News archive (5 / 2009)

Two weeks ago we reported that the game The Sims 3 by EA had been leaked two weeks early to P2P, and according to new data figures compiled by research firm BigChampagne, the pirated version had been downloaded over 180,000 times in just four days.

2008's most pirated game, EA's blockbuster Spore, saw 400,000 downloads in its first 10 days, so Sims 3 is on pace to beat that.

EA is saying however that the pirated version is not the final release.

"The pirated version is a buggy, pre-final build of the game," EA's Holly Rockwood said. "It’s not the full game. Half the world - an entire city - is missing from the pirated copy."

The game is set for legitimate release on Tuesday.

PlayStation Home Director Peter Edward has made comments this week that the application has hit a "tipping point" of momentum recently, hitting 6.5 million downloads.

"We do have a profit and loss on Home, and obviously revenue is an important part of it, just like with anything else. But our belief is that if you make the community happy, and get good content on to the platform - if you get a platform that people want to keep coming back to - then the monetisation aspect of it will almost take care of itself,” says Edwards.

"It's certainly not something that should be the driving force - not something that's the driving priority at this stage of development.”

"That's not to say that we don't want to monetise the platform and that we don't have plans to do so," Edward continued. "But it's definitely a kind of consequence of getting all the other factors right, rather than being a driving force. We're not in it to make a quick buck from Home, and then move onto the next thing - Home is a strategic platform for PlayStation, and as such we're developing it."

Edwards also noted that profitability "is not the driving force" behind PS Home, but instead, user interaction.

The user-edited online encyclopedia Wikipedia has announced today that any IP address connected to a computer owned by the Church of Scientology is now banned from editing contributions. The site says for years the Chruch has been editing anything related to Scientology to show it in better light.

"All IP addresses owned or operated by the Church of Scientology and its associates, broadly interpreted, are to be blocked as if they were open proxies," says the site's press release.

Wikipedia's arbitration committee noted that for years, computers owned by the Church had been coordinating editing techniques to make the Scientology articles biased to one specific viewpoint.

"You could imply that there is a conflict of interest," added Dan Rosenthal, a media contact for Wikipedia. "Rather than two unrelated people getting together, Scientologists were getting together, saying, 'Let's work together to make this a more pro-scientology article.'"

The world's possibly worst kept secret, the upcoming Sony PSP Go, has been leaked today via video, showing off the design of the handheld.

John Koller, director of hardware marketing at Sony America, speaks during the video and notes that the differences between the new PSP and the older slim PSP-3000 model are "on-board memory, the flash memory, and 16 gigs of space. There's Bluetooth on board as well, so you can use a Bluetooth headset, and you can actually tether it to your cell phone as well. But ultimately, it's the portability. Since you can bring all that content with you in a smaller form factor, you've got the most immersive games to play, and now you've got a smaller unit to do it with."

It is unclear whether the handheld will remove the bulky UMD drive, but it is clear Sony is moving its emphasis towards downloadable games and movie content.

In January, the US Government postponed the mandatory DTV transition from February until June 12th, as it was clear that over 6 million households were not ready.

Today, the federal Department of Commerce has said that if you are still unready and have not applied for a converter box coupon, you should do so no later than Monday, or risk having no TV signal by the time of the transition.

Every household can receive two $40 coupons to use towards the purchase of converter boxes, and more information about the coupons can be found at 888-DTV-2009 or www.DTV2009.gov.

As of May 10th, Nielsen estimated that there are still 3.3 million households not ready for the transition.

Redbox, the automated DVD rental kiosk company, has announced they have signed a new deal to have the kiosks placed in Circle K stores around the United States.

Currently, Redbox kiosks are only in select Circle K stores in Arizona, California and Ohio.

“Redbox continues to expand our footprint nationwide as consumers seek the convenience and value of redbox fully automated DVD rentals,” noted Mitch Lowe, president, redbox. “The convenience store channel provides new opportunities for redbox to service more consumers, and we are proud to expand our presence at Circle K, an industry leader.”

There are over 15,000 Redbox kiosks around the country and the company says it has rented over 380 million DVDs since its inception.

Yesterday we reported that Microsoft was set to announce a new deal with BSkyB that would bring video content to the Xbox 360 console.

The software giant has confirmed that deal today, and will begin offering Sky TV services on the console beginning this fall in the UK and Ireland.

Users can watch live and on-demand content including movies, entertainment shows and "documentaries, programming dedicated to kids, music and the arts, as well as Sky Sports content."

"Our customers have told us that they want the opportunity to use their consoles as a way to access TV and once again Xbox has pulled off an entertainment first with amazing content and rich interactive experience," says Neil Thompson, head of the Xbox division in the UK.

"The combination of Sky’s leadership in content creation and aggregation and our own in creating a constantly evolving new generation of rich 360 entertainment experiences means we are one step closer to our goal of offering Xbox owners the best entertainment experiences out there, whether it’s movies, music, games, interactive experiences or high quality TV."

Xbox Live users will be able to communicate with other subscribers while watching the video content.

Console hardware sales in Japan continued their slump this week, seeing new record lows for unit sales.

The Nintendo DS Lite and DSi were the best selling console for the week, with the handhelds combining for 39,464 sales, a drop of almost 24,000 from the same period in April.

The PSP handheld came in second with 27,536 units sold, a drop of almost 15,000.

