"Leaseweb signed a cease-and-desist undertaking which stipulates that it will keep Demonoid offline under penalty of 50.000 Euro per day. In addition Leaseweb supplied the name, address and bank details of their client to BREIN. These actions comply with the demands of BREIN which therefor does not continue with the hearing."
The Warner Music Group announced today that they had dropped their pending lawsuit against the video sharing site imeem and instead agreed on a revenue sharing deal.
The lawsuit was filed in May accusing the site of allowing its users to share copyrighted content from the label. The suit asked for an injunction as well as monetary damages.
The revenue sharing deal forces imeem to to share a portion of all its advertising revenue in exchange for Warner's entire catalogue of music as well as videos.
Warner is the first major label to sign a revenue sharing deal with imeem, although many independent labels had already done so.
"Our strategic partnership with Warner Music Group represents a very significant milestone for imeem - we are now able to offer our users an impressive level of free, interactive, and ad-supported access to an amazing catalog of both audio and video from a major record label," imeem founder and CEO Dalton Caldwell said.
Sony BMG Music Entertainment is suing a company that developed antipiracy software for CDs, claiming the technology was defective and cost the record company millions of dollars to settle consumer complaints and government investigations.
Sony BMG filed a summons in a New York state court against The Amergence Group Inc., formerly SunnComm International, which developed the MediaMax CD copy-protection technology.
Sony BMG is seeking to recover some $12 million in damages from the Phoenix-based technology company, according to court papers filed July 3.
The music company accuses Amergence of negligence, unfair business practices and breaching the terms of its license agreement by delivering software that "did not perform as warranted."
In a statement, The Amergence Group vowed to fight what it described as unwarranted allegations by Sony BMG.
The company also suggested that lawsuits against Sony BMG over CD copy-protection primarily stemmed from Sony's use of another technology.
It began including MediaMax on some of its compact discs in August 2003 and shipped about 4 million CDs equipped with the technology in 2005.
Last fall, the company agreed to pay a total of $5.75 million to settle the litigation and resolve investigations by officials in several states.
Scandinavian founders of new online video service Joost—Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom, who once terrified the media industry with file-sharing technology company KaZaa, and then the telecommunications industry with Skype, are first-time guests at Allen & Co's 25th annual media conference in Idaho.
Joost has distinguished itself by seeking partnerships with content owners before making any of their shows available. The company landed its first big distribution deal with Viacom Inc just days before Viacom sued Google Inc. and its video-sharing site YouTube for copyright infringement.
"The time in the market is good for traditional media and digital to come together," Mike Volpi, Joost's newly appointed chief executive, told Reuters. "Technology has matured to a point where rights can be protected properly."
The Joost trio replaces last year's big attraction, YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley, whose wild popularity both terrified and attracted big media.
Prices of the mainstream liquid-crystal-displays used in computers and televisions are rising and analysts and company executives expect further increases as manufacturers enter one of the busiest selling seasons of the year.
Analysts and company executives say the outlook for the third quarter is bright as demand picks up especially for PC-use panels ahead of the back-to-school shopping season, and supply in the market remains tight.
"LCD prices have risen sharply while companies have been working to lower manufacturing costs by moving production to more advanced facilities. That should enable most LCD makers to report a second quarter profit and the outlook for the third quarter is even better," said Hyun-Sik Moon, an analyst at Seoul-based Meritz Securities.
The price of a 17-inch LCD monitor panel rose to $127 in early July from $122 late June, according to Taiwan-based market research firm WitsView Technology Corp. Meanwhile, the price of the mainstream 32-inch LCD TV panel rose to $320 from $315 in the same period.
Executives at AU Optronics Corp., Taiwan's largest maker of LCDs by revenue, said the LCD maker will post a profit in the second quarter, after reporting a record loss of 5.11 billion New Taiwan dollars in the first quarter.
Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment and 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment are backing a new Web site aimed at steering high-definition consumers toward Blu-ray Disc.
While the name, Hollywood in Hi-Def, suggests that it would include information about both competing high definition disc formats, even a cursory examination clearly reveals a slant in favor of Blu-ray. Headlines reading "Yahoo!Tech Comments "Is Blu-ray Preparing a Death Blow for HD-DVD?"" and "Crave Comments Pie Charts Indicate Blu-ray Victory over HD DVD Assured" are featured prominently on the site's front page, with the page featuring just about as many blue elements as they could use without everything blending together.
Scott Hettrick, former editor-in-chief of Video Business magazine and current editor of Hollywood in Hi-Def, will reportedly have access to executives that otherwise might not comment.
According to Hettrick, “A lot of the companies that are supporting Blu-ray got together and decided to do something different and more credible than a promotional web site.”
A recent article on the website of the National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC) attacks Google for a lack of filtering to remove copyrighted material from YouTube and Google Video.
The article argues that Google avoids filtering this content because of the revenue generated by those websites, and also compares the situation to the large scale production of pirated DVDs in China, but gives no evidence to support the contention that the two are equivalent financially.
It goes on to make an argument that "many other Internet operations such as MySpace, TorrentSpy, DailyMotion and Break.com have set up filtering systems to Block copyrighted material. Google is a $158 Billion company with arguably the most advanced search technology in the world. The argument that they cannot block pirated content because of technological or financial reasons is laughable."
Included in the report is a list of 50 videos that they were able to find links to on Google Video and YouTube. They say they're specifically targeting Google Video because it's generally ignored in favor of YouTube when this issue is discussed.
It also states that "Our goal is to do our best to expose the pirating of copyrighted material by finding and posting as many apparently pirated works as possible. For starters, we are focusing on Google Video because it hosts many full-length movies and concerts and because it has received less attention than YouTube, also owned by Google." While this is a commendable goal, I have to question whether comparing those who violate copyright in this way to Chinese organized crime figures is a step in the right direction.
U.S. online video syndication firm Brightcove has announced deals with content providers in the UK to carry video clips on its Web site. Some of the deals struck include online versions of magazines Heat, Nuts and Elle UK. The deals will enable companies like British media group Emap Plc's Heat magazine to run advert-supported videos on its www.heatworld.com Web site. Brightcove also stuck a deal with Sony BMG.
The deals with Brightcove, which follow similar agreements with U.S. companies, come as media companies attempt to lure readers online and take advantage of the lucrative Internet video advertising market. Brightcove Chief Executive Jeremy Allaire said advertising around online video allowed marketers to target niche online audiences through high-quality brand-building adverts that are usually reserved for TV broadcasting.
"(Online video) is a huge priority. Consumers are spending more time on the Internet and the ad dollars are going there so (media companies) have to figure out what are the compelling products to offer through that environment," Allaire said. "Also broadband video advertising is operating at a significant premium right now so if you can deliver media products into the TV advertising space online you can achieve significant premiums."
While it is (or really should be) common sense not to use a mobile phone or MP3 player - or any other electrical gadget - outside during a storm or in rain, there has been a rise in reported injuries as a result of such use. However, sometimes the danger is not clear. Last summer, Jason Bunch, 18, Colorado, was outside mowing the lawn and listening to his iPod while a storm was off in the distance.
Even though it wasn't raining and the storm was far off, lightning struck a nearby tree and thanks to his iPod and headphones, he suffered hearing damage in both ears, burns from the earphone wires on the sides of his face, a nasty burn on his hip where the iPod had been in a pocket and burns up along his side of his body where the earphones cord had been "outside" his t-shirt.
"It's going to hit where it's going to hit, but once it contacts metal, the metal conducts the electricity," said Dr. Mary Ann Cooper of the American College of Emergency Physicians and an ER doctor at University of Illinois Medical Center at Chicago. Another, more serious case occurred when a man was jogging and listening to his iPod.
The 39 year old dentist from the Vancouver area ended up in a thunderstorm. Witnesses saw lightning hit a tree a couple of feet away which jumped to his body. He suffered second degree burns where the iPod had been strapped to his chest and up the sides of his neck. It ruptured both ear drums, dislocated tiny ear bones that transmit sound waves, and broke the man's jaw in four places.
Lionsgate Entertainment Corp. revealed on Wednesday that it has made an investment in online video sharing site Break.com. While the Vancouver-based studio did not reveal any financial terms officially, it is believed the company invested $21 million in stock for a 42% stake in the company. Break.com first opened in 1998, surviving the dotcom boom that took out so many web businesses shortly after.
Lionsgate said that the deal was struck to allow the company to distribute its content and promote its upcoming movies and TV series on Break's online video entertainment channel. Michael Burns, Lionsgate vice chairman said the company plans to leverage its intellectual property "that we have never monetized," like behind-the-scenes footage, deleted scenes and trailers.
"Lionsgate's tremendous arsenal of cutting-edge content and its commitment to innovative growth in the digital space make it the perfect partner," Break CEO Keith Richman said. Lionsgate also has a 20% stake in CinemaNow and said it doesn't expect Break.com to be its last digital investment.
According to the European HD DVD Promotional Group, the Toshiba-developed HD DVD format is performing significantly better than the Blu-ray disc format in Europe, at least with regard to stand-alone sales. Citing research from market research group GfK, the HD DVD group claims to be currently holding a 74% market share in Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Switzerland.
The HD DVD group, which is led by Toshiba but includes many other big players like Microsoft Corp. and Warner Bros., did not give specific figures of units it has shipped to European retailers. It is clear however, that the figures do not include either gaming consoles (PlayStation 3) or console add-ons (Xbox 360 HD DVD drive).
Toshiba's HD-E1 HD DVD player currently sells for to €399 in Europe. Sony's BDP-S1E European version sells for prices starting around €900 in Europe. The cheapest way to invest in Blu-ray equipment in Europe right now is to buy a PS3 console. For those with an Xbox 360, the HD DVD add-on the easiest way to invest in that format.
Sony Corp. has revealed at E3 that it will attempt to increase its competition with Nintendo's DS Lite handheld console by offering a slimmer model of the PlayStation Portable (PSP) in September. Both the PSP and DS were launched in late 2004 but the DS console has performed the best of both, with sky rocketing sales recently.
"From a distance, this PSP might not look very different from the current model ... but when you have it in your hand, the difference becomes quite clear," Sony Computer Entertainment Chief Executive Kazuo Hirai said. "It's actually 33 percent lighter than the current PSP. It's also 19 percent slimmer."
Nintendo sold 23.6 million DS units in the year ended March 2007, outpacing PSP shipments of 8.4 million. The PlayStation Portable (PSP) uses UMD games and offers excellent graphics as well multimedia features allowing photos, music and videos to be played using the device, among many other excellent features.
The DS handheld has two screens, opens like a book, and allows the user to control most games using a stylus and/or a normal keypad. The slimmer version of the PSP will go on sale for $170, the current price of the PSP. Nintendo's DS Lite sells for $130.
Australian record companies and recording artists are set to benefit from a decision handed down in the Copyright Tribunal in Australia that demands a "better deal" from Nightclubs and dance parties. The Tribunal has approved an application by the Phonographic Performance Company of Australia (PPCA) for an increase in music license fees paid to artists and record labels by dedicated nightclub venues and commercially organized dance parties.
In the first comprehensive review of this tariff ever undertaken by the Copyright Tribunal, the Tribunal has lifted rates for licensed sound recordings played in nightclubs from 7 cents per person to $1.05 cents per person. The dance party rate rises from 20 cents to $3.07 cents per person. The decision follows a two week long case before the Tribunal (headed by a Federal Court judge) which heard expert economic evidence on the value of the licensed music played in nightclubs and at dance parties.
"An increase in these tariffs is long overdue and will help compensate artists who create the product which is the foundation of the nightclub and dance party industries. Artists are entitled to a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work and this will go some way towards compensating us for our creative output." PPCA Board member and Mondo Rock musician Paul Christie said.
Yesterday at the E3 event, Microsoft announced that the Xbox 360 Elite will be coming to Europe with an anticipated launch date of August 24th. The price of the system however, was not announced.
European customers will be able to use all Xbox Live offerings including the new HD Disney movie downloads.
The Xbox Elite is still cheaper than the new 80GB PlayStation 3 but notably lacks a built in HD optical drive.
The MPAA and the National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO) announced that over the July 4th weekend, five would-be cammers were arrested after they tried to illegally record the blockbuster hit Transformers.
“These arrests serve as a reminder to potential movie thieves that whether you use a camcorder or a cell phone, stealing movies off the silver screen is a crime and you will be arrested and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” said Dan Glickman, Chairman of the MPAA.
“Once again, theatre employees and theatre patrons have worked together to protect the art form they love, by intercepting movie thieves in the act of their crime. Thieves beware -- if you attempt to steal movies off the screen, we will find you and we will have you arrested.” said John Fithian, President and CEO of NATO.
The first arrest was made in New York City and the suspect is the first to be charged under new laws that were passed in May by Mayor Michael Bloomberg. He faces up to six months in jail and a $5000 USD fine.
The second defendant was arrested in El Centro, California when the projectionist saw her trying to record using a Nokia video phone. She faces up to one year in jail and $2500 USD in fines.
The Orchard, a digital music company that has built a business distributing albums from independent labels to online stores like iTunes, plans to announce today that it will merge with Digital Music Group.
The Orchard, which is owned by Dimensional Associates, the private equity arm of JDS Capital Management, makes deals to acquire digital distribution rights from labels, then takes a percentage of sales. Digital Music Group makes similar deals, but that company also controls the online rights to some classic television shows like My Favorite Martian and owns some recordings outright.
The combined company will control a substantial catalogue of entertainment assets, with over one million music recordings available for sale and thousands of hours of television, film and video programming, and will be a market leader for independent distribution of digital music and video, with powerful marketing, promotion, distribution and operations capabilities throughout the world. The company will continue to serve artists, labels, music publishers, television, film and video library owners and other rights holders by developing new and inventive ways to market and sell digital content. In addition, for digital and mobile retailers, advertisers, consumer brands and technology companies, the company will continue to provide a single point of access to one of the world's largest and highest quality digital content catalogues that spans global superstars and niche and specialty artists, together with state-of-the-art marketing, promotion and programming capabilities.
SOHU.COM, China's third-largest Internet portal, will upgrade its eight-million-member blog channel.
The updated version, to be launched next month in a big gala of Sohu bloggers in a park in Beijing, will allow users to upload their own videos and share with others, who don't have to download any extra software to play the clips.
As to the copyright issue, Sohu will monitor uploaded content and conduct its own censorship, said Fang Gang, vice editor-in-chief for Sohu.
Sohu, which recently made a renewed foray into online gaming with the launch of its Tian Long Ba Bu game, is looking to re-position itself as a social networking site, according to Charles Zhang, the company's chairman.
"The overall strategy of Sohu is to be not only a news portal but also a big community—like MySpace," Zhang told Reuters on Wednesday in an interview on the sidelines of ChinaJoy, China's biggest video game conference.
Currently Sohu's blogs only allow text and audio clips. The Website has a separate broadband video channel for entertainment news and clips, but they are not uploaded by Web users.
"We are not worried about how to make money (from the updated blog service) at this stage" said Zhang.
Hollywood figures ranging from Will Ferrel to former Disney CEO Michael Eisner are involved in Hollywood projects to take advantage of the profits generated by web video on sites like YouTube and MySpace.
The latest venture in this area, 60Frames Entertainment, is a partnership between Hollywood United Talent Agency Internet-based advertising agency Spot Runner.
As one of Hollywood’s largest talent agencies, United Talent represents stars and filmmakers as prominent as Vince Vaughn, Johnny Depp and Ben Stiller. Spot Runner, which is partly owned by the WPP Group advertising conglomerate, has helped smaller advertisers make and place television ads with a Web-based system. It expects initially to sell ads for 60Frames through a sales force rather than through its site, a spokesman said.
“We were finding it could be as difficult to make deals for a Web production as for a TV series,” said Mr. Weinstein. “It shouldn’t be that way.”
To clear the path, 60Frames expects to provide capital for Web productions that typically run for a few minutes and cost “in the thousands, not hundreds of thousands” of dollars to produce, said the executive. It will then try to distribute the videos on a variety of Web sites and cellphone services, while placing ads wherever possible, and leaving a major stake in ownership to the creators.
Just months after its second-generation Blu-ray Disc player hit the streets, Samsung already has a third generation version in the works.
The company will display the model, the BD-P1400, during the 2007 IFA consumer electronics conference in Berlin on Aug. 31, confirmed a company representative.
The player is expected to support Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby True HD and DTS-HD audio formats. The BD-P1400 also should boast a built-in Ethernet port, which had been the most notable upgrade for the second-generation Samsung BD-P1200 over the company’s first-generation BD-P1000.
If the new Samsung player ships to retail after Oct. 31, it will be mandated by the Blu-ray Disc Assn. that it include certain features that were not required of Blu-ray models that streeted prior to that cut-off date. One new required enhancement will be the capability to playback picture-in-picture, in which one separate stream of video runs currently with the running feature film. To date, no Blu-ray stand-alone features picture-in-picture playback. HD DVD hardware has been required to handle this feature since the launch of the format last year.
Coverage of Live Earth, which already broke the previous record for delivering Streaming media, has continued to be a money maker for MSN, who owns the rights for 90 days.
In total, Live Earth on MSN had delivered 30 million live and on-demand streams through Monday morning. During the live series of concerts, which lasted from Friday night at 9 p.m. EST through 11 p.m. EST time on Saturday, the site streamed 15 million clips.
According to MSN officials, usage peaked on Saturday afternoon, when 237,000 users streamed footage all at once, despite warm, sunny weather throughout much of the country. MSN executives claim that figure represents a record concurrent streaming audience for an entertainment event (CBS’ online streaming of the NCAA college basketball tournament did exceed that number in 2006).
Rob Bennett, general manager, MSN entertainment and video said that Live Earth had resulted in few technical glitches, despite the heavy volume. Unlike CBS, which deliberately capped the number of users who could tune in to see live college games during March Madness, MSN never considered placing limits on Live Earth.
Microsoft Corp. has revealed that it has no plans to respond to Sony's PlayStation 3 (PS3) price cut with cuts for its Xbox 360 console. Ever since Sony dropped $100 from the price of the 60GB version of the PS3 in the United States on Monday, rumors have been rampant that Microsoft will follow suit and drop its own console prices. The new $500 price for the PS3 is just $20 more than the Xbox 360 Elite price.
However, Microsoft won't reduce prices because it firmly believes there is no need to. The company is confident in the line-up of Xbox 360 game titles compared to the line-up for the PS3 for the rest of the year, and believes consumers have more incentive to buy an Xbox 360 from the games coming for the platform.
"We have no desire, no need, to react to anything the competition has done,"Shane Kim, head of Microsoft Games Studios. "We feel really great about the Xbox 360 momentum right now. Customers are voting with their wallets, it's not just about console units. We feel great about how we're doing."
He denied that the defiance to lower prices for now is related to the company's intention to make the Xbox business profitable in its 2008 fiscal year. "It's really not about meeting the profitability goals. We feel very confident that we'll meet the profit goals with our strategy that is already in place," Kim said.
Google's policy on the uploading of copyright protected videos to its services has been heavily criticized by the National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC). The group released a list of the top 50 videos it found on the Google Video search engine, uploaded by users who might be guilty of copyright infringement. Among the list were hits such as Michael Moore's Sicko, Walt Disney Pictures' Cars and Meet the Robinsons, Picturehouse's Pan's Labyrinth and episodes of HBO's Da Ali G Show.
All of the above titles were apparently easily found using Google's Video search utilities. "It's difficult to know for sure whether all of the content included in the top 50 list is being hosted in violation of copyright laws -- NLPC makes no assertions," chairman Ken Boehm said. "But it's a reasonable assumption that much of the content has been uploaded without the copyright owner's knowledge or approval."
The group's intention is to raise awareness of piracy online. "We realize that this is probably a drop in the bucket in ferreting out copyrighted content among the millions of videos posted on Google Video, YouTube and other popular video sites," Boehm said. "But we hope that our efforts serve as a resource for copyright owners to check if their content is on the sites without their knowledge or approval."
Microsoft's video download service for the Xbox 360 console got a significant boost on Wednesday with the addition of hit titles from Disney. The titles added include the animated hit "Aladdin" and the action title "Armageddon," and they can now be downloaded from the Xbox Live Video Marketplace. The video download service already offers content from more than two dozen providers.
The new Disney additions, which are available in high-definition, can be downloaded by U.S. subscribers of the Xbox Live service. This new agreement with Disney-ABC Domestic Television will also allow Xbox 360 owners to rent films on demand as they become available from Walt Disney Pictures, Touchstone Pictures, Miramax Films and Hollywood Pictures.
Right now, Xbox Live has about 7 million members. The Xbox 360 console has sold about 5.6 million and 11.6 million worldwide by the end of June, missing the worldwide target of 12 million.
Last week it was reported that Swedish police were trying to get the infamous torrent tracker The Pirate Bay reclassified as a "child pornography" site so that it would be filtered by Swedish ISPs.
The latest TPB blog however, seems to show that the police have laid off their threat, at least for the time being. There is a quote from an unnamed source that says "The child porn filter list distributed this week will NOT contain the pirate bay." It is not completely known whether the quote is direct from Swedish police or other sources.
The blog also questioned the motivation behind the police's actions.
"They claim that their work has been successful when trying to rid the Internet of child porn. I want to point out that still to this day, the police has not given us one single hint on what content on the site has been containing child porn - and the things we have filtered out has been proven not to be child porn either. So wtf? What is this content their talking about?"
TPB also added that they are contemplating filing a lawsuit for slander and other charges over the police's actions.
Yesterday, an unhappy Xbox 360 user filed a class action lawsuit against Microsoft over damage done to his discs by the console. What does the gamer want out of the lawsuit? All his games replaced or "equal monetary compensation" for them.
The gamer claims that the laser in the Xbox 360 caused permanent damage to his retail bought games and that the attached documentation that comes with the system does not mention anything or advise against moving the console while it is turned on.
The lawsuit also states that damage can occur while the console is stationery.
The lawsuit comes on the heels of Microsoft's $1 billion USD move to give customers warranty extensions and free repairs if there system experiences general hardware failure.
Within weeks, the Federal Communications Commission is expected to set conditions for the auction of the most valuable wireless spectrum still available in the U.S.
The spectrum, in the 700-MHz band, is highly coveted by a range of broadband providers, technology vendors and wireless voice providers because such signals are able to broadcast long distances and penetrate buildings and other obstacles. With no other auctions of large spectrum blocks on the horizon, many organizations have pitched a range of conflicting ideas and auction conditions to the FCC.
In early 2006, after more than a decade of debate, Congress voted to require television stations to move to digital broadcasts and abandon the 700-MHz band between channels 51 and 69 by Feb. 17, 2009.
The move to digital television, or DTV, will free up about 84 MHz of spectrum, with 24 MHz set aside for public safety. The remaining 60 MHz is set to be auctioned by early 2008.
Advocacy groups such as Public Knowledge and Consumers Union say the auction represents the best and last opportunity for large portions of the U.S. to have a third broadband provider that competes with the cable and telecom giants. These groups are asking the FCC to require that part of the auctioned spectrum be sold with so-called open-access rules attached, meaning the winner of the auction would have to sell wholesale access to the network to any company that wants it.
Rumors have been circulating about Apple Inc.'s plans once again for future tech gadgets. A patent recently filed by the iPod-maker seemed to suggest that the company was intending to introduce a Nano-style iPhone at some point. To add some authenticity to the rumors, JP Morgan analyst Kevin Chang cites unnamed sources in the supply channel that are backing up the original rumors associated with the patent filing.
It indicates that the device would be a smaller, cheaper verison of the iPhone that uses an input system like the iPod click-wheel instead of the touchscreen. Chang goes further however to suggest that the device could replace the current iPod Nano's on the market.
"We believe that iPod Nano will be converted into a phone because it's probably the only way for Apple to launch a lower end phone without severely cannibalizing iPod Nano," Chang is quoted as predicting. If the rumor is true, then it indicates that Apple is looking to break into the lower end in order to gain market share. Apple has always targeted the margin-rich higher-end of the spectrum.
While the company's iPhone enjoyed an excellent launch and a massive amount of publicity, its sales will be limited to a small percentage of the market due to its high price tag. In the United States, consumers tend to spend around $100 on a phone. Apple's iPhone comes in two models, a 4GB model for $499 and an 8GB model for $599.
Paramount has apparently sent DMCA "takedown" requests to YouTube to have copies of a teaser trailer showing before the hit Transformers movie.
Several copies of the trailer, seemingly shot in theaters with a camcorder, were posted on YouTube by Thursday morning. But by Thursday afternoon, some of those links had been taken down, replaced by an advisory saying, "This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Paramount Pictures Corp."
Cloverfield, which revolves around a monster attack in New York as told from the point of view of a small group of people, is being produced by Lost co-creator J.J. Abrams.
The entire project has been shrouded in secrecy from the beginning. The cast was even selected with no scripts being sent out.
The question that immediately comes to mind is how Paramount would expect to maintain that level of secrecy while simultaneously showing the trailer in theaters.
Looking to become a bigger player in the video revolution, Microsoft Corp. is placing its bets on its LiveStation service. LiveStation is a Web TV service created by the Redmond-based software giant in co-operation with a software company called Skinkers. Its goal is to offer high quality live TV content on a PC or other computing device, making it an alternative to Joost and YouTube which offer pre-recorded content.
LiveStation allows programming from a PC to be shared with other devices like a set-top box, and eventually a mobile phone. "As far as we can tell, the average user doesn't care to watch TV on their cell phone, but that might change with the iPhone," noted Rob Enderle, president of the San Jose-based Enderle Group. He admitted however that watching video on a laptop while traveling is common and that there have been products doing well in that area.
Beta tests of LiveStation are already underway in the UK, using live content from the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). CBS Television Stations announced in April that it would adopt Silverlight, which is the technology underlying LiveStation, for its Web TV initiative that is expected to launch later this year.
Hisense and Metalink Ltd. today announced their collaboration to offer innovative and cost-effective solutions for delivering high-definition (HD) multimedia over wireless home networks. Hisense selected Metalink's 802.11n-compliant WLANPlus technology to enable the wireless transmission of multiple HD TV streams from a centrally-located DTVs, PVRs and STBs to any room in the house.
