HD DVD players priced under $200 are expected from Chinese company Venturer Electronics by the fourth quarter of this year.
Venturer's SHD7000 will be priced at $199, according to a company representative, which would make it the cheapest stand-alone HD DVD player available today.
A statement from Venturer, whose North American headquarters is in Markham, Ontario, touts the player “to be one of the lowest among entry-level HD DVD players.”
There has been speculation for months that Chinese manufacturers would be producing players with low enough price tags to compete with standard DVD players for consumer sales. Prior to now, no announcements regarding these players had been made, although several media reports have been shot down by Wal-Mart, the company generally believed to be key to introducing HD DVD technology to the masses in the United States.
Of course, a lower priced HD DVD player won't provide it's own HD display or replace anyone's movies with new HD versions, assuming they're not movies from Blu-ray only studios.
According to both the LA Times and the New York Post, Apple seems on the verge of joining the ringtone market.
Both papers report that Apple is planning to let iPhone users purchase ringtones through the iTunes store, but only the Post reports that "iPhone users would also be able to make ringtones out of songs they've already purchased from the iTunes Store."
Both papers also report that the announcement will be held at Apple's special event on September 5th in which a long overdue unveilment of new iPods is expected.
More updates on both announcements after the event.
According to TF, three more torrent tracker sites have been shut down by BREIN, the Dutch anti-piracy group. Once again at the center of the situation is Leaseweb, the web host based in the Netherlands.
Recently, BREIN took down everlasting.nu and then tried to take down the large public tracker Demonoid which immediately relocated to Canada where it remains live and well.
BREIN however, has been emboldened by small victories and yesterday moved to shut down three more Leaseweb-hosted torrent trackers, Araditracker, BitHQ, and Peerportal which combined have tracked 10,000 torrents. BREIN also said the Leasweb had given up the personal details of all the admins even though the three sites left Leaseweb for hosting elsewhere in Europe.
Tim Kuik of BREIN said “we have the names and addresses of these administrators, so we can get to these people through our contacts abroad.”
BREIN says it intends to force the admins to compensate content owners for "lost revenue" and also to prevent the sites from ever opening again. Of course, the latter has failed, as two of the three sites are already back up and fully functional. Sorry BREIN.
The huge German media conglomerate Bertlesmann AG has settled another lawsuit due to their involvement with the original Napster, the infamous P2P client that brought music file sharing to the masses. The National Music Publishers' Association had alleged that Bertlesmann had encouraged copyright infringement.
In April, the conglomerate settled with Warner Music for over $100 million USD as well as settling with EMI and Universal for undisclosed amounts. For all the cases including the latest, Bertlesmann admits no wrong doing but will pay a monetary settlement.
A joint statement says the settlement only requires court approval and should be finalized in a few months.
Earlier today we reported that Apple has prematurely dropped NBC Universal video content from its iTunes platform. There was rumors as to why the split occurred but Apple has finally responded, giving its reasoning for the drop.
During a press release this afternoon, Apple stated that NBC asked for a huge increase in the per-episode price of their TV shows. According to Apple, NBC asked to have the price raised to $4.99 per episode, compared to the current $1.99 per episode. All other major broadcasters are signed for the next TV season at $1.99 per episode.
"We are disappointed to see NBC Universal leave iTunes because we would not agree to their dramatic price increase," said iTunes VP Eddy Cue. "We hope they will change their minds and offer their TV shows to the tens of millions of iTunes customers."
Apple also said they were dropping NBC Universal immediately instead of waiting until their contract ends in December. Apple also said that NBC owned 3 of the top 10 most downloaded shows and accounted for almost 30 percent of all TV show sales.
At the recent IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment used the show to boast about the company's Blu-ray movie sales across the world.
According to the company, sales for the studio's movies were near one million in North America and approaching 250,000 in Europe.
The numbers, although still small, are impressive considering Blu-ray movie sales only surpassed the million mark total in April. Sony expects there to be a sales boost at the end of October however when the Spider-Man trilogy gets released.
“These sales milestones across the world illuminate the positive reception from retailers and consumers alike for Blu-ray,” said David Bishop, president of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. “Our strong fourth quarter line-up will underscore the confidence in this format.”
Sony also took time to reiterate that Blu-ray "software now accounts for 69 percent of the total high-definition market in Europe." Although that number may seem overwhelming, many reports have put Blu-ray hardware at 90-95 percent of the market when including the PlayStation 3 thus making the 69 percent no longer so overwhelming.
ArcSoft, Inc, in conjunction with the HD DVD Promotion Group, is showing off ArcSoft Digital Theatre 2 at the IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin. Digital Theatre supports playback of the HD DVD format, DVD (homemade and commercial) and a wide variety of common multimedia files. The HD DVD Promotion Group is showcasing Digital Theatre as part of its advancement of standards-based implementations of HD DVD playback.
"We are excited to be presenting our high definition solutions at IFA," said Michael Downs, ArcSoft Vice President of Marketing and Business Development. "We have been working closely with the HD DVD Promotion Group, leading graphics chipset companies, and the major Hollywood studios to ensure that we can provide complete, high performance, high quality HD DVD functionality."
Digital Theatre's HD DVD playback functionality includes complete support for high definition interactive content such as U-Control. Additionally, Digital Theatre supports next generation audio formats such as Dolby Digital and DTS, as well as a variety of advanced trick play features such as Smart Stretch and Time Stretch. Available for Windows XP and Windows Vista, the program also includes a Windows Media Center Edition plug-in that provides a 10-foot user experience.
Nero has today announced the upcoming release of Nero 8, the latest version of the world's best-selling digital multimedia suite. Designed for consumer ease of use, Nero 8 extends content beyond the PC, allowing users to easily create, edit, burn, share, connect, and enjoy digital media files. Additionally, Nero 8 is built to ensure data integrity and reliability and is optimized for use with the new Windows Vista operating system.
The newest version of the Nero burning suite will introduce the newly-designed Nero StartSmart user interface, which maximizes user efficiency with a one-stop solution for creating and managing digital media projects. With this new interface, prime functions like burning and ripping audio and data discs can now be accessed directly, letting users complete projects with one-click functions. Nero 8 also supports a number of next-generation formats with editing, playback, and burning features.
Nero 8 lets users edit photo slide shows and create High Definition video in both Blu-ray BD-AV and HD DVD video formats. In addition, Nero RescueAgent has been developed and integrated based on Nero customer feedback, and allows users to restore deleted files and recover data from CDs and DVDs that may have been lost due to scratched discs, interrupted recording operations, or poor recording quality.
According to the online edition of the New York Times, NBC Universal has declined to renew its contract with Apple Inc.'s iTunes download store. The paper cites a source close to the situation which put the blame on failure to agree on pricing schemes. NBC is the No.1 supplier to the iTunes store and apparently accounts for about 40% of the overall video downloads.
The company notified Apple of its decision late Thursday according to the source. A spokesman for NBC confirmed the decision had been made to the Times but declined to comment any further and spokespeople at Apple have not made any comments yet. There is growing tension between Apple and content providers over the pricing scheme on the iTunes download store.
Apple believes that easy pricing schemes such as "99c per track" or "$1.99 per video" are attractive in the developing market for audio and video downloads. Music labels, and now it would appear video content providers, would prefer a more variable pricing scheme that allowed them some freedom over the price of individual content. Universal Music Group recently declined to sign another long-term deal with iTunes.
Sony Corp. is acknowledging that its proprietary ATRAC music format was a market flop by shutting down all its Connect music stores and making its devices compatible with other formats. The company made the announcement yesterday at the IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin. The company also unveiled a pair of new Walkman players that support MP3, Windows Media Audio (WMA) and AAC files.
Sony's new NWZ-A810 and NWZ-S610 can also display photographs and playback video content and both come loaded with an FM tuner. Now Sony will phase out Connect music stores that sell in the ATRAC format. "This gives customers greater flexibility in their music software approach," the company said in a statement. "As a result, Sony will be phasing out the Connect Music Services based on Sony's ATRAC audio format in North America and Europe."
The new Walkman players do not directly support ATRAC. "We are offering conversion software to convert ripped non-secure ATRAC files to MP3," Sony spokeswman Linda Barger said. A specific date for closure of the services was not set, but a message sent to Connect users confirmed they will close before March 2008. Sony's Connect eBook service for the Sony Reader will not be affected.
The Blu-ray Disc Association has made several announcements at the IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin this year. On the device front, Acer has become a contributing member of the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA), joining with Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Levono. Huala, a major Chinese consumer electronics manufacturer has also agreed to become a contributing member.
Huala will also team up with the China Film Group to establish a Blu-ray Disc authoring center in China. The Bluy-ray group also announced a flood of new Blu-ray releases in Belrin at a news conference yesterday. Some of the notable movies form the announcements are Spiderman from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, 300 from Warner Home Video and a special edition of Disney's Sleeping Beauty.
"We've been involved with Blu-ray Disc from the very beginning," said Stephen Foulser, vice president of marketing and business development for Disney in the EMEA regions. "We will be launching 30 new titles in the format." There are currently more than 300 Blu-ray titles available, but supporting studios hope to double that figure before the end of 2007.
The Thai government has lifted a ban on Google's video sharing giant, YouTube, after YouTube reportedly agreed to block videos that are considered illegal in the country or are deemed offensive to Thai people or monarch. If true, such a ban on content of course would more than likely be localized. YouTube has been banned in Thailand since April 4th after users posted videos considered offensive to the monarch.
One of the videos depicted King Bhumibol Adulyadej's image with the soles of shoes pointed towards him. In Thailand, feet are considered extremely dirty and offensive by the people. The video's audio Track contained the country's national anthem. The Nation newspaper reported that Sitthichai Phokai-udom, the Information and Communication Technology Minister, said the ban was lifted because YouTube agreed not to run clips that are offensive to the monarch.
Google has not yet confirmed or denied the report, but was interested in getting the ban lifted as soon as possible. "We have the deepest respect for His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej," Google wrote earlier this year in a letter to the ministry. "We likewise respect Thailand's law and tradition and hope that we will be able to reach a mutually acceptable resolution to the current controversy." Back in May, there was talk of a criminal lawsuit against Google on charges of "lese-majeste", which carries a maximum jail sentence of 15 years.
YouTube said today that they had finally agreed to a royalty deal with MCPS-PRS Alliance, the organization in the UK that distributes royalties to the record industry. The deal would compensate artists for their music that is posted on the UK version of YouTube.
The deal, for an undisclosed sum, would license 10 million tracks of music and would shelter the video site from any possible legal actions.
The deal should also cover media content such as music videos, said officials knowledgeable of the deal.
"Whether it is music videos, user uploads or other audio visual content, our agreement will allow our 50,000 songwriter, composer and music publisher members to be paid when their creative talents are being enjoyed on YouTube's service across the UK," MCPS-PRS CEO Steve Porter said.
The deal is the first permanent one for YouTube anywhere in the world, as the similar agreements in North America are only temporary intended to keep both sides happy for the time being.
The royalties should be distributed according to how many times an individual artist's content is viewed but the company did admit it would be difficult to monitor the massive amount of content on YouTube.
Last month, Sony announced they were killing off their 20GB model of the PlayStation 3 and dropping the price on the 60GB model. At the same point, Sony introduced an 80GB model for $599 USD which included Motorstorm the game.
The price cut ended up giving Sony a sales spike on the console, but reports and rumors surfaced that the 60GB model was being discontinued and the end of the road has finally come for the 60GB model
Sony has stated that all inventory for the unit is now either on route to retail shelves or already sitting there. "We no longer have any inventory in SCEA warehouses. All inventory has been purchased and shipped to retailers," said SCEA communications officer Dave Karraker.
"We don't have visibility as to if that is on their store shelves or in their warehouses at this time. However, based on inventory reports from our retailers, there is ample supply still left in the channel."
Once the remaining stock finishes up that will be the end of the model and leave the 80GB unit as the only remaining PS3. At that point, Sony should have a dilemma seeing as how the price drop on previous models helped boost sales so much. We wont know until that day hits however. "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 a Sony representative.
According to Chart Track, the Nintendo Wii has become the fastest selling console in UK history, hitting 1 million units sold in just under 38 weeks.
In comparison, the best selling console of last generation, the PlayStation 2, hit the 1 million mark in 50 weeks and the Xbox 360 took 60 weeks.
The same data means that the Wii now has a 68 percent market share of the UK console market and with continued excellent sales of the DS, an 86 percent share of the handheld market.
"The non-stop demand for Wii even in the traditionally slow sales periods for videogames in the UK is clearly behind this record breaking achievement," added the report.
"The performance of both systems appears to indicate that unprecedented interactive entertainment experiences, provided by a combination of the revolutionary nature of DS and Wii with the increasing number of unique software titles for the system from Nintendo and third parties, are being enjoyed by both avid and new gamers of all ages."
Sony Europe said yesterday that they will begin shipping their latest Blu-ray disc standalone player, dubbed the BDP-S500 in Europe starting in October and that the new player will be the higher-end brother to the company's BDP-S300 which will also begin shipping in October.
The S300 will retail for 599 Euros and the S500 will retail for 899 Euros when it hits retail shelves. Both players will come bundled with the Spiderman trilogy, added Sony.
Among the featured specs are 1080pupscaling, 24p True Cinema, support for the x.v.Color standard, and HDMI. The more expensive S500 will have HDMI 1.3 as well as support for Dolby and DTS-HD1 audio.
"Blu-ray is taking off, and the BDP-S300 player is designed to give many more people a way of joining the party in style," Sony Europe Home Entertainment chief Hiro Shinohara said in a statement.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has published a comprehensive report on the history of the Recording Industry Association of America's campaign against file sharing in the United States. The intriguing report proves how even after four years and 20,000 targets, the use of file-sharing and Internet music piracy in general has simply failed to decline in the U.S..
"Despite the RIAA's legal campaign, file-sharing is more popular than ever," said EFF Senior Staff Attorney Fred von Lohmann. "History will treat this as a shameful chapter in the history of the music industry, when record companies singled out random music fans for disproportionate penalties. Artists must be compensated, but these lawsuits aren't putting money in any creator's pocket."
Attacks on file-sharing by the RIAA has led a lot of people to safer and less detectable methods such as burning and exchanging CDs among friends and sharing on members-only "darknets." The EFF also called on Universities to help artists get compensated for the use of their work but also to protect students from costly legal problems by insisting on a blanket license for their students, collecting a reasonable regular payment to allow sharing to continue.
Chip manufacturer Amimon has just started shipping a chipset based on its Wireless High-Definition Interface (WHDI) standard. This will allow high definition video (uncompressed) to be broadcast around a home. The chip is capable of delivering 1080p content at datarates of up to 3Gbps through a 40MHz channel in the 5GHz unlicensed band and can stream HD content at 1.5Gbps through a 20MHz channel.
Amimon claims that the chip is suitable for home usage. It claims a latency of less than 1ms, a range of up to 30 meters and the ability to penetrate dividing walls. The company is confident that it can clean all the A/V wires and cables from your home soon.
The chipset will be integrated into consumer electronics products by the end of the year, with more devices set to arrive in early 2008. Loewe and Funai will demonstrate products that use the chipset at the IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin.
Sony Corp. has unveiled 15 new flat-TVs and a new remote control as part of an effort to re-gain market share during the holidays. Sony is the second largest maker of LCD TVs and is trying to catch up with South Korean giant Samsung Electronics Co Ltd. The company hopes the new 40" - 70" panels and its new remote that doesn't need to point directly at a TV screen, will help its Bravia-brand LCD TVs turn a profit this year after a 20 billion yen ($176 million) loss in April-June.
"The year-end shopping season is going to be very tough," Sony Senior Vice President Takashi Fukuda told a news conference. Sony is especially affected by price competition. Sales of its LCD TVs grew about 5% in April-June, while Samsung's sales went up 54% and Sharp's rose 31%, according to DisplaySearch.
Sony's LCD join-venture with Samsung began shipping its first 8th gen panels this week, to help the two rivals lower per-TV costs.
NXP has launched the world's first video postprocessor with proprietary Motion Accurate Picture Processing technology, enabling TV manufacturers to drastically improve high-definition (HD) motion picture on LCD TVs. The PNX5100 video postprocessor combines movie judder cancellation (MJC), motion sharpness and vivid color management to successfully remove the visible halo and blur in fast moving scenes delivering an enhanced viewing experience for enjoying sports and action movies.
The Motion Accurate Picture Processing technology uses an up-conversion technique in conjunction with three-frame HD Movie Judder Cancellation and full motion-compensated up-conversion to 1920x1080p @ 120Hz. The Automatic Picture Control (APC) feature dynamically adjusts the processing parameters used to obtain optimal improvement on every output frame. As a result, NXP's PNX5100 enables TV manufacturers to take advantage of the latest 1920x1080p @ 120Hz resolution panels with wide color gamut for superior sharpness, richer color, dynamic motion and deep contrast.
Research firm In-Stat has published research that shows that as worldwide DVD player shipments started to decline in 2006, shipments of DVD recorders continued to rise steadily. DVD player sales were at 124.8 million in 2006, down from 126.4 million in 2005. In 2005, 14 million DVD recorders were reportedly sold, and that figure has risen to 16 million in 2006.
As for sales of next-generation disc formats, In-Stat reports no end to the "war" in sight just yet. "Currently, there is no clear-cut winner in the HD-DVD vs. Blu-ray format war," says Alice Zhang, In-Stat analyst. "In-Stat believes that the universal combination player, which plays both HD-DVD and Blu-ray technologies, will not be a sustainable solution as it exists today, as its current price is higher than the price to purchase the two players separately."
Sales of DVD recorders and DVD players combined worldwide reached 141.2 million units in 2006. North American and European DVD player shipments peaked in 2005, while Japan peaked earlier in 2003. Those territories will continue to see shipment declines this year.
One of the most popular video-sharing sites online, Metacafe, has launched a new Digg channel on its site. Digg is one of the most used websites online, where its audience strives to prioritize notable content from the enormous amount available online. The new channel showcases every Metacafe video that has ever been "Dugg." Viewers can also easily find videos "Most Dugg" and "Recently Dugg" on Digg.
By combining input from these two community-powered sites, Metacafe is providing another way to discover videos that prove most popular among viewers. With the addition of the Digg Channel, viewers can now see what videos members of the Digg community prefer in addition to what fares well among the entire Metacafe community.
"The Digg Channel illustrates our commitment to putting viewers in charge of their online entertainment experience," said Erick Hachenburg, CEO of Metacafe. "Like Digg, we are all about exposing the content our community deems best and making it easy for people to discover something they're likely to enjoy. This shared philosophy makes the Digg Channel a great addition to our site."
Metacafe serves 25 million unique visitors each month.
Sony Ericsson’s gaming guru Peter Ahnegard has hinted that the possibility of a PlayStation-branded mobile phone, a hybrid similar to the iPhone or defunct N-gage is possible and may be in the works.
“Gaming is probably the most mature content area we have today in mobile phone and Sony Ericsson has always reflected that, having games embedded on our handsets for many years,” said Ahnegard. He also added however that the company had not focused on gaming nearly as much as they did on music and imaging for which its phones are well known for.
“The power of the phones we're creating now is phenomenal,” noted Ahnegard. “Smartphones like the W960, P1 and associated families have hardware acceleration and OpenGL ES and are capable of providing gaming experiences on a level similar to PSP, certainly somewhere between PS1 and PS2.”
Ahnegard also concedes that melding a phone and game system together is challenging. “It's a tricky balance. The latest craze for slim handsets doesn't really go hand-in-hand with gaming comfort. Console controllers are bulky for a good reason and have been designed with specific elements in mind, e.g. the need to be hardwearing, ergonomically comfortable, etc. The same considerations go into our phones and there are lots of elements that affect gaming performance, from the spacing between buttons to joypad position. We have to accept that some devices simply won't be appropriate to drive some games and, in many cases, gaming or other entertainment content isn't the prime concern behind the design.”
Apple has finally confirmed that it will be holding a special event on September 5th, in which it is generally expected to unveil new versions of its iPod player which many believe will have a touch sensitive screen (like that of the iPhone) or perhaps a new flash based iPod.
There is also speculation that the Beatles will be finally getting their digital tracks available for download on iTunes.
The rumors of the new iPods have been alight for months, and validated when a website claiming it had pictures of the new iPod Nano line was asked to remove the pictures or face a lawsuit.
Creative's latest Zen player, set to hit retail shelves next month, will be the first player from the company to support AAC and iTunes Plus tracks.
Additionally, the new slim PMP will have a 2.5-inch color screen and support for SD memory cards incase the onboard memory is not sufficient.
The new player will be available in three models, 4GB, 8GB and 16GB models, with $149, $199, and $299 USD price tags respectively.
The official specs read that "Video formats supported include WMV9, MJPEG, MPEG4, as well as DivX 4 and 5 and XviD. Approximately 5 hours of video and 25 hours of music playback are possible through the device."
As with most Creative players, the Zen will have built-in FM radio and a voice recorder.
Canadian-based Venturer Electronics has announced that they will be bringing an inexpensive HD DVD player to the market, in time for the holidays.
Dubbed the Venturer SHD7000, the standalone will feature all basic functions of an HD DVD player including 1080i output, HDMI connections, and Dolby TrueHD support.
Although there was no price set by Venturer, in its press release the company said it expected the player to be one of, if not the most inexpensive entry-level HD DVD players on the market. The player will be “sold through national retailers with retail prices expected to be one of the lowest among entry-level HD DVD players” read the statement.
With Toshiba's entry-level players hitting as low as $210 USD, the Venturer SHD7000 could conceivably be under $200 USD, which would certainly be a price that many would pay attention to.
TV show and movie content has been promised to customers of Apple's UK iTunes store for some time now. Today, finally, Apple has quietly added some TV shows to the popular download store, giving users more to download than just Pixar short animations. Many TV shows have been added including ABC's hit shows Lost and Grey's Anatomy.
As for cartoons, Disney's Kim Possible and SpongeBob Square Pants are examples of what has been added to the store for UK users. Other TV shows like Pimp My Ride and South Park are also now available for £1.89 ($3.78), which is significantly higher than the $1.99 per episode price offered to customers in the United States.
There has been no indication yet as to when films will make their way onto the store. Needless to say, the downloads are compatible with iPod and AppleTV.
One of the claims the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) likes to (and has to) make is that simply sharing a file (putting it in a shared folder) on a P2P network is the same thing as distributing. Otherwise, the trade group would need to provide evidence of actual infringement in a case. It seems now however, in Atlantic v. Howell, a Judge has sided with the RIAA that sharing is equal to distribution.
After being sued in 2006, Pamela and Jeffrey Howell decided to defend themselves and submitted a short three paragraph answer to the RIAA. In it, they argued that the file sharing program was not set to share, the music was legally purchased for private use and was stored on the hard drive to be transfered to portable devices.
Judge Neil V. Wake dismissed the Howell's claims and awarded statutory damages of $40,500 to the RIAA along with $350 in court costs. A permanent injunction against future copyright infringement by the Howells was also handed down. "Several cases suggest that Kazaa users commit direct infringement by employing the Kazaa program to make their collections of copyrighted sound recordings available to all other Kazaa users," wrote Judge Wake, citing three other cases and Howells admission that the Kazaa account in question as in fact his.
Even though we already reported recently that Torretspy blocked users from the United States to keep logs it is being forced to hand over to the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) as empty as possible, there is an extra detail to this case that is very interesting. As per Torrentspy's privacy policy, it never logged tracking information on its users.
Torrentspy had fought the MPAA's requests to force Torrenyspy to log user activity and provide it to the trade group, arguing that privacy laws in the Netherlands (where the servers are located) prevented it from both maintaining and disclosing logs. The site also argued that log data wasn't available since it is only exists in RAM for a period of time and is never permanently stored.
The magistrate judge didn't agree with the argument and now neither did Judge Florence-Marie Cooper. She disagreed that data in the RAM is not "stored", saying the storage of data in RAM, even as temporary, makes it electronically stored information governed by federal discovery rules. She also dismissed concerns that the ruling could have a significant impact as far as record-keeping obligations.
RIAA-style tactics are being employed in Singapore to help stomp out the sharing of Anime content. Odex, one of the largest regional distributors of licensed Japanese anime VCDs, believes that Internet downloading is eating into its profitability. In November of last year, the company claims to have hired U.S.-based BayTSP to help it track downloaders/sharers of Anime in Singapore.
By April 2007, BayTSP had tracked 50 different titles which showed over 400,000 downloads in Singapore alone. Odex decided to get the contact information of 3,000 individuals by IP address (though claims the number targeted is a lot less) and as we previously reported, two ISPs did give in. However, it appears a third case has just run into trouble with a Judge.
Judge Earnest Lau threw the case out, saying that Odex was only a "sub-licensee" from the Japanese firms that created the anime, not an "exclusive licensee." The judge also doubted that Odex had in fact hired BayTSP. "Apart from a bare allegation, there is no evidence that the Plaintiff engaged BayTSP to undertake the tracking of anime downloaders," he wrote.
Once again Google Inc.'s YouTube service is once again being criticized for hosting content uploaded by its users that is considered offensive or inappropriate. This time, the video-sharing giant is taking fire for hosting clips that allegedly incite racial hatred. Report Mainz aired a program on German TV about the situation, which showed YouTube hosts videos such as "Jud Suess", a 1940 anti-Semitic propaganda film and music videos from outlawed German rock band Landser that depict Nazi military operations.
Social Democrat (SPD) parliamentarian Dieter Wiefelspuetz said distributing the clips on YouTube was scandalous and he was quoted as saying, "publishing these films amounts to aiding and abetting incitement of the people," - a potentially dangerous mindset to apply to a public user-driven video service like YouTube.
Germany's Central Council of Jews Vice President Salomon Korn is also considering pressing charges against Google Germany. German youth protection body Jugendschutz.net has apparently complained to Google Germany more than 100 times to remove the clips - some of which have been on the site for almost a year.
Founder of Northern Ireland-based Uniquephones, John McLaughlin, has posted a video on the iphoneunlocking.com blog showing Apple's iPhone being unlocked and used with Vodafone. This video, posted a few hours ago, isn't of excellent quality but (allegedly) shows the iPhone being unlocked while connected to a PC by a software-only method. McLaughlin takes a SIM card out of a Vodafone Blackberry and puts it in the iPhone before using it to make two calls.
The video was made late at night (in the last few hours) using a Nokia N95 and posted on YouTube.
Uniquephones already unlocks many handsets made by Nokia, Motorola and others and receives 60% of its customers from the United States. Ever since the iPhone launched in June, the challenge has been on (with many contenders) to free it from AT&T's network. Engadget has already tried out software by another company, iPhoneSimFree.com, and has claimed that it did indeed work.
Verbatim has issued a warning on its corporate website for Australia and New Zealand about an unauthorized supply of 16X DVD's that use MID codes of Verbatim and related companies. Here is the company's warning...
Verbatim Corporation has concerns regarding the unauthorised supply in Australia by Laser Corporation Holdings Pty Ltd of some Laser brand 16X DVD's which use MID codes of Verbatim or its related companies.
Disk identification shows that these Laser brand 16X DVD's are not from production facilities approved by Verbatim or its related companies and so may be of different quality or performance as disks from production facilities approved by Verbatim or its related companies.
Verbatim is without any responsibility for the quality or performance of these Laser brand 16X DVD's.
In addition, Laser's supply of these 16X DVD's in Australia may infringe copyright.
