News archive (1 / 2009)

After seeing the bill pass unanimously in the Senate but then fail to pass in the House of Representatives, the Obama administration has said that the anticipated delay of the digital TV transition has passed the Senate again and is expected to pass in the House as well.

"We anticipate that the House will pass a delay on DTV until June 12," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs added.

The transition, making digital TV signals mandatory for those without cable or satellite subscriptions, was scheduled to occur on February 17th.

The current administration believes a delay is necessary as many households that still receive analog signals are not prepared for the transition.

Several months ago documents outlining a secret proposal from the US Trade Representative (USTR) for a new intellectual property treaty were leaked to the public. Although the few details we know about negotiahe Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) show it to be a collaboration between entertainment industry representatives and government officials in various countries. Unfortunately most of what's been published so far is really just speculation.

In an attempt to bring these negotiations into the open for everyone, instead of just entertainment industry lobbyists, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act. But the office of the USTR has been less than forthcoming with information.

In fact they're actively trying to block the release of almost all the information requested. So far they've turned over just 159 pages to the EFF, while insisting that 1300 pages need to be remain secret.

And what reason are they citing for the secrecy. Actually there are two reasons given. The first is mostly just laughable. They claim some of the documents would endanger national security if released. But the other claim seems to just miss the point. The USTR is claiming an exemption from turning documents over that would expose their "deliberative process." If I'm not mistaken that's exactly the point of the request.

Swiss authorities announced today that they had found a large marijuana plantation while using Google Earth, the extremely popular free satellite mapping software.

The discovery was part of an ongoing investigation that has so far led to the arrest of 16 people and the seizure of 1.2 tons of marijuana with a street value of $2.5 million USD. Cash and other valuables were seized as well with a value of over $800,000 USD.

The head of Zurich police's specialist narcotics unit, Norbert Klossner, said the field was in the northeastern canton (state) of Thurgau. The plantation is about 7500 square meters and was hidden inside a larger field of corn.

"It was an interesting chance discovery," said Klossner.

The 16 suspects have allegedly sold 7.7 tons of marijuana since 2004, making an average of 6 million Swiss francs a year.

Ireland's largest ISP Eircom has settled with the Big 4 labels EMI, Sony, Universal and Warner, and has agreed to disconnect customers who download unauthorized music.

The ISP was sued in March by the Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA) and the record labels wanted Eircom to "install software from a U.S. firm to detect the 'fingerprint' of copyrighted music files being sent on its network."

Eircom instead agreed to disconnect users using a "three strikes you're out" rule, giving two email warnings before shutting off their Internet connection. No "footprint" software will be used by the ISP itself.

IRMA will forward the IP addresses of alleged pirates to the ISP which will then be in charge of sending out warning emails.

"High Court proceedings ... have been settled on an amicable basis with both sides expressing satisfaction with the outcome," Eircom said.

"The record companies have agreed that they will take all necessary steps to put similar agreements in place with all other Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in Ireland."

According to PG.biz, Apple is set to add a "premium games section" to the App Store which will offer games for the iPhone and the iPod Touch for about $19.99 USD.

The section will be open to a restricted number of large publishers such as Electronics Arts, and would set the iPhone apart in the smartphone market as a "serious gaming" handheld.

Most games in the App Store currently come from low budget publishers or casual coders, and many sell for 99 cents to $9.99 USD. Apple recently noted that the store had hit a half billion downloads and was home to 15,000 applications.

Apple has not confirmed the report, and neither has any large publisher, but PocketGamer believes Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) would be a likely launch date.

We will keep you updated.

According to a WSJ report, Dell may be preparing to move into the mobile phone business; as soon as next month.

The report says a group of engineers have been working on a phone based on the Android operating system for over a year now, and on a phone based on Windows Mobile for over six months.

Dell will be focusing on the increasingly crowded smartphone market, currently led by Apple, RIM and Palm and their two devices will likely be a touchscreen phone and one with a slide out QWERTY keyboard.

A Dell spokesperson added "We haven't committed to anything," and can still drop all plans for the phone.

Michael Dell, CEO of the company, has been rumored to be interested in creating smartphones since at least last year but so far nothing has come of the efforts.

Microsoft has confirmed a new Xbox 360 Pro bundle for Europe today that will play to one of the system's biggest strengths, its blockbuster Halo franchise.

Beginning on February 29th the new "Best of Halo" Xbox 360 Pro Bundle will go on sale around Europe with “Halo Wars”, "Halo 3", and an Xbox 360 Pro video game system plus a wireless controller. The suggested retail price is €269.

The "Halo" franchise, now in its fourth installment, is a billion dollar franchise and is an Xbox exclusive. Halo 3, released last year, made over $300 million USD in sales in its first week of release and was even blamed for Hollywood's poor showing in October.

The bundle will be available in Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Greece, Slovakia, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Republic of Hungary, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland.

It's no secret that certain elements in the US Federal Government would like to see all copyright infringement criminalized and the Department of Justice used as an enforcement agency for intellectual property owners. What gets less publicity is the work by the office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) to similarly effect the law in other countries. Earlier this week the USTR's office issued a press release declaring victory in one such case against China, but behind their celebration is actually a significant defeat.

Although the World Trade Organization (WTO) agreed with US claims that China isn't living up to their obligation to protect foreign copyrights under the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). The portion of the treaty in question requires that all participants at least criminalize willful commercial infringement of intellectual property.

Specifically, a WTO panel concluded that the US hadn't profided any real evidence since it was all in the form of newspaper clippings. According to the WTO report, "the Panel does not ascribe any weight to the evidence in the press articles and finds that, even if it did, the information that these press articles contain is inadequate to demonstrate what is typical or usual in China for the purposes of the relevant treaty obligation."

Digital Rights Management (DRM) has nowadays a widely spread reputation to break things and make things more complicated. Another nail in this coffin was struck when gamers realized that they're copy of the Gears of War for Windows didn't start up after January 27th.

The problem was that the game developer Epic had added a digital certificate that expired Jan 28th. When the system date hit this day the game wouldn't start up anymore. It could be said that Epic and its Games for Windows partner Microsoft unintentionally promoted pirated version of the game which is not affected by the certificate.

The unhappy gamers quickly found out a way around the problem. By setting the Windows date back in time before Jan 28th you'll have a functioning game again.

Epic is currently trying to find out a way to find a solution to the problem. The company hasn't yet told if the certificate was added by accident or if the game should have been updated before the date.

In an attempt to fight movie piracy the UK Film Council has set up a website aimed at helping consumers find legal content. FindAnyFilm.com has a simple form where you can simply enter a movie's title and find out what formats it's available in and where.

This is similar to a plan announced last year by the MPAA, although much broader in scope. Besides searching for titles, you can also use the website to locate movie theaters. There are also trailers available to watch.