Metalink's WLANPlus chipset family is a best-in-breed technology for wireless delivery of video-grade content in the home network environment, supporting up to 300Mbps transmission speeds using both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz frequency bands. The WLANPlus chipset family offers more than twice the reach of competing 802.11n solutions due to its implementation of a Maximum Likelihood (ML) decoder combined with advanced Forward Error Correction (FEC) scheme and the use of Low Density Parity Check (LDPC) technology.
"Last year, Hisense had 15% of the TV flat screen market in China, the highest market share among the Chinese Manufacturers. Our customers are demanding Wi-Fi as the enabling technology for advanced TV applications," said Dr. Li YuJun, Director of R&D at Hisense. "Our investigation has confirmed that Metalink's technology is the best wireless solution for such applications. By integrating Metalink's WLANPlus into our PVRs and STBs, our customers can take full advantage of their HD multimedia content, broadcasting a variety of programs to multiple devices throughout the home. We are pleased to work together with Metalink to incorporate this technology into our next-generation consumer electronics devices."
In comments filed with the Federal Communications Commission on Monday, the RIAA urged the agency to "make clear that its approval of a merger is conditioned upon the continued protection of sound recordings from unlawful infringement."
The RIAA's comments came on the final day for submitting comments about the public-interest implications of the XM-Sirius deal in general.
Under copyright law, separate licenses exist for the "performance" of a song and for the recording or "distribution" of it. Satellite and Internet radio broadcasters (unlike traditional radio) are already required to pay performance-based royalties.
But the RIAA said it's concerned that both satellite radio companies have invested in technologies that allow them to shortchange artists on the distribution side "by giving users the ability to download copyrighted sound recordings to portable devices, effectively transforming a radio-like service into a digital distribution subscription service like Rhapsody or Napster."
The FCC is still accepting comments for at least another month on a more specific question: whether, if it finds the XM-Sirius deal is hunky-dory for the public, it should waive a decade-old rule prohibiting a single operator from controlling all of the satellite radio spectrum.
Well known game developer, Konami, has come along to put a downer on Sony's recently announced $100 price cut for the PlayStation 3 (PS3) console. Kazumi Kitaue, head of Konami's North American and European operations, is not convinced that the damage done by the high price tag of the PS3 will be reversed that easily and hinted that the highly anticipated title, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, will be released on alternative platforms.
"I wonder if Sony can win back user support by the price cut of just $100," said Kitaue. "I don't expect a substantial impact... With $500, you can buy a personal computer." Metal Gear Solid 4 is currently a PS3 exclusive, with the game brand itself debuting on the PlayStation platform. It has been rumored for many weeks now that a version of the game will be released for the Xbox 360 console too.
"Since Metal Gear was born on the PlayStation, we would like to keep it a PlayStation game. But we might have to take some steps," Kitaue said.
Sprint has signed on as the first company to underwrite a song to be distributed on file-sharing networks, agreeing to embed its logo on copies of tracks from Atlantic Records hip-hop artist Plies, sources told The Post.
Sprint and Atlantic Records are teaming with ArtistDirect's Media Defender division for the initiative, which essentially amounts to an advertising buy for the telecom company.
According to sources familiar with the deal, Media Defender will push 16 million Plies song files embedded with the Sprint logo onto peer-to-peer networks over a three-month period in return for a "substantial six-figure" fee to be divided between Media Defender, Atlantic Records, Plies and his publishing company.
Once embedded, the Sprint logo will be attached to the files forever and will appear alongside Plies' name and the song Title on the screen of a desktop computer, iPod, cellphone or any other digital music player.
According to Steve Yanovsky, a former record industry executive who consults for Mindshare Interactive, which counts Sprint as a client, the deal positions Sprint "as an innovator and will help drive perception of them in the marketplace."
Now, PC intervention won't be needed. The new ''Buy on TV'' feature allows TiVo users to search Amazon's video catalog and rent or purchase titles using their TiVo's remote control.
In conjunction with the new feature, TiVo developed a safeguard so users would have to punch in a five-digit password to complete the transaction, said Jim Denney, TiVo's vice president of product marketing.
"We wanted to avoid the baby sitter scenario where you come home to find a bunch of movies on your TiVo that you didn't order," he said.
According to Sony America, the new upcoming 80 GB model PlayStation 3 will eliminate the the "PS2 emotion engine" chip.
"The current 60 GB model utilizes a hardware and solution for backwards compatibility, namely the Emotion Engine chip," said SCEA's Kimberly Otzman. "The new 80 GB PS3 will use a software solution for backwards compatibility, similar to that currently found in the PAL model."
US PS3 owners currently do not need to download software updates to play most of their PSone and PS2 games but buyers of the upcoming 80 GB model will have to if they want to guarantee backwards compatibility.
Dean Takahashi, the man who first confirmed the Xbox 360 IPTV as well as the Xbox 360 Elite has now confirmed that starting in the fall, 360's will come equipped with 65nm microprocessors and GPUs codenamed "Falcon."
Apparently, Microsoft is still getting the new Falcon chips and a redesigned motherboard qualified but the new 360s will be available by fall.
The new chips are smaller, run cooler and are almost 50 percent cheaper to produce than the current 90nm chips. With reports flooding the internet that 30 percent of 360s have failed and experienced the three red rings of death, the new cooler chips should help to lower that rate in the future.
Recently, Microsoft began a $1 billion USD initiative to give extended warranties and free repairs to gamers who have experience the rings of death.
Today, iRiver announced that they would be producing a new model for their Clix media players that will be compatible with Rhapsody by RealNetworks.
The first generation of Clix players are Windows Media based but the new second generation devices will support Rhapsody and Rhapsody DNA, Real's DRM solution.
The new device will of course support WMA as well but the main focus of the players is Rhapsody integration. Reigncom, the manufacturer of all iRiver devices also announced that those that bought second generation Clix players before today will be able to add the Rhapsody functionality through a firmware update.
The new devices feature 2.2 inch OLED screens, "direct click" navigation, FM radio and SRS WOW technology. 4GB models retail for $190 USD.
"We are excited to be launching the new clix Rhapsody," said Sean Kim, CEO of Reigncom. "With Rhapsody DNA technologies, we are able to introduce a number of new features to enhance the consumer's digital music experience by providing intuitive ways to discover and enjoy new music directly on the device."
According to Real, Rhapsody has almost 2.7 million subscribers and is the largest unlimited music service.
Just months after Yahoo! added searchable lyrics to their Yahoo! Music service, RealNetworks has done the same for their Rhapsody Online music service. Rhapsody Online is the web-based version of the company's subscription service and it has been decently popular since its launch. Users will now be able to view and search for legal lyrics from their favorite songs.
The new lyrics comes courtesy of a deal with LyricFind which has deals with the major music labels to license the lyrics.
According to Real, the new lyrics database is indexed in such a way that search engines can pick it up and drive more traffic to Rhapsody. Lyric searches are very popular on search engines and Real hopes the addition of the lyrics will bring some extra customers to the service.
This morning, Microsoft announced that it will be sponsoring a series of free concerts over the course of July and August in an effort to promote its Zune media player.
The events, collectively called "Zune Live at the BBQ" will include several popular hip-hop acts and the tour will begin in Los Angeles in 3 days. There is a Chicago tour date set for July 22nd and a New York City tour date planned for August 4th.
A few of the confirmed artists are Common, E-40, Bilal, Collie Budz and Mos Def. Microsoft noted that there were more acts still being confirmed and that fans should be in for a few surprise acts.
"It's a way to show our appreciation to the hip-hop community for its support of the Zune brand and to bring the music to life for fans," Zune marketing chief Chris Stephenson said.
Uri Geller, who became famous as a "paranormalist" in the 1970's with an act that included bending spoons, supposedly with his mind, is at the middle of a controversy regarding YouTube and other online video sites.
At issue is the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, or DMCA, which makes it easy for Geller and others to persuade Internet companies to remove videos and music simply by sending so-called takedown notices that claim copyright ownership. Most companies, including YouTube do almost nothing to investigate the claims.
"All it takes is a single e-mail to completely censor someone on the Internet," said Jason Schultz, a lawyer for the online civil rights group Electronic Frontier Foundation, which is suing Geller over an unflattering clip posted on YouTube for which he claimed a copyright ownership.
For nearly as long as Geller has been bending spoons and moving compass needles with the wave of a hand, professional magicians have been loudly debunking his claims of psychic ability.
A new generation of critics led by 30-year-old Brian Sapient of an organization called the Rational Response Squad have taken their crusade online. Sapient and others recently posted several video clips to YouTube demonstrating how Geller allegedly uses simple sleight of hand in his act.
The video game industry's annual showcase is saying goodbye to scantily clad booth babes, extravagant multimillion dollar exhibits, blaring lights and pounding music. Celebrity appearances from the likes of Paris Hilton or Snoop Dogg are a thing of the past, too.
The event, which starts Wednesday, looks to be more like a country club getaway, an invitation-only gathering complete with luxury beach-side hotels, sushi restaurants and meetings in private conference rooms.
After last year's expo, organizers decided it had become too big for its own good. With more than 60,000 people cramming into the Los Angeles Convention Center, there was a feeling that the needs of no one -- be it the media, retailers or video game publishers -- were being addressed particularly well.
Only about 30 of the largest video game software and hardware companies are attending, down from the hundreds that packed the sprawling Los Angeles Convention Center in previous years. Also missing will be the army of small-time bloggers, zealous game fans and others who somehow managed to infiltrate the trade-only event.
This week's event, which runs through Friday, will focus on the industry's largest players, including No. 1 game-software maker Electronic Arts Inc. and console makers Microsoft Corp., Sony Corp. and Nintendo Corp.
According to EA chief executive John Riccitiello, in a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal, "We're boring people to death and making games that are harder and harder to play."
Riccitiello became CEO at EA in April in his return to the game maker. EA's former chief operating officer had left the company in 2004 to help found Elevation Partners, a media and entertainment buyout firm.
The video game executive criticized the industry for rolling out sequels to new games that add little from the previous version.
"For the most part, the industry has been rinse-and-repeat," he was quoted as saying. "There's been lots of product that looked like last year's product, that looked a lot like the year before."
At a time when both the XBox 360 and PS3 are losing sales, apparently at the expense of the Nintendo Wii, Riccitiello's comments seem dead on. While the Microsoft and Sony consoles have the advantage in technology and established titles, the Wii seems to be thriving on something completely different. It's fun.
According to company sources, Last.fm is about to become the largest web radio service after signing a deal with Sony BMG for access to the entire catalog of Sony music.
"We've always aimed to have everything ever recorded available to listen to on our site, and having access to Sony's collection of some of the world's most popular music takes us another huge step closer," said Martin Stiksel, co-founder of the service.
Last.fm allows users to connect with other listeners with similar music tastes, to custom-build their own radio stations and to watch music video clips.
The software also tracks what users play on their PC or MP3 player to make recommendations.
Thomas Hesse of Sony BMG said this was key in its decision to partner with the UK firm.
"The Last.fm Streaming service will give our established artists a platform through which they can reach new audiences, and its unique recommendation system will provide our emerging artists with an important opportunity to build their fan base," he said.
Last.fm was purchased by CBS in May for $280 million.
NBC believes affiliates will sign on with their new venture with News Corp. called New Site, especially since they can participate on a non-exclusive basis, but it may not be as simple as that.
As we reported last week, NBC decided to change their web strategy, replacing a partnership with many affiliates after only 14 months. Although affiliates were generously compensated for their share of NBBC, the process left many of them bruised. “We weren’t sure of the [NBBC] deal to start with,” said Alan Frank, president, CEO of Post-Newsweek Stations. “The affiliates partnered with them and then it went away; it wasn’t a happy occurrence.”
Affiliates won’t have as much control in New Site as they did in NBBC. “The benefit of NBBC wasn’t so much as a distribution vehicle, but being a partner. So we were disappointed that NBC’s strategy changed relative to their own affiliates,” said Dave Lougee, executive vp, media operations for Belo Corp, owner of multiple NBC affiliates.
“We look at all the options, and we’re not necessarily dependent on what NBC does,” said Steve Wasserman, vp, general manager of WDVI, Post-Newsweek’s Detroit NBC affil.
In general, the Web continues to be a moving target for station execs. “We’ll review [New Site]; we look at everything. But right now, we’re just keeping it local,” said Randi Goldklank, vp, gm of WHDH, Sunbeam Television’s Boston affiliate, which did not participate in NBBC.
In what Joost would consider the next step in growing its online video service, a new partnership with VH1 means that a new scripted comedy series "I Hate My 30s" will premiere on the P2P-driven video service. The first season of the show will be available exclusively on the upstart Internet TV service on July 16. This means it will be available through Joost 10 days before its scheduled broadcast premiere.
"This is exactly the kind of partnership we would like to have with content owners," said Yvette Alberdingk Thijm, executive VP content strategy and acquisition at Joost. "We see this as Phase 2 in creating value with content owners."Viacom Inc., which owns VH1, is an investor in Joost after joining the likes of CBS Corp., Sequoia Capital, the Li Ka-Shing Foundation and Index Ventures in a $45 million round of funding announced in May.
