The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has suffered another legal setback after a judge denied a ruling in a music piracy case this week. The judge ruled that "the sole act of making a music file available in a "shared folder" does not violate copyright laws."
In the case Atlantic v. Howell, the RIAA asserted that a "sound recording" that is legally ripped to a PC and then stored in any type of shared folder is unauthorized and illegal. The assertion was not really clear however, as a shared folder is a very broad category.
The RIAA saw some backlash for its assertion when the rumor was spread around the Internet that the RIAA believed that ripping CD music was illegal. The group cleared up the situation by saying that it doesn't consider ripping illegal but that adding music recordings to a shared folder that can be accessed by others in a P2P file sharing program is illegal and should be stopped.
Despite Blu-ray's victory over rival format HDDVD, it seems Blu-ray player sales are falling or seeing little to no growth in various markets.
The latest figures, according to the NPD Group, show that Blu-ray standalone players sales (excluding the PlayStation 3 and Blu-ray PC drives) have mostly decreased since the beginning of 2008, or seen no growth. Sales dropped 40 percent in the US from January to February and saw only a 2 percent increase from February to March.
The numbers don't seem to make sense though. HD DVD died out in February, yet sales have sputtered. One likely reason is price. Blu-ray players were selling for an average of $400 USD during March while just 3 months earlier in the holiday season they were selling for closer to $320 USD. An even better reason, according to NPD, is that standard definition DVD is "good enough" for the average consumer and that the upgraded video, audio and features just aren't worth the premium in price, at least not yet.
The first three movies to hit Blu-ray will be "Face/Off," "Next" and "Bee Movie" which will hit retailers on May 20th. "Bee Movie" was a highly anticipated HD DVD title but was scrapped after Toshiba dropped production and support for the format in early March.
Two other box office hits, "Cloverfield" and "There Will Be Blood" will hit Blu-ray on June 3rd. Both were recently released on standard definition DVD. "Cloverfield" will also hit the international market in August, added the studio.
Another important date to note is June 24th when Paramount will "issue its first day-and-date Blu-ray Disc release," "The Spiderwick Chronicles."
According to Chart-Track, GTA IV has shattered previous launch day sales records in the UK, selling 610,000 units on its first day. The data is based on EPoS data and retailer estimates.
The previous UK sales record was 501,000 units, following the launch of GTA: San Andreas in 2004.
The game also set a new record for one day Xbox 360 software sales, moving 335,000 units. The old record was set last September at 266,000 with the release of Halo 3.
The PlayStation 3 sales record was completely shattered with the PS3 version of the game selling 275,000 copies. The previous record was a lowly 80,000 set last month with the release of Gran Turismo 5: Prologue.
Chart-Track says the figures are very accurate but will not be completely official until the group "has analyzed the data in its entirety on May 6 following the UK Bank holiday."
CinemaNow has introduced a new mobile feature for its service that will allow any web-enabled mobile device to download digital movies.
There is a catch however. You cant play the movies on your phone, the service only allows you to download the movies using your phone, to a PC at home, as long as the PC has the CinemaNow Media Manager installed and running. According to the service's FAQ section, "On CinemaNow Mobile you can browse the same CinemaNow video selection, watch trailers, make purchases and have the video download at any of your PC's."
If you don't really get the point of the service, CinemaNow tries to explain it better:
"Let's say you're at the bus station or at a friend's house, thinking about what to watch tonight when you get back home. Once you bought and sent your video to your home PC via your phone, it will be there for you waiting to be watched when you get back."
It is an interesting idea if you want to remotely download a film, but those who use CinemaNow know that a streamed movie starts very quickly so this service seems like it will only save a few minutes at best.
Rogers has finally announced that it will indeed be bringing Apple's iPhone to the Canadian market, meaning Canadian residents will no longer have to buy unlocked phones from the United States.
Rogers is the only GSM service provider in Canada so the choice seemed logical. However, Apple and Rogers had been in talks for over 8 months without getting anywhere.
Ted Rogers, president and CEO of Rogers Communications, announced the deal today. "We're thrilled to announce that we have a deal with Apple to bring the iPhone to Canada later this year," he said. "We can't tell you any more about it right now, but stay tuned."
Rogers reported a nice profit for the Q1 2008, $344 million CAD on $2.4 billion CAD revenue. Besides being the only GSM provider, the provider has a large chain of retail outlets making it easier to sell the phone from different fronts.
Microsoft has delayed the official release of its touted Windows XP Service Pack 3 because of a newly found "technical glitch."
The giant software company added that there was a "compatibility issue between the XP service pack and Microsoft Dynamics Retail Management System, a retail chain management program for small and midsize businesses."
The company had finalized the code for SP3 last week and had originally planned to make it available beginning today.
"In order to make sure customers have the best possible experience, we have decided to delay releasing Windows XP SP3 to Windows Update and Microsoft Download Center," the company added in a statement.
The same glitch also apparently exists between Microsoft Dynamics RMS and Windows Vista Service Pack 1, which was already released earlier this month and more recently via Automatic Updates.
"To help protect our customers, we plan to put filtering in place shortly to prevent Windows Update from offering both service packs to systems running Microsoft Dynamics RMS," Microsoft said. "Once filtering is in place, we expect to release Windows XP SP3 to Windows Update and Download Center."
Microsoft has announced that it will be cutting the price of its Xbox 360 console in four Asian markets in an effort to boost sales in the struggling Asian market.
The standard 20GB model was reduced to S$499, about $366 USD in Singapore, a significant 20 percent drop. In Taiwan, the price was cut 17 percent to NT$ 10,360, the equivalent of $340 USD.
The price was also dropped, but less, in China and South Korea which saw prices fall to 2,499 ($321 USD) in China and WON 369,000 $369 USD in South Korea; an 11 percent and 5.1 percent reduction, respectively.
Recent price cuts in Europe helped boost Xbox 360 sales 200 percent and it is apparent that Microsoft is hoping for at least a small boost in Asian sales.
Microsoft's VP of global marketing, Jeff Bell, added that "Microsoft has had trouble breaking into the Asian market because of the dominance of Kyoto, Japan-based Nintendo and different game preferences in Asia."
Nokia's hyped all-you-can-eat music service, Comes with the Music, has backfired in a devastating manner. Comes with the Music was launched as a service that would allow new mobile phone buyers to download unlimited amount of music to their device. The service was hailed to be one of the most impressive moves in a while -- one that could even challenge Apple. According to The Register however, some Nokia execs made one of the worst kinds of deals with the record labels and it will eat the profits.
Nokia has been said to perform a single-payment for every sold cell phone to the record labels, but according to insider sources there is a ceiling of 35 songs per user -- after which Nokia pays the price of every single song. Obviously this will come extremely pricey for Nokia.
"It will cost Nokia a fortune - it's a reckless business move," said an insider. The former Managing Director of Nokia Music Ed Averdieck was the first one to leave Nokia for this mistake and another Nokia Music boss Tommi Mustonen has been given a "punishment that fits the crime".
Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. is on the verge of launching the latest edition in the Grand Theft Auto video game series, GTA IV, which is expected to break records and generate $400 million in sales over its first week. The Internet has flooded with reviews, previews and other commentary in anticipation of its Tuesday launch, and Take-Two will be delighted with the overwhelming amount of positive reviews.
The hype boosted the shares of the publisher as much as 3.4 percent, with Take-Two shares valued at up to $27.10 while Electronic Arts (EA) shares were valued at $25.74. "'Grand Theft Auto IV' is a violent, intelligent, profane, endearing, obnoxious, sly, richly textured and thoroughly compelling work of cultural satire disguised as fun," The New York Times wrote.
Take-Two Chairman Strauss Zelnick may have the last laugh if the game meets or even exceeds its expectations. Zelnick urged rejection of the Electronic Arts past offer, insisting the price was far too low, and said the company should wait until after the game's release. "Clearly there were very high expectations for the game going in and it looks like from the early buzz that it could exceed those already very optimistic expectations," said UBS analyst Ben Schachter.
Australian Federal Police (AFP) has been commended by the anti-piracy organization for the Australian music industry, Music Industry Piracy Investigations (MIPI) for targeting an international music piracy ring. The music piracy ring, which had an operation sourced in Sydney, distributed pirates music internationally. An organized gang in Australia are alleged to have manufactured tens of thousands of re-mixed compilation albums and distributed them through a complex network throughout Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific.
A total of eleven search warrants were executed in the raids, and one man was arrested. Among the locations raided are residential premises in Petersham and Canley Heights in Sydney, an optical disc manufacturing plant and a number of music retailers, supermarkets and other retail outlets that were selling pirate compilations featuring artists such as Justin Timberlake and UB40.
Enforcement action is also underway in New Zealand against an importer of the pirate product and a CD manufacturing plant with warning letters being sent to retailers that are stocking the pirate product.
Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. has reported soaring profits for the first quarter of 2008 compared with the same period of the previous year. The consumer electronics giant, which specializes in products including cell phones, DVD players, flat-panel televisions and household appliances, said it earned ¥61.6 billion ($589.47 million), up from ¥23.4 billion for the same quarter of 2007.
Quarterly sales dipped 4% from 2.282 trillion a year earlier to 2.199 trillion yen ($21.04 billion). A spokesman for Matsushita said the drop was largely due to an exclusion in group sales of revenue from Victor Company of Japan, which had a status change from subsidiary to affiliate last year.
Sales of video and audio equipment rose 5% compared to last year, with strong demand for flat-panel TVs and DVD players. Matsushita President Fumio Otsubotold a Tokyo news conference that the company plans to put more effort into emerging countries such as Russia and Brazil, where a boom in demand for consumer electronics is expected.
The Warner Bros. Television Groupis set to resurrect its now defunct WB network as an online video site that will offer reruns of past popular shows such as "Friends" and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," among others. The site will also offer new original programming.
TheWB.com will target 16-to-34-year-old viewers and the new shows will be written and produced by Josh Schwartz, best known for "Gossip Girl" and the "The O.C."
The launch follows an industry trend, as media companies are having growing issues with attracting younger viewers who would rather spend time texting on cell phones or watching videos online at their own leisure. A prime example would be Schwartz's "Gossip Girl," which has generated low ratings for the CW network but has a strong loyal online audience.
In a somewhat strange move, the CW Network has recently pulled the show from online in an effort to boost TV viewer ship.
Schwartz is also currently developing a new show for TheWB.com that "takes viewers to the front of the line and behind the soundboard of a fictional Hollywood rock club," added Warner Bros.
TheWb.com will be distributed Fancast.com and will also be available on AOL video.
According to a new report coming from Asia, current iPhone builder Foxconn Electronics has been selected by Apple to produce the upcoming 3G iPhone model and that shipments will begin in June.
Citing "component suppliers as well as foreign institutional investors," the report says Foxconn was "recently instructed by Apple to begin procuring component materials for the next-generation touch-screen handsets for an initial test build no later than the end of May."
Apple expects to ship 3 million units in June and hopes to ship a total of 25 million over the product's life cycle, added the report.
The company has so far sold 6 million current-generation iPhone units worldwide but sales have been somewhat stifled by exclusive contracts with carriers. That should change with the upcoming generation however, as Apple hopes to expand to additional European nations and portions of Asia.
WE7.com has launched, and with it comes 500,000 free, ad-supported tracks from Sony BMG and a variety of independent artists.
As the company says, the site is a way for consumers to get the tracks they want "legally, safely and in a format they want".
We7's business model allows fans to listen to the music they want, completely free, but each tracks has a "short audio advert onto the front of each track."
The site also says that the artists and record labels will be paid every time the song is played on the site and that they will be paid from the revenue generated from advertising. We7 hopes the model will curb piracy and provide "a win-win situation for music fans and artists alike."
Additionally, 30,000 of the tracks can be downloaded and listened to later on portable media devices for free "with the attached advert, which can be removed after a set number of listens, or an amount of elapsed time."
Seeing the fact that retail game sales are at all time highs and showing no signs of slowing down, Blockbuster has announced that it will be upping its game offerings in all of the corporation's US locations.
The announcement comes just two weeks after Blockbuster made a billion dollar bid for the struggling retailer Circuit City in an effort to get a bigger foothold in the video game industry.
Blockbuster customers can now buy software, hardware, and accessories for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, and Nintendo DS at all the company's 4100 locations. There will also be more games available for sale and rental and there will be an expansion of genres available for each system.
There was no word on whether there would be PSP or PC offerings and it seems at this point that the two platforms have been snubbed from the company's expansion.
The article cites "industry contacts" who reveal that Canada's only major GSM cell provider, Rogers, is hoping to introduce the iPhone "in time for it to be included in a campaign promoting touchscreen phones at the company."
Rogers' campaign will most likely start in late May or early June, before Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference in which it is widely expected that the company will introduce the 3G model of the iPhone.
Despite its reputation as having the highest-priced mobile data plans of any cellular provider in Canada, Rogers is also the most advanced. About two months ago, the carrier introduced an unlimited data bundle "that gives users both unfettered browsing on most of its devices as well as a set amount of MMS/SMS messages and voicemail." Rogers' also offers advanced 3G network features including "two-way video calling on supporting devices as well as 7.2-megabit HSDPA downloads on portions of its network. The 3G iPhone is understood to use a newer Infineon chipset that would support both normal HSDPA service as well as its faster variety on Rogers."
AT&T has denied any rumor that it resets packets to interfere with network connections of P2P users, in effect denying any "throttling" of network traffic, like Comcast was accused of doing a few months ago.
AT&Ts statement comes as a response to a report released this week by Vuze, the HDBitTorrent-based client. The client has asked the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to make new regulations prohibiting ISPs from throttling P2P traffic. The report also posted "the median reset rates experienced by more than 1,200 "autonomous system numbers," which are unique identifiers for individual IP networks and routers, as monitored using a plug-in Vuze began offering last month." Using the plug-in, Comcast users had the most frequent interruptions with BellSouth (part of AT&T) coming in second.
The "Liquid Crystal on Silicon (LCoS) KRF-9000FD is capable of displaying 1920x1080 pixel progressive video at sizes up to 14.5 by just over 8 feet." This is comparable to a 200 inch TV with even the minimum projected image about equivalent to a 60-inch TV screen.
The unit also uses a 2x motorized zoom lens allowing large images to be displayed in smaller rooms. The unit also boasts an impressive contrast ratio, 30,000:1. Another plus is Pioneer's focus n reproducing true blacks, which is seen in all its KURO line.
The company also claims great flexibility, "thanks to a lens that allows 80% vertical and 34% horizontal adjustments without affecting the image, leaving it square on the wall or screen. The native aspect ratio is 16:9 and movie theater-like 2.35:1 is supported. Brightness is rated at 600 ANSI lumens."
JVC has announced that will be making massive changes in an effort to recover its slowly dying HDTV business.
The company reported a loss of $455 million USD for the business, compared to $75 million USD for the previous year. The new loss will force the company to move its production to less expensive factories. Japanese and Scottish factories will be sold off and labor moved to Poland and Thailand respectively, added the company.
Plans were also made to shift emphasis to the large LCD TV business, which have higher margins and better sales. The company also hopes to move away from its more traditional rear-projection and tube TV businesses which are seeing fast declining sales.
A spokesman for Carphone Warehouse confirmed, "Our price promotion has given many more of our customers the opportunity to enjoy the iPhone experience."
"Due to this unprecedented demand we have now sold out of the 8GB iPhone and we're currently reviewing the stock situation."
"In the meantime, customers can still purchase the 16GB iPhone at the standard price at The Carphone Warehouse."
The retailer is now considering whether or not it wants to restock the item, with the cell network O2 stating the same thing. Both made the price cuts at the same time.
However, if you are still looking for the 8GB model, Apple still has alot in stock (they didn't drop price), both online and at its retail outlets.
The new upgrade will allow the companies to produce enough 8G LCD panels to meet "increasing global demand."
The Wall Street Journal adds that the "new manufacturing line will be located in the Tangjeong complex southeast of Seoul, where production will start in 2009. Monthly output is initially expected to reach 60,000 units, versus 50,000 sheets currently."
Samsung recently reported a robust first quarter flat-panel division profit of about 1.01 trillion South Korean won. The company also reported that margins were at a four-year high.
Both companies expect LCD TVs to be in high demand globally in preparation for the Summer Olympic Games in China.
More intriguing, from a torrent standpoint, is that TPB admin brokep says that since 2004 that amount of actual seeders on the site has increased substantially compared to hit-and-run leechers. He continues on that in 2004 only 20 percent of peers were seeding but that that number has increased to almost 50 percent, a huge number for a public torrent tracker.
Brokep added, “We have more seeders than leechers now. It was like 25% seeders 75% leechers [in 2004/2005], since then it’s gradually shifted over to 50/50.″
As if 12 million peers wasn't enough, brokep and the rest of TPB staff want a new milestone, and soon. “What we want you to do is to spread the word to your friends and make more people share files! Let’s break 15 million - and 20!”
According to Reuters, 5 million HD movies have already been sold this year (mainly Blu-ray) and that puts the pace far ahead then 2007 which saw only 10 million movies sold for the entire year.
This strong growth however is not enough to make up for the continued sagging sales of standard definition DVDs. In 2006, movie studios generated $25 billion USD in revenue for home video releases. In 2007 the number fell to $23 billion and Citigroup analyst Jason Bazinet believes that number will fall again this year to $21.4 billion.
Citing "robust demand" for Xbox 360 consoles, Microsoft’s Entertainment and Devices division (Xbox division) has finally reported a profit, making $89 million USD for the Q3 fiscal 2008.
"During the three months ended March 31, 2008, Xbox platform and PC game revenue increased $418 million or 85% primarily as a result of increased Xbox 360 console sales, Xbox 360 video game sales, and Xbox Live revenue," the company said. "Xbox platform and PC game revenue increased $1.4 billion or 42% during the nine months ended March 31, 2008, as a result of increased Xbox 360 console sales, video game sales led by Halo 3, Xbox Live revenue, and Xbox 360 accessory sales."
Total sales for the fiscal year were up 34 percent to $6.57 billion. Microsoft cited 7.5 million 360 sales for the huge revenue growth.
The other electronic in the division is the Zune media device, which also appears to have helped to bring about the profit for the Q3. Microsoft did not go into any details however.
Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has revealed that the company is not likely to cut the price of its ever popular Wii and DS gaming systems in the foreseeable future.
"Our earnings projection for the year is not based on hardware price cuts, and I don't think we are going to need them," said Iwata.
Despite supply shortages on huge demand for both systems, Nintendo revealed its fourth quarter earnings this week which showed the company has sold 18.6 million Wii consoles over the last 12 months, putting worldwide sales since launch at almost 25 million. The company also added that total sales were up 73 percent year on year "while operating income was up 115.6 percent and profit up 47.7 percent."
Nintendo added that it hopes to sell 25 million consoles worldwide for the upcoming fiscal year. To meet growing demand, the company will also be ramping up production from 1.8 to 2.4 million consoles every month. Maybe this year there will be Wiis on the retail shelves next to all those PlayStation 3s and Xbox 360s.
Apple has announced the release of the fourth beta version of its popular iPhone software development kit (SDK).
Apple's developer website explains:"The fourth beta version of the iPhone SDK includes Xcode IDE, iPhone simulator with Open GL ES support, Interface Builder, Instruments, frameworks and samples, compilers, and Shark analysis tool". The SDK also promises to improve "Audio Toolbox, NSXML Parser support and redesigned UIFont."
The announcement came during the second quarter financial results press conference call where Apple executive discussed the SDK and future releases. The company says they have been in contact with over 200 Fortune 500 companies as well as 400 higher education institutions that are applying to become iPhone developers.
Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer added that the company has already signed up 200,000 developers.
The last numbers available to Reuters, at the end of February, showed that China had 221 million Internet-users, a measly 5 million behind the US.
"Despite a rapidly increasing Internet population, the proportion of Internet users among the total population was still lower than the global average level," the Xinhua news agency said, quoting the Information Ministry.
Despite the massive number of Internet users, the proportion was only 16 percent at the end of the 2007, compared to 19 percent for the world average. The US for example, has a proportion of over 70 percent.
China has the fastest growing population of Internet users however and BDA China, a Beijing-based research firm, added that it expects China to hit 280 million Internet users by the end of the year.
The service will allow owners of the gaming handheld to use the built-in Wi-Fi "to watch shows offered on Sky independently of the satellite connection." Users will have the option to either pay-per-view or sign up for a monthly flat-rate subscription model. The company did say the shows could be downloaded on a PC first then transferred to the PSP later if the viewer chooses.