Peter Buckingham, Head of Distribution and Exhibition at the UK Film Council who pioneered this new site says "This new site is going to transform how consumers find the films they want to watch - we will soon wonder how we ever coped without it! We have turned what was often an incredibly time-consuming, frustrating process into one that makes it much easier for film fans to see films in the UK. FindAnyFilm.com does exactly what it says on the tin and is the fastest place to find a film to watch in any format, if it's legally available in the UK."

It's no secret that the big Hollywood studios haven't exactly been eager to back online video distribution. In fact their unwillingness to assume any risk in such ventures has arguably slowed the entire market more than any other force. That's why it's so surprising to see a company owned by several studios announcing a new service that will combine television and internet-based video on demand.

Studio 3 Networks is jointly owned by MGM, Lionsgate Entertainment, and Paramount's parent company Viacom. So far their epix premium TV channel apparently has no deals in place with cable or satellite TV services yet. What they do have is exclusive access to theatrical movies from Paramount, Paramount Vantage, MTV Films, Nickelodeon Movies, MGM, United Artists, and Lionsgate released from the beginning of 2009 on. In addition they'll have use of many catalog titles from each of those studios.

Perhaps inspired by the huge success of Netflix in delivering internet video as only part of their offering. They plan to launch the TV service near the end of this year, but will apparently be online video on demand as early as May.

Sony's gaming division, dubbed the PlayStation Division, was hit hard for the quarter ended December 31st, 2008, with operating revenue down over 30 percent year-on-year to $4.32 billion USD.

In a hardware sales comparison, PS3 sales were 4.46 million, down 44,000 units, and PSP handheld sales were down 68,000 units to 5.08 million units. The PS2 saw the hardest hit, understandably, with sales dropping over 60 percent to 2.52 million.

The company blamed the global recession for the decline in hardware and software sales and also noted that the Yen's appreciation against the Euro played a role as well.

Some good news did slip through however, as Sony noted that PS3 software sales were up significantly year-on-year from 26 million to 41 million units.

According to their latest earnings report, Nintendo is cutting their profit forecast by 33 percent for fiscal 2009, surprising many analysts and casual gamers alike.

It is clear to anyone who reads AfterDawn daily or reads the newspapers that the Nintendo Wii is the top selling console, by far, and supply always appears to be low while demand never diminishes. Their previous Q3 earnings results showed that sales were up 21 percent year-on-year from 2007.

In regards to the earnings report, Hiroshi Kamide, a KBC Financial Products analyst added: "Today’s revision suggests that the roaring pace of Wii growth that we’ve seen until now may be over. Perhaps something big has gone wrong, and that people are not buying the machines."

If you suspect your ISP is throttling BitTorrent traffic and don't want to wait for the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) to prove it Google wants to help. Their new network measuerment platform, M-Lab, was launched yesterday along with three tools built on it. Glasnost, a tool for determing whether your ISP is manipulating BitTorrent traffic, is one of them.

Before you rush off to try it out you should be aware their servers are getting a lot of traffic right now and you may have to wait a long time to get through. No doubt this will change as the newness wears off and the publicity dies down somewhat.

If you just want to find out the results of other users' tests you can skp straight to the Glasnost results page which gives you a picture of results broken down by geographic area and time. It can't tell you what ISPs are found to be manipulating BitTorrent traffic though. You'll need to run the test for yourself to find out if yours does.

Comcast has announced the launch of a new VOD service that will offer unlimited Disney Family Movies for $5.99 per month.

All Comcast cable subscribers now have access to the service, which offers 20 hours of content every month, 10 full feature length films and two short programs.

The feature films, such as "Treasure Planet" and "The Parent Trap" will remain in rotation for one month. New titles will be added every week.

“For just $5.99 a month, we’re offering unlimited viewing of 10 classic Disney movies whenever you want,” added Derek Harrar, senior VP and general manager of video services for Comcast. “Kids’ and family programming continues to be one of our top ‘On Demand’ categories, and we are thrilled to continue delivering the best quality content with Disney.”

Dan Cohen, executive VP of pay TV and new media at Disney-ABC Domestic Television, concluded, “The addition of this one-of-a-kind, family-friendly service is a wonderful complement to the company’s video-on-demand initiatives.”

Last month we reported that the RIAA was set to stop lawsuits, and would instead pressure ISPs to send warnings to alleged pirates eventually shutting down service to those that received three warnings.

According to sources talking to CNet, AT&T and Comcast appear to be the first ISPs to willingly join the RIAA's monitoring program and begin sending warnings to alleged pirates as the RIAA demands. After a few warnings, the ISPs will wither throttle the user's bandwidth or permanently disconnect them.

The agreements have not been signed yet, and the ISPs do still have time to withdraw, notes the sources. It appears the last speed bump before the contracts get signed is over compensation for the ISPs for customers who get their Internet taken away.

Four unnamed providers specifically noted that they were worried about being known collaborators with the RIAA, which would cause obvious customer defections and "negative press."

According to Pocket-Lint, Skype will be announcing a new version of its popular VoIP software next month at the Mobile World Congress.

The company added that the launch will include "new versions of Skype for various operating systems used in the mobile space", alongside "partnerships with major handset and mobile technology vendors".

Those words have left many believing that Skype will be launching a dedicated iPhone application as well as updated Windows Mobile 6.5 software. Skype for the RIM Blackberry Storm is also expected.

Just a few weeks back, Skype introduced Skype Lite that works on Android devices such as the G1 and other Java-enabled phones.

Today the US House of Representatives voted down a bill that would have postponed the DTV transition scheduled for February 17. The DTV Delay Act, which passed the Senate on Monday, would have allowed broadcasters to continue analog TV broadcasts until the middle of June.

Even though the delay President Obama wants appears to be dead, there may still be action on the way in the form of an alternative bill introduced earlier this week. This alternative legislation would provide an additional $250 million to the program which provides vouchers for DTV converters.

Currently there's a waiting list for vouchers and none can be sent out until either existing vouchers expire without being used or additional funding is approved.

One thing this new legislation doesn't do that they DTV Delay Act would have is authorize the replacement of expired vouchers. But it's still possible similar language could be added with an amendment.

It's been less than a week since the resignation of Kevin Martin from his position as Chairman of the FCC, but his temporary replacement is wasting no time making some changes. Commissioner Michael Copps, who is keeping the chairman's seat warm until Barrack Obama's nominee Julius Genachowski is approved by the Senate, has promised to improve agency communications and credibility.

In remarks made after his appointment as interim FCC Chairman Copps outlined three goals for the agency. The first is intra-agency communication. He promised the various internal divisions would work more closely together, saying "There is no reason I can see for not having the various Bureaus and Offices more closely collaborating with each other on issues of mutual interest." He added "If we can’t communicate with ourselves, we shouldn’t have the word “Communications” in our title."

He also indicated there would be more and better communication between the commissioners and those same internal bureaus. He plans to hold a weekly meeting with the head of each bureau and office in attendance. He's also inviting each commissioner to send a representative. Just a few days ago Commissioner Robert McDowell criticized the outgoing chairman for not involving his colleagues in agency planning.

On Tuesday the European Commission sponsored the Personal Music Players Stakeholders' Conference in response to a study commissioned last Fall which found as many as 10% of people who use personal music players may be at risk for hearing loss. The study was conducted by the EC Health & Consumer Protection Directorate-General who issued their initial report in October.

In her keynote address to open the one day conference, European Consumer Commissioner Meglena Kuneva indicated an interest in hearing from the industry and consumer interest representatives present to plot a course for future research, technology development, and potentially even regulation. She noted "The Scientific Committee opinion highlights that, if consumers use their personal music players for only one hour per day each week at more than 89 decibels, they would exceed the current limits in place for noise allowed in the workplace."

Last year's report warns "Literature data indicate that excessive acute exposures to PMPs music at maximal or near maximal output volume can produce reversible hearing impairment (temporary threshold shift) up to 30 dB at 4 kHz in some individuals after short time (one or more hours) of exposure." However it also cautions that more research needs to be done in order to answer a number of outstanding questions.

In recent months the open source Theora video format has seen something of a renaissance with the long awaited transition from beta to release status. Much of the interest in Theora can be traced directly to Firefox developers.

Now the organization behind Firefox, the Mozilla Foundation is making yet another contribution to Theora. This time it's monetary. They've announced a grant of $100,000 for the development of Theora encoding and playback software. The grant will be administered by the Wikimedia Foundation, the organization which has operated Wikipedia since 2003.

Mike Shaver, Vice President of Engineering for the Mozilla Corporation, wrote on his blog, "Our commitment to the success of open video on the web requires that we select codecs for Firefox that are usable by everyone, without restriction or licensing fee. To that end, we’ve chosen Theora as the format for Firefox 3.1."

Wikimedia Foundation Deputy Director Eric Möller made the announcement on that organization's blog, writing "Wikimedia and Mozilla want to help to build a web where video and audio are first class citizens: easy to use and manipulate by anyone, without compulsory royalty schemes or other barriers to participation."

After being forced out of service last year, Muxtape is now building up from the ground up again. Muxtape was shut down after puzzling licensing deal jungle and pressure from the RIAA in September. Now one the most noted mixtape sites is back with legit content from 12 artists.

"Welcome to a preview of the new Muxtape, a minimalist platform for bands to promote their music and listeners to create mixes. We’ve invited 12 of our favorite artists to help test, and in the coming weeks we'll begin allowing bands to sign up themselves for free," states the site.

The mixtape scene has skyrocketed from the initial launch of Muxtape -- and the fall of it and Mixwit. In addition to the new Muxtape there's something for everyone: Mixaloo, Mixtube, 8tracks, Tumbltape and Favtape.

Last month we reported that DivX 7 was coming and the updated product has finally arrived.

From the official site: DivX® 7 for Windows is a free download that provides everything you need to enjoy high-quality digital videos on your computer, including HD H.264 (.mkv) videos with AAC audio and videos created using all previous versions of DivX technology. You can also play your DivX files (.divx, .avi) on millions of DivX Certified® devices today. Look for DivX Plus™ HD Certified devices later this year that will support playback of all DivX and DivX Plus files, as well as .mkv (H.264/AAC) videos from the Internet.

According to "sources" that have contacted IGN, the eventual PSP 2 handheld will have dual thumbsticks, touch screen interface, the removal of UMD, and other hardware improvements.

The "credible sources" added the PSP 2 "will feature a widescreen multi-touch interface comparable to that of the iPhone for both in-game control and menu navigation."

Sony representatives have declined any comment on the rumor ("We can't comment on rumors or speculation,") but the increase in rumors has flared since CES.

The original PSP has been updated twice over its lifespan, but only with small hardware revisions, mainly making the system lighter and thinner.

Last week we reported that Microsoft Zune revenue had fallen over $100 million USD year-on-year from 2007.

Microsoft has now spoken out about the numbers and says that the huge drop in revenue was "unexpected."

Zune Director of Marketing Adam Sohn, when asked what factors led to the decline, added:

"Some of them are environmental. Everyone knows that the economy is not what it was a year ago, and that is hurting some folks. We are in a position where the category is also shrinking. So I think those are things that affected everybody's sales, including Apple."

Sohn also noted that the software giant did not use aggressive marketing with their third generation Zune devices. Many consumers will argue that there was in fact, no marketing to speak of.

The director did add that new Zune products were coming soon, and that development was "fast and furious."

"Every time anything comes up, there is a set of people who pull a Chicken Little and say, 'The sky is falling. Zune is dead,'" Sohn noted. "The fact is we are on track to deliver the next generation of Zune innovation in software and hardware."

Apple, despite a reported 15 percent decline sales, continues to dominate the MP3 player market with a hefty 70 percent market share. Most reports show Microsoft as having 3-5 percent market share.

Western Digital has just announced a new SATA II hard drive with a whopping 2TB (2 trillion Byte) capacity. The company says not only is it bigger than other hard drives on the market, but it also uses less power.

"With the launch of the new WD Caviar Green 2 TB hard drive, customers receive the additional capacities needed to operate today's highly advanced programs and high-resolution digital files while using less power than typical drives with similar performance and capacities," said Western Digital senior vice president Jim Morris

According to the company's website, power usage of the highest capacity Caviar Green is just barely better than previous models (Caviar Blue and Caviar Black) during Read/Write operations. Where it really seems to shine is when it's idle. While earlier models use nearly the same power whether they're doing anything or not, the Caviar Green's power drops by nearly half.

When comparing Caviar Green hard drives with similar specs to their Caviar Blue and Black predecessors the difference is much more pronounced. According to the website a 1TB Caviar Green drive with 16MB of cache uses about 64% as much power as a comparable Caviar Black. When idle it uses just 36% as much power.

Microsoft has made the first release candidate of Internet Explorer 8 available for download. The latest version of the browser boasts better standards compliance with both HTML 4.01 and CSS 2.1.

There are also some new features added to IE 8, including something they're calling Accelators. Each accelerator corresponds to an online service which can be used directly on a page's content. For example, you could highlight a street address and use a map service's accelerator to look it up without the hassle of copying and pasting into a different page.

Other additions to the world's most popular browser include enhancements to the built-in search and suggestions for websites you may be interested in based on your browsing history.

You can download Internet Explorer 8 RC (Release Candidate) 1 from our Downloads section.

About six months ago Roku introduced a set-top box which allowed Netflix subscribers to connect the video rental giant's Watch Instantly service to a TV. It was an immediate success and was followed by an ever expanding list of devices including Blu-ray players, game consoles, and even HDTVs. During the Netflix conference call on last quarter's earnings CEO, Reed Hastings, explained how these strategic partnerships have helped them beat their own growth estimates in spite of the poor economy.

"In hindsight, in Q4 we under-forecast our subscriber growth primarily because we underestimated the positive impact of the introduction of the multifunction CE devices from LG Electronics, Samsung, Microsoft, and TiVo that promote Netflix streaming" said Hastings. He added "The precise impact of the recession is unclear, but it's very clear that streaming is energizing our growth."

As Senate Democrats have worked hard to pass the legislation requested by President Obama to postpone the DTV transition until June, Republicans have been working on legislation of their own. Today a bill was introduced by Congressman Joe Barton of Texas that would provide an additional $250 million to the DTV voucher program. The program, which provides voucher cards to be redeemed for up to $40 toward a DTV converter, is currently slated to provide $1.34 billion to consumers.

The problem, according to the bill's authors, is that all the money set aside for DTV vouchers is currently tied up. Even though just over half has actually been spent through voucher redemption for converter boxes, the remaining amount is already committed to others still in circulation. As it currently stands new vouchers can't be sent out until those expire, freeing up the necessary funds.

They also point out that this may not even cost any additional money in the long run as it's possible $250 million worth of vouchers may go unredeemed by the program's end. By authorizing the additional funds now they say there would be no need to postpone the transition, avoiding any delay in turning over portions of the broadcast spectrum currently used for analog TV to public safety personnel and wireless internet providers.

According to a The Telegraph report, the Communication Minister in the UK, Lord Carter, is looking to add a "universal levy" to every broadband user's monthly bill that will help compensate "film and music companies for their losses from illegal downloads."

Carter also says that "the entertainment industry - which has lobbied for the fee to be introduced - estimates it will lose £1 billion over the next five years due to piracy".

Sources quoted by the report say however that the plan will not be introduced this year, as there is fear it will slow "universal broadband" adoption "by 2012."

It may not be happening soon, but it appears if Lord Carter and the entertainment industry have their way, every UK resident with cable or DSL Internet will be paying extra every month to compensate for "billions" of dollars in piracy losses faced by the film and music industries.

Just three days after it was decided a vote was necessary, the US Senate has voted unanimously to delay the upcoming mandatory transition from analog signals to digital signals.

The new transition date is set for June 12th, moving four months back from its original February 17th date. The proposal now moves to Congress and could be passed as soon as tomorrow morning.

President Obama backed the proposal fully, noting that America was still not ready for the transition and that a February transition date would cause more problems than it would solve.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration, the group in charge of coupons for converter boxes that allow analog signal users to receive digital broadcasts, says they have exceeded their $1.34 billion USD funding limit. 3 million Americans remain on waiting lists for the coupons.

Following Apple's Q1 fiscal earnings report last week, it was made clear that the iPhone continues to be a huge seller, selling 4,363,000 units for the period, an 88 percent growth year-on-year.

Total iPhone sales for 2008 now stand at 13.7 million.

Apple began selling its first generation iPhone in fiscal 2007 and then the iPhone 3G in July 2008. The company now offers the media device in over 70 countries and explained that that in its first quarter of availability, 6.9 million units were sold.

CEO Steve Jobs added that company was doing well despite the global economic downturn and expects the company to continue to succeed in the future. “Even in these economically challenging times, we are incredibly pleased to report our best quarterly revenue and earnings in Apple history—surpassing $10 billion in quarterly revenue for the first time ever.”

According to numbers released just last week by The Nielsen Company, 5.7 million US households are still not prepared for the upcoming DTV transition. Nielsen analysts say this is actually a big improvement from the end of last year when the number was around 7 million.

Despite the impressive gains so far in the month of January, a significant percentage of the population is still unprepared for what's going on in less than a month. Around 10% of African-American and Hispanic households aren't even close to being ready according to the Nielsen data, gathered from the same sample used for their famous television ratings.

“Nielsen has been preparing for the transition to digital television for more than two years,” said company Vice Chair Susan Whiting. “Because we recognize that accurate and reliable information on consumer behavior is essential to this transition, we’ve been sharing our data with clients, government leaders and the public so they could track progress to digital readiness.”

In recent weeks there has been a movement in Washington to delay the transition a few more months. Supporters of the idea include President Obama and several key members of Congress. This isn't particularly surprising given the comments made at various hearings on the subject in the past. In the days leading up to the inauguration of President Obama the chorus of critics was even joined by an FCC commissioner.

Disney has announced that the animated hit Bolt will be released on Blu-ray two days before the standard DVD release, hopefully giving the HD version a jump start in sales.

The studio has not given official release dates for either version, but many believe it will be March 22nd and the 24th, respectively.

“This should give some incentive to Blu-ray fans,” added a studio exec, “this is not a strategy that will happen with every title.”

Another studio source added that the decision may cause confusion among consumers who still do not understand Blu-ray for the most part.

“Disney’s thought process is that, if we let the Blu-ray out a few days early, people will buy the Blu-ray instead of the DVD,” noted that source. “It gives Blu-ray a headstart. But there will be retailers who don’t know what’s coming out when. [Some] will probably break street date on the standard DVD.”

After making a lot of their popular video clips available online, Monty Python has seen a DVD sales increase of over 23,000 percent.

“We’re letting you see absolutely everything for free. So there! But we want something in return. None of your driveling, mindless comments. Instead, we want you to click on the links, buy our movies & TV shows and soften our pain and disgust at being ripped off all these years,” said the group when the clips went up.

As of yesterday, Monty Python's DVDs had jumped up to the top of Amazon’s Movies & TV bestsellers list.

You can view the clips here: MontyPython YouTube Channel

Who says free is always bad?

When Apple introduced its multi-touch user interface on the iPhone in 2007, CEO Steve Jobs made it very clear that the technology was patented.

It appears a rival smartphone maker, Palm, has finally replicated the multi-touch interface, and comments from Apple are suggesting a lawsuit is coming.

COO Tim Cook said: "We like competition as long as they don't rip off our IP (intellectual property).And if they do, we're going to go after anybody that does."

"I don't want to talk about any specific company. I'm just making a general statement that we think competition is good. It makes us all better. And we are ready to suit up and go against anyone. However, we will not stand for having our IP ripped off. And we will use whatever weapons that we have at our disposal. I don't know that I can be any more clear than that."

Four convicted uploaders from the now defunct torrent tracker OiNK have been sentenced to community service today, and forced to pay all court costs incurred.

The founder and administrator of the site, Alan Ellis, and one other uploader are still awaiting a jury trial.

The site was taken down in late 2007 under Operation Ark Royal brought forward by UK and Dutch police. Ellis is under arrest for conspiracy to defraud, while the uploaders were charged with copyright infringement for uploading music.

Torretnfreak adds that "Steven Diprose was sentenced to 180 hours community service, and has to pay £378 in Court costs. Michael Myers was ordered to pay a £500 fine. Mark Tugwell has to undertake 100 hours community service and has to pay £378 Court costs. The fourth uploader, James Garner was sentenced to 50 hours community service and also has to pay £378 Court costs."

The senators involved with the upcoming mandatory transition to Digital TV signals from analog signals in the US have agreed to a bill that would delay the transition to June 12th from February 17th. The legislation will go to vote next week, with some expecting as early as Monday.