The deal also means that Joost is moving toward direct competition with services such as Apple's iTunes and Microsoft's Xbox Live Video Marketplace. Joost also has deals with Warner Music Group, Turner Broadcasting and Sony Pictures Television.
Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) has made a smart move on Monday by dropping the retail price of its PlayStation 3 (PS3) console by $100, to $499, in the United States. The move comes just two days ahead of the E3 games conference in Santa Monica, California. The PS3, which features a 60GB hard disk drive (HDD), has had a very shaky start since last year's launch in North America, marred by poor sales performance and production problems.
The price drop puts the PS3 price just $20 ahead of Microsoft's most expensive Xbox 360 model (Elite). "Our initial expectation is that sales should double at a minimum,"Jack Tretton, chief executive of Sony Computer Entertainment America, said in an interview. "We've gotten our production issues behind us on the PlayStation 3, reaching a position to pass on the savings to consumers, and our attitude is the sooner the better."
Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter does not believe the price drop will double hardware sales, but could instead reach increases of about 50%, to 120,000 units per month. While a great improvement, it would still look bad in comparison to the sales performance of Nintendo's Wii console, which still only costs half the price of the PlayStation 3.
While the hardware and disc sales of both HD DVD and Blu-ray are nothing to write home about just yet, Warner Home Video is already preparing to roll out "best of HD DVD" and "best of Blu-ray" boxes that will include the most popular titles on the formats to date. There will be three volumes released for each format, holding four movies per box with a street price of $84.99, a 30% discount over the price of combined titles.
The volume one "best of" boxes for both formats include Lethal Weapon, Road Warrior, Swordfish and Training Day. The Last Samurai, The Phantom of the Opera, Troy and Unforgiven are part of the Volume 2 set for on HD DVD while the Blu-ray box exchanges Troy for The Fugitive. The Volume 3 sets for both formats include Blazing Saddles, The Departed, Goodfellas and Superman, The Movie.
"This is a way to give consumers the opportunity to buy some of our most popular titles as a kind of starter kit," said Steve Nickerson, Warner Home Video senior VP of market management. "Here's a group of movies that we know from sales most people are buying. The idea is to offer consumers an easy way to purchase movies—there is a value there."
DirecTV's missions to dramatically "expand HD programming for millions of DirecTV customers nationwide and establish DirecTV as the industry's HD pace-setter," kicked off yesterday when DirecTV 10 satellite soared into space. After the spacecraft is maneuvered into a circular orbit at 103 degrees West longitude and tests are completed, it is expected to begin operations in early September, delivering the first of up to 100 national HD channels by year-end.
The DirecTV 10 satellite's powerful transponder payload includes spot beam capacity that will enable DirecTV to expand its local HD channel services to up to 75 markets this year. "With the successful launch of our DirecTV 10 satellite, we are, to borrow a phrase, boldly going where no TV service has gone before - a new world of up to 100 HD channels and a viewing experience unmatched in the multichannel video marketplace," said Derek Chang, executive vice president, Content Development and Strategy, DirecTV, Inc.
He added: "We congratulate the Boeing and ILS teams on a flawless launch as we begin the next countdown to September when the first of our new HD channels will be available to our customers." DirecTV has agreements in place to rollout multiple HD channels from top content providers such as Disney, Discovery Communications, A&E Television Networks, HBO, Fox, Turner, NBC Universal, Showtime Networks, Starz and Scripps Networks, among others.
Sharp has announced that it is talking to about 30 countries about its dual-mode mobile TV chip, the . The company touts the chip as a "world's first" as it is capable of supporting two rival mobile TV standards used in Europe - DVB-H and T-DMB. Sharp plans to increase its production capacity for the chip to 2 million units a month – up from its current capability of around 300,000 units a month.
However, South Korean electronics giant Samsung also has its eyes fixed on that market and even has products already that can beat Sharp's offering. It has developed a multi-standard decoder, the S3C4F31, and multi-band RF tuner, S5M8602, chipset which supports multiple digital mobile TV standards. At the time, both chips were among the first to use 65nm processing.
The list of supported standards includes both DVB-H (for mobile phones) and DVB-T (regular digital TV) plus T-DMB. It also includes support for DAB-IP which is used in the UK by Virgin for the Movio service and ISDB-T 1, which is popularly known as One-Seg and is used in Japan. Other rivals watching the market include Freescale, Broadcom and Philips.
A few days ago, we reported that the fake torrent site MiiVi was down after it was discovered it was a front for the MPAA to catch would-be pirates.
The agency behind the site, Media Defender however, is denying that the site was set up as an entrapment scheme like many are calling it. MediaDefender went on to say that the story was being blown out of proportion by pro-torrent sites such as The Pirate Bay and TorrentFreak as a way to remove credibility from the company and its software.
The site Zeropaid, working on a tip from TPB, originally found out and released the information that Media Defender was behind the site, citing a "whois" record that clearly showed the organization as being owners of the site.
After the article hit, the whois record changed and now shows anonymous Domains by Proxy information.
Media Defender's Randy Saaf responded to the claims. "MediaDefender was working on an internal project that involved video and didn't realize that people would be trying to go to it and so we didn't password-protect the site," Saaf said. "It was just an oversight from that perspective. This was not an entrapment site, and we were not working with the MPAA on it. In fact, the MPAA didn't even know about it."
As time goes on, the number of file sharers is continuing to rise. While the numbers on the most popular P2P networks might be falling (or staying flat), interest in software such as BitTorrent is not failing to grow. As for those who have been casual music downloaders, BitTorrent - with a lot of support behind it - is starting to drag them towards downloading movies, including pre-release copies.
While movies have been available online for years and many millions of file sharers have been downloading them, the focus for many more is changing from music to movies and TV shows quickly as they discover BitTorrent and abandon the older, slower methods. The RIAA has tried to reduce the level of music sharing online, but even on the file sharing networks which have been hammered by lawsuits, the level stayed just about about flat over the past year.
"There have been years when we have seen double-digit percentage growth,"Eric Garland, cofounder and CEO of BigChampagne, told Ars. "Compared to that, the last 12 months have been rather flat." BigChampagne notes that the average torrent had 817,588 people participating in May 2006, now that figure had jumped to 1,357,318 seeders and leechers, a growth of about 66%.
Google Inc.'s YouTube service has been told to remove over 100 videos from most popular guitar teacher on the site. In all, about 100 videos were removed at the request of a record company. Since the instructor used part of a Rolling Stones song in one of his videos, he was accused of copyright infringement. Two men are well known for their YouTube instruction videos for guitar playing.
David Taub, who lives in San Diego, is one of them. He has posted many instructional videos on YouTube, the most popular of which shows a simplified version of the Eagles classic, Hotel California. The video received over one hundred thousands views. He opens each video with the same line: "What's up, good people!".
Justin Sandercoe, is another London-based guitar instructor on YouTube. He has a teaching Web site — justinguitar.com. He takes Paypal donations to cover the fees and keeps the website as a free service. "I like the idea of being able to deliver quality guitar lessons to people who can't afford lessons, or who are in places where there's not that kind of access to somebody who can teach them the right stuff," he says.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has demanded that the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) pay for a single mom's two-year legal ordeal fighting a baseless file-sharing lawsuit. The group let its position known to a Washington state court in an amicus brief filed Thursday. In January 2005, Dawnell Leadbetter was accused of illegally downloading copyrighted music and the RIAA claims she owed hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Leadbetter contacted the RIAA to deny the baseless claims, and refused to pay any settlement monies. In response, the RIAA sued Leadbetter, and Leadbetter hired an attorney to fight the charges. After months of legal wrangling, the RIAA finally dropped the case in December of 2006. But in the meantime, Leadbetter had incurred significant attorney's fees.
"Ms. Leadbetter isn't the only innocent Internet user that has been ensnared by the RIAA's litigation dragnet. But she is one of the few who have fought back, resisting RIAA pressure to pay settlement monies for something she did not do," said EFF Staff Attorney Jason Schultz. "The RIAA's settlement offers are usually less that what it would cost to defend yourself, so it's a big commitment to hire a lawyer to clear your name. Reimbursing Ms. Leadbetter's attorney's fees could encourage other innocent lawsuit targets to stand up for themselves."
According to two new lawsuits filed against Apple this week, the company "knowingly infringed on copyrights", including the copyright of an artistic photographer and a song written in 1979.
Apple TV's most popular advertisement is a so-called "video wall", which consists of alot of small videos playing simultaneously while an Apple TV unit is in the middle. Louis Psihoyos, the artistic photographer, believes the video wall is too similar to one of his photographs to be coincidence and therefore the lawsuit was filed.
Apparently, Apple and Psihoyos had been in negotiations to use the concept but the agreement was never made. The lawsuit goes on to say that Apple then stole the concept instead of developing a new one. Psihoyos also argues that he never made one cent from any of Apple's profits from the Apple TV.
The second suit, a civil complaint, accuses iTunes as being "an acting catalyst for music infringement." According to the suit, Avril Lavigne's 2007 hit "Girlfriend" is based almost completely on the 1979 song "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend" by James Gangwer and Tommy Dunbar. The artists believe that any company that publishes or sells the new song is infringing on the original song.
Kiosk company TitleMatch Entertainment Group has inked a distribution deal with Bollywood film company Eros Entertainment to make the supplier’s films available for on-demand burning through in-store kiosks and online.
Eros will make a range of new release and catalog movies available through the TitleMatch DVD On-Demand service. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.
TitleMatch offers on-demand sales of DVDs through Overstock.com and has plans to burn DVDs on demand at in-store kiosks. The company has a deal with a retailer for a pilot test of its DVD kiosks later this year, said VP of business development Mary Litchhult, without naming the retailer.
The company plans to operate movie kiosks similarly to photo departments. Shoppers would pick out the movie they want on the kiosk. The order would be sent to the “factory” area of the store (such as a customer service department) where the DVD is burned and packaged by the retailer. The customer would then pick up the order.
TitleMatch’s On-Demand system uses CSS encryption for DVDs it manufactures on demand, and the company has been waiting for the DVD Copy Control Assn. to approve burn-to-DVD to move forward.
A consumer advocacy group has expressed outrage over Apple Inc.'s battery replacement program for the iPhone.
On the day of the phone's release, the Foundation for Consumer and Taxpayer Rights fired off a letter to Apple and AT&T Inc., the Cell phone's exclusive carrier, complaining that customers were being left in the dark about the procedure and cost of replacing the gadget's battery.
The iPhone's battery is apparently soldered on inside the device and cannot be swapped out by the owner like most other cell phones.
Apple spokeswoman Jennifer Hakes said Thursday the company posted the battery replacement details on its Web site last Friday after the product went on sale.
Users would have to submit their iPhone to Apple for battery service. The service will cost users $79, plus $6.95 for shipping, and will take three business days.
The procedure is similar to the one it has for the company's best-selling iPod players, but because some users will not want to live without their cell phones, Apple is also offering a loaner iPhone for $29 while the gadget is under repair.
The service is also similar to the iPod in that all data is cleared from the iPhone during the replacement process, so you have to make sure that you back up all data on the device before sending it in. Apple says the iPhone battery is good for between 300 to 400 charges before performance will start to decline, which generally is the case for any lithium-ion battery over time.
The British 'HD for All' campaign, designed to promote hi-def TV, drew a withering blast from Sky yesterday.
Sky public affairs head Martin Le Jeune described it as a "shabby alliance between a group of public service broadcasters who should know better [and] vendors who sell expensive product". It was "genuinely silly", he told a Westminster audience.
It was insulting to compare the provision of HD programming to something as fundamental as universal healthcare, he said. HD TV is the mass-market technology that never arrives - but Sky has been offering the service for real for over a year now, and actually has some viewers.
Westminster's eForum gathered MPs, broadcasters, and regulators at Millbank yesterday to discuss the state of HD TV in the UK. The day's debate confirmed that in Britain the talking would carry on for some years to come.
At the core of the delay is the issue of spectrum. The established public service broadcasters say there isn't enough of it to go round. This view was encapsulated by Simon Pitt, "director of platforms" for ITV.
Pitt said squeezing HD programming onto the spectrum allocated was "theoretically true but practically difficult". But this is prime spectrum, and lots of people want it. Mobile TV (such as DVB-H) is another way it could be put to use; local TV is another.
The Live Earth global POP concerts on Saturday broke a record for an online entertainment show by generating more than 9 million Internet streams, Microsoft Corp. Web portal MSN said.
People can stream an event more than once -- by switching it on and off -- so 9 million streams does not necessarily mean 9 million people watching, MSN said.
Live 8 was the first major multi-venue event successfully streamed live with Time Warner Inc.'s AOL portal on the Web. AOL said 5 million people had logged on to the event on the day of those shows, but it did not say how many Internet streams of the event there had been.
Live 8 was streamed by users more than 100 million times in the six weeks following the shows.
Live Earth is predicted to be three times bigger with organizers expecting more than 80 percent of the viewership will be on-demand in the days after the event.
Music industry organization SoundExchange is offering a new deal to internet radio broadcasters who say upcoming royalty hikes will kill online broadcasting.
The proposed compromise puts a ceiling on the new set of hefty royalty rate hikes that takes effect July 15. Under SoundExchange's latest olive branch, royalties would be capped at $2,500 per service, regardless of the overall number of stations or channels they are Streaming.
The Digital Media Association, the trade group representing internet broadcasters, said it will accept the proposal if the cap was extended to the entire term of the CRB's ruling, which would terminate in 2010. Currently the rate cap proposal ends in 2008.
"Any offer that doesn't cover the full term is simply a stay of execution for Internet radio," DiMA said in a release. "The looming 2009 billion-dollar threat is destabilizing and inhibits investment and growth. DiMA, like thousands of artists and millions of consumers, wants a solution that promotes long-term industry growth. A billion-dollar 'minimum fee' is equally absurd in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 or 2010. It should be eliminated – period."
John McLaughlin, founder of Uniquephones, has revealed that all of the company's software engineers are working around the clock to bypass iPhone restrictions that tie it to America's AT&T provider. The company said it is almost ready to release a beta of the unlocking software and claims the pre-release technology is already able to unlock 75% of all the iPhones it has tried using a code generated by the unit's IEMI number.
The resulting software will be sold by the company for about £50, far more than unlocking fees for other mobile handsets. Some days ago, Jon Lech Johansen (DVD Jon), the Norwegian hacker that is credited for the creation of DeCSS, found a way to unlock the multimedia and wifi capabilities of the phone without signing up to AT&T's service, just days after the iPhone release.
The U.S. Copyright Office confirmed last year that consumers are allowed to unlock their phones in order to use them with other carriers, although it is likely that AT&T and Apple will contest that decision if/when it comes down to it. Uniquephones said it's received more than 150,000 inquiries about unlocking iPhones and has even received a large number of IMEI codes already from owners.
With the growing success of services such as iTunes, more consumers are turning away from record stores and buying their music online instead. However, it can be a costly habit when your equipment is stolen or somehow destroyed. Buying all your digital downloads again could be very expensive and chances are, even if you have insurance, your "digital possessions" may not be covered at all.
Of course, it always makes sense to make backups of your digital data, but an event such as a house fire would most likely destroy the backups too. For many users, a digital music collection might be the lowest priority after losing many possessions in a house fire, but since some collections are hundreds or thousands of tracks long, it helps to have an insurer who definitely covers them.
A UK unofficial consumer watchdog, Which?, recently released a report that showed out of 46 insurers, less than half covered digital downloads in their policies. It is believed that up to 24% of music downloaders have had their entire digital music collections lost one way or another. Amongst the companies that do insure digital downloads, there are some differences.
For example, Churchill Insurance covers up to £1000 of downloads in addition to the cost of repairing the host computer whereas Privilege Insurance will cover up to any value of digital downloads. However, whilst Churchill will take download claims "in good faith", Privilege demands receipts or some other form of proof of ownership of the music downloads.
The University of Berlin, partnered with Budapest University of Technology and Economics and Universita Politecnica delle Marche in Italy, have worked out how to cram 500GB of data onto Blu-ray or HD DVD discs, saying that 1TB of data is the aim. The Microholas project created a microholographic recording technique that uses nanostructures inside the disc instead of on the surface.
Using this method, storage capacities can be achieved that make today's available storage by optical disc look pretty weak. A single layer Blu-ray disc can store 25GB of data and a dual layer BD disc holds 50GB. Single-layer and dual-layer HD DVD discs store 15GB and 30GB of data respectively.
The 500GB prototype contains 50 data-storage layers. Professor Susanna Orlic explained to German site Pressetext that applying wavelength multiplexing techniques to multi-layer disc structures, you can achieve very high densities. The goal of this high-storage media would not be to distribute movies or games, but would be more geared toward long-term data storage instead.
PSM France has revealed some details on a SIXAXIS rumble controller for Sony's PlayStation 3 (PS3) console. One of the rumors that has been spread about such a controller is that it will feature "Touch Sense", a superior vibrating system compared to older controller technology. The vibrations do not come just from the handles but from various areas of the lever.
Using the Touch Sense system, developers will be able to experiment with different effects for users during gameplay instead of the standard system used by the PS2. The effects will be more powerful and intense, and should provide a better gaming experience for the user. For example, firing a gun will prompt a fast jolt from the controller, and tearing around a race track will prompt the controller to vibrate in sync with the roughness of the road surface
Sony first admitted that it would consider changing the SIXAXIS controller for the PS3 in March this year after settling an ongoing dispute with Immersion.
Samsung and MusicNet have teamed up to provide yet another challenge to Apple's dominance over the music downloads market. A new service in Europe will offer an unlimited download monthly subscription service or the option to buy individual tracks or full albums. The service will be accessible through the Samsung Media Studio, the proprietary media player that ships with the company's K3, K9, and T9 model media players.
As for previous versions of the software, support will be added via automatic updates. The service will work with Samsung's PlaysForSure devices, based on Microsoft's Digital Rights Management (DRM) software. The service will cost about $20 per month on subscription, ot will cost $1.57 per track to buy.
Samsung said it would launch a "significant marketing plan" in the countries to promote the players and service soon, but no details were disclosed.
As part of Sony's latest offers, the Giga Juke NAS50HDE Hi-fi system sports some nice features. It comes equipped with an 80GB HDD that is advertised as being capable of storing up to 40,000 music tracks or 13,000 albums. Music can be ripped from CDs at 16x, meaning individual tracks will take seconds and full long albums, a few minutes. By connecting the system to another hi-fi, recordings from vinyl LP's or tape cassettes can be made directly to the hard drive.
Portable music players can be connected via USB to copy music. Of course, a direct connection to a PC will also work. Recordings can also be made from FM radio. A 4.3" screen indexes all the song in order, either by date added, mood, genre or artist. Built into the system is details on 350,000 albums, so information can be displayed on many popular tracks.
MP3, ATRAC and LPCM audio can be imported. The speakers and an and an 'S-Master' digital amplifier provides 2 x 85 watts of hi-fi sound. The device also supports direct connection with Sony's PlayStation Portable (PSP). An optional upgrade can make the system Wifi-ready also, for easy connectivity with computers on a wireless network.
The Live Earth event on Saturday is set to reach millions more people than previous global productions with its reach boosted by the fast-growing power of Web video sharing and social networks.
Organizers estimate television broadcasts of the live concerts staged to raise awareness about climate change will be available to up to 2 billion people although there is no estimate of how many people will actually watch the shows. But that viewership may be trumped online where a generation hooked to social networks like MySpace and video site YouTube share ideas, photos and videos with their peers.
The global Live 8 concert to fight poverty in 2005 was the first major multi-venue event successfully streamed live with Time Warner Inc.'s AOL portal on the Web. But Control Room, which produced Live 8, found it was the on-demand streams days after the event which had the most impact, especially after clips were passed round by e-mail.
Live 8 was streamed by users over 100 million times in six weeks. Live Earth is expected to be three times bigger.
In June, MTV quietly introduced its free Video Remixer service, which enables users to create their own version of select videos using clips from the original video, archived MTV footage, photos and other media. MTV then airs the top-rated submissions.
The first video available was Kelly Clarkson's "Never Again" on June 5, followed shortly by Nelly Furtado's "All Good Things (Come to an End)" June 29. Additional artists are being lined up for the coming weeks. In Clarkson's case, the official version of "Never Again" was a top 10 video on MTV and was streamed "hundreds of thousands" of times, according to Holt. The remix contest, meanwhile, received more than 750 submissions in less than a month. About five of these were viewed more than 1,000 times, with the most popular surpassing 2,000. Approximately 30 gained more than 100 viewers, while 360 received less than 10.
From a promotional view, it's difficult to draw a direct cause-and-effect relationship. But from a revenue opportunity standpoint, more spins, plus a longer shelf life, equals more money. It has become standard practice for record labels to demand a cut of the revenue for ads sold around online music videos. The more videos watched, the more money the labels and the remix services get. And as traffic increases, so do ad rates.
Although movie studio support seems to be waning, Sony's senior marketing manager for PSP John Koller has said that the company has no plans to kill off UMD and will remain committed to the format.
"We'll never walk away from our base. Whether it's movies or game content, third parties have an incredible opportunity to utilize it," he added.
"UMD possesses many strengths, from size to form factor to portability. Duplication of UMDs is much easier, cheaper than cartridges. We've really optimized time and cost by going with a disc-based format," Koller noted.
Koller made his comments after news spread that the latest PSP firmware update includes an ISO loader, allowing gamers to play games that have been stored on their Memory Sticks. Many saw the move as a way for Sony to move away from UMD and towards downloadable content.
UMD does have its downside however, Koller admitted. "There's no question the biggest weakness is related to porting games from other platforms. Publishers are concerned about the size of UMD because they can't cram a DVD game on to it," he said.
Legendary Castlevania creator Koji Igarashi added that there were more disadvantages to the format. "The slowness of the seeking speed of UMD is a weakness," he stated, "loading speed becomes a big problem for UMD".
Although they already apologized to the Church of England over their recreation of Manchester Cathedral in their hit game Resistance: Fall of Man, Sony took out a full page ad in the local paper yesterday to apologize to the people of Manchester in an effort to smooth things over.
The ad, which was in the Mnachester Evening News, apologized for any offences the PS3 game may have caused and also showed that Sony was humbled.
"It is clear to us that the connection between the congregation and the cathedral is a deeply personal and spiritual one," offered David Reeves, president of SCEE.
"As a result, it is also clear that we have offended some of the congregation by using the cathedral in our science fiction game. It was never our intention to offend anyone in the making of this game, and we would like to apologize unreservedly to them for causing that offence, and to all parts of the community who might also have been offended."
For the 4 day period of July 10th to July 13th, Microsoft will be making E3 related videos available in HD on Xbox Live.
The new revamped E3 event will be much less accesible than in past years and so Xbox 360 owners should be happy with the move.
Along with the announcement, Microsoft released a list of the downloadable HD content that would be available directly from the event. The list, as presented at Dailytech,
* Microsoft’s E3 2007 press conference — beginning at 8:30 p.m. PDT on Tuesday, July 10 — will be available on Xbox LIVE Marketplace in high definition later in the week
* Video updates direct from the show
* A selection of game trailers, themes, gamer pictures and demos will be available from the hottest E3 titles such as these:
* “Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation” (NAMCO BANDAI Games America Inc.)
* “Assassin’s Creed” (Ubisoft)
* “BioShock” (2K)
* “Blue Dragon” (Microsoft Game Studios)
* “Burnout Paradise” (Electronic Arts Inc.)
* “CALL OF DUTY 4: MODERN WARFARE”(Activision)
* “FIFA Soccer 08” (Electronic Arts)
* “Guitar Hero III” (Activision/RedOctane)
* “Lost Odyssey” (Microsoft Game Studios)
* “Madden NFL 08” (Electronic Arts)
* “NCAA Football 08” (Electronic Arts)
* “Need for Speed: ProStreet” (Electronic Arts)
* “Project Gotham Racing 4” (Microsoft Game Studios)
* “The Simpsons Game” (Electronic Arts)
* “Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08” (Electronic Arts)
* “WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2008” (THQ)
According to a press release from the Swedish Pirate Party, apparently the Swedish police have taken thier disdain of the infamous torrent tracker The Pirate Bay to a new level.
The police are reportedly "attempting to block access" to the site by reclassifying it as a child pornography site. The police then hopes Swedish ISPs will voluntarily block the "child porn" site.
The Pirate Bay has been the center of controversy for years, and it has so far thwarted numerous attempts to get it shut down. It seems though, that Swedish authorities are now desperate.
"This is a devastatingly ignorant abuse of the trust relationship between the Internet world and the Police that was created in order to stop child pornography", says Rick Falkvinge, leader of the Pirate Party. "Once given the means to shut down unwanted sites, the Police uses the filter to shut down the Pirate Bay after the failed attempt last year. And just like last year, through abuse of procedure."
TPB's latest blog includes quotes from a Swedish police press release about whether or not to reclassify the site.
"It’s not decided that we’ll put The Pirate Bay in the list - if the content is still there next week we’ll put them there," a police spokesperson is quoted in the blog.
Today, Sharp announced that it will be releasing its first Blu-ray player in time for the holidays.
The player, the BD-HP205, which should hit by late fall had its preliminary specifications released along with Sharp's announcement. There will be 1080p output along with Dolby TrueHD decoding and 24fps and 60fps output capability.
The player will also support HDMI v1.3 and include analog 5.1 outputs as well.
A new addition Sharp is bringing to the table is a "Quick Start" feature which will load the Blu-ray disc seconds after it is inserted into the drive tray. Most current Blu ray player owners will agree that loading times can be horrendous.
There is no set retail price but we will keep you updated.
MiiVi, a video download site that linked to many movies has been taken offline after being discovered as a front for the MPAA to catch pirates.
The site, besides linking to movies, also linked to a MiiVi accelerator application, which apparently is a Trojan horse.
Zeropaid discovered the site was a front after doing a Whois search on the site that revealed it was owned by MediaDefender, a company the MPAA uses due to its specialty in anti-piracy "solutions."
The application is really a Trojan horse that scans your hard drive looking for pirated content and then reports back to MediaDefender which gives the information to the MPAA.
"It's always nice to know that sometimes good things do happen, and more importantly, that MiiVi won't be trapping any more unsuspecting users," 'soulxtc' wrote from Zeropaid.
According to Kotaku and DVD Talk, it seems the PlayStation 3 will be getting a much talked about but not anticipated price drop.