The network did not yet release a list of the content that will be available or the pricing structure but say they expect to offer everything from sports to full movies. There was also no word on whether the service would be PSP-exclusive or if it would expand to other handheld devices such as the iPod Touch for one example.
The TV is dubbed by the company as a "Flexible Lifestyle Display" and is built around a 16 inch LCD display that has 720presolution of 1366 by 768 pixels. What gives the display its name is the TVs mounting and adjustability options. It can be hung upside down or mounted on a wall, thanks in part to its dual hinges and a display image that can rotate by 180 degrees.
The 16:9widescreenaspect ratio TV has component and HDMI inputs as well as a built-in ATSC/NTSC/ClearQAM tuner. A new anti-glare coating makes images "visible even in bright conditions." Another interesting feature is that there are no buttons and the display has a touch keypad instead. When not in use the TV conveniently folds flat to take up less room.
The Ireland's largest internet service provider Eircom has stood up against the five big record companies. Eircom was sued by the Irish RIAA for allowing illegal sharing to happen in their networks. The companies claim that Eircom's networks are being used "on a grand scale" for sharing copyrighted material.
According to Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA), the rapid growth of broadband internet connections in Ireland has explosively increased the amount of illegal downloads. The big four -- EMI Records, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Universal Music and Warner Music -- are carrying the suit under the Copyright and Related Rights Acts 2000. They claim that Eircom is responsible for the illegal action and should use a filtering or blocking system, such as CopySense Appliance by Audible Magic. Eircom has so far refused to use any filtering technology and says that they have no legal obligation to monitor the traffic.
The player was first talked about at this year's CES show in January and is 1080p-capable, and includes an HDMI 1.3 output with CEC support, allowing control through home theater systems.
Other notable features are an improved upconverter chip "and ports for USB and Ethernet cables, intended to simplify the installation of firmware upgrades." It supports all audio codecs including Dolby Digital, Digital Plus and TrueHD, but will not support DTS-HD until later this year.
Alcatel-Lucent has begun court proceedings for its lawsuit against Microsoft, complaining that Microsoft's Xbox game systems violates one of the company's 1993 patents "relating to the code for generating video frames."
The partnership says it plans to demand $1.50 USD for "every alleged misuse of the patent" but it is not clear what is considered a misuse. At worst, the suit could apply to all Xboxs and Xbox 360s ever sold.
Microsoft has so far disputed the claims and also says "that four fifths of the claim applies to video frames in Windows Media Player, which is available as a separate, free download and so wouldn't generate royalties for Alcatel-Lucent."
Alcatel-Lucent began its set of lawsuits in 2002 but had them split up and separated by technologies. In 2003, the company won a $1.5 billion USD verdict from MP3 audio patents but the verdict was overturned this year. Earlier this month however, the company won $368 million USD from Microsoft over patents relating to touchscreen technology.
Samsung has introduced its Touch of Color LCD line for desktops which claims to have the same excellent visual effects as its 6 series HDTVs.
Each LCD will have the same "blown glass effect with red accents at top and bottom" but what should be most notable is the very high contrast ratios. Samsung claims dynamic lighting lets "every display output up to a 20,000:1 contrast ratio," a much higher ratio than most LCD monitors or even HDTVs.
Another very interesting feature is that the displays will offer a "virtual screen effect that lets users split multiple video sources across one display."
The line will include 19-inch (T190), 22-inch (T220), 24-inch (T240), and 26-inch (T260) screen sizes. The smaller sizes offer a blazingly fast 2ms average pixel response time and the larger models output at 5ms. The larger models however also have an HDMI input and will allow for full 1080p video from Blu-ray sources and other full HD video.
GTA IV is sure to be the biggest title to ever hit the PlayStation 3 when it is released next week, and Sony definitely knows this. With that in mind they have officially announced a system bundle that will pack the game along with the 40GB model of the system for European and Australian customers.
“We are delighted to offer the millions of PS3 and GTA fans the ultimate gaming package,” said David Reeves, president of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe.
Those expecting to receive the new DualShock 3 controller with the bundle will be disappointed however. Each bundle will include only one SIXAXIS controller. Even more disappointing is the fact that Australian buyers will have to purchase the controller separately for the shocking price of AUD$99 ($92 USD) if they want it.
It appears that online DVD rental giant Netflix, whose streaming video service has become very popular with customers, appears ready to make a major move into the set-top box market. Early this year the company announced a deal that will have LG manufacturing some sort of networked player that will work with the Netflix service, and now Reuters is reporting that deals have been made with with three more companies to sell similar devices.
"We have LG plus three additional partners actively working on integrating our technology into their products,"Netflix Chief Executive Officer Reed Hastings said on a conference call with analysts.
"Three of the four partners are major companies, which each sell millions of devices per year and will enable the Netflix functionality in some of those devices likely in the fourth quarter of this year," he said, adding "The fourth partner is a small company, which will likely launch sooner than Q4."
Confirming what was implied by Netflix's first quarter earning calls, President and CEO Reed Hastings made the announcement official.
"Purchasing Blu-ray DVDs costs more both at retail and wholesale than standard definition DVDs, and consumers are used to paying more for high-definition content in every other channel, including video rental stores, video-on-demand, and cable channels," Hastings added. "Because of the higher cost of Blu-ray and the consumer expectations around high-def content, we are planning on implementing a modest monthly premium for access to Blu-ray some time this year."
Nikko Citigroup analysts have upgraded their rating for Sony Corporation citing their anticipation that the company will break even or even turn a profit on the PlayStation 3 beginning in August.
If their prediction is accurate, then Sony will break even at least three months earlier than analysts had previously speculated. Sony itself was not sure when it would hit profitability on the console and Sony's Kaz Hirai said that the company would was shooting for the fiscal year beginning April 2008.
Sony has always said that PS3 production costs will only ever hit break even point when the "65nm Cell processor and the 90nm are shrunk to smaller, cheaper-to-manufacture sizes, and that comes with the side effect of drawing less power and creating less heat."
It should be interesting to see when profitability occurs because may lead to more price cuts for the consumer.
Sony Computer Entertainment said this morning that the oft-delayed PlayStation Home community online service was to be delayed again, marking the third official delay since the service was announced.
The service was initially announced in July 2007 and promised to "provide users with the ability to create their own avatars and participate in a real-time virtual world," something like the popular Second Life community. At that announcement, Sony said it would be available in the fall of 2007 but then delayed it until spring of this year.
With the latest delay however comes the ability for more users to join a closed beta test. The full public beta will hit in "fall" of this year barring any other delays.
"We understand that we are asking PS3 and prospective PS3 users to wait a bit longer, but we have come to the conclusion that we need more time to refine the service to ensure a more focused gaming entertainment experience than what it is today," said Kazuo Hirai, president of Sony Computer Entertainment, in a statement.
Apple has been granted a patent that could mean an official native instant messenger application is finally coming to the popular iPhone media device.
Apple applied for the patent after the launch of the iPhone in the summer of 2007 but it was only until recently that the U.S. Patent Office approved it. The patent describes "a new instant messaging interface for touchscreen devices that lets you manipulate chat conversations in real time by editing old chats." The patent also speaks about allowing users embedding videos and images, something you cannot currently do with the iPhone. What is not clear however is if the patent will be a revised SMS application or a brand new IM application.
Apple has already showed off that AOL's AIM messenger program can be used on the phone and many users eagerly wait the addition of MMS and IM applications.
Nokia has announced a deal with Sony BMG, the world's second largest music label, to participate in their "Comes With Music" program, which is now expected to launch some time in the second half of this year instead of at mid-year as previously announced.
The plan is to offer unlimited music downloads from Nokia's online store for 12 months, with the option to extend that subscription after the first year. But perhaps the most important aspect of the program is that the files will still play after the first year if you decide not to renew your subscription. The music will be protected by MicrosoftDRM.
Last year Nokia inked a similar deal with Universal Music Group, the world's number one label.
It's no secret the as DVR ownership has increased over the last few years, many people now see commercials as a nuisance to be skipped. In their search for a solution to this potentially very expensive issue NBC Universal has established a partnership with Omnicom Group Inc. that will focus on building TV shows directly around sponsors' products.
NBC Universal and Omnicom will create content specifically for non-traditional distribution channels like websites. According to the Associated Press the initial offerings, currently scheduled to debut some time this summer, will include "Gemini Division," starring Rosario Dawson, and include sponsorship from both Cisco and Microsoft.
"We are proactively working with our clients, the advertisers, to deliver compelling content to our audiences, wherever they are,"NBC entertainment chief Ben Silverman said in a statement.
Microsoft's XP SP3 release manager Chris Keroack has announced that the long awaited Service Pack has been released to manufacturing channels and will hit OEM and enterprise customers by April 29th.
On that day the SP3 will also be available for download from the Microsoft Download Center but it will be an optional download, most likely in response to the company's recent debacle with the release of Vista SP1.
The key features of Service Pack 3 are "Microsoft's updated Management Console 3.0, which appears in Windows Server 2008 and Vista; the new Windows Installer 3.1; an update to Wi-Fi protected access; and support for Network Access Protection, the "health checking" component used by Windows Server 2008."
Thanks to an apparent leak by Amazon there is now some information available on the availability of Sony's PlayTV add-on for the PlayStation 3.
The PlayTV will turn any PS3 into a "fully-fledged digital (or personal) video recorder." Amazon has it with a July 31st release date and with a price tag of £59.99. The gadget will boast "dual TV tuners, so all current Freeview channels will be available, and offer a 7-day EPG."
TV programming can then be recorded to the PS3s HDD and played back whenever you choose. Sony however, has denied official comment on the release date or price.
"We have yet to make an official announcement with regards to the release date and price of PlayTV in the UK, and we do not comment on rumour or speculation," said a Sony spokesperson.
In a situation that should crush the credibility of the ongoing court case, it has been revealed that police officer Jim Keyzer, the "star" witness in the investigation against the The Pirate Bay was recently employed by Warner Bros, one of the companies suing the admins at TPB.
The website tpbKopit.se made the discovery yesterday after searching the officer's Facebookprofile. He has since deleted his profile but the damage is done.
Pirate Bay’s Peter Sunde (brokep) added: “He [Keyzer] confirmed that he is an employee there and we can’t see it in any other way than this being the reward for a work well done from the new employer of the police, the entertainment industry”
“This is a legal outrage. Talk about biased,” Sunde continues. “Keyzer is in charge of the investigation. No matter the reasons to switch employer, this investigation has not been fair. We have felt that the investigation has concentrated on trying to locate something to point out as wrong with The Pirate Bay instead of determining if the activities of the site are unlawful or not.”
Nokia is set to launch Australia's first subscription music service tomorrow in an effort to use its huge music industry clout to knock Apples' iTunes platform from the top.
The service however, should see issues as it has been revealed that songs bought from the store will be incompatible with the dominant market leader for portable media players, the AppleiPod.
Price could be another problem if you do not use the subscription plan, as each track will cost $1.70 and albums will sell for $17. However, for $10 a month, Nokia will "allow customers to stream an unlimited number of full-length tracks directly from a player built into its music store website."
The songs can be downloaded via compatible Nokia phones or on the PC and then synced over. Nokia says the 5310, 5610, 5700, N78, N81, N82, N91, N95, N96 and N76 handsets are all compatible, and other phones will work as long as they support Windows Media Player.
Over the last month I've been working on a number of MPEG-4 AVC related guides. Devices from mobile phones to Blu-ray players, and numerous others in between the two extremes, are designed with AVC video in mind.
One of the most popular AVC conversion tools available is AutoMKV. In addition to its price (free), the high level of automation which allows even novices to produce high quality AVC video, makes it worth considering if you don't want to spend a lot time figuring out how it all works.
Entertainment giant Viacom is partnering with MGM, and Lionsgate to start a new premium cable channel. Less than three years ago Viacom gave up ownership of Showtime to CBS Television when they split assets between the two companies. The new channel will compete with both Showtime and Time-Warner owned HBO
According to the Associated Press, a statement from Viacom president CEO Philippe Dauman said "This venture has the potential to be a game changer for the industry," . "We are building an innovative service that will use traditional and new digital distribution technologies to bring great film and television entertainment directly to the consumer."
Viacom already owns a huge library of TV shows, as well as the theatrical movies released by its Paramount Pictures division. MGM owns with the AP calls "the world's largest modern film library," which includes not just MGM, but also United Artists and Orion Pictures titles.
The Hong Kong based manufacturer Sunlink, using technologies adapted from iView, have claimed they have produced "the first portable commercial product in the world with a built-in pico-projector."
The media device, dubbed the Sunview PMPP will have a 3.5-inch touchscreen and will have the ability to output images onto walls and projection screens using the integrated pico technology.
Other companies, such as MicroVision have been actively working on such projectors but have not been able to get them into commercial devices.
The Sunview will store file on removable SD cards and "due to its use of Windows CE 5.0 and Office Viewer, can play photos, movies and presentation files." Each player has a remote so that users can control the player from up to 20 feet away.
There was no word on when the player would go on sale or a price tag.
France's largest retailer, the Carrefour Group has announced that they will be launching a movie download service that will allow customers to buy or rent movies and TV episodes.
The Group operates supermarkets and grocery stores around Europe that carry DVDs but wants to "expand its focus on entertainment, bringing it closer to customers."
Carrefour's international non-food chief, Christophe Geoffroy, said the "shopping experience would be simple and fast, with downloads taking about 3 minutes," probably meaning that most videos could be streamed. He also noted that VOD (video on demand) market in Europe was not currently great but growth was expected. He cited analyst research which predicts "Europe's movie download market will be worth over about 690 Euros (over $1 billion) by 2011."
The XEL-1, which is currently the industry-leading OLED display is 11-inches,and measures 1.4mm (0.06in) thick. The new display model showed off will measure 0.3mm, a huge improvement from the current model.
Sony says that thanks to a "new TFT substrate and less glass, the same resolution of 960x540 pixels is possible despite the reduction in dimensions."
Even more impressive, but nowhere near commercial production, is a thinner 3.5-inch prototype display that measures a measly 0.2mm (0.008in) and features a 320x220 pixel resolution. The display will most likely be used in media devices or even mobile phones.
You can chat with AfterDawn.com users on our unofficial IRC channel. If you don't use IRC that's fine, you can easily access the channel anyway using a web-based Java application. This is only the second time we've mentioned an IRC channel via news, as again, it is an unofficial channel. It is located at...
Server: irc.stormchat.org:6667
Channel: #afterdawn
If you need to use a Java chat application to access with your web browser, then visit http://www.adbuddies.org.
If you would like to learn how to use a proper IRC client, then you can read a guide for that at AfterDawn too.
Even though the channel is not directly affiliated with AfterDawn, that doesn't mean it has no rules. Besides following simple common sense, here are a few easy rules to abide by...
Don't be a nuisance, or you'll be banned.
File servers and XDCC bots are not allowed.
Absolutely no requesting or trading anything illegal is allowed.
Don't harass people for help. Most regulars of the channel have full time jobs and family life, which means they spent a lot of time idling. If you need help, be patient.
Italy, France, Germany and Scandinavia have begun offeringDVD movies on a new format called DVD-D which is unique because it is self-erasing.
By self erasing I mean that the content on the discs are erased exactly 8 hours after the movie is first played in any DVD player or PC drive. The timer is slightly longer for DVD-Ds that have software on them, 48 hours to be exact. The new format is available at kiosks, bookstores and gas stations for about 1/3 the price of standard retail DVDs and seem to be growing in popularity.
After the time is up, inserting the disc into a player will give you a "No Disc" error message. More interestingly, there are recordable DVD-D discs available which can be recorded at up to 8x speed and DVD-5 capacity. After ordering the blanks, the client can then "specify how long the data is to remain, having the option of one-time viewing only, or a time period of 8 hours, 48 hours or otherwise."
As quoted by the article, "Industry sources told Times Online that the device will have a 'radically different' appearance to the current device, which has a 4.5-inch screen and slick, aluminium backing.
"Among the possibilities are flip version, which would enable the screen to be larger, and a sliding model with a regular Qwerty keyboard - as opposed to a touchscreen one."
The article also adds what other outlets have been saying for weeks, that Apple has placed an order with its Asian manufacturers to produce 200,000 of the new model by the end of May and 2 million units by the end of June.
It is still unclear when the new model will launch, but many have speculated June, the one year anniversary of the launch of the current iPhone models.
Harmonix and MTV Games have announced that Judas Priest’s 1982 classic album, "Screaming For Vengeance" will be the first complete album to be added to Rock Band's downloadable content catalog on both the Xbox Live Marketplace and the PlayStation Store.
The album will hit XBL on April 22nd and the PSN two days later. Each track will cost $1.99 USD for individual songs or $15 USD for the full album.
Although full album releases were promised before Rock Band even hit retail shelves, this is the first available album, 5 months after the game's release. Harmonix CEO Alex Rigopulos says “...a big reason that it's taken us so long to get them to market is that the actual technical delivery of the assets required for any one song - they're actually pretty complicated. You're often dealing with masters for the older stuff that were recorded on analog. Often it takes a long time to even locate those masters. The right takes and the right edits have to be found, and in some cases old gear that's not in use anymore has to be resuscitated to transfer the stuff to digital.”
The NPD figures are out and nobody is surprised that the Nintendo Wii console is far up the ladder from its two competitors again. Microsoft and Sony ended the month only 5,000 unit sales apart, with the Xbox 360 taking the tiny lead. Specifically, the Wii console sold an impressive 721,000 units, followed by the handheld DS console which wasn't too far behind at 698,000 units.
The PlayStation Portable (PSP) sold more units than both the remaining next-generation home console systems, crossing the finish line with 297,000 units. As for the remaining two enemies, the difference was just 5,000 unit sales, with Xbox 360 selling 262,000 and PlayStation 3 (PS3) selling 257,000. The PlayStation 2 (PS2) console managed 216,000 sales. Do the figures sound impressive? They should as it represents a 46% growth in hardware sales over March 2007, to $551.3 million.
Iomega has announced its all-new Media Xporter drive, a game console-oriented 2.5-inch portable hard drive that will provide storage for both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 consoles.
The company says the new drive will make it "easier than ever to use game consoles and high definition televisions and other large screen TVs to share photos, videos, and music collections with family and friends."
The very portable, wallet-sized drive is USB powered and will use the USB 2.0 ports on either console to offer a plug-and-play solution alongside 160GB of media storage.
According to the press release the drive is "designed for use the Xbox 360 and PS3, the Media Xporter is also compatible with Apple computers and Microsoft Windows and is bundled with software to convert media to console-friendly formats, where necessary."
Another interesting note the company reported on was that the 360 has an attachment rate of about 7 games for each console after 27 months on the market, in comparison to 3.8 units for every Sony PlayStation 3 and 3.5 games for every Nintendo Wii.
"Xbox 360 is truly the next-generation console of choice among consumers, and today’s numbers are proof that we are delivering on our commitment to achieve critical mass in Europe," said Chris Lewis, vice president of Microsoft Interactive Entertainment Business in Europe.
"The highly competitive ERP, coupled with entertainment content that's appealing to everyone in the home, makes Xbox 360 the ultimate high-definition entertainment choice, and it’s clear that we’re already seeing this resonate with consumers."
The rumor and speculation began when Enterbrain president Hirokazu Hamamura made comments that suggested Nintendo was ready to headline E3 with a new hardware revision to its very popular DS handheld.
"We cannot comment on the specifics of what will be announced at E3, but at the very least there won't be anything like what Mr. Hamamura suggested, so [we] would like to clearly deny this," said Nintendo Japan's head of PR.
"We're having a hard time understanding what kind of evidence [Mr. Hamamura] had for saying this."
Hamamura suggested, citing past moves by Nintendo, that a new hardware revision is in the works because the company does such revisions every two years. The Nintendo DS Lite was launched two years ago, in 2006.
The studio, which was once the premier supporter of the now obsolete HD DVD format, announced that 'Doomsday' would be their inaugural Blu-ray title, and that 40 other films would follow in the second half of 2008.
According to the source article, the releases will include 'Hellboy II: The Golden Army,' 'The Incredible Hulk,' 'Wanted,' 'Mamma Mia,' and 'The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.' In hopes to spur sales of the new Mummy installment, 'The Mummy,' 'The Mummy Returns,' and the spin-off 'The Scorpion King' will be released in late July as well on Blu-ray.