Wii and PlayStation 3 sales fell as well, to 16,233 and 10,932 respectively.

Bringing up the rear were the aging PlayStation 2 with 4075 sales for the period and the Xbox 360 with 3854 untis sold.

Sony Ericsson has announced that it will launch its anticipated PlayNow movie service in June, allowing owners of certain handsets to watch up to 60 full-length feature films every year on their mobile devices.

In any given month there will be 15 titles to choose from and the company replaces four of the titles each month.

The movies must be downloaded to a PC and then transferred over to the compatible handset. Users can then watch the film as many times as they want for a three month period.

All of the movies will be "formatted to suit a given phone's screen to make subtitles legible." There was no word on which films would be available at launch but the company said there would be a variety of classic and new films.

At launch, the service will only be available to W995 Walkman owners but the recently introduced Aino is also compatible.

According to the The Strategic Advisory Board for Intellectual Property (SABIP), about 7 million UK citizens pirate music, games, movies and software each year, costing the economy at least $12 billion pounds.

On any given weekday, over 1.3 million people can be found using one of many file-sharing networks, adds the board.

Intellectual Property Minister David Lammy adds that the report shows off the grave significance piracy is having on the media industries and the UK economy in general.

"This is not an issue confined by national boundaries and I am sure that other [EU] member states and their copyright industries will find this report of use in the development of policy," he concluded.

Dame Lynne Brindley, SABIP Board member, noted: "This report gives us some baseline evidence from which we can develop a clear research strategy to support policy development in this fast moving area."

That policy is most likely to be forcing ISPs to cut off multiple time offenders, the extremely controversial "3 strikes" laws.

Less than four months after blocking Boxee media center users from accessing their content, Hulu's developers have introduced their own software called Hulu Desktop. Like Boxee it enables the use of a remote control for Hulu streams.

Boxee's Avner Ronen is optimistic about the implications for his company's future relationship with Hulu. Unfortunately for Boxee users there's a lot of reason to be skeptical.

Much of the original reason for Hulu's creation was frustration on the part of NBC and Fox executives. They wanted more control over their content than was offered by services like YouTube.

When Boxee users were suddenly cut off in February Hulu CEO Jason Kilar made it clear the decision came from those rather than Hulu management. Since then Hulu's ownership group has expanded to include Disney, a company known for their near-paranoid attitudes when it comes to content control.

Hulu desktop appears more like an attempt to create their own Boxee alternative. A message warning Apple users to shut down Boxee so their remotes will work correctly seems to confirm this.

As we reported in couple occasions last month, the judge Tomas Norström in the Pirate Bay case was allegedly biased for being a member of at least two copyright associations. According to TorrentFreak, the defense lawyer Per Samuelsson has now sent a letter to the Court of Appeal addressing the issue of unfair trial.

"I don’t want to say that the randomness of judge selection has been fixed, but the case has been handed to Norström mainly because he is considered an expert on copyright. That raises questions since this is a criminal case. A large majority of the young generation believes that what is going on here is a farce," commented Samuelsson to Swedish news agency, TT.

Usually in Sweden judges are chosen at random which wasn't the case here. Nordström was handpicked because of his expertise in copyright cases even though he has connections with several pro-copyright groups and is a board member of Swedish Association for the Protection of Industrial Property.

New rumors have surfaced that Microsoft is set to announce a new deal with BSkyB that will bring video content to the Xbox 360 console.

Reports are saying the companies have been trying to work out a deal for almost two years and are ready to pull the trigger soon. The exact details of the deal are not clear, however.

The rumors suggest that full BSkyB service through the console is not in the cards, but an ample amount of video content will be brought out at launch.

We will have more details tomorrow at Microsoft's press event 'Experience the Vision,' where the announcement is expected to be made.

Sony Ericsson has introduced their latest touch screen phone today, the Aino, which they promise will integrate tighter with the PSP and PS3 consoles than any phone they have ever released.

The Aino is a touchscreen slider, with a full number pad under the 3-inch screen. Users can use the Remote Play "feature to listen to music or watch videos from the console when away from home."

An additional feature, dubbed 'Media Home', will allow users to sync content from a PC using Wi-Fi as long as the phone is being charged. The phone also includes an 8.1 MP camera including image stabilization. Expandable microSDHC slot allows for up to 32GB in extra memory, and a free 8GB card comes in the box.

The phone, available to North American and European consumers, will be available in the fall.

No price was revealed.

The oft-rumored 'Slim PS3' is back in the news today, this time being confirmed by sources talking to Arstechnica.

The undisclosed source says that the slimmed down PS3 unit is not rumor, but in fact real, and should hit stores in either August or September. The source also says the rumored PSP Go! is real too, and will be announced next week during the E3 event.

The new PS3 will not be announced next week, but at a later point when current PS3 stock is almost fully sold off.

There is no other word on specs of the new model, but leaked photos surfaced earlier this month. You can view those here: 'Slim PS3' photos leaked

For more information on the PSP Go! please check here: New PSP to be called 'PSP Go!'

Microsoft today has announced that global Xbox 360 sales have now hit a new milestone, 30 million units.

Additionally, Xbox Live membership has hit 20 million active users.

"We’ve always been confident that Xbox 360 offers more entertainment value than any other console on the market, and these latest numbers show that consumers agree," added Don Mattrick, Microsoft senior vice president of the Interactive Entertