According to statistics from StatCounter, Firefox 3 has now become Europe's top browser, pushing Internet Explorer 7 from the top for the first time ever.
The analytics company was quick to note however that adding market share from IE 6 and the new IE 8 keeps Internet Explorer as the most used browser, although Firefox is quickly gaining on that number as well.
For the week ended March 30th, 2009, Firefox 3 had 35.05 percent of European web browser market share, followed closely by Internet Explorer 7 at 34.54 percent.
"The move is partly explained by a small switch from Internet Explorer 7 usage to Internet Explorer 8, but also by growing market share overall by Firefox 3," Aodhan Cullen, the chief executive of StatCounter, added.
"The data shows that Firefox is closing the gap and is now just 10 percent behind all Internet Explorer versions in Europe," Cullen concluded.
Sony America has announced that they will be cutting the price of the aging PlayStation 2 console by over 20 percent to $99.99 USD beginning tomorrow.
The company hopes the new deal will help push the lifespan of the console, which has sold almost 140 million units since its launch in late 2000.
The PS2 will now retail for $300 USD less than the cheapest PlayStation 3 model, which analysts and consumers alike agree, needs a price cut. Sony notes however that the company still loses money on every console sold, so a price cut would deepen current losses.
Recently, Microsoft product management director Aaron Greenberg slammed Sony over their console sales figures, saying: "What we're finding in our research is that a large portion of the volume we're driving with Xbox 360 purchasers is actually PS2 owners choosing Xbox for the next generation. Xbox continues to head north while the PS3 is heading south. We're gaining share."
First of all, I'd like to emphasize that today is not AfterDawn's birthday. Our site's "official" birthday will be celebrated on 10th of June this year.
However, today we celebrate an important event in our site's history. Exactly ten years ago, on March 31st, 1999, a group of nine guys gathered for an IRC meeting to decide what name we should give to the "site about MP3 technology" that we had started building a month earlier.
I emailed all participants a day before, asking everybody to come up with names that they considered to be good enough for the site. Only rule was that the name should be available in "dotcom form" -- we didn't want to have .net or .org domain.
At the beginning of the meeting, everybody's lists were merged and then handed out to all participants. After a couple rounds of voting, the name was finally decided. AfterDawn.com was registered later that evening. Unfortunately, nobody remembers the other suggestions for the site's name anymore and the logs from that meeting are already lost.
The development work that had begun in February, continued through the Spring until the first official version of the site was launched to the public in June -- the 10th of June, 1999 to be exact.
The Performing Right Society (PRS) in the UK is literally looking and listening, anywhere and everywhere it can to find fresh new sources of license fees for "public performance" of music. It's no secret that typical business premises like grocery stores, restaurants, clothing outlets and everything else must pay a yearly fee if they have the radio playing for their staff and customers.
Fresh from hunting down new businesses in towns and cities, the PRS is expanding to anywhere it can that technically is required to get a license. Rosemary Greenway is a perfect example. For over 20 years, she has played classical music for the animals at her stables because she believes it helps to keep them calm.
One day she received a telephone call from the Performing Right Society informing her that she must pay a £99 annual fee, as playing Classic FM at the stables where there are more than two on staff apparently constitutes a "performance", regardless of the fact that the staff don't really care for, or listen to the music at all.
Rosemary claims from observation that the music soothes the animals, making for better working conditions for all. The stables are also located next to the RAF Lyneham air base, so the music helps to drown out the excess noise. "You would have thought that playing music to your own horses was allowable but apparently not," she said. "Especially on windy days I try to play it - it gives them a nice quiet atmosphere, you can only exercise one horse at a time so it helps the others to stay calm."
Google, in conjunction with over 15 record labels, has announced the launch of a free online music download service that will allow anyone in mainland China to download over 1.1 million tracks for free.
The service has music from Chinese labels, Warner Music Group Corp., EMI Group Ltd., Sony Music Entertainment and Universal Music, as well as 14 independent labels and the service will be limited to those using an IP address showing they are in mainland China.
"This is the first really serious attempt to start monetizing online music in China," said Lachie Rutherford, president of Warner Music Asia and regional head of the IFPI.
China has been the poster child for music piracy, with some Chinese music acts admitting to no longer recording because piracy has made the business unprofitable.
Kai-Fu Lee, Google's president for Greater China, says that 84 percent of the Chinese population uses search engines to search for music. "With today's offering, we complete the puzzle and offer a complete set of services that are fully integrated," he added.
Netflix has announced today that they will be raising the price of subscriptions that keep Blu-ray rentals active by 20 percent beginning on April 27th.
Prices for standard definition service will remain the same, and those who currently pay $1 USD extra for Blu-ray services can disable Blu-ray access to save on the price hike.
The company says it will use the additional revenue to increase its current 1300-strong Blu-ray library and "keep up with costs associated with the growing Blu-ray contingent."
Netflix says there are now over 1 million subscribers that have Blu-ray disc rental enabled.
Disney, including its giant ABC and ESPN properties, has made a deal with Google's YouTube that will allow short-form videos to be shown on the extremely popular video sharing site.
The companies will share ad-revenue from Disney's YouTube channels.
"This deal provides us with the opportunity to reach a broader online audience, to experiment with different monetization models and to extend the reach of our advertisers," added Anne Sweeney, president of the Disney/ABC Television Group.
Users will be able to make free calls to other Skype users using the phone's built-in Wi-Fi. The company also announced that a Blackberry version is coming in May, and the two moves follow Skype's addition of its service to Nokia, Windows Mobile and Android phones in the last year.
PCWorld was given a sneak peak of the program and says it does all it needs to do, and the interface is great. One glaring problem is the fact that you can not use cellular networks to make Skype calls, and are restricted to the Wi-Fi. The app will make international phone callers very happy however, as it will eliminate high fees associated with using AT&T's cellular network to make international calls.
According to a survey from the University of Rochester in New York, adults that play lots of action video games can possibly improve their eyesight.
Those who play see significant improvements in "their ability to notice subtle differences in shades of gray."
"Normally, improving contrast sensitivity means getting glasses or eye surgery -- somehow changing the optics of the eye," said Daphne Bavelier of the study."But we've found that action video games train the brain to process the existing visual information more efficiently, and the improvements last for months after game play stopped."
The study divided 22 adults into two groups, with one group playing "Call of Duty 2" and "Unreal Tournament 2004." The second group played "The Sims 2," a slower game that requires much less hand-eye coordination and reaction time.
Each group played exactly 50 hours of the games over nine weeks. By the end of the training, those in the first group showed a 43 percent improvement in "their ability to discern close shades of gray," whereas the second group had no improvement.
Last October, New Zealand adopted a '3 Strikes' law for pirates, meaning alleged pirates are given two warnings before having their Internet shut off.
The bill, reads as follows:
Internet service provider must have policy for terminating accounts of repeat infringers
(1) An Internet service provider must adopt and reasonably implement a policy that provides for termination, in appropriate circumstances, of the account with that Internet service provider of a repeat infringer.
(2) In subsection (1), repeat infringer means a person who repeatedly infringes the copyright in a work by using 1 or more of the Internet services of the Internet service provider to do a restricted act without the consent of the copyright owner.
This week however, the New Zealand parliament has agreed to "reconsider" the bill before it goes into effect at the end of the month.
Adds Danny O’Brien, the international outreach coordinator at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF): “One of the things about the Digital Millennium Copyright Act is that it’s got these rather strong enforcement mechanisms, but U.S. copyright actually has quite a lot of room for maneuvering for normal users. In the U.S., it was assumed that repeat infringers would be people who are tried in the court of law. And in New Zealand, though similar language was transposed, that was not the way it was read. The outcry has been so great that the New Zealand government has said, ‘Look, we’re not going to enforce this, so we’re going to go back and rewrite the law.'”
Required: This is a clickthrough link to download PowerDVD 9 directly from CyberLink. Download!
Getting Started
The following is a review of the DVD playback software, Cyberlink PowerDVD 9 Ultra, the latest upgrade in the popular series. You can use the software to playback DVDs, Blu-ray titles, and video files including HD formats. Making the latest version different from previous editions however, is the addition of TrueTheater technology, which allows for either automated or manual upscaling of standard DVDs. Another addition is FancyView, a new way to navigate your DVDs and chapters visually.
German officials have taken down a private BitTorrenttracker this week, adding that they raided three apartments and confiscating multiple PCs, HDDs, DVDs, CDs and cash.
The authorities, along with the German anti-piracy organization GVU, added: "Members of the file sharing networks were able to buy download packages for up to 75 Euros. Users who paid 100 Euros or more received special privileges."
P2Pblog makes a quick note however of the bust, and it seems it is a giant waste of taxpayer money and time. The tracker only listed 300 torrents, and in comparison, The Pirate Bay currently has close to 2 million listed torrents. One could argue that TPB is a public tracker and cannot be compared, but most large private trackers have 15000 torrents available at any given time, a giant number compared to the lowly 300.
The press picked up on the story and stretched the facts a bit however to make it look like a great victory for the GVU. Spiegel.de reported that the tracker was a "so called paytracker, meaning a file sharing server that only provided access to paying users." That was not true, as users could download for free, but faced extended waiting times until their ratio was high enough.
Yesterday, lawyers for Real told a federal judge that they did not expect the studios to sue the company, and were somewhat shocked at the speed in which the lawsuit came down. Early in the month, the MPAA filed a new motion, accusing Real of destroying pertinent evidence relevant to the case but Real says they did not hold onto the evidence because they hadn't expected to be sued.
Making the software legal is the fact that no copy protection is broken during the process, and after being ripped, the image of the DVD still uses CSS encryption as well as another layer of DRM from Real themselves. The MPAA believes the program does break copy protections.
According to a report on GigaOM, Skype may be launching a mobile version of its VoIP service for iPhones as soon as next week.
Skype is currently available on the iPhone, but not officially, as you must use third-party applications to access the service. The report speculates that the official Skype application could be coming as soon as the CTIA Wireless trade that starts on April 1st.
Is mobile VoIP really worth it though? Liane Cassavoy of PC World would say it isn't, and adds:
“Most notably, the call quality remains iffy at best, and in some instances it's absolutely abominable. Also, depending on your calling habits, you may not see any savings at all. Most services still charge a per-minute rate, so you'll save on domestic calls only if you've exceeded your regular voice plan's allotment (in which case you might still be better off upgrading your voice plan).” She does note however, that for international callers, the savings are tremendous.
YouTube, in their latest blog post, has made a list of the new updates made to the extremely popular video sharing site.
The new features, or updated features in the new release are as follows:
* Upload Progress Bar: A new Flash uploader is up for all supported browsers and it comes with a long-awaited (and much-requested) feature: an upload progress bar that lets you know the status of your upload. Our next step will be providing the estimated video processing time for your upload.
* Simpler HD Parameter: We want to give you more control over how your video looks, including the option of it being eye-blazingly clear (HD), so we've now added an official URL parameter (hd=1) for sharing HD links.