Driver Heaven has released an in-depth analysis on HD video playback by ATI's Avivo HD and nVidia's PureVideo HD. The main difference between this analysis and regular benchmarking software and even the high-definition HQV Benchmark is that the guys at Driver Heaven have not jumped into any conclusions just by calculating image quality or playback performance but have actually analyzed the differences themselves. What's even better, you can see the comparisons and analyze them yourself.
Not many of us have the opportunity to try out both high-definition video processing units in identical systems, and therefore we are forced to trust blindly on either benchmarks determining quality and performance by numbers or the opinion of -- in most cases -- a single person without any examples.
The 18-page review which was done with the help of a top-notch system (specs below) can be found at DriverHeaven.net.
Test system:
Intel QX9770 3.2GHZ 1600FSB
XFX Nforce 790i Ultra SLI
GeForce 9600 GT Radeon 3870 X2 SuperTalent DDR3-1800 7-7-7-21
Akasa 1000w PSU
LG GBW-H10N Blu-Ray Writer Xbox 360 HD-DVD Drive Soundblaster X-Fi
Belkin Wireless-G PCI card
3x WD Raptor Hard Drives
1x Hitachi Deskstar
Arctic Cooling MX-2 Paste
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro
Windows Vista Ultimate 64Bit + SP1
Forceware 174.74 WHQL
Catalyst 8.3 WHQL
DirectX 9.0c/DirectX 10
PowerDVD 7.3 (3730)
Casino Royale European Blu-Ray Planet Earth US HD-DVD
A rumor reported on AfterDawn and several tech sites online over the past few days stated that the LG Voyager touchscreen phone would be available on other carriers besides Verizon soon due to its success (has sold over 1.1 million units despite being tied to a single carrier). LG's public relations people contacted AfterDawn to inform us that this rumor is "absolutely incorrect".
It originated (as far as we can tell) from an Electronic Times article who got the information from a source at LG. The AfterDawn item references an Electronista source which also has updated now to correct the rumor.
Electronic Arts (EA) announced a significant milestone on Wednesday for itself and the entire games industry, revealing that 100 millions copies of The Sims series of games have been sold. The series was first launched in 2000 and since has been available on PC, Sony PlayStation 2 (PS2) and Nintendo Wii. The PC platform has hosted its strongest performance. It's original creator Will Wright (no longer involved with Sims) is considered to be one of the brightest sparks in the industry.
The milestone for Sims puts it up with some of the biggest names in gaming history, including Nintendo's Mario and Pokemon games, which sold 201 million and 175 million units respectively. The series, which allows players to control the day-to-day lives of simulated characters online or offline, has been published in 60 countries and 22 languages.
The European Commission has decided that the merger of Activision and Vivendi Games, which would create a new company called Activision Blizzard, will not "significantly impede effective competition in the European Economic Area or any substantial part of it." This outcome removes another roadblock from the impending merger, worth around $18.9 billion.
It was announced in December 2007 and considering it involves the world's number two and number three in the games industry, some red flags were raised. According to the EC's findings, the unified entity will "continue to face several strong, effective competitors, such as Electronic Arts, and the game console manufacturers, such as Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft."
One thing that was noted by the European Commission was Vivendi's ownership of Universal Music Group (UMG), which might make it easier for games published by Activision Blizzard to get licensing deals with UMG. However, the EC said that other studios still have a significantly large portfolio of music rights to choose from provided by other suppliers.
Apple Inc. has released version 3.1.1 of the Safari web browser to address several serious security problems. One of the vulnerabilities that has been fixed was widely publicized after being used to compromise a MacBook Air during a security conference. The update is available for both Mac and PC at about 39MB. It is highly recommended for all Safari users to ensure the security of their systems.
In total, four security bugs have been fixed by Apple. The aforementioned publicized security bug used to compromise a MacBook Air laptop at last month's CanSecWest security conference won Charlie Miller a $10,000 prize. The bugs also included a a heap buffer overflow present the browser's WebKit framework for handling JavaScript.
Psystar got international attention from the media just days ago when it announced plans to manufacture and sell a $399 computer capable of running the Mac OS X operating system, which would openly defy the End-User License Agreement (EULA) of the Mac software. Since then the media has attempted to probe this company, with some strange results which include it changing its physical address multiple times in days.
On Wednesday, Psystar's website was down for several hours. The company claims the site was taken offline because of problems processing credit card transactions. It markets its "Open Computer" as being less than a quarter of the cost of a high-end Mac. The company offers a basic configuration of a 2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo E4500 Processor, 2GB of RAM and an integrated Intel GMA 950 GFX processor.
Yet another new, innovative Internet music service has arrived. PluggedIn has launched with 10,000 free high-def music videos from studios such as Sony BMG and EMI. The service was launched by Overbrook Entertainment, which touts a partnership of music industry heavyweights James Lassiter and Ken Stovitz, as well as artist and award-winning actor Will Smith.
The site, now in beta, offers free music video streaming in HD at broadcast quality, which can be viewed full screen with a media player. PluggedIn also hosts over 1 million artist profiles. It has already gathered considerable attention in the industry, with Pat Magnarella (company founder whose clients included Green Day and the Goo Goo Dolls) calling the next generation of MTV.
"Until now, watching HD or even broadcast-quality music videos on the Web has been nearly impossible,"Jeff Somers, CEO of PluggedIn, said in a news announcement. "Today we're announcing a major step forward in the way that fans can connect with the high-quality content and artists that matter most to them. We're focused on building a unique experience for fans -- a place where they can meet and interact with each other, and where they can enjoy, discover, and share premium quality video content."
Fring has developed an application for a variety of mobile phones that allow the owner to use AIM, Google Talk, MSN, Skype, ICQ and more, bring VoIP to "open" versions of Apple Inc.'s iPhone. It is not just limited to iPhone however, the beta software will work with over 500 devices using the Symbian S60 operating system or the Windows Mobile operating system. It also works with Sony Ericsson UIQ Smartphones.
According to the company, the new pre-release version of the software "is designed to both answer demand from iPhone-owning would-be Fringsters and at the same time enable Fring to learn about user experience, benefit from early feedback, and influence the R&D process of the full release version." A proper version of he software will be available later this year.
Confirmed by the official Sony blog, the company will be bringing several prominent new updates to the PlayStation 3 console including a new video service and in-game XMB.
Peter Dille, the senior VP for marketing with the PlayStation Network, confirmed that "some form of a new video service is definitely in the works", different from "others you've seen or used." The PSN currently only allows users to download demos and video trailers. In comparison, Microsoft's XBL allows users to rent and purchase full movies and TV episodes.
The other main update will be the addition of in-game XMB access. XMB is simply the main menu interface on the PSP and PS3. Dille states "that by the end of the year, some form of in-game XMB will be launched, complete with an Xbox-like achievements system."
The reigning champion of opening-week performance in the videogames industry is the 2007 Xbox 360 smash-hit Halo 3. The title boosted the sales of Xbox 360 consoles and fell into shoppers hands until it reached a $300 million opening week. The launch and ripple effect was big enough for Hollywood figures to blame it for poor box office performances at the time.
Now Halo 3, which had a single platform release, may be dethroned by Rockstar's upcoming (and seriously delayed) Grand Theft Auto IV, which will enjoy a wider audience when it hits both the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 (PS3) platforms later this month. Variety cites industry analysts who boldly predict an opening week worth $400 million for GTA IV.
Sources close to the publisher, Take-Two Interactive, said that GTA IV is expected to sell about 6 million units in its first week on sale. Blockbuster CEO Jim Keyes expected the chain will sell twice as many copies of the new GTA title than it did Halo 3, while GameStop's Bob McKenzie says that orders are actually trailing behind the Halo 3 figures at the moment.
The price cut comes ahead of the launch of the new upcoming 3G model.
The 8GB model will be available for 169 pounds until June 1st while the 16GB model will remain at its now markedly expensive 329 pound price tag. The device remains O2's fastest selling device and the operator hopes the price cut will create even more momentum before the launch of the new updated model.
"More and more this is starting to look like they want to clear stock of an older model, with a looming revision to the iPhone which will likely include 3G," CCS Insight analyst Ben Wood told Reuters.
"But also we think the iPhone has slowed down during the first quarter and we think this (a 3G launch) should give sales a bit of a lift."
A prediction from Wedbush Morgan's Michael Pachter could turn out to be true if the UK demand for Wii Fit is anything to go by. Pachter said that Nintendo's upcoming Wii Fit title might have just enough punch to spur a renewed demand for the Wii console itself, and in the UK, Play.com, Amazon, Game, Shopto.net and Zavvi.co.uk have already stopped taking pre-orders.
As for the anticipated release of Wii Fit in the United States, the title has finally been given a $90 price tag. Wii Fit includes the software (game disc) and the Wii Balance Board. Since its release in December in Japan, it has sold more than 1.4 million units. It will be interesting to see how many will be snapped up in the U.S.
The pressure-sensitive Wii Balance Board extends the required activity from the player to the rest of the body. The board is used for an extensive array of fun and dynamic activities, including aerobics, yoga, muscle stretches and games. Many of these activities focus towards providing a "core" workout, a popular exercise method that emphasizes slower, controlled motions. Family members will have fun staying active and talking about and comparing their results and progress on a new channel on the Wii Menu.
After having access to their site blocked in February, the infamous torrenttrackerThe Pirate Bay is fighting back against the group that forced the block, threatening to sue the music industry lobby group The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) for monetary damages.
In February the IFPI accused the Danish ISP Tele2 of "aiding and abetting copyright infringement" and went to court to get the ISP to block access to the torrent tracker.
One of TPB's admins, Brokep, wrote in the official blog that the site would be seeking monetary damages for the access block if Tele2 wins its court appeal. The site remains DNS blocked until the court case is resolved. The block, in all its irony, has had a reverse effect. The Pirate Bay has jumped up 5 spots in Denmark's most popular sites traffic-wise, thanks mainly to all the media publicity surrounding the court case and the site.
Comcast, the United States' largest cable operator, and Pando Networks, have jointly announced they will be issuing a call for a "P2P bill of rights and responsibilities". Comcast also said they would begin using Pando's file sharing technology software.
The two companies hope to "convene a group of industry experts" to talk about what options and controls are necessary for consumers using P2P applications. More importantly, the companies want to "address what processes and practices ISPs should use to manage file-sharing running on their networks." One of the questions they hope to solve is "whether P2P users should have the right to control their computers' resources when using P2P applications."
For the tests, both companies will "examine how file-sharing programs run on other ISP networks, including cable, DSL, fiber and wireless and measure things like performance, speed, distance and geography and bandwidth consumption."
The first-of-its-kind satellite was launched into the space Monday afternoon. The 19-story and $500 million rocket took the several ton DVB-SH satellite above the United States. Once the satellite takes its final place and comes operational it will distribute between ten and fifteen mobile TV streams.
The satellite, built by ICO Global Communications, is powerful enough to not require a dish and due to its new and improved DVB-SH mobile TV technology it will have better coverage and improved building penetration compared to DVB-H. Currently there are no compatible devices for the DVB-SH system, but this should change by the launch of the service in 2009.
The study revealed that only a measly 10 percent of all Amazon MP3 users are iTunes converts and that the majority are new to direct digital downloads. NPD entertainment analyst Russ Crupnick feels that the report shows that the new stores don't necessarily draw customers away from the behemoth that is iTunes.
Amazon currently sits in fourth among all US music sales and "claims just a tenth of the sales volume at its online store," the study adds. Amazon is behind Best Buy, Wal-Mart and iTunes and will need to "significantly increase its digital sales rate to surpass the higher-ranked stores" reads the study.
MySpace TV has announced that it has signed a content distribution agreement with ShineReveille. The new international partnership will allow ShineReveille "to distribute MySpace TV series’ over TV and on DVD to an international audience."
As part of the deal, MySpace TV can continue to distribute content in the United States and maintains all international web and mobile distribution rights. ShineReveille is a distributor of "a broad array of programming from independent producers and U.S. networks around the world in 150 different territories."
Travis Katz, Managing Director of International for MySpace added in a statement, “MySpace provides the creative community with a launch pad to virally test and distribute content to the world’s largest focus group. MySpaceTV has quickly become Hollywood’s digital playground and our relationship with ShineReveille opens up the globe to MySpace’s international content creators.”
The service will be similar to that of Amazon and Wal-Mart which offer a "web-based interface". The service will offer 3.3 million songs initially with about half being unprotected MP3 versions that will work with all media devices including iPods. The other 1.6 million tracks that have DRM will be available as MP3s by the end of the year, added the company.
Pricing structure is the same as it is in the UK, with £0.79 per track and £8 per full album. As an added bonus however, Tesco will "tie the online store to its physical presence and will offer clubcard points for each download that translate to discounts either on other products or content at retail shops."
The store is accessible immediately but the store will formally launch in May with the full music catalog. Movies and TV episodes will be available later in the year, promises the company.
Rose, writing in his blog, was reacting to the now popular website ps3iplayer.com, which has allowed any PS3 owner to stream the iPlayer on their console.
"We'd love to be on every popular device tomorrow, including the PS3, and it was on our roadmap," he wrote.
"We're investigating the optimal video profile and browser proposition to enable us to officially make iPlayer available on PS3 in due course."
For the time being, official support for the iPlayer is only on the Nintendo Wii and Rose wants to make it more accessible but claims the company is "hampered by resource limitations."
Qualcomm Incorporated unveiled the first-ever MediaFLO technology demonstration broadcast over the air to an in-vehicle entertainment system at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) meeting in Las Vegas. The demonstration showed the flexibility of the MediaFLO platform as well as the delivery methods it can enable in a wide variety of scenarios.
The MediaFLO receiver, integrated in the rear center console, will receive live streaming television broadcasts on the MediaFLO platform at QVGAresolution. The center console controller allows users to launch the electronic channel guide, change channels and access optional features of the MediaFLO System.
Adobe Systems is working on a new media file format to make life much easier for those working with digital movies. The DNG, or Digital Negative Specification format is used by photographers to archive Raw images. Adobe's vice president of digital media was speaking at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) meeting in las Vegas when he said the format would extend "open, interchangeable formats for digital still cameras into the realm of digital cinematography."
He said that CinemaDNG would make it possible for filmmakers will be able to use digital cinema cameras with confident and allow camera manufacturers to provide specialized functionality while ensuring instant file-format compatibility with existing work flows. The system addresses problems with using digital cinema instead of film for film makers.
With digital cinema creating digital cinema files involves a variety of formats, hardware and applications. Adobe promises to lead an initiative to "define an industry-wide open file format for digital cinema files to streamline work flows and help ensure easy archiving and exchange." The advantage for filmmakers according to Adobe, is avoiding roadblocks created by multiple devices, vendors and file formats, as well as being a format that can be archived long-term.
Philips, one of the best known consumer electronics companies on the planet, witnessed its first quarter profit drop 75 percent due to bad performing sales of television sets, particularly in the United States. Royal Philips Electronics NV reported $347 million net income, about 20 percent lower than the $433 million that analysts put out previously.
Net profit was $1.386 billion in the same period last year, boosted by the sale of the company's stake in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. "The U.S. remains the black spot, but when we look at the quarter it was tough all across," Chief Financial Officer Pierre-Jean Sivignon said in a conference call.
Last week, the company announced that it will license Funai Electric Co. Ltd. of Japan to market the Philips and Magnavox brands for five years in North America. In Europe, the Philips brand is much stronger than it is in the United States, but the company still lost money on TV sales and is unlikely to show any profit in the territory.
An alliance of over 800 local television stations has formed with the goal of deciding an accepted standard for for sending local digital TV signals to mobile phones, laptops and other feature-packed portable devices. The Open Mobile Video Coalition made their plans known at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) meeting in Las Vegas. The local broadcasters view mobile TV as the next (third) medium to delivery their content.
Members believe that advertising on mobile TV, if it is to take off, could amount to a $2 billion market. Upgrades that would need to be made to television stations would be a relatively low $100,000, or less, and the technology being added to portable players may not be very expensive at all for manufacturers soon, meaning a horde of compatible devices could be on the horizon.
"You now have three legs of a stool, whereas, before, you just had one," said Jim Conschafter, senior vice president of broadcast for Media General Inc., which owns 23 network-affiliated stations reaching 9.5 percent of U.S. households. Local television stations have fought an increasing amount of cable TV channels and newer innovative services year after year.
A number of the world's largest players in mobile technology have come together to agree on a licensing framework for their patents dealing with an emerging mobile technology. Long Term Evolution (LTE) promises to make everything from downloading videos to content sharing faster, although the first networks are not expected for at least two years and some operators may opt to wait longer until the technology matures.
"Today's announcement is a step towards establishing more predictable and transparent licensing costs in a manner that enables faster adoption of new technologies,"Ilkka Rahnasto, head of Nokia's intellectual property rights said in a statement.
The companies have committed to keeping royalty levels for essential LTE patents in handsets below 10 percent of the sale price, and have agreed a maximum royalty in LTE-enabled notebooks must stay below $10. Nokia, Ericsson, Alcatel-Lucent, NEC Corp, NextWave Wireless, NokiaSiemens Networks and Sony Ericsson were among those involved.
Apple Inc. and China's largest mobile operator, China Mobile, are still not trying to work out a deal over the iPhone since previous talks broke off in January this year. Despite speculation that the two might come to an agreement to get the device "officially" into the country, the Xinhua News Agency reported that there are no on-going negotiations. "Our door will remain open as long as there is customer demand," China Mobile chairman Wang Jianzhou told an audience while speaking the 2008 Boao Forum for Asia.
Talks previously broke down because China Mobile felt that the revenue-sharing model proposed by Apple was unfair and excessive. Of course, while official talks have not yet resumed, this hasn't stopped a large amount of people in China from getting an iPhone anyway. Market research firm In-Stat reported that as many as 400,000 China Mobile users are already using an iPhone, exposing a flourishing gray market for the device.
Movie rental giant Blockbuster announced on Monday that it has made an offer for struggling consumer electronics retailer Circuit City. The second biggest consumer electronics chain in the United States, Circuit City questioned whether or not Blockbuster would be able to finance a deal. Blockbuster said that such a merger would provide a chain to sell electronics products alongside entertainment for them.
Blockbuster Chief Executive James Keyes said the offer is supported by board member Carl Icahn, who could be a source of financing. The rental chain has struggled to complete in Online rentals with leader Netflix for the past couple of years. Now it wishes to entice Circuit City shareholders for support.
Circuit City has advised shareholders to take no action until the board has had a chance to review the bid appropriately, which would see Blockbuster paying more than $1 billion for the chain. Circuit City shares climbed 30 percent in afternoon trading following the announcement.
Move Networks announced a $46 million Series C funding round led by Benchmark Capital that includes global technology leaders Cisco, Comcast Interactive Media (a division of Comcast Corp.), Televisa, as well as previous investors Steamboat Ventures and Hummer Winblad Venture Partners. The leader in high definition online television services touts patent-pending technology in the area.
It uses open Internet protocols to deliver high-quality live and on-demand video that easily and cost-effectively scales to millions of viewers while fully protecting the assets of the media company, and giving users the best video viewing experience in the industry.
"Viewers are demanding higher quality video at anytime and any place. Move's platform provides a solution that maximizes quality while at the same time meeting the demands of scalability and profits," said John Edwards, CEO of Move Networks. "This funding round is further validation by leading digital new media companies and infrastructure providers that Move Networks has the delivery services uniquely designed to meet the online monetization mandate of the world's largest media companies."
The world's largest mobile phone handset manufacturer Nokia has admitted that mobile television broadcasting is not catching on as previously expected. Despite the support for the DVB-H standard which is backed heavily by Nokia, only a few operators in Europe have opened any TV broadcasting services. The European Union backed the DVB-H standard last year.
"It's a bit in a turmoil,"Niklas Savander, head of Nokia's Internet services, told a conference in Helsinki. Mobile phones on the market that can retrieve and playback TV programming use third-generation (3G) mobile networks, which allows the carriers to charge for data rates which ultimately can affect the overall quality of content, and the number of users.
"We have seen that there are multiple segments who are not interested in the broadcasting, but rather in downloads. Roll out is slower than also we anticipated a couple of years ago," Savander said.
According to a report in the Electronic Times, the LG Voyager touchscreen phone has been so popular with its current exclusive US carrier, Verizon, that the company is looking to introduce it with other carriers.
Citing an unnamed LG official, the report says the phone's success has been so "surprisingly strong" that AT&T and Sprint versions will be available sometime this year. Despite being limited to only one carrier, the handset has sold over 1.1 million units to date.
There was no word on when this year the new versions will be available or even what changes will be made to the new editions except for the obvious CDMA to GSM network switch for AT&T. For Sprint, the carrier will either need to "launch a broadcast digital TV service or else strip out the MediaFLO TV tuner that would be supported both by AT&T and Verizon's existing network."
Multicast Media Technologies, Inc. has announced the availability of turnkey live streaming using Adobe Flash Media Encoder as part of Multicast's Vidego Internet Video Platform. With Vidego Live Flash, Multicast now makes a turnkey online solution available to organizations and content producers wishing to broadcast sporting events, concerts, corporate communication, educational and promotional events.
"Because we deliver almost 4,500 live Internet broadcasts each month from venues all over the world, we know that producing a live online broadcast can seem like a complex undertaking. With our Vidego Live Flash streaming solution, we simplify the process and address the increasing market demand for engaging, real-time live Internet video and a flawless end-to-end integrated experience," said Jason Simpson, executive vice president of business development at Multicast.
Vidego Live Flash is administered by an intuitive interface that includes customizable media players, slide presentation synchronization, automated archival for on-demand playback, and a powerful reporting and analytics dashboard. "Multicast's Vidego leverages Adobe Flash technologies to help organizations beat the learning curve when it comes to delivering streaming media," said Laurel Reitman, senior product manager for Flash Server Services at Adobe.
Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter has forecasted that US video game sales will have jumped 47 percent year on year from March 2007 to March 2008 to $850 million USD.
More official NPD Group data will be available later this week, but Patcher also reported that the PlayStation 3 will have outsold the Xbox 360 but that both combined were outsold by the ever popular Nintendo Wii. He estimated the Wii sold 700,000 consoles for the month.
More interestingly, Patcher also reported that he belives "Nintendo is now diverting a significant portion of its supply to Europe due to the weakening dollar, but that the company did ship the US its "fair share" in March to support the launch of Super Smash Bros. Brawl."
Since its launch in early January, YouTorrent has become one of the most, if not the most, popular BitTorrent search engines. The site, which claims it is "the world's first real-time torrent comparison search engine",has announced however that it will be shifting policy and will now only "index sites that host torrent files linking to “licensed” content."
The site, which currently attracts 10 million unique visitors per month, has seen enormous growth over the past month, mainly thanks to its ability to search most of the bigger BitTorrent sites. The policy change will eliminate that last fact and could end YouTorrent's enormous popularity.
Patrick, one of founders of YouTorrent, explained: “Due to the uncertain nature of the source and accuracy of the results returned by some engines, we have decided to reduce our engine selection to ones that claim the provision of licensed, certified content.”
Philips has developed a watermarking solution in its hospitality television sets and will have it available starting in May in a full range of HDTV sizes. The technology is developed to ease fears of movie studios and other content providers who traditionally provided early-release copies of movies to hotels and other services, where customers can enjoy the content.
Fears about digital piracy has caused many content providers to padlock their HD supply. In an effort to deter the unlawful copying of high definition movies in hotels and enable hoteliers to ensure that they remain available to their guests, Philips is leading the industry with its VTrack digital watermarking solution which will be demonstrated at the 2008 National Association of Broadcasters Show (NAB) in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the Keker & Van Nest law firm based in San Francisco filed briefs in federal court last week defending an eBay seller. Troy Augusto was reselling promotional CDs on eBay that he acquired at secondhand stores in the Los Angeles. His activity got the attention of Universal Music Group (UMG).
Augusto, who traded as "Roast Beast Music" on eBay, was sued back in May 2007 for 26 eBay auction listings involving UMG promo CDs. At issue is whether the "promotional use only, not for resale" labels on these CDs can trump a consumer's right to resell copyrighted materials that they own, guaranteed by copyright law's "first sale" doctrine.
Major record labels distribute promotional CDs to industry insiders to create buzz around recordings. These promo CDs often make their way into secondhand stores, where Augusto purchases them for resale on eBay. UMG stamps its promo CDs with labels declaring that the CDs may not be resold and remain the property of UMG. The "first sale" doctrine in copyright law, however, makes it clear that once the copyright owner sells or gives away a CD, DVD, or book, the recipient is entitled to resell it without needing further permission.
With these latest announcements, Sony hopes to silence critics which had complained, and rightfully so, that HDDVD was the far more advanced format in terms of authoring functionality.
In January, Last.FM began offering music streaming on-demand instead of by simple genre or keyword searches. Three times a day users can listen to a track of their choosing regardless of artist or genre.
With the format change also came affiliate partnerships with iTunes, Amazon and 7Digital that allows Last.FM users to click through from any song they are listening to and purchase the tracks from said affiliates.
It seems the recent change in format has led to substantial added sales, a 119 percent overall increase in cd and download sales through the affiliates.
Martin Stiksel, Last.fm's founder, feels the stats demonstrate that free on-demand music will encourage physical purchases and that the music industry should adopt more on demand models. "In just over two months it's become clear that people will buy CDs and downloads if they get access to the kind of service we offer. No one else can give music fans this amount of music for free -- but more importantly also drive their discovery, as we do through our unique recommendation engine. That's why people are sticking around on Last.fm -- minutes spent on site are up 118% month-on-month -- and discovering new music to listen to and buy," he added.
According to a new Jupiter research study, "a combination of disinterest and unnecessary hurdles" is currently stopping most mobile phone users from using mobile music downloads.
Out of the 1800 respondents, two thirds (a bit over 66 percent) said there was nothing the carriers could do to make them want to buy music on their phones while 28 percent said they were interested in ringtones. The remaining 14 percent were interested in purchasing full tracks.
Of those who could not be conned into purchasing tracks, the price of the downloads was the main barrier. Many said they would reconsider if the prices were equal to those of say Amazon or iTunes but many carriers charge a huge premium "to offset the extra network Bandwidth costs."
"Absent some exciting new business models, music labels and carriers will continue to cede most of the digital-music turf to Apple," Jupiter says.
Besides price issues, those polled were also frustrated by the inaccessibility of the music, with many finding it very hard to find or download using a phone. Many also complained about ridiculous DRM restrictions on the music as well as the quality.
After being shut down by the CRIAlast November, the popular public torrentTracker site Demonoid has seemingly made its long anticipated return.
The greeting message at the site reads as follow: "Welcome back!
Since a few months ago, Deimos, the site administrator, lacks the necessary time to take care of the website, because of personal matters he's been needing to attend to. For this reason, he has decided to leave the site staff.
Before leaving, he assigned a new site administrator from among his friends to take care of the site. The old moderator team will continue helping with the site, unchanged. We will try to keep running everything just as it always has been.
The trackers and website seem to be working properly, and should any issues arise, they will be taken care of as soon as possible. The site might be going on and offline over the next days as we work out any problems.
Welcome back, and enjoy your stay!
The new reopening is also coming with conspiracy theorists however. Many point out the example of ShareReactor, the large eDonkey site which was closed down by raids in 2004 but made a return in 2006. It was revealed that the site was under “new management” and traffic declined so low that the site was taken down again.
Rockstar Games' popular title "Bully" has been banned in Brazil, the largest nation in Latin America, over fears the title is too violent for children or teenagers. Judge Flavio Rabello banned the game from being important, sold, distributed or promoted on websites and in stores in the country on Friday. Retailers now have 30 days to comply with the ban.
"The aggravating factor is that everything in the game takes place inside a school,"Rio Grande do Sul state prosecutor Alcindo Bastos said. "That is not acceptable."JPF Maggazine is the main distributor for the title in Brazil, but did not comment on the ban or indicate in any way yet whether it wants to appeal or not.
The request for a ban of the game, which lets players act out the life of a 15-year-old student, came from a local youth support center. Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. spokesman Edward Nebb said the decision will "prevent Brazilian consumers from enjoying 'Bully: Scholarship Edition,' it will not have a material impact on the sales of this popular title."
There have been several unconfirmed reports around the Internet recently that indicate Sling Media's SlingCatcher will be delayed until late this year. The SlingCatcher allows content to be streamed back to a television set while the company's Slingbox allows users to access content at home from anywhere in the world they can get online and sign in.
The SlingCatcher was supposed to hit the market in early 2007, but has since been marred with several delays. Engadget posted an email exchange between a user and Sling Media's VP of Sales Greg Wilkes which partially read: "Will the catcher ship in Q2? No. We are upgrading the user experience and making enhancements to the feature set. These may or may not all ship at the same time. Will the Catcher ship in '08? All indications point to this happening in 2008."
Betanews contacted he company to ask for a comment on the answer. "SlingCatcher will ship when it is ready and meets the high expectations we have set for ourselves at Sling Media,"the site was told. EchoStar's acquisition of Sling Media may be a reason for a further delay as further enhancements to the device may now be made, or perhaps incorporation into EchoStar's Dish Network property.
While admitting he has little interest in video games, horror-writer Stephen King has used his Entertainment Weekly column to strike out at those who want to ban the sale of violent video games to minors. King believes that such a move would be undemocratic, and misguided, as, he says, it is up to the parents to monitor their own children's electronic entertainment.
The Shining author's outrage was sparked when he learned a bill in Massachusetts would ban the sale of games deemed violent to individuals under the age of 18. "What makes me crazy is when politicians take it upon themselves to play surrogate parents. The results of that are usually disastrous. Not to mention undemocratic," he wrote.
In King's opinion, the violence depicted in many of the most controversial video-game titles is reflected from behavior that already is commonplace in society where it's real and not a game. "What really makes me insane is how eager politicians are to use the pop culture as a whipping boy. It's easy for them, even sort of fun, because the pop-cult always hollers nice and loud. Also, it allows legislators to ignore the elephants in the living room," he said.
According to Down Under website MacTalk, Australia may be among the first to get its hands on a 3G iPhone that isn't locked to a single provider through an exclusivity deal with Apple. A correspondent of the Aussie site got the information from local resellers who were briefed by Apple earlier this week. The iPhone is expected to become available in Australia in June, according to the report.
While being supported by multiple carriers, Mac resellers will also apparently be allowed to sell the handset too, while in other countries only Apple stores and a carrier with an exclusive deal can sell the item. While the 3G version of the iPhone is not specifically mentioned, speculation points at a June release for a 3G iPhone in general, which means Australia would be unlikely to get an older model just as new one is released.
Also expected from Apple in June is the iPhone 2.0 operating system as well as an over-the-air download service. All of the pointers in the third beta of the iPhone SDK and industry buzz indicates that the next iPhone model will be 3G, and frankly the speculation and anticipation is so widespread now that anything less will be viewed as a disappointing move by the Mac maker.
Following the announcement of iPlayer support in Nintendo's Wii video games home console, and the subsequent revelation that the lack of support for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 (PS3) was due mainly to Microsoft and Sony, PS3 users have decided to go ahead and enjoy BBC's iPlayer anyway. A coder called "Ixalon" has created an unofficial site for the PS3 which spoofs the Wii's user agent and makes the Javascript and CSS of iPlayer's site "PS3-friendly".
So that means by pointing the PS3's browser toward the unofficial site, UK PS3 owners can enjoy content from BBC's iPlayer now. The iPlayer offers TV programming in the UK and is designed specifically for those who want a second look at an episode they watched on TV, of those who simply missed a certain episode while it aired.
The video content that is delivered to PS3 users through this method is the same Flash 7 video that the BBC provides for Wii users. The Flash 7 video has a higher bitrate than normal to attempt to match the iPlayer quality. While it was possible to view the iPlayer site from the PS3 console before, it wasn't as easy as just visiting a URL, which is...
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the United States has whipped several major retailers and manufacturers for slacking in their duty to inform consumers about the February, 2009 transition to digital TV broadcasts in the country. The regulator discovered that the companies involved were not making an effort to warn consumers about need for a converter box to use an analog television for broadcast TV next year.
In total, fines of over $6 million were handed to the likes of Best Buy, Wal-Mart, Circuit City and Target. The retailers allegedly failed to label analog television equipment with notices that explain they won't work without extra equipment after the DTV transition. Vivitar, Precor, and Syntax-Brillian were also accused of, and fined for illegally importing and selling outdated equipment.
Precor claims that it was only selling the outdated televisions to commercial customers who use it for workout equipment, while Syntax-Brillian claimed the fines were unnecessarily excessive and unconstitutional. In its defense, the FCC does claim to have warned the companies before it decided to fine them, and they now have 30 days to appeal.
Shuttle has announced the launch of its latest small form factor PC, the XPC G5 6801M Vista , which includes a dual format HD drive by LG allowing playback of bothHD DVD and Blu-ray films.
The PC uses a Radeon HD 3450 with full 1080pResolution which can output in either DVI or HDMI through a bundled adapter.
Somewhat surprisingly, the Shuttle will run on an AMD CPU, with basic setups starting at a 2.2GHz Athlon 64 X2 all the way up to its latest 3GHz equivalent. "The system also comes with at least a dual DVB-T tuner for digital over-the-air broadcasts, a 320GB hard drive, and 2GB of memory." At its cheapest, with the Blu-ray/HD DVD drive, the 6801M Vista costs $1,721 USD and is available now.
Famitsu publisher Hirokazu Hamamura has today said that Nintendo is "likely to introduce a new version of its DS handheld" at the upcoming E3 event.
Without specifically mentioning sources, Hamamura cited "murmurings in the industry as well as historical evidence" as signs of an upcoming replacement. Nintendo has released a new or updated handheld every 2 years since the early 90s and the DS Lite was released in 2006.
Nintendo has not commented on the story, and "has nothing to say at this time," according to a spokesperson.
There have been few details about a new replacement but many have speculated that a new upgrade would add "media functions, such as dedicated audio and video playback as well as an additional slot for removable storage."
Blockbuster has announced that it will finally be expanding its Blu-ray offering. Despite Blu-ray's official launch in June 2006, the large rental service only began stocking the HD discs in July 2007 in limited offerings.
The company will now be expanding its Blu-ray offering from 1700 stores to 5000 stores within the United States and Canada. For those who use the online mail service, the company will offer Blu-ray as an optional default medium. In store, HDTVs paired with PlayStation 3 consoles will serve as demonstration kiosks.
Although Blockbuster has never specifically explained the low offering of Blu-ray films in its stores, the reason was most likely the existence of HD DVD, Blu-ray's now obsolete format rival. Had tables been turned, Blockbuster could have been stuck with many discs with low resale value.
According to Kwon Young-soo, CEO of LG Display, the company has seen growing demand for small-size LCD sets in recent times as more consumers dump bulky old televisions for newer flat-screens. "Demand is strong for 26-inch or smaller TVs. The market is shifting to LCD rapidly,"Kwon said at a media event after quarterly results on Thursday. LG Display is the world's No. 2 manufacturer of larger LCD screens.
"Demand for small-sized TVs and cheaper notebook computers is something we hadn't had expected and counted in," Kwon said. He re-assured the industry by saying that an anticipated oversupply in 2009 will be milder than had been expected. LG Display will soon begin mass-production from its eighth-generation production line early next year.
Smaller LCD screens are useful when working with more limited space than a living room can provide, like a bedroom or kitchen.
Sony Electronics has announced another two Blu-ray Disc recorders for the Japanese market. The electronics giant will offer two new models with 320GB and 500GB hard disk drives in the territory to add to its existing line-up of Blu-ray equipment. The BDZ-A70 and BDZ-T90 read and write both blank Blu-ray and blank DVD media. The BDZ-A70 comes with a 320GB HDD while the BDZ-T90 has a larger 500GB HDD.
A useful feature for the new Blu-ray recorders is the ability to transfer content from recordings to portable devices like Sony's PlayStation Portable (PSP) handheld console (stored on MemoryStick DUO media) or to a Sony Walkman handheld portable media player (PMP) device.
Connection to the portable media players is achieved using a USB cable. The models sport the High-definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) for connectivity with other HD equipment along with 1080p/24 support. Both models are expected to be available in Japan this month starting at ¥170,000.
The recent decision to add iPlayer support to the Nintendo Wii console left many wondering why Sony's PlayStation 3 (PS3) or Microsoft's Xbox 360 didn't get a similar announcement before. According to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), the reason for it has to do with the manufacturers of the consoles themselves, who were apparently excessively demanding on details about iPlayer's implementation into their hardware.
Erik Huggers of the BBC said that both companies have expressed interest in bringing the iPlayer software to their consoles. BBC's iPlayer allows TV viewers in the UK to catch up on programmes they missed on television for free. Huggers said that with the PS3's build-in web browser, upcoming iPlayer support is almost inevitable for it.
"If you want to get [iPlayer] on the PlayStation or Xbox, they want control of the look, the feel and the experience. They want it done within their shop, and their shop only,"Huggers claimed.
The Xbox 360 does not have an Internet browser, meaning its implementation would be more difficult. The traffic levels to and from the iPlayer have been significant enough to spark a row between the BBC and many of the ISPs in the territory about who should pay for much needed upgrades.
Sun has revealed that it is developing a royalty-free and open video codec and media system. Company officials made the announcement at the Sun Labs Open House event in Menlo Park, Calif. "The main benefit is that you don't have that now and there are markets, key markets like the Web, that are in need for the Web 2.0 experience a foundation of royalty-free for the media element," said Rob Glidden, global alliance manager for TV & Media at Sun.
The Sun project has been titled OMS, which stands for either Open Media Stack or Open Media System, and it is derived out of Sun's Open Media Commons initiative to develop royalty-free solutions for all digital media content. Proprietary technologies dominate the online video growth right now, including Adobe's Flash.
OMS video will be based on H.26x technology, but is still only at its beginning stages. When asked about availability of OMS technologies, Glidden would only say, "Stay tuned. I have no announcements on any commercial implementations or time frame."
A federal appeals court stated on Friday that it will not re-examine a previous ruling made in favor of TiVo Inc. in a patent dispute with Dish Network Corp.TiVo was awarded $94 million to be paid by Dish Network for patent infringement offenses. Today's decision brings TiVo closer to the payout and also provides it leverage to tout in negotiations with other providers who want to use DVR technology.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld a ruling from a lower court that found DVRs distributed by Dish (formerly Echostar) violated a TiVo patent at a software level, while it did overturn the previous ruling that Dish DVRs infringed TiVo's patent at the hardware level.
Dish Network is now preparing to file an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court while TiVo praised today's court decision in a statement. "Today's ruling brings us closer to resolution of EchoStar's infringement and reconfirms the strength of TiVo's Time Warp patent," the statement said.
Eight teenage girls who assaulted another girl they had lured into a house before posting a recording of the incident to YouTube had done so to gain worldwide exposure. The use of the Internet, and particularly YouTube, which is home to millions of clips uploaded by users, to achieve the goal has opened a debate about how much responsibility sites like YouTube need to take for the content on their servers.
Media experts have stated that sites like YouTube should not get the blame when something like this happens. Furthermore, Kelly McBride, the ethics group leader at the Poynter Institute, believes this video's existence is a good thing in a way. "The fact that the video was shot because they were seeking publicity was secondary," McBride said.
McBride continued: "A crime was committed in our community, and if there's a videotape of it, I want some information. That video was incredibly revealing. It told more truth about what happened than any other form of reporting could have told." On Friday, a judge set bail for each of the defendants at $30,000 while prosecutors said that seven of the girls would be tried as adults for their role in the vicious attack.
Sony's popular handheld, the PSP, had a very strong week as well in the territory and sold 121,000 units for the week ended April 6th. The Nintendo DS sold under half of the PSP, with 55,000 units for the week. The usually strong Wii sold a little less than usual at 44,600.
The PS3 sold 11,000 units as of April 6th to hit the 2 million sold milestone in Sony's home territory.
The rest of the list, courtesy of the source article are as follows:
* 1. PlayStation Portable (120,964)
* 2. Nintendo DS (55,190)
* 3. Nintendo Wii (44,618)
* 4. PlayStation 3 (11,303)
* 5. PlayStation 2 (10,423)
* 6. Xbox 360 (1452)
The new bundle will have a "gunmetal grey" colorway console, a copy of the game, and "very, very Limited edition" packaging, according to Sony.
Besides the latest bundle, Sony will also be resurrecting the 80GB PS3 for an MGS4 bundle and that bundle will include a PS3 DualShock 3 controller and the game.
As another added incentive, consumers that pre-order the game will receive a free Metal Gear Saga Vol. 2 DVD and "a voucher for access to the Metal Gear Online beta trials."
Instead, the ISPs will try to block individual pages that host the movie.
"It is like removing cancer from the body without making the patient die," Information and Communication Minister Mohammad Nuh told reporters.
On Tuesday, the Indonesian government ordered the ISPs to block YouTube, MySpace and other video sharing sites but most users had no trouble circumventing the ban.
After the ban, the Jakarta Post newspaper wrote in an editorial that the block "sent a disturbing sign that the president and his advisers are not only dumb, but also dangerous. It shows a mind-set that takes us back a decade to the era of censorship."
The controversial film, which shows scenes of recent terror attacks alongside verses from the Islam holy book, the Quran, has been "condemned as racist and misleading by governments around the world" and has led YouTube to being banned in several countries including Turkey and China.
The European Parliament has rejected a plan to criminalize file sharing by private individuals, as well as rejecting a proposal to ban repeat copyright abusers from the Internet for their activity. A plenary vote on Thursday resulted in 314 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) voting in favor of an amendment which scrapped disproportionate measures to protect copyright on the Internet. 297 MEPs voted against the amendment.
"The vote shows that MEPs want to strike a balance between the interests of rights holders and those of consumers, and that big measures like cutting off Internet access shouldn't be used," said Malene Folke Chaucheprat, a European Parliament spokeswoman. France has already adopted such measures and may seek to push the issue at a European political level when it takes over the six-month rotating presidency of the European Union in the second half of this year.
The Oliviennes strategy, which was setup to fight copyright infringement on the Internet in France includes a three strikes approach, taking away the Right to have an Internet service account from those caught sharing copyright-protected music three times. "One badly drafted, rushed through amendment was adopted which is in contradiction to the rest of the text," said Frances Moore, Executive VP of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI).
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has been locked into a war of words with Internet Service Providers (ISP) in the United Kingdom about who should be responsible for upgrade costs required for networks. The service providers claim that the bandwidth needed to support BBC's iPlayer is putting considerable strain on their networks, meaning they will need to be upgraded.
Ashley Highfield of the BBC believes that ISPs should be solely responsible for upgrade costs for their networks, while Simon Gunter, from ISP Tiscali, believes the BBC should contribute to the costs. The iPlayer allows viewers to catch up with programmes they missed on TV, and in its first three months of operation, 42 million programmes were accessed.
It is estimated that upgrades needed by ISPs in the UK to cope with the extra bandwidth demand could cost in the region of £830m. "The question is about whether we invest in extra capacity or go to the consumer and ask them to pay a BBC tax," Gunter said. Highfield responded to the comment, saying its inflammatory nature is not helpful.
As we previously reported on AfterDawn, Flickr added a new video service to its site just days ago, allowing users to upload short-clips to the photo-sharing service. These days, online video has become so popular and is in increasing demand, so Flickr made a decision to boost its web-service with the feature.
However, not all Flickr users see this as a good addition to the site. Several "protest groups" have sprung up since, where disappointed users gather to show their feelings about the new video service. One such group, titled "No Video On Flickr", had the following message...
"We, the undersigned members of Flickr, free and pro, agree that video has no place on Flickr. Other sites on the web accept video already, but do not accept photos. We all joined Flickr because of its dedication to photography and photographers, and we want Flickr to remain true to this dedication. It is our request that this feature and addition to Flickr be removed."
One other group that has spring up, "We Say NO to Videos on Flickr", has gathered 23,972 members so far (at time of writing). The new service lets users upload video clips up to 90 seconds in length and 150MB in size. Now some users are crying foul, claiming the site is running slower since the new feature came and some anticipate a flood of low-quality videos.
The next update for the PlayStation 3 (PS3) console from Sony Corp., v2.30, expected to arrive next week, will add support for the DTS-HD Master Audio format, much to the delight of audiophiles. The upcoming firmware update is publicized more for improvements it has in store for the PlayStation Store platform.
The PlayStation Store will move away from being a web-access driven service on the console to a proprietary application, providing navigational improvements and better download times. However, for a better Blu-ray experience, the inclusion of support for DTS-HD Master Audio will be treat all-around.
The console was criticized by audiophiles at first for the absence of support for the lossless format, which provides a perfect compressed recording of the original master recording. The lack of support for DTS-HD was enough motivation for many early adopters of Blu-ray to choose more expensive stand-alone Blu-ray hardware.
Home video rental giant Blockbuster is reportedly planning to offer a set-top device that can delivery video from the Internet directly to a television. This would put Blockbuster in direct competition with products such as the Apple TV device, which has gained less-than-perfect sales since its launch, despite on-going hype. The development would also get Blockbuster ready for tougher competition with Netflix, which is already developing something similar with LG Electronics.
"We're talking to numerous companies and vendors about products, services, alliances and initiatives that can help us achieve our mission to transform Blockbuster into a company that provides access to media content across multiple channels -- from our stores, by mail, through kiosks, through downloading, through portable content-enabled devices -- so it's not surprising that there are rumors out there," a Spokeswoman for Blockbuster is reported as saying by the Hollywood Reporter.
The new service would be an extension to the MovieLink service that was previously purchased by Blockbuster. The reinvention of the Blockbuster brand could prove to be successful if it comes to the market, but it could also hurt Blockbuster's core and vital business. It would be a stand-alone product like Apple TV, as opposed to offering downloadable support for existing products such as Microsoft's Xbox 360.
News Corp.'s social-networking giant MySpace.com has struck a deal with British media company, ShineReveille International, to make its content available on broadcast television outside the United States, or on DVD media. The company retained the right to distribute video content from the MySpaceTV service online, on mobile networks and through broadcast television.
It was expected that MySpace would announce the agreement at an interactive media conference in Cannes, France, on Thursday, for its content, which includes several series co-produced by MySpace. Examples of the popular online video content included in the agreement are Roommates and Special Delivery.
Inside the United States, content from MySpace has already made its way to the airwaves. A MySpaceTV production called Quarterlife use used to fill a gap in programming resulting from the recent Hollywood writers strike by NBC, and the series has since been picked up by the Bravo cable channel.
The large UK retailer Shoptohas confirmed that a new PlayStation 3 bundle including the upcoming blockbuster game Grand Theft Auto IV will be hitting Europe on April 29th.
It was still unclear however who would be distributing the product in the UK. Gem, which has the exclusive distribution contract with publisher Take-Two, and Centresoft, the company that handles distribution for Sony seem the two likely candidates.
"We know for a fact it is coming out in Europe and we are expecting an announcement in the UK any time," confirmed Igor Cipolletta, COO of Shopto.com.
"We are not sure if Gem or Centresoft are distributing it yet, that seems to be the hold up," he added.
The bundle will have a MSRP of GBP 299 and will be on retail shelves the same day as the launch of the game.
Although Microsoft ended production on its Xbox 360 HD DVD addon it hasannounced that yesterday a software update was made available for the drive and its thousands of owners.
All the user has to do to get the update is to attempt to play an HD DVD movie in the drive and Xbox Live will immediately prompt you for an update. If you do not have access to Xbox Live, the download will be available from Microsoft later this week.
The update is mainly to improve compatibilities with select titles. There have been reports of playback problems on the drive for certain movies and Microsoft says that they should be eliminated after the new update. Network features have been expanded as well but it is still unclear for how long studios will maintain the content for those network-enabled movies.
Netblender will soon offer the ability to owners of an iPhone or an iPod touch that will allow the handheld devices to integrate with Blu-ray hardware. This new technology that will link Blu-ray equipment and content to the popular Apple devices, BD Touch, will allow users to perform certain tasks such as using an iPod or an iPhone as a remote control for Blu-ray equipment.
"The sophisticated user interface of the iPhone enables greater user interaction as well as the power to leverage the iPhone’s existing network. Search, e-commerce and advertising possibilities related to movie content abound when one imagines real-time communication between the iPhone and the content currently being displayed on a Blu-ray player," the company says.
Features that are mentioned include possibly using Blu-ray players to send digital copies of movies to an iPod or iPhone, and enabling both to sync video content in this manner. The company is expected to give more information on Thursday.
With the switch to all digital television broadcasts in the United States just over ten months away, about 5.3 million U.S. households have taken advantage of the Government's discount coupons for digital TV converter boxes. For homes in the U.S. that rely on over-the-air analog broadcasts, the DTV switch literally means black-out unless a converter box is used.
According to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), about 10 million coupons have been requested since the program began at the start of the year. Each coupon is worth $40 (on the purchase price of a box, priced around $60), and each household is entitles to a maximum of two coupons.
While demand is certainly outpacing supply, officials are worried that a large amount of people are still completely unaware of the DTV switch approaching. "We're doing a pretty good job so far,"Meredith A. Baker, head of the telecommunications agency, said at a Senate hearing. "We have a lot more work to be done."
As of Friday, 280,128 coupons had been redeemed as consumers wait for stocks to hit the large retailers like Wal-Mart and Best Buy. It is estimated that about 20 million homes rely on over-the-air signals, and 70 million televisions could need converter boxes.
As we previously reported, there had been a call on Internet Service Providers (ISP) in Indonesia to block access to YouTube due to the availability of an anti-Koran video. The video, titled "Fitna," (which translates as "strife") shows some scenes of terrorists attacks including footage of the World Trade Center, Spanish train bombings, London bombing aftermath and other Islamic fundamentalist violence and hate speech.
While this extreme content is shown, the video picks several quotations from the Koran which presumably is believed by the film's creator, Dutch politician Geert Wilders, to inspire the actions depicted in the recordings. The video starts and ends with a now infamous picture of the Islamic prophet with a bomb in his hair, while a ticking sound is heard in the background.
Toward the end of the video, Wilders instructs any Muslim who is affected by the content to tear out pages from the Koran that contain verses which could incite violence, hatred and discrimination. The reaction to the video was mostly negative from Dutch politicians and leaders in the Islamic world, as well as Muslims who are offended by its content.
However, it has raked up millions of views on the large number of websites that now host the content. Indonesia, which is the world's most populous Muslim nation, banned the video and pressured ISPs to block access to YouTube. PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom), PT Telekomunikasi Selular (Telkomsel) and PT Exelcomindo Pratama Tbk and Indonet all have complied and blocked access to the video-sharing giant.
Adobe has launched the Adobe Media Player along with downloadable content and instructional videos on Wednesday. The new software will rival players such as Microsoft's Windows Media Player (WMP) and Apple's QuickTime. Video content is also being offered by the company, including episodes of CSI: Miami and CSI: New York, along with music videos and similar content.
Adobe aimed for the media player and video service to be free to all users, paid for by showing advertisements. Users can subscribe to their available shows, sort their favorites and get reminders when episodes become available. Whether the shows are available for download or streaming, or are DRM-protected or DRM-free, is totally up to the content provider.
The service, which will work with Vista and Mac OS X, brings about the possibility of advertising content based on the videos in a much better detailed and directed manner than previously done. For example, the clothing worn by actors or the surrounding objects could be advertised to the viewer.
The iPhone / iPod Touch version of the Safari web browser has become the most used mobile browser for Internet browsing, according to research from StatCounter. It sits ahead of the Symbian operating system in the U.S., but sits behind it on a worldwide scale, while both ultimately trump Windows Mobile. Of course, the iPhone/iPod only account for 0.23 percent of the overall browsing in the United States.
On a global scale, they account for 0.08 percent of all browsing activity, which is actually quite good considering the number of countries the products are available in. StatCounter is not alone in its findings for the iPhone browser either, Net Applications also puts Symbian ahead of the iPod and iPhone software on a global scale
Net Applications estimates 0.19 percent of worldwide browsing is done with an iPod or iPhone, whereas 0.25 percent goes to Symbian. The success of the iPhone and iPod in web-browsing is the attempt that Apple made to a unified, full browser experience.
Adobe's Flash Player is used to display graphics content on millions of websites around the world, as well as being one of the (if not "the") most used technologies to drive the Internet video revolution. As a result, it has support in a large number of browsers installed on users' machines, and so it is an attractive target for those who seek to deliver malware to your computer.
A term has even been coined to address the occurence and growth of malware being delivered to a users' PC through a flash advertisement; Malvertisement. It was a flash vulnerability that won Shane Macaulay a laptop at the PWN TO OWN convention when he successfully broke into a machine running Windows Vista.
"These vulnerabilities could be accessed through content delivered from a remote location via the user's web browser, e-mail client, or other applications that include or reference the Flash Player," Adobe wrote in its advisory, in which it classifies its patches as "critical".
Back in January of this year, Adobe and a group of related companies fixed their software to block malicious individuals from creating .SWF files that enabled cross-site scripting attacks.
Flickr, the well known photo sharing site, has announced that it will begin offering video Streaming in an effort to rival the dominant market leader, YouTube.
Flickr, which is owned by Yahoo!, made the announcement today but with a hitch. Movies will be Limited to only 90 seconds long and 150 MB in size. The movies will be shown as thumbnails next to user's uploaded photos.
All Flickr visitors "will be access all of the tools for videos that they can currently for photos - namely users can add comments, captions, comments, geotags, and privacy restrictions so only friends or family may view their videos." The videos can also be embedded on other sites.
Flickr's staff said the new decision was based on the fact that an increasing number of digital cameras and DSLRs offer video recording. Although it will now offer video streaming, the company insists it does not want to be the next YouTube and instead wants a more personal touch for friends and family to upload short movies.
For those unaware, the iPlayer offers content from many of the BBC's TV shows and radio stations.
"Working with Nintendo marks another exciting milestone for BBC iPlayer," commented Erik Huggers, group controller for Future Media and Technology at the BBC.
"It underlines our commitment to reaching new audiences by making BBC iPlayer available on as many platforms as possible.
"The BBC's catch-up TV service can now be accessed on an increasing number of different platforms - from the web and portable devices to gaming consoles. It will shortly be available on TV."
The one hitch is that current Wii owners need to pay a fee to have the Internet Channel but the BBC noted that it is looking into way to making the iPlayer service completely free in the future.
To anyone who was upset at the demise of HD DVD, Amazon has announced a credit for any early adopter who bought an HD DVD player before February 23rd of this year.
Anyone who purchased the player is eligible and should receive an email with a code for $50 USD in credit for a future purchase at the e-tailer. Recently, Best Buy announced a similar credit offering for early adopters.
The fine print of the email looks like this:
Amazon.com Special Offer: $50 Off a Future Purchase
Fine Print:
* On February 23, 2008, the last manufacturer of HD DVD players announced it was ceasing production of those players.
** Offer cannot be used to pay for special-order titles, e-books or downloadable e-content, wireless service plans, gift certificates, gift-wrap, taxes, or shipping and handling charges. $50.00 promotional credit is per HD DVD player purchased prior to February 23, 2008--up to 10 units for a maximum credit of $500.00.
According to Bill Gates, the upcoming Windows 7 operating system will be arriving sooner than previously reported, and as soon as 2009.
During a speech for the Inter-American Development Bank, Gates said, "Sometime in the next year or so we will have a new version. [of the Vista OS]"
It is unclear if Gates meant the full commercial rollout of the new OS or just a beta but either way it seems development is moving swiftly. Microsoft has already sent a test version of Windows 7 to the US government. Previously, Microsoft reported that Windows 7 was coming at the earliest in 2010.
Continuing on, Gates talked out about his excitement for the upcoming operating system. "I'm super-enthused about what it will do in lots of ways."
There is still no word on what new features will be added, but we will keep you updated.
Like its smaller brother, the display is "powered by LG's picture enhancing Chipset, F-Engine," and LG claims the latest display has the "best image definition and colour reproduction available today."
Among the other notable specifications, according to the source article, are:
- 10,000:1 DFC (when in F-Engine "Movie Mode")
- 2ms response time (grey-to-grey)
- 1680 x 1050 resolution
- 300 nits brightness/16.7cd/m2
- 170 degree viewing angle
According to "sources" cited by MTV News, Microsoft has been developing a Wiimote-like controller for the Xbox 360 for 9 months and plans to release it at some point this year.
The new 360 controller will be similarly shaped to the Wiimote and will have "a speaker, microphone, four LED lights, A/B/X/Y face buttons, an analogue stick and an underside trigger."
Gameplay would be like "Halo, Gears and Forza in waggle form", but there seems to be some issues with the development of the controller so far. Developers are split at Microsoft with some wanting it to be as Wii-like as possible while others want the controller to be more feature rich. If the controller is exactly like the Wiimote, games can be ported from the Wii, argues the first set of developers.
The source also notes that Microsoft is working on Mii-like avatars and that the software is being created by Rare.
Sony has introduced its brand new headphones which it claims to be the first digital noise-canceling set, cutting out a 99 percent of ambient noise by Sony's calculations. The MDR-NC500D product apparently is the first ever headphones set to use digital technology with "Artificial Intelligence". An internal processor automatically calculates the correct cancellation profile to suit the characteristics of ambient noise.
Pushing the "AI Mode" button in normal usage will make the headphones automatically select between three different cancellation modes to suit the surroundings, but manually selecting is also possible increase the "AI" fails. A monitor switch is also included to temporarily listen to external sounds.
Sony advertises the product as being capable of 15 hours operation between charges.
Nokia Corp. is continuing to work on its answer to Apple Inc.'s touted iPhone. The new Nokia gadget, codenamed "Tube", also includes a touch-screen interface and apparently has a similar design. The product was shown off in a slide at the Evans Data Developer Relations Conference in Redwood City, California. It showed examples of the graphical display capability in the phone with a promotion for the movie Shrek the Third.
"It's our first touch device," said Tom Libretto, vice president of Forum Nokia. The company has not made public information on when it intends to have Tube on the market. While Apple handheld products have received extra-ordinary success in the past few years, Nokia believes it can compete with the iPhone while MP3 player manufacturers concede defeat to iPod.
During his presentation, Tom Libretto emphasized the huge different in shipments of phones from Nokia's range and the Apple iPhone. Since its June 2007 launch, the iPhone has sold about 5 - 6 million units. "We've done that volume since we've had dinner on Friday," Libretto said. One notable point about Nokia's upcoming "Tube" model is that, unlike iPhone, it supports Java.
President of Sony Corporation and CEO of Sony's Global Electronics Business, Ryoji Chubachi, has spoken of the corporation's plan to increase the market share of its Blu-ray Disc products dramatically. In the present, the DVD format accounts for about 80 percent of global demand for movie discs, according to Chubachi.
The Sony boss said that the company will offer Blu-ray devices in a wider range of products as part of an effort to increase the global market share of its Blu-ray products from 20 percent to 50 percent, and all of this by the end of 2008. Chubachi made the comments at a press conference in Taipei, April 3rd.
Among the new Blu-ray devices to be offered based on Chubachi's comments, are LCD HDTV's with Blu-ray disc recording functionalities. He said Sony will extend its Blu-ray promotion beyond mainly the PlayStation 3 (PS3) console and Blu-ray recorders, to "I.T. Devices". The PS3 console has been the biggest promotional tool for the Blu-ray format thus far.
Japan's NTT Communications Corp, something of an innovator and leader in mobile phone services, has a peculiar and interesting service ready to be tested in the country. The general idea in a nutshell is to let testers use their mobile phones to download content that triggers certain fragrances. In the test, 20 users are asked to keep aroma pots in their rooms that are equipped with infrared sensors capable of receiving signals from a mobile phone.
Sixteen different aromatic essences are stored in each pot, ranging from chamomile to peppermint. Using NTT DoCoMo Inc's i-mode Internet service, the testers choose from music and video clips to download. When a download begins, the phone will send a signal out for the infrared sensors on the aroma pot which will then blend the required essences to emit the appropriate scent.
As many as two hundred different fragrances can be produced from combinations of the original sixteen. Some are made to be useful, such as fragrances that help concentration or sleep. The trial will last between April 10th and April 20th, and if successful, it could be commercialized as "Mobile Fragrance Communication," and offer more features such as the ability to send files with scent attachments.
Following the fall of the HD DVD disc format, all eyes turned to Microsoft's Xbox 360 console, expecting a response to the news that could come in the form of a Blu-ray-equipped Xbox 360 unit or optional peripheral. It wasn't long until the rumors started circulating about deals and orders from Microsoft that indicated such a move, but again, Microsoft firmly denied any plans to physically support the Blu-ray format.
Sony Corp. on the other hand embraces the inclusion of a Blu-ray drive in the PlayStation 3 (PS3) console, providing full HD video from BD media to owners, as a key advantage over the Xbox 360 console and a win-win package for consumers. Microsoft does take the need for HD-video capabilities seriously it seems, but instead of back the format of its rival (yet), the company has put its money on digital distribution.
"We have always said online is the way to go,"Microsoft's Neil Thompson said, predicting that physical media would give way to downloads within the next three years. He declined to accept the view that Microsoft has abandoned owners of the HD DVD add-on drive. "We said to people they had the choice; we didn't force it on them as we didn't put it in the box," he said.
Imeem (legally "imeem") has announced the acquisition of SNOCAP for an undisclosed amount to the press today. The leading social media networking site made the strategic acquisition of SNOCAP while it is already using its powerful content identification technology on its own service. SNOCAP specializes in identifying digital audio streams by use of a Digital Registry, and ensuring that content owners and artists receive payment for the use of their property.
Those who have benefit from SNOCAP technology include record companies, independent labels and unsigned artists, with over 110,000 unsigned and unaffiliated artists relying on the technology to manage their own distribution and sell their music online. SNOCAP MyStores makes it possible to sell music on popular venues such as MySpace.
Artists that utilize SNOCAP MyStores to distribute music include The Rolling Stones, Coldplay, Diddy, Nickelback, The Shins, LCD Soundsystem, Lily Allen, Sean Paul and Corinne Bailey Rae. Imeem depends on SNOCAP technology to allow users among its 24 million unique monthly visitors upload, listen to and share music, while offering artists and labels the choice to make their music available through imeem.
The company secured external capital investment to fund the expansion, has said the decision was made due to the growth in Blu-ray player sales. The company also noted that sales "jumped sevenfold since the collapse of Toshiba's HD-DVD format."
Co-founder Aaron Barrett says he hopes that Blu-ray will account for as much as 20 percent of the company's profits in the future but that Xbox 360 games are the most popular at the moment. PlayStation 3 games were gaining popularity however.
"There has been a significant rise in PS3 game rentals this year," he said. "Due to the increase in PS3 game rentals we decided to expand our services to offer Blu-ray films and have noticed that customers are increasingly adding these into there rental queues."
"The videogame rental market has had significant growth over the last five years and is forecast to increase further but at a steadier rate," he noted. "With the cost of game development for next-gen consoles rising, the RRP has to be adjusted to reflect this - which puts game purchases for a lot of people at a low priority.
Chinese Internet company Baidu may be forced by a Chinese court to damages claims totaling US$9 million to three record companies. The claim is the tip of the iceberg in a copyright infringement test-case that could expose the Chinese internet giant to a multi-billion dollar liability. The record industry claims the service helps to "deep link" users directly to hundreds of thousands of copyright infringing music tracks.
In April 2007 a setting ruling found Yahoo China guilty of facilitating mass copyright infringement for operating a music delivery service very similar to Baidu's. That ruling was confirmed in December 2007 by the Beijing Higher People’s Court, the final appeals court.
The record companies' infringement claims against Baidu are based on 127 of their own music tracks. They seek the maximum statutory compensation under Chinese law of RMB 500,000 (US$71,000) per track. This creates total claims of RMB 63,500,000 (US$9m).
"Baidu is China's largest violator of music copyrights, generating huge revenue by deliberately providing access to illegal content. The scale of what it is doing can be summed up by the fact that if the courts were to rule that Baidu should pay maximum statutory damages for all the infringing tracks available through its service it would have to pay many billions of dollars in compensation. That would be an enormous but appropriate price to pay for a company that is failing to take what are quite simple steps to respect the rights of artists and record companies and protect the content of IFPI's members,"John Kennedy, Chairman and Chief Executive of IFPI, said.
Carphone Warehouse has revealed that it has no intention of cooperating with the record industry's BPI or the UK Government in a plan to disconnect users who are caught engaging in illegal file sharing activities. "Our position is very clear, we are the conduit that gives users access to the Internet, we do not control the Internet nor do we control what our users do on the Internet," CPW CEO Charles Dunstone said in a statement.
The UK Government has been putting pressure on Internet Service Providers (ISP) to co-operate with rights holders to clamp down on illegal file sharing. "I cannot foresee any circumstances in which we would voluntarily disconnect a customer's account on the basis of a third party alleging a wrongdoing. We believe that a fundamental part of our role as an ISP is to protect the rights of our users to use the Internet as they choose. We will fight any challenge to the sanctity of this relationship with every legal option available to us," Dunstone said.
The Register contacted a spokesman for Carphone Warehouse, who said the company is not going to be bullied by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) trade organization, which sent it a letter demanding a written agreement within 14 days. The letter allegedly threatens court action if the ISP fails to respond. "There's a difference between that and the BPI's public statements on cooperation," the spokesman said.
Apple Inc. has issued a security patch that addresses eleven security vulnerabilities with its QuickTime multimedia playback software. Of the eleven security problems addressed, nine could potentially be used by a malicious user to run malicious code on a victim's computer. Eight of the vulnerabilities affect both Mac OS X and Windows versions of the software, while the remaining three are exclusive to Windows XP SP2 and Vista.
The worst flaws can be exploited with a specially crafted movie file, often delivered to unaware used through email messages. Due to the wide and cross-platform distribution of the QuickTime software, it is a constant target of crackers who use the discovered vulnerabilities to hijack machines.
In 2007, Apple fixed 34 QuickTime vulnerabilities, after fixing 28 QuickTime holes in 2006. So far this year, the tally is up to 16 specific QuickTime fixes. This latest fix comes shortly after security researchers managed to compromise a MacBook Air laptop using a zero-day vulnerability, taking advantage of a hole in Apple's Safari 3.1 Web browser.
CyberLink Corp. launched the latest version of PowerDVD 8 last week. The company, which is an innovative solutions provider for the connected digital lifestyle, has fine-tuned the latest version of PowerDVD to provide maximum playback performance in supporting the latest high-definition video and audio formats. CyberLink PowerDVD 8 introduces new ways for consumers to enjoy movies beyond just watching.
It supports HD audio and video standards and formats, including AVCHD and Blu-ray Disc, and has Pure Home Theater Audio support, letting users enjoy unmatched clarity and purity through their high-definition, 7.1-channel home-entertainment system, or on the go using a notebook. A new Movie Remix feature promises to let users "create their own stories" by rearranging scenes, adding dialog and commentary, subtitles, and on-screen effects.
"Now CyberLink PowerDVD 8 not only offers the best movie experience on the PC, it offers a totally new way to get immersed in movie entertainment," said Alice H. Chang, CEO of CyberLink. "PowerDVD extends the user experience from the realm of watching movies on the PC to a new online universe of shared experiences. With a built-in database for organizing a movie collection, and the ability to share information, opinions, and remixes via the online community MoovieLive, PowerDVD users now have more ways than ever to enjoy movies."
Panasonic has become the first-ever consumer electronics company to ship 100 million mobile phones in the Japanese market, after first selling its TZ-801 analog handset in 1979. The TZ-801 was designed for a car phone service of NTT Public Corp., the government-owned forerunner to the privatized NTT. The TZ-802A followed in 1985, and it could be detached from a car holder and carried around over the user's shoulder.
The phone system weighed about 7 kilograms. In 1987, the company shipped its first handheld units, with the release of the TZ-802B with its brick-like design. It developed its next model for the PDC (Personal Digital Communications) network, which was a standard developed in Japan that didn't take off elsewhere.
By June 1997, the company had shipped 10 million units. After the launch of NTT DoCoMo's 3G service in 2001, Panasonic was one of the first to produce a compatible handset for the network, which was the first ever commercial 3G service to launch at the time. Around the same time, Panasonic had shipped 50 million units.
Nowadays Panasonic's phones are like those from any other company, with dozens of features that would have seemed impossible in 2001 with an emphasis on multimedia consumption (both Panasonic's big screen TVs and its newest phones carry the Viera brand).
A lawyer working with Swiss anti-piracy outfit Logistep has received a ban from practicing as a lawyer for six months. Elizabeth Martin sent inappropriately agressive and deliberately false and misleading letters to thousands of alleged file sharers that had supposedly been infringing on the rights of Call of Juarez game owned by Techland.
In short, Martin has written to the file sharers and demanded a payment of €400.00 in compensation for the alleged copyright offense if the user wanted to avoid going to court. The letter went on to lead readers to believe that they would be found guilty in court and would be responsible for their own court fees, which would be "substantial."
Along with the promise of a guilty verdict, she warned the file sharers that a decision against them would amount to "hundreds of thousands of euros." The letter also ended with a threat to seize and resell the personal belongings of any user who was found guilty and couldn't pay a fine. "If you are not able to pay the damages ordered by the court, our client will seek to gain the amount by the sale of your goods," the letter concluded.
The Lenovo Group has announced the completion of the sale of its mobile phone handset division to a group of investors. The sale, which was originally announced last week, was finally completed today and marks the end of Lenovo's try in the mobile phone business.
The company, which specializes in desktop and notebook PCs, decided their mobile phone business was a failure and was distracting from the company's core businesses. The deal has been valued at $100 million USD and was approved by shareholders on March 17.
Lenovo's phones were sold mainly in Asia and accounted for $108 million USD in revenue during the quarter ended on Dec. 31, 2007. That small figure only accounted for 2.4 percent of the company's total sales during that Period and the total shipments declined by over 30 percent year over year.
Recently, the large ISP Comcast began sacrificing quality for quantity in their broadcasts by degrading the quality of their HD video to make room for more channels.
Beginning on April 9th, Rogers Cable, of Canada will follow suit and will begin compressing 15 of its HD channels. The channels affected by the new announcement, according to Digital Home Canada, are as follows:
* HD PBS Buffalo
* HD WGN
* HD The Score
* HD Showcase
* HD National Geographic
* HD Mpix
* HD Discovery
* HD MORE
* HD TMN
* HD NBC Seattle
* HD SUN
* HD RAP
* HDA&E
* HDCNN
* HDNET
The selection of channels are so-called "premium networks" that subscribers normally purchase separately from basic digital and HD channels. Using a comparison picture provided by the source article, the Compression artifacts are very noticeable. Fortunately, major American networks such as ABC and FOX, and Canadian networks CBC, CTV, Global, and sports network TSN were omitted from the list.
The Norwegian Consumer Council (NCC) is advising Internet users not to sign letters admitting guilt for sharing movies on P2P networks. Some file sharers have been targeted with letters from Norway's Simonsen Advokatfirma DA on behalf of the movie industry, but these letters have all only reached ISPs so far, who have yet to budge.
The law firm wants the ISPs to forward the letters on to the users in question, who presumably are only known by Internet Protocol (IP) address now. The Norwegian ISP industry association is currently advising all of its members not to forward the letters to its customers at this point.
If they did actually reach a user, then the NCC advises the user not to sign them. "The statement deprives the consumer of due process and puts him in a state of critical legal uncertainty, with practically unlimited legal responsibility. We cannot imagine that this law firm would ever advise their own clients to sign such a letter!"
As well as admitting guilt, a user who signs is also making a pledge not to engage in illicit file-swapping again. The NCC notes that copyright needs to be protected and respected, but that only a court of law can determined questions of guilt, innocence, and penalties. It takes the stance that punishing users for mere allegations of file-sharing would be a "violation of that person's human right to participate in society."
Along with being an internationally known nut, who headed up the "Manson Family" responsible for the death of actress Sharon Tate and other horrible crimes, Charles Manson always considered himself to be an artist. Now Manson wants fans to be able to download and edit/alter his record"One Mind" in any way that they see fit, opting for the Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.
"One Mind is pure Charlie, no additions, no corrections, no added opinions, filters or editing. This is all new material, the most recent as far as we know, consisting of songs, trance-poetry, conversations, raps, ramblings, musings and more," says Family Jams' website (Manson's label).
However, considering the source of the music, one would be inclined to expect remixes and editing of his songs to be of a satirical nature at least. (hopefully?)
Verizon is citing a widely publicized article in which an HDTV enthusiast on the AVS Forum experimented with Verizon's FiOS and Comcast's HD offerings to defend a potentially misleading advertisement claim. The testing found that Comcast's re-compressing of HD video (to make way for more channels) had very undesirable results for customers. The quality comparison showed that Comcast quality was pale in comparison to FiOS in recordings taken of the same program, on the channels at the same time.
Sure, Verizon has every right to smile and tout about the results, but an advertisement campaign which claims that FiOS TV offers "pure uncompressed High Definition," could be considered as badly misleading. While FiOS does not re compress its video content, the content providers do compress it before providing it to cable companies.
"It's true that content owners compress their video before sending it to video service providers," Verizon media relations director Bobbi Henson said in an e-mailed statement. "But we forward the signal to our customers the way that we receive it."
In the growing market for digital music downloads and related services, the companies who can provide the tech have to pay huge sums of cash to get label support. In the last year we have seen the music industry more forward by providing music downloads without Digital Rights Management (DRM) and to back services that allow users to consume music for free with advertisement support.
However, such services pay a hefty price for label support, so bad that it essentially may kill a service before it has a chance to flourish. For example, SpiralFrog, which is an advertisement supported service, paid more than $3 million in advances to Universal Music Group (UMG) before it went live. Ever since, it has paid even millions more in licensing fees.
Imeem is rumored to have paid $20 million in advances and also gave labels equity in the company. It disputes the $20 million figure, but the equity is a matter of public record. Sometimes the demand from the record companies is so much that it makes deals impossible. A mobile messaging company halted negotiations after a label demanded 85% of the company's gross revenue -- music licensing not involved.
Microsoft Corp. has revealed that it will appeal a jury verdict on Friday that ordered it to pay $367.4 million to Alcatel-Lucent for two offenses of patent infringement. Meanwhile the company was found not to have infringed on a video decoding patent related to the way the Windows operating system plays DVDs, which wasn't appreciated by Alcatel-Lucent.
Alcatel-Lucent spokeswoman Mary Lou Ambrus said the company was disappointed on the decision over the video patent. Still, $367.4 million is no small sum, and Microsoft is set to contest the decision. "We do not believe the jury's verdict against Microsoft on the two user interface patents is supported by the facts or the law," said Tom Burt, a deputy general counsel at Microsoft, in a statement.
He continued: "We will move immediately to have the two verdicts against Microsoft overturned." This is just the latest decision in many stemming from the approach taken by Lucent Technologies in 2003 in claiming patent infringement offenses by Gateway Inc. and Dell. Alcatel bought Lucent in 2006.
The bad luck experienced by the Grand Theft Auto series of video games in Australia has continued with the upcoming GTA IV. Rockstar confirmed to the Sydney Morning Herald that the game has indeed been edited, with certain things cut out so that it can receive an MA15+ rating. The Office of Film and Literature Classification awarded the game the rating making it suitable for individuals over 15, while it does not have a rating for over-18s.
In its rating, the board advising consumers that the game contains "strong violence, strong coarse language, drug and sexual references". Rockstar did not reveal exactly what was cut out of the game for the ratings board to consider it suitable enough for 15 year olds.
Back in 2001, Grand Theft Auto III was refused classification (although sold thousands of copies beforehand) because players could pick up prostitutes. An edited version of the game was released in the country later, and an edited version of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City was also sold to Australians to gain a rating.
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas was pulled from retail shelves despite having an MA15+ rating after the "Hot Coffee" modification disaster hit the developer. Soon after, an edited version was sold in the territory (and others). Grand Theft Auto IV will be released in Australia on April 29.
Owners of the Sony PlayStation 3 (PS3) console can enjoy rumble technology now with the DualShock 3 controller announced at the Tokyo Game Show last year and released in Japan on November 11th. Scheduled for release in the United States on April 15th, the DualShock 3 is arriving at some stores already who have permission to sell the item immediately after receiving it.
The DualShock 3 costs $54.99, which is $5 more than the SIXAXIS currently goes for. A Sony representative told MTV that the SIXAXIS controller will not be available after it's completely sold through at retail, expected to be around summer. The U.S. release targeted the arrival of Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, one of the most anticipated games for the PS3 platform.
Sony will change its PS3 model bundles to include a DualShock 3 controller instead of a SIXAXIS controller within the next few months. Additionally, the Metal Gear Solid 4 package will include the high-anticipated Title, an 80GB PlayStation 3 (PS3) console and a controller.
The world's largest video-sharing website, YouTube, has teamed up with The Rolling Stones to launch a new entertainment channel for fans. A statement from Universal Music Group and the band says that fans can upload questions to the Stones about "Shine a Light", a documentary about the band and "any other burning questions."
"By visiting www.youtube.com/livinglegends, viewers will be able to upload footage of themselves asking their questions to Mick Jagger and/or Keith Richards," the statement said. "The best questions will be personally answered, with the subsequent footage of the Rolling Stones available to watch exclusively on this new YouTube channel in a few weeks' time."
YouTube will launch the new music channel titled "YouTube Living Legends" which will invite top artists from around the world to communicate with fans using the site. The YouTube / Rolling Stones collaboration comes just after MySpace launched its new music services for artists.
According to figures released by Enterbrain, during March, Nintendo's Wii games console outsold Sony's PlayStation 3 (PS3), while the PlayStation Portable (PSP) outsold the DS handheld for the first time in six months. Nintendo managed to move 265,542 Wii units in the five weeks to March 30th, while Sony sold 81,579 units of the PS3.
Microsoft's Xbox 360 console has struggled to gain any momentum in its life so far in Japan. During March, the Xbox 360 sold a weak 13,127 units, keeping it far behind its rivals in the home-console market. As for handhelds, Sony considerably beat Nintendo during March, selling 415,415 PSP units compared to 255,124 NDS units.
The strong sales for the PSP in March reflect the chart-topping performance of Capcom Co Ltd's Monster Hunter Freedom 2G. After a very weak first year, the PlayStation 3 (PS3) has come back swinging since late 2007 following price drops, improved games line-up and possibly the victory of the Blu-ray disc format in the next generation DVD format war.
Online social-networking giant MySpace has announced MySpace Music, a joint venture with Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group, and Warner Music Group. that will go head to head with iTunes, recently revealed to be the largest music store in the United States after over-taking Wal-Mart. The service will weave new services into online profile pages of more than five million musicians.
Methods of generating income will include selling tracks that can be freely copied by fans, ringtones, concert tickets and merchandise. "We look to music as an area where we want to do something huge; something historical," MySpace chief operating officer Amit Kapur told AFP. "We plan to really change the game entirely."
According to MySpace, over 30 million people visit the Music Channel every month. The new service will be rolled out in the United States in coming months. No financial terms or further details of the deals with the record companies were disclosed.
We have heard research that link video games to almost every human emotion in existence and still have come no closer to figuring out the true effect, if any, that this content has on impressionable minds. Nevertheless, since it is a hot and controversial topic in almost all regions where video games enjoy strong sales, we like to publish the results of studies and let users renew the debate.
Develop Magazine has conducted research that involved 292 World of Warcraft players aged between twelve years and eighty-three years. The results allegedly show that, contrary to a popular belief and several other papers, playing video games that depict levels of violence leads players to feel calmed and tired.
Of course, whether World of Warcraft is the best title to determine the effect is debatable too, but it still is an interesting result. "There were actually higher levels of relaxation before and after playing the game as opposed to experiencing anger but this did very much depend on personality type," said Jane Barnett, who headed the Middlesex study.
Warner Bros.announced on Thursday that several more of its upcoming titles will be available through video-on-demand (VOD) services in the UK around the same time as their DVD release dates. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford and Beowulf were available shortly after their DVD release date (1 and 15 days respectively) on Sky, Virgin, BT and Xbox Live.
Viewers spend a few pounds to watch a movie as many times as they want within a 24 hour time frame. Warner's UK strategy for VOD mirrors trials in the U.S., Benelux and Nordic regions where spending on DVDs and VOD services rose due to increased cross-promotion and marketing exposure.
Josh Berger, President and Managing Director of Warner Bros. U.K. said the initiative attempts to meet consumer demands to "see what they want, how, where and when they want it." When asked about the quicker availability of VOD after DVD releases, Gideon Lask, head of e-commerce at U.K. entertainment retailer HMV, said he agreed with Berger that "customers should have the opportunity to discover and enjoy content the way they want to ... either through physical purchases or via downloaded content."
Skype, which was purchased by the auction company in 2005 for $3.1 billion USD, has not shown eBay the growth it expected and now it seems the company would rather get rid of it then continue to try to turn a profit. For fiscal 2007, the VoIP service recorded a decent sized loss which led to the ousting of CEO Niklas Zennstrom.
It is not sure whether Google wants a partnership or to purchase the company, but both eBay and Google refused comment for the time being.
"We are live! The games, the devices, and the community are all here for you to finally get your teeth into. There will be an official announcement on Monday, but for you, the N-Gage faithful we wanted to let you know we're up and running" read the official N-gage blog.
At launch, only owners of the Nokia N81 8GB, N81 SD, N82, N95, and N95 8GB phones will be able to use N-Gage, but more compatible models are coming, says the company.
Nokia also adds that there is huge interest for gaming on cell phones and interest keeps growing.
"We did a survey in England and 90 percent wanted to play games, but very few had actually bought a game for their phone," said Christophe Joyau, responsible for services at Nokia in Scandinavia. Joyau notes that mobile gaming has been a failure so far because "there is nowhere to try games, gaming experiences have been poor, and the games are difficult to use." Nokia hopes N-Gage will solve all these problems.
The promotional period will begin on April 7th and end on June 30th and is a pretty steep discount from the device's MSRP of 399 Euros. The company does note however that the price drop is only on the 8GB model. There is another catch to the price drop however. "Customers must agree to a monthly calling contract that costs at least 89 euros per month. Those opting for a new "starter" iPhone contract that runs 29 euros per month can purchase the phone for 249 euros during the two month period."
After the price cut, Germany appears to be the first country where the iPhone price has fallen under the Apple suggested price suggesting lackluster sales.
Victoria Police raided a music retailer in Sydney Road, Brunswick in Melbourne earlier today, seizing thousands of allegedly pirate music CDs and DVDs. The successful raid by Victoria Police marks the launch of Operation Rein in the Rip Offs. Police searched the premises and removed five thousand discs openly on sale and extensive burning equipment that was housed in a back room.
This nationwide operation is being spearheaded by Music Industry Piracy Investigations (MIPI) and will target unscrupulous retailers across Australia who are blatantly selling pirate music discs and ripping off consumers, songwriters, artists and legitimate music retailers.
"This proactive raid by the Victorian Police signals the start of a national campaign by the Australian music industry to crack down on rogue traders that are damaging the music industry and ripping off consumers by selling pirate music. No matter where they are located, we will find
illegal traders that are selling pirate music and take appropriate enforcement action,"Sabiene Heindl, General Manager of MIPI, said.
A 35 year old male is currently assisting Victorian Police with their inquiries in relation to today's raid. Criminal penalties for copyright infringement are up to $60,500 and 5 years imprisonment per offense for individuals, and up to $302,500 for corporations.
The European Commission is to probe a state grant to Channel 4 in the United Kingdom. An assessment will be made on whether the grant distorts competition in the UK TV market. While Channel 4 does not receive public funding, it will receive a £14 million grant to aid its transition to all-digital broadcasting.
However, a commercial rival has complained that Channel 4 does not need to receive tax payers month, since it had sufficient cash to meet the capital costs. Channel 4 is a public service broadcaster, and so needs to be able to transmit its high quality material as such. This is how the hand-out has been justified.
"The information provided so far by the UK does not enable the commission to assess whether, given the costs of its digital switchover obligations and taking into account its commercial revenues, Channel 4 will have in the short term a net public service cost which would allow it to receive state aid," the EC said today.
The corporation ended 2005 with an annual profit of £99 million on sales of £894 million.
The iPhone Dev Team has delivered the Mac OSX version of a much-anticipated software development kit (SDK) for the development of "unsigned code" to be used with iPod Touch and iPhone. This allows developers to bypass the official pathway laid by Apple to get applications running on the iPhone. A version of the SDK for the Windows platform is expected to be released within the next day.
The PwnageTool tool will be useful for anyone who is interested in developing for the Apple platforms. Many developers have already retrieved Apple's official iPhone SDK and registered for the iPhone developer program, but have been left in the dark over whether or not they can build applications with Apple's imprimatur.
The iPhone Dev Team developed the iPhone unlock tool last year and claims that hundreds of thousands of users have unlocked their iPhones already. According to the team, hacks built with PwnageTool cannot be blocked and defeated by software updates from Apple.
Sony Corp. has unveiled a small video camera capable of recording high-definition (HD) video to a flash memory card. The company claims that the video camera is the world's smallest and latest HD camera to be made available to consumers. It is set to go on sale in the Japanese market this month.
The device, which weighs a mere 300 grams (or 10.6 ounces), measures 32 mm x 119 mm x 63 mm (1.3 inches x 4.7 inches x 2.5 inches). It is advertised as being able to record up to 55 minutes of digital video with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels on an 8GB memory card.
Sony camcorders and its Cyber-shot digital cameras continue to be Sony's top profit earner. The new world's smallest HD camera will go on sale on April 20 in Japan, comes with a high price tag of 130,000 yen ($1,271). It will be made available in other regions later.
Adobe Systems Inc. has started public trials of its software delivering television shows to viewers over the Internet. The planned service will provide ad-supported subscriptions to viewers and will include some top television programs like CBS Corp.'s CSI, Survivor and Big Brother. A company official revealed details on the service on Thursday.
Partnerships with content providers that include CBS and MTV-parent Viacom Inc. will drive the service, providing vital content to gather a base of regular users in the increasingly competitive market for online video. The programming will be available to users through the Adobe Media Player, said Adobe Senior Director of Product Marketing Mark Randall.
While not revealing anymore financial information, Randall said that Adobe and its content partners will share revenue from the advertisements displayed with the videos.
Britain's free-to-air digital TV service will offer high-definition (HD) channels to viewers with the proper equipment by 2012, in time for the Olympics. Ofcom had already hinted at plans to launch HD on Freeview and today, it set out plans after consulting with broadcasters. Initially, three channels will be available in Freeview in select regions in 2009 and four HD channels will be available by as digital switchover is completed by 2012.
One of the four slots will be held by the BBC Trust while others will be awarded the remaining three slots after a bidding process. The applications will be judged on their efficient use of spectrum, diversity of content and the contribution of public services. The bidding is expected to include Channel 4, Channel 5 and ITV.
The move of HD to Freeview will enable terrestrial broadcasters to compete with pay-TV options from Virgin and BSkyB.
Panasonic has announced that it plans to incorporate brand new, miniature plasma displays in cellphones and other small media devices.
The low-voltage plasma technology will be used in phones using AT&T's "Mobile TV" service which will "provide full-length television content and sporting events from major US channels, due to launch in May."
At a press event in the States, Mark Balsama, national marketing manager for Panasonic said: "I have a very exciting announcement to make..."
"For nearly a decade, Panasonic's engineers have been secretly working on a thin, lightweight low-voltage compact Plasma display ... We will be able to incorporate miniature plasma displays into both consumer and business telephone products starting this fall. They will rival OLED displays for brightness, contrast and thinness, and can be manufactured for much less money."
"We'll be able to put plasma in Cell phones, business phones, consumer phones, corded phones, cordless phones, and even door intercom monitors and fax machines. We will revolutionise the consumer electronics business, as Panasonic has done many times before."
According to Reuters, the media research firm Interpret has revealed that just about 60 percent of American consumers are now aware of Blu-ray as a disc format and that the number of households with Blu-ray players is approaching the 10 million mark.
The report, a survey of consumers aged 18-54, is unfortunately outdated already however, as it was conducted in mid-January, Right after Warner's decision to go Blu-ray but before the recent demise of rival HD DVD.
The study did find some interesting stats however. Men 18-34 in the US had a Blu-ray awareness of 76 percent while awareness is at 56 percent in Great Britain, 49 percent in Germany, 45 percent in Japan and a lowly 30 percent in France.
Sony has reported that it intends to continue cutting production costs across the board on its goods as well as fulfill "more orders in an attempt to offset the reductions in export profits caused by the strengthening yen currency."
The current economy of the United States has seen the dollar lose significant ground to the yen over the past year and that fact could impact whether or not the electronics giant can offer another price cut on the PlayStation 3 gaming console in the near future. Last year, a price cut on the console spurred a sales growth beyond expectations.
"As to the situation of the US dollar's weakness in the medium to long term, we already have a strategy to deal with it," said Ryoji Chubachi, Sony president.
"We will lower our production costs as possible as we can and we will choose production sites to cope with the industry's weakness, and in the short term, we will try to accept more orders."
According to MSN Money, "for every JPY 1 gain versus the US dollar, Sony loses around JPY 6 billion (USD 58.3 million / EUR 37.5 million). In the past year the yen has moved from an exchange rate of 111 to the US dollar, to 102.5 - representing a loss of around JPY 51 billion (USD 496 million / EUR 318 million) for Sony."
Last June Apple was the number three music retailer behind dominant brick and mortar retailers Wal-Mart and Best Buy. According to Ars Technica some Apple employees received an email today which included a spreadsheet of NPD Group's latest research of top ten music retailers in the United States. Apple had become the number one music retailer in the US.
The NPD MusicWatch Survey makes it official, the first time in chart's history, Wal-Mart has been surpassed. To make it more revolutionary, it's a retailer that doesn't sell physical copies of music. This definitely proves that music industry is on the verge of change, whether the industry giants want to believe it or not.
The survey's top ten was dominated by Apple's iTunes with 19 percent of the total sales, Wal-Mart with 15 and Best Buy with 13. Amazon hasn't seen growth and has held the fourth place with 6 percent. The bottom six included such retailers as Borders, Circuit City, Barnes & Noble, and at the tenth place Rhapsody with 1 percent.
Popular video sharing entity Blinkx is offering a new service called BBTV. The Joost-like service combines video content with speech and visual recognition technology, and combines the video content with the Internet in a whole new way. Offering full-screen TV-quality video, BBTV can link what you're watching with relevant information on the Internet - learn about who's on-screen, what's being said and more.
To use BBTV, you must be using Windows 2000, XP or Vista. It is delivered in the form of a 1.8MB installation file. "The Web is the largest repository of connected information in the world on any subject and from myriad sources," Blinkx founder and CEO Suranga Chandratillake said. "BBTV delivers television over the Internet, but it also fuses that TV with the wealth of information on the Web, rather than appearing as just another layer floating above it."
The service offers content from about 40 different independent movies, as well as Blinkx' current partners and plans to expand the content offered within the next few months.
A very interesting article by bfdtv on the AVS Forum revealed the effects of a HDTV provider choosing to sacrifice quality for quantity. Comcast is degrading HD video on some of its systems to make room for more HD channels in response to increased competition from DirecTV and Verizon FiOS.
By early April, most Comcast systems will recompress and degrade their HD, much like DirecTV and Dish Network do on their MPEG-2 channels. Comcast has allocated a maximum of two HD channels per 38.8Mbps QAM and has now changed, attempting to squeeze three channels instead.
Bfdtv compared the quality of the same programs on Comcast and Verizon FiOS, recording the same program from the same channel, at the same time. A test the user ran last year had shown no difference between the two providers, but things are a lot different now.
The upcoming software update to be rolled out to all TiVo subscribers promises to speed up performance of the DVR interface. Slow performance from TiVo equipment has generated customer complaints going back eight years to when the company was founded. The 9.3 update aims to speed up common tasks for the user.
No longer will the DVR pause for nearly a minute while it reorders Season Pass priorities or stall for half a minute upon the creation of a Season Pass. In these areas, users will see improvements between 10 and 30 seconds. TiVo Central, the default dashboard that appears when you press the TiVo button on your remote, will also load about 1 second faster.
Several seconds are also shaved off the delay when a recording is confirmed. The update doesn't seem to be offering any new features, but it does have some unspecified fixes related to CableCARD. An exact date for the release has not been specified, but it is expected in April.
DivX, Inc. announced that the latest Blu-ray Disc player from Denon, the high-end audio/video brand owned by D&M Holdings Inc., has been given DivX Certification. This puts the product in a growing list of DivX Certified products. The DVD-3800BDCI will go on sale in the Japan and U.S. markets at the end of this month. This is the second Denon Blu-ray player to receive DivX Certification.
"DENON is a world leader in high-quality home theater systems and audio products. By extending the DivX standard into next-generation Blu-ray devices, we're further delivering on our strategy to provide consumers with a high-quality video experience on any kind of device, from the PC to the living room and on the go," said Kevin Hell, CEO of DivX, Inc. "DivX is just as relevant as a feature on a Blu-ray player as on standard DVD players and we expect more and more Blu-ray players to incorporate DivX technology."
Indonesia is requesting that Internet Service Providers (ISP) block access to YouTube in response to a video posted by a Dutch lawmaker. The video in question accuses the Koran of inciting violence. Geert Wilders, leader of the Dutch "Freedom Party", made the film which sparked radical Muslims to call for his death during protests outside the Dutch embassy in Jakarta.
Indonesia's information minister, Muhammad Nuh, contacted YouTube asking it to remove the film, according to Cahyana Ahmadjayadi, the ministry's director general for information technology. "Our efforts include asking Internet service providers to block access to YouTube. They have started doing it now," Ahmadjayadi told Reuters.
If you have been following the news lately you will know that this latest episode has seen some scattered violence which we won't go into in this article. One interesting point however is that Mydin Mohamed Holdings, a supermarket chain in Malaysia which sells many electronic goods, has flagged "Dutch-origin" products in its stores across the country and is urging its own customers to boycott the goods in protest.
The recent decision by antitrust regulators to approve the proposed merger of XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio in the United States has gained criticism due to its reasoning. In 1997, when the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved rules to create the new services, it insisted that both XM and Sirius certify that radio equipment can pick up signals from both providers.
"At the very least, consumers should be able to access the services from all licensed satellite DARS (digital audio radio service) systems and our rule on receiver inter-operability accomplishes this," the FCC's 1997 decision reads. While this rule aims to make it easier for a consumer to switch between services, no such interoperable radio equipment is readily available to consumers.
The important thing about this fact is that it was cited by the Justice Department as a reason to clear the merger. Basically, since the goal of making and selling interoperable equipment to consumers failed, the regulators found that both companies don't compete as much as previously thought.
Users of XM buy one type of radio and users of Sirius buy another, and automakers pre-install systems based on whichever company they have an exclusive contract with. Therefore, users of each service are unlikely to change to its competitor as it would need different equipment. Then, of course, there is also the claims from both providers that satellite radio has different competition in this decade including iPods and HD Radio.
A new update has been released for the popular and useful freeware burning tool ImgBurn. As always, ImgBurn has been released with a long changelog. When v2.4.0.0 was released in February, it added support for burning audio CDs. The software can handle almost anything that can be decoded with DirectShow/ACM, including AAC, APE, FLAC ,MP3, MPC, Ogg, PCM, WAV and WMA.
Here is the changelog for v2.4.1.0...
Added: Support for the TAO write type as a real option rather than just a fallback if SAO fails.
Added: Support for burning APE/FLAC/WV files with an embedded CUE sheet as if they were normal image files.
Added: Accurate audio duration calculation (via a dummy Decode pass just before the burn) leading to less gaps/padding and no missing audio data.
Added: Support for new BookType related options known as 'Active Setting' on NEC/Optiarc drives (to swap between the 'Permanent' and 'Temporary' setting)
Added: The ability to have the open/save dialog boxes always default to the folder specified in the 'File Locations' tab within the Settings window. (otherwise it'll default to the MRU one)
Added: 'New Project' option to the File menu in Build mode.
Added: When the program is unable to find any cells to use for the LB when buring a DL disc in Build mode, it now tells you extra info about which Cell to split and where to do it.
Added: Support for reading discs recorded using the TAO write type.
Added: Context/popup/right click menu to the 'Add file or folder to source list' button in Build mode (the green +) with the option of 'Clear Source MRU List' on it.
Added: Options to enable/disable the success/error sounds after certain program functions.
Added: 'Show Non-Present Devices' option to the 'Automatic Write Speed' form when 'View By' is set to 'Device' (It's enabled by default).
Added: 'Translated By' Field to the 'About' box.
Added: The ability to define the start LBA when building an image - useful for custom disc layouts.
Added: Variable 'PreGap Snapping' whereby gaps will snap to the nearest second (multiple of 75 frames) if within the specified range. (i.e. 1 second, 72 frames will snap to 2 seconds)
Added: If you don't enter a path for the file in Build/Read modes it'll use the 'Image Files' default one configured in the Settings (File Locations tab).
Added: You can type a relative path into Build/Read modes destination box and it'll resolve it when you click Write/OK.
Added: Saving a project file now writes the previously selected LB info from the 'Create Layer Break' window. This can then be used when loading the IBB via CLI so the user isn't prompted to pick a LB, thus allowing for batch builds.
Added: 'Don't Enable Sound' checkbox to the ImgBurnPreview options.
Added: A button in the settings to reset the burn statistics.
Added: 'Device.CDROM' Shell extension option where you get 'Read using ImgBurn' as an option when you right click on any CD/DVDROM drive. (It's off by default because windows appears to make it the default option - hence double clicking on the drive opens ImgBurn!)
Added: Option to turn off the funny quotes on the Ez-Mode Picker screen. (For people without a sense of humour ;-) )
Added: The ability to sort tracks in the order of the 'Track Number' field in any available file 'Tag' within the 'Create CD CUE File' window.
Added: The ability to define a default folder for Project files (*.ibb).
Added: The ability to define a default folder for Language files (*.lng).
Added: Support for 'WavePack' files (*.wv) in the 'Create CD CUE File' window.
Added: A failed read of a sector in read mode now maps that sector to a file name and the result is shown in the log.
Added: Support for reading unicode file names in MDS v1.5+ files.
Added/Changed: When running in 'Portable' mode, certain paths will be saved relative to the exe's folder if they're at the same level or below it. (i.e. 'D:ImgBurnSoundsSuccess.wav' becomes '.SoundsSuccess.wav')
Added/Changed: When build mode detects you're building DVD Video/HD DVD Video/Blu-ray Video/OS installation discs, it now tells you exactly which settings will be modified in the 'conflicting settings detected' message box.
Changed: When saving an project file, the initial file name is now taken from the image file name (but with an 'ibb' extension), falling back to using the volume label, then MRU value and finally just 'My Project.ibb'.
Changed: Handling of manually entered file names in build/read mode to parse environment variables.
Changed: Updated ImgBurnPreview.exe to the latest code - this one has support for audio.
Changed: If the bootable image (in Build mode) isn't a multiple of 512 bytes in size, the user can now choose to proceed anyway.
Changed: Tweaked some of the TOC parsing code to work around bugs found in certain drives.
Changed: Tweaked the UDF file system parsing code to minimise the amount of Random access reads and potentially speed up the process by a substantial amount when lots of files are present.
Changed: You can now build 'pure' bootable images/discs without having to add a 'dummy' file to the source box.
Changed: The 'Restore Defaults' button in the settings now resizes itself to fit the string.
Changed: The 'Languages' list is now sorted alphabetically.
Changed: Limited the initial height of the 'Create CD CUE File' window to that of the desktop area (for people using 800x600 and below where it wouldn't quite fit on the screen).
Changed: Settings screen is now wider to better accommodate longer translated strings.
Changed: The buttons on the 'Filter Drivers' screen now auto-resize themselves to fit the translated string.
Changed: The 'Create MDS' windows now uses picture buttons for Add/Remove/Move etc just as the 'Create CUE' window does.
Changed: All controls have been changed to the 'TTnt*' unicode style so you can use/view a properly translated GUI on a normal 'English' Windows install.
Changed: The folder 'IBB Files' now defaults to using the name 'Project Files'.
Changed: The folder 'IBG Files' now defaults to using the name 'Graph Data Files'.
Changed: The folder 'IBQ Files' now defaults to using the name 'Queue Files'.
Changed: Moved some of the 'select a folder' type options in the settings to a new 'File Locations' tab.
Changed: The 'Start' button in Read mode is no longer disabled when CSS/AACS protected media is detected. There's just a warning that it won't work (warning can be disabled in the settings).
Changed: Date/Time pickers in Build mode now display the selected date/time according to the 'Short Date' format as found in Regional Settings within Control Panel.
Changed: Log entries for 'File System(s)' no longer translate the 'None' word when there's no file system present in the image. (The Log is supposed to be English)
Changed: Removed the need for a second basic parsing of the file system on the disc when in Read mode (as the automatic destination file name was generated).
Changed: Under Vista/2008, the Volume Label displayed by ImgBurn is taken from the 'File Set Descriptor' (when set) rather than the 'Logical Volume Descriptor' to match the behaviour of Windows.
Changed: 'DVD+R Reserve Track' is now enabled by default.
Changed: Removed the pre-read/verify 'Samsung Set Magic Speed' option. It was often slow to complete and not very well supported by some Samsung drives.
Changed: Optimised the code that checks for interfering programs so they're all done at the same time rather than individually.
Changed: Updated the code that checks for interfering programs to look for newer versions of DVD43.
Changed: Prompt user if auto retries of tray cycling still don't make the drive initialise the disc properly between write and verify.
Changed: Handling of the 'Delete the image when done' option when the image is a CUE file. The user can now delete the CUE without deleting the files it calls upon (if more than 1).
Changed: The 'Open/Save As' file dialog boxes within the Log window now default to the 'Log Files' file location as specified in the settings.