Verbatim and its related companies reserve their legal rights in respect to the supply in Australia by Laser of these 16X DVD's.
S-LCD Corporation, a joint venture between Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. and Sony Corp., has announced the shipment of LCD panels produced from its 8th Generation Line. S-LCD's 8th Generation Line is capable of processing the world's largest motherglass substrates, measuring 2,200mm by 2,500mm.
LCD panels shipped from this 8G line marks a major turning point in the market for LCD TVs in the 50-inch (diagonally) class. With 7G line which is already in operation, S-LCD has sufficient capacity to meet demand for 40-inch panels. The 8G line is slated to supply 46-inch and 52-inch panels, and that plan was evident by the contents of the first shipment of 52-inch LCD panels for full-HD TVs.
"We have remained a step ahead of the competition in terms of production scale and timing," said Won-kie Chang, CEO of S-LCD. "Our sights are now on LCD TVs in the 50-inch class and we aim to lead that segment. Our success with 7G line will continue with the new 8G line operation, and we will grow into the world's largest LCD maker." 8G line would reach its full monthly output of 50,000 panels by the end of the year.
The giant retailer Amazon has begun a huge promotion that should heat up the already hot next-gen format war. They have dropped the price on three Toshiba HD DVD players and the Sony PlayStation 3 as well as add combo packages that lower the price even furthur.
Purchasing the three standalones, the Toshiba HD-A2, Toshiba HD-A20, or Toshiba HD-XA2 will get you 3 HD DVD movies instantly and stacks on with the "Five Free" promotion that has been running for awhile now. At its best, the promotion will get you a Toshiba HD-A2 plus 8 movies for $211 USD. The movies instantly available are such hits as "The Departed", "300", "TMNT" and "Happy Feet" among others.
If you are an Xbox 360 owner, the deal gets even sweeter. Buying the drive will get you the 8 movies as well as an extra "King Kong" title for $180 USD.
The deal for the PlayStation is almost equally as good as the HD DVD deal. Buying the system will get you 8 Blu-ray movie titles with a final price of $472 USD.
Warner has denied the ongoing rumors that it will follow in Paramount's footsteps and drop dual support for HD discs and pick either Blu-ray or HD DVD.
The rumors began early last week when Paramount dropped dual-format releases and became exclusive to HD DVD and Warner VP Steve Nickerson, the industry's largest supporter for dual-format support, stepped down from his position at the company.
Warner Home Video spokesman Jim Noonan says however that the departure of Nickerson should not be taken as an indication of the studio's future plans. "This is not about a change in strategy," Noonan said. "This is completely [Nickerson's] call, and he will be missed. He is smart and a workhorse."
A future decision of exclusivity for Warner could be one of the final straws in pushing the format war one way or the other.
Sony BMG has finally begun support for Dolby TrueHD on their Blu-ray music titles, starting with "Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds: Live at Radio City".
The disc, which is already a huge hit in standard def, will be released on Blu-ray on September 4th. The release will be Sony BMG's first ever support for the TrueHD audio on a music title.
The show was filmed with nine HD cameras and therefore is presented in full 1080p/24fps video. The audio will be available in uncompressed PCM 5.1 Surround as well as Dolby TrueHD for the first time ever.
Netflix, the US' largest online DVD rental service has said that its demand for HD discs, HD DVD and Blu-ray, are just about equal but also reiterated what most knowledgeable consumers know already, that the sales and rentals were tiny as compared to standard definition DVDs.
CEO Reed Hastings said that the company was still seeing low demand for HD discs but that demand was equal for both rivals.
"We carry all the Blu-ray titles and we carry all the HD DVD, so we're agnostic. And we think the solution in that market is to have the studios publish on both," said Hastings. "(Customer demand) is pretty evenly split between them (but it's) tiny, like a percent or something."
That statement is in contrast to disc sales, where Blu-ray holds a 60/40 sales margin. It should be interesting to see if those numbers change as Blu-ray standalone players increase in sales.
While many believed it to be dead and buried, it seems AllofMP3 will be resuming service.
"The service will be resumed in the foreseeable future," a blog post from the company read. "We are doing our best at the moment to ensure that all our users can use their accounts, top up balance and order music."
The latest development follows the decision by a Russian judge to throw out the case against Denis Kvasov, the former head of Mediaservices, the parent company of the site.
The record companies have vowed to appeal the decision but they will be facing a losing battle. The Russian courts ruled that Kvasov cannot be sued under current Russian law.
Users logging in from the United States are no longer able to access TorrentSpy'storrent search engine and instead are redirected to a privacy notice.
"Sorry, but because you are located in the USA you cannot use the search features of the Torrentspy.com website.Torrentspy’s decision to stop accepting US visitors was NOT compelled by any Court but rather an uncertain legal climate in the US regarding user privacy and an apparent tension between US and European Union privacy laws."
TorrentSpy's owner Justin Bunnells aid the decision was made in part to comply with EU privacy laws. “We must comply with European Union privacy laws and turning off USA traffic was the only way to guarantee that protection for our users. It is not something with a time limit.”
However, on the flip side of the decision, almost 20 percent of TorrentSpy's visitors are US residents and shutting them out should prove disastrous to the site. Bunnell had this to say on the future of the site. “Whatever future awaits, the innovations of peer-to-peer technology and the jobs and opportunities it creates will take place outside of the USA.”
TMPG Inc., the company that claims to "make digital video easy" has announced TMPGEnc MPEG Editor 2.0 PREMIUM. It is a frame-level cut video editing software package that offers high definition video and set top DVD Recorder (DVD-VR) support, DVR-MS support, integrated Dolby Digital sound, fit-to-disc transcoding, VRCopy DVD-RAM importing and writing tool, Smart Rendering, multiplexing and de-multiplexing, and more.
"Our TMPGEnc MPEG Editor 2.0 PREMIUM offers a host of new features. It is also a winner of the "Vector Proregi" award for the Animation/DVD category from Vector, one of the largest ESD websites in Japan," commented TMPG Inc. CEO Kimi Matsuki. "Now users can capture high definition and other digital video directly from many sources to quickly edit and add transitions between clips. It is Windows Vista Aero compatible and has a robust new interface, which combined with DirectX powered thumbnail navigation makes digital editing easier than ever before."
The Smart Rendering feature makes the editing process faster and easier by only re-encoding the surrounding frames versus the entire movie. Users can capture video directly from a HDV camcorder to TMPGEnc MPEG Editor 2.0 PREMIUM via an i.LINK/IEEE 1394 interface. The software is optimized for Intel™ dual and quad core processors. The product will be available in early September for purchase by download at www.tmpg-inc.com for the introductory price of $48.95 (regular price $64.95).
According to In-Stat research, increased broadband penetration, declining price points, and a growing catalogue of online audio and video content will ensure the market for MP3 players and portable media players (PMPs) will remain strong over the next 5 years. According to In-Stat, as of today, the main reason consumers are buying portable MP3 players and video-capable PMPs today is still for the devices' audio playback capability.
"Only 11% of survey respondents say they will purchase a PMP primarily for its video playback function," says Stephanie Ethier, In-Stat analyst. "Still, the cost of incorporating video into portable devices continues to decline. As a result, In-Stat expects shipment growth of video-enabled PMPs to outpace that of audio-only MP3 players by the end of 2008."
In-Stat predicts that shipments for audio-only MP3 players and PMPs combined will reach 275 million units worldwide in 2011, compared to 182 million units last year. The research firm does not expect feature-rich multimedia phones to affect the demand MP3/PMP devices anytime soon.
KickApps Corporation has announced that videos uploaded to KickApps-powered social media sites can be viewed on the iPhone using the Safari web browser. Most videos on social networks utilize the Flash format, however the iPhone's Safari web browser is only compatible with the Quicktime video player (videos formatted with the H.264 codec), so iPhone users are unable to view those videos other than through special downloaded client applications.
The latest version of the KickApps platform automatically converts all uploaded videos to both H.264 and Flash formats. When a user plays a video, KickApps instantly detects which format is required and delivers the video via a compatible video player; in the case of the iPhone, videos accessed through its Safari browser are displayed via Quicktime.
By optimizing their sites for the device's 3.5 inch widescreen display, publishers and developers can ensure the best possible viewing experience for iPhone users. For example, rather than presenting video search results in a typical five across thumbnail layout, KickApps affiliates can use CSS styling to present the images in a scrollable, singular column.
"Our platform is driven largely by the goal of eliminating barriers of entry to social media," said Alex Blum, CEO of KickApps. "By supporting the iPhone browser, we’re providing our affiliates and their audiences with the flexibility to deliver and consume online video via one of the most exciting and innovative mobile devices on the market today."
SanDisk has introduced the Sansa Clip, a tiny MP3 player that boasts an array of features, as well as distinctively big sound for its small size. Designed for a fitness buff or regular traveler, the compact Sansa Clip comes with a clip for wearing, FM radio with recorder, a microphone to record your thoughts, long-lasting rechargeable battery and a bright OLED screen for easy navigation of tunes.
The Sansa Clip is expected to be available this fall at manufacturer's suggested retail prices of $39.99 for a 1GB player and $59.99 for the 2GB unit. "Don't let the Sansa Clip's size fool you," said Keith Washo, SanDisk retail product marketing manager for the Sansa Clip. "This tiny player packs a powerful, feature-rich punch. We’re excited to bring music lovers a new, cool-looking player with great sound and audio offerings in a body that's smaller than a match box."
The player is compatible with many music download and subscription services, including Rhapsody, Napster, eMusic and others. It's designed to work seamlessly with a wide range of popular music formats such as MP3, WAV, Audible (for audio books) and Windows Media Audio (WMA) in both unprotected and protected files (such as those WMA files purchased from music stores).
A leading mobile social network, Zannel, Inc., and Ripe Digital Entertainment (RDE), leaders in digital Video-on-Demand entertainment, have partnered to enable users to share videos and photos using their mobile devices. Users can share RDE (www.ripedigital.com) content. "The demand for instant entertainment on mobile phones is at an all-time high and Zannel is dedicated to filling this need with an easy and compelling mobile entertainment experience," said Adam Zbar, CEO, Zannel.
He added: "Ripe's devoted fan base can now watch their favorite shows on-the-go and share them with their friends at any moment." Zannel's viral mobile content distribution platform features three customized channels for RDE. They include RipeTV aimed at men, OctaneTV for motorsports and FlowTV for hip hop and urban content.
"Zannel provides a perfect demo for Ripe Digital's highly entertaining programming, and a solid mobile infrastructure," said Ryan Magnussen, CEO of Ripe Digital Entertainment. "We also look forward to users discussing their favorite Ripe shows with each other via Zannel's new IMM (Instant Media Messaging) features."
Microsoft has blamed a server error for a glitch in its Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) program that incorrectly reported many legitimate installations of Windows XP and Windows Vista as pirated. WGA is a tool used to fight against piracy of the Windows operating system and is delivered through Automatic Updates. An XP installation found to be pirated is blocked from software updates and for Vista, some features are disabled.
The Business Software Alliance (BSA) estimates that piracy accounts for $29 billion in lost revenue for the software industry every year. Needless to say, unhappy users felt compelled to leave comments about their experience. "You really ought to work on making WGA actually an advantage. Right now, users of pirate copies of Windows had an extra couple days of use," a user calling himself "Mhornyak" commented on the WGA blog.
He also added: "I also want to say, because I know how painful all-nighters are: Congrats to the WGA team for getting things working again. It's not your fault that the company policy is bad."
Recently, we reported that the infamous P2P client Limewire was set to start a DRM-free legal music store but the company didnt give any pricing information or a date for launch.
According to Dailytech however, Limewire has finally released all those details including the pricing schemes for both individual tracks and monthly subscriptions.
The service will be launched at the end of November 2007, said the company, and each individual track will cost $.99 USD. Monthly subscriptions however, will be on a tier plan. "The first monthly plan tier will allow 25 songs to be downloaded for $9.99 USD; the second tier allows 50 downloads per month for $14.99, and the third tier allows 75 downloads per month for $19.99."
Limewire also added that video content was not ready but would be available a few months into the service.
On Monday, Sony introduced its first ever combo HDTV/PC that included Blu-ray.
Dubbed the Vaio LT HD PC/TV, the display is a 22-inch Widescreen "all-in-one". The system has support for CableCARD technology that will allow the user to view digital cable channels without the need for a separate cable box or DVR.
The new system is powered by an Intel Core 2 Duo processor and includes 2 gigs of RAM and a fast DVD writer. The system also comes with built in 802.11b/g and Vista Ultimate preinstalled.
Other features in the expensive system are a Digital Video Recorder, 1.3-megapixel camera and echo-canceling microphone, as well as fast switching between PC and TV functions.
"The LT model has everything you need- it's a PC and HDTV set in one breathtaking device," VAIO product marketing chief Mike Abary said in a statement.
DVRs have earned the enmity of broadcasters and advertisers alike by enabling viewers to easily skip their least favorite bit of the TV watching experience, commercials. Another group may be moving the DVR further up on its list of disliked technologies in the wake of Ofcom's fourth annual report on the state of the UK's communications market. In the survey, 31 percent of DVR owners said that they are watching fewer DVDs.
Ofcom's "Heavy viewer" DVR owners, those who watch the largest amount of TV, are least likely to watch DVDs. 53 percent of that group now watch fewer DVDs. But the DVR effect isn't Limited to just heavy TV watchers—the rest of Ofcom's three groups (light, medium, and medium-to-heavy) reported watching anywhere from 28 percent to 34 percent fewer DVDs. In contrast, only 9 percent of DVR owners surveyed by Ofcom report watching more DVDs.
Ofcom's figures are another indication of how radically consumer-friendly technologies like the DVR are affecting the entertainment industry. The TV and motion picture industries do have options other than pushing back with content restrictions, however, thanks to the widespread availability of broadband.
A teenager has learned how to alter his iPhone to use it with networks other than AT&T Inc. He is not alone, many other solutions have been shown to work and several companies that specialize in mobile phone unlocking have taken up the challenge. George Hotz of Glen Rock, N.J. (17), spent his time well trying to figure out how to free his iPhone from AT&T, armed with a soldering iron. He posted the final working solution on his blog.
An Associated Press reporter verified that the iPhone was successful unlocked when he used his T-Mobile SIM card in the phone and made calls. However, the hack is complicated and requires skill with both soldering and software. In the wrong hands, the instructions will just lead to a dead iPhone. "But that's the simplest I could make them," Hotz said.
Engadget reported on Friday that it had successfully unlocked an iPhone using only software provided by an anonymous group of hackers. The iPhone has already been used with providers outside of the U.S. using a method known as the "SIM-chip method". All of the iPhones features are kept intact with the methods used. Since the details on the iPhone hacks are public, it is possible that Apple could modify the production lines to fight unlocking.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) appears to have given its blessing to the long-rumored American version of the popular N95 smartphone. All devices using U.S. airwaves must receive approval from the FCC before they can begin shipping in the territory. A lot of the features and specs seem similar to the regular N95, but what does stand out is a boost in memory to 8GB (same as highest capacity iPhone).
The casing color has changed to black and the lack of a camera cover seems to allow a higher capacity battery to be used. Input keys and directional controls appear to have shrunk also. A manual mentions the Nokia Music Store and the use of Windows Media Player to sync audio and video content with a PC. A new multimedia menu is also shown as well as information about the new N-Gage platform.
As with all NSeries phones, the N95 s built on the Symbian OS and S60 interface. It weighs about 4.2 ounces. It uses mini-USB for data transfers to other devices and a slot for a microSD card for storage expansion.
A University of Tennessee student is attempting to quash an RIAA subpoena issued as part of the music industry's war against on-campus file-sharing. Doe #28 is taking a different tack than other defendants have, arguing that providing the information sought by the RIAA would violate his right to privacy under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.
Doe #28's argument is that the information the RIAA is asking for qualifies as private as educational recods, and since he hasn't waived the right to keep those records private the university has no right to release the information to the RIAA or anyone else.
The problem with this approach actually seems fairly straght forward. Although educational records are generally considered private, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act does allow records to be released to comply with a judge's order or subpoena. In other words, unless the subpoena can be shown to be unlawful the school is required to release the information over.
The subpoena follows the same tactics record companies have used for other cases involving college students. That process gave all defendants in the case 15 days from the time they were served with the subpoena to file an objection. So far no other defendants have joined Doe #28 in his fight.
Engineers at the University of California, San Diego, have built the world's highest-resolution computer display, a 55-panel screen capable of zooming in on a live picture of a human brain to give a clear image of a nerve Cell.
The system located at the UCSD division of the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (also known as Calit2) has a screen Resolution up to 220 megapixels, which is 100 times higher than a high-definition TV, Falko Kuester, Calit2 professor for visualization at UCSD's Jacobs School of Engineering, told InformationWeek Friday.
The previous record was held by a 50 panel 200 Megapixel display in UC Irvine, which ironically shares a 2Gbps fiber optic Ethernet connection with the new system.
Both systems are powered by 80 nVidia Quadro FX 5600 GPUs. However, while the older Irvine system uses 50 Apple 30-inch Cinema Displays, powered by 25 Power Mac G5s running the Mac OS X operating system, the new display is made up of 55 Dell displays and 18 Dell XPS computers.
DirecTV's NFL Sunday Ticket service will be making the leap to computer screens across the country this fall.
NFL Sunday Ticket already allows viewers to watch NFL football games that wouldn't normally be available on their local TV stations. The company has now announced that anyone signing up for their SuperFan package will also be able to stream live games directly to their computer. This is expected to be a first step towards the NFL extending their broadcast reach to realms beyond the television screen.
The platform requirements and the $368 price tag provide a steep barrier to entry for the NFL's streaming package, but that may be exactly what the NFL wants. The NFL has taken a very protective approach to online video, more so than just about any other sports league. That's why you'll be hard pressed to find any recent game footage online anywhere other than NFL.com.
So why would they want to price the product out of the reach of many consumers? It may come down to a couple of factors. First, by keeping the price high, participation will be low enough to help avoid potential broadcast issues. It's also possible they simply don't want to make the program mainstream until everyone is agreed on how the details for the service will work out. That may not happen until after a season or more of experimentation.
News has been spreading through the gaming community that the PC version of the game Bioshock installs a rootkit on your computer. However, those reports aren't actually correct.
The report seems to have initially come from a website called Gaming Bob, where it was accurately reported that Microsoft's RootkitRevealer software found some suspicious registry entries after Bioshock, using SecuROM protection, was installed.
The problem is that RootkitRevealer doesn't actually identify rootkits. What it does is look for suspicious registry entries that may belong to a rootkit.
According to the SecuROM website, "SecuROM™ will install a Windows™ service module called “User Access Service” (UAService) on your system. This is a standard interface commonly used by several other applications as well. It is no spyware or rootkit at all. This module has been developed to enable users without Windows™ administrator rights the ability to access all SecuROM™ features. Please be assured that this service is installed only for security and convenience purposes. Since it is a standard Windows™ service, you can stop and delete this service, like any other Windows™ service. If deleted, the access for non-administrator users to SecuROM™ protected applications will be affected.
According to a study from consumer research company OTX and social networking site eCrush, teenagers don't really use the internet either to find or to download movies.
The study concluded that the majority of teens learn about the latest movies from more traditional TV ads and theatrical trailers. Only 15% get their information from entertainment web sites.
Also from the study, 27% of teen generally go to see movies the weekend they open, and nearly half go within the first two weeks.
In stark contrast to the movie industry's claims of lost revenue from piracy, teens also responded that when they miss a movie in the theater they're more likely to rent or buy it on DVD than download it illegally.
Samsung has set new standards for video viewing capabilities in gadgets with the Ultra Video F500, a portable media player and 3.5G mobile phone. It is a high-performing multimedia player and powerful 3.5G phone rolled into a 10.7mm-slim package. The user-friendly handset gives users access to a world of entertainment with their favorite video and music files.
The F500 is the first phone to be DivX Certified, boasting DVD-like picture and sound quality with TV output. "High video quality should not just be limited to large TV screens. The Ultra Video highlights our passion to leverage on our multimedia capabilities to satisfy consumers' leisure and entertainment needs, and we have advanced from a product provider to a total solution provider through our partnership with DivX," said Mr. Ng Long Shyang, Vice President of Sales & Marketing, Telecommunications and IT products.
He continued: "Samsung will continue to lead the wireless industry with premier technologies, innovative products and strategic marketing tie ups to enhance the lifestyles of our customers." The handset features a dual face LCD screen - a phone on one side and on the reverse a large 2.4” screen for multimedia viewing. The 2.4" screen has a resolution of 320x240, providing 262K colours. It features 350MB of internal memory and supports microSD for expanded memory. It also features a 2.0 mega-pixel camera and Bluetooth v1.2.
Sony Corp. has taken a step forward by creating a battery that produces electricity by breaking down sugar. The company, which is one of the largest producers of batteries in the world, sees this as a breakthrough in bio battery technology. The bio cell, which measures 39 millimeters cubed and delivers 50mW, setting a world record for such a cell.
The battery uses glucose solution as a fuel. In example videos provided by Sony, a small fan is powered by the cell with a glucose-based sports drink. Another example shows four of the cells connected in series to deliver enough power to operate a Walkman music player. Sony's image was seriously hurt last year when the company issued a massive recall of lithium-ion cells.
Sugar is naturally occurring, making the technology the basis for an ecologically friendly energy source. Many electronics companies are currently researching technologies that could replace the dominant lithium-ion cells as a clean power source for portable electronics.
Sony Corp. will sell a satellite navigation accessory from February 2008 for its handheld PlayStation Portable (PSP) games console. The company made the announcement at the Leipzig Games Convention on Wednesday. This move will bring Sony's gaming and portable entertainment device into direct competition with companies like TomTom and Garmin Ltd. that make satellite navigation equipment.
Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) boss, David Reeves, said that the accessory for the PSP handheld will cost between €100 and €150 ($135-$200). The PSP competes with Nintendo's DS handheld console in the market for handheld gaming devices, but Sony strives to also sell its PSP as a multimedia entertainment device, adding useful features over time through firmware updates.
While the Nintendo DS is by far the market leader, Sony has shipped 24 million PSPs globally since launching the device in December 2004.
Sony and BT have announced new software that will enable millions of owners of PlayStation Portable (PSP) consoles to keep in touch through video and voice calls as well as instant messaging. Both companies said that the Go!Messenger would be ready for its commercial launch by January 2008. The extra features will help Sony to battle its rival Nintendo, who's DS handheld is currently dominating the handheld market.
"By offering a variety of communications options to help stay in touch with other gamers, Go!Messenger truly brings the entertainment potential of PSP to life," said Steve Andrews, head of mobility and convergence at BT. BT said it would promote the software in he UK, France, Germany, Spain and Italy before extending its reach to over 100 countries across Europe, Middle East and Africa.
Sony has shipped 24 million PSPs globally since launching the device in December 2004. While the DS handheld sits proudly on top with many millions more sales, Sony is marketing the PSP as an entertainment (and now) a communication hub as well as a gaming system.
Microsoft Corp. just can't avoid the heated issues surrounding the hardware of its Xbox 360 console. After already announcing it would need to spend around $1 billion to fight the over-heating and hardware issues for the Xbox 360 console itself, the company has now warned that the Wireless Racing Wheel controller can overheat. There has been as many as 50 reports about the peripheral overheating and releasing smoke.
The wheel simulates the physical sensations of race car driving for games such as "Forza Motorsport 2", and sells for $130. To date, about 230,000 units of the controller have been sold to consumers worldwide. According to the company, the issue can strike when the unit is plugged into an electrical outlet, causing the AC/DC adapter to overheat. The gadget is safe to use while running on battery power however.
There have been no reports of fire, injury or property damage, Microsoft said. It also is working with regulatory agencies, including the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. The CPSC is monitoring the situation according to commission spokeswoman Julie Vallese.
The company has not yet confirmed what replacement parts it plans to ship.
NXP introduced a new HDMI 1.3 receiver chip last week, the TDA19978HL, which improves the audio and video performances and lowers the costs of high-definition (HD) audio/video receivers. The TDA19978HL is industry's first HDMI 1.3 receiver with four inputs, eliminating the need for an external HDMI switch, reducing overall system cost and design cycles, enabling faster time-to-market while meeting the Industry's demanding performance and application requirements for HDTV viewing.
The receiver was especially designed to improve the quality of audio-video streaming on an HDTV, by combining 12-bit Deep Color and Extended Gamut to render rich life-like colors, as well as High Bit Rate (HBR) and Direct Stream Transport audio formats. The TDA19978 also reduces the overall cost of an HDTV by embedding EDID memory for each of the four independent HDMI inputs.
With a maximum link frequency of 2.3GHz, NXP's TDA19978 quad-input HDMI1.3 receiver supports all HDTV formats, like the 1080p/60Hz TV and the UXGA (1600x1200) at 60Hz PC display resolutions. The TDA19978 comes in a small, low pin count HLQFP144 package with three levels of power management for optimum power saving, as well as optional software drivers.
The Australian Record Industry Association's (ARIA) Music Industry Piracy Investigations (MIPI) assisted the Victorian Police in the raid of the home of a prolific trader of Croatian pirate music in Cheltenham, Melbourne last week. The Police seized approximately 5,000 burnt Croatian CDs and extensive computer burning equipment. The pirate trader first came to MIPI's attention when selling burnt Croatian music in church grounds at Keysborough, Clifton Hill and Ardeer in Melbourne to unsuspecting consumers.
The MIPI investigators were led to the home of a female trader from where it is understood that large quantities of pirate CDs were being manufactured and distributed for sale. The CDs feature recordings of popular Croatian artists including Thompson, Matko Jelavic and Zlatko Pejakovic. It is expected that criminal charges will be laid against the pirate trader shortly. Penalties for copyright infringement are up to $60,500 and 5 years imprisonment per offense. The criminal case against this pirate trader is expected to be heard in Court over the next couple of months.
"The music industry is committed to protecting the copyright of artists and songwriters whether they are based in Australia or overseas. Traders who deliberately burn music and sell it to unsuspecting customers are not only deceiving consumers but they are taking food off the table of artists and songwriters that devote their life to creating music,"Sabiene Heindl, General Manager of MIPI said.
Optibase Ltd. and ZTE Corporation announced a strategic alliance to provide integrated TV over IP services. ZTE selected Optibase's Media Gateway (MGW) platforms to provide advanced MPEG-4/H.264 encoding and streaming solutions as part of its IPTV offering. ZTE Corporation is considered one of China's fastest growing telecom equipment suppliers, with customers in more than 100 countries worldwide.
Furthermore, the Chinese market is regarded as one of the most advanced in the emerging IPTV market. Optibase's MGW encoding platforms are state-of-the-art streaming solutions that allow carriers to broadcast high quality TV over broadband IP networks. Optibase's MGW 5100 offers a high-density, modular platform that encodes, transcodes, transmits and recasts broadcast quality HD and SD MPEG-4/H.264 and MPEG-2 video channels in real-time.
"We selected Optibase's MGW IPTV platforms for their high-quality standards and reliability. Optibase's cutting-edge products enable us to offer our customers a competitive edge by providing them with the most advanced products and services," said Xie JunJie, Project Manager at ZTE.