* Tweet Tweet: Everyone's on The Twitter these days, so we've added a "share to Twitter" button under the Share options so you can easily send a video into your Twitterstream. (Feel free to change the prefilled text, if you like.) This was a big internal request, but we know many of you asked for it, too. We don't currently shorten the Video URL automagically but hope to get to it down the road.
Electronic Arts has decided to drop DRM for its upcoming The Sims 3 game, a stark about-face from previous titles which have had DRM that has been, at worst, called "draconian."
In September, the Will Wright blockbuster Sporewas criticized unmercifully for its use of SecuROM DRM that only allowed the game to be installed three times total. SecuROM also stays installed in your system whether you want it there or not.
EA CEO John Riccitiello, said, at the time: "We're going to see an evolution of these things. I wish we didn't live in a world where we had to do these types of things. I want it to be seamless and easy - but I also don't want to have a bonfire of money."
Rod Humble, Sims 3 executive producer, has explained that DRM should be a thing of the past, at least for high profile releases like The Sims.
"To play the game there will not be any online authentication needed," he notes. "We feel like this is a good, time-proven solution that makes it easy for you to play the game without DRM methods that feel overly invasive or leave you concerned about authorization server access in the distant future."
According to a few "insider sources," Disney is currently in serious negotiations with Hulu for a deal that would bring Disney and ABC content to the popular online video site.
Although it is not entirely clear what programming would be brought over, ABC TV content such as the blockbuster show Lost is a definite while many believe that Disney Channel programming such as Hannah Montana will make the crossover as well.
In exchange, Disney would be given an equity stake in the site.
Hulu recently became the number four video site in the US with 332.5 million video streams viewed for the month of February alone. Disney was far down the list in 9th, with 112 million streams viewed for the month.
If the deal were to be completed, Hulu would have 3 of the largest broadcast TV networks, with the notable exception of CBS which runs rival site TV.com.
Sling Media has announced that their SlingPlayer Mobile application is now available to all RIM BlackBerry users, and that the application has been sent in for review at the Apple App Store.
The beta of the application was released late last year and the new polished release includes new features such as "the ability to add or edit paired Slingboxes and Channel Favorites via the program instead of just SlingPlayer 2.0 for Windows."
Additionally, users will have the ability to turn on "low-bandwidthstreaming, an enhanced aspect ratio or display mode support and audio track selection in the channel program, if available."
The updated interface now shows off connection type, volume level and includes a keypad lock.
RIM says BlackBerrys that are compatible are "the Bold, 8820, Curve 8320 and Pearl 8120 from AT&T; the Curve 8900, Curve 8320 and Pearl Flip 8220 from T-Mobile; as well as the Curve 8350i from Sprint Nextel."
Under the restructuring, Charter will completely eliminate $8 billion USD in debt and will no longer need debtors to finance the company's day-to-day operations. Notably, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen will keep his controlling stake in the company and will keep a board seat.
The fourth largest ISP in the US, Charter had a $1.5 billion USD loss for 2008 and was hit hard by the ongoing global recession.
The company does not know when it it will come out of bankruptcy, but says all current services will remain uninterrupted.
Last week we reported that Apple was contemplating selling unsubsidized, unlocked iPhone 3Gs, and it appears that as of yesterday, Apple and AT&T retail stores have begun selling the phones at $599 for the 8GB model and $699 USD for the 16GB smartphone.
One striking difference between the stores however is that if you plan to purchase at an AT&T store, you can only purchase one phone, and you must be an existing AT&T customer. At the Apple stores, you can purchase an unrestricted amount of phones and you do not have to be under contract from any mobile carrier.
Phone activation can be done manually through iTunes, reminds Apple.
Unlocked phones can be used on any GSM carrier, however 3G is not supported on T-Mobile, making the phone's faster Internet support useless.
Last week we reported that Thomson had released its new lossless audio codec, mp3HD which promised to keep full CD-quality sound (100% bit-exact replica of CD tracks) while also remaining compatible with all media players that playback MP3.
The codec uses the standard .mp3 file extension and stores both the mp3HD stream along with a lossy MP3 stream in the same file, which allows for backwards compatibility. By doing so, users can playback the higher quality version on, let's say, 7.1 stereo systems at home, while still being able to enjoy a 320kbps bitrate standard MP3 track on their iPod without the need to rip the track twice.
Putting the format to the test
If you open a new AfterDawn tab, and hit the downloads section, you will find the mp3HD software tools section. If you want to test right along with this review, download the Toolkit for your operating system. I am using Vista, but there is also a Linux version available. (Sorry Macs)
Roku, the set-top box that allows users to stream movies and TV episodes from Netflix and Amazon, has confirmed that they are creating a search function that will make it much easier for users to access all 40,000 of Amazon's available digital titles.
The two companies are currently working on the on-screen search function and it is expected to go live soon, says Roku VP of consumer products Tim Twerdahl.
Earlier this month, Roku added the Amazon VOD support, but has received complaints as finding titles is tedious.
Dolby has announced that it has signed new licensing deals with Chinese Blu-ray manufacturers, allowing the use of HD audio technologies such as Dolby TrueHD and Dolby Digital Plus on players made by the companies.
The audio company noted that the new deals are “an important part of Dolby’s efforts to grow the market for high-definition audio and meet the needs of Chinese manufacturers.”
Dolby HD audio is part of all Blu-ray Disc standards and is used in thousands of devices.
“Because Dolby’s technologies are well established in the Blu-ray Disc market, they offer Chinese manufacturers a powerful and efficient way for companies to build high-definition audio into their products,” Dolby added in a press release.
Research in Motion (RIM), is contemplating starting its own unlimited TV service, one that will allow BlackBerry smartphone users to watch full TV episodes from several networks.
Making the service different is the fact that the service will allow users to pick and choose the shows they want and download them individually.
All downloads would be limited to Wi-Fi however, as RIM does not want to "over-saturate carriers' networks." GSM-based BlackBerries would be able to download the shows, but CDMA-based phones would not, as CDMA carriers such as Verizon have asked RIM to strip WI-Fi capabilities from their phones so users are forced to use carrier 3G services.
If the rumor is proven true, RIM would have an advantage over other smartphones, most notably the Apple iPhone, which only allows music and podcast downloads from the iTunes store, but not videos.
Project Playlist, the social networking site that allows users to create and share music playlists, has announced EMI has signed onto the project, making it the second of the "Big 4" to do so. (Sony/BMG made a similar deal last year)
The site currently has over 42 million users and the new deal is made more important by the fact that EMI was a plaintiff in a lawsuit filed last year against the site. The remaining parties in the suit are other Big 4 labels Warner Music and Universal Music Group.
Warner and Universal said they intend to continue the court case, which also includes the RIAA and 9 other record labels. Project Playlist, for its part, says they pay royalties to songwriters, publishers and artists.
Project Playlist has increased in popularity mainly for its great music streaming ability as well as the fact that it works in every country with no restrictions. Also notably, PP lets you embed the player in most blogs or Web sites, with the exception of MySpace and Facebook.
Sony America director of hardware marketing John Koller has confided that the company plans to make "big pushes this year" towards downloadable games for the PSP handheld, releasing most digital versions on the same date as it's UMD physical counterpart.
The now timed release of digital games should force the quick death of UMD, the proprietary format that has been hated by retailers and consumers alike.
"Holistically, the idea of digital distribution fits into the world as we go forward," Koller said. "Not to say that retail isn't of extreme importance, because it is. But the idea of offering content to consumers, to make it easy, you can wake up in the morning, download something and go, it's very appealing.
"So one of our big pushes this year is to be sure that the right kind of content and the right kind of games in particular are placed on the PlayStation Network for download on the PSP.
Two weeks ago, the popular online video site Hulu pulled its TV content from two rivals, TV.com and Boxee, sparking some outrage from viewers who enjoyed being able to see content from many distributors on one site.
Within a week however, a workaround was found, using public RSS feeds. Hulu crushed that "hack" however, by blocking all Boxee users from accessing any Hulu RSS feeds.
Boxee today has updated its alpha stage software and with it comes another hack in the company's ongoing battle with Hulu. The new XUL-based browser mimics Firefox "and makes it harder for Hulu to block access to Boxee users by preventing a simple ban; any block of Boxee's video feed would block Hulu's as well."
Additionally, Boxee has added Pandora internet radio and content from PBS as well as a new feature, RadioTime, which adds instant access to thousands of terrestrial radio stations.
Blockbuster has announced today that they will begin delivering movies and TV episodes through TiVoDVRs, bringing over 10,000 pieces of content to all Series 2, Series 3 or HD series devices.
Movie rentals will cost between $2 and $4 USD depending on how new the release is, and a purchase will average $15 to $20 USD.
Additionally, Blockbuster will begin selling TiVo DVRs in all their retail stores.
The move is in response to rival Netflix's huge push into the movie/TV streaming market, in which it has already signed deals with Microsoft, LG, Samsung, and others.
"Ultimately, our vision is to work with TiVo so that their subscribers can access movies not only through our OnDemand service but also from our stores and through our by-mail service as well," said Jim Keyes, Blockbuster's chairman, added.
Nintendopresident Satoru Iwata has announced during his GDC keynote address that a new Wiifirmware update will allow gamers to run Virtual Console games straight from their SD cards, sidestepping the need for the company to release an external hard drive.
The new Wii System Menu 4.0 will allow gamers to save and load games directly from SD cards, which at 32GB can hold up to 240 games.
During the same speech, Iwata noted that the Wii had finally passes the 50 million units sold mark, making it the fastest console to hit the milestone.
The internet radio company Last.fm has announced that some countries will now have to pay to use the service, but did note that the major markets of the US, UK and Germany will not be affected by the policy change.
All features will remain the same but users in all other countries will have to pay a €3 monthly fee. As a promotion, Last.fm is offering a 30-track free trial to those in affected regions.
The company began in 2002, and now claims over 30 million subscribers. Last.fm notes that it offers over 7 million tracks from 280,000 labels and artists and compensates them directly.
There was no word on when the company will begin charging for the service, but it is most likely set to begin in the next two months.
"We don't know the reason for the blockage," said Scott Rubin, a spokesman for Google, who then added that China had blocked the site as of 5:30 p.m. pacific standard time today.
Although the government did not give an explanation, the most obvious reason is the fact that a video went up on March 20th that showed Tibetan prisoners being beaten by Chinese policemen. It also shows a man having a nail driven through his foot after he tried to help one of the innocent monks.
A Chinese government official added, "We encourage the active use of the Internet, but also manage the Internet according to law."
The founders of the giant public torrenttrackerThe Pirate Bay are set to roll out a new way to browse anonymously, using a virtual private network (VPN), and have begun giving out beta invites.
Would-be users can submit their email address to http://ipredator.se/ in hopes of receiving a beta invite before the service goes public in April.
The service, when it goes public, will cost 5 euro a month, and will "allow the user to protect his Internet connection with encryption while “tunneling’ data in privacy through the servers of a VPN provider, usually located in another country. The user’s ISP-designated IP address remains hidden, revealing only a second IP address provided by his VPN company."
Using such a service would effectively hide an individual from, for example, trade groups out to catch pirates and unauthorized file sharers and may also allow users to view videos on sites that are blocked in their home country.
Brokep, spokesperson and co-founder of The Pirate Bay, added that the timing of the release coincides with the launch of Sweden's controversial Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Directive (IPRED) which will make it easier for content holders to get personal details of suspected pirates.
Warner Home Video has announced the launch of an online manufacturing-on-demand DVD program that will allow consumers to choose titles from Warner's classic film library and have it shipped to them directly. There is also an option to download the film immediately.
Under the banner name “Warner Archive Collection,” and located at www.warnerarchive.com, consumers can browse or movies and order them for $19.95 USD per DVD or $15 USD for the digital download.
The DVDs are then replicated, packaged in an Amaray case, given custom artwork, shrink-wrapped and finally sent out to the end user.
There are currently 150 titles available and HMM says a few of the notable movies are "Oscar nominee Sunrise at Campobello with Ralph Bellamy, The Citadel starring Rex Harrison, Mr. Lucky with Cary Grant and Charles Bickford, Possessed starring Clark Gable and Joan Crawford, Once Upon a Honeymoon with Grant and Ginger Rogers, and All Fall Down starring Warren Beatty and Eva Marie Saint."
Each film has been digitally remastered and Warner notes that upcoming content will included Warner Bros' extremely popular animation collection.
Sony Computer Entertainment has cut the cost of the PlayStation 3 development kit by 80 percent, from $10,000 USD to $2000 USD.
"With more and more new and exciting PS3 titles scheduled for release this year from third-party developers and publishers as well as from SCE Worldwide Studios," the company added,"SCEI will deploy various measures to further reinforce game development for PS3 and will continue to expand the platform to offer attractive interactive entertainment experiences only available on PS3."
Initially, the development kit cost $20,000 USD but the price was halved in late 2007.
While this move wont make a difference to large publishers, small independent developers should be very excited for the price drop which will allow them to finally see the PS3 as a viable alternative.
Microsoft has announced that new updates headed to its Games for Windows Live platform, will include a significant ramp up in anti-piracy measures.
All "Games for Windows" will now use "zero day piracy protection" that includes server side authentication "on top of a further layer of authentication required for online play."
"This update and other features currently in development represent a tipping point in the evolution of Games for Windows Live as a leading online PC gaming network," added Ron Pessner, general manager of Games for Windows Live.
"In the coming months, we will continue to deliver on our promise to provide gamers and publishers with the industry’s best connected gaming experiences through the Live service."
Samsung has noted today that a two year old LCD patent dispute with Sharp has now been settled, with the Tokyo court upholding Samsung's countersuit.
In 2007, Sharp sued Samsung over unspecified infringements, and Samsung quickly filed two countersuits as well as asked the US International Trade Commission for a full investigation into the matter.
The WSJ adds that "patent-infringement lawsuits are common in the highly competitive flat-panel display industry," especially as competition increases and market share becomes more important.
Warner Music Group has taken down tens of thousands of amateur videos uploaded on YouTube, citing an ongoing copyright dispute with the giant video sharing site.
"Thousands of videos disappeared," added Fred von Lohmann, a lawyer for the EFF. "Either they turned off the audio, or they pulled the video."
Many of the videos taken down are non-commercial family videos that contain clips of a Warner song in the background or videos that cover many of Warner's tracks.
"We and our artists share the user community's frustration when content is unavailable," Warner Music spokesman Will Tanous said. "YouTube generates revenues from content posted by fans, which typically requires licenses from rights holders. Under the current process, we make YouTube aware of WMG content. Their content ID tool then takes down all unlicensed tracks, regardless of how they are used."
According to the latest data from comScore VideoMetrix, Hulu has jumped up to fourth place among the largest video sites in the US, drawing an audience of 34.7 million for the month of February.
Those users watched a total of 332.5 million video streams, a giant 33 percent increase from January.
In just one month, Hulu surpassed Viacom and Microsoft in viewers and total steams viewed, and is quickly gaining on Yahoo in third place. YouTube (Google) and Fox remained the clear leaders, with 5.3 billion streams and 462.6 million streams respectively.
Since comScore first started measuring Hulu, its unique user base has grown by 410 percent and its overall streams by 277 percent.
According to cached web pages first spotted by NTV, it appears Amazon will be adding HD video downloads to its popular VOD service soon, with TV episodes costing $2.99 USD to purchase.
Possibly more interesting, it appears users can purchase HD "TV Passes," allowing buyers to watch an entire season of a show at a discount to buying each episode individually. It is unclear how long users will have to wait to download each episode after they have aired however.
Currently checking the cached pages will lead you back to the Amazon VOD home page, and HD downloads are still not available. It is only a matter of time until the official announcement comes however.
According to their latest blog entry, the updated BitTorrent client Vuze will now automatically convert any downloaded videos to the formats necessary for playback on iPhones, iPods, Apple TVs, PS3s and Xbox 360s.
Says the blog entry:
"Another key pain-point has traditionally been cumbersome transport between devices. Beyond the format maze, its been difficult to get videos easily exported to devices - especially game consoles. The Vuze team spent considerable time thinking through how to simplify this experience. Simply drag-and-drop files to the device of your choice within Vuze, and then click play on your Xbox 360, Playstation 3, or Apple devices."
Vuze says to use the new service, simply download the latest version, 4.2, and enable Devices in the sidebar. From that point, "drag-and-drop videos from your Vuze Library (or desktop) to the device of your choice. Vuze will detect whether or not the video format will playback on the device you select, convert the file, if necessary, and make it available for playback on the device. All you have to do is sit-back and play your HD content on whatever screen you want."
According to a new consumer survey sent to current users, Netflix may be expanding their service soon to add Wii support.
"Imagine that, as an added benefit to DVDs by mail, Netflix offers its members the ability to watch movies & TV episodes instantly on their TV via their Nintendo Wii, choosing from a library of over 12,000 choices," starts the survey.
The service will be enabled through a "Netflix Instant Streaming Disc" and the disc would have to remain in the Wii whenever the service is in use.
Of course, the survey does not mean Netflix support on the Wii is an absolute, but it does mean that the company is at least investing time in the possibility. We can imagine that Netflix would love to gain even some of the Wii's 22 million US users.
Following Friday's release of US February console sales numbers, Microsoft product management director Aaron Greenberg has slammed rival Sony over the PlayStation 3's sales numbers, and the company's refusal to drop the price of the console, even in hard economic times.
Greenberg noted that Microsoft had a 53 percent annual sales boost for the 360 gaming console, "exceeding" its expectations. Sony on the other hand, had a year-on-year decline in sales and the director blamed that mainly on the PS3's price point, which is more expensive then the 360 and the current market share leader, the Nintendo Wii.
For February in the US, almost 400,000 360s were sold, while the PS3, despite having a strong month, lagged at 275,000. Over 130,000 PS2s were sold for the month, and Greenberg says that PS2 owners are slowly converting to the 360.
SanDisk has announced a release date for its highly anticipated upcoming Sansa slotRadio player, setting the launch date for March 31st.
The player will retail for $100 USD and will come with a microSD preloaded with 1000 "popular songs from every common genre on the Billboard charts." The files will be DRM-crippled however, and will only work in the player. Users can play any music they want using their own loaded microSD cards. The player also has a small OLED screen and an FM tuner built-in.
SanDisk has also been selling full albums on microSD cards, dubbed the slotMusic collection.
Prosecutors in Michigan have filed fraud charges against an iPod repairman who allegedly received over 9000 replacement iPod Shuffle devices by entering serial numbers into Apple's online web site. He then flipped the devices for full profit.
The man, Nicholas Woodhams, age 23, sold mostly all of the stolen iPods for $49 USD each, making over $400,000 USD profit.
"We've been cooperating with the government and are in the process of negotiating a resolution," said Woodhams' lawyer, Randall Levine. "He is one of those guys who is computer-savvy. This is a very bright man who did not fully appreciate the seriousness of the situation."
The government is currently looking to seize all of Woodhams' assets, including two cars, a motorcycle, seven Mac computers and an undisclosed amount of cash, supposedly in the hundreds of thousands.
Being an independent iPod repairman, Woodhams had full knowledge that he could get free replacements if Shuffle devices were having problems.
"Through trial and error, the defendant determined that he could guess valid, warrantied serial numbers and enter them into Apple's Web site for 'replacement' units without ever in fact purchasing or possessing the 'original' units," Assistant U.S. Attorney Nils Kessler added.
The popular rock bands Nine Inch Nails and Jane's Addiction as well as the new band Street Sweeper (started by former Audioslave guitarist Tom Morello) have each contributed two tracks to a free EP that is available now for free online.
The bands hope the EP will bring more attention to their upcoming summer tour.
‘Whores’ and ‘Chip Away’ are from Jane's Addiction's 1987 debut album, and were notably produced by NIN frontman Trent Reznor. ‘Not So Pretty Now’ and ‘Non-Entity’ are additions from NIN. Street Sweeper has added two brand new tracks, ‘The Oath’ and ‘Clap For The Killers’.
All you need to download the EP at http://ninja2009.com/ is a working email address.
This is not the first time NIN has released a free EP online. The band is currently offering The Slip for free in "high-quality MP3, FLAC or M4A lossless at CD quality and even higher-than-CD quality 24/96 WAVE."
According to an interview with Gamasutra, GameStop has said they finally have enough Nintendo Wii supply to keep up with demand.
GameStop Senior Vice President of Merchandising Bob McKenzie added: "Three years later, we finally have enough inventory on the shelf, and we've got a couple of weeks in supply."
McKenzie also says he is fully confident gamers can walk in and purchase the console without any lines, in any retail location. The company is the largest gaming retailer in the biggest market, the US.
Since its launch in 2006, the Wii has constantly been out of stock, with many would-be buyers hearing lines such as "the console is first come, first serve, we wont know when we will have them back in stock." If you were trying to get the console during the holiday season, chances are you you weren't getting one.
48 million global console sales later, the Wii is finally available. Well done, Nintendo.
All4MP3 has announced the launch of their new mp3HDcodec which promises to keep "100% bit-exact replica of CD tracks" when ripping from a physical audio CD.
According to the official site, mp3HD offers the following:
* mp3HD is a lossless audio codec (100% bit-exact replica of CD tracks)
* Backward Compatible to mp3 * File extension .mp3
* Bitrates for music approximately 500 to 900 kbps rates (similar to other lossless codecs), depending on genre
* Embedded mp3 track and the mp3HD file share the same id3 metadata
* Encoding parameters (e.g. bit rate), ancillary data and meta data of embedded mp3 track are under control
The group also says the average mp3HD bit rate for an everyday "top 40" pop song is 876 kbit/s, for a filesize of about 26 MB for a 4 minute track.
Audiophiles should be very excited for this new codec, as most mp3 players, especially the Apple iPod line, does not allow playback of lossless formats such as FLAC.
Today, that service has shut down, leaving all users who purchased any music with 60 days to play their DRM-crippled tunes before they disappear.
SpiralFrog was once dubbed a possible "iTunes Killer," but financial issues and an executive shakeup shook many consumer's confidence in the company.