The delay will give the Commerce Committee more time to get funds for coupons for converter boxes that allow analog signal users to receive digital broadcasts, free of charge.

The postponement has the backing of new President Barack Obama after it was concluded most consumers are still not prepared despite, literally, years of television ads from the government and cable companies looking to get new subscribers.

"The shameful truth is that we are not poised to do this transition right," added Sen. John D. Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), chairman of the Commerce Committee, "We are only weeks away from doing it dreadfully wrong -- and leaving consumers with the consequences."

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration, the group in charge of the coupons, says they have exceeded their $1.34 billion USD funding limit. 3 million Americans remain on waiting lists for the coupons.

According to Q4 2008 filings with the SEC, Microsoft Zune revenue has fallen over $100 million USD year-on-year from 2007, confirming that Zune sales continue to struggle mightily.

The rest of the division, Microsoft Entertainment and Devices, brought in $151 million USD profit, on the back of strong Xbox 360 sales.

The revenue number represents a a 54 percent drop year on year, and has led analysts to believe that the device may be on its way out, despite the recent release of 3rd generation flash models.

To date there have only been 3.2 million Zune units sold compared to Apple's 170 million iPod sales.

Nokia has announced that they have shipped their millionth Nokia 5800 XpressMusic handset, the company's first mass market touch screen device. The phone is also notable for its Comes With Music service which allows for unlimited music downloads for one year.

The phone went up for sale originally in October of last year, and promptly sold out in regions such as Hong Kong and Russia. The device recently went on sale in the UK, and retailers had lines of potential buyers waiting.

"The Nokia 5800 XpressMusic has been received very positively and this milestone is just further proof that people all over the world want a device that is not only a great music experience, but also makes the most of touch screen technology," noted Jo Harlow, Vice President, Nokia.

The device is touchscreen and can be considered more of music player than a phone. Its dual speakers face outwards and there is a 3.5mm headphone jack, two features not found on many phones. Also included are 81 MB of on-board memory and a large 8GB microSD card as well as a guitar pick stylus.

In 2007 Joel Tenenbaum joined tens of thousands of defendants accused by the RIAA of violating their members' copyrights by sharing files using a P2P file sharing service. But unlike the vast majority of the defendants in these cases he chose to fight rather than settle. Even more remarkably he opted to represent himself in court against an entire team of high priced lawyers.

Sometimes the best defense is a good offense, and ultimately that became Joel Tenenbaum's strategy. Of course that was after he was introduced to a tactic the RIAA has used repeatedly to punish those who dare to challenge them in court. They stalled. Then they stalled some more. Then they stalled even more. Eventually he decided to fight back and began filing counter claims.

Finally he reached the point where the case was too much to handle without more legal expertise. That was when a lawyer stepped up to help Mr. Tenenbaum out. That someone was Harvard Law School Professor Charles Nesson. Recently I talked to Professor Nesson to get a better understanding of the case's details.

Microsoft has announced the launch of MSN Mobile Music in the UK, a service that will allow users to buy and download music directly to their mobile phones.

However, going against the trend, Microsoft has added crippling DRM to the tracks, as well as raised the price to above even what Apple charges on iTunes.

In an interview with PCPro, Hugh Griffiths, Head of Mobile at Microsoft UK answered a few tough questions as to why Microsoft made such an anti-consumer service.

From the interview:

With the likes of iTunes and Amazon offering DRM-free music that you can play on any device, why would anyone choose the MSN Mobile service?

There may well be people who just want to listen to the track on their mobile alone.

They can do that with iTunes and Amazon.

We will see what the outcome of this is. We'll see whether customers find it an acceptable proposition or not. We've been encouraged by the results in the first couple of weeks. It's ultimately down to consumer choice. We'd like to have offered a fuller service, we weren't in a position to do so for a number of reasons.

VUDU has announced the launch of an application for the iPhone/iPod Touch, dubbed VUDU Movie Catalog, which will allow users to browse through VUDU's extensive movie library and rent or purchase films on the go. All media will then be automatically downloaded to their VUDU box for use.

The program is available free, now, through the Apple App Store.

VUDU has over 13,000 films and TV shows and the actual box "contains four video outputs, HDMI version 1.1, component, composite, and S-Video, which can be used to display a variety of resolutions such as 480i/p, 720p, 1080i, and 1080p/24. On top of the movie and show selection, VUDU also comes with millions of internet titles users can choose from."

Picture thanks to source:

Following the bankruptcy and liquidation of the large US retailer Circuit City, its Canadian counterpart The Source is going up for auction, and could be purchased by Best Buy.

There are currently 765 The Source stores and each is going up for auction.

There has not been an official list of potential buyers released, but the stores should be sold by Monday.

If Best Buy were to purchase any of the stores, it would be most of the smaller sized stores which can then be turned into Best Buy Mobile stores which specialize in mobile phones.

Apple has updated their popular Quicktime media player, patching critical security flaws as well as tweaking the software to accept more file formats.

Version 7.6, available now for Mac and Windows users, fixes seven "critical" bugs, each of which would have allowed remote installation of unauthorized software on your computer.

The exploits would trick users into visiting a "malicious Web site" or to play a media file with malicious code. None of the exploits were publicly known before the release today of the update.

InfoWorld adds that "the 7.6 update also includes some performance enhancements for H.2640-encoded and Motion JPEG media files, as well as some audio tweaks for AAC (Advanced Audio Coding) and MPEG video files. The update also improves compatibility with iChat and Photo Booth."

The Italian Ministry of Culture seems to be following in the footsteps of the French government, and is preparing to overhaul its intellectual property rights to include a 'three strikes' (you're out) model for suspected pirates.

Minister of Culture Sandro Bondi added that the intellectual property laws will be updated and be based on the current French model, thanks to a cooperation deal with French officials.

Some of Italy's current laws date back to the 19th century, and Bondi noted that film piracy is more "severe" in the region than in most of Western Europe.

The Italian government has pegged confronting piracy as a top priority and has been discussing methods since early 2008.

According to the analyst firm Venture Beat, the Nintendo Wii is well on its way to passing the Sony PlayStation 2 as the most successful console of all time, and should do so by 2014.

The PlayStation 2 has sold roughly 140 million consoles over its lifespan but the firm is predicting the Wii will hit 154 million units sold by 2014.

Comparatively, for its first 26 months of availability in the US, the Wii is leading the PS2 by 10 percent; 17.5 million units sold to 15.9. Overall the Wii has sold over 40 million consoles worldwide.

The report also noted that the current-generation Sony PlayStation 3 has sold 7 million units in the US so far, comparable to the initial sales of the Gamecube. The PS3 is expected to have a much longer lifespan however.

Sony has released the latest firmware update for the PlayStation 3 gaming console, updating some media capabilities.