MainConcept AG has announced that Adobe Systems has agreed to license its H.264 and AAC technology for integration into its flagship Adobe Flash Player software. Flash software reportedly reaches 98% of all Internet enabled PCs worldwide. Adobe has licensed the x86, PowerPC and ARM versions of MainConcept's H.264 and AAC decoders. A public beta of the latest Adobe Flash Player 9, code named Moviestar, leveraging MainConcept technology is now available from Adobe Labs.
MainConcept codecs are uniquely designed for mass market audio/video encoding and decoding solutions. The codecs are designed to take advantage of the advanced performance of cutting edge new computer systems, such as new multi-core systems, while also providing an optimal experience for users without newer systems.
The codecs support international audio and video standards while being as tolerant as possible of broken, non-standard and corrupt files. MainConcept makes it easy for software developers to integrate codecs into their solutions by providing comprehensive Software Development Kits with the necessary tools, documentation and developer support to quickly release high quality solutions on multiple platforms.
Sony Europe head David Reeves has recently said that the company has not ruled out introducing a hard drive for the PSP even though the PSP Slim is coming out soon.
"I think that it certainly is not ruled out, Reeves said in an interview.
"The only thing I would say is that the flash memory is simply so cheap - you can get an 8GB Memory Stick for under 100 Euros, and on 8GB you can get a lot of content."
"I think the big debate is - there's a point in time when you have to put a stake in the ground and say we're going to go with flash memory or we're going to go with hard drive. I don't think they've put that stake in the ground just yet," he added.
"So they're thinking about it - I think they'll get through Christmas and think about what the next step would be. You might hear more later."
Should be interesting to see what is in store for the PSP.
The island country of Antigua believes they have the right, under international law, to violate United States intellectual property laws.
Although Antigua is better known internationally for their beaches and tourist resorts, online casinos have become a large and important part of the national economy. It's the country's second largest employer.
The complaint stems from U.S. laws that make even online gambling illegal in most parts of the country. Antigua claims this violates their rights as a member of the WTO (World Trade Organization) because it harms their economy.
The WTO has already ruled against the U.S. in the matter, and the ruling was later held up on appeal.
There are really two questions raised, and either by itself could have a serious affect on world trade. The first is what impact membership in the WTO can really have on national or local laws in member states.
In the United States, for example, treaty ratification only requires the President's signature and a 2/3 majority in the Senate. This doesn't meet the requirements for passage of a law.
The other issue is WTO authority. If they back down from the U.S. the authority of any action against other members, and therefore the legitimacy of the organization as anything more than a figurehead, is automatically in question.
The Digital Media Association (DiMA) and SoundExchange announced an agreement yesterday to cap the $500 per-channel webcasting fees at $50,000—a victory for large webcasters that stream thousands of stations.
SoundExchange is an organization that collects royalties for many companies, including both RIAA members and independent labels.
Large webcasters technically have individual channels for each user, making their royalty responsibility under the recently passed Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) webcasting rates, would be more than the revenue generated by their service. The new rates set a $500 minimum payment per unique channel.
The rates are based on an entertainment industry proposal, which the CRB essentially passed as submitted. Not surprisingly they demonstrate a clear disregard for how online radio's business model works. It's really just another example of the industry reaching out for any source of revenue they can as CD sales fall.
They already have a royalty model established with satellite radio services that exceeds what they get from terrestrial broadcasts. The webcaster rates go even further, and the music industry would like to extend them to terrestrial broadcasts.
Google says that content makers will have control over which videos have ads overlaid on them when they get posted to viral video site YouTube.
They want to get more feedback on the advertising they've just recently added to some videos. This seems especially important as site visitors threaten to take their viewing somewhere ellse - and right now there are a lot of somewhere else video sites popping up.
Only videos from content creators that have signed up for the advertising scheme, called InVideo, will host ads, leaving the majority of videos on YouTube free of the overlays, a Google spokesman said today. Advertisers will still be able to reach a large audience through YouTube videos even if the company places ads in only a small portion of videos.
"And our users are not shy about telling us what they like and what they don't, so it behooves us to be careful," said Shashi Seth, YouTube group product manager, in an e-mailed statement.
YouTube's problem right now is the same as countless other video sites. They have to find a revenue stream somewhere in their service, and advertising is the logical place to look.
A push to sell more expensive brand name models is currently dominating shelves at a store near you.
As interest in lower priced LCD televisions as an alternative to expensive plasma models has risen, profit per unit sold has fallen for retailers.
The problem with this strategy is that consumers are primarily buying because prices have come down a substantial amount. With prices of higher end models currently in stores matching prices of the low cost alternative consumers have been watching, the Christmas buying season may not see increased profits.
The price promotions by the minor makers propelled Vizio from the No. 4 L.C.D. television maker in the American market in the first quarter of 2007 to the best-selling maker in the second quarter of 2007. “Half the reason that consumers buy our sets is because of lower prices,” said William Wang, Vizio’s chief executive. “But our goal was never to compete on price only. We have a great product.”
Perhaps as worrisome to retailers are signs that growth is slowing, said Gregory Melich, a retail-sector analyst at Morgan Stanley. “For the past few months, growth in the total TV market has been zero or negative, because demand is not there at these price points,” he said.
The European Commission attempts to simplify European licensing for mobile satellite services could increase demand for broadcast television to handheld devices like mobile phones.
The Commision has generally agreed to adopt the DVB-H standard, sparking mobile providers across the continent to start seriously start looking for ways to profitably offer mobile broadcasts.
Besides the broadcast format, the proposed standards would make it possible for a mobile operator to obtain licensing across the EU from a single authority, instead of the current system where permits for different countries must be applied for in each one.
Several European mobile phone companies, including Vodafone Group PLC, have expressed interest in mobile satellite technology for TV service as well as broadband data.
The Fox police drama was available online before it's broadcast premier in September.
It's available without commercials for a limited time on the Fox, AOL, Yahoo, TV Guide, and IGN websites. Those portals are all involved with the still unnamed venture by NBC Universal and Fox owner News Corp.
TV shows offered for Streaming online directly from television networks are becoming fairly common, but this is the first time a major series premiere has gotten a preview this way.
Earlier this summer, though, several fall television pilots were leaked to P2P networks.
Nintendo's Wii continues to lead the pack of current-generation video game consoles, according to NPD Group. However, the real eye-opener, from NPD's perspective, is the unexpected mid-summer sales boom involving just about everything related to the games.
Nintendo sold about 425,000 Wii consoles in the United States during July, more than double the 170,000 Microsoft Xbox 360s that left the shelves and almost triple the 159,000 Sony PlayStation3s that were sold, said NPD.
"From a PlayStation perspective, coming out of E3 (the Electronic Entertainment Expo) we were really anticipating a good reaction to our new hardware pricing announced on July 9th, and we were obviously very pleased to see that PS3 sales increased with 159K units sold at retail for the month of July, which puts us up 61 percent over June numbers,"Sony Analyst Relations Manager Mariam Sughayer wrote in a blog.
The sales boost was partly caused by the new pricing, but might also be related to "a great deal of anticipation for the line up of games just around the corner, including 'Warhawk' (Aug. 28), 'Lair' (Sept. 4) and 'Heavenly Sword' (Sept. 12)," she said.
RHI Entertainment, a prolific creator of made for TV movies has plans to release 24 original films directly on VOD (Video on Demand).
The studio plans to provide two new original VOD movies to Time Warner Cable, Bright House Networks, Cablevision, and Cox Communications. After their VOD debuts, they'll be aired on channels like the Sci-Fi Channel, Spike TV, USA, and Livetime. Finally they'll be released on DVD.
However, Genius Products, which handles home video distribution for RHI, is still negotiating on the release dates and hopes to bring at least some of the films to DVD at the same time they hit VOD, company spokesman Michael Edelson said.
"If it's available on VOD beforehand, it ends up cannibalizing some of our sales," Edelson said.
Major movie studios, with the notable exception of Sony, have been testing simultaneous VOD and DVD releases.
After Paramount Home Entertainment announced last week that they'll be releasing new titles exclusively on HD DVD, instead of both HD DVD and Blu-ray, retailers were left to explain to their customers why "Blades of Glory", which had been scheduled for an August 28 Blu-ray release, won't be available in that format.
Hastings Entertainment did not have time to change weekend circulars promoting Blades of Glory on Blu-ray. Instead, store managers will place disclaimer signs aside Blades of Glory displays, explaining to people that due to recent studio decisions, the film is no longer available on that format.
“I think there will be a lot of people who purchased BD titles that will be upset that they can’t get [Blades of Glory] on Blu-ray,” said Mason Goodfellow, Hastings video category manager. “They are now questioning about what they got in the past, where they invested money in Blu-ray already.”
It may be interesting to see what happens as Paramount titles that people were planning to eventually buy on Blu-ray become available on HD DVD. We may get more evidence about how much difference the availability of particular movies make to the success of a format.
In January there was much speculation that low priced Chinese DVD players would be available well before the end of this year, including a deal supposedly in the works by retailer Wal-Mart which were eventually shot down.
More than half way through the year, no such deal has emerged, and along with questions about how long it would be until the Chinese players are more than a rumor, speculation about how much impact such a move will really have is rampant.
In an e-mail response to a question about the mass merchant’s fourth-quarter high-definition plans and whether it will bring in players from Chinese manufacturers this year, a Wal-Mart spokeswoman said, “We are still evaluating the situation and not making a decision to go solely with one over the other right now."
Despite HD DVD players being priced much lower than equivalent Blu-ray players, the inclusion of BD in the PS3 and broader studio support have kept the battle between the two fairly even.
Combine those facts with consumer confusion about both products, and you have a situation that doesn't look good for player sales at any price.
According to a UBS research note on Tuesday, Apple Inc.'s iPhone may reach a unit sales figure of 800,000 in the current quarter. By doing so, it would beat Apple's own hopes of 730,000 over the same period of time. "Our checks continue to indicate solid demand for the iPhone despite typical moderation in excitement from launch and extremely high expectations," analyst Ben Reitzes wrote.
The iPhone was one of the most anticipated gadgets as soon as Steve Jobs showed it off back in January this year. Apple had previously stated that the company could sell 10 million iPhones, not a huge share in the market for the company at all, but considering the high-end price of the gadget, it could ignite consumer interest in feature-rich expensive models.
On July 25th, after selling 270,000 iPhones in Apple's fiscal third quarter, the company said it expected to sell the millionth iPhone in the fourth quarter ending in September. "Our findings point toward modest upside to our fiscal 4Q07 (fourth quarter, 2007) shipment estimate of 800,000 units. In addition, we believe the Mac story is exciting as demand is strong for notebooks and recently introduced iMacs," Reitzes said.
DivX, Inc. has announced the acquisition of the assets of Veatros, L.L.C., a Kansas limited liability company. Veatros's technology was designed to conduct real-time digital video processing and will be used by DivX primarily for the purposes of producing enhanced video search and discovery services. Veatros was spun out of the Information and Telecommunication Technology Center at the University of Kansas.
The Veatros technology, when integrated with the DivX Connected platform for enjoying network-based media in the living room, will provide users with a powerful, high-quality environment for managing and enjoying all their digital media through an easy-to-use interface.
As digital media comes of age, more consumers are demanding greater connectivity and better solutions for finding media, on the PC, in the living room, and on the go. DivX provides widespread access to content through a range of products and platforms, with over 100 million DivX Certified devices from major partners including DVD players, digital televisions, digital still cameras, portable media players and mobile phones, as well as through Internet distribution platforms.
"DivX is building a better media experience in partnership with the world's leading consumer electronics companies, and innovative search and discovery technology will be an important piece of that solution." said Kevin Hell, Acting Chief Executive Officer of DivX. "Veatros's assets will add powerful capabilities to our Connected platform that will allow consumers to more easily find and enjoy digital media content, and effortlessly add metadata such as cover art, director, and actors to all their video titles."
Sharp, one of the largest LCD TV makers in the world, has unveiled that they will be selling a new set of TVs that are only 20mm (.78 inches) thick at its widest point.
Sharp also claims that the contrast ratio will be 100,000:1 and that the living contrast will be 3000:1. The display would "would reproduce 150% of the NTSC color ratio and have a 4 ms response time" as well.
The company did not say how large the new ultra thin LCD would be but only that it would weigh 55 pounds, so don't expect anything too large.
The catch, as there is always a catch, is that the TVs wont be ready to hit the market until 2010. By that time however, laser HDTVs will be emerging and LCD sales should be slowing perhaps making these TVs obsolete before they even hit retail shelves.
PENTAX Imaging Company and DivX Inc. announced today the DivX certification of the PENTAX Optio S10, the innovative imaging company's seventh DivX certified digital camera. The Optio S10 records video natively in the high-quality DivX format, enabling users to playback their videos on a wide-variety of DivX Certified devices from major manufacturers, including DVD players, portable devices and more.
"Consumers have consistently demonstrated that the ability to capture high-quality video is an important feature and partnering with DivX has given us the opportunity to offer that in a unique way," said John Carlson, Product Manager at PENTAX Imaging Company. "We are excited to continue our work with the DivX team in releasing our seventh DivX Certified digital camera."
The Optio S10 makes it easy for users to create and share their own high-quality media. With the push of a button on a palm-sized digital camera, users can instantly record high-quality DivX video and easily upload their files to Stage6.com, a popular online video community powered by DivX technology. Due to the efficiency of the DivX format, the Optio S10 also enables consumers to record up to an hour of high-quality DivX video on a 1GB media card.
Fujitsu Limited has the development and launch of a new transcoder large-scaled integrated (LSI) chip that is able to convert full HD (1920 x 1080) MPEG-2 video data to H.264 / AVC data and compress data size to less than one-half that of MPEG-2. This new transcoder makes it possible to extend recording time of recording devices such as hard disk recorders by over 2.5 times, as the chip enables data size compression without compromising video quality.
The transcoder can also be embedded in a multitude of equipment requiring reduction of data size, and can realize full HD over narrower bandwidths used for home network, the use of which is anticipated to spread hereafter. Digital terrestrial broadcasts and digital satellite broadcasts use data compressed into the MPEG-2 format. Because MPEG-2 format video is high-resolution, if the video is recorded as it is without compression, to storage media such as hard disks, the data volume is extremely high and thereby causes the problem of significantly limited recording time.
Focusing on such issues, Fujitsu developed this MB86H52 transcoder LSI that converts MPEG-2 format video data to the H.264 format, which features a higher compression rate. Functionality of this new transcoder is based on the video processing technology of Fujitsu's full HD H.264 codec LSI product, MB86H51, currently being shipped. Utilizing proprietary high quality video technology developed by Fujitsu Laboratories, the quality of the input MPEG-2 video data can be maintained when transcoded to H.264 format.
CableLabs and the Digital Transmission Licensing Administrator (DTLA), LLC have announced the approval of the DTCP-IP technology for protection of cable content using Internet Protocol for unidirectional and bidirectional digital cable products, in cooperation with Paramount Pictures Corporation, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Inc., The Walt Disney Company and Warner Bros. Technical Operations.
Digital Transmission Copy Protection (DTCP) allows cable subscribers to enjoy digital cable programming, including high-definition and VOD cable content, on consumer electronics devices and personal computers on digital home networks. The approval permits CableLabs licensees under DFAST, CHILA, and DCAS to protect pay-per-view and video-on-demand transmissions against unauthorized copying and unauthorized internet retransmission, while assuring consumers' ability to record broadcast and subscription programming, in digital formats, for personal use.
"The agreement we reached today addresses the highly complex concerns raised by the affected parties — cable, content, and consumer electronics — and brings benefits to consumers," said Dr. Richard R. Green, President and CEO of CableLabs. "Working together we agreed on solutions that meet our respective business needs, and serve the interests of consumers and content providers."
The largest CD replicating plant in the Baltic States, Baltic Optical Disc, has been ordered to pay a coalition of record companies a €500,000 payout after a Lithuanian court ruled the plant was guilty of music piracy. The civil action was brought by the public prosecutor and 13 members of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) over large scale pirate CD manufacture in 2001.
The claim stemmed from police and customs' seizures of more than 210,000 pirate CDs containing a mix of predominantly international and Polish repertoire. Forensic experts at IFPI traced the origin of the illegal discs, found in Vilnius and on the Czech/Polish border, back to the Baltic Optical Disc factory. This conclusion was confirmed by investigators at the Lithuanian government’s forensic laboratories.
"This is a landmark victory that sets a precedent which should be a warning to the operators of replicating plants everywhere who produce copyright CDs without authorization from the rightsowners,"Jo Oliver, Vice President, Litigation and Regulatory Affairs at IFPI. "The judgment sends a strong message across the region that copyright law will be enforced wherever it is abused. At a time when nearly one in three CDs sold worldwide is a fake, the industry welcomes the damages awarded by the court. It has never been more important to crack down on these activities that hurt all those who invest in the creative process."
It seems that thanks to a couple of legends in the PSP homebrew scene, that the hackers have won, as a universal downgrader was released, for free, yesterday.
The software, known as Pandora's Battery is the work of well known names, Adrahil, Booster, Cswindle, Dark_AleX, Ditlew, Fanjita, Joek2100, Jim, Mathieulh, Nem, Psp250, Skylark, and TyRaNiD.
According to Dark_AleX himself, "The battery lets to downgrade any firmware version (including those that Sony releases in the future), and to unbrick bricked psp's (whatever bricked by software PSP, not only the ones bricked by that retard of Serafin), in all current hardware. Of course, we cannot be sure about future hardware, but the Firmware Update game has finally come to the end for all current psp's."
Although it is unclear whether this will work on the upcoming PSP Slim, Fanjita said the software was finally released as the it had somehow hit the blackmarket and was selling for over $1000 USD, making some people a fortune off potentially stolen software.
What makes this even more special is the opportunity to unbrick a bricked unit, making the worries of trying to downgrade a thing of the past.
A new study from the Institute for Policy Innovation adds a new twist to music industry estimates on the cost of piracy, claiming piracy related costs to the economy of $12.5 Billion.
While past studies have focused on the assumption that each unauthorized download equates to a lost sale, this new study goes a step further and extrapolates losses to the entire US economy based on that assumption.
Along with the multibillion-dollar loss, piracy also is hindering job growth, according to the IPI. The US economy will lose 71,060 jobs due to piracy, with almost 38 percent of those (26,860) in the recording industry. That amounts to $2.7 billion in lost earnings. Piracy also hits Uncle Sam—as well as state and local governments—right in the pocketbook, with at least $422 million in lost tax revenues.
It essentially assumes that two of every three downloaded songs would have been purchased, were it not for file-sharing. This is a very high percentage and one not justified by our own knowledge of file-sharing trends. The study needs to make a firm argument for why this percentage is so high.
Given IPI's track record (which includes this gem from the aforementioned open-source study: "Open source will go the way of other IT industry fads that were once trumpeted as the way of the future, like Macintosh computers, business AI, 4GL programming languages and Y2K") and ideological bent, the results of this study are rather unsurprising.
YouTube executives are getting no shortage of criticism from site visitors after launching their InVideo advertising Wednesday.
Users responding to an official blog post requesting feedback overwhelmingly disapprove of the ads, including one viewer who made his point with a video.
One comment said "You guys ripped off VideoEgg. What happened to innovation?"
VideoEgg, which apparently introduced an advertising system similar to YouTube's current approach even has a banner on their main page saying "Welcome YouTube, Seriously. We invented the video Overlay ad about a year ago. We are delighted that the market is finally catching on to a vital new approach to video advertising."
While YouTube has made no claim to inventing the technology they're using for advertising, it would certainly be more than a little ironic if they ended up in another court battle over royalty payments for it.
Sony seems to be moving forward with plans to make the PS3 a home entertainment center for your living room by turning it into a DVR.
The device, called PlayTV, is a combined television receiver and DVR, will be able to record live television and store the video on either a Playstation3 or Playstation Portable for viewing later.
PlayTV, which includes dual DVB tuners, is supposed to be able to record either individual programs or an entire series. It's also capable of receiving and recording hi-def signals. Additionally, when connected to a PS3 it will be able to transmit video to a PSP wirelessly.
It's supposed to be available in Spain, Germany, France, Italy, and Britain some time in 2008.
Google has decided to offer real refunds to Google Video users who are losing movies they thought they owned until the Download To Own service shut down earlier this month.
The change of heart is the result of customer complaints after the search giant announced that was not only shutting down the service, but was compensating those who are losing access to their videos by giving them Google Checkout credits instead of money.
Since Google Checkout only works with a small number of online shops, most of their customers didn't find this to be a fair exchange.
"When your friends and well-intentioned acquaintances tell you that you've made a mistake, it's good to listen," Bindu Reddy, Google's video product manager, said on the company's official blog.
Google also is extending through February 2008 the ability to view video already purchased, although it has stopped letting people buy new ones. Before, the video would have expired Aug. 15.
Company spokesman Gabriel Stricker would not say how much the refunds would cost, but said they won't materially affect the company's finances. He also described the number of complaints as "limited."
Despite Paramount and Dreamworks SKG deciding to back HD DVD exclusively, research firm Understanding & Solutions still believes Blu-ray Disc will prove victorious in the high-definition format war/
“The weight of industry support is still very much behind Blu-ray,” said U&S director Jim Bottoms, preceding his arguments by noting that U&S remains a private entity, not financially benefiting from either side. “Fifty-eight percent of the high-def market comes from Blu-ray-exclusive business,” based on first quarter video shipments, he said.
Bottoms broke down studio market share within Blu-ray-exclusive studios, showing that Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment commands a 14% piece; 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, 16%; Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, 18%; MGM Home Entertainment, 3%; and Lionsgate, 7%.
The HD DVD-only side accounts for 23% of the market, including 10% from Universal Studios Home Entertainment share and 13% from Paramount Home Entertainment. Warner Home Video, producing in both HD DVD and Blu-ray, accounts for 19% of the high-def market.
Police raids at a Mississauga flea market have squashed rampant piracy that was bringing in hundreds of thousands of dollars for sellers. On Sunday, about a dozen booths at flea markets on Mavis Rd. in Mississauga and on Dundas St. near Hwy 427 in Toronto led to 18 arrests being made and another 8 people are being sought.
Altogether, 22 different locations were entered with search warrants, including several homes and businesses in Peel, Toronto, Halton and York. More than 40,000 bootleg DVDs worth a minimum $800,000 were seized. "We had a 21-year-old kid bragging that he was making $15,000 a weekend," Peel Det. Sgt. John Mans said. "He had the potential to make $60,000 a month and we think he was in business for six months so he could have made over $300,000."
Among the locations raided were homes in Scarborough and Markham from where police alleged the pirated DVDs were being distributed. "One of the houses we entered had 7,000 movies alone," Mans said. "We also seized equipment that we've been told was capable of turning out $21 million a year in these illegal DVDs."
According to VG Chartz, Nintendo's Wii console is now the most sold home console of its generation worldwide after passing out the Xbox 360. The site reports 10.57 million Wii units have been sold since the console launched in late 2006, just ahead of Microsoft's Xbox 360 which has sold 10.51 million since its launch a year earlier. Sony's PlayStation 3 (PS3) console sits at 4.32 million sales so far.
VG Chartz claims that its data is based on sample data from retailers all over the world. If accurate, there are many reasons why Nintendo's latest home console has defied analysts predictions from two years ago and taken a lead in the market. Firstly, Nintendo's strong support in Japan helps when you compare the sales figures of the Wii and the Xbox 360; 3.46 million and 430,000 respectively.
Also, the Wii has a broad audience among all age groups, demographics and countries. This is the first time that a company has been market leader in the home console and the handheld market since 1994 when Nintendo's Super NES and Gameboy dominated worldwide. Nintendo's DS handheld is a worldwide leader, with VG Chartz reporting 48.83 million sales compared to 22.84 million for PSP.
Indonesian police and the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry's (IFPI) anti-piracy experts raided a pirate music factory on Thursday and found a large quantity of counterfeit discs and manufacturing equipment. The raid followed on from swoops on two earlier pirate manufacturing sites in July. A preliminary investigation of the production records has revealed that the plant was replicating in excess of 110,000 discs per day over the last two months.
Among the items seized were seven manufacturing lines, 125 stampers, none of which were marked with the required mould codes, as well as 40,000 pirate music CDs. The plant owners had failed to register a number of the replication lines as required under Indonesian law and had placed a substance on the mould surfaces to prevent the transfer of SID codes to the optical discs.
Six employees were arrested by the police and will now face prosecution. The authorities decommissioned all seven pressing lines and removed all production records for examination.Investigators followed up the raid by seizing a goods vehicle that had been used to deliver the pirate discs to market. They found an additional 40,000 copyright infringing CDs.
According to the Financial Times, Apple has finally secured revenue sharing deals that will bring the iPhone to Europe.
Three service providers have signed the deals, T-Mobile in Germany, Orange in France, and O2 in the UK.
The deals mean Apple will receive a large 10 percent cut of all revenue "from calls and data transferred through the phones." Although it is not known how long these exclusivity deals will last, it should prove to be as long as AT&T's deal in the US, but could be as short as two years.
The new revenue sharing deal is almost unheard of in the mobile phone business as usually manufacturers get little to no cut of any revenue made from use of their phones.
For 2007, Germany, France and the UK will be the only European countries to receive the iPhone but Apple has said that they will be expanding to other parts of Europe and Asia next year.
Comcast is vehemently denying claims that they're filtering BitTorrent traffic on their network.
Broadband providers aren't exactly fans of BitTorrent because use of the protocol can create an excessive amount of traffic on their networks. Last week On TorrentFreak, a blog claimed that Comcast is cutting off BitTorrent transfers and even decreasing download speeds.
Comcast spokesman Charlie Douglas denied that the company was filtering or "shaping" any traffic on its network. He said the company doesn't actively look at the applications or content that its customers download over the network. But Comcast does reserve the right to cut off service to customers who abuse the network by using too much bandwidth.
"More than 99.99 percent of our customers use the residential high-speed Internet service as intended, which includes downloading and sharing video, photos and other rich media," he said. "But Comcast has a responsibility to provide these customers with a superior experience, and to address any excessive or abusive activities usage issues that may adversely impact that experience."
In the rare instances the company has to enforce its policy, Douglas said that Comcast contacts subscribers to work out the issue. But he firmly reiterated that the company doesn't Filter or throttle back traffic.
Adobe has announce the addition of high definition video to the new version of its Flash Player, which is currently in beta testing.
The update, currently called Moviestar, may be an advance response to Microsoft's anticipated launch of its Silverlight product later this year. Earlier in the year Microsoft announced that Silverlight would support hi-def using the VC-1 codec for video and AAC audio.
AVC (H.264) and VC-1 are already competing in the Hi-Def player market with HD DVD and Blu-ray both supporting them. AVC is also gaining accpetance in the HD camcorder market.
Hopefully more competition between the two formats will ultimately lead to improvements in both.
7digital, a London based music download service, is going to be the first company to deliver EMI's Rolling Stones catalog without DRM.
The 24 albums are delivered at the high-quality 320 kbps rate, and for the next four weeks will exclusively retail at 7digital's website at 5.49 pounds each ($10.88). After the promotion expires, the albums will cost 7.99 pounds ($15.83) to download.
"To be the first and only music download service to make high quality downloads of the Rolling Stones' tracks available is a phenomenal coup for us," said 7digital's managing director Ben Drury."
Apple's iTunes already sells DRM free files from EMI's catalog, but uses the AAC format, which allows for higher compression at the same quality but doesn't have the nearly universal support that MP3 does.
YouTube is finally trying to take advantage of parent Google's advertising experience to create a revenue stream through advertising.