At the time, the service was one of very few that allowed users to listen to music for free but since then much bigger companies have made similar services available, including MySpace, Last.fm from CBS and imeem. Also notably, the behemoth video sharing site YouTube shows music videos, for free, from three of the Big 4 labels.
* 1. Nintendo Wii: 755,000
* 2. Nintendo DS: 588,000
* 3. Xbox 360: 391,000
* 4. PlayStation 3: 276,000
* 5. PlayStation Portable: 199,000
* 6. PlayStation 2: 131,000
Apple has announced the addition of HD quality movies to its popular iTunes platform this week, giving users a chance to rent or purchase the movies in a much higher bitrate than current standard definition versions.
HD rentals were formerly only available to Apple TV owners but is now available to all Mac and PC users that have an iTunes account.
An new release HD movie rental will cost $4.99 and older catalog titles will cost $3.99 USD. The standard definition counterpart runs $1 cheaper. If you prefer to purchase the movie, the HD film will cost $19.99 USD, a discount from a physical Blu-ray film for the most part, but a steep premium from SD purchases.
Bang & Olufsen has announced the launch of a giant 103-inch plasma HDTV dubbed the BeoVision 4-103 which will weigh in at a shocking 1,100 pounds when combined with its stand.
The motorized stand reveals a large center channel speaker that is also motorized and the TV angle and rotation can be adjusted via a supplied remote control.
The company says the set uses B&O's BeoSystem 3 stage manager and VisionClear technology that does an auto-adjust of color and brightness levels every 120 hours the TV is in use.
The TV will hit Europe in July with a price of $137,000 USD that includes the free inclusion of the company's $5,377 BeoSound 5 home theater audio system and remote touchscreen remote control.
Nokia describes its Mosh site as "a way to fill your phone with safe, free, mobile content like applications, games, videos, widgets, ringtones and more. You can also upload your creations and collect content to organize it for on-the-go access."
Since its launch in 2007, the site has become very popular, with users very happy that their exchange of content is uninterrupted and free. There has been over 137 million downloads since launch, a small number in comparison to Apple's App Store, but still notable as Nokia never advertised Mosh. The company is also very lax as to what can be shared on the site, unlike Apple which has a tough screening process.
Although no reason was given for the shutdown, most agree it is because the site operated under the DMCA safe-harbor provision which meant any copyrighted material is only taken down after a takedown notice is sent out. That rule had the potential to strain relationships with movie studio and the record labels as many users upload clips and custom ringtones.
Google and Sony have teamed up to try to take on Amazon and the e-book market today, with Google making its entire library of public-domain e-books available for free on the Sony Reader, Sony's popular e-book reader. With the new move, Sony has 600,000 titles available compared to Amazon whose library is just over 245,000.
Google's books are usually available as PDFs but will now be available in ePub format for the Sony reader.
At the same time, Sony announced that they were lowering the price of their PRS-700 reader to $349.99, making it $10 USD cheaper than the newly released Amazon Kindle 2.
The companies note that Google's books will not work with Sony's older PRS-500 reader but are fully compatible with the PRS-505 and the 700.
"We founded Google Book Search on the premise that anyone, anywhere, anytime should have the tools to explore the great works of history and culture,"said Adam Smith, product management director for Google Print. "We believe in an open platform for accessing and reading books."
Beginning next week, AT&T will begin selling the popular iPhone 3G smartphone without contract, but at a large premium.
The 8GB model will sell for $599 USD and the 16GB version will sell for $699 USD. Currently, with a two-year new contract or upgrade, the phone costs $199 and $299 respectively.
Only current AT&T customers can purchase the no-contract iPhone however, leaving out other GSM users who were looking to pick up the phone. Another potential problem is that even if users purchase the phone to use with T-Mobile, they will only get voice and EDGE service, not the faster 3G data plan.
Although the unsubsidized price may seem high, it is about equal to what the original iPhone sold for without contract, and is in line with other non-subsidized smartphones from Sony, Nokia and RIM.
“Customers have made clear what they want in a Web browser — safety, speed and greater ease of use,” added Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft. “With Internet Explorer 8, we are delivering a browser that gets people to the information they need, fast, and provides protection that no other browser can match.”
The updated browser has been in beta since January and Microsoft says they have taken feedback from "millions of customer sessions."
Microsoft says IE8 "blocks two to four times more malware attacks than other browsers," including Firefox and Safari.
Last month the company announced its plans for the HTC Magic/G2, which will be sold in Europe with Vodafone service sometime later this year.
At the Merrill Lynch technology conference yesterday, Chou was asked if HTC would be bringing five Android-based handsets to the market this year and he responded, "at least three."
The extremely popular movie information site IMDb has new ambitions, says founder Col Needham, ones that will eventually see the site offering "free streaming of its entire database of movies and TV shows." As of typing, there are over 1.3 million movies and shows in IMDb's database.
IMDb is owned by Amazon and over the past few months the company has been getting into the online video market with the launch of its Amazon VOD service.
Needham added that current IMDb traffic is 57 million unique users per month and is by far the most popular site of its kind. The company purchased Box Office Mojo last year, the most popular movie gross tracking website as well.
IMDb leapt into web video last year, adding 14,000 TV episodes and 2000 movies along with 120,000 trailers, interviews and other "bonus features."
Needham did note that there could be one problem, "many of the films may not exist anymore and many may not be available for streaming."
According to a post over at JoyStiq, Target is set to begin selling a new PlayStation 3 SKU on March 29th, a "Greatest Hits" bundle which will include the hits MotorStorm and Resistance: Fall of Man.
The unit will be the 80GB model and will retail for $399 USD, the same price as the current 80GB unit by itself.
In 2007, Sony released a very similar bundle in Europe, except without Resistance.
The first official beta for Mozilla's mobile Firefox browser, Fenec, is now available and although it will only work on the Nokia N810 Internet Tablet, anybody can download and run the beta on their computers.
The team behind Fennec says the browser should minimize typing while maximizing use of the limited screen space of a mobile phone.
Just like its brother, Fennec will use the "awesome bar" which auto-suggests web sites when you begin typing in a URL, using your past history as a basis. The browser will also remember your passwords, and supports full Flash.
Developer Pavlov says "the user interface takes some zooming and panning concepts which were previously previewed by Mozilla Labs. Each Web page expands to fill the entire screen, but moving the page to the side reveals different controls, including bookmarks, back and forward buttons, tabs, and different tools."
Although neither company has confirmed or denied the report, Manager-Magazin.de is writing that Sony is planning to buyout Ericsson's 50 percent stake of the Sony Ericsson mobile manufacturing joint venture.
Sony is currently talking to banks that will help finance the buyout and the rumor has been flying for months that Ericsson is willing to sell its stake in the venture.
The company was created as a way to "bring Ericsson's mobile experience and Sony's consumer electronics experience together for a successful line of cell phones." The company had been decently successful with its line of Walkman phones but recently announced Q4 2008 loss of $187 million EUR with more losses expected if the global recession continues.
Danske Bank of Denmark believes any deal made would cost Sony very little cash and could actually lose Ericsson money.
Apple unveiled the first beta of the next version of the iPhone and iPod Touch OS. It's currently available to registered developers, and scheduled to be released to consumers this summer.
"The new iPhone OS 3.0 is a major software release packed with incredible new features and innovations for iPhone customers and developers alike. It will keep us years ahead of the competition,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing.
In addition to the Copy and Paste feature mentioned recently by Digg’s Kevin Rose , new features will include expanded search capabilities, landscape view for Mail, Text, and Notes, and Bluetooth networking capabilities.
As with version 2 of the OS, version 3 will be a free upgrade for iPhone owners but cost $9.95 to upgrade an iPod Touch.
If the server problems last year, when the new iPhone and OS were released, and the year before, when the iPhone debuted, are any indication, it's probably a good idea not to plan on updating for at least a day or two.
Counting Crows frontman Adam Duritz announced on the band's website that they'll be leaving their label, Geffen, after 18 years. Although he didn't specifically say they won't be moving to another label, his explanation suggests that's the case.
"A lot of people think it's a tough time to be a band but we don't feel that way," wrote Duritz. "The internet opens a world of limitless possibility, where the only boundaries are the boundaries of your own imagination. We want a chance to push those boundaries back as far as we can. Unfortunately, the directions we want to go and the opportunities we want to pursue are often things that our label is simply not allowed to do."
Counting Crows may not be the huge sellers they were a decade ago, but they are exactly the sort of band whose sales have traditionally offset the risk (and losses) from new artists.
The fewer established artists the labels can keep, the less money they have to develop new talent. The less new talent they have, the fewer established artists they will have in the future.
As recently as ten years ago artists signed with a major label to expand their opportunities. It's telling that now they drop their labels for the same reason.
Pegasys, the company that sells the popular TMPGEnc line of products, is offering a discount on their latest authoring suite. TMPGEnc Authoring Works 4 features DVD, Blu-ray, DivX and DivX Ultra authoring.
If you already own a competitor's DVD or Blu-Ray authoring software you may be eligible to receive a $20 Amazon.com gift card with a purchase of the full version of TMPGEnc Authoring Works 4 from the Pegasys online store.
The offer is only good for owners of box products. If you downloaded the competitor's software it's not eligible for this competitive upgrade offer.
A new application just added the iTunes store turns your iPhone into a remote control for Boxee. The free boxee remote app uses the iPhone's wi-fi connection, making it compatible with every platform Boxee runs on.
The remote application only has basic functionality right now. The company is soliciting feedback from users to see what they're interested in.
If you want to let them know what you think, or give them feedback about any other aspect of Boxee, you can go to their feedback page.
Microsoft spokesman David Bowermaster has noted that the software giant has settled a patent infringement lawsuit relating to multiplayer online through the Xbox 360.
The lawsuit had been brought forward by PalTalk, and the plaintiff wanted over $90 million USD in royalties. The case was settled out of court for an undisclosed sum.
The case ended in an "amicable agreement" however, says Microsoft.
"The parties have settled the case, and PalTalk is quite pleased with the outcome,"added Max Tribble, a PalTalk lawyer.
PalTalk told the courts last week that "the Halo franchise as well as both the original Xbox and Xbox 360 consoles made use of patents owned by PalTalk."
GI.biz explains that the patents in question "were said to cover ways in which multiple computers could interact with each other, specifically for use in multiplayer games, which Microsoft had dismissed the claims as being for outmoded dial-up connections, adding "the patents don't cover the way the Halo games work."
Despite the highly-anticipated horror sequel Resident Evil 5 being leaked to torrent sites and P2P, a full ten days before its official release date, the game saw incredible first day sales on March 13th, breaking sales records from previous Resident Evil titles.
Capcom says four million copies were sold for the Xbox 360 and Sony PS3 on the first day, and sales are currently over 5 million in 3 days of release.
The publisher, like all other major publishers, has complained of piracy woes in the past, even citing piracy as the main reason Devil May Cry 4 had stagnant sales. The publisher said the PC version of the game had been "pirated to hell" and that Capcom Japan refused to release it digitally as a result.
Overall, for all systems, Capcom has sold 40 million copies of the series since its launch in 1996.
Alexander Skipis, head of the German book publishers' association, has announced that they publishers plan to launch a lawsuit campaign against file sharers.
Skipis said that they plan to sue "thousands" over copyright infringement and he even went as far as to call P2P file sharing "organized crime." Taking a job at the government, Skipis added that politicians were ignoring the huge impact piracy is having on the book industry.
In the past, hundreds of thousands of German citizens were sued over movie and music file sharing but last year the courts began ignoring any P2P-related complaints, eventually throwing them out. A new revision to German copyright laws was also intended to stop mass lawsuits campaigns from trade groups.
Skipis is also in favor of "three strikes" laws which would give alleged unauthorized file sharers two warnings before cutting off their Internet.
Perhaps the most glaring ommission in the iPhone's OS is support for Copy/Cut and Paste. Despite overwhelming demand for this standard feature of every modern OS, Apple hasn't deemed it important enough to implement in the first two generations of the phone.
According to Digg’s Kevin Rose this is going to change in the next version of the iPhone OS. Rose described the feature yesterday at SXSW Interactive, a companion to the SXSW music and film festivals held in Austin, TX.
We may know very soon if Rose's information is correct since Apple will reportedly be giving a preview tomorrow of the new iPhone features they're working on.
If you happen to live in the land of NTSC television, primarily North and Central America, you may have experience the frustration of trying to play video from other parts of the world. Maybe you got a black and white picture that seemed to "roll," or perhaps you didn't get any picture at all.
HDTVs are able to handle both NTSC and PAL video, regardless of where they are sold. But that doesn't mean there isn't still a need for good PAL to NTSC conversions.
A lot of HDTV owners still have analog TVs in use for one purpose or another. And of course some people still don't have a HDTV at all.
If you are one of the millions of people who have one of these NTSC TVs and want to watch PAL video you should take a look at our new guide on the subject.
The guide, titled Convert PAL Video to NTSC describes several methods for converting between the two standards. If you use Nero Recode or TMPGenc Xpress you'll find a section on each. If you don't use (or want to use) either one check out the instructions for using AviSynth.
Last week marked the one year anniversary of Hulu's public debut. Its launch seemed to mark a milestone. It was the first major network owned online video service run by people who seemed to "get it."
Over the last year Hulu has grown significantly. On his blog, CEO Jason Kilar pointed out that the number of videos available has grown from 12,000 to 40,000 in that time.
The number of partners providing that content and advertisers sponsoring it has also grown. They've gone from 50 to 130 providers and 30 to 175 advertisers.
The real key to all that success has been offering what consumers are asking for The recent decision to remove content from TV.com and block viewers using Boxee media center begs the question of whether that business model's days are numbered at Hulu.
It seems clear that Kilar and his staff are committed to tearing down the barriers to online video delivery, but as we saw last month, ultimately their entertainment industry masters have the final say.
20th Century Fox Home Entertainment has announced that they will be creating two classes of DVDs for now on, a "premium" version with extras and digital copies and a "rental" version which removes all extras and will be available for rental only.
Beginning March 31st with the release of Slumdog Millionaire, "wholesalers will be authorized to sell rental accounts only the rental SKUs and to sell retail accounts only the retail SKUs,” said Fox senior VP of sales Don Jeffries.
As an example, the Slumdog rental DVD only has the movie and trailers while the premium disc included special features such as deleted scenes and director and actor commentary.
There will be variations however, as the upcoming Marley and Me DVD will have special features on both the rental and the retail version.
“We have developed product variations to feed different consumer consumption models and behaviors,” read a Fox statement. “For rental customers, we’re delivering a theatrical experience in the home while promoting upcoming releases; for retail [or sell-through] customers, we’re offering a premium product that expands the entertainment experience of that particular property to further enhance ownership.”
For the new model, Apple has moved the volume and control buttons to the headphones themselves, leaving nothing on the actual hardware unit.
According to the EFF, any third-party headphone maker will not have an easy task making headphones for the Shuffle however as they will need to use an "Apple authentication chip" for the headphones to even work with the device.
Headphone makers could, normally, reverse engineer the interface but the chip makes it illegal to do so and any company found doing it will have the DMCA thrown at them.
According to the Houston Chronicle, a Kentucky man has been arrested and charged with promoting child pornography, online solicitation of a minor, and sexual performance of a child after he persuaded an 11-year old girl to send him nude pictures of herself while they played multiplayer games over PSN, the free online network on the PlayStation 3.
The man, Anthony Scott O'Shea, 24, of Somerset, Ky. faces extradition to Texas since the girl lives in Houston.
The court documents say O'Shea met the girl during a round of Warhawk and over several weeks got her to send him naked pictures and "perform for him via a Webcam." He then shared the photos online with others.
The girl added that O'Shea "kept pressuring her for more pictures and wanted to set up a meeting with her in order to engage in sexual activity." She eventually told her parents the entire story and the police were contacted immediately.
Apple has been sued this week by the mother of a 15 year old boy who said his iPod Touch exploded while in his pants pocket, scorching his leg.
According to the complaint, the boy was sitting in class one day and "heard a loud pop and immediately felt a burning sensation in his leg."
The boy then "realized his Apple iTouch had exploded and caught on fire in his pocket. ....Plaintiff A. V. immediately ran to the bathroom and took off his burning pants with the assistance of a friend. The Apple iTouch had burned through Plaintiff A. V.'s pants pocket and melted through his Nylon/Spandex underwear, burning his leg," reads the complaint.
Plaintiff A.V has suffered second-degree burns thanks to the 'exploding' iPod Touch and is now seeking $225,000 in compensatory damages.
After showing off the player in Japan last August and then again at the CES event this January, Panasonic'sBlu-ray/VHS player, the first and probably only in the industry, is headed stateside in April, with a price tag of $399.95 USD.
The company is also launching two other BD-LiveBlu-ray players the same day, each of which include Panasonic’s own Viera Cast technology which allows any Web-enabled BD-Live standalone "to access Amazon.com’s Video On Demand, YouTube and Bloomberg, among other services."
The entry level model, dubbed the DMP-BD60, will sell for $299.95 while its more expensive brother, the DMP-BD80, will retail for $399.95.
The BD/VHS dual player, dubbed the DMP-BD70V, as well as the other two units, will each include SD memory card slots and USB ports to allow playback of photos and video.
“With the expansion of the unique Viera Cast functionality and the introduction of the industry’s first dual VHS/Blu-ray player, Panasonic’s 2009 line cements our position as technology leaders and places Panasonic in the forefront of the Blu-ray arena,”said Richard Simone, director of the entertainment group at Panasonic.
It appears that Adam Ries, a German mathematician deceased as of 1559, has received a bill from the GEZ broadcast fee collection office demanding that the man pay his "long-overdue" TV licensing fees.
The bill was sent to the man's former address, which is now a club set up in honor of the algebra expert.
"We received a letter saying 'To Mr Adam Ries' on it, with the request to pay his television and radio fees," said Annegret Muench, who is now president of the club.
Muench, after seeing the letter, returned the letter with a note attached explaining that Ries had died 450 years earlier, while especially noting that TV had not been invented at that time. Despite her letter, the collection office sent another reminder two weeks later.
The GEZ was in the news last year for a similar incident in which Friedrich Schiller, a poet who died in 1805, was sent a bill asking him to declare "all radios and televisions in his home and pay the corresponding fees."
Amazon has put 379 Blu-ray movies up for sale this week in a new promotion, including new releases with some of the movies selling for as low as $9.99 USD.
Many new releases, such as Iron Man, Tropic Thunder, Indiana Jones 4 and Eagle Eye are 58 percent off and are selling for $16.99 while some other blockbuster catalog titles such as Cars and Transformers are under $20.
The minimum savings is 38 percent and the maximum is 58, and is applicable to all 379 movies in the promotion.
The blogger allegedly had been streaming songs from the still unreleased new Guns N' Roses album "Chinese Democracy" on his site for some time.
In November, Coghill pleaded guilty to one federal count of copyright infringement, a charge that carries up to one year in prison and a large fine. Federal prosecutors today have said they are pushing for a six month sentence for Coghill based on the "calculation of damages based on the illegal activity of as many as 1,310 websites that disseminated the music after Cogill released it."
The government has said the damages amount to $371,622 USD, basing each infringement on iTune's 99 cents per track cost. The RIAA, always one to create phantom numbers, believes the infringement amounts to a "$2.2 million loss based on a $6.39 legitimate wholesale value." These numbers of course imply that every person who downloaded the tracks would have purchased them legally had they not been available illegally, which we all know is not true at all. The government's almost 400,000 "conservative figure" was based on the following:
According to the EETimes, Sony and Seiko Epson are currently negotiating a joint venture that would allow the companies to build small and medium-sized LCD panels together.
Sony has been purchasing "equipment necessary to manufacture liquid crystal displays" from Seiko but other details of the deal have not been released.
Both companies are currently shaking up their LCD operations and Seiko recently announced they will be shutting down an LCD plant in Japan to save money. The company expects a "deep" net loss for 2009 from its LCD operations but expects to break even in 2010.
If the alliance happens, Epson Imaging "would share production costs and a more widespread use of its amorphous silicon TFT technology with Sony benefiting from Epson's tech," says Electronista.
Sirius XM has announced that they will be adding a satellite radio application to the Apple App Store soon, allowing iPhone and iPod Touch users to receive satellite radio stations without the need for a standalone device.
Sirius XM currently has 19 million subscribers, but the company's stock has plunged over the past year as debt increased and plummeting auto sales led to smaller sales of satellite radio devices.
Besides adding the service to the iPhone/Touch, Sirius has also said they are looking into any opportunity to bundle a subscription with TV packages from DirecTV. The owner of DirecTV, Liberty Media Corp., recently helped the satellite radio company avoid bankruptcy and is now the controlling stake holder.
To use the iPhone/Touch application, users must have a $13 USD monthly subscription.
Although there has been no confirmation from Nintendo on the speculation, a post over at Qj has cited sources claiming the Wii will be soon getting a 'double' external hard drive, in 32 and 64GB capacities.
The external drive will attach to the Wii's USB ports and will "blend into" the console. The drive will have USB ports as well.
Users will have to upgrade to an upcoming firmware update to make the HDD work and the source says "everything you buy from the Wii Shop Channel can be transferred unto the hard drive, no problem."
Currently, the Wii only has 512MB of on-board storage, with an SD slot which can expand storage to 2GB.
In December, New York Governor David Paterson proposed, among other taxes, a 4 percent tax on any legally purchased music and movie downloads. All 99 cent downloads from the iTunes store would have immediately cost NY buyers $1.03 if the tax had passed.
New York would have also become only the second state to impose a tax on digital downloads. New Jersey currently has an "iTunes Tax."
Paterson has announced today that the government will drop the proposed digital download taxes even though the current NYC deficit is believed to be over $13 billion USD. Aside from the iTunes tax, Governor Paterson wanted to tax over 100 other entities, including an 18 percent tax on soda, a 4 percent tax on gym memberships, and a 5 percent tax on movie tickets but it appears those taxes will be dropped as well, as federal bailout should help cover any money the taxes would have recovered anyways.