The update, version 2.60's, "key feature is a new Photo Gallery application, which delivers a suite of tools for sorting through and displaying your digital photo collection. Digital pictures can be organized in groups according to various criteria, including the camera used to take the photos, the event date and time, colors in the photos, as well as the number, ages, or facial expressions of the people pictured. You can also create slideshows set to music and build photo playlists with an easy-to-use interface. The Photo Gallery application will need to be installed separately from the XMB after you update your PS3’s firmware. To install the Photo Gallery application, go to the Photo section on the XMB, select Photo Gallery and press the X button.

The 2.60 update also includes:

* Guest access to PlayStation Store – This enables non-PlayStation Network members to browse through the storefront to check out the latest games, demos, videos, etc.
* DivX 3.11 support – Videos in this format can now be played on PS3."

Swedish file sharers have enjoyed quite a bit of protective privacy against the police. In Sweden a file sharer is usually safe from police action as the crimes do not generally carry a prison sentence. This might change now that the police will deliver Minister for Justice Beatrice Ask with a report that recommends authority for police action even in minor file sharing cases previously punishable only by a fine. According to Dagbladet, the Minister for Justice will receive the proposition this Friday.

The legislation is based on the controversial Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Directive (IPRED) and would allow police to find out email and phone call details as well as request permission for home search.

Swedish Pirate Party Chairman Rick Falkvinge opposed the whole IPRED law in an interview with TorrentFreak saying, "These laws are written by digital illiterates who behave like blindfolded, drunken elephants trumpeting about in an egg packaging facility. They have no idea how much damage they’re causing, because they lack today’s literacy: an understanding of how the Internet is reshaping the power structures at their core."

LG has showed off two new plasma HDTVs dubbed the Xcanvas bobos 42PQ60D and 50PQ60D. The larger model boasts an unprecedented 1,000,000,000:1 contrast ratio and a 600Hz refresh rate.

Both models have built-in USB ports that allow users to playback many file types including WMV and DivX videos.

According to the source, "speakers are built into either TV, each of which is just over 3 inches thick. For efficient energy use, an ambient light sensor will dim the backlight of each set as conditions dictate, and the feature is said to reduce as much as 60 percent of a conventional plasma HDTV's energy use."

The TVs are set for release in Korea beginning mid-February with prices equivalent to $1,022 and $1,460 USD, respectively. There was no word on whether the TVs will have North American or European releases.

Introduction

Software

Sega has announced they have signed a digital distribution deal with GamersGate, allowing many of the Japanese publisher's PC titles to be available through the popular GamersGate portal.

The first games available will be Universe at War: Earth Assault and Football Manager 2009, two popular back catalog titles. Titles such as Condemned, Rome: Total War and OutRun 2006: Coast 2 Coast are set to hit the service soon as well.

"We look forward to welcoming such a well-established and celebrated partner to our growing online portfolio," noted GamersGate CEO Theodore Bergquist. "With the addition of Sega’s excellent portfolio of games, GamersGate further strengthens its position as a leading digital download portal."

Nokia has announced plans to bring their popular Comes With Music service to Australia and Singapore in the next couple of months, with other markets being eyed for the rest of 2009.

Company head of entertainment and communities, Tero Ojanpera, added: “In 2009 we will also be looking at the United States and Latin America. That’s the plan.”

For the near future however, Ojanpera says European expansion is most likely.

The company calls the service "a revolutionary program that enables people to buy a Nokia device with a year of unlimited access to millions of tracks from a range of great artists - past, present and future. Once the year is complete, customers can keep all their music without having to worry about it disappearing when their subscription is over."

At an interview at the Game Business Law summit this past week, Valve director of business development and legal affairs Jason Holtman spoke out about the company's thoughts on piracy, surprisingly calling pirates "underserved customers."

"There's a big business feeling that there's piracy, pirates are underserved customers."

"When you think about it that way, you think, 'Oh my gosh, I can do some interesting things and make some interesting money off of it.'"

"We take all of our games day-and-date to Russia," Holtman added. "The reason people pirated things in Russia is because Russians are reading magazines and watching television. They say 'Man, I want to play that game so bad,' but the publishers respond 'you can play that game in six months...maybe.' "

Holtman also noted, correctly, that publishers normally only care about the west leaving eastern nations with no real other alternative but piracy. That being said, Valve products are launched in Russia, in Russian, on the same day they hit North American shelves. After doing so, the company "found that our piracy rates dropped off significantly."

Why doesn't the RIAA want you to see their lawyers in action? That's the question being asked by bloggers and journalists around the US and across the world as the recording industry group fights to deny The Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University permission to record and stream a hearing in one of their infamous P2P copyright infringement cases.

Leaving aside the lawyers' arguments about courtroom rules, their basic issue with Judge Nancy Gertner's decision allowing the recording and distribution is an alleged bias by the Berkman Center. In an appeal filed last week they point out that the center's website isn't impartial and includes information that they consider prejudicial against the labels and their lawsuit.

Even though it's true that the video would only be available from the Berkman Center's website at the time of the hearing, what the RIAA fails to mention is that it will subsequently be available for anyone to use in part or in full. The RIAA could even use it themselves.

It's an odd position given the RIAA's previous statements that the P2P lawsuits are intended to call attention to their rights and remedies as copyright holders rather than simply punishing individuals. And yet when given the chance to reach the exact demographic they're targetting it becomes a problem.

According to GFI head of international licensing and acquisition, Inna Bukatina, Nintendo continues to "struggle" in the Russian market despite being the clear leader in every other market.

"Firstly people in Russia prefer products that are more universal, that can be used for a number of different purposes. For example, a PlayStation 3 or PlayStation Portable can be used for games, or films, and so on."

"But the Wii is only for games, and for very specific kinds of games. The gaming society in Russia is pretty young, and I remember when Nintendo attempted to attract more people from older demographics - they put on their last slide a babushka, an old woman, in a headscarf sitting in the countryside and playing on a DS... but actually it's very hard to see that really happening in Russia," Bukatina says.

Perhaps the most controversial decision in the early days of HDTV standards was the use of interlacing at the highest resolution (1080i). The introduction of Blu-ray and HD DVD also brought the standardization of progressive content (1080p) which has been responsible for the introduction of many more HDTVs capable of displaying these signals. Now Dish Network has brought 1080p to their online Video On Demand (VOD) service.

Dish Network's IP-VOD service is similar to offerings from cable companies, but due to the lack of interactivity inherent in satellite communication it requires a DVR and broadband internet connection. Subscribers with a MPEG-4 HD DVR will now be able to get A&E's new series The Beast in 1080p.

"We are thrilled to work with A&E in pioneering these efforts by taking television to the next level using 1080p format," said Jessica Insalaco, DISH Network's Chief Marketing Officer. "As the first pay-TV provider to first offer VOD movies and now offer a TV series in 1080p, DISH Network continues to lead the industry when it comes to delivering the best quality programming options, DVR technology and overall value for our customers."

According to a new survey by music consultancy Music Ally, many users would completely disregard warning letters from ISPs threatening to shut off their Internet for piracy offenses.

The survey was given to US, UK and French citizens, and published by the research firm The Leading Question.

The study also shows that most consumers would prefer to download music legally from their ISPs rather then from their mobile carriers or from their cable providers.

46 percent of those studied chose their ISP as the "ideal music provider" compared to 10 percent who chose their cable or satellite TV company, and 5 percent who chose their mobile operator. An even smaller number, 3 percent, chose handset manufacturers such as Nokia or Apple as their preferred provider.

"ISPs need to find new added value offerings as their core service of offering access to the Internet becomes increasingly commoditised," noted Tim Walker, CEO of The Leading Question, on Music Ally's Website.

The RIAA is no stranger to outlandish legal arguments in P2P copyright infringement cases. This isn't particularly surprising given that they've very successfully avoided arguing most of them in court, preferring instead to use the obstacle of expensive litigation to frighten defendants into settling. But sometimes a judge gets the chanceto shine a light on their creative readings of thelaw. In one such case a federal judge has denied the RIAA's claim for damages on the grounds that they must first prove their losses.

It seems like an obvious enough point. For example, it's a long established tenet of contract law that you can't sue for losses over a deal you might have made with someone. And if someone steals physical merchandise you can't get restitution from a list of what you think was probably stolen. But music, movie, and software conglomerates have always characterized every free download of a copyrighted work as a lost sale.

Laserdisc, the format from 1978, is now at the end of the road. The Philips developed disc format was originally marketed as Discvision but changed its name to Laserdisc in mid-80s when Pioneer bought majority of its shares.

LD was the choice for many home theatre enthusiasts because of its better quality over VHS and Betamax. However, LD didn't get popular amongst the general public and quickly became obsolete when DVD hit the markets.

According to Akihabara News, Pioneer has ended the production of its all three Laserdisc players. It sold over 3,6 million LD players in Japan between 1981 and 2002.

According to a US government official, the mandatory transition from analog to digital TV signals could be delayed for up to four months.

The changeover date is set for February 17th but John Podesta, co-chairman of U.S. President-elect Barack Obama's transition team, noted that the incoming President supports the delay. The new changeover date would be June 12th, an almost four month delay.

The proposal for the delay, brought forward by Senator Rockefeller IV of Virgina, could go to vote this week.

The proposal comes at a time where the government has been said to be running low on money to supply $40 USD coupons that help subsidize the cost of DTV converter boxes.

According to MobileToday, Sony Ericsson has been planning a PSP phone for some time but has been refused the use of the PlayStation brand, killing the phone off.

The brand was refused by Sony, after the handset maker presented a pitch to the board last year. Sources confide that the refusal has caused a fallout between Sony and Ericsson, threatening the mobile phone joint venture.

Sony did note that they intend to license a PlayStation brand phone, if and when the company makes phones independently, seemingly asking for the end of the joint venture.

A Sony Ericsson spokeswoman ‘could not comment on what Sony has or hasn’t said’. She also added: "In the past, we have been keen that our product proposition lives up to brand promise, and we feel at the moment the technical specs are not high enough to put such a prestigious brand on a phone."

Blockbuster has announced they will be teaming up with online movie service CinemaNow in an effort to deliver digital movies to Internet-connected TVs, Internet-enabled Blu-ray players and mobile phones in the future.

The agreement will allow Blockbuster to compete with its giant rival Netflix which has been adding its "Watch Instantly" streaming library to many providers including the Xbox 360 and Blu-ray players from LG and Samsung.

The new service is dubbed Blockbuster Powered by CinemaNow, and will debut on a number of devices during the Q3 of this year.

“What this partnership is about is providing a branded entertainment option to get consumers their content into the boxes that surround them without having to get them to organize it themselves,” Blockbuster senior VP of digital entertainment Kevin Lewis added.

According to a draft report by Lord Carter of the UK, ministers in the region plan to pass regulation that would force ISPs to inform customers that they are suspected of illegally downloading movies and music and should stop.

The service providers would also be required to collect data on repeat offenders which then must be turned over to copyright holders or the record labels if they need them.

A new regulating body called the Rights Agency would be created from levies given by the trade groups and the ISPs and will be in charge of the "new code of conduct."

The report also notes that the government sees this action as the 'preferred solution' and that the ISPs, as well as the music and film industries have failed to sort out their own problems in a timely matter.

Apparently the proposals have already gained “widespread support.”

In 2002, the retail giant Wal-Mart decided to launch an online DVD rental business, in an effort to rival Netflix. However, Netflix did what it has to all its other competition and practically drove the startup out of business.

By 2005 Wal-Mart decided it was a waste of money and let Netflix take over its DVD rental operation while Netflix would promote Wal-Mart's in-store DVD movie sales.

This week though, that decision is back in the news as a lawsuit has been filed against both companies accusing them of "conspiring to create a monopoly for online video rentals." The "collusion" has led to higher prices for consumers, alleges the suit.

The deal between the companies also "enabled Netflix to maintain monopoly power and led Blockbuster Inc. to raise subscription rental prices by $3 to meet Netflix's higher prices."

Sony Europe has sued the UK-based company Datel over an accessory that allows gamers to run pirated games and homebrew software on their PSP-3000.

Unlike previous hardware models, the PSP-3000 has been harder to crack and Datel began advertising the Lite Blue Tool last month which is a battery-attached way to open the PSP up to homebrew.

The accessory has not been released yet, and Datel noted "that orders for the Lite Blue Tool could not be fulfilled due to legal action by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe".

Sony added however, that PSP hacking has been 'trending downwards' since the release of the 3000 model late last year.

According to a new report by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), 95 percent of all online music downloads are in fact unauthorized and can be considered piracy.

The trade group notes that piracy is "its biggest challenge" as it leaves artists and record companies without royalty payments.

The report noted that worldwide music revenue shrank by 7 percent last year but did add that digital downloads continued strong growth.

The IFPI says over 40 billion music files were shared "illegally" over the past year in comparison to the 1.4 billion tracks purchased legally via iTunes, Amazon MP3 and other online shops.

John Kennedy, the CEO of the IFPI, added:

"There is a momentous debate going on about the environment on which our business, and all the people working in it, depends.

"Governments are beginning to accept that, in the debate over 'free content' and engaging ISPs in protecting intellectual property rights, doing nothing is not an option if there is to be a future for commercial digital content."

Apple has announced that there are now over 15,000 applications available to iPhone and iPod Touch users through the App Store and that there have been just over 500 million downloads from the store since its introduction late last year.

Just last month the company confided they had 10,000 applications available and 300 million downloads from the store.

According to Jeff Holden, CEO of Pelago, 17 million iPhone owners have downloaded as many applications/software as 1.6 billion non-iPhone owners meaning Apple's creation is a smashing hit that it showing no signs of slowing down.

Circuit City has begun liquidation sales at its remaining 567 U.S. stores, meaning the company will not be coming out of bankruptcy as hoped.

Last month, the giant retailer, which employs over 30,000 US workers, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after suppliers cut off most credit.

The company estimated its remaining inventory at $1.3 billion and said creditors will receive 70.5 percent of all revenue from the liquidation. Stockholders will get nothing.

The liquidation sales will end on March 31st when the company completely goes out of business.

“Regrettably for the more than 30,000 employees of Circuit City and our loyal customers, we were unable to reach an agreement with our creditors and lenders,” James A. Marcum, the current CEO added.

According to a new post on the official blog, YouTube is making its content available on Sony PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii consoles, allowing gamers to watch their favorite videos from their TVs with ease.

The service will come through YouTube TV which is currently in its beta phase but will allow users to customize the content to suit their personal tastes and the TV they are using.

The full post says:

"Have you ever wanted to just sit on your couch and watch YouTube on your TV? Well, now that's possible via YouTube for Television, initially available through the Sony PS3 and Nintendo Wii game consoles at www.youtube.com/tv. Currently in beta, the TV Website offers a dynamic, lean-back, 10-foot television viewing experience through a streamlined interface that enables you to discover, watch and share YouTube videos on any TV screen with just a few quick clicks of your remote control. With enlarged text and simplified navigation, it makes watching YouTube on your TV as easy and intuitive as possible. Optional auto-play capability enables users to view related videos sequentially, emulating a traditional television experience. The TV Website is available internationally across 22 geographies and in over 12 languages.

CBS has boosted their TV.com lineup this week, adding the popular Showtime hits Dexter and Californication to its free streaming library.

There was no word on how many episodes would be added, and for how long, but most likely they will include the first season of each show and some of the recent episodes, all for free with ad-supports.

In an effort to compete with the very popular Hulu streaming website, the site was given an overhaul last month with a new design and tons of new premium content ranging from "24" to "Alfred Hitchcock Presents."

The NYTimes reported that they expect CBS, the conglomerate which owns the site, to announce major deals with PBS, Sony, MGM and Endemol as soon as Monday.

A new service called Vertor launched recently with a goal to make the BitTorrent protocol even more popular, easy-to-use and reliable. It uses an automatic system to download content from various BitTorrent sources and verify that the contents are real and safe. The downloads are snagged by an array of 5 servers, running on dual-core technology with 8GB of RAM each currently.

Vertor has a number of ways to avoid adding a bad torrent to its database...

• When a torrent file is retrieved it is queued on the servers for download. If the download does not start after a number of attempts, a "download error" status is tagged and the torrent file is not added to the database.
• If the download turns out to be an archive (or set of common archives), the system will decompress the data and create a file list. If this fails, the content is marked as "protected" and is not added to the database.
• If the download includes video content, the system will automatically take screenshots from the files. If the screenshots are blank, then the downloads are marked as DRM protected and not added.
• If the download contains audio content, small chunks of the data is cut for verification purposes.
• If a text file is determined to contain a description of the contents, it is saved and is downloadable for users on the site.

It's no secret that many people, including US President Elect Barrack Obama, have questioned how prepared the US is for the DTV transition coming next month. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin has been the target of much criticism over his relatively hands-off approach to the consumer side of the equation. Those voices have now been joined by one of Martin's fellow FCC commissioners.

On January 14 Commissioner Robert McDowell sent a letter to Kevin Martin regarding the agency's preparations for the transition. The most disconcerting aspect of the letter was McDowell's allegation Martin has played his cards so close to the vest that even the other commisioners aren't involved or even sure of what's being done.

"In short, it appears that the Commision's efforts to date are inadequate. As neither I, nor either of our colleagues, have been consulted in advance or otherwise asked to assist with the tasks at hand, I cannot be certain regarding the extent of the Commission's shortcomings" wrote McDowell.

He went on to suggest that the FCC's call center is unprepared for the call volume they're likely to experience. He expressed concern that "callers that opt for a live operator are sometimes spontaneously disconnected rather than re-routed." and said "the Commission must be better organized, more energetic and must coordinate its efforts in a more open and collaborative manner."

As some of you may know Mac OS X operating system does not actually require an Apple computer. Even though Apple tries to protect its precious OS from spreading to generic PCs, we've seen couple of how-tos and tutorials on bypassing the price tag of an Apple-branded computer.

To make it a more commonly known fact, Wired released a video tutorial on installing Mac OS X on a netbook in December. Not as a surprise to those who have heard about Apple's confrontations against a company called Psystar, Wired didn't get to spread the word for long. Apple requested the removal of the video from Wired's Gadget Lab yesterday.

The video -- and text -- tutorial features step-by-step instructions on how to download a copy of OS X Leopard from The Pirate Bay and install it into your MSI Wind netbook.

Apple didn't file a lawsuit and apparently they didn't want to do anything else about it either because Wired still hosts the text version of the hack -- including the link to TPB for OS X download. Obviously the video wasn't removed from the Internet either and you can still watch it on Gizmodo.

Imagine you've gone to see a major musical act live and somehow managed to record several concerts with your HDV camcorder. Hoping to share your footage with other fans you make it available via BitTorrent, but how can you let people know how to get it. If the band happens to be Nine Inch Nails you might contact Trent Reznor and let him publicize it for you.

In fact that's exactly what happened, And keeping with his recent history of innovative promotions he passed the news on to NIN fans via the band's website.

The footage comes from shows in Victoria, British Columbia, Portland, Oregon, and Sacramento, California. Being high definition (1080i) MPEG-2 video they total more than 400GB between them. If you'd like to download them for yourself you can use the links below.

In addition to a lot of free hard drive space, you'll need a BitTorrent client to download and some skill at working with high definition MPEG-2 files. Unless you have a Mac you'll also need to learn how to demux HDV2 files to a standard elementary MPEG-2 video stream.

If you're wondering why Trent Reznor is promoting what amounts to bootleg video that he can't sell and won't profit from, think about this. It gives him free publicity in many places (like Afterdawn) where he wouldn't normally get mentioned.

For months Apple CEO Steve Jobs has been confronted with questions about his health brought on by obvious weight loss. Earlier this month he decided to clear the air and publically admit he was being treated for hormone problems.

In a statement earlier this month he said "As many of you know, I have been losing weight throughout 2008. The reason has been a mystery to me and my doctors. A few weeks ago, I decided that getting to the root cause of this and reversing it needed to become my #1 priority."

"Fortunately, after further testing, my doctors think they have found the cause—a hormone imbalance that has been “robbing” me of the proteins my body needs to be healthy. Sophisticated blood tests have confirmed this diagnosis."

Apparently though, his explanation wasn't enough to satisfy many people so he's decided it would be in Apple's best interest for him to temporarily give up his duties with Apple and concentrate on his treatment.

Apple realeased the text of an email Jobs sent the company's employees which stated in part "In order to take myself out of the limelight and focus on my health, and to allow everyone at Apple to focus on delivering extraordinary products, I have decided to take a medical leave of absence until the end of June.