Since buying YouTube last year, Google has been cautious about pushing advertising on viewers, although in order to make money, clearly some new form of revenue must be identified.
On Wednesday, YouTube will launch a way to link video clips with advertising it says makes sense contextually, with the aim of spurring viewers to seek more information.
Rather than load a commercial to the start or end of a clip, YouTube will introduce an animated Overlay across the bottom of its video player screen.
The overlaid ads will appear before the clip begins, giving the opportunity to click to watch an ad. If the viewer doesn't click on the link within 10 seconds it's supposed to simply disappear.
Vizio, which got its start helping Gateway enter the LCD business, has something to be proud of for itself. It's quietly become the top LCD vendor in the North America.
According to market research firm iSuppli, Vizio was the top North American LCD vendor during the second quarter of the year.
Vizio in the second quarter shipped 606,402 LCD-TVs in North America, up a stunning 76.4 percent increase from 343,704 in the first quarter, iSuppli said. This boosted Vizio's North American unit market share to 14.5 percent, up from 9.4 percent in the first quarter.
With all-digital television on the horizon, there's likely to be an explosion in LCD and other flat panel technologies. Any company that takes good advantage of that market should end up in a very good financial position.
With lawsuits flying around from every angle, the owner of the once famed Suprnova.org, sloncek was forced to deliver a huge blow to the BitTorrentP2P scene by shutting down the website. Once viewed as a one stop shop for all your P2P needs, Suprnova's loss to the scene made a significant impact on file-sharing everywhere.
Such is the way of the Internet, many other sites that were similar in construction sprang up and many others gained valuable regular visitors, but few were able to rise to the notoriety that was held by Suprnova. A short time ago, rumors had flown around the Internet of those P2P rebels ThePirateBay acquiring the rights to Suprnova. Today, those rumors and early leaks have been confirmed. Suprnova.org has opened to the public in the form of an open public beta.
The new owners request that its visitors keep in mind that they are still in the growing stage and there just may be some issues from the initial startup, but they offer a rather interesting tongue-in-cheek reply to those who forced the site down in the first place.
"This is how it works. Whatever you sink, we build back up. Whomever you sue, ten new pirates are recruited. Wherever you go, we are already ahead of you. You are the past and the forgotten, we are the internet and the future. y'arr!"
On Tuesday Wal-mart started selling DRM free music downloads on its website.
The world's largest retailer said their new MP3 catalog includes songs from major record labels without any form of DRM that will play on almost any device. That includes iPods and iPhones, and the Microsoft Zune.
Apple's iTunes Plus offers DRM free downloads for $1.29 -- higher than the 99 cent price of its typical downloads.
Wal-Mart said it will still sell its Windows Media Audio-format downloads, which often come with copyright protection limiting where songs can be replayed, for 88 cents per track.
It will be interesting to see how well Universal's DRM free tracks sell in particular because the same songs are only available with DRM from Apple's service. If they sell well enough it could be a sign of stiff competition for the current undisputed leader in commercial music downloads.
Viacom and RealNetworks are hoping to take a bite out of Apple's successful iTunes service with a joint venture announced Tuesday.
MTV's Urge music service will be merged into RealNetworks' Rhapsody to form a new company called Rhapsody America. The service will be useable on computers and music players, as well as being integrated into Verizon's VCast service for mobile phones.
MTV will be marketing the service heavily beginning in September, and will also help with programming.
The companies did not say how much the new service will cost. Rhapsody currently charges subscribers $12.99 a month for unlimited listening and sells individual tracks for 99 cents, with a discount for subscribers.
The current trend in online music ventures seems to be based around entertainment company sponsorship. This may be necessary for any company that wants to take a piece of Apple's pie, but it remains to be seen what this means to consumers in the long run.
The second part of our Basic DVD Project guide series is up now. It covers analysis of source files and formulating a plan for creating DVD assets from it.
You can find the guide, entitled Basic DVD Authoring Project Part 2 - Analysis at
According to a new report by iSuppli, the relatively unknown Vizio has jumped to the top of LCD TV sales in North America, beating out giants such as Sharp and Sony.
For the second quarter 2007, Vizio shipped 606,402 TVs, a huge 76.4 percent increase from 343,704 in the first quarter. The surge helped Vizio jump from fifth in shipments in North America to first in just one quarter.
Sony fell from third to sixth with shipments falling to 263,377 units in the second quarter, down 36.1 percent from 412,323 in the first quarter.
Sharp however, shipped more and moved into third place. iSuppli believed the added sales were due to increased availability of 8th generation Aquos panels.
“Vizio’s success is mainly due to the company expanding its retail presence to Wal-Mart and Sears at the beginning of the second quarter,” said Riddhi Patel, principal analyst, television systems for iSuppli. “The company already was selling its LCD TVs through the warehouse stores Costco, Sam’s Club and BJ's Wholesale Club—but the addition of the two new retailers gave Vizio’s sales a significant lift.”
“Americans have grown comfortable with value brands, making Vizio’s low-cost sets an alluring alternative to the established names,” Patel added.
Panasonic announced that they are able to extend the phosphor half life of consumer plasma displays to 100,000 hours, an improvement of around 2/3 over older technology.
The two-thirds gain in "life to half brightness" appears in the company's current 2007 model lineup, already available in stores, a spokesman said. If a household watches six hours of TV per day, it would take almost 46 years for the display to dim to half it original brightness.
The company is studying other improvements to 1080p plasma displays, including native 24p playback. This would enable playback of film content at the correct framerate without 2:3 pulldown.
Although improvements intended for relatively expensive displays are nice, it seems like the next 2-5 years will see more of an increase in low end displays to accomodate the transition to digital-only television.
Arguably, unlike improved plasma life, accepting a 24P signal should improve the viewing experience when most material originates on 24fps film.
Although there's been no release announcement, Microsoft is making its upcoming Windows Home Server software available to OEM partners on August 27th. Outside the U.S. it's already being sold to vendors for between $150 and $200.
Despite a complete lack of publicity, visitors to the company's website are able to see it listed for release on the last Monday of the month.
A Microsoft spokeswoman Friday noted that the company does not release system builder or OEM software pricing, and denied that the Aug. 27 date constituted a product launch. "The only thing that is available on Aug. 27 is tech support for system builders," she said.
Windows Home Server (WHS) is intended to run home servers like the ones that have become popular among many HTPC enthusiasts. WHS is based on Windows Server 2003, and computers running the OS would primarily be competing with SATA NAS appliances.
The assertion that making a song available over a P2P network like KaZaA infringes on the copyrights of the record labels will be tested by Warner v. Cassin next month, as attorney Ray Beckerman will argue the matter in a federal court in White Plains, NY.
Although the RIAA's claim that making a song available over a P2P network infringes on a record label's copyrights may seem sound at first glance, the issue is as not cut and dried as the music industry would lead us to believe. First, the RIAA has not established that any infringement has actually taken place. The RIAA's claims of copyright infringement come after its investigator, MediaSentry, discovers music in a P2P user's shared folder. MediaSentry then takes screenshots, notes the IP address, and the litigation process is set into motion. That's the sole basis for the RIAA's complaints.
Beckerman argues that if making available is found to be the same as distributing, it could have broader implications than just sharing files over a P2P network. "Under such an elastic interpretation and ill-defined standards, almost all participants in the Internet would become vulnerable to accusations that they 'make available' a variety of content, including copyrighted materials, to users," he argues in the reply. Think about hyperlinks, which make available other content on the Internet. Providing a hyperlink could be construed as distribution under the RIAA's definition, argues Beckerman.
Although 20th Century Fox and MGM were slow to release many titles in high definition, both seem ready to make up for lost time now.
Between the two studios there will be nearly 30 hi-def releases by the end of this year including "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer" and "Live Free or Die Hard".
Fox has promised six movies to be released simultaneously as regular DVDs and in Blu-ray format, and MGM will do the same with four titles.
Additional titles will be from each studios library of past releases, including Fox films "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" and "The Fly."
Following the recent completion of BD+, an advanced form of copy protection, Fox and other studios were expected to ramp-up their Blu-ray title output.
Interestingly, the increase in Blu-ray output comes at the same time Paramount has announced they're putting all their support behind rival HD DVD.
As the so-called format war between Blu-ray and HD DVD gets more convoluted every day, Paramount has come along to throw a little more confusion into the mix.
Long before either format was anywhere near releasing an actual product, Paramount threw their support firmly behind HD DVD. In 2005 someone at the studio changed their mind on the decision, and until this week the studio released movies in both formats.
Now, in a surprise move, both Paramount and DreamWorks Animation SKG announced they're releases will be available strictly on HD DVD. The decision affects movies from Paramount Pictures, DreamWorks Pictures, Paramount Vantage, Nickelodeon Movies and MTV Films.
In a statement, Brad Grey, Chairman and CEO of Paramount Pictures said, "Part of our vision is to aggressively extend our movies beyond the theater, and deliver the quality and features that appeal to our audience. I believe HD DVD is not only the affordable high quality choice for consumers, but also the smart choice for Paramount."
It's an interesting move, given Blu-ray's commanding lead in Title sales, including Paramount's own titles.
Japanese electronics manufacturer, Toshiba continues its release party with the unveiling of two new LCD lines to please consumers wishing tot take the high-definition plunge. The two new lines of REGZA LCD televisions comprise of the C3500 and the RF350.
The RF350 is said by Toshiba to be "design minded" and comes in two flavors. The 40-inch retailing for ¥330,000 ($2,866) or the 46-inch which tips the scales at ¥390,000 ($3,388). The C3500 is tailored to a cheaper audience with its offerings of 26-inch priced at ¥150,000 ($1,303) and 32-inches ¥170,000 ($1,476) at 1366 x 768, or 37-inch ¥250,000 ($2,171) and 42-inches ¥300,000 ($2,606) at 1920 x 1080. Both sets sport a nice array of features.
The RF350 sports 1920x1080 Resolution, 2 HDMI, ethernet ports, 1080p / 60p / 24p, 2 S-video, 3 composite connections plus digital and optical audio ports. The C3500 doesn't skimp too much, and gives potential consumers features such as 1080p / 60p / 24p formats, 2 x HDMI jacks, ethernet, S-Video, composite and standard audio inputs and outputs.
Following hot on the heels of the U.S. price drop, Microsoft has officially announced the much anticipated European price drop for their Xbox 360. The consoles will drop in price by 50 euros to 349.99 euros, similar to that of the U.s. price drop. Microsoft said in a statement that the lower price for the Xbox 360 for the Premium 20Gb model will be effective August 24th. In addition, the Elite system featuring the 120Gb hard drive and a few other high-definition features will be launched to the tune of 499.99 euros. The unit of which few actually want, the Core which has no hard drive will be cut by 20 euros to 279.99 euros.
These price cuts come just in time to help give Microsoft the much needed edge before the holiday season. With the announcement of the PS3 price drop and the onslaught of sales for the cheaper Nintendo Wii, Microsoft had to do something to gain some exposure for the 2 year old system. Microsoft hopes the price point will help also expand their market beyond its core fan base consisting mostly of young men.
Statistics recorded at the end of June put Microsoft at 5.6 million Xbox 360s sold in the U.S., compared to the 2.8 million Wiis and 1.4 million PS3s. This figure includes the one year head start Microsoft had over the other two competitors.
As I look over at my own dog who's only real talent comprised in his hyper-sensitive nose is the ability to accelerate faster than human reaction straight into an unsuspecting crotch, I wonder where did I go wrong. Lucky and Flo, the two famed dogs trained to sniff out the chemicals used in copying DVDs are in the spotlight in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. They both have received awards from the Malaysian government for their efforts in sniffing out and crippling movie pirates during their five-month campaign.
Lucky and Flo mark a momentous occasion as being the first animals ever to receive outstanding service awards for finding discs stockpiled by pirates. The Motion Picture Association was on hand to express its gratitude. The two dogs led officials to 26 separate arrests and the seizure of over $6 million worth of illegal discs. "The dogs have proven to be a major asset in our fight against the pirates and we intend to continue what Lucky and Flo have set in motion," stated S Veerasingam, Malaysia's deputy minister for domestic trade and consumer affairs.
Malaysia has long been in the eyes of the U.S. for its rampant piracy and as such, the government stepped up its efforts to reduce piracy from that region so that it could handle its negotiations of free-trade pact with the U.S. much easier.
Despite piracy concerns by movie studios, Hollywood appears to be experiencing record box office returns this summer.
For the first time ever, four films have made more than $300 million in the U.S. in the same summer. "Spider-Man 3", "Shrek the Third", Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End", and "Transformers" have all broken the $300 million barrier. 9 other titles have exceeded $100 million.
ummer 2007 is turning out to be the best on the books, running 10% ahead of 2006 and 6% ahead of 2004, the previous record-holder, according to Nielsen EDI. The total number of summer admissions (May 4-Aug. 12) is 526.5 million, up 6% over the same Frame last summer.
So far the year-to-date numbers are just as promising, with income running 10% ahead of the best year on record - 2004.
I guess those popcorn farmers aren't doing as badly as NBC would like us to believe.
The DVD Copy Control Association may have reason to reconsider a proposed amendment to the CSS license which would force media server manufacturer Kaleidescape to stop selling their premier product.
Kaleidescape's attorneys sent a letter to the association threatening to sue on anti-trust grounds if the amendment gets approved.
In a letter to Kaleidescape’s attorneys dated Aug. 6, DVD-CCA attorney Perry Johnson called the threat “unfounded” and accused Kaleidescape of attempting to “derail DVD-CCA’s fair and open amendment process.” However, the response didn't go so far as to say that they'll push the amendment forward.
The amendment, originally sponsored by Warner Bros., The Walt Disney Co. and two companies each from the consumer electronics and IT industries, would moot a judgment in favor of Kaleidescape by a California state court in a breach-of-contract claim brought against Kaleidescape by DVD-CCA.
The earlier litigation claimed Kaleidescape violated the CSS license by allowing its home media servers to copy DVDs to a hard drive for streaming across a network.
The judge in that case ruled that the CSS license did not legally prohibit Kaleidescape’s design. The ruling is now under appeal, giving the DVD-CCA even more reason to wait before taking action to amend the license, potentially exposing themselves to legal action.
It seems like these days high-definition content is being pushed towards consumers through many different avenues, whether it be satellite, Streaming, high capacity discs or otherwise. One company, has a bold and somewhat unbelievable idea that has the potential to push high-definition to arenas it has never gone before. NuTech wants to give its consumers high-definition programming through the plain old telephone system. Thats right, copper dial-up lines to deliver high-definition content.
The official press release seemed rather ambiguous and their website doesn't give much in way of believability towards their cause, but NuTech stands firm with their aim to "utilize a standard household phone line for secure content delivery."
More importantly, their system is said to "enable video Compression and the management and delivery of video, audio and data over a fully switched or routed network configured for ATM and Ethernet protocols utilizing connection speeds as low as 64Kbps to deliver high-definition content."
Although not available in stores until mid-September, Target.com has begun showcasing two Sony Bravia LCD televisions that will be an exclusive to the Target stores. The 26-inch and 32-inch Bravia screens will not be available through any other retailer.
Priced at a moderate $799 and $899 respectively, the LCD screens feature up to 720pResolution and are significantly cheaper than any other Sony LCD television on the market. According to a Sony representative, there will be additional models unveiled exclusively to Target's competitor Wal-Mart in the following month.
The announcement for Target to hold the exclusive rights for these two panels was announced back in June, however it is now officially a reality. Randy Waynick, senior vice president of marketing stated that Sony would supply a unique series of models to Target, Wal-mart and other big retailers in order to tailor its offerings to specific demographics. At that time, Waynick had stated that the televisions would have rolled out within 60 days, however it seems they took a little longer than expected to get the ball rolling.
Remember the older commercial from Sony that was intended to show off the power of the PS2 by showing a fully immersed virtual reality gaming situation? The commercial showed a young man in the future battling people on the streets, swimming in a vast ocean and even playing Jai-Alai across the towering buildings. It was dubbed the Playstation 9.
Well as outlandish as the commercial may have looked at the time, far be it from Sony to think of it as merely a well thought out marketing scheme. Sony, in cooperation with scientists in San Diego have patented a technology for non-invasive brain targeting devices that essentially shoot ultrasound waves to stimulate brain tissue and create "sensory experiences" such as touch, taste, sight, smell and sound. One additional claim is that this technology could be used for a more noble cause such as allowing the blind to see, or the deaf to hear.
Admittedly, brain implants become more and more sophisticated by the day, however non-invasive brain manipulation such as this is still rather crude in design and practice. There are already techniques that employ such manipulation. One such technique is known as transcranial magnetic stimulation and relies on magnetic fields to activate nerves within the brain tissue. The problem with this technology is it cant be focused well enough to to concentrate on a small area of brain tissue, like ultrasound can.
In an unusual move for an internet based company, online video rental firm Netflix is no longer taking customer service requests via email. Instead, all support issues will be handled by phone in the future.
“We want to make the best movie experience better,” spokesman Steve Swasey said. “We find that people are more appreciative of talking to a live person 24 hours a day.”
The shift comes as the company battles Blockbuster for online subscribers and loyalty. In July, Netflix reported its first quarterly loss in subscribers.
Swasey said there’s not a material difference in cost of moving from e-mail to phone support.
“The very best e-mail program is still not as good as a live person on the phone,” he said.
Netflix also continues to test different price points on plans, apparently sending an e-mail to select subscribers of the three-movies-out plan today dropping the price by $1 to $15.99. The retailer just cut the price of that plan by $1 in July.
Sony Electronics launched its largest integrated marketing campaign in the U.S., centering on its high definition DNA known as "HDNA."
The campaign is intended to show how a variety of high definition technology from Sony can be used together to create a high quality home entertainment experience.
"HDNA is the core, the essence of all Sony HD products," said Sony Electronics' Chief Marketing Officer Mike Fasulo. "HDNA ensures an HD experience that you cannot have with any other brand."
"If a consumer is considering the purchase of an HD product, we believe that given our lineage and expertise in the category, Sony should be the only consideration. With this comprehensive campaign we will also demystify all of the fears associated with purchasing a high-definition product."
Walt Disney Studios would like to add more excitement to Blu-ray releases by including Web-enabled and picture-in-picture features on their new BD discs.
National Treasure will be configured as a BD-Live disc, the format’s term for software that features interactivity accessed through the Web.
Picture-in-picture, with which a separate video streams plays concurrently with the feature film, will be included on Finding Nemo and The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
Although no current set-top Blu-ray players can handle picture-in-picture interactivity, and few besides the PS3 can access the internet to take advantage of BD-Live content, Disney sees these features as important for the format's success.
All Blu-ray players introduced after Oct. 31 are required to handle picture-in-picture. Manufacturers also are expected to start rolling out BD-Live-capable hardware at that time.
AOL has relaunched Truveo.com, intended to be a service for viewers to find both user-generated and professionally produced video clips. The site has been rebuilt based on search technology acquired by AOL in 2006.
"Over the past year, there has been an explosion in the amount of professionally produced video that's available on the Web," Timothy Tuttle, CEO and co-founder of Truveo and senior VP of AOL Video, said in a prepared statement. "While today's popular video sharing sites offer a wide variety of user-generated video, they rarely give users the opportunity to find professional, mainstream video. The new Truveo.com solves this problem, so whether it's a dog riding a skateboard or the latest episode of The Daily Show, Truveo.com is the one-stop site for finding videos from across the Web."
Truveo's search engine is used on AOL Video, AOL Search, Microsoft, Infospace and hundreds of other sites.
Google's web advertisement service, Adsense, will work with Media Rights Capital on two projects that will put videos on websites around the world that display Adsense advertisements. Working with Family Guy creator Seth McFarlane and Raven-Symone, content will be created to be distributed to a broader audience than single video locations.
Terms of the deal between Google Inc. and Media Rights Capital (which backed last year's film "Babel") have not been disclosed but it is similar to a distribution deal between Adsense and Viacom Inc. struck last year.
The result of the projects will be small (familiar to regular web users) video boxes that will appear on websites offering content supported by banner advertisements and video ads that will run either before or after the video content is played. Media Rights Capital and Google will work together to target videos at websites most appropriate for the content.
MacFarlane will produce short videos featuring new characters, while Raven-Symone will be in a "how-to" show, the company said.
Nintendo's Wii console has enjoyed surging demand ever since it was launched in 2006. Often thought of as the "alternative console" of the generation, the Wii is now threatening to take the lead in more than just monthly system sales. According to website VG Chartz, the Wii console is catching up to Microsoft's Xbox 360 console in total worldwide sales figures fast.
VG Chartz gets its figures from over-the-counter sales data from a selection of retailers around the world or when the latest figures are taken. It does not specify how many retailers it tracks nor does it name any specifically for any territory. However, it claims that its estimates are, "very accurate projections of the latest console sell through figures worldwide".
Sales reports like these should always be taken with a hint of skepticism and this is certainly no exception. Specifically, VG Chartz puts the Wii down as 10.10m sales worldwide, not far behind the Xbox 360 estimate of 10.32m sales. By territory, it estimates that Nintendo sold 3.32m units in Japan, 4.07m in the United States and 2.71m elsewhere.
Microsoft's Xbox 360 enjoyed a year head-start on its competitors, which is evident of its U.S. sales figures of 6.64m and 3.25m elsewhere, outside of Japan. However, in Japan, the Xbox 360 has only managed to move 430,000 units, already quite far behind the Wii total. Remember however that those figures are from VG Chartz.
MainConcept AG has announced that Corel Corporation has agreed to license its H.264 encoder technology. Corel is a leading global software company that provides full-featured, easy-to-use productivity, graphics, entertainment and digital media creativity software for home consumers, businesses, schools and industry partners worldwide.
The consumer version of MainConcept's H.264 encoder will be integrated into Corel consumer software products VideoStudio and DVD MovieFactory to enable output support for high-definition H.264 content in AVCHD, HD DVD & Blu-ray Disc formats.
"We are pleased that Corel has chosen our H.264 encoder," said Muzaffer Beygirci, VP Sales of MainConcept. "With its market leading Corel, InterVideo and Ulead brands, and its international network of resellers, retailers and OEMs, Corel software is known and loved by consumers worldwide. We are proud that our advanced video technology will enable Corel customers to use the H.264 format to create new high-definition discs."
"MainConcept's H.264 technology offers the superior performance and quality our customers expect," said Blaine Mathieu, Vice President and General Manager, Products and Strategy, Corel Digital Media. "Corel customers will find video encoding in H.264 an efficient solution when compressing high-definition video and retaining image quality."
Chinese personal media player maker, KindyElec has released a device, while not easy on the eyes, boasts some interesting features. This player, dubbed the KP701-11 is capable of receiving both analog and digital television broadcasts in DVB-T, PAL, NTSC and SECAM.
Everything that the little media player receives is brought to the user on a 7-inch TFT LED Backlit LCD screen. It also has built in support for MP1/3, DivX, MPEG4 and JPEG files. All files are saved via its own 2.5-inch 40Gb INTERNAL hard drive.
If 40Gb storage just isn't enough for you, the KP701-11 also has a multi-format card reader capable of accepting CF, SD, miniSD, MMC, RS-MMC, MS, MS Pro and MS Duo memory cards. It supports USB 1.1 and 2.0 for data transfers and even comes with a remote control in case you like to watch the full 7-inches from beyond arm's reach. Battery life is said to be in the 2 hour range and the device itself measures in at 222mm x 123mm x 27mm (8.7" x 4.8" x 1").
A coalition between the Australian Federal Police, the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft (AFACT) and Twentieth Century Fox organized a raid in hopes of tracking down an Australian citizen who apparently recorded The Simpsons movie on his cellular phone and shortly thereafter, uploaded it to the file-sharing masses. The three worked in cooperation with one another to Track down the leaked film that hit the Internet back in July, earlier than its official movie release date. As they soon found out, their raid could not keep up with the speed of the Internet and quickly fizzled away into nothingness.
Adrianne Pecotic, executive director of AFACT stated, "Within 72 hours of making and uploading this unauthorized recording, AFACT had tracked it to other Streaming sites and P2P systems where it had been illegally downloaded in excess of 110,000 times and in all probability, copied and sold as a pirate DVD all over the world."
Being no stranger to the court room, the RIAA has found themselves on the receiving end of a class action lawsuit filed by Tanya Anderson of Oregon who claims the recording organization impersonated her daughter's grandmother over the telephone in order to gain evidence towards an illegal file-sharing lawsuit. The charges filed against the RIAA are many and amount to such things as counts of negligence, fraud and misrepresentation, racketeering and corruption, abuse of the legal process, malicious prosecution, outrage and intention to inflict emotional distress, computer fraud and abuse, tresspassing, invasion of privacy, libel and slander, deceptive business practices, misuse of copyright laws and finally civil conspiracy.
The lawsuit names the RIAA as well as several companies held underneath its umbrella of business as well as MediaSentry, a firm the RIAA knows well and uses to gather information about suspected illegal music pirates. Anderson states that the non-profit organization engages in acts of intimidation through litigation to maintain a monopoly on the music industry. The lawsuit itself is said to call out MediaSentry for conducting "illegal, flawed and negligent investigations for the RIAA and its controlled member companies."
Some time ago, the RIAA had filed suit against Patti Santangelo and her two children Michelle and Robert for allegedly illegally downloading copyrighted music from the Internet. Patti, the mother, had managed to escape the lawsuit without any damages, however her children are still locked in battle with the recording industry. The lawyer of these two children has now issued a claim to bring Sharman Networks, the creator of famed P2P application KaZaA and also, AOL, which provides internet service for the Santangelo family.
The motion was filed yesterday seeking permission to name Sharman Networks and AOL as third-party defendants, effectively placing liability on these two companies for any harm that has been done to the recording industry. Sharman's application KaZaA was allegedly used by Michelle and Robert to download copyrighted material but the Santangelo's lawyer claims that KaZaA "operates in the background of one's computer", while "recklessly disregarding copyright law". He contined to claim that KaZaA uses these tactics to trap "unsuspecting uses into unintended sharing". Also according to the motion, KaZaA is alleged to have blocked all warnings from the RIAA about copyright infringement. Finally, the proposed summons dictates that Sharman had settled for over $100 million with the RIAA but failed to take Sharman's "other victims" int account during the settlement. These victims of course are users who weren't aware that their music was eing shared over the network because of the reasons above.
DivX has managed to pass a very important milestone in its run. DivX has officially shipped 100 million devices capable of playing video encoded in the DivX Codec. These DivX Certified video devices top 100 million since the DivX Certification program started in 2003.
DivX notes friendly business relations with hardware giants LG, Philips, Samsung, Sony and Thomson as key companies which helped delve out these DivX compatible devices to the general public. Specifically, over 2,500 individual products have been sent out supporting DivX. The company estimates that approximately 32% of all DVD players sold worldwide support DivX playback.
Known for the distribution of anime to South East Asia, Singapore based Odex Pt. Ltd is responsible for handing out such acclaimed titles as Bleach, Full Metal Alchemist, Mobile Suit Gundam and Chrono Crusade to otaku in the South East. This year, a decision was made to target file sharing groups over BitTorrent after claiming sales had dropped some 70% in just two years.
Opex used a tracking system to collect the IP addresses of anyone known to be sharing their licensed works over the BitTorrent protocol. They then took this information and forced StarHub, and Internet Service Provider, to give them the information of 1000 BitTorrent users accused of infringing on their copyrights. Previously, a simliar ISP by the name of SingNet was also forced to reveal its customer details.