The popular online video site Hulu has added new social networking features in an effort to have users stay for longer periods of time which will therefore bring in more advertising dollars.
The features will be under the umbrella name Hulu Friends, and will allow users to create personal online profiles as well as share videos and track activity and favorites. Users are not allowed to upload their own movies or clips however, and can only share movies and TV episodes that are available on Hulu.
Hulu works on the model that networks (most notably NBCU) provide content in exchange for a good portion of the site's advertising revenue. The site hopes the social networking features will let current users invite new users to the site, leading to more views for the content and in return more advertising revenue.
The Featured Artists Coalition, a group of 140 popular UK musicians, have said that they believe the public should not be prosecuted for downloading unauthorized music from file sharing services but did say they believe "companies such as MySpace and YouTube should be required to remunerate the artists when they use their music for advertising."
The musicians will take their concerns to Lord Carter, who has been a strong supporter of prosecuting pirates.
A few of the artists who showed up for the group's inaugural meeting were Robbie Williams, Annie Lennox, Billy Bragg, Blur's David Rowntree, Radiohead's Ed O'Brien, Pink Floyd's Nick Mason and Mick Jones from The Clash.
Bragg added: "What I said at the meeting was that the record industry in Britain is still going down the road of criminalising our audience for downloading illegal MP3s."
"If we follow the music industry down that road, we will be doing nothing more than being part of a protectionist effort. It's like trying to put toothpaste back in the tube.
"Artists should own their own rights and they should decide when their music should be used for free, or when they should have payment."
Curt Marvis, Lionsgate's president of digital media, has said in an interview with Variety that he expects Nintendo to launch a movie streaming service for the Wii, as early as the Q3 of this year.
"The thing that is clearly a force in digital are the game devices," said Marvis.
"I think when we see the Wii come into the market with the ability to stream movies, which I think is maybe going to happen as soon as this year, I think that’s going to be a big marketplace for digital distribution."
Although Nintendo has not confirmed the report or announced any such plans, the move would make sense as the console has enough on-board storage to be able to buffer streaming video.
Citing the sustained depreciation of the pound against the euro, Nintendo has raised the price of the ever-popular Wii console in the UK, from an MSRP of GBP 179.99 to 199.99 meaning that consumers will most likely see a price hike as well, unless retailers are willing to take the giant hit on their profit margins.
"Due to the severe and continuing depreciation of the pound, we are, unfortunately, having to raise our trade price to UK retailers of Wii hardware," said the company in a statement. "The price that they then offer to consumers is, of course, up to the retailers."
"We are only – reluctantly – raising our trade price now to retailers due to unprecedented and sustained depreciation of the pound. This is a problem brought about by extreme currency fluctuations that are a symptom of the global economic situation," added Nintendo.
Don McCabe, managing director of the gaming retailer Chips, spoke out in surprise at the decision and believes the company should have released the console with the GBP 199 price tag from the start.
"It's a first," he mused. "I can't remember any other console that has been launched, been on the market for a couple of years and then gone up in price. It's an absolute first."
Said Nintendo UK general manager David Yarnton, "We’ll let the market decide. We expect some people will upgrade, but we also anticipate that we’ll win over people who were still undecided on DS -- the extra features will help convince them. There’s an extra incentive."
The company has now denied the reports however, saying it will instead be increasing the amount of DS Lite bundles available in the UK.
"We will be increasing the availability of DS Lite bundles with software in the UK, however solos will still continue to be listed," a Nintendo UK spokesperson said. "We have chosen to do this as we have found many consumers like the convenience of buying software and hardware together and also enjoy buying them as gifts."
The Vodafone Music Store, which currently has over 1 million tracks available to users, has announced it will be dropping DRM copyright protection for the music while signing new deals with Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and EMI Music.
Vodafone says the deals are the first of their kind, allowing users on the Vodafone network to download DRM-free music directly to their handsets.
For users that have already purchased DRM-crippled tracks from the store, an upgrade to DRM-free MP3s will be available, free of charge.
"Music is central to many of our customers' lives,"added Pieter Knook, Vodafone Internet Services Director. "By Vodafone pioneering DRM free on mobile and offering MP3s on PC, they will now have the freedom to download tracks from their favourite artists without any device restrictions allowing them to experience their music however they want it, wherever they are."
Notably missing from the new offering however is Big 4 record label Warner, which has recently signed with Nokia's Comes With Music service.
Whats in the box? - The Roku digital video player
- Remote Control w/ batteries
- Manuals, Setup Guide, Power adapter, composite cables
Getting Started
The Roku player was initially launched in May 2008 as the Netlix Player by Roku and the box allowed users to stream movies and TV content from Netflix's ever increasing Watch Instantlystreaming service. Over the last ten months however, the company has greatly improved its service; updating to HD output, going open source, and adding Amazon VOD support. Netflix has over 12,000 movies and TV episodes and Amazon offers over 40,000, including brand new releases the same day as their Blu-ray/DVD street date.
Following three other companies before it, Hitachi has admitted to price fixing LCD displays, most of which were sold to Dell and Motorola.
Over the last few months, LG, Sharp and Chunghwa Picture Tubes have each admitted to price fixing the LCD market and were forced to pay fines ranging from $65 million USD for Chunghwa, to $400 million USD for LG, the largest group of the three.
According to the Department of Justice, Hitachi will cooperate with the ongoing investigation and will pay a $31 million USD fine for the price fixing of "TFT-LCD sold to Dell for use in desktop monitors and notebook computers from April 1, 2001, through March 31, 2004."
"Hitachi joins three other multinational companies who have admitted to their involvement in fixing prices for LCD panels sold to U.S. companies and that have already paid criminal fines totaling more than $585 million,"added Scott D. Hammond, Acting Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Department's Antitrust Division. "This case should send a strong message to multinational companies operating in the United States that when it comes to enforcing the U.S. antitrust laws we mean business."
Denon, through the large e-tailer Amazon, has begun a new promotion in which they are giving away a Blu-ray player for free with the purchase of a Denon receiver.
The player, the Denon DVD-2500BTCI, has a list price of $900 USD but is currently selling on Amazon for $489.46 USD.
According to BPBS, the BD player has the following specs:
DVD-2500BDTCI Features and Performance Overview:
* Complete digital-only transport to eliminate interference
* Single-cable HDMI connection and Digital HD output up to 1080p * Full 10-bit processing for i/p and scaling circuit
* Blu-ray 1080p/24fps output capability
* Up to 36 bit Deep Color support via HDMI
* Native bitstream output for Dolby Digital+, Dolby TrueHD, and dts-HD Master Audio
* Bonus View functionality (BD-ROMProfile 1.1), providing simultaneous Audio and Video options for greater interactivity.
* Digital media disc support: Blu-Ray, DVD-Video, DVD-R/RW, CD Audio WMA, MP3, Kodak picture CD, Fuji Color CD, DivX playback (including DivX 6).
Apple has unveiled the latest update to their iPod Shuffle line, a player under half the size of its already tiny predecessor, but with double the storage capacity, 4GB.
To help save space, Apple has moved the volume and control buttons to the headphones themselves, leaving nothing on the actual hardware unit but a logo.
More interestingly, Apple has added VoiceOver, a new "synthesized-speech feature", that will tell users who the artist of the current song is, as well as the title of the track and any playlists you may have available.
Sony America and NBC Universal have jointly announced a new deal that will bring NBCU movie and TV content to the PlayStation Network.
The content will be available for download via the PSN on the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable consoles. The new addition brings PSN's content total to 1300 movies and 4500 TV episodes.
There will be new releases available as well as catalog titles and NBCU specifically noted that hit shows such as "The Office", "Heroes" and "Battlestar Galactica" would be available.
Prices vary on whether you want SD or HD-quality video.
According to Nintendo, the popular DS handheld has reached a new milestone, 100 million global unit sales as of March 6th.
Sales include the original "fat" DS, the streamlined DS Lite and the new DSi which includes a camera, a larger screen, a memory card slot for playback of downloadable content, and an improved battery.
The handheld launched in late 2005 in Japan and North America and early 2005 for the European market and the DS Lite was launched in the Q2 2006 in each market.
The online video sharing behemoth YouTube has announced it will be blocking most music videos in the UK after negotiations with the royalty group, Performing Rights Society for Music, collapsed.
The site said the PRSM was asking for more money in licensing fees than was reasonable and therefore the talks collapsed. The previous licensing contract with the group expired earlier this month.
"We were shocked and disappointed to receive a call late this afternoon informing us of Google's drastic action which we believe only punishes British consumers and the songwriters whose interests we protect and represent," PRS CEO Steve Porter said.
"Google has told us they are taking this step because they wish to pay significantly less than at present to the writers of the music on which their service relies, despite the massive increase in YouTube viewing."
Google responded: "We're still working with PRS for Music in an effort to reach mutually acceptable terms for a new license, but until we do so we will be blocking premium music videos in the UK that have been supplied or claimed by record labels. This was a painful decision, and we know the significant disappointment it will cause within the UK."
The Bengali government has blocked access to video-sharing giant YouTube today after a video was posted showing a meeting between the Prime Minister and army soldiers.
The meeting occurred just 48 hours after a brutal mutiny in Dhaka left 70 people dead and the video shows about 40 minutes of a three hour meeting that reveals how angry the military is over the government's handling of the situation.
Over 200 guards have been arrested for their connection to the mutiny, and hundreds more are currently being sought.
Zia Ahmed, chairman of the Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission, said the decision was made in the nation's "best interests" and added that, "the government can take any decision to stop any activity that threatens national unity and integrity."
Prime Minister Shekih Hasina was brutally jeered throughout the meeting, as angry army officials criticized the government's decision to negotiate with the mutineers instead of just crushing the rebellion.
One officer yelled at the Prime Minister during the meeting, "I do not understand who gave you that idea that it has to be solved politically... rebellion has to be crushed with force.
Smartphone maker RIM has announced the launch of its own version of the Apple App Store, dubbed the BlackBerry App World.
The company says the store will allow BlackBerry users to "find tons of great applications designed for your BlackBerry smartphone in one convenient place - BlackBerry App World™. Personalize your BlackBerry smartphone with games, social networks, personal productivity applications and so much more. Message your best friend, track the stock market, or channel your inner rock god."
Unfortunately, the App World applications will cost more than most applications in the Apple App Store (free to $9.99) and the service will only work in the US, the UK and in Canada.
According to new data from Mobclix, there are now over 6000 games available in the Apple App Store, giving iPhone and iPod Touch owners a large variety of free and paid downloads.
There are now 6276 games, with 1516 offered as free downloads. Puzzle games are the most popular genre, while racing games are the least popular. Puzzle games account for 18 percent of all the games available.
The most popular free game by far is Tapulous' Tap Tap Revenge 2, which is somewhat of a Guitar Hero clone that allows users to tap out songs. The most popular paid game is the excellent Pocket God by Bolt Creative which allows you to play "God" of six pygmies on an island.
The second largest category of apps is "Entertainment" followed closely by "Books" and "Utilities."