Changed: The 'Open/Save As' file dialog boxes for IBB, IBG, IBQ and LOG files now default to the appropriate folder - as specified in the settings.
Changed: Some of the messages that can pop up when performing 'Display IFOLayer Break Information' on a drive so that they're appropriate for a drive rather than an image file.
Changed: Updated ImgBurnPreview to v1.1.1.0 - Based on Jeanl's latest code.
Changed: The log entry for 'BookType' now displays the permanent setting unless the 'Active Setting' is actually set to 'Temporary', in which case it displays the temporary one!
Changed: Modified the names of the 'Browse for...' entries on the 'File' menu to make them less confusing.
Changed: 'Read Disc Information' command reverted to asking for 32 bytes of data, not 34. (Some dodgy drivers appear to hang when it's 34)
Changed: Updated the installer to NSIS 2.36
Changed/Fixed: Removed the double image file initialisation when trying to burn the currently selected file in Write mode when it wasn't actually marked as 'Queued' in the Write queue (i.e. having already burnt it).
Changed/Fixed: The 'Automatic Change Book Type' option for NEC drives now sets the 'Active Setting' to 'Temporary' so the correct value is actually used.
Changed/Fixed: Tweaked some of the code that deals with expanding relative paths passed via CLI or stored within IBB project files.
Changed/Fixed: Most of the forms are now dynamically created at runtime as and when need. This cuts down on the resources used by ImgBurn (especially GDI objects) and speeds up the loading time. (GDI object count is down from ~1100 to ~550)
Changed/Fixed: CD-TEXT options/controls in the 'Create CD CUE File' window are now disabled when the selected Track isn't an audio track.
Changed/Fixed: Silently fail (failure is still logged) when MCN control fails with the 'ERROR_NOT_SUPPORTED' error code.
Changed/Fixed: Potential workaround for drives that hang when being queried to see if they support LabelFlash.
Changed/Fixed: Better ACM 'acmStreamConvert' handling so the program knows when all the data has been converted (even when buffered under Linux/Wine).
Changed/Fixed: When verifying, if the track on the disc is smaller than the one in the image file the user is asked if they want to continue or not. If they choose to, the disc's track is padded out (zero filled) to the size of the image file's track so that the verification process works properly. (otherwise it would just sit there waiting for more data that was never coming)
Changed/Fixed: Don't add the current image file name to Write mode's 'Recent Files' list when a 'Read' operation fails.
Changed/Fixed: The 'Delete image' button on the 'Insert next disc' window didn't prompt the user when deleting multiple files (like in a CUE with lots of audio tracks).
Fixed: Incorrect handling of 'desktop' at the start of a destination image file path in Build/Read mode if it was followed by another folder name - i.e. 'desktop
ew imageimage.iso'
Fixed: The default paths (i.e. before any settings have been read) were incorrect when loading the program with the '/PORTABLE' CLI switch.
Fixed: When writing a Multisession disc, the 'Writing Session X of X' and 'Writing Track X of X' log entries weren't always being written if the session/track was small.
Fixed: A bug when attempting to send a CUE Sheet to the drive ending in the error 'SendCueSheet Bug! - CueSheetVariant 13' being shown.
Fixed: Wrong 'REM LEAD-OUT' entry in *.cue file when created using the 'Create CD CUE File' window.
Fixed: Better support for old drives that want weird LeadIn/LeadOut 'DataForm' values (non MMC compliant values) in the 'SEND CUE SHEET' parameter list.
Fixed: A bug preventing the 'Logical Volume Identifier' field in the 'File Set Descriptor' from being updated when changing the volume label of an image.
Fixed: The Layer Break 'Preview Selected Cell' feature didn't always work when working with Image Files/Drives - the preview window would take ages to appear and the 'ImgBurnPreview.exe' process would need terminating via Task Manager.
Fixed: Problem with analysing track pregaps on drives that fell back to using the 'Read Sub-Channel' command when 'Read CD' failed.
Fixed: Various problems when using the legendary 'old skool' Plextor SCSI CD-ROM drives.
Fixed: When SAO wasn't available and the program fell back to using TAO, multi track images weren't burnt correctly. (They came out as 1 long track because I'd made no effort to make it work properly!)
Fixed: The 'Add file or folder to source list' button in Build mode was being enabled after 'Calculate' even when there was no text in the field to it's left.
Fixed: Access violation when you're in Build mode with Device output and you press 'Cancel' on any of the prompts that come up before the build actually starts.
Fixed: A problem where ImgBurn could get stuck at the start of a read/verify operation.
Fixed: When reading a disc using only ISO9660/Joliet file systems (no UDF) from DVD+RW/DVD-RAM/BD-RE the image would be 1 sector too short.
Fixed: Divide By Zero bug if you terminate a verify operation whilst it's still analysing the tracks on a CD.
Fixed: Memory leak if you cancel the 'Open' file dialog box from within the Log window.
Fixed: A problem where a file name such as 'desktopimage' in the Read mode destination box was not being parsed correctly to have 'desktop' replaced AND the '.iso' file extension added.
Fixed: The 'ACM' audio decoding fallback method wasn't working - acmStreamConvert failed.
Fixed: CD-TEXT info at 'Disc' level wasn't always added to the CUE file made by the 'Create CD CUE File' feature.
Fixed: When warned that 'Test Mode' *might* not work with the current media (and the user accepted the warning), it was actually being turned off rather than being left on.
Fixed: The 'Changer Control' buttons were sometimes being disabled when they shouldn't have been.
Fixed: 'Retrying (x of y)...' was wrong in the log when close track/session/disc failed at the end of the burn. x was always 1 number too big.
Fixed: No image being added to the combobox on the medium changer control window when running under Vista.
Fixed: The 'Medium Changer Control' feature didn't work properly on Vista/2008.
Fixed: Incorrect file name sorting in the ISO9660 file system - files starting with '_' came before the others using 'A-Z'. (This prevented WinXP install discs from working)
Fixed: Memory leak when loading a CUE containing multiple index points for the same track.
With all the buzz surrounding Blu-ray Disc and other advancements in video since DVD-Video, Cubans are only now queuing up to buy new DVD players and other electronics equipment.. or at least those who can afford it. The demand comes after President Raul Castro moved to lift many restrictions in the one-party socialist state.
Stores were authorized to sell dozens of electric goods that were previously banned in the state, including flat-panel televisions and microwaves. "This should have been done long ago. They should never have been banned," said Felipe, a 53-year-old engineer, who lined up impatiently to buy his first DVD player.
Philips and Panasonic DVD players can be found for between $118 and $162, much cheaper than the prices offered by Cuba's thriving black market. However, considering the average wages being about $17 a month in Cuba, many of the new goods on sale were out of reach for most pockets, but even those who can't afford any of the unbanned items are happy that they are now available to citizens.
According to a new NPD Group report, 72 percent of all Americans played video games in 2007, up almost 10 percent from 2006. From the group that said they played video games, half of them played games online.
The study, "Online Gaming 2008" reported that PC was the driving force behind online gaming but that console users were increasing their online playtime.
"Despite the buzz in the industry regarding online gaming, it is still relatively small compared to offline gaming," said NPD Group analyst Anita Frazier.
"There is still a large, untapped market for gaming in general and online gaming in particular."
Another interesting note was that children aged 2 to 12 accounted for over 25 percent of online gaming,and that 18 to 24 year-old represented only 10 percent of online gaming.
Not surprisingly, the Xbox 360 was the favored system for consoles and online play and that 360 owners "actually spent more time per week using their console to play games online than PC and PS3 owners."
The report was based on a survey of 20,240 consumer panel members which was conducted for two weeks earlier this year.
Radiohead is once again reaching out to fans on the Internet after using it to make the band's latest album "In Rainbows" a chart-topping success. Last year, Radiohead released the album for download on its website and let users decide what they wanted to pay for it. Now, the UK rock act has teamed up with iTunes and GarageBand for an interactive project that involves the fans again.
Specifically, Radiohead is allowing fans to rework the the album's second single, "Nude." Five separate tracks are available from iTunes Plus; bass, voice, guitar, strings/effects and drums. Those who attain all five will be sent an access code to complete the task via the GarageBand or Logic music production software.
Finished mixes can be uploaded to Radioheadremix.com, where fans have until May 1 to listen and vote for their favorite. Earlier this year, the CD version of "In Rainbows" was released, debuting at No. 1 on the U.S. and UK charts.
Farhat Nissa, 35, was today sentenced to four years and six months years in prison for her role in a £5 million music counterfeiting operation, following a two-week trial. The sentence is believed to be one of the lengthiest to be handed down for commercial copyright theft in British legal history. Co-conspirators Wasim Mir, 37, and Naveed Shaikh, 38, also received prison sentences of two years and six months, and one year respectively.
The Crown Prosecution Service brought the prosecution after BPI investigations into the supply and distribution of "mixtape" CDs in the UK: urban music compilations that are usually recorded and sold without the permission of, or payment to, the artists or labels that released the original recordings.
The fakes, of a high enough standard to convince legitimate retailers to stock them, were spotted on sale in three London shops, Red Records and CD Bar in Brixton, and Disc & Dat in Walthamstow in 2005, and were withdrawn from sale after BPI investigations. Raids followed at Woolwich Market, and an industrial unit at the Lea Valley Estate where the conspirators owned a storage unit. Further fakes were seized at private premises owned by the conspirators.
EMI Music has appointed the chief information officer from Google and one of its most senior global executives, Douglas Merrill, to lead its growing digital music business. Merrill will head a new global function which brings together for the first time leadership responsibility for all of the company’s digital strategy, innovation, business development, supply chain and global technology activities.
"Douglas is a proven agent of change who combines broad business intellect with a deep engineering background. He has been a key member of the management team at Google which has created more value than any other consumer internet company by focusing relentlessly on tools that enable consumers to do things more effectively. His experience, talents and his ability to drive innovation will be enormously valuable to EMI and to its artists," said Guy Hands, chief executive officer of Terra Firma and chairman of EMI Group.
During Merrill's five years with Google, he rose to become chief information officer and vice president of engineering, responsible for all billing and revenue technology and processes for Google worldwide, together with internal engineering and support worldwide. He was also responsible for the 2006 launch of Google Checkout, which is now a multi-billion dollar business.
The recording and film industries in Mexico have joined forces by forming the Asociación Protectora de Cine y Música México (APCM). It has been setup to tackle the problems of both disc and digital piracy in the country. Mexico is one of the major markets for music and film in Latin America, and as such, has one of the most serious piracy problems globally.
The country is most affected by CD and DVD piracy, with a 65% music piracy rate in 2006 and an illegal market worth US$180 million. Mexico also has a growing digital piracy problem. Today's move follows the successful combination of the anti-piracy efforts of the recording and film industries in Brazil in April 2007.
"We are very enthusiastic about this association. We firmly believe that through the union of our forces in Mexico via APCM, we can obtain better results than the ones that could be obtained by our entities individually", said John Malcolm, Executive Vice president and Director of Anti-piracy International Operations of the Motion Picture Association.
"The fact that the Attorney General's Office supports this merge between both industries' anti-piracy teams is a clear signal that we are going the right way. We have a lot of faith that this project will be a complete success, and will serve as an example for other countries and institutions to imitate", says Mr. Vázquez, General Director of IFPI Latin America.
The rumor began again after DigiTimes stated that Lite-On was working on a Blu-ray drive for Microsoft and that shipments were beginning later this year.
Microsoft has since denied the rumor. “Lite-On is not manufacturing Blu-ray drives for Xbox 360. As we have stated, games are what are driving consumers to purchase game consoles and we remain focused on providing the largest library of blockbuster game available.”
The Microsoft representative added, “For our customers who want a premium movie experience we offer the largest library of on-demand HD content available and the ability to play back DVDs in High Definition.“
Orange France,, the service provider for the Apple iPhone in France has released the sales figures for the device in the country marking the first time an individual country's iPhones sold stats have been released by anyone but Apple.
According to Pocketlint, an "Orange France spokesperson has said they have sold 90,000 iPhones in total since the device went on sale in late November last year."
Of the 90,000 units sold, 86 percent were sold with an iPhone-specific price plans and the remaining 14 percent were not which is odd because it is a legal requirement in France.
Last month, the UK iPhone operator O2 claimed the device was the "company's fastest selling device it has ever had in the UK," but did not go into any sales figure.
At the beginning of the year Apple announced that they had sold 4 million units worldwide.
As many of you surely have been following this story, which has been posted to nearly every user-driven link-sharing service, Creative Labs appeared to threaten a third-party driver developer over homebrew drivers. The drivers were made to address many problems that Creative's hardware has with the Windows Vista operating system, and have received praise from owners of Creative products.
However, in a forum thread on Monday, a representative for Creative appeared to sort of threaten the user, Daniel_K, over the distribution of the drivers after several of his posts were deleted. Since then, the original post (made by Dale-CL) has been edited to address a large amount of negative feedback (large meaning 242 pages at time of writing).
"We own the rights to the materials that you are distributing. By enabling our technology and IP to run on soundcards for which it was not originally offered or intended, you are, in effect, stealing our goods," the original post read. "To be clear, we are asking you to respect our legal rights in this matter and cease all further unauthorized distribution of our technology and IP."
The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) is demanding $2,500,000 from Swedish BitTorrentTracker, The Pirate Bay. The figure is based on 24 CDs, nine movies and four games and how many times they were downloaded. The operators of the site, Gottfried Svartholm Warg, Fredrik Neij, Peter Sunde, and Carl Lundström, have been indicted for breaking copyright law. The compensation claim was served at the Stockholm District Court on Monday.
The Local, a popular Swedish publication, reported Gottfried Svartholm Warg as saying "the record companies can go screw themselves". The four founders of the site say that the IFPI's numbers are purely fantasy. They have always argued that the Pirate Bay is a tracking service and that it doesn't distribute any copyrighted material illegally whatsoever.
The IFPI also recently forced Tele2 to block all access to The Pirate Bay in Denmark, for which the ISP is planning to counter-sue. TeliaSoneria in Sweden also got a letter from IFPI, but claims that blocking and filtering actions are illegal under EU laws. Swedish Minister of Justice Beatrice Ask recently said she is determined to clamp-down on file sharing in the country, but a proposal calling for ISPs to shut off access to subscribers who download pirated works was rejected.
Denmark's biggest ISP, TDC, is to offer a music download service along with its Internet broadband packages. The songs which can be downloaded by customers are restricted by Digital Rights Management (DRM) and would cease working 30 days after a user leaves the ISP. Some figures in the music industry had expressed fears of unlimited music download (or bundle) services that might be open to exploitation.
"You can't have a subscription model where somebody on a monthly model of say $10, goes on in January, downloads six million tracks, and leaves in February,"IFPI chairman John Kennedy said earlier this year. The music industry has shunned several similar services in the past, like Tiscali's Jukebox on-demand Streaming service that used technology from "P2P radio" startup Mercora.
EMI, Warner and Sony BMG will participate in TDC's new "Play" service, but Universal Music Group tends to go its own way. Whether or not the service will be successful depends on what its target really is. If its included in the price of the broadband services, then its target is probably music sharing on its networks. However, with the DRM restrictions, customers who already take part in file sharing may opt to continue with the familiar and less restrictive method, whereas "Play" could be more popular with new users.
Despite fears among eager gamers about a possible ban on the next title in the Grand Theft Auto series in the UK, the rumors are false and the game has in fact been given an 18 Certification by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC). The Register contacted the BBFC and confirmed that the rumors were fueled by a misinterpretation of classification documents.
The game goes on sale in the UK on April 29th and has just received its 18 rating. It is unclear exactly how the released documents led to a fear of a ban reminiscent of the Manhunt 2 case. A document is usually released about 10 days before a game comes out, detailing exactly what factors led to its age band.
In the case of GTA IV, since the BBFC was unaware of the release date, these documents surfaced earlier than usual but are now once again unavailable. They will be re-released on April 19th, 10 days before the store date for GTA IV. There was some controversy during the BBFC's research on the game however. At one point, it provides ingredients for an unknown drug, which forced the BBFC to investigate further.
At the CTIA conference in Las Vegas, Sprint Nextel showed off a new iPhone look-alike from Samsung. The operator claimed that owners of the model would enjoy much faster data speeds than owners of Apple Inc.'s iPhone currently do. The "Instinct" looks like the iPhone and also offers a touch-screen interface.
It has a GPS built in however, and also will use Sprint's high-speed EV-DO (Evolution-Data Optimized) Revision A network. Sprint contrasts the 1.4Mbps average download rate of its EV-DO network to the 200Kbps EDGE (Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution) that the iPhone operates on through AT&T.
The model features a 2.0 megapixel camera and comes with a 2GB MicroSD storage card. The model, which will be available in June, has no price set as of yet. Sprints subscription plans might attract some users to the phone/service. One option priced at $99 offers unlimited voice, text and data services to subscribers.
Sony Pictures launched a new service on Monday called PIX that will lead to full-length movie viewing on AT&T mobile phones soon. The PIX network is a domestic service that will allow viewers to watch selections of videos from the studio's catalog. Movies across all genres will be available and will include added-value material. Titles will be available for up to one month, with films added weekly.
Among the first titles to be offered by Columbia Pictures, Tri-Star, ScreenGems and Sony Pictures Classics are Bugsy, Ghostbusters, The Karate Kid, and Stand By Me. Subscribers of AT&T Mobile TV, which is set to launch next month, will be the first to use the PIX network.
"PIX will give viewers their own personal movie theater wherever they take their mobile phones," said Eric Berger, vice president of mobile entertainment for Sony Pictures Television. "With an incredible library of quality Hollywood hits, it's a mobile destination channel for convenient, enjoyable entertainment, and the latest offering in SPT's distinctive portfolio of mobile games and video."
According to the latest figures from Chart-Track, the Microsoft Xbox 360 is very close to hitting 2 million units sold in the UK. The figure, when hit, will be a big milestone for the console.
Thanks to a sales spurt brought upon by the Easter season and recent price cuts, the console is now in fierce competition with the PlayStation 3 in the territory.
Dorian Bloch, director of UK sales monitor Chart-Track, added, "We are very close to clocking through 2 million 360s in the UK. It should be next week."
The 360 originally launched in the UK in December of 2005 and reached the 1 million sold milestone after 60 weeks. The PS3, which was launched in ther territory in March of 2007, hit 1 million sold last month.
"The Xbox 360 is extremely well liked in the UK and very strong," added Bloch. "Sony has a long way to go to overtake it in the UK."
Although unconfirmed, industry sources are quoted as saying that Lite-On IT is currently developing Blu-ray Disc-(BD) ROM drives for the Microsoft Xbox 360 console and that they will begin shipments in the 3Q 2008.
Lite-On is one of the suppliers of the current Xbox-360 INTERNALDVD-ROM drive but Lite-On and Microsoft have not commented on the speculation.
The sources continued by adding that Microsoft decided to switch to BD after the demise of HD DVD and that the new BD-drives will be fore next generation Xbox 360 game consoles.
Lite-On already ships BD-ROM and BD burners on a steady basis.
Google has decided to challenge Boeing with its new airplane. The airplane is yet to be constructed, but you can find the prototype version of the airplane on Google Docs. According to AfterDawn CTO, Jari Ketola, the paper-folded version of the airplane is easy to fold, but does need some improvements on stability and flight coordination before it is ready for mass production.
"Being a first-timer in aviation business the effort was pretty solid, and the instructions were easy to follow," said Jari Ketola. He didn't however recommend Google to move away from the search engine business yet. There were some unexpected problems during the maiden voyage and the sudden stop in a collision with office wall was considered by Ketola to be a too radical landing strategy.
The airplane can be printed through your Google Docs account. Select New -> Document and once the document is open select File -> New airplane. You can also simply click here for a full-scale PDF version of the airplane and print it.
More than a year has passed since PlayStation 3 was released. The whole time hackers have been busy trying to break into the system and run Homebrew, without any luck -- until now. First homebrew software was run on a Firmware 2.20 PS3 yesterday. A simple "Hello World"-program was created by a known PSP hacker Dragula96 and run through a vulnerability in the system architecture.
Dragula96 claims that this is no April Fools joke and that it works on both 40GB and 60GB models with firmware 2.20. There has been no details yet on how he managed to do the trick. For the next step Dragula96 will try to run a pong game successfully on a PS3.
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has suffered another legal setback after a judge denied a ruling in a music piracy case this week. The judge ruled that "the sole act of making a music file available in a "shared folder" does not violate copyright laws."
Despite Blu-ray's victory over rival format 