StarHub did, however put up a fight with attempting to keep its customer information private. The pressure from the court was found to be too great and they had agreed, in closed chambers, to hand over the information. Michael Sim, spokesman for StarHub said, "In the instance of Odex, they have satisfied the court of their need for the information. As such, we will comply with the court order"
For some of us it doesn't seem all that long ago, but the revolutionary Compact Disc is officially 25 years old. Although, development of the disc dates back many years, the official date in which the Compact Disc was unleashed upon the world stands at August 17, 1982.
The format was co-developed by Philips and Sony and opened up a new pressing plant in Hanover, Germany. The very first audio CD to be pressed at that plant intended for production belonged to ABBA's The Visitors. Although production of the Compact Disc began in August of 1982, it wasn't offically brought to the market, only in Japan, until November of the same year. The US and Europe didn't see this bright new format until March of 1983.
It seems the UK took hold of the format almost immediately and in 1985, Dire Straits released their album Brothers in Arms which was bought up by early adopters of the format. This milestone was important because it marked the first time a CD was produced using a digital master.
Other digital albums proved to be even more popular with Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon rumored to have its own CD pressing plant to keep up with demand for the hyperdimensional sounds of Floyd.
The pioneer in music television, MTV Networks has announced plans to invest some $500 million in video games, wanting to grab hold of a part of the $30 billion market. Their main goal in seeking out the video game market is to reach their consumers everywhere they spend money. This is in part of a two year global strategy to incorporate game development at the inception of all new programming plans and not as an afterthought.
"As we take our brands narrow and deep to serve our targeted, niche audiences, we're putting well over $500 million behind building our games business across all of the brands in our portfolio," said MTV Chairman and Chief Executive Judy McGrath. Ms. McGrath also stated that she'd like to see more games developed based on the ideas behind the network's shows.
Some analysts feel that this is a bad move for a media organization to get into video game development. Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter stated that "Media companies are crazy trying to bring video-game development in house. They act like anyone can do this. The fact is not everyone can."
Dispite reports that MTV has been gradually losing its audience, the executives there feel that bringing video games into the foray will hold the attention of the younger audiences as well as adults.
In late July, LaCie announced the 5TB Biggest S2S 5-disk RAID designed for digital content creation applications. Using eSATA 3Gbit/s interface and direct eSATA-to-SATA connection, a single LaCie Biggest S2S is capable of reaching burst transfer rates of over 200MB/s. For advanced professionals, up to four S2S units can be connected on the included eSATA PCI-X/Express Card to achieve a massive 20TB solution with a burst speed of over 600MB/s.
Disks are hot-swappable for instant expandability and the solution is hot-pluggable so there is no need to power down the computer. Advanced features include the ability to customize email alerts in the event of disk failure and to create unique RAID sets to fit different needs. "LaCie Biggest S2S 5TB is probably the most cost-efficient solution for HD/SD video editing and post-production," said Olivier Mirloup, LaCie Hard Disk Drive Business Unit Manager.
Mirloup continued: "It offers fast performance and data integrity in a single unit up to 5TB. In RAID 0, the ultra-fast eSATA interface offers enough speed to edit hours of 10-bit HD uncompressed or play back up to six 8-bit SD video streams. This can even be drastically improved combining several S2S units, revolutionizing a market driven so far by much less cost-effective solutions, such as SCSI/fiber technologies."
LightScribe Direct Disc Labeling recently announced the new LightScribe Travel Kit to enables consumers to preserve their memories and add that personal touch to their DVD and CD label designs. The LightScribe Travel Kit's DVD / CD label tips, templates, and resources are available for free download on lightscribe.com, just in time as people return from summer holidays.
Customers owning a LightScribe-enabled drive can go to the Travel Kit and download travel DVD and CD label designs, mailers, and disc sleeve designs that reflect their favorite trip memories to share with family and friends. With the new kit, travelers can create personalized custom designs that integrate travel photos with text so that the discs are personalized and capture their special memories from each unique trip.
With LightScribe, photo and video CDs and DVDs can be labeled with a memorable photo from the vacation so that the discs can be quickly identified with a favorite visual memory. Lightscribe is a laser DVD / CD label burning technology found in many popular brands of disc burners, laptops and PCs, gives people the ability to easily burn silkscreen-quality photos, graphics, images and text directly onto LightScribe CDs and DVDs.
A stuch by industry group DEG: The Digital Entertainment Group indicates consumers aren't sold on watching video online.
The study, titled “Online Content: New Pathways of Discovery and Use”, involved a survey of over 1,000 people, and found that most still prefer watching DVDs or TV to streaming.
Only 10% of respondents said they prefer streaming or downloading a movie, while over 70% prefer either DVD or TV.
Perhaps of more interest was the fact that nearly one quarter of those surveyed were interested in paying to stream or download movies if they could get them at the same time they're released in theaters.
Today I'm posting the first in a series of guides for creating DVDs. The project involves creating a DVD using public domain video files and a combination of free, trial, and on occasion low cost commercial tools. Instructions will be given for both PAL and NTSC DVDs.
Some of you may have seen this previously when I inadvertantly published it in place of my CCE Basic guide. If you were looking for my CCE guide I apologize. It's also up now so you can finally read it.
You can find the guide, titled Basic DVD Authoring Project Part 1, at
Several record labels such as Sony Music and Universal Music have been courting with the idea brought about by a Seattle based company called Activated Content which places audio Watermarks on MP3 files. The purpose of these watermarks range from digital tracking of content, to marketing matrix that allow companies to get statistics on who has listened to their particular audio.
Audio watermarking works by placing an audio stream within the music itself that is not perceptible by the human ear, but can be read and deciphered by audio tracking software much easier than DRM standards. Since it becomes part of the audio, and not merely another layer within the audio, it becomes harder to strip it away, thereby leaving its mark to sit with the intended consumer. Should this same mark show up on another person's device, this could then give easier legal grounds for record companies to go after music pirates. The CEO of Activated Content states that it would take a user with a supercomputer and about a month's worth of time to be able to successfully Track down and remove an inserted watermark.
Sony America chief Dave Karraker has proudly noted on the official PlayStaion blog that the PlayStation 3 was put through an "independent stress test" by PS3 Vault and that it had passed with flying colors.
The test, entitled “How to kill a Ps3 Console” put the console through over 200 hours of operation in various adverse conditions that no gamer would ever have to endure.
The first part of the test placed the PS3 in a typical living room with regular temperatures and such. The test then ran the machine continuously for 108 hours switching between game playing and Blu-ray movie playback. "The only recorded anomaly was a slight vibration coming from the tray area which lasted approximately 20 seconds.”
The second part of the test placed the PS3 into the back of a freezer van where the temperature began at 50 degrees Farenheit and slowly dipped down to 0. “We noticed a slight sluggishness in playback once the temperature reached 0 degrees,” the test notes. “This was maintained for the last 24 hours, with 12 hours to go we thought we were going to crash with a sudden blackout to the screen, [but] this was tracked down to condensation on the cord for the screen.”
As the worldwide leader in liquid crystal displays, Sharp has announced that it will soon launch its new D64U series of AQUOS LCD televisions featuring a new slim line casing. The new line of TVs will give consumers the ability to have a bigger display, but on a much smaller footprint than previous models.
The D64U series will comprise of LCDs in 62-, 52-, 46-, and 42-inch displays all capable of displaying a true 1080pResolution. Bob Scaglione, senior VP of Product and Marketing for Sharp said, "The AQUOS LCD TV Line has always set the standard in technology and picture quality. Today, we set a new standard in design. With its graceful, space-saving design and full-HD resolution, Sharp’s AQUOS D64U series provides the ultimate home entertainment experience with the perfect balance of style and performance."
Sharp has re-engineered the LDC displays it currently offers to bring consumers a display that is being touted as the thinnest LCD in the industry and they have also managed to shave 25% of the weight.
After weeks of speculation and reports, data released by Home Media Research for the first half of 2007 finally gives a look into actual disc sales for Blu-ray and HD DVD.
The report said that total sales of Blu-ray discs for the period of January 1st to July 31st was 1.6 million units, more than double that of HD DVD which had 795,000 discs sold over the same period.
Although it has been known that Blu-ray had an almost 2-to-1 disc sale lead, the report is the first to give official figures on the amount of discs sold so far in 2007.
Of course, in the short run these numbers mean almost nothing, as both formats combined account for only 2.5% of overall disc sales this year, with standard definition DVDs still clearly leading the way.
However, DVD sales are now in a slump and HD will be the industry's next big growth area so it should be good to see how sales fare during the upcoming holiday season and beyond.
Literature publisher HarperCollins announced Wednesday that it will offer several iPhone compatible digital books on its website for savvy iPhone web surfers. Most of the books that will be made available will become live from late August, into September and accessible through HarperCollins' mobile website.
iPhone users will be able to use the Browse Inside feature on the website to preview the first 10 pages of the first two Chapters of the books it has publishing rights on. In 2006, HarperCollins began stockpiling literature in its digital libraries and now hosts some 10,000 titles available.
Should an iPhone subscriber preview the books and want to read more, they can simply purchase the book through their phone and it will download for their reading pleasure. Initially, the only books that will be available through a trial period are "The Burnt House" by Faye Kellerman, "Now and Forever" by Ray Bradbury and "Obama" by David Mendell.
It was announced today that electronic retail mogul, Best Buy will strike a deal with designer Liz Claiborne to design and sell electronic gadgets geared towards appealing to women.
The Liz Claiborne Accessories line will be offered in as many as 250 Best Buy stores across the US. These stores, once stocked, will offer items ranging from $25 to $200. Items that will be at female customer's disposal will be designer laptop bags, music players, Cell phones, business totes, and cameras. In a statement, vice president of Best Buy Liz Haesler said, "We know many of our customers want technology to be more than a simple necessity, they want their devices to reflect their sense of style".
Don't worry though, if you don't have a Best Buy near you, they have stated that these accessories will be available to you from the retail giant's website as well.
The owner of the once famed Allofmp3.com, Denis Kvasov has been acquitted of charges of copyright infringement stemming from his sale of bottom dollar priced MP3 files. The court in Moscow has ruled that Kvasov and his website were both working well within the limits of Russian law. Prior to being forcibly shut down in June of this year, Allofmp3.com had garnered millions of customers. Several music firms pressured Kvasov into shutting down his site and proceeded to progress with the lawsuit. Additionally, the music industry has enough influence on the US Government, that this ordeal with the website had hampered US-Russian talks over Moscow's bid to join the World Trade Organization (WTO).
Kvasov was forced to stand trial after being pressed for prosecution from EMI, Warner Music Group, and Universal, however District Judge Yekaterina Sharapova threw out the case. She stated, "The prosecution did not succeed in presenting persuasive evidence of his involvement in infringing copyright law".
During the trial, Kvasov argued that he had paid royalties from the sales he made on his site to a local organization, the Russian Multimedia and Internet Society. With starting prices of individual tracks being at $.10 and entire albums brimming to $1, its hard to say just how much of this was paid out to the firm. Western organizations like the ones who issued the lawsuit fail to recognize the Russian Multimedia and Internet Society as a sanctioned entity, therefore do not agree to accept payments from them for licensed material.
Over a week after the US and Canada saw price drops on the Xbox 360, Australia is finally getting the same treatment.
Starting today, the 360 will cost the same as the rival Nintendo Wii, with the Core model running A$399.95, a A$30 price cut. The Pro model will see an even bigger drop, from A$649.95 to A$579.95. The Pro models will also be shipping with an HDMI connection just like the Premium units in the US.
Microsoft also said they plan to bring the Elite and Halo 3 Special edition models to the country, but did not give a definite date as to when.
The infamous file sharing company LimeWire announced today that they had plans to begin a legal, authorized music store which it will eventually integrate into its hugely popular P2P client.
For the past few months, Limewire has been under intense scrutiny and pressure to clean up its business, especially after being sued by the record industry.
The legal service will have a small library to begin with, featuring music only from IRIS Distribution and Nettwerk Productions but the tracks will be available DRM-free and at 256kbps. There is no pricing details available as of yet, but the company said there will be single downloads offered as well as a subscription service.
We have a new guide called "Deciphering CCE Basic". Instead of being oriented toward a single task, like most of our guides are, it's intended to give you an overview of all the options in the program.
Finally seeing some competition on the horizon in the form of Samsung's $1,049 dual-format hybrid player, LG has lowered the price of their "Super Blu" BH100 hybrid combo player by $200 USD.
The BH100 was the first player of its kind to hit stores but it has had no competition and therefore stayed at its $1199 price tag until today.
Critics will still mention that at $999, the player is still much more expensive than buying two standalone players separately but the price cut is a step in the right direction.
The upcoming Samsung BDP-UP5000 should prove to be a fierce competitor with the LG player because it will offer full support for both BD-Java and HDi as well as well as web-enabled features for both formats.
Microsoft marketing boss Chris Di Cesare has made some bold statements about the much hyped, upcoming game Halo 3 saying that he believes the game can sell more in one day then the top box office films have made in their opening weekends.
He said the target for the first day of sales was 155 million USD which would beat out the 151 million opening weekend of Spider-Man 3.
"When we opened to USD 125 million [last time], that really caught a lot of people's attention. It showed that videogames were no longer that thing that kids play in their basement," Chris Di Cesare said. "We're confident we can do better."
Di Cesare does concede that the comparison isn't entirely fair due to the high prices of Xbox 360 games as compared to a movie ticket, but still says the figures are too large to ignore.
"I recognize it's not apples to apples. But it's big business any way you cut it," added Di Cesare.
Microsoft recently announced that they had over 1 million pre-orders for the game in the US, and the advertising push for the game has been huge prompting many to believe that the game will shatter even the highest expectations.
Although the Beatles' digital catalogue wont be hitting iTunes until next year, Apple announced that they had made the solo works of John Lennon available on the iTunes platform.
16 tracks from EMI were posted, although many of the works were already available elsewhere. The announcement is significant because iTunes is far and away the largest legal music download store.
All the tracks are available DRM-free for $1.29 USD a track and two collections, the “Lennon Legend” and “Acoustic” will be making their digital debut on iTunes.
Apple also said for the next month, exclusive video content would be included with the albums "John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band," "Sometime in New York City,; "Walls and Bridges," "Milk and Honey" and the collections "Anthology" and "Working Class Hero."
Shape Services announced yesterday that it had created a new version of its IM+ for Skype client, one that works on the Apple iPhone.
The client is already available for BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, Palm OS, Symbian, and J2ME devices but the new update had been specifically developed for the touchscreen interface of the iPhone.
The new client will allow iPhone owners to make calls using SkypeOut credits or any other Skype plan to a Skype enabled PC or phone number.
"Noticing the public interest for Skype on iPhone, we decided to use our mobile IM and mobile Skype experience and develop an application for [the device's users]," CEO Igor Berezovsky said in a statement.
iPhone can learn more about the service at skypeforiphone.com.
Sony is very happy with how Blu-ray technology is doing in developing markets in parts of Asia, Eastern Europe, and South Africa. Sales in those areas account for 10% of the company's home entertainment division's business.
With more than a 20% increase in Blu-ray title sales across these regions, Sony sees big potential there. Individually, South Africa represents the largest share of these markets’ Blu-ray sales, with more than 15,000 units shipped to the country to date.
“It is extremely positive to see an increase in volume of Blu-ray software sales in these markets where piracy has previously ravaged the DVD business,” said T. Paul Miller, senior VP of international at Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.
Matt Brown, executive VP of international at SPHE, added, “This news underscores not only the demand for premium content in these markets, but also the need for a home entertainment format with an impenetrable content protection system like Blu-ray’s.”
It's easy for those of us in the US and Europe to forget the role other parts of the world play in the global economy. If these nations are going to play a major part in determining the winner of the format war though, it will likely mean that hardware prices have dropped significantly from where they are now.
HD DVD and Blu-ray producers will be giving consumers more reason to be upset this Christmas, as "Spider-Man 3" comes out exclusively on Blu-ray and "The Bourne Ultimatim" is available only on HD DVD.
While releasing a movie in only one of the two major hi-def formats is considered a good move for promoting your studio's choice, it brings up the question of what impression it leaves on consumers.
So far consumers, by an large, haven't been forced to make a decision because players were priced outside their means. Many don't even have the HDTV displays required to take advantage of either format's improved picture quality. However, with significantly cheaper hardware expected in time for Christmas, consumers will be under pressure to decide between them this Christmas, and it's possible the lack of key titles from both formats will help them decide to keep their money in their pockets.
Sadly, although there are units available that can playback both formats, it's currently more expensive than buying both an HD DVD and Blu-ray player.
HD DVD, developed by Toshiba and backed by powerful companies like Microsoft, has the lead in standalone players sold because they are cheaper and hit the market first. In the United States, standalone HD DVD players have 61 percent market share, while Blu-ray players have 36 percent share and the few dual-format players have a 3 percent share, according to market research company The NPD Group.
Comedians Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, whose programs were once among the most viewed on YouTube, were requested by the video site to give testimony in legal proceedings as it fights a $1 billion lawsuit by Viacom Inc, according to court filings.
The two hosts of the Viacom hits "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report" were listed as numbers three and four out of 32 people called by YouTube to give a deposition in Viacom's case against it and parent Google Inc, according to a document filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York last week.
Viacom sued Google and YouTube in March after failing to reach a distribution agreement. Viacom said YouTube carried the entertainment company's programs on its site without permission.
At the time, Viacom said its Comedy Central shows were among the most viewed video clips on YouTube's service overall, which allows users to upload material. Ahead of the suit, Colbert had even urged fans to make him a star on sites like YouTube.
This seems to open up the possibility for a defense that responsibility for the large number of clips from those shows lies not with YouTube, but rather with representatives of the shows themselves, who not only condoned, but even encouraged viewers to post them to the viral video site.
Polar Frog Digital, a company that distributes and operates movie download kiosks, has joined the Digital Entertainment Group (DEG) as an associate member.
Polar Frog operates MediaIgloo DVD burning kiosks in the Burbank, Calif., and Raleigh-Durham, N.C., airports. The company hopes to launch 100 kiosks in additional locations by the end of the year. The kiosks offer 5,000 titles from independent suppliers.
DEG is a trade group formed in 1997 to promote DVD-Video technology and products. Other members include entertainment companies, as well as hardware and software vendors.
Polar Frog is hoping to take advantage of this year's decision by the DVD Forum, which allows CSS to be used on recordable DVDs. Previously, only factory stamped DVDs could use the encryption technology, which was a major stumbling Block for any type of on-demand DVD technology.
Tempting consumers, Amazon has begun using last week's Xbox 360 price drops to sweeten the pot for gamers who may want to step up to HD DVD by offering a new bundle for the Elite Xbox system.
The bundle, priced at $599 USD, offers the Elite system itself, the HD DVD add-on player, and copies of "300" and "King Kong" on HD DVD. This deal is stacked with the current "5 discs free" promotion so in total you receive 7 free movies with your purchase. Amazon advertises a savings of over $240 USD off retail prices.
There is no word on how long the promotion will last, but the bundle is a flashback to last month when Amazon did a similar promotion for Blu-ray and the PlayStation 3. That deal lasted almost a month.
The Bush administration wants China to crack down on piracy.
"Over the past several years, China has taken tangible steps to improve (intellectual property rights) protection and enforcement. However, we still see important gaps that need to be addressed," Sean Spicer, spokesman for U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab, said in a statement.
U.S. officials want to see more aggressive prosecution in China of those who pirate copyrighted or trademarked materials, and more stringent rules for what happens to pirated material once it's seized.
"We will pursue this legal dispute in the WTO and will continue to work with China bilaterally on other important (intellectual property rights) issues," Spicer said.
Unlike people who download media files from P2P networks or trade CDs and DVDs with their friends, there's really no debate about whether Asian organized crime costs entertainment companies billions of dollars.
Even legitimate companies have been known to ignore intellectual property, as was the case for early Chinese DVD players that were manufactured and sold without any patent royalty payments.
European children understand the risks associated with illegal downloading, but justify what they're doing by saying that everyone is doing it according to a European Commision survey.
Almost all of the children surveyed in the 27 European Union member countries as well as in Norway and Iceland said they expect to continue downloading. They also said the risk of downloading a virus was far more dissuasive than the risk of legal proceedings.
The survey also showed that children are far more aware of risks like viruses and identity theft than their parents believe, and are generally aware of how to avoid them.
Regardless of whether you're in favor of such downloading or against, the reality is that it's happening. And assuming the results of this study are anywhere near accurate, it's going to continue to happen.
The real question is what kind of business model will continue to encourage creative works to be created and what sort of intellectual property laws are enforceable.
Complaining that people are "stealing" your works and coming up with more and more DRM simply isn't a realistic business model, but we have yet to find out for sure what may be viable. Until such a thing is established, expect to see more DRM that raises costs and lowers profits without putting a significant dent in either personal or commercial piracy.
Since the death of the commercial part of Google Video will render thousands and thousands of purchases useless, the Library of Congress will have no choice but to consider the matter when they return to their triennial review of the DMCA.
To date, the Library of Congress has granted exceptions to the anti-circumvention clause of the DMCA in instances where DRM has rendered something completely unusable, such as eBook DRM which can render eBooks useless for handicapped people. The right to bypass DRM on products that no longer work properly was considered but rejected last time around.
Now, thanks to Google, we have a case study, a real-world example we can point to and say: "Hey, this isn't right." It features one of the world's most innovative and financially powerful technology companies bagging out on users. It features thousands of consumers buying DRMed goods in earnest, and it ends with a bang; Google decides to exit the market, leaving consumers with a load of useless goods.
Needless to say, this could happen with any player. Google could float its store if it wanted to, but it is exiting the business. What happens when Amazon does the same? Or Apple, or the next guy?
Analysts believe that ISPs have started to revolt about delivering net video because of the fickle European broadband market and because publishers are effectively transferring their distribution costs on to the ISP.
Ian Fogg, an analyst at JupiterResearch, wrote on his blog: "If ISPs had healthy margins for broadband, this wouldn't matter anything like as much. But European consumers are highly price sensitive on broadband access, so ISP margins are poor."
In addition, he said, most large ISPs have launched their own TV services.
"These internet delivered TV offers both push up ISPs' bandwidth and network costs, and they potentially undermine the ISPs' own TV services. So ISPs vocally use the issue of higher costs, while ISPs are also concerned about revenue protection for their TV services."
While services like BBC's iPlayer are popular with consumers, ISPs aren't happy about providing the bandwidth required for their customers to take advantage of them.
Arguably, the real question is whether ISPs should be selling services based on peak throughput being offered, or a more realistic number of sustained data transfer. As long as the former number is used instead of the latter you can expect consumers in many places to complain that they're not getting the service they're paying for, and ISPs complaining that they can't provide the bandwidth required for streaming video.
In a fierce battle with Blockbuster that seems to be ever heating up, Netflix has promised more "Watch Now" streaming movies to be included with their service plans.
Netflix has been running ads promoting “5 movies for $5”, meaning subscribers of its $4.99 plan will now have two DVD rentals and 3 online movies a month via the Watch Now streaming service.
Blockbuster however, has made changes to its Total Access that have confused both subscribers and employees alike. Apparently, if you use the service alot, then you can get free unlimited instore exchanges but if you do not then the service is more expensive.
Blockbuster spokesman Randy Hargrove wouldn’t say exactly which subscribers are being affected “for competitive reasons,” revealing only, “We’re trying to match subscribers with the plan that seems to best fit their needs based on their rental history.”
NBC Universal has announced that they will be shooting more than 3600 hours of coverage of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, which is over 3 times the previous record of 1,210 hours of coverage at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece. Many of the hours of coverage will be shot in full HD.
The coverage will run from Aug. 8-24, 2008.
NBC Universal also said they will be carrying the Olympic programming on NBC, USA Network, MSNBC and CNBC.
The HD content would be played on USA HD and Universal HD. Telemundo would be running all Spanish-language Olympics programming.
NBColympics.com would also be host to over 2200 hours of live streaming broadband video coverage, but no word on whether it will be in HD.
Cinebank, the largest video rental operator in France has developed a new and unique system for movie rentals by creating a portable hard drive that customers can use to load up at an instore kiosk then play back on their TVs via HDMI or a docking station.
The devices can hold up to 14GB of data, which is enough for over 30 movies at DVD quality.
The rentals use DRM and remain watchable for 30 days after which they expire. The kiosks can load 6 movies onto the drive in under 2 minutes.
Users pay for the movies using a prepaid card and the revenue from each rental is split between the retailer and the movie studios.
The new venture is aptly named Moovyplay and is created by the owner of Cinebank, CPFK Holding which also owns Video Futur and Video Pilote.
The system can hold up to 3000 movies which allows the rental stores to expand without actually adding physical stock.
So far, Moovyplay has licensed titles from Warner Bros. and New Line and is in talks with all the other major American movie studios. Licensing deals have also been made with nine major French distributors, including Seven Sept. and BAC.
Movie Gallery, the game and video rental outlet, posted a large loss for the second quarter of 2007 and expressed “substantial doubt” as to whether it can continue operating.
The company said "that it is not in compliance with the terms of its loans, and that if it does not reach an amended agreement with its lenders by Aug. 14 or obtain an extended forbearance period, its lenders could start foreclosure proceedings immediately."
The filing also goes on to say that the company is losing working capital and without the additional capital the company can not continue operating.
Movie Gallery, which is the second largest US rental chain posted a $561 million USD revenue with a net loss of $310 million compared to a much less substantial $25 million USD net loss last year.
LCD TVs are now continuously beating sales of Plasma displays and as a result, iSuppli, an industry research firm has stated that Plasma revenues will peak in 2008 before beginning a steady decline in 2009.
To date, revenue growth has been pretty good for Plasmas thanks to falling average selling prices which have boosted sales. The price drops are thanks to huge competition from LCDs as well as declining costs for display materials.
Worldwide Plasma revenue is expected to rise to $8.6 billion USD for 2007, up over 11 percent from 2006. Revenue is also expected to swell to $10.2 billion USD in 2008 due to increased production of larger sized panels. iSuppli believes that after 2008 however, plasma revenue should begin a steep decline, hitting $8.7 billion USD in 2011.
"In order for plasma manufacturers to continue to be successful in the market, they must weather the storm of LCDs while focusing consumer interest on PDPs' attractive form factors and reasonable prices," Riddhi Patel, principal analyst for television systems at iSuppli, said in a statement.
For the first quarter 2007, Matsushita held 31.5% of the plasma market in terms of revenue, with LG, Samsung, Fujitsu and Pioneer rounding out the rest of the top 5.
Universal Music Group plans to sell DRM free music appear to include marketing a new online music store called gBox.
Under the program, gBox will get referrals through ads Universal will buy through search leader Google Inc., gBox Chief Executive Tammy Artim said Friday.
Google will get standard advertising fees rather than a cut of sales under the arrangement. The ads, which would appear when a Google user searches for specific terms such as the name of an artist, will direct the user to gBox.
The arrangement with Universal and gBox is separate from Google's music search service, which directs users to online music stores when they search for specific albums or artists. The company says it does not get paid for such referrals, and it does not restrict links to a single retailer.
Google, which has said it has no plans to create a music store of its own, described the new arrangement as strictly an advertising relationship.
Universal Music will make DRM-free songs available Aug. 21 to Jan. 31. Amazon.com., Wal-Mart, Best Buy, and RealNetworks's Rhapsody are among the other retailers selling such tracks, but only gBox will get Universal'sGoogle referrals.
A legal storm is brewing between the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Universal Music Group over the right to sell CDs distributed for promotional purposes by music labels.
The dispute started when Universal sued Troy Augusto for selling CDs labeled "For Promotional Use Only". Augusto, with the backing of the EFF, filed a counter suit claiming that he has the right to sell them under the First Sale Doctrine.
The First Sale Doctrine is one of the most basic tenets of copyright law. It essentially states that the buyer of copyrighted material has the right to sell it later. The doctrine has been upheld repeatedly by various courts.
Universal's lawyers argue that the principal doesn't apply here because they never offered the CDs for sale. Instead they're given away, primarily to radio stations, in an attempt to get public exposure through third parties.
Their claim is that what they're doing is distributing media, and not a selling a standard license like the one assumed for retail CDs. A statement from UMG indicates that they consider the CDs to be their property.
Their statement goes on to say "this is not the first time that Mr. Augusto has been sued for this type of conduct. He was previously sued by Capitol Records and Virgin Records for the same thing and consented to a permanent injunction."
Although Google says it will be implementing an automated filtering system later this year to stop copyrighted material from finding its way to YouTube, it seems for now, humans are employed to find the "infringing" material.
According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, BayTSP, infamous for its anti-piracy dealings worldwide has hired over 20 analysts to sit around all day and search for infringing material on YouTube and other video sharing sites. Some clients, such as Viacom ask that the analysts issue takedown notices for each and every video they find but others ask to have tons of videos logged and then have one large takedown notice sent. A recent log for one company consisted of over 100,000 videos.
BayTSP has said that it bills clients up to $500,000 USD per month to track down illegal copies of software, music and video clips and that on any given month it sends out more than a million take-down notices.
"BayTSP thinks human beings will always be needed if only to inspect automated results. There will always be something that falls into the gray area," says BayTSP CEO Mark Ishikawa. The company, as well as Viacom have faced criticism from groups such as EFF for their mistaken requests to take down non-infringing content but Ishikawa says its error rate on Web videos is only around 0.1 percent."
According to Reuters, D-Link is planning to introduce a rival to the Apple TV that will serve the same purpose as well as cost the same price.
The new device will support 802.11n wireless networking which offers enough bandwidth to deliver large media content to your TVs quickly.
The Reuters report added,"D-Link already sells these media devices, but they run at slower speeds than the Apple product, which is ahead of the rest of the industry." That is set to change however in the fourth quarter of this year when the D-Link product goes on sale for $300 USD in the US first and then moving on to other countries.
A few months ago, we heard a report from Twentieth Century Fox that said that Canada was a "haven for pirates" and that over 50 percent of all camcorder recorded movies came from the country. Although there is no way those facts are completely true, it started a widespread panic for Canadian officials.
In an effort to cut down on that large number, Canadian theaters are now employing many of the same tactics that have been seen in American theaters, including a $500 CAD reward to an employee that catches a "pirate" in the act.
Serge Corriveau, Director of the Canadian Motion Picture Distributors Association, talked about a few of the new tactics, “Having people searching knapsacks and people going up and down the aisles once the movie’s started to see if they can spot somebody camcording. You can see also people with night-vision goggles searching through the crowd trying to see if they can find something.” Corriveau even said there would be metal detectors used for pre-screenings and large first day screenings.
According to TorrentFreak, Google has begun filtering certain torrent results from its search engine, those that have been specifically mentioned to them in DMCA complaints.
Searching for some torrents, or even torrent trackers such as "sumotorrent" or "torrentreactor" will bring you a message on the bottom of the results screen that says, “In response to a complaint we received under the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act, we have removed 1 result(s) from this page. If you wish, you may read the DMCA complaint that caused the removal(s) at ChillingEffects.org.”
Google says the filtered results are caused only because of DMCA complaints but Chillingeffects.org is not very helpful in trying to find the complaints.
Although torrent sites usually take down files upon request within 24 hours, it is kind of sad to see that Google has begun filtering their content in the same way. Google China anyone?
Panasonic is going to be selling 37" LCD televisions starting in September. This reverses a policy of only selling plasma models at that size and higher.
Plasma's higher profit margins have fueled interest in the success of the technology by Japanese companies who have a hard time competing with Korean competitors for LCD sale.
While this policy has been in place, Panasonic has missed out on the growth of larger LCD display sales.
The 37-inch full high-definition LCD TV will go on sale in Japan on September 1 for an estimated price of 300,000 yen ($2,508). Osaka-based Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. aims to offer the model in overseas markets by the end of the year.
After surrendering to Korean manufacturers in the war for CRT televisions, Japanese manufacturers rely on flat panel displays for television revenue. As the largest electronics manufacturer in Japan, Matsushita's decisions are closely watched by the entire industry.
Say goodby to buying and renting from Google Video. On Wednesday the DTO/DTR (download-to-own/download-to-rent) service operated by the search engine company will stop renting and selling videos.
They announced this to customers with a letter like the following, received by an actual customer:
As a valued Google user, we're contacting you with some
important information about the videos you've purchased or
rented from Google Video. In an effort to improve all Google
services, we will no longer offer the ability to buy or rent
videos for download from Google Video, ending the DTO/DTR
(download-to-own/rent) program. This change will be effective
August 15, 2007.
To fully account for the video purchases you made before July 18,
2007, we are providing you with a Google Checkout bonus for $2.00.
Your bonus expires in 60 days, and you can use it at the stores
listed here: http://www.google.com/checkout/signupwelcome.html.
The minimum purchase amount must be equal to or greater than your
bonus amount, before shipping and tax.
After August 15, 2007, you will no longer be able to view your
purchased or rented videos.
If you have further questions or requests, please do not hesitate
to contact us. Thank you for your continued support.
NBC Universal has taken the offensive in battling viral video sites like YouTube.
Their new website, Didja, will feature a mix of TV commercials and content from their USA and Sci-Fi cable networks.
Bonnie Hammer, president of both USA and Sci-Fi, said the goal is to "become the go-to destination for on-demand advertising content.""Didja.com is the logical next step in the changing dynamic between consumers and advertisers," Hammer said. "There's no doubt that commercials are major drivers of pop culture -- all you have to do is check out traffic on any video-sharing site. We want to own that watercooler conversation."
It's not exactly surprising that a major corporation would come up with the idea of selling advertising as programming. What's more interesting is that companies like NBC Universal put so much focus on getting people to talk about them, and very little discussing what people are interested in.
Despite a huge amount of video that no one cares about, sites like YouTube ultimately succeed by having enough content people want to see. That's what makes them send links to their friends. The advantage those sites have is a variety of content providers uploading content.
Universal Music Group's plans for DRM free downloads apparently don't include iTunes. The downloads will be offered through Rhapsody as well as digital download stores run by Wal-Mart, Best Buy, and Amazon.com, as well as directly from artist websites.
UMG's test also includes a partnership with Google, which will run an AdWords campaign pointing users searching for DRM-free music to the download site gBox, which rewards music buyers with points toward earning gifts.
Although Universal says the decision not to include the industry dominating service from Apple is intended to use it as a control group, it's more noteable because of their very public complaints about iTunes' control over pricing.
Industry analyst, and vice president of Gartner, Mike McGuire, speculated that UMG may feel it can help level the playing Field in the digital music space with this move.
"iTunes sells 5 million songs a day," McGuire noted. "Nothing else comes close yet. Labels would prefer a more competitive marketplace."
Veoh, an online video-sharing site, has decided to pre-emptively sue Universal Music Group. The online video site appears to be trying to send a clear message that they won't be intimidated into a royalty deal by the music giant.
Veoh Networks, based in San Diego, filed the federal lawsuit yesterday, asking a judge to declare that the company has no liability to Universal even if individuals upload videos to the Veoh site that may contain music, used without permission, from Universal artists.
The company was appearently sent a letter by Universal stating that they might besued because of Veoh users “massively infringing” its copyrights. According to the suit, Universal hasn't provided any details about specific infringement so they could investigate and take action as appropriate.
"It is unfortunate that U.M.G. prefers to take actions that are designed to stifle innovation, shut down new markets and maintain the status quo instead of working to change and evolve models for today and the future,” Veoh’s chief executive, Steve Mitgang, said in a statement.
There are suspicions that Universal is trying to repeat its success in getting a licensing agreement with YouTube. In that case, Universal threatened to sue, but later backed down when the two sides reached an agreement out of court. .”
Although Warner has boasted that they will be the first studio to offer "Best of HD DVD" and "Best of Blu-ray" disc bundles, apparently Disney has beaten them to the punch.
This week, the gigantic retailer Costco began carrying Disney Blu-ray disc bundles, at a very discounted price as well.
According to HD Digest, "the "Action Movies" four-pack includes 'Pearl Harbor,' 'Gone in 60 Seconds,' 'The Guardian' and 'Deja Vu'; the "Family Movies" four-pack includes 'Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl,' 'Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest,' 'Invincible' and 'Eight Below'; and finally, the "Disney Movies" four-pack includes 'The Wild,' 'Chicken Little,' 'Dinosaur' and 'Bridge to Terabithia.'
Each one of the discs are the same as previously released editions of the films, with the same covert art, specs, and supplements.
Costco is selling the bundles for $85, which is a discount of over 30 percent as compared to the individual suggested retail price.
Earlier this week we reported that the blockbuster movie "300" had become the fastest and highest selling HD title to date.
In its first week of sales however, according to Home Media Magazine, the Blu-ray edition sold almost twice as well as its HD DVD rival.
The ratio, 65:35, is almost equal to the overall market share for HD movies, but the HD DVD camp had hoped for better sales citing general better reviews for the HD DVD version as well as an exclusive set of supplemental features.
For the last 4 months, EMI physical CD sales have plummeted 20 percent, however the news comes bundled with the fact that in the same time period, digital music sales were up 26 percent.
EMI was the first major label to offer its music DRM-free and it is still the only label to offer such music on iTunes despite Universal's latest turn to a DRM-free catalogue. EMI has said that the move to DRM-free has helped boost their digital sales, and that "early revenue indications for this initiative are encouraging."
Perhaps this latest news will encourage EMI to keep the path and embrace that digital music is the present and future of the industry.
BenQ has introduced their new E-series of LCD monitors with very fast response time.
Each display has a 5ms pixel response time and uses BenQ's custom Senseye image processing techniques to auto balance colors for perfect accuracy in sRGB mode or boosted colors in "movie mode".
The smallest of the set is the 17 inch E700 and along with the 19 inch and 20 inch versions, all include DVI/VGA output. The 24 inch E2000W adds HDMI at 1080p.
Based in Palo Alto, California, P2P leader Azureus is proud to announce that their spinoff site Vuze, a high Resolution video portal, has crossed the threshold of seven million users in just six months. Additionally, the company announced that it has gained a deal to offer the complete two seasons of The Office UK and its specials available for download and high resolution Streaming video. This is the first company to ever be given rights such as this in the United States. As a promotion, the first episode will be available for free. This program joines an already impressive list of high-definition and standard definition BBC broadcasts.
Vuze has become the world's largest high resolution and high-definition video portal and has exploded in growth due to growing consumers who demand high-definition content. Millions of videos have been downloaded from Vuze every month and July saw a growth of over 100% compared to previous months.
The folks over at Microsoft have got an uphill battle when it comes to high-definition content and their Windows Vista product. Computer researcher and author of a paper outlining the shortcomings of Vista entitled "The longest suicide note in history", Peter Gutmann argued over Vista's content protection and DRM standards at a symposium in Boston on wednesday.
Gutmann had brought up that Vista appears to be so locked down with DRM standards that users are finding it impossible to view any HD content from their machines if they do not specifically meet Microsoft's strict standards. One of these standards are a graphics card that supports HDCP or High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection, a form of DRM developed by Intel. If a user does not have a graphics card that actively supports HDCP, their premium high-definition content, whether obtained legally, recorded with their own high-definition equipment or otherwise, is throttled in quality and displayed at much less than high-definition.
Microsoft acknowledged that the quality of content labeled as premium would be lowered if it were requested by the copyright holders, namely the movie stuidos. However, Microsofts content protection scheme is so strict that its even forcing legally obtained and legally recorded high-definition content to be cut back. Microsoft defended this action stating that its merely a common feature in many different playback devices.
Onkyo is releasing it's first HD DVD player at $899, something of a high price for that format.
Scheduled to appear in thh fall, the DV-HD805 will be one of the first to support high quality audio through HDMI 1.3a. t supports the advanced sound formats Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD Master Audio, Dolby Digital Plus and DTS-HD High Resolution Audio.
It's also capable of 1080p output over HDMI.
With prices from current manufacturers dropping almost weekly, this seems like a strange move, but further examination reveals a player that's not being marketed toward the average consumer. It may do well with high end AV enthusiasts who were bought into first generation HD DVD technology and continue to want the latest and greatest.
The availability of different tiers of players may very well indicate that HD DVD is firmly entrenched enough to support a broader consumer base.
Universal Music Group, the world's largest music label, has said it will temporarily allow the sale of thousands of its albums and tracks DRM-free.
Universal plans to make titles from artists like Amy Winehouse, the Black Eyed Peas, and 50 Cent available without DRM, starting later this month and running until January 2008.
They say their intention is to find out whether piracy via P2P networks increases as a result of removing the DRM. Files will be released with a watermark that identifies them, but not the purchaser of the song.
Earlier in the year, much smaller rival EMI began making its entire music catalog available in a DRM free format.
Universal Music Group, in an effort to sell as many copies as possible of Amy Winehouse's newest CD have begun blocking US sales of her first album, "Frank" and are threatening to sue retailers who make it available outside of the EU.
How this is a good strategy is beyond me, as piracy will undoubtedly give interested buyers the album way before the record label releases a US version of the CD in November. Instead of letting fans buy the album, Universal would rather try pushing away potential buyers.
One merchandiser quoted in the article acknowledged that probability: "We are selling physical product that the customers want, and they are trying to stop us... In the meantime, it is flowing freely throughout the world over the Internet through the (peer-to-peer) sites."
Microsoft announced this morning that Halo 3 had become the fastest selling pre-ordered game in history, with over 1 million copies already paid for.
Hoping to add to that total, Microsoft is launching a huge promotional campaign that includes ad campaigns with Mountain Dew, 7-Eleven, Pontiac, Comcast and Burger King.
The game officially hits retail shelves on September and is by far the most hyped release for the Xbox 360 to date. Mountain Dew has even said they will be creating a halo-themed new drink called "Game Fuel" to launch near when the game does.
Microsoft has applauded today's federal court decision to sentence a man convicted of selling pirated MS software along with faked certificates of authenticity.
The man, Justin Harrison, was sentenced to 46 months in prison for his part in running Sales International, the company which participated in trafficking the certificates and software.
"The sentence recognizes the value of intellectual property and the threat that software piracy presents to the global economy and consumers throughout the world," Microsoft said in a press statement.
SpiralFrog, the much delayed but unique free music download site seems to be finally on track for launch after the company said they sent invitation emails to a private group of beta testers.
The site, which is based on an ad-supported model, which makes the user watch ads while they wait for their music to download, should be ready to go live by the end of the year revealed the company.
To date, the site has signed Universal Music Group and will have over 700,000 songs at launch.
Hopefully the site will be a success and bring with it more major record labels and more free music for consumers.
Osaka, Japan based manufacturer Matsushita, maker of the Panasonic brand of televisions and worlds largest supplier of plasma TVs has announced that it will revamp its policy about providing televisions at and larger than 37 inches in LCD. Previously, Matsushita had held fast to the belief that anything larger than 32 inches would be better served up as a plasma display. Subsequently, they've been losing out on a strong market growth while the demand for large LCD TVs has risen.
With this announcement, Matsushita has unveiled its latest 37-inch LCD television which will go on sale in Japan on September 1st. Price is estimated at 300,000 yen ($2,500) and is expected to be offered to oversees markets by as early as the end of this year.
At one time, plasma displays had dominated the large flat television market with cheaper prices and better picture quality. Recently however, LCD has gained a lot of ground by offering bigger models at cheaper prices thanks in part to companies introducing larger more cost-efficient production lines.
The global market for LCD sales was up 54% from last year to $13.6 billion for the period of January to March. In contrast, plasma TV sales have fallen 9% to $3.6 billion, according to DisplaySearch. With this type of change in market trends, its no wonder why Matsushita wanted a piece of that action.
Current and potential customers of the satellite company Dish Networks will be treated to an upgrade that allows for USB external storage for their ViP622 MPEG4 High Definition DVR today. Officially launching this service, Dish Networks will allow its customers to plug in an external USB hard drive and transfer content directly from their DVR receiver to the hard drive for viewing at a later date. Customers will be asked to pay a one-time $39.99 "enabling fee" for this service. The software is available today, however customers will not be able to subscribe to this service until the 15th of August.
Additionally, and coinciding with the release of the USB storage, Dish Networks is opening a new feature that enables the ethernet port on the back of their VIP622 receivers so users can "phone home" via the Internet. Although, most savvy satellite users know how to use their satellite systems without the use of a phone line, this service will also make the necessity for a landline to be connected to your box a thing of the past. Also, scheduling things like pay-per-view can be done remotely and no longer require you to dial in. Enabling ethernet on the back of their devices also is the next logical step in the launch of their new service, DishONLINE Video On Demand slated for September.
German courts have started a trend that has the music industry up in arms. Calling copyright violation by file sharing a "petty offense", a judge in Offenberg instructed the prosecuter's office not to turn over the data saying the labels hadn't explained how ""criminally relevant damage" could have arisen from the alleged file sharing.
In other words how could the damage have been great enough to consider it a criminal offense?
One thing big entertainment companies don't seem to be willing to admit that there is more than one kind of piracy. While it's clear that all piracy is illegal, no clear connection between individuals sharing files on a P2P network and a significant drop in sales has been established.
In many countries there's a certain level of piracy that's considered a civil, not criminal offense. By definition, civil offenses aren't inherently harmful to society, and therefore often not grounds to release the kind of information in file sharing cases.
There's no question, for example, that Asian piracy rings distributing pirated music and movies in China, the U.S., and many other countries puts a dent in copyright holders' profits, is done for profit, and is a criminal offense. The link between someone downloading and a lost sale is more tenuous, and claims that such a connection exists should be met with a demand for proof - exactly what the German courts seem to be doing.
Blockbuster, the biggest brick and mortar video rental chain in the U.S. acquired movie download provider Movielink. They're also planning to have rights to provide the files of the service's previous owners, including Warner Brothers and MGM.
“It immediately puts us in the digital download business,” Blockbuster’s chief executive, James W. Keyes, said. “Clearly, our customers have responded favorably to having other convenient ways to access movies and entertainment.”
Unlike Blockbuster, Netflix has added Streaming video to their subscription plans. Netflix customers can stream a predetermined amount of video that increases with higher priced subscription plans.
Movielink doesn't currently offere streaming services. However, standard downloads are a better deal for customers with slower internet connections, as it gives everyone access to video with the same quality.
In order to stream movies from Netflix at full DVDResolution requires an internet connection capable of sustaining 3Mbps downloads. Even broadband plans that advertise speeds that meet or exceed this requirement don't guarantee speeds in this range and frequently don't support maintaining them for extended periods.
Dell has announced that they will be expanding their experiment with Linux to key countries in Asia and Europe.
A few months back, Dell began offering notebooks and desktop PCs preloaded with Ubuntu Linux, and it seems the experiment is somewhat of a success. The PCs are now headed to the UK, Germany, and France. Chinese customers will get SUSE Linux pre installed on their Dell PCs.
Although Dell will most likely not be making extra revenue from the sale of the PCs, they have been gaining some good press with open source fans and I applaud Dell's effort.
According to Shacknews, Microsoft has confirmed that their new reduced price Premium Xbox 360 consoles will also be shipping with a new HDMI port.
Yes, we are offering an HDMI port for Xbox 360 simply as another choice in Xbox 360 owners’ games and entertainment experience," a Microsoft rep told Shacknews in an e-mailed statement. "Retailers are gradually introducing HDMI-enabled Xbox 360s into the channel to meet demand."
Microsoft representatives however did say that the Core system would not be receiving the same treatment as the Premium systems. "We have not announced any plans to add HDMI to the Xbox 360 Core System."
Until this week, only the Elite system had an included HDMI port, but now with a price drop, added HDMI port, and free extended warranties, Microsoft seems to be doing itself a lot of good nowadays.
After announcing price cuts on Xbox 360 consoles in the US, Microsoft has announced that Canadian gamers will finally get a price cut as well, with the Premium and Core systems both dropping $100 CDN to $400 and $300 CDN respectively.
Compared to the US, products sold in Canada are usually more expensive but a deflating dollar has almost put the CDN on par with the dollar. Also dropping in price is the Elite, which will now cost $500 CDN.
In the not-so-slow death of VHS, HD seems to be putting the final nail in the coffin.
According to a research report by Video Business, combined sales of Blu-ray and HD DVD have overtaken sales of VHS for the first half of 2007. The news however, comes on the heels of a 5 percent decline in standard DVD sales for the first half of the year versus the first half of 2006.
Although the news is hardly huge, it is still interesting to note the death of VHS in under 10 years and the small but notable decline in DVD sales. Studios, noticing the aforementioned facts, have decided to develop the HD market more in the second half of the year.
"What is likely to happen as the business starts to flatten or trend downward, is it becomes less exciting for retail and they dedicate less space to it,” said Sony Pictures Home Entertainment worldwide president David Bishop.
Someone in the marketing department over at Sony could possibly be searching for a new job as they have been reprimanded over and advertisement that ran in the UK shortly after the launch of the PS3. The UK's Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) ruled that the PS3's advert which was broadcast on the internet shortly after the European launch, "potentially glamorised violence and could lead to anti-social behaviour."
The ad itself featured a character named Kovac who was brandishing a weapon and beside him, the words "Kovac mercenary or misunderstood?". Additionally, the PS3 had a tagline that read "This is living". The ASA felt that this direct relation to the violent images displayed and Sony's tagline for the PS3 envoked a sense that brandishing a gun and being misunderstood is a celebrated way of life. The ASA received several complaints and began and investigation that led to the decision that Sony had broken advertising rules by relating responsibility and violence.
The ASA directed sony that all future adverts must feature an amendment to avoid similar incidents from happening. No word yet on what this amendment should contain. When asked, a Sony representative responded with, "We acknowledge the recent ASA ruling in relation to the PlayStation 3 brand advertisement and the recommendation contained within."
Have you ever thought that you're just not getting enough from your Netflix account? Have you realized that you've grown tired of waiting for the movies to come in the mail and turned towards their online Watch Now feature; only to be put off by the fact that you cant do anything more with the movie but watch it on your PC? Well, the folks over at FairUse4WM have got a cure to your itch.
We here at Afterdawn do not condone this type of thing, but should you ever want to Rip the Watch Now stream from Netflix, someone has come up with a way to do it. This person has found a workaround that enables you to not only decrypt the DRM encrypted movies, but save them to your hard drive for future viewing. Now, reading over the process, its easy to see that it could either be quite easy or down right frustrating depending on your individual experience, but this is merely the first revision.
Tools you will need are simply, Windows Media Player 11, FairUse4WM, Notepad and a Netflix account. A broadband connection would make things a lot easier as well, as I don't particularly think someone with a dial up connection would fair very well at ripping a data stream such as this. While following the process, you can then strip the DRM and watch the movies at your leisure as well as on any video playing device of your choosing. Of course, there are issues with this procedure's legality, should one be so inclined, one could exploit this.
Microsoft has described its Mediaroom IPTV offering as a way for the software giant to expand its reach into the living room, but now the company also says IPTV is a chance for it to gain a new market in telecommunications operators.
"Microsoft hasn't traditionally operated in the backbone infrastructure of the carrier," said Christine Heckart, general manager of Microsoft's TV group, speaking on a Webcast from the Pacific Crest Technology Forum in Vail, Colorado, on Tuesday. "Mediaroom is really the first time in that business."
Despite Microsoft's hopes for Mediaroom, the new name a few months ago didn't really begin to make a difference.
Even though they have 10 customers using Mediaroom commercially around the world, a relatively large number considering the current size of the worldwide market, technical problems have reportedly set more than one provider back.
Those experiences show that Microsoft may have to do some more work before convincing operators to deploy more Microsoft products. Earlier this year, AT&T, one of Microsoft's IPTV customers, said that it was having technical problems related to software programming that was causing launch delays. Swisscom and Deutsche Telekom also delayed commercial services after technical difficulties with Microsoft IPTV products.
On Monday, two men were sentenced in what the government calls the largest DVD piracy scheme to be prosecuted in the U.S.
The two defendants, Ye Teng Wen, also known as Michael Wen, and Hao He, who is sometimes called Kevin He, were sentenced to 37 months each in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release, and fines. A third defendant, Yaobin Zhai, also known as Ben Zhai, received the same jail and supervised release sentence, but a much larger fine of nearly $7 million.
All three men were arrested as part of Operation Remaster, an federal undercover operation that executed 13 search warrants in California and Texas. According to a Department of Justice press release, nearly 500,000 pirated CDs and DVDs were seized, as well as more than 6,000 stampers which could be used to manufacture pirated discs.
While entertainment companies are quick to point fingers at file sharing and personal disc copying for decreasing revenue, the numbers used to show those losses often come from commercial operations like this one. It's a reasonable assumption that at least most of the money spent purchasing pirated CDs and DVDs would otherwise be spent purchasing similar legitimate goods.
Its nothing new for smaller companies to issue frivolous lawsuits once a successful product has been launched by a powerful conglomerate. Although, this newest one just might have some warrant. SP Technologies has taken out a lawsuit on Apple over its new iPhone and the touch-screen keyboard that is the heart of controlling the device. Looking through a patent filing from 2000 by SP Technologies, it states that the company had developed a "method of providing a user interface for receiving information from a user using a user immutable graphical keyboard linked to an input area."
Of course, people sue over patents all the time and Apple wasn't the first company to incorporate a touch-screen input device. The suit was filed in Tyler, Texas on Thursday. Texas seems to have become the state of choice for all patent suits recently. It just might be because judges tend to be lenient on the smaller companies.
This comes just a few weeks after a lawsuit was entered about the iPhone's battery. The lawsuit was taken out against Apple in the name of one iPhone owner, Jose Trujillo who claimed Apple defrauded him by failing to reveal that the iPhone battery was not user-replaceable, and that it would die after 300 charges.
While most readers of AfterDawn and similar sites probably have no love for Digital Rights Management (DRM) based on knowledge of it, the average consumer probably doesn't know the difference right? Wrong! A recent survey conducted by Entertainment Media Research, working with media law firm Olswang, showed that many British consumers may avoid legal downloads due to DRM and that awareness of DRM's ugly side is spreading fast.
1,700 UK music consumers, selected from a pre-existing panel of more than 300,000 music consumers in the UK, were part of the lengthy survey. A huge 68% of those that offered an opinion on the matter believed that music is only worth purchasing if it has no DRM restrictions at all. However, less than half (about 39%) are willing to pay an extra fee to remove DRM and 18% would consider keeping it to save money.
Of the respondents who claimed some awareness of DRM, 61% believed it affected the rights of the music consumer to hear their music on different platforms, 38% classified it as simply a nuisance and 39% also expressed concerns over privacy. However, 63% agreed with the aim of DRM (to protect copyrighted music from illegal file sharing), showing that the problems they have with DRM are how it affects legitimate consumers.
A couple of Taiwanese researchers seem to have come a great deal closer towards solving the problem of faded images when viewing an LCD display from an angle. Many people can immediately relate to this circumstance as its difficult not to have been subjected to LCD displays. Everything from cellular phones, to personal gaming devices, laptops and HDTVs suffer from the same problem that Wayne Cheng and Chih-Nan Wu are trying to solve.
Initially, LCD designers took for granted that people may be, at some point, viewing the panels at anything other than straight on. In fact, recent studies showed that between digital camera displays and laptop monitors, the average viewer studies the LCD at an average of 40 degrees off-center or more. Many early developers made LCD panels so that the Pixels pointed straight out towards the viewer, however Cheng and Wu hope to change that.
The prototype features a small camera that sits beside the LCD and tracks the position of the viewer's head. It then makes tiny adjustments to the liquid crystals themselves and pivots toward the viewer for the best possible picture quality. Future developments of the new LCD display will miniaturize the camera by implementing infrared sensore instead of standard lenses. This will allow the display to Track the position of the viewer's eyes to fine tune the display even more. This would also enable this technology to be integrated into devices that use much smaller LCD screens.
Sony Electronics has unveiled new dual format DVD/CD recordable drives, featuring three designs to deliver the industry's fastest recording speeds. The 840 series of drives is Sony's latest crop of multi-format DVD burners that support 20X DVD±R recording speeds, delivering a full 4.7 GB disc of video, data, music or images on standard 16X DVD+R media in about five minutes. In addition, the drives can record on 8.5GB DVD+R Double/Dual layer and 4.7GB DVD+RW discs at 12X speed.
The internal DRU-840A drive and external DRX-840U burner come bundled with the Nero 7 Express DVD/CD software. The new DRX-S70U burner has a slim design to compliment a notebook or desktop PC, supports 8X DVD±R recording speeds, and comes with a full version of the Nero 7 software suite. All three burners support both dual and double layer formats, as well as CD-R/RW recording.
The internal DRU-840A drive uses the ATAPI interface for easy installation inside a PC, and includes a black replacement bezel for matching to black-colored PC cases. The external DRX-840U drive features a space-efficient vertical design and uses the USB (USB 2.0) digital interface for simple setup.
A federal court ruling that has been enacted in California since 2005 stating that video games should be labeled depending on content and are not allowed to be sold to minors was overturned by a federal judge today. The judge cited the original law as unconstitutional. Almost immediately, the Governator, Arnold Schwarzenegger said that he would do what he could to immediately appeal the ruling.
Governor Schwarzenegger had given a great deal of support towards the original 2005 bill, regardless of the fact that he, himself has appeared in a number of violent feature films. Legislators of the time argued that violence in video games could lead to psychological harm and give way to violent and irrational behavior.
The Video Software Dealers Association and the Entertainment Software Association had quickly sued to try and Block the bill, stating that video games and their content is protected under the First Amendment and therefore should not be censored or denied to a consumer demographic.
Judge Ronald Whyte who oversaw and granted the injunction stated, "At this point, there has been no showing that violent video games as defined in the Act, in the absence of other violent media, cause injury to children. In addition, the evidence does not establish that video games, because of their interactive nature or otherwise, are any more harmful than violent television, movies, Internet sites or other speech-related exposures. Although some reputable professional individuals and organizations have expressed particular concern about the interactive nature of video games, there is no generally accepted study that supports that concern."
Skype has launched the latest version of their VoIP service today, dubbing the latest update Skype 3.5.
The update shifts the attention of the software towards video, allowing users to share video very easily. You can also link directly to clips on Dailymotion or Metacafe which have struck deals with Skype. The company also says anybody with a webcam can now take still photos in the middle of a video chat if they so choose.
Besides the video updates, voice features were also updated allowing for callers to "either automatically redial busy or unanswered numbers and to transfer calls to other Skype users, including groups."
Only the Windows version was updated however, so Mac and Linux users will have to wait a bit longer.
Fans of the recording service, TiVo may have already noticed that their website is sporting the new TiVo 2.5 logo. This, coupled with many different suggestions on their website coudl mean that they are gearing up to launch TiVoToGo version 2.5 to the masses. Unfortunately, the download link on the website still points back to the old version of TiVoToGo.
This update is important because it will offer support for Windows Vista as well as support for playing DivX/XviD formats for web video conversions. Additionally, it will allow users to convert individual shows from theird Desktop Now Playing list at anytime to any profile by simply right clicking the file. Unfortunately that final feature is not yet available for TiVo HD or the Series3 machines. One final feature of note though is a higher Resolution support for people wishing to browse photo slideshows through their devices.
No indication when the next version of TiVoToGo will become available, but the way things appear on their site, it could be anytime now.
A federal judge in San Diego, California today reversed a jury's decision which decided two patents held by Alcatel were infringed upon by Microsoft's Windows Media Player. Both of these patents deal with how audio is converted into MP3. Alcatel sued Microsoft claiming that the technology they used was stolen by Microsoft and used within Windows Media Player. Alcatel is stating that they will appeal the decision and Microsoft replied by saying the judge's reversal was a victory for consumers.
Mary Lou Ambrus of Alcatel-Lucent stated in response to the ruling, "This reversal of the judge's own pre-trial and post-trial rulings is shocking and disturbing." Judge Rudi Brewster said that Microsoft did not breach any patent laws because they had already paid a German company $16 billion to use one of the patents in question. The judge decided that since the German company didn't directly sue Microsoft, then no infringement was committed. Additionally, the judge was unable to justify the fine associated with the lawsuit. If Alcatel-Lucent would have been successful with its lawsuit, it would have been awarded upwards of $1.5 billion. The judge stated that should they file a new claim, he would not recognize that amount of money.
Citing the popular feedback from US military personnel,Microsoft has announced they will be releasing a Halo 3 Military Edition Zune, that will be available exclusively at military retail stores starting later this month.
The player will come packaged in a collectible box and the device will also come pre-loaded with trailers, artwork, and music from the Halo series.
Microsoft sent 300 players to the USO of Metropolitan Washington for free as part of a special USO care package the soldiers received.
"Microsoft has been a great partner to the USO of Metropolitan Washington for several years, supporting both our U.S. soldiers and the USO's mission," says Elaine Rogers, president of the USO of Metropolitan Washington. "From Zune devices and Xbox 360 gaming consoles to new computers with the latest Windows Vista and Office software, Microsoft's technology has helped service members stay connected and entertained."
The players will sell at a discounted price to military personnel and family when the begin selling later this month.
Sony has begun shipping their PlayStaion 3 80GB model, returning the company's lineup to two models.
The new unit will have 20GB of extra storage, and comes bundled with a copy of Motorstorm. There are no added features to the new model, but there is one notable removal. The "emotion engine", the hardware engine used for added backwards compatibility with PS1 and PS2 games has been removed to save costs on the system.
The 60GB model continues to sell at its lowered $499 USD price tag, but analysts are awaiting an announcement that will show that the model is either canceled or will have the emotion engine removed as well.
The 80GB model will begin selling this week for $599 USD.
Michael Pachter, one of the video game industry's leading analysts has predicted that there will be a PlayStation 2 price drop coming before the holiday season and another price drop for the PlayStation 3 alongside the release of GTA IV and MGS4 in 2008.
"Although we do not expect another PS3 price cut this year, we think a price cut for the PS2 is possible," said Pachter in his latest note to investors. "Any hardware price reduction could serve as a catalyst for sales growth later in the year."
"We do expect Sony to be in a position to cut the price of the PS3 in early 2008, when blockbuster games Grand Theft Auto IV and PS3 exclusive Metal Gear Solid 4 will launch," he added.
The PS2 is still the most played console, by far, but it is sometimes forgotten in the shadows of the "next gen" consoles. A price drop on the system should be great for sales and continue to push the system to new customers.
Nintendo has filed a patent which indicates it is working on motion sensing technology for use on an upcoming handheld system, all this according to the US Patent and Trademark Office.
The patent, filed at the end of March, describes "A game system includes a housing to be held by a player," and goes on to define motion through three axes: "…having change-state detecting means to detect at least one of an amount and a direction of a change applied to the housing."
The functionality seems very similar to that of a Wii-mote, but Nintendo refused to comment.
German media authorities are expected to award a national mobile television license for the DVB-H standard by month's end.
A spokeswoman for the directors' conference of the state media authorities said interested parties, including a consortium of T-Mobile and the German units of O2 and Vodafone, have until Friday to get proposals ready. However, a decision hasn't been made yet as to whether they'll be able to compete for the license as a group.
The big rush to get a licensee in place is next year's Euro 2008 soccer championship, which will be held in Austria and Switzerland next June.
As we reported last month, DVB-H has been selected as the official standard for mobile television by the European Union. Implementation of a single standard is seen as critical for allowing European companies to be industry leaders.
Microsoft announced that Xbox 360 prices will drop to $349 for the 20GB model, a $50 price cut. A basic console without a hard drive or wireless controllers will retail for $279, $20 less than its current price, while the Xbox 360 Elite, a black version with a 120-gigabyte hard drive and high-definition video support, will drop $50 to $449.
The new prices will be effective tomorrow, almost exactly a month after rival Sony slashed the price of the PS3 $100 to sell the remaining stock of first generation models in preparation for the launch of a newer version.
Microsoft says the cuts aren't related to Sony's move. The official announcement specifically mentions the release of Madden NFL 08, which it notes was the top selling console game last year.
"There is nothing too shocking about this," said Michael Gartenberg, an analyst at JupiterResearch. He said it's normal for companies to cut console prices between one and two years after launch.
The analyst added that the $50 price cut will bring in a whole new group of customers who ruled it out at the higher price, and that Microsoft should enjoy increased sales immediately - even though the official holiday shopping season is still months away.
This morning, Warner Home Video announced that HD sales of the blockbuster movie "300" had reached 250,000 making it easily the fastest and highest selling HD title ever.
Warner has 6 of the 10 best selling HD discs including the BBC's "Planet Earth" boxset which is the highest grossing title so far.
The company attributed that fact to the benefits of supporting both HD DVD and Blu-ray as opposed to a single format like many studios have done.
"This phenomenal response to '300' is the latest proof that our approach makes the most sense in today's market and has enabled Warner Home Video to continue to lead the market in high definition sales," Warner Home Video president Ron Sanders said.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) are representing Troy Augusto, an eBay user taking on Universal Music Group (UMG) in court after being targeted with false claims of copyright infringement, along with the San Francisco law firm of Keker & Van Nest LLP. Augusto held online auctions with the name Roast Beast Music and specializes in sales of rare and collectible music.
Copyright law's "first sale" doctrine makes it clear that the owner of a CD is entitled to resell it without the permission of the copyright holder. Nevertheless, Universal demanded that eBay take down Augusto's auctions, claiming that CDs marked as "promotional use only" remain the property of Universal and thus can never be resold.
"When a consumer buys a CD, he gets certain rights, including the right to resell it. Universal is mistaken if it thinks that it can trump these rights simply by putting a label on a CD," said Fred von Lohmann, EFF Senior Intellectual Property Attorney. "Universal is trying to unilaterally rewrite copyright law to the detriment of Augusto's legitimate business and the public. Unless this effort is blocked, it could jeopardize not only sales of used CDs, but also libraries, used bookstores, and businesses that rent movies and video games."
Today, Sharp filed a lawsuit against Samsung claiming that the Korean TV maker violated five of its patents in relation to LCD TVs.
The lawsuit contends that Samsung has been almost copying Sharp, using similar technology for the core components of the TVs including processing techniques that help improve contrast and image quality of the LCD panels.
Although Samsung has not commented on the suit, Sharp says it is a result of failed negotiations by the two companies to "establish a licensing deal for the patents."
Sharp is demanding a jury trial and is hoping for monetary rewards as well as an injunction on Samsung's LCD displays that use any of the patents in question. A decision for Sharp would effectively block most of Samsung's LCD TVs from being shipped to the US, and would be devastating to the company.
Over the past few days, some of you may have noticed some new guides being uploaded or guides being updated on AfterDawn. In this article, I thought I would mention just a few of them and say a few words about them.
How to play BIN / CUE, 3GP & DVD files
As some of you know, we have a small section at the top of our guides that helps new users with playback issues. These guides have been more successful than many of our complex and advanced guides, gathering traffic esp. from search engines from brand new users. These are not of much use to most of our regular members, but reading them is still recommended and appreciated :-)
The first round of negotiations are underway between Amazon and a music site known as AmieStreet. Started by three Brown University students, AmieStreet has a unique approach at selling music via its website. Their model consists of new music being uploaded and begins with a price of zero cents. The first time the Track is downloaded, it receives a price to it and incrimentally goes up depending on its popularity within the site. The pricing will eventually hit a maximum of 98 cents. This is in stark contrast to popular music sites like iTunes where it has a standard of 99 cents per track, no matter how popular the tune is.
The senior vice president of business for Amazon stated, "The idea of having customers directly influence the price of songs is an interesting and novel approach to selling digital music."
The exact terms of this negotiation for AmieStreet, which started only last October, have not been disclosed. Amazon, however leads the race to purchase the start-up ahead of a few unnamed private investors. Amazon has already stated that by next spring, it will open its own music site and has already agreed to carry music from EMI Group.
Looks like Microsoft is taking another step towards appeasing its faithful clientbase who have been stricken with defective and overheated Xbox 360s by making the process for replacement a bit easier. This weekend, Microsoft launched a new website that seems to replace the standard service.xbox.com in which, unfortunately, so many users have become accustomed to using.
According to Microsoft's Gamerscore Blog, customers can register an Xbox 360, begin a repair process for a defective unit and track the status of the repair online. Microsoft is also announcing that its offering customers who sign up for this service a whopping $5 credit for out of warranty repairs.
Xbox 360 owners in places outside the US will have to wait for something similar to come to them as it is only available to American customers and you must have a Windows Live ID to sign in to the website.
This new website is just yet another step for Microsoft to make their customer service approach towards their mistake a bit easier for the consumer. Within the past year, Microsoft extended the standard console warranty by a year, expanded the services in which the warranty covers and extended warranty coverage as a whole to three years. This is all in response to the infamous Red Ring of Death that has plagued many happy or unhappy Xbox 360 owners.
Leading the way for the HD-DVD camp, Toshiba has made the announcement of the third-generation HD-DVD player, the HD-A3X official. Once thought to have been put on the back burner until the CEDIA conference, Toshiba has decided to go forward with its best player yet.
Pricing for the player appears to be right in-line with last generation players with the exception of the top of the line model. The HD-A3 will come in at $299, the HD-A30 at $399, and the HD-A35$499. This is in stark comparison to the top of the line HD-XA2 which has an MSRP of $799. The HD-A3 hasn't really changed this time around, but the upgraded versions of it include a few extras including 24p support which delivers a true 24 frames per second with Progressive scanning. The HD-A20 and HD-XA2 are expected to receive an update to their Firmware that will enable 24p support this September. Additionally, these new players will be able to connect via CE-Link to offer even better possible picture quality.
It seems that ever since Google acquired YouTube there has been nothing but lawsuit after lawsuit. Well, in a recent class action lawsuit opened up against the Internet giant, a lone journalist has joined the ranks of several prominent organizations in an attempt to stop Google and YouTube from broadcasting and encouraging users to have access to copyrighted material.
Bob Tur, a journalist who had originally opened up a copyright lawsuit against YouTube decided to join forces with England's Premier Soccer League. In his decision to drop the individual suit against YouTube he stated, "I carried the ball against YouTube for a year now. After careful analysis and consideration, I have concluded that the (Premier League) class action is the most effective way for independent copyright holders to secure the judicial remedies that I am seeking."
The law firms handling this class action suit has also recently announced a couple of key players to enter the foray. Most notably the National Music Publishers Association which is the largest music publishing association in the United States, the UK's Rugby Football League as well as the Finnish Football Association.
Talks have begun between mobile phone giant, Nokia and everyone's favorite conglomerate, Microsoft to discuss adding DRM software onto Nokia's Series 60 and Series 40 mobile device platforms. This of course brings forth speculation that Nokie will make the plunge into the world of music downloads. Nokia is stating that the means of having this DRM in place will allow customers to buy content directly through one of its handsets and then transfer it to a PC.
It was reported earlier by serveral news sites that Nokia is potentially about to launch its own service for downloading media content. The speculated launch date for this would happen on August 29th.
Nokia has not mentioned what content will be readily available to its two mobile devices slated for digital rights lockdown or which file formats will be acceptable for the devices to play. It could potentially have quite a few key formats to knock around as PlayReady, Microsoft's DRM software, already supports taking the fun out of WMA, WMV, AAC, AAC+, AMR and H.264.
Have you ever spent the time obtaining an album that you sought after, only to find out that the files are all in FLAC format?(click here for instructions on how to play FLAC directly without converting). FLAC is a fine format, until you realize you can't play it in your hungry iPod. This article will allow you to successfully convert FLAC files to a standard, high-quality MP3 files using free software you probably already have.
Sources in Taiwan's semiconductor business have said that Apple is almost done preparing a flash-based video iPod, one that could be ready for shipment in September.
The new model will have 16GB of flash memory and may be a replacement for the current flash-based iPod Nano. The sources believe the introduction of the players would take place at the Apple Expo event in September.
This news could be problematic due to the recent Samsung power outage that literally disrupted the worldwide production of flash memory.
Samsung, which has since resumed output, said there would be no problems for customers. "We have assured our key flash chip clients that there would be no supply problem," said Samsung's semiconductor head Hwang Chang-gyu.
According to a report by the Scotland on Sunday, the BBC will be making a return to the videogame market by expanding its new iPlayer to offer games content.
Media boss Simon Nelson is expected to reveal the news officially next week at the Edinburgh Interactive Festival. He is expected to speak on the 14th and he will discuss how games will once again become part of the BBC's media portfolio.
Currently, the BBC offers games via its CBBC and CBeebies channels and it also offers a few flash based games on its web channels.
The iPlayer, which was launched in July as an on-demand TV service will be expanded to offer game content following the trend Nelson has started since becoming media boss. He has so far expanded the BBC brand on the internet, DAB digital radio, digital television, and mobile phones.
Lucky and Flo, the two trained dogs infamous for helping to bust pirates have been credited with another significant counterfeit disc piracy bust in Malaysia.
The dogs, which are trained to sniff out pirated optical discs, have been credited with helping break many large piracy rings, but have recently been out of commission after a bounty was placed on their heads by a Malaysian piracy group not happy with the work the dogs had been doing.
In the latest victory against piracy, the dogs helped find a factory in which MPAA and Ministry of Domestic Trade & Consumer Affairs officials seized 18,000 bootleg movies including some very new ones such as the Transformers and The Simpsons Movie. Officials said 4 suspects were arrested as well. Apparently, in an effort to thwart the dogs, the factory was packed with 300 bags of fertilizer to mask the smell of the discs.
"Lucky and Flo have done it once again. Their deployment in Malaysia has been a great success. And this is only because the MDTCA has and continues to show tremendous leadership in tackling the piracy problem" said Mike Ellis, Senior Vice President and Regional Director, Asia-Pacific for the MPAA. "The Malaysian government's aggressive enforcement measures send a clear message that piracy will not be tolerated. We therefore remain fully committed to support them in their operations."
An anonymous quartet of Japanese medical students has set a new record by selling one million mobile music downloads of its third single, making the the first track to achieve the milestone. This digital music milestone belongs to Aiuta ("Love Song") by GreeeeN, a new act signed to Universal Music Japan. The track was released on May 16 as a full-track download for mobile, and its popularity spread rapidly through internet, radio and SNS exposure, and word-of-mouth.
In addition to the million-selling format, Aiuta is available as a ringtone, ring video and ringback tone. Its sales to date across all digital configurations exceed 3 million, affirming GreeeeN's status as the year's most successful new act in Japan. "We were convinced that Aiuta would have universal appeal the moment we first heard it. We are very gratified that the song has become so popular through a very personal communication tool like the mobile phone,"Kazuhiko Koike, President and COO of Universal Music Japan, said.
Aiuta is also hugely popular in physical form, with sales of more than 250,000 singles to date. GreeeeN's first album, A Domo Hajimemashite ("Hi, How Do You Do?") has sold 550,000 copies since its release on June 27.
Ever since the purchase by Cupertino, California based Google of YouTube, Google Video has played a very distant second fiddle to the free video clip structure of YouTube. One service that a handful of people just may have been subscribers to was the Google DTO/DTR (Download to own/download to rent) video service. For a nominal fee, people could purchase actual clips from Google Video and play them at their leisure through Google's special proprietary player. All of that will be coming to an end on August 15th as Google is pulling the plug on that service.
Letters were dispatched to the Google clients outlining its demise. A copy of the letter is as follows:
As a valued Google user, we're contacting you with some important information about the videos you've purchased or rented from Google Video. In an effort to improve all Google services, we will no longer offer the ability to buy or rent videos for download from Google Video, ending the DTO/DTR (download-to-own/rent) program. This change will be effective August 15, 2007.
To fully account for the video purchases you made before July 18, 2007, we are providing you with a Google Checkout bonus for $2.00. Your bonus expires in 60 days, and you can use it at the stores listed here: http://www.google.com/checkout/signupwelcome.html. The minimum purchase amount must be equal to or greater than your bonus amount, before shipping and tax.
After August 15, 2007, you will no longer be able to view your purchased or rented videos.
The Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA) has recently filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) over the blatant and overused statements regarding copyright infringement. The CCIA states that consumers are constantly assaulted with harsh words that in a sense violate our rights. In a statement, a representative said, "Every time an American consumer opens a book, plays a DVD or watches a wide range of broadcast programs, he or she is confronted by strong language warning of what they are not allowed to do with that product."
The complaint with the FTC states that manufacturers of a lot of the products we use today are part of a stealth campaign to intimidate consumers from exercising their fair use rights with products they have purchased. the CCIA even sites the National Football League and Major League Baseball as two major offenders who have been using this tactic for many years during their television broadcasts. The CCIA contends that many of these statements released in books, DVDs, broadcasts and other forms of entertainment grossly misrepresent the laws contained in the Fair Use Act. "By design or effect, many of these warnings are misleading and harmful to millions of American consumers, customers and businesses," said a representative.
Timothy Hall was sentenced to two years in prison and a $1200 USD fine yesterday, for pleading guilty to selling unauthorized video games on his website.
He pleaded guilty to one count of criminal copyright infringement in May after he was caught selling thousands of copied games on his website, Morbidbackups.net. Hall sold games for the Xbox, GameCube, PlayStation 2, and Wii and also sold TV series on DVD.
For the five year period started in 2001, Hall made more than $266,000 in profits from selling the counterfeit games, and he acknowledged the fact when pleading guilty.
Back in May, undercover FBI agents placed orders for over 70 Xbox games and the 4 full seasons of the hit show "24" and they received every disc as promised.
Sharp, one of the largest makers of LCD TVs has forecasted that over the next year, the average price of the TVs will drop 25% as competition continues to rise.
Toshihiko Hirobe, the deputy general manager of Sharp's LCD business said "The price of LCD TVs in the 40-inch category, currently about $2,600 to $2,700, will fall to less than $2,000 by the end of this year...Prices for 30-inch models are hitting bottom."
According to Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., shipments of LCDs will outpace similar plasma models five-to-one for the year.
"In Japan, the competition is almost over, with the LCD industry the winner," Hirobe said from the company's newest factory, "In the U.S., full high-definition LCD TVs will gain a big market share and there will be no room for plasma TVs."
Lehman also reported that shipments of LCD TVs should surge 76 percent to 74 million units this year.
This is certainly interesting news for those looking forward to buying a new LCD TV soon. Maybe waiting will pay off in the long run.
A teen girl in Virginia was arrested and now faces up to a year in jail and a $2500 USD fine after recording a 20 second clip from the movie Transformers to show her little brother.
The girl recorded the clip on a borrowed Canon Power Shot camera and was arrested minutes later on the charges that she was a pirate. The girl, understandably was terrified. “I was crying, I’ve never been in trouble before.” She hoped to get her little brother hyped to go pay and see the movie by recording a small clip of the action.
Obviously the girl was not planning to sell the 20 second clip, but the theater, in Arlington, did not care. Kendrick Macdowell, a representative National Association of Theater Owners said in a response: “We cannot educate theater managers to be judges and juries in what is acceptable. Theater managers cannot distinguish between good and bad stealing.”
Although she should have known better than to point a camera at a movie screen in this day in age, I hope the case is thrown out.
TorrentSpy, the public torrenttracker in the midst of a lawsuit from the MPAA is apparently advertising, even promoting fake torrent clients that are bundled with malicious adware.
The clients, created by a Swedish company called Wakenet, look like legit torrent clients but instead just infect computers with adware that is hard to uninstall.
The clients, Get-Torrent, Torrent101, TorrentQ and BitRoll result in a barrage of annoying popups, yet TorrentSpy is actively promoting them. Underneath each download, the words "Use Get-Torrent for high speed downloads" appears, tricking users into downloading them.
The malware bundled with the clients is a program called "Cidhelp" that can be removed from Windows default add/remove in the Control Panel. However, most anti-virus programs will cripple the malware but not completely delete it, making it impossible to uninstall.
The Pirate Bay and Mininova both banned the clients from advertising using Adbrite but apparently money is more important to TorrentSpy then the safety of their user's computers.
The producers of Good Copy, Bad Copy, a new documentary that analyzes the current state of global music piracy, have decided to release the movie for free, and via torrents in XviD format.
The movie goes in depth on the line between "fair use" and piracy and includes many interviews, including some notable ones like DJ Danger Mouse, the creator of the "Grey Album", Lawerence Lessig (founder of Creative Commons), the admins of The Pirate Bay, and an official from the MPAA.
Although we cannot directly link to the torrent, it can be found at The Pirate Bay as well as on the official website here.
US Democratic Senator from Arkansas, Mark Pryor has noble thoughts in mind. He wants to shield the American youth from such travesties as foul language and indecent adult content. Which is why he's submitted a proposal to expand the current coverage of the FCC's V-chip. For those who are not aware, the V-chip was put in place by the FCC in 1996 and it allows concerned parents to Block certain television shows depending on their TV rating. If a rating comes through marked for offensive language or sexual content, the V-chip, when instructed, can keep your children sheltered from viewing adult themed content.
Senator Pryor's proposal states that he feels this V-chip should be implemented on VCRs, DVD players and even the Internet itself. While this seems like an extreme endeavor, the Senator feels that where technology stands today, its not something that is impossible to do.
Senator Pryor hasn't offered up any solutions on how this V-chip will be able to magically detect a swear word on a YouTube stream or how it will, as proposed, circumvent TV ratings and block a nipple that may have passed through the TV14 rating, but insists that this type of censorship is needed for today's youth. The Senator states, "My bill simply lights a fire under the FCC to take a fresh look at new options in the marketplace."
In an obvious protest against pirating music, someone has unleashed a new, low threat trojan virus onto the Internet community that is hellbent on deleting all of your MP3 files. Known as the W32.Deletemusic, this virus does exactly as the name implies. Once activated, it will scan any drive connected to your PC and delete any music file, whether it be on your primary hard drive, flash drive, or external hard drive. Additionally, it'll attach itself to an infected drive and if that drive is inserted into another machine, it will again continue its destruction of all your music.