Sky has announced that they will be adding channels to their web TV player, the Sky Player, for free, giving users more options no matter what package they have.
The new channels are Sky Movies Screen 1 and 2, Nat Geo Wild, G.O.L.D. and Sky Real Lives, which are all free as long as you have the basic online entertainment package, which costs £15 per month. That budget bundle gets you 12 channels total with the new additions.
For those who want Sky's full lineup of channels, including futbol games, cricket matches and kids TV programming, the price per month is £41.
The company adds that more content is coming soon.
Barnes & Noble has formally jumped into the e-book market this week, purchasing the e-book retailer Fictionwise for $15.7 million USD.
William Lynch Jr., CEO of B&N, added that the company will be launching an e-book store later this year and that they purchased Fictionwise because they had "one of the most popular applications on the iPhone, and they really understand merchandising."
Fictionwise, which launched almost a decade ago, has sold about 5 million e-books and "will operate as an independent subsidiary of Barnes & Noble." Lynch Jr. reminds that Barnes & Noble was one of the first large retailers to begin offering e-books, which it did in 2001, but quit the practice in early 2003 as sales were virtually non-existent.
Fictionwise co-founder Stephen Pendergrast noted that he estimates the US e-book market amounted to $100 million USD in revenue for 2008 and expects the market to continue to grow.
Sony has announced the launch of its first ever wireless Blu-ray standalone player, dubbed the BDP-S560, slated for a May release with a $350 USD price tag.
The BDP-S560, along with the upcoming entry-level BDP-S360, are BD-Live capable however the cheaper S360 will require a wired connection.
Each device will also include two external USB ports allowing for media playback off a USB flash drive.
“The demands of today’s home theater go beyond pristine picture quality, and our new Blu-ray Disc product line offers a breadth of technologies that deliver an amazing entertainment experience,” added Chris Fawcett, VP of marketing for Sony Electronics’ home product division. “Consumers don’t want a living room cluttered with wires, and the new Blu-ray Disc product lineup breaks down the wireless barriers of the past.”
Samsung first unveiled a wireless BD player at the CES event in January but there is still no word on a street date for that model.
According to Nintendo UK general manager David Yarnton, the company will most likely phase out the DS Lite handheld if the upcoming DSi 'thrives.'
Yarnton would not commit the company to any such plans, but did note that if enough buyers purchased the updated handheld, the DS Lite would most likely be discontinued, just like its fatter brother, the original DS, was.
"We’ll let the market decide," he said. "We expect some people will upgrade, but we also anticipate that we’ll win over people who were still undecided on DS -- the extra features will help convince them. There’s an extra incentive."
Matt Stone and Trey Parker, the creators of the extremely popular South Park cartoon, have signed an agreement with Netflix that will have the first nine seasons of the show streamed through Netflix's Watch Instantlystreaming service.
The deal will give Netflix exclusive rights to the show's first 181 episodes, added Netflix spokesman Steve Swasey, although neither party elaborated on the financials of the deal.
Circuit City will be going completely out of business and closing its doors at the end of the day tomorrow, ending their going-out-of-business a few days early.
According to the Great American Group, one of the liquidation firms in charge of CC, the retailer's $1.7 billion in inventory is almost done, with little to no products left in any store.
Some Circuit City locations are giving everything left in the store away for 80-90 percent off, but it is safe to say that anything of real value to anyone (TVs, Blu-ray players, laptops) have been gone for days or weeks now.
The large retailer, once the second largest electronics chain in the United States, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in November of last year and was not able to recover despite a strong holiday season.
According to a new study from the UK-based security company GSS, about 50 percent of all UK children use file sharing networks to trade unauthorized music, and know that what they are doing is illegal.
Says the report: "When questioned about the legalities of downloading music, nearly all of the children understood that there were legal and illegal methods that could be used to download music. Over half admitted to using P2P software to download music illegally rather than using programs such as iTunes."
Making the survey more interesting is the fact that GSS is not a trade group related to the RIAA or any other anti-piracy outfit. They are a security firm which specialized in corporate IT security and the firm believes that music sharing kids are a new danger for security.
Backing that statement up, GSS says that 20 percent of the kids asked admitted to accidentally downloading viruses from their P2P network of choice. Since viruses spread so easily, GSS says all it takes is one parent and an email account or a flash drive to possibly bring the virus to the workplace.
"An organisation's security is only as strong as its weakest link, and the home PC may be a huge threat to an organisation's data."
Within a week however, a workaround was found, using public RSS feeds. Hulu crushed that "hack" however yesterday, by blocking all Boxee users from accessing any Hulu RSS feeds.
According to a Boxee blog post: "we just found out that Hulu blocked the boxee browser from accessing the Hulu site. this is a disappointing development since their RSS feeds are publicly available, and our browser, while optimized for a great 10 ft video experience, is no different in how it accesses this content than Internet Explorer, Firefox, Flock, Opera or any of the other browsers out there.
to our users: if you choose to use boxee as your media browser to view legal and publicly available content on the internet, we will do everything we can to ensure that you can access it, no matter what the source."
Following in the footsteps of Prince and other artists, the UK 'supergroup' Mongrel has announced that they will be giving away their debut album for free today in the Independent newspaper.
The band features Jon McClure of The Reverend And The Makers, Andy Nicholson and Matt Helders of the Arctic Monkeys, Drew McConnell of Babyshambles and the Poisonous Poets rapper Lowkey.
Says McClure: "As soon as the opportunity arose I was straight in there, because you know a lot of people are 'it's not about the money man' - but it obviously is for the majority of people. But sincerely it's not about money, especially not on the Mongrel project."
The band believes that giving away their debut for free will "help spread the ideas and messages of the band."
"There's an element of it that's musical experimentation and getting across political sentiments and spotlighting sectors of British music which are often ignored by the media,"added McClure.
When justifying the band's choice to release the CD in the Independent, McClure concluded: "It's stance on the environment and on British foreign policy and various other things are kind of like my own. It squares with my ethics to do it with the Independent."
According to new reports coming out of France, any ISP willing to join the RIAA in its "three strikes" your out laws against piracy will have to spend a lot of money to enforce the rules, as much as 16 million USD per year.
The 'three strikes' rules would give alleged pirates two email or written warnings from their ISP before they have their Internet connection completely shut off and their name blacklisted.
The French newspaper La Liberation added that if France were to adopt the rules, the bill could "trigger around 10,000 warning e-mails, 3000 letters and 1000 decisions about Internet cut-offs per day," forcing the ISPs to hire new workers and incur new costs.
Microsoft has noted today that the upcoming RC of Windows 7 will include an "on/off" switch for Internet Explorer 8, making the browser not mandatory for the first time ever.
The option can be accessed through the control panel and will "turn IE8 off" but not necessarily uninstall the browser. By turning the feature off, the IE8 executable file "iexplore.exe" is deleted but the browser can be turned on again whenever the user wants.
Jack Mayo, group program manager for the Windows 7 document and printing team, added that the company wants to give users more options in turning off features that they may not necessarily need or want.
"We want to provide choice while also making sure we do not compromise on compatibility by removing APIs provided for developers," Mayo said. "We also want to strike the right balance for consumers in providing choice and balancing compatibility with applications and providing a consistent Windows experience."
Mayo did not add a release date for the new public RC but did say a final version of the OS will be available in Q1 2010.
Sony Computer Entertainment UK has announced that the PlayStation 3 gaming console has reached a new milestone in the UK; 2 million sold. The company also noted that the PSP handheld has now reached 3 million sold.
According to an interview with GI.biz however, Sony Europe senior VP Ray Maguire admitted the company in general is facing a very tough time, namely because of the ongoing worldwide recession. Maguire was confident that they console will sell another million over the next 12 months, as people flock to entertainment systems.
"I think it's a tough time for everyone," he said. "Probably more so in the UK, because we're hit by the effects of currencies - euro, pound, yen and dollar - and the weakness of the pound is definitely an issue that affects us more than the rest of SCEE.
"We have to do as much in this office as we can to make sure that we can build on the success we had last year in terms of the units we sold, great IPs that we had to bring to market.
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has announced today that any household on the waiting list should have their coupon in two and a half weeks.
"The backlog should be done 2.5 weeks from today," noted Bernadette McGuire-Rivera, an associate administrator at NTIA.
The recent economic stimulus package allotted an extra $650 million USD for the converter box program including $90 million USD for outreach and education.
As of a month ago, there were 1.8 million households still waiting for a coupon, said the FCC.
With the new money and new procedures, the NTIA should be able to send out 1 million coupons were week, added McGuire-Rivera.
Lars Ulrich, member of the popular rock band Metallica, has admitted that he has 'pirated' his band's own CD, "Death Magnetic," and found the experience quite "bizarre."
Last year, the band released their latest album ‘Death Magnetic,’ and surprisingly Ulrich noted: “If this thing leaks all over the world today or tomorrow, happy days. It’s 2008 and it’s part of how it is these days.”
In an interview with VH1’s “That Metal Show” this week though, Ulrich has admitted he 'pirated' his own album off a "file-sharing client," just to see how it felt.
“I sat there myself and downloaded ‘Death Magnetic’ from the Internet just to try it,” he added. “I was like, ‘Wow, this is how it works.’ I figured if there is anybody that has a right to download ‘Death Magnetic’ for free, it’s me.” “We found it - this was like two or three days after it leaked. I was like, ‘You know what? I’ve gotta try this.’ So we sat there and thirty minutes later I had ‘Death Magnetic’ in my computer. It was kind of bizarre.”
Universal Music Group, the largest record label on Earth, is currently in talks with Google in an effort to create a joint music video venture.
Moving away from the current model of labels receiving licensing fees or a share of ad revenue for their videos, Universal wants a new relationship in which music videos are displayed in "high-quality" and are ad-supported. The site would be separate from YouTube's main site.
Google has also notified Warner Music Group, Sony and EMI about the plans but they are not part of the current negotiations.
The talks are still in their preliminary stages, despite beginning in January.
Universal CEO Doug Morris is said to be at the head of the talks and the move makes sense being that Universal's licensing agreement with YouTube is set to expire on March 31st.
The Universal Music Group channel on YouTube is by far its most popular, generating 3.6 billion views so far.
After confirming reports in October that they will be collaborating on a "brand new videogame featuring the music of the iconic Beatles," The Beatles, MTV and Harmonix have announced that "The Beatles: Rock Band" will hit retail shelves on September 9th.
The game will be available on that date in North America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and will cost $60 USD for the game itself or $160 for new 'Rock Band' instruments similar to those used by the Beatles.
Apple Corp. added that the date, 9/09/09, was picked specifically to acknowledge the importance of the number 9 for the band.
MTV added that the game will "allow fans to pick up the guitar, bass, mic or drums and experience The Beatles extraordinary catalog of music through gameplay that takes players on a journey through the legacy and evolution of the band's legendary career."
According to new data from Net Applications, Firefox continues to steal browser market share from the leader Internet Explorer, jumping to 21.77 percent, up a percentage point since the new year.
Gaining over a percent as well was Apple's Safari, which settled at 8.02 percent. Google's relatively new Chrome browser jumped over 1 percent to settle at 1.15 percent.
Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser, which comes pre-installed on every Windows machine, dropped to 67.44 percent, a continuing slow decline since the broswer hits its peak in 2003, at 95 percent market share.
The startup company ZillionTV has begun offering a media device and online service that it hopes will compete with much larger rivalsApple and Netflix in the online video market.
The networking device, dubbed the Z-bar, will have no HDD but will instead stream movies and TV shows on the Web. The device is very similar to that of Roku but ZillionTV will offer its own service instead of tying in Netflix or Amazon's online video services.
Interestingly, users can rent or purchase films full price or ad-supported content and even get to "choose their preferences for ads to provide more relevant content."
The service will also be an option for Internet providers and therefore there is only one upfront cost, a $50 USD activation charge.
Beginning officially in the fall, the service already has deals in place with Fox, NBC, Universal, Warner and other major content producers.
Disney CEO Bob Iger has noted this week that the company is considering starting its own online video service, a subscription-based model that could be similar to Netflix's model of offering DVD mailings and online downloads.
It is still unclear as to whether the service would be streaming and full downloads but it is clear that the service would be limited to Disney's own deep catalog of TV shows and movies.
The note was just that, a note, so it is not clear whether the studio is strongly considering the service and how it would resolve any potential conflict of interest with Apple-run iTunes. Apple CEO Steve Jobs is a board member for Disney and has used his strong influence to strike deals placing ABC and Disney content on iTunes.
ABC, a sub-brand of Disney, also currently streams its TV programming online for free (ad-supported) and even streams some shows in HD.
As of this morning, Amazon's Kindle application is available in the iPhone App Store, allowing access to over 200,000 Amazon Kindle format e-books.
The application is free, but the books themselves must be purchased through Amazon via mobile Safari or from a PC or Mac and then synced over. Most of the books cost $9.99 and you can sample the first chapter for free before purchasing.
Any book purchased for the Kindle can be transferred over to the iPhone/iPod Touch for free and "WhisperSync" is enabled to allow flawless transitions from a Kindle device to your iPhone if you were currently reading a book on one of the devices and want to switch during.
The highly-anticipated horror sequel Resident Evil 5 has been leaked to torrent sites and P2P, a full ten days before its official release date.
The game will hit store shelves on March 13th, however a cracked Xbox 360 version of the game is being heavily downloaded as we speak, with users even noting that you can already play online. The ISO image is 6.71 GB.
Capcom, like all other major publishers, has complained of piracy woes in the past, even citing piracy as the main reason Devil May Cry 4 had stagnant sales. The publisher said the PC version of the game had been "pirated to hell" and that Capcom Japan refused to release it digitally as a result.
Regardless, RE5 should still be a major blockbuster for the publisher, with demo downloads topping 4 million last week.
According to new data from Net Applications, the Apple iPhone controls 66 percent of total mobile browser share, demolishing all the competition for amount of time people browse the Web from their phone.
In second place was JavaME at 9 percent market share, followed by Windows Mobile at 7 percent and Symbian and Android at 6 percent. Somewhat surprisingly, Palm and BlackBerry brought up the rear, with under 5 percent combined.
The numbers are even more impressive considering there are much fewer iPhones on the market compared to, lets say, Windows Mobile phones, and is a testament to the rather enjoyable experience of browsing the Web using an iPhone.
Android-based phones, which were only just released last year also put up impressive numbers, especially considering there are only 1 million units on the market.
Nintendo is already advising would-be buyers in Europe to buy the DSi early to avoid almost inevitable stock shortages during the holiday season.
The handheld goes on sale in the region on April 3rd and UK general manager David Yarnton has added that it will be difficult to keep enough supply to satisfy demand, especially during the hectic holiday shopping season.
"I always advise people to buy early," noted Yarnton. "One of the things that people don’t seem to understand is that factories are producing constantly; they don’t peak and trough.
"So we’re producing product all the time, but then everyone wants it all at the one end of the year. It’s just so hard to try and keep up."
Retail chains have already reported strong demand for the DSi, which will sell for GBP 149.
Titles will go on sale beginning in the next few months and will include Harry Potter 1-6, Golden Compass, Speed Racer, and Blood Diamond among others. Warner is the first Hollywood studio to support the format which has backing from local studios such as Chinese Corporation, China Film Group, and Huayi Brothers Company.
Today, everyone with a Roku player has received support for Amazon's VOD service, allowing users to playback new movie releases that have been either been rented or purchased through Amazon. Amazon allows for full downloads to external storage hubs such as the Apple TV but also allows for streaming of movies and TV shows.
The new interface for Amazon is also updated as it lets users browse and purchase directly through the TV instead of having to set a queue seperately on a website, like has to be done with Netflix.
The Roku player remains priced at $99 USD but now eliminates the requirement that the user keep a Netflix subscription.
Microsoft has apologized for the banning of an Xbox Live user who self-identified herself as lesbian, even going as far as to call their policies "inelegant."
After the woman revealed her homosexuality in her Xbox Live profile, she was continuously harassed, and Microsoft banned her account, saying many gamers found "her lesbianism offensive."
Microsoft did note that their XBL policy bars "the expression of relationship preference in Gamertag profiles and tags, whether that's heterosexual or other." Stephen Toulouse, Xbox Live program manager for policy and enforcement, did note that Microsoft is "looking into that policy," and that it could be up for change.
According to a new United Nations (UN) report, about 60 percent of the world's citizens now own a mobile phone The report states the large jump up is attributable to the strong growth in poor, developing countries, most notably China, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.
In 2002, only 14 percent of the world's population had any type of mobile phone.
According to the International Telecommunication Union, an agency of the UN, there were 4.1 billion cell phone subscriptions as of the end of 2008, compared with just over 1 billion in 2002.
The report also added figures for Internet usage, noting that about 23 percent of the global population uses the Internet, up from over 12 percent from 2002.
Finally, the report ranked the world's nations on how "advanced their use of information and communications technology (ICT) is" and found Sweden to be the best. Sweden even had more cellular accounts than it had population in 2007. The United States fell to 17th.
With a history of knee-jerk reactions and paranoia over new technology, record labels are the last place you'd expect to find an innovative approach to music distribution. But that's just what one music industry insider laid out in a keynote address at last week's Digital Music Forum East.
Jim Griffin will be running a new non-profit project called Choruss. Simply put, its purpose is to figure out how to make money licensing music.
Griffin's experience in the recording industry includes founding the technology group at Geffen Records in the mid-90s.
Before you shake your head about yet another clueless music industry executive claiming to have solved the digital distribution problem it's worth paying attention to what he's saying. Much of it is a message we've heard many times, just never from the labels.
"Music’s greatest financial power is its ability to draw a crowd,"said Griffin, "not our ability to control its quantity."
More importantly, he admitted "We do not pretend to know the answers, but we are certain that now is the time for experimentation and learning cannot come fast enough."
Nokia's Comes With Music bundles a subscription music service for unlimited downloads from a limited catalog of songs with select handsets. As access to the service spreads to new markets is it possible Nokia will convince labels it should come without DRM?
Nokia's Adam Mirabella has hinted at plans to do exactly that, saying "Digital Rights Management-free (DRM-free) is also on the roadmap for the future integration of Comes With Music."
DRM-free music has become the norm for individual song downloads, like those offered by iTunes and other online merchants. But the labels continue to insist on it for subscription services like Comes With Music.
While DRM theoretically stops people from making unauthorized copies, if you can use Google you can probably find a way to remove it. But unless you decide to do so you'll have problems playing DRM-laden tracks on most hardware.
In the case of Comes With Music you are limited to playing your music on just a single phone and one computer. At least they don't become unplayable as soon as your subscription runs out.
The Japanese cellphone carrier NTT DoCoMo has suspended all sales of the popular RIM BlackBerry Bold due to overheating problems reported by over 30 users.
The overheating occurs during charging of the smartphone, and RIM says that one percent of all the phones sold in Japan experienced the overheating. RIM did say however that "temperatures remained within regulatory standards."
"Although RIM's analysis of the devices in question has allowed it to rule out a battery problem, the root cause remains under investigation," read RIM's statement.
There are over 21 million BlackBerry users globally.
Although they are certainly not the first company to do so, China-based Gemei had launched their latest portable media player, dubbed the HD-660, which allows for native 720pHD playback on its 4.3-inch widescreen display.
The player sports a 480x272 resolution and can hold TransFlash memory cards up to 32GB. For audio, the player supports MP3, WMA, AAC and FLAC and for video the player supports RM, RMVB, AVI, FLV and MPEG video files. JPG, PNG and bitmap are supported photo formats.
The popular indie band MGMT has accused French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his party of using one of their songs without proper compensation and has threatened to sue the President if the situation is not rectified.
Sarkozy's party, the Union pour un Mouvement Populaire (UMP) confirmed that they paid a €53 fee to France's music licensing body, but lawyers for the band say the compensation is not enough to cover the amount of times the song has been used, especially on the Web.
The party also admitted to using the track, "Kids" during the national congress speech in January as well as in two online videos and in a few political ads. The politicians offered to give the band €1 for copyright infringement.
Band lawyer Isabelle Wekstein has declined the offer and called it 'insulting.'
"This offer is disrespectful of the rights of artists and authors. It is insulting," said Wekstein. "We are dealing with acts of counterfeiting, an infringement of intellectual property."
Noting the irony of the party's actions, Wekstein added: "It seems that those who led the charge against Internet users are not the most respectful of copyright."
Boxee is a relatively new, free media center application for Linux, Intel Macs, and Apple TV boxes, and a new Windows version is in closed alpha testing. Last week I talked to Andrew Kippen of Boxee about their software, and the first thing he told me was how much they're looking forward to hearing from the Afterdawn community.
If you'd like to check out Boxee for yourself you can get the Linux, OS X, and Apple TV versions from their website. Stay tuned to Afterdawn for an announcement when the Windows alpha opens to the public. According to Andrew they're hoping to reach that point in another 2-3 months.
Boxee is built on XBMC, an open source program initially written for the original Xbox but eventually ported to a number of different environments including Linux, OSX, and Windows. With a hack it can even be installed on an Apple TV box.
Nokia's CEO announced last week that his company is seriously considering entering the netbook market. Although there have been rumors of such a move since last year, this is the first time a company executive has confirmed them publicly.
Reports have Nokia probably working with a Taiwanese manufacturer to jointly design the platform, based either on the Intel Atom or Qualcomm Snapdragon CPU.
"All leading mobile network operators and retailers are adding connected notebooks and netbooks to their portfolios alongside mobile phones,"said Ben Wood, research director at CCS Insight. "On this basis it comes as no surprise that Nokia is evaluating this segment."
In recent yeas there has been considerable overlap in the roles smartphones and netbooks play. It seems sensible for the world's number one smartphone maker to have a presence in both markets.
According to statistics from StatCounter, Firefox 3 has now become Europe's top browser, pushing Internet Explorer 7 from the top for the first time ever.
First of all, I'd like to emphasize that today is not AfterDawn's birthday. Our site's "official" birthday will be celebrated on 10th of June this year.