Members of DVD Talk acquired a flyer from the large retailer Circuit City which showed that beginning July 12th, the PS3 would be listed at $499.99 USD after a $100 "price break."
Although it is not completely known whether the sale price is specific to Circuit City, a merchandising manager for Sony supposedly confirmed that the price drop was coming on July 12th, with promotion beginning on July 15th.
Many now believe that Sony will officially announce the price drop at their E3 press conference on July 11th.
The price drop has been rumored for a few months now, with heads of Sony fueling the rumors. Last month Sony president Ryoji Chubachi told the Financial Times“We are re-examining our [PS3] budgeting process in terms of pricing and volume. Sales assumptions change and the market is competitive. We are in the midst of revisiting our strategy for the PS3.”
Sony CEO Howard Stringer also said this month that the company was looking to "refine" the price.
We will wait and see and keep you updated on any developments.
We reported last month that Lala.com was offering an "iPod compatible" online music service that used free-play of online songs to attract potential buyers. However, Lala.com has now stopped its Beta version of the free music streaming service. The service had the support of the world's fourth largest record company, Warner Music Group.
The company has explained that service has been stopped because its servers couldn't handle the number of users trying to stream music. However, after the company's announcement last month, it was easy to be skeptical about the ultimate financial success of the scheme. Lala said it would pay a cent to record companies for every song played.
Licensing fees were projected to reach over $150 million within two years. Lala said the service will be resumed at some point in the future.
Ricoh Japan has sent samples of its new VCPS-capable DVD+R media to manufacturers of DVD recorders. Video Content Protection System (VCPS) is a new encryption mechanism designed for use with blank DVD+R/RW/DL media. VCPS-capable media could be labeled as "broadcast flag-ready" media. While the requirement for equipment to support the broadcast flag is long gone, it is still making its way into broadcasts and recording hardware.
The goal is to prevent mass distribution of copyrighted content that have been recorded from digital broadcasts. The broadcast flag can dictate what is allowed to be done with the content and what is not. For example, recording a broadcast might be allowed, but making copies of the recording can be restricted.
However, some DVD+R/RW recorders utilize this encryption because the implementation of VCPS is not mandated by the DVD+RW Alliance. However, this means that devices that do not utilize the technology will not be able to record content that is transmitted using the new broadcast flag protection.
A new federal rule set to take effect today could mean that radios built on "open-source elements" may encounter a more sluggish path to market--or, in the worst case scenario, be shut out altogether. U.S. regulators, it seems, believe the inherently public nature of open-source code makes it more vulnerable to hackers, leaving "a high burden to demonstrate that it is sufficiently secure."
By effectively siding with what is known in cryptography circles as "security through obscurity," the controversial idea that keeping security methods secret makes them more impenetrable, the FCC has drawn an outcry from the software radio set and raised eyebrows among some security experts.
"There is no reason why regulators should discourage open-source approaches that may in the end be more secure, cheaper, more interoperable, easier to standardize, and easier to certify," Bernard Eydt, chairman of the security committee for a global industry association called the SDR (software-defined radio) Forum, said in an e-mail interview this week.
The Forum, which represents research institutions and companies such as Motorola, AT&T Labs, Northrup Grumman and Virginia Tech, urged the FCC to back away from that stance in a formal petition (PDF) this week.
Sony Corp. has no plans to cut the price of its PlayStation 3 (PS3) at present to pep up demand and counter surging sales of Nintendo's rival game console Wii, Sony's president said on Friday. Sony President Ryoji Chubachi also said in an interview that operating profit margin at its mainstay electronics unit, which makes hot-selling Bravia LCD televisions and Cyber-shot digital cameras, was likely to exceed its 4 percent target for the current year to March 2008.
The higher price tag and lack of attractive software titles have been cited as main reasons the PS3 has been trailing the Wii in sales, and analysts have been widely expecting Sony to soon slash the price to spur on demand.
"If you take a look at how PlayStation and PlayStation 2 have taken off, this is not such an unusual start," Chubachi said. Chubachi said the company was on Track to hit its target of a 5 percent operating profit margin for the year to March 2008, and its electronics division will likely exceed the 4 percent target.
The margin targets, set in 2005, have been considered as the most visible indicator of success for turnaround efforts by Chief Executive Howard Stringer and Chubachi.
Toshiba has announced they will be bringing true 24p output to their popular HD-XA2 and HD-A20 HD DVD players.
The new capability will be added through a firmware upgrade due in September. The firmware upgrade will introduce "playback of film-based content" at 1080p/24fps, otherwise known as 24p.
Although movies are captured at 24p for theatrical exhibition, they are usually transferred at 30fps for home video formats. Both HD DVD and Blu ray are capable of encoding at 24p but so far no HD DVD players have facilitated playback at anything but 30p.
According to the Times Online, O2 has signed an exclusive deal with Apple to bring the iPhone to the United Kingdom.
Although Vodafone was the early favorite for the contract, it seems O2 has come away with the deal. It is also believed O2 will revenue share with Apple from revenue generated from each new iPhone customer.
T-Mobile is expected to make a similar deal for exclusive rights in Germany and Orange is close to making the same deal for France.
In the US so far, the iPhone has been a great success despite its hefty price tag.
According to new data from Nielsen SoundScan, physical CD sales continue their plunge while digital sales continue to surge.
For the six month period of January 1st to July 1st, only 230 million physical albums were sold, a heavy 15 percent drop from the same period in 2006. Digital music sales increased by about 50 percent, to 417 million during the period. Combining the figures, album sales dropped about 9.2 percent.
According to the data, the biggest selling album of the year was Chris Daughtry's "Daughtry," which has sold 1.7 million discs. For digital distribution, Gwen Stefani's "Sweet Escape" was tops with 1.8 million tracks sold so far.
Analysts stated the obvious when trying to explain the surge of digital sales compared to physical CDs. They attributed the numbers to the popularity of MP3 players especially the iPod and to the new focus of the music industry on hit singles. Consumers are much more likely to buy a track they know and like then buy the whole CD.
Although Apple denied the rumors, Universal confirmed that they were indeed looking to end its long term contract with iTunes and instead were looking for an "at will" contract.
Although "at will" contracts are usually reserved for minor distributors, industry insiders say Universal's move is an attempt to get the upper hand on Apple in setting terms and prices.
Universal has been very aggressive over the last few years in regard to its digital distribution strategy, even going as far as to sign a deal with Microsoft to get a cut of all sales of the Zune.
"Universal Music Group has decided not to renew its long-term agreement for Apple's iTunes service. Universal Music Group will now market its music to iTunes in an 'at will' capacity, as it does with its other retail partners," said a prepared Universal statement.
If worse comes to worse in this situation, Universal's music could be completely pulled from iTunes or all new music could be withheld. That would not come without a price however. 15 percent of all the music sold on iTunes is Universal's and so pulling the music would be a large revenue disruption for both companies.
This week, Microsoft admitted that the large failure rates for Xbox 360 consoles was indeed an issue and then said they would extend the warranty period for any and all consumers that have experienced hardware failure with their console.
Recent reports showed that as many as 30% of 360 consoles experienced the infamous "three red lights of death" and Microsoft is now taking full responsibility for the issues.
Those that have experienced the red lights will have their warranty extended to three years from the date of purchase and if you have ever paid for out-of-warranty repairs, then you will be reimbursed, including shipping charges.
According to analysts, the move will set Microsoft back over $1 billion dollars USD for the second quarter of their fiscal year.
"This problem has caused frustration for some of our customers and for that, we sincerely apologize," Microsoft's entertainment chief Robbie Bach said. "We value our community tremendously and look at this as an investment in our customer base."
So far, the move has been applauded and I agree that is a very good step in the right direction.
"That's a good move for them and it's an important step to take. It's nice to see a company owning up to issues and taking responsibility for them although at this cost it's certainly painful, even for Microsoft," JupiterResearch analyst Michael Gartenberg said.
South Korean hardware giant LG has issued a lawsuit against the world's largest contractor for building laptops, Quanta stating that they have blatently stolen the design for DVD player components from LG.
LG claims that the Taiwan based company has used their plans inside all of their devices which contain DVD drives without giving any royalties. The lawsuit was entered into a U.S. District Court in Wisconsin on July 3rd and is seeking an injunction against Quanta for using their technology. They are also seeking undisclosed monitary compensation for the past infringements.
In a statement from LG on Wednesday, a representative said, "LG's claims include infringement of four patents related to DVD standard. Quanta has been using these patents without LG's permission to produce notebook computers that were supplied to U.S. computer companies."
Quanta has major existing contracts with some of the leading laptop providers including Dell, Apple, Hewlett-Packard, and Sony. An injunction such as this could spell troubles for the Taiwan based company.
NBC Universal informed its affiliates Monday that it was shutting down NBBC (National Broadband Company), the online video syndication venture the network formed with affiliates. NBBC will be folded into New Site, the NBC-News Corp. online video venture set to launch this year.
NBBC was formed in April 2006 to share and monetize video aggregated from NBC’s affiliate stations, the NBC Universal library and other content partners.
As part of the transition, NBC bought back the affiliates’ share of NBBC. Affiliates were given 30 days notice of the change and will now need to negotiate a new arrangement in order to participate in New Site.
Not to be content with merely going after lost assets from music file sharing, the RIAA has set its sights on yet another potential revenue generator. Stating that the advent of the Internet and the ease in which its tools can give consumers easier and more efficient access to music, the RIAA feels that they are no longer receiving the benefits due to them for allowing radio stations to play their music for free. While the overall financial outlook of broadcast radio has only seen very marginal increases in revenue as of late, the RIAA appears to want to kick the radio stations while they're down and at their weakest.
For at least 70 years, radio stations have been allowed to broadcast music of their choosing without the need to provide royalties to the recording industry or its artists. The agreement originally made between the two groups was an arrangement of free advertising and viewed as a necessary expense to get new and current artists noticed in the music community.
As of mid-June, 133 musicians and recording industry organizations, including the RIAA have formed a coalition called musicFIRST. Its aim is to press Congress into reviewing the copyright acts and reform the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998. They would like broadcast radio to be treated to the same royalty obligations as satellite radio.
The European Commission has expanded an informal probe into whether the licensing strategies of two rival groups of DVD developers are anti-competitive by seeking information from film studios, an EU executive said. So far the probe is still at the stage of basic fact-finding, and a formal investigation hasn't been opened.
The European Commission, the European Union's executive body, appears to be particularly interested in the activities of the Blu-ray group because of its dominance in Hollywood, according to people familiar with the situation. The commission is investigating whether improper tactics were used to suppress competition and persuade the studios to back their format.
In its formal request to at least one studio, the commission has asked for documents related to any decision to release movies on Blu-ray exclusively and not HD DVD, as well as communications on both formats with certain individuals associated with Blu-ray.
Microsoft Corp. has revealed when it will release the upgraded version of its Xbox 360 games console, Xbox 360 Elite, in Japan. The new version of the console will arrive on shelves in Japan on October 11th. So far, the Xbox 360 console has had very poor performance in Japan compared to its competitors, Sony Corp. and Nintendo. To be fair, Japan is the home territory of both Sony and Nintendo.
The Xbox 360 Elite black unit has some upgraded hardware to offer, as well as a 120GB HDD. It will sell for ¥47,800 (USD$390) compared to its U.S. price tag of $479.99. Nintendo's Wii console sells in Japan for ¥25,000 (USD$205) and Sony's PlayStation 3 (PS3) 20GB model sells for ¥49,980 (USD$408).
In the first half of 2007, Microsoft only managed to move 122,565 Xbox 360 units in Japan. Nintendo's Wii console managed 1.78 million units in the same time frame and Sony's PS3 managed 503,554 units.
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is suffering more accusations of illegal practices in its hunt for music file sharers in the United States. Ms. Crain, the defendant in an 8-month-old P2P lawsuit, had claimed she never heard of file sharing until the RIAA demanded a $4,500 settlement. Armed with a lawyer, Crain filed a counterclaim against the RIAA in the Sony vs. Crain case, filed in Texas.
Ms. Crain's attorney has now filed a motion to amend the counterclaim to add new allegations against the recording industry trade group and its partners. The documents claim that Crain "has become aware upon information and belief that the RIAA have illegally employed unlicensed investigators in the State of Texas and used the information thereby obtained to file this and other similar actions across the country."
Texas state law says that investigations companies must be licensed in order to collect evidence that can be used in court; a requirement that Crain says MediaSentry, the RIAA's investigations partner, was fully aware of in Texas and several other states but chose to ignore it. "The RIAA and MediaSentry agreed between themselves and understood that unlicensed and unlawful investigations would take place in order to provide evidence for this lawsuit, as well as thousands of others as part of a mass litigation campaign," the motion reads.
A court in Belgium has ruled that an Internet Service Provider (ISP) has the means to block illegal downloads from P2P networks and must begin doing so within six months. Scarlet (formerly Tiscali) had been fighting a case brought against it three years ago by the body representing authors and composers in Belgium, SABAM. The ISP argued that it would be impossible to monitor and filter the traffic of all its users.
The judge decided to bring experts in to determine whether Tiscali's claim was true and eleven different measures were presented on how to block illegal downloads. Technology from Audible Magic was included and appears to be the recommended solution for Scarlet. However, some measures would have resulted in blocking P2P traffic altogether, which could block significant legitimate use.
The Judge decided that there was enough technology available for Scarlet to attempt blocking illegal downloads and has given the ISP six months to implement measures. If Scarlet is defiant, it could face a fine of €2500 per day. While Scarlet has not yet revealed what it plans to do about the court decision, John Kennedy, Chairman and CEO of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), has praised the decision on behalf of the trade body which represents the global record industry.
After months of false starts, DVD burning and legal movie downloading got a huge boost this week when the DVD Copy Control Association (DVD-CCA) approved a final amendment that will allow movie downloading services and DVD kiosk companies to offer on-demand disc burning using CSS-encrypted copy protection.
The amendment should be finalized by the end of the week at which point the changes will become effective. Then, movie download service will be able to offer movies that can be downloaded and burnt to physical DVDs as well as played on standalone players. The move should be a huge boost for movie download services due to the added appeal of being able to own the DVD after you download it.
"CSS is that line in the sand," TitleMatch chief technology officer Aaron Knoll said last week during the Entertainment Supply Chain Academy conference in Los Angeles. "Once there is the ability to legally replicate CSS [on such discs], we expect the coffers to open up."
The first hurdle in the process was getting Panasonic, which is one of a few companies that controls the master license to CSS, to agree with the move. Panasonic declined to accept the amendment when it was first tried in April.
Sources close to newswireless have reported that the worldwide mobile phone carrier Vodafone is close to announcing a European deal for the Apple iPhone.
The reports say that Apple is simply waiting for the one million sold milestone at which point they will announce Vodafone, T-Mobile and Carphone Warehouse as distribution channels.
With the iPhone selling over 700,000 phones already, the announcement could be made as soon as this weekend, although there may be some legal issues. The reports also note that a contract was drafted in Germany but did "not meet the approval of Vodafone's English lawyers".
Adding fuel to the rumors is statments made by Vodafone's German chief, Friedrich Joussen, as well as the newspaper the Rheinische Post identifying T-Mobile Germany as a candidate for iPhone distriibution. The paper also suggested a November 1st launch for European iPhones.
In an update to our report here, Apple is denying the published reports and says instead that Universal has not informed them of such a decision. "We are still negotiating with Universal," says Apple representative Tom Neumayr, speaking in an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle. "Their music is still on iTunes and their not re-signing is just not true." Universal however, has not responded with any statements of their own.
Tony Berkman, an analyst at Majestic Research, says Universal holding out on a new contract could be partially blamed on widespread complaints within the industry. "The music industry has been frustrated with Apple for some time because they feel (Apple) has a veritable monopoly on downloading music," says Berkman. "For a while, Apple had all the leverage and could dictate the terms to the publishers." Currently, iTunes has a 70 percent market share of the online digital distribution business, swiftly beating out all competition.
Allan Klepfisz, CEO of Qtrax says that Apple and the music industry are for now, linked. "As much power as they might be perceived to have, Apple needs the record labels and the record labels need Apple. But it's a mistake for anybody to think the record labels need Apple more than Apple needs the record labels."
In an update to our previous article, it seems even more iPhones have been sold than was previously reported. Apple has said that over 3 days, 700,000 phones were sold, shattering AT&T's record for most phones sold in a month. Previously, the RAZR was the top selling phone for AT&T, with over 500,000 sold in its first month.
According to Apple, 95 of 164 Apple stores were sold out by Monday night while AT&T sold out almost every phone in its 1800 locations. Apple stores located in Hawaii, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Utah, and Washington state were completely sold out, according to Bloomberg.
After the device was introduced at Macworld 07, AT&T's CEO predicted "the largest commercial product launch in the history of electronics." It seems that he was right in his prediction.
Jon Lech Johansen, known to many as DVD Jon for his part in breaking the CSS encryption of standard DVDs, has announced today that he has successfully "broken the activation code for AT&T in iTunes," which could possibly unlock the phone for services besides AT&T.
More importantly, DVD Jon discovered that by editing key hexadecimal numbers in Apple's software and by also redirecting an Internet server request, he was able to successfully trick the phone into switching into its activated/normal mode. Although you will not be able to make phone calls, the iPod and Wi-Fi services will function as if the phone was activated.
Jon also said the modifications can either be made manually or using a custom Phone Activation Server that will automatically modify all necessary software. As of today, these modifications can only be made on Windows systems.
Apple and AT&T have yet to respond to Jon's announcement.
At a media expo today, Samsung released more info on its upcoming Blu ray/HD DVD combo player, the BDP-UP5000.
The player will support all the features of both rival formats including web-only extras available through an Ethernet connection.
The player will have no problems playing movies ar full 1080p and can also output movies at native 24 fps or up to 60 fps for faster videos. The company boasts the player will eliminate stilted motion effects "caused by pulldown conversion" as well.
Although the final cost and release date were not finalized, Samsung said it should be ready for shipment in October with a price tag above $1000 USD.
A total of 35 people have been arrested in an Italian town as part of a major crackdown on a criminal gang that was producing and selling counterfeit goods. Those arrested in the Italian town of Pescara included a policeman and a court official. The official from the Civil Court of Pescara and the policeman played a major role in the pirate gang, as did a clerk working for the Ministry of the Interior.
The move, dubbed "Operation Crack", was coordinated by Aldo Aceto, the public prosecutor from Pescara, and was carried out by local police assisted by music, movie and business software anti-piracy experts as well as SIAE, the authors' collecting society anti-piracy team.
More than 12 CD burning facilities were found and dismantled in and around Pescara and police officers also seized more than €400,000 in cash.
Microsoft Corp. announced that Katherine Styponias will join the Media & Entertainment Group as general manager, where she will lead the business development team working with major content suppliers. Styponias joins Microsoft from Prudential Equity Group LLC, where she served as senior vice president and the senior cable, entertainment and satellite equity analyst.
She was named in The Wall Street Journal’s “Best on the Street” poll for earnings-estimate accuracy and stock picking in the entertainment category. She was also recognized in Institutional Investor magazine’s All-America Research Team poll and was named the No. 1 earnings estimator for the media sector in the Forbes.com/StarMine Analysts Awards for 2004.
Along with Microsoft's position as a major supporter or HD DVD, this move could help establish them as a major player in online content delivery. According to Styponias, "After 12 years covering developments in entertainment, I'm looking forward to turning my knowledge and relationships into opportunity for the industry," Styponias said. "This is a time of tremendous change in the way entertainment is being delivered, and Microsoft is a great place to influence the game."
Several movie studios have licensed an audio watermarking technology from Verance Corporation for Blu-ray and HD DVD. The technology, called VCMS, adds a digital signal to analog audio which can be used by players to recognize content that's been recorded in a movie theater. The technology was approved by the AACS LA in February 2006, allowing it to be used on AACS encrypted discs. AACS is expected to release final license agreements requiring the inclusion of VCMS/AV detector technology in HD DVD and Blu-ray players in the next few months. Verance watermarking is already used on DVD-Audio discs.
"The Verance watermark technology provides value to all participants in the marketplace by encouraging availability of a broad selection of compelling titles for consumers to experience in new ways while discouraging the use of the emerging formats as a growth platform for piracy." according to Nil Shah, chief executive officer of Verance.
A video clip on the European Commission's YouTube channel, EUTube, has stirred controversy due to its perceived sexual nature. The clip, which has had over 1 million views, features semi-nudity in sex scenes from European movies and so has gotten considerable criticism from European Union lawmakers. "Cheap, tawdry and tacky," said Godfrey Bloom of Britain's U.K. Independence Party, who described the clip as "soft porn" and a waste of taxpayers' money.
The clip shows 18 couples (some homosexual) having sex in all sorts of settings. EU lawmaker Maciej Giertych of Poland, from the conservative League of Polish Families said that the Commission is using "immoral methods" of promotion. Commission spokesman Martin Selmayr, said that the clip, which is made up of scenes from movies including "Amelie" and "Bad Education", highlighted Europe's tradition of rich cinema.
Selmayr said that he has not received any complaints about the video.
In September 2006, LG released its 4x BD-R writer, the GBW-H10N. While the burner was the fastest on the market for single layer BD-R writing, Panasonic is set to release a 4x burner that can burn to dual layers, making use of all 50GB of a Blu ray recordable disc, and making it the most efficient BD-R burner on the market.
The new burner will also be able to burn to CD-R / RW, DVD±R / RW, DVD±R DL, and DVD-RAM, making it a good overall burner as well.
No word on price or release date yet, but we will keep you notified.
BBC Video, riding the immense success of "Planet Earth", has officially announced they will be bringing the stunning documentary "Galapagos" to both Blu ray and HD DVD on October 2nd.
The film was shot entirely in HD and has spectacular footage and never before seen satellite imagery of the Galapagos Islands in South America.
Earlier this year, "Planet Earth" beat expectations by becoming the top revenue generating HD title so far as well as becoming the best selling HD box set title.
The company did not release any technical specs or details on special features. The list price for both formats will be $28.99 said BBC.
A U.S. appeals court panel has ruled that companies processing credit card payments for web sites that offer pirated content are not liable for infringement. The decision confirms a lower court decision against Perfect 10 Inc. in its dispute with Visa International Service Association, MasterCard International Inc. and affiliated banks. Perfect 10 Inc. operates a web site featuring nude pictures of models.
Norm Zada, president of Perfect 10, said that the ruling will encourage theft of intellectual property and gives thieves a means to profit from piracy. "On the Internet, it is easy to steal and almost impossible to defend against that," Zada told Reuters. "How much business do I lose? There are least 70 sites I subscribe to that sell every picture that I own."
"The plaintiffs want to create an economic blockade of anybody accused of infringement,"Andrew Bridges, the lawyer who defended MasterCard said. Writing for the majority, Judge Milan Smith Jr. said credit card processors do not assist or enable Internet users to find infringing content. "Here, the infringement rests on the reproduction, alteration, display and distribution of Perfect 10's images over the Internet," Smith wrote.
One of the more talked about features of the iPhone was the phone's exclusive hold on YouTube. It turns out however, that that hold will be very short lived.
LG announced today that they had also made an agreement with the video site to bring videos to its upcoming line of phones later this year.
Unlike the iPhone however, LG will offer the option to allow users to shoot videos and instantly upload them from their phones.
Although YouTube already has a version of the site formatted for mobile devices, the agreements with Apple and now LG tie the site much more closely with the phones.
The digital touch technology company Immersion announced yesterday that they had licensed the technology to mobile phone giant Nokia for future devices.
Although neither company mentioned the Apple iPhone when talking about the move, it can be seen as a direct response to the phone's launch. The iPhone makes heavy use of the touchscreen technology and many see the phone as a "game changing" device.
The licensed technology is Immersion's VibeTonz tactile feedback system which allows for devices to provide "unmistakable tactile cues in response to touch screen presses".
"With VibeTonz technology, Nokia can very purposefully access the sense of touch and add value throughout the mobile device," Immersion CEO Victor Vegas added.
Thanks to the deal, Nokia will be able to implement the technology into all their devices worldwide and it will also give developers of Nokia software the proper tools to incorporate the technology into their applications.
Financial terms were kept confidential for the time being, and the company also noted that an SDK will be uploaded for the Nokia developer community.
RCA has launched its new line of Pearl digital audio players which also serve the function of a USB drive by having the port built in.
The new line of Pearls support MP3, WMA/WMDRM-9 files, as well as Audible. They have backlit LCD displays and come in several different colors as well as many languages.
There is an inline microphone so users can directly record audio. A feature of interest is a MicroSD expansion slot which will mean many users will be able to share music with their mobile phones by quickly moving the memory card.
The MP3 players only need one AAA battery to run, and the players boast 15 hour battery life.
Currently on sale are 1 GB and 2 GB models with respective $39 and $48 USD pricetags.
The PSP homebrew scene was dealt a blow recently as one of the more influential developers for the PSP decided to call it quits. Dark_Alex, who's work included many custom firmware options for PSP owners allowing them to keep the homebrew capabilities while still experience the newer features, has stated on his website that he can no longer keep up with the scene.
Blaming the amount of time it takes to work on new revisions as well as potential pressures from Sony themselves, he has decided to tip his hat to the scene and walk away while he still can.
Bye, scene.
I've decided to cease OE development, and leave PSP scene.
The reasons are various.
One of them is the time it consumes, which i'm losing from other things.
The other is related to my security. I didn't like Sony menaces to PS3 hackers.
I think it is better to leave now rather than end paying the consequences. As quoted from his website.
This departure comes just before anyone could marvel in the famed 3.50 firmware release. There are bound to be many, including myself, who will miss Dark_Alex's OE custom firmware revisions, but it is understood that what he did was a risky business and its smart for him to leave while he's ahead.
Controversial Russian music download site, AllofMP3.com, closed its doors last week. The site, which sold music downloads for a fraction of the price that iTunes and similar authorized services charge, was the target of international legal and political attacks over the past two years. The site claimed that it was fully legal under Russian law, and for a time was the second most popular paid music download site in the UK.
The once "$30 million a year" site caused ripples across the world and at home, as it was painted as a huge block of Russia's entry into the World Trade Organization. Its business was particularly impacted when credit card and other online payment facilities withdrew their support for the site.