This isn't the first time some group has taken its aim on pirating. Over the past two years, there have been other trojans named Nopir-B and Erazer. The latter being the more vicious of the two as it wouldn't only target mp3s, but AVI, mpgs, wmvs and ZIP files.
While speculation can point this towards an RIAA cooked up trojan that thwarts would-be pirates, analysts claim that this type of thing appears to be the work of mischievous teenagers and not some larger entity.
Our good friends over at the music industry are at it again, but this time, they've seem to have hit a brick wall. Germany has refused to order its ISPs to hand over information about its clients that are suspected by the music industry for illegally downloading music from the Internet. The German court is not alone in their stance as the European Court of Justice Advocate-General is also backing their defiance.
The court located in Offenburg, Germany was asked by the music industry to hand over identification of its subscribers and suspected account information being used for copyright infringement. The court stated that the music industry's claim was disproportionate and they hadn't explained fully how these actions could be viewed as criminal cases. This ruling is shared with the opinion from the European Court of Justice in that Advocate-General Juliane Kokott has mandated, information does not have to be handed over in civil cases, only criminal cases. If the music industry cannot prove that its evidence is criminal and damaging in nature, they have no case.
A similar case earlier this year, also in Germany, had the chief prosecutor's office refusing another hand over of information because damanges had not been shown. It was also doubted that the music industry would use the evidence to produce a criminal case. It was suspected that they would only use it for civil means to sue the ISPs client base.
Once again the Japanese powerhouse Nintendo has become the leading console in Japan. Information released about July's sales figure show the Wii outselling its rival, the Sony PS3 by a margin of 4 to 1. Nintendo sold 396,752 in the five weeks comprising July compared to a scant 91,987 units by the PS3.
Even though the PS3 is loaded with superior technology, a Blu-ray player, it has remained behind the Nintendo Wii in sales since each of their respective launches. High pricing and a lackluster library of games can ultimately be blamed for the difference.
In June, the ratio of sales put the Wii on top of the PS3 6 to 1. Nintendo said that its quarterly profit has more than tripled due to outrageous demand for the Wii as well as the DS handheld unit. This in affect raised their annual profit forcast substantially. One obvious selling point is the fact that the Wii sells for less than half of the basic PS3 unit in Japan. A mere 25,000 yen ($209.90) can give you all the motion-sensing action of a Wii.
The battle, however isn't two sided. The third major player in the 30 billion dollar video game market is Microsoft's Xbox 360. This unit has struggled to grip Japanese gamers and comes in a distant third place with a mere 17,970 units sold in July.
Until today, Canadians had little to no choices if they wanted DRM-free music, but that is now set to change.
EMI has announced that they made a partnership with Puretracks, a Canadian authorized music store to offer EMI's DRM-free digital catalogue at $1.29 CAD a track.
"EMI Music Canada wants to give fans the best possible digital music buying experience, and our premium download offering is a fundamental part of our strategy," said Deane Cameron, President EMI Music Canada.
"We are proud that Puretracks is the first Canadian retailer to offer EMI's DRM-free downloads in the MP3 format. We are confident that artists on EMI's roster, as well as those on our distributed labels will see a good lift in digital sales as a result."
Unauthorized P2P downloading is still not considered illegal in Canada so it will be interesting to see how well the venture works.
Today, Pioneer introduced their new top of the line Blu-ray PC drive, the BDR-202.
The burner can write at 4x speed for write-once discs and 2x for rewritable Blu-ray recordable discs.
According to Pioneer, the drive also includes extra measures to increase stability for better writing.Ultra DRA cancels all drive shaking during the burning process and adds a liquid equalizer during playback.
The burner can also write DVDs at 12x speed and CDs at 24x.
The BDR-202 is already available in Europe for the equivalent of $675 USD but a US version bundled with CyberLink BD should be available in the US soon with a retail price of $650.
The Verbatim Corporation has announced that they too will be offering mini Blu-ray recordable media.
The specs offered by Verbatim say the discs, with 7.5GB capacity, can provide almost one hour of continuous video when HD (1920×1080i) is used and almost 2 hours when recorded at 1440×1080i.
The mini Blu-ray discs will be available later this month in Japan and the company will begin shipping the discs elsewhere as BD-compatible camcorders become more readily available.
According to DailyTech, the new discs will "share similar performance characteristics of its standard (12 cm) BD media, including technologies developed by MKM to guard against deterioration. The proprietary hard-coat finish on Verbatim BD media features anti-static and anti-scratch properties for added protection against scratches, fingerprints and dust particles that can occur during normal camcorder and home use."
Recently, Mercury Computer Systems released its MultiCore Plus SDK for the PlayStation 3. The event is pretty notable because it is one of the very few third-party developments kits available for game consoles.
Mercury has said however, that they are not at all interested in games but rather in military interests citing the PlayStation's Cell processor as being a very powerful yet still pretty cheap platform.
Mercury is using the PS3's ability to load Linux and pairing it with its SDK to perform powerful tasks such as running a node in a computing cluster.
The new SDK wont be cheap however, a single-seat license will cost you $399 USD.
Take-Two Interactive, the company behind the much hyped upcoming game Grand Theft Auto: IV has announced that the game will not be hitting stores in late 2007 as planned but instead in early 2008 due to a few delays.
The company said it needed more time to "perfect the game" and the chairman of Take-Two said in a statement that "certain elements of development proved to be more time-intensive than expected," and also admitted that its dual development, for both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, added largely to the delays.
"We owe it to the game's millions of fans, to our dedicated development team, and to our shareholders to make sure that Grand Theft Auto IV is a groundbreaking gaming experience that takes maximum advantage of next generation technology," chairman Strauss Zelnick said in a statement.
Because of the move, Take-Two said they would now post a loss on revenues of about $1 billion instead of breaking even on revenue of about $1.25 billion.
Rumors and buzz mills alike all swarmed at the possibility that Sony would release an updated SIXAXIS controller featuring the once left out rumble technology sometime soon. These reports started flowing in from innocuous mentions of it during the moments right before the E3 show earlier this year and fueled many comments from fans and skeptics alike. Today however, Sony has stated that they have no intention on including rumble into their SIXAXIS controller for any reason.
The early reports were spurred by a report issued from GamePro in which one executive made mention of a change in the SIXAXIS. This of course made people feel that Sony just might have figured out how to include it in their controller along with its motion sensitivity. Dave Karraker, Sony's director of corporate communications stated, "We have not added rumble [to PS3], and have no announcements regarding this feature".
Mr. Karraker came back with saying that they have merely made minor adjustments to the motion sensitivity of the controller that is part of a natural evolution of controller technology. "From time to time, we make minor enhancements to the controllers for our platforms. We recently sent out to the development community some new prototypes that have a slightly enhanced sensitivity for the analog sticks and the motion sensing within the Sixaxis controller. This is not a new controller, but is part of the normal development and evolution of controllers."
Reports for some time have given way to Google taking another bold step towards global domination with its interest in the mobile phone market. Early reports had favored Google as the next company to come out with their own mobile device, dubbed GPhones. These phones would be geared towards not only placing calls, but giving users full access to Google rich features they know and love, like maps and email.
A Google spokesperson was quoted in saying that they are currently working with phone providers to "bring its services to users everywhere". There was no mention however on whether or not the company was interested in handsets. They continued with: "What our users and partners are telling us is that they want Google search and Google applications on mobile, and we are working hard every day to deliver that."
Recently Google has partnered with Apple to provide services to the iPhone. CEO of Google, Eric Schmidt even commented stating that more Google services will be rolled out for the iPhone in due time. These features could then quite easily be rolled into their own phone, if they do intend on producing one.
The Wall Street Journal released a report stating that Google has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in a project that involved in depth discussions with groups like T-Mobile and Verizon. Market research shows that the mobile phone market is an astounding $14bn market, and it would make sense that the Google machine would want a part of that.
A good deal of time has passed since people first put a version of Linux on their Sony PS3's and many uses have been found for the revised operating system. I'm not sure if any other reasons have been further away from using the PS3 for its intended purpose than what Axion Racing has begun doing with one.
No, they haven't installed small LCD panels into their race cars so the driver can practice drifts with the relative safety of the SIXAXIS controller. They've managed to get the PS3 to manage one of seven autonomous vehicle cameras to record and broadcast footage for eager onlookers who fancy the racing sport. The San Diego based company was very eager to show off that they were able to use the PS3 console for purposes other than Blu-ray playback and video games. They also expect integration with the latest video technology such as SICK laser finding devices, Bumblebee studio cameras and FLIR infrared cameras. They also claim that they would be able to integrate it rather easily with an array of Dell machines.
This certainly opens the door for creativity for moving past what the PS3 was intended to do on a grand scale, but I'm still waiting for the modification that opens the lid and cooks me breakfast when I wake up in the morning. More on that as it comes.
Looks like the battery recalls that plagued Sony were only a start of massive recalls for the Japanese company. Sony announced Thursday that it will be recalling 350,000 of its Cybershot digital cameras. The camera was originally launched as an easy point-and-shoot device that was made inexpensively and thereby enabling the masses to partake in some form of digital photography. Recently, claims have been issued that show there is a malfunction on the adhesive used on the bottom of these cameras that cause the metal EDGE on the bottom to warp. This warping could in turn lascerate the user and cause potential injury.
On Sony's website, they stated "Sony has recently discovered that some DSC-T5 Cyber-shot digital still cameras may experience peeling and warping of the metal coating on the bottom of the camera that could result in a slight cut or scratch to the user's skin."
Sony has stated that it will replace the defective part for anyone with a model matching the serial numbers between 3500001 and 3574100. Additionally, they will pay for shipping for anyone who wishes to have their cameras repaired.
The blockbuster action flick "300" looks to be on the cusp of putting to rest which format is superior in the HD-DVD/Blu-ray battle. Warner Home Video which holds the rights to the movie and offers its backing to both the HD-DVD and Blu-ray camps, has offered the movie in each format, only HD-DVD comes more feature laden than Blu-ray.
One of these features found only on the HD-DVD version is the inclusion of a bluescreen picture-in-picture version of the movie. Many may know that "300" was shot almost entirely in front of a bluescreen studio in Canada. This inclusion gives the user access to the RAW footage which appears to differ greatly from the finished product. Along with being able to visually compare the two shots at the same time, the viewer can also listen to an audio commentary by director Zack Snyder specifically designed for this feature.
The bluescreen feature can not be found on the Blu-ray version of the film not because Warner favors HD-DVD over Blu-ray. Its because the current manditory specifications on Blu-ray players do not include the ability for picture-in-picture video. As reported earlier, The Blu-ray Disc Association has mandated that all players manufacturered after October 31st of this year must support BD Java, which will then support picture-in-picture capabilities. The HD-DVD equivalent to this standard is HDi and has been enabled on all HD-DVD players for some time.
Panasonic announced two new High Definition video camcorders late in July that match the growing consumer demand for large-screen, high-image-quality TVs and the continued evolution toward HD video. The new HDC-SD5 and HDC-SX5 camcorders employ cutting-edge imaging technology to capture video recordings that are breathtakingly clear and vibrant, especially when viewed on a high-quality, large screen TV.
Both the HDC-SD5 and HDC-SX5 use the AVCHD format to record full-HD video with 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution. The HDC-SD5, which records video onto SDHC/SD Memory Cards, debuts as the world's smallest palm-style 3CCD full-HD camcorder. It is even smaller than its predecessor model, HDC-SD1, giving the SD5 superb portability. The SD5 also features a new USB Host function that significantly improves data storage and playback ease.
With an optional newly released DVD burner, model VW-BN1, users can copy or play back video recordings in the original AVCHD format to deliver the ultimate High Definition viewing experience on a large-screen TV. The HDC-SX5 can record full-HD motion images onto both SDHC/SD Memory Cards and DVD discs. It can record up to 180 minutes of video on an 8GB SDHC Memory Card (available September 2007), and up to 60 minutes on a 3-inch DVD-R dual-layer disc.
Early this morning, Amazon began taking pre-orders for three new, third generation HD DVD players by Toshiba.
Once the players started seeing significant orders placed however, Amazon took down the listings and canceled all orders. Before they were taken down, a few key but vague details were revealed, and Engadget listed them.
The new players were dubbed the HD-A3, HD-A30, and the HD-A35 with each one costing $299, $399 and $499 USD respectively. Each also had a release date of October 1st 2007.
It is now anticipated that Toshiba will reveal the full details of the players at the CEDIA Expo next month.
The former owner of the infamous, but legendary torrenttrackerSuprnova.org has donated the domain to the admins of another notorious tracker The Pirate Bay and it seems Suprnova will be relaunched soon.
A few months ago, "Sloncek", the former owner, donated the domain to TPB but the admins have kept it quiet while planning its relaunch. The admins left a couple cryptic blog entries including one that said "The past, the present and the future. It’s all the same, but one thing’s for sure, we will radiate for weeks." It is clear now that that message was in reference to Suprnova.
Sloncek responded to the news by finally telling why he decided to donate the domain. “The domain was doing nothing. I know that domain has some nostalgic value and some people would be more then happy to see it back online. I don’t use it, and TPB is the only team that I know will use it correctly.”
“I will be involved in the community [Forums] on a separated domain”, Sloncek said and added, “The site has to look almost exactly like it looked before. They can upgrade it, but they cannot change it appearance completely. We further agreed that the site has to be community orientated (not private).”
TMPG, Inc. has announced that it will soon release French and Spanish language versions of their TMPGEnc DVD Author 3 with DivX Authoring software. TMPG also has six websites offering e-commerce and information in English, French, German, Spanish, Japanese and Chinese languages. The company is proactive about translating its software into many of those languages.
"Our parent company Pegasys Inc. is a global video software producer and has found that language can be a barrier to users understanding and enjoying the full capacity of a software program," stated Kimi Matsuki, TMPG Inc. CEO. "This is why we are proactive about making our software programs available in a variety of languages."
Matsuki added: "We are especially excited about translating DVD Author 3 into French and Spanish. This robust program includes HDV capture, DivX authoring, multiple subtitle streams, and the ability to import popular video formats for authoring to DVD or DivX. DVD Author 3 will also cut-edit, create custom menus, and burn projects to a CD (DivX only) or DVD,"
The French and Spanish language versions of TMPGEnc DVD Author 3 with DivX Authoring will be available for purchase from the website on August 2, at a special, limited-time introductory price of $67.95 each. The introductory price will be available for one month, after which the price will return to its regular value of $89.95 each.
Plusmo has announced they will be launching their free and customizable iPhone widget service and that the service will give users access to over 20,000 widgets.
Plusmo allows for users to create personalized widgets from Web services, XML/RSS-based services, and user-generated content such as videos, photos and blogs.
The widgets "serve as miniature Web applications that offer traffic reports, store locators, games, blogs, specialized searches, live sports updates, and more."
You can also use Plusmo on such Java-enabled phones like Blackberries and other Symbian devices.
TDK, partners of the optical disc maker Imation, have introduced the first recordable mini Blu-ray discs. The discs make their debut in conjunction with Hitachi's mini Blu-ray recordable camcorder.
The 3-inch discs can store 7.5GB of data on a single layer which is far more than the 4.36GB of data a single layer standard DVD-5 can hold. The single layer mini discs can hold up to one hour of widescreen 1080i video.
TDK also claims the discs are almost completely scratch-proof, due to its use of DURABIS protective coating.
The discs can be loading into any tray loading standalone or computer Blu-ray drive but will be expensive. A single disc will run you $25 USD or $35 for a rewritable version.
The discs will be available for sale in September, one month before the camcorders.
Creative has introduced an upgrade to their Zen V Plus line of MP3 players, with the latest player being able to hold 16GB of flash memory which is double the space of the largest iPod Nano or any other comparable flash based player.
The Zen V Plus line distinguishes itself from other comparable players by its selection of skin colors, its 1.5-inch OLED screen, and line-in recording functions.
The player also supports MP3, WMA and IMA ADPCM music files.
The player currently is only sold in Singapore for $260 USD but Creative expects to move it to the US in the next few months.
A coalition of Japanese television, music and film companies is following the increasingly popular practice of attacking YouTube Thursday. They say the viral video site isn't doing enough to get rid of videos that infringe on copyrights.
''YouTube has to stop how it runs its site and get rid of the illegal clips. We want them to reset the service,'' composer Hideki Matsutake told a joint press conference in Tokyo Thursday. The coalition met with YouTube and Google executives earlier in the week, the second such meeting this year.
''There is no middle ground,'' Matsutake said. ''We demand that all copyrighted material be removed immediately.'' Talks with YouTube and Google will continue, said Matsutake, who was acting as a spokesman for the group.
The group says Google's promise to have digital fingerprinting technology implemented by year's end is too late.
Clips from Japanese TV and the music industry are popular on YouTube. A spoof of an English language lesson taken from a popular comedy show aired by Nippon Television Network has been viewed more than a million times.
''What's important to us is what YouTube can do immediately,'' said Mizuo Sugawara of the Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers. ''We have no guarantee whether the new technology will even work,'' he said.
On Thursday Pioneer announced they will launch their first full high definition plasma TVs in October.
The move comes after the company's plasma operations reported a second quarter loss blamed on intense competition among flat panel televisions. Plasma televisions have been losing market share to LCD models.
Pioneer's new 50- and 60-inch full high-definition sets, featuring an ability to recreate deeper black than conventional models, are expected to sell for 720,000 yen ($6,060) and 990,000 yen ($8,340) in Japan.
Matsushita, the current leader in plasma sales, has 50-inch full high-definition plasma TVs selling for around 450,000 yen.
"We are determined to distance ourselves from price competition and move on to a new stage to offer an exciting experience for our customers,"Pioneer Managing Director Shinji Yasuda told a news conference.
Despite prices for upcoming plasma displays being high in comparison to LCD televisions, which seem to be gaining market share every day, Pioneer still plans to ship over 700,000 plasma TVs displays in the next business year, which ends next March.
At least one reason for Japanese manufacturers to stay firmly behind plasma is the lower margins available with other technologies. Much like their rise to dominance in the 1970s and 1980s because of lower production costs, they're finding it increasingly difficult to compete with Korean, and now Chinese companies.
In October Canon plans to start selling the HG10, the company's first high-definition hard drive camcorder and the world's smallest.
The new camcorder will weigh in at 19.92 ounces with the battery inside.
The 40GB hard disk will be enough for 5.5 hours of AVCHD recording at its highest quality setting, resulting in an AnamorphicResolution of 1440x1080 compressed at 15Mbps. This is 25% higher than the Bitrate allowed by Canon's DVD based HR10.
Unlike Compression schemes from Sony and Panasonic, Canon's implementation of AVCHD uses VBR compression, allowing complex scenes to have less compression applied than simple scenes.
Canon said a version of the Windows-only Corel (formerly Ulead) VideoStudio 11 will be included with this HG10 camcorder, which is good news for consumers since support for AVCHD in editing software isn't exactly a standard feature.
IGN has announced that they are expanding their digital retail store, Direct2Drive into the UK and that at launch the store will have more than 100 games available.
Some of the more popular games include Civilization IV, Elder Scrolls Oblivion, and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Recently, IGN has made deals with large publishers such as Activision, Take-Two, and THQ.
“Direct2Drive is the quickest and most convenient way to own a game. We want users to discover games through our comprehensive editorial coverage on IGN.com, try before they buy on FilePlanet.com and then buy the ones they love via Direct2Drive,” said Justin Keeling, European general manager, IGN Entertainment.
The US launch of D2D was in October 2004 and the store now holds loads of games from such publishers as Blizzard, Atari and Vivendi as well as the above mentioned publishers.
The US store also allows for downloading of movies and TV shows and the UK site will eventually be expanded to allow the same.
Walt Disney's entertainment division revenue suffered from a weak selection of movies during the last quarter according to reports from the studio on Wednesday.
The apparent problem was the lack of a single strong title comparable to last years "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe." Last year that title alone sold more than 18 million DVDs.
Revenue across the division was still up 4% to $1.8 billion.
The home video decline was partially offset by international profits from Pirates of the Carribean: At World's End, but in the U.S. its theatrical performance was offset by marketing costs for Pixar movie Ratatouille.
Disney has plans to cash in on the success of the Pirates of the Carribean franchise with the release of a box set, but no date has been announced.
The company also has a huge promotional program coming up for "High School Musical 2", premiering on the Disney Channel in August. There's currently no release date for the DVD.
A Seattle-based company called Open Interface North America (OINA) announced plans to release a new lossless audio Codec called SOUNDabout Lossless.
Because of the need to send data in real time, combined with the relatively unreliable connection quality of Bluetooth, compressing audio data before sending from one device to another is a necessity. Possibly because the technology is generally used for things like mobile phones, finding a way to transmit audio losslessly hasn't apparently been a priority for most companies.
However, when music that was already encoded with some loss (like MP3 or AAC) it doesn't make much sense to re-compress it with more loss before sending it to a device like Bluetooth stereo headphones.
"The main drawback of putting MP3 or ACC Decode in [Bluetooth] headphones," Greg Burns, OINA's Chief Technology Officer, told PC Magazine, "is a business rather than a technical issue: the wireless headphone becomes burdened with the MP3 royalty. Standard royalties for devices are 75 cents, which is a significant piece of the overall BOM (bill-of-materials) cost and may be in the $20 range. If the headphones also support AAC, this can add another dollar…Since an MP3 player will already have an MP3 and/or AAC decoder built in, this means that the consumer buying the headphones is effectively paying twice for the MP3 and AAC decode capabilities."
According to Warwick Light, the sales and marketing manager for Sony New Zealand, the company is set to launch a digital tuner for the PlayStation 3 in early 2008, a device that will offer programmable TV recording functions for the console.
Light told The Press the device would "transform the PS3 capabilities so as to meet people's changing entertainment needs."
"We're also hoping next year – about the same time that Freeview launches its terrestrial broadcasting service – to release a digital tuner for the PS3, turning it into a programmable TV recorder," said Light.
A tech industry trade group, including companies like Google and Microsoft asked federal regulators to force changes in copyright warnings.
The Computer and Communications Industry Assiation said in a statement Wednesday that copyright statements used by sports leagues and content distributors (like movie studios) go too far, and warn against uses that are actually legal. The organization filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commision arguing that companies using such language should be required to mount a marketing campaign to inform consumers of their actual rights.
Although many content owners are quick to complain about unauthorized copying, what they usually fail to mention is that unlawful doesn't automatically mean illegal.
CCIA spokesman Will Rodger said in the Wednesday statement that "the bottom line is that the copyright holder is not the final arbiter of how his work can be used. Copyrights are granted by the federal government and it's 'we the people' who decide where to draw that line between what's legal and what is not."
The FTC isn't expected to act on the complaint simply due to the complexity of copyright law. In most cases, the only way to measure the legality of a given use of copyrighted material is a judge's decision.
After hearing comments from the developers of Project Gotham Racing 4, Sony cited the comments to justify its large investment in Blu-ray discs.
The developers said they were having trouble fitting the game data into a single DVD-9. "We took a lot of heat at launch for including Blu-ray in PS3. Now it looks like that investment is being justified," said SCEA spokesman Dave Karraker.
"Next generation games simply need more space on the disc to contain all that high definition content. Take a look at Lair, for example, already pushing 25GB of content, and that is a first-generation title. At 50GB storage capacity, Blu-ray gives the PS3 plenty of headroom for developers to fully realize their visions well into the future."
Bizarre Creations, the developer of PGR4, recently revealed that due to having trouble fitting all the texture data on a single DVD, players would not "see different times of day in each racing location." Clearly a few hundred MB of extra texture data is worth hundreds of millions of dollars in investments.
Today Panasonic started a marketing campaign to give away thousands of dollars of home video products.
Using the website www.livinginhd.com they'll be giving away Panasonc electronics packages valued at over $20,000 each.
Visitors submit stories explaining what they would use the features of various Panasonic products including BD players, plasma TVs, and camcorders. Winners will also be given a Nintendo Wii.
Videos of each family using their new electronics will be featured on the program's website.
Panasonic hopes to use the program to get parents involved in the technology their kids are interested in. In particular, they're hoping to improve interest in hi-def video products.
Content for the site is being overseen by Brett Ratner, director of X-Men: The Last Stand. Ratner is impressed with what people can do with high definition technology.
“A kid living in middle America has in the palm of his hand the power to make a film. This will inspire families to be creative,” said Ratner. “And for people around the U.S. to see their footage, I think that is a very exciting prospect.”
According to Joystiq, the large electronics retailer Best Buy has effectively discontinued offering the Xbox 360 Core package.
An internal Best Buy document confirms the discontinuation by clearly showing the Core system as having a new status of "Deleted" and having a "pref code: y" which signifies that “replenishment of this item is not expected.”
Microsoft representatives denied the reports however, saying the "Xbox 360 Core remains an important member of the Xbox 360 family.”
Recently, Sony dropped the 20GB model of its PlayStation 3 so Microsoft dropping the lesser Core model would not be unheard of. It is not clear whether the decision is exclusive to Best Buy, but we will keep you updated on any developments.
This morning, the US Government announced it has executed 32 search warrants in 16 different states in an effort to crackdown on console mod chip makers, claiming the chips cause the video game industry billions of dollars in lost revenue each year.
The warrants were out for companies that produce mod chips, which effectively bypass any copyright protection, allowing gamers to play downloaded or copied games. To date, there is no mod chip for the Sony PlayStation 3 but there are for the PS2, Microsoft Xbox, Nintendo Wii and there are hacked DVD drives for the Xbox 360.
The warrants were the result of investigations by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE). According to ICE, seizures of pirated works increased by 83 percent in 2006.
"Illicit devices like the ones targeted today are created with one purpose in mind, subverting copyright protections," ICE Homeland Security assistant secretary Julie Myers said. "These crimes cost legitimate businesses billions of dollars annually and facilitate multiple other layers of criminality, such as smuggling, software piracy and money laundering."
The US Chamber of Commerce has made a very bold statement, claiming that counterfeiting and piracy, of all types, cost the US economy over $200 billion each year.
The "open beta" launch of the BBC's on demand service on Friday has left many license fee-payers frustrated, as downloads of the iPlayer are still strictly Limited.
As we reported last week, the BBC's video download service is only available to a limited number of people right now. That number is expected to increase gradually through the full scale rollout of the service in the fall.
However, it seems the BBC didn't think the restricted number of viewers was as big a deal as they're viewers do. In fact you'd have to get about halfway through their press release before reading that "It will go live to the general public in open Beta on 27 July, allowing the number of users to increase over the summer in a controlled manner, before a full marketing launch in the autumn."
According to a BBC spokeswoman, part of the reason for the unusual "open beta" was that the iPlayer team isn't able to send bulk email.
In a twist to the interoperability controversy and accusations of Microsoft bias, it has emerged that iPlayer will run on Windows Vista PCs, and not only on XP as the BBC suggests. However, the BBC is Blocking Vista iPlayer downloads using the user agent string which allows web servers to identify browsers and the operating system they are running on top of.
HD DVD players priced under $200 are expected from Chinese company Venturer Electronics by the fourth quarter of this year.
According to both the LA Times and the New York Post, Apple seems on the verge of joining the ringtone market.
According to TF, three more torrent tracker sites have been shut down by BREIN, the Dutch anti-piracy group. Once again at the center of the situation is Leaseweb, the web host based in the Netherlands.