However, the company behind AllofMP3 followed the closure with the opening of yet another music download site, MP3Sparks.com, selling tracks for similarly low prices. The site uses the same legal arguments for its operations as AllofMP3.com.
Hitachi is responding to struggling plasma TV sales in the European and Chinese regions by announcing it will soon also offer large screen liquid-crystal display (LCD) television sets in both territories. Sales of Hitachi's Plasma TVs in China and Europe have struggled to compete with lower-priced liquid crystal display televisions offered by its competitors.
The Yomiuri Shimbun reported that the company will soon offer both plasma and LCD TV sets in Europe and China in an effort to boost revenues. LG Electronics is currently involved in lawsuits with Hitachi over alleged patent infringement. LG claims that Hitachi is infringing on their plasma display panel patents.
The two electronics giants have been working on a licensing agreement since 2005, but seem to have a fundamental difference of opinion over what is covered by each company's patents.
Samsung has called in its legal team in Australia after Panasonic ran an advertising campaign claiming that most consumers preferred Plasma TVs to LCD TVs while viewing both together. Samsung, which sells both plasma TVs and LCD TVs, is not alone in challenging the Panasonic claims; Sony also issued an open letter to retailers after taking legal advice over the campaign.
Sony claimed that the Panasonic campaign is actually confusing the market. Samsung lawyers have warned Panasonic in a letter that its campaign may be in breach Section 52 of the Trade Practices Act because material aspects of the campaign do not accurately reflect the facts about LCD.
"While we support consumer choice of the two formats, both of which have their merits, and we support the use of clever advertising campaigns, we feel it is incumbent upon advertisers to ensure their advertisements accurately reflect the facts. Our lawyers have written to Panasonic to address our concerns and to ask for the research methodology," Samsung Corporate Marketing Manager Kurt Jovais said.
Panasonic has deleted and changed some of the claims published on its website in response.
LG Electronics has begun 8-up processing on its A3 plasma display panel (PDP) line. The move was made to ramp up production capacity. The technique will allow LG to produce a maximum of 8 panels from one sheet of glass substrate. Previously, the maximum umber of panels created from a sheet of glass substrate was 6.
Simon Kang, CEO of Digital Display Company, LGE said that the company will accommodate increasing demand for PDPs by maximizing its production efficiency, especially in the second half of the year. "This is part of LGE's ongoing campaign to streamline its production system," Kang added.
With the help of 8-up processing, LG has increased its total capacity per month by 22%, from 360,000 to 440,000 panels, even greater than the total capacity before its A1 line was shut down. Glass substrates used for LGE's 8-up PDP production will be increased to 1,956×2,200mm in size from the previous 1,956×1,650mm size.
Last week, LG Electronics also began mass production of 50-inch full high-definition TVs (HDTVs) as part of its ongoing efforts to focus on premium display products.
Universal Music Group (UMG) is reportedly seeking to abandon year long+ agreements with Apple Inc.'s iTunes multimedia download store. Instead, the world's largest record company is seeking to make short-term, month-by-month licensing agreements with Apple. According to a source seeking to remain anonymous, the arrangement would allow Universal to offer exclusive content deals to rivals of iTunes.
Wal-Mart, Best Buy Co. and Yahoo Inc. currently have similar short-term agreements with Universal for their online offerings. The previous agreement with Universal expired at the start of June, and according to Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr, both companies are still negotiating.
"Their music is still on iTunes, and their not re-signing is just not true," Neumayr said, declining to elaborate. When Apple first signed deals with the major record companies a few years ago, the record industry was failing to provide alternatives to piracy when interest in digital music files was booming.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs had a plan for a "one-price-for-all" music download store that could be tied with the company's iPod. Apple has since grown to be the No. 3 music retailer in the United States. The company claims to have revolutionized music online and as a result, has always had considerable leverage in its dealings with the record industry, and many executives within the record companies are tired of not being in power.
Apple's iPhone is reported to have sold more than 500,000 units since its launch. Most owners who waited patiently to pick up the gadget rushed home to check our its features, but some decided to dissect the phone instead and see what makes it tick. In cases, some users have broken their iPhones beyond repair just to find out who supplied the internal components for the latest Apple gadget, which has been surrounded buy strict secrecy since it was unveiled.
Intel Corp., Broadcom Corp., Texas Instruments Inc. and Infineon Technologies AG were among the entities shown to supply components for the iPhone. Most of the suppliers revealed saw their stock values rise as a result, but most seem to be ignoring questions from the media about their business relationships with Apple.
Samsung Electronics Co. is producing the main microprocessor used to run the phone's operating system and various applications along with NAND flash for storage. Intel is supplying NOR flash memory also, according to various research firms. Broadcom is providing a chip which seems to manage the touch-screen display.
A power management chip is supplied by Texas Instruments and Infineon Technologies makes parts that handle cellular communications for the iPhone. Woburn, Mass.-based Skyworks Solutions Inc. was revealed as the supplier of a power amplifier used in the iPhone and English company, Cambridge Silicon Radio Ltd. is responsible for making chips to provide Bluetooth connectivity.
According to the latest figures by Enterbrain, the Nintendo Wii is now outselling the PlayStation 3 at a ratio of 6-to-1 in Japan.
During June, 270,974 Wii units were sold while Sony only moved 41,628 consoles. Microsoft continued to lag even farther behind with only 17,616 units sold.
The Wii to PS3 ratio has been getting larger and larger since April when the ratio was 4-to-1. It moved to 5-to-1 last month and the momentum just keeps on rolling.
This morning, the Business Software Alliance (BSA) announced that you can be in for a hefty reward if you were to report a business or individual that is pirating or using pirated software for internal use.
The new ceiling, a special promotion until October, will be a cool $1,000,000 USD. Yes, you read that right, one million dollars. The new ceiling is an $800,000 USD premium from the current rewards ceiling.
The BSA hopes that the new, huge reward will make even the most timid employee into a snitch. "Businesses often have a million excuses for having unlicensed software on office computers. BSA is now offering up to a million dollars for employees who turn them in," said Jenny Blank, Director of Enforcement for the BSA.
The rewards paid out by the BSA is determined by the size of "the settlement paid by the company pirating software, or the size of awarded damages in the instance of a dispute heading into court." For example, if you want to qualify for the million dollar settlement, you will need a settlement of $15 million or higher.
The BSA also revealed however, that $22 million total has been generated from settlements with businesses accused of using pirated software since 2005, when the rewards program began. That clearly means that huge rewards have not been given out so far, but the BSA is certainly hoping more people will step forward now.
Today, Microsoft announced that they had joined with Amazon to bring up to 1000 independent titles to HD DVD.
The companies will use an Amazon company, CustomFlix to spearhead the operation which will provide the filmakers free authoring and setup services to make their movies available to be distributed in HD DVD.
The setup and authoring for HD DVD discs usually costs $499 USD but Microsoft is covering that charge by accepting the filmmakers into the program. Microsoft did say however, that there would be additional fees for required artwork that filmmakers are required to pay.
Currently, HD DVD suffers from a lack of defined studio support so this latest move is an almost effortless way to increase their catalogue.
The Sundance Channel said it would be using the program to offer its "Big Ideas for a Small Planet eco-series."
"Programs like this one from Amazon lower barriers to entry for independent artists and provide audiences with increased access to high-quality, high-definition content," Sundance Channel programming head Christian Vesper said.
Independent filmmakers can feel free to submit their work to the CustomFlix web site from which Microsoft and Amazon will select the 1000 best works for distribution. Afterwards, the discs will be sold on Amazon.com.
Although they declined to give a specific number, AT&T announced that over the weekend they had sold half of their complete stock of iPhones while Apple Stores sold just as well.
Reports from analysts around the country have put the 3-day sales at 520,000 with the highest concentration of sales coming from stores in the western US. Major cities such as San Francisco, Las Vegas and Miami completely depleted their stocks.
Many reports also indicated that Apple Stores had much larger stock than AT&T stores but that AT&T was offering "direct fulfillment" ordering options to those that waited on line but could not get one. Those orders would take precedent over replenishing stores' diminished stock.
EMI has announced that they have made a deal with SNOCAP to sell DRM-Free music.
This latest deal will allow artists to sell their music from blogs, off their own websites, and from social networking sites such as MySpace. The songs will also be encoded at 320kbps.
Beginning next week, EMI will begin to sell its catalogue through SNOCAP's Mystores. According to SNOCAP, a few of the artists piloting the move are 30 Seconds To Mars, The Almost, The Bird and The Bee, KORN, Dean Martin, MIMs, Relient K, Saosin, Sick Puppies, and Yellowcard.
SNOCAP uses a feature it calls "spread the word" which works exactly like YouTube's video embedding feature. Artists can embed a retail point anywhere on the internet to sell their music from.
“SNOCAP’s MyStore technology is an exciting new proposition and another step forward for consumers, artists and the digital music market overall,” said Eric Nicoli, CEO of EMI Group. “Giving consumers the capability of buying music directly from their favorite artists’ websites and social networking areas is a great way to connect artists directly with fans. We’re delighted that our DRM-free, higher-quality offering will be available this way, so that fans can play the music they buy on a range of devices.”
In an effort to move the media's focus off Manhunt 2, Rockstar Games announced some of the details of their highly anticipated upcoming game Grand Theft Auto: IV
The developer said they will be taking pre-orders of the special edition of the game, which will run at $90 USD for both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions. They will also be taking pre-orders of the regular edition, which will cost you $60. The orders are already being taken at rockstargames.com/warehouse
Rockstar also gave some details about what was in the special edition packages.
• The game in a custom metal safety deposit box with keys on a Rockstar keychain.
• A limited edition Rockstar duffel bag.
• The Grand Theft Auto IV Art Book with exclusive production images.
• A GTA IV soundtrack CD.
According to Rockstar, "All of the items have been created with the utmost attention to detail to create a unique Grand Theft Auto IV experience for any fan of the series".
One of the innovations of the new iPhone was that users could activate their phones and service from home, using iTunes.
It seems, for a good amount of users however, "including early customers who tried to activate their account or transfer numbers from another carrier", this strategy has failed. After downloading iTunes 7.3 and connecting the phone to their computer, activation failed.
Customer service representatives all agreed that the failure was caused by a "high number of simultaneous activations".
Many annoyed customers received the message "your activation requires additional time to complete" when trying to activate and were told they would receive an email from AT&T when they could complete the activation.
New customers cannot use any of the iPhone's functions before activating so many were left with a $600 paperweight. According to posts on Apple's support forums, some users have been waiting 15 or more hours without any resolution from Apple or AT&T.
There have also been complaints about automatically transferring an old number while others have had success moving from individual accounts to a Family Plan.
In a move that has drawn criticism from music retailers around the world, the hit artist Prince has decided to launch his upcoming new CD for free, including it in the newspaper, The Mail on Sunday.
The Mail on Sunday announced that the 10-track "Planet Earth" CD will be available for free today in the paper, over three weeks earlier than its retail release date on July 24th.
"It's all about giving music for the masses and he believes in spreading the music he produces to as many people as possible," said Mail on Sunday managing director Stephen Miron. "This is the biggest innovation in newspaper promotions in recent times."
The paper, which sells over 2 million copies per week, said they will be ramping up production, anticipation a large sales spike for the week.
Music store executives have scoffed at the offer, with some going as far as to calling it "madness", while others called it a huge insult to the industry. In an effort to appease music stores, Prince's label cut its ties to the album in the UK.
The ERA (Entertainment Retailers Association), had this to say. "It would be an insult to all those record stores who have supported Prince throughout his career," ERA co-chairman Paul Quirk told a music conference. "It would be yet another example of the damaging covermount culture which is destroying any perception of value around recorded music.
Today, the large music retailer HMV has announced that it will begin selling DRM-free legal digital downloads starting in September.
HMV also said they would move all their digital downloads into the hmv.co.uk store, rather than the current hmvdigital.co.uk store. This change will allow UK customers to buy physical CDs and digital CDs from the same site, a move never before seen by such a large retailer.
Among the over one million DRM-free tracks included at launch will be EMI's full catalogue and music from independent music labels. HMV already has 3 million tracks online.
The tracks will be in MP3 format with 328kbps bitrate. The prices start at 79p, which is cheaper than Apple offers for the same music.
Movie download site Movielink is offering a free download of battle flick 300 to consumers who buy the deluxe edition DVD in Target stores as part of a promotion for the Warner Home Video release
Sony Corp. has made some changes to its Xplod head units through the XAV-W1 which may bring joy to some customers. In a first, the W1 is a Super AudioCD (SACD) player and the first large visual jukebox designed for a car by the company. Owners with compatible audio systems can listen to music in 5.1 surround. Stereo audio is available for regular CD audio and digital files (MP3, WMA etc.)
A questionable lawsuit has been filed against Apple Inc. by Larry Drury, an Illinois lawyer, on behalf of Jose Trujillo, alleging that the company defrauded Trujillo by failing to reveal details about the iPhone battery. Drury claims that Apple failed to reveal that the iPhone battery was not user-replaceable and that it would die after 300 charges. To get a new battery for an iPhone, you have to send it back to Apple at a cost of $85.95.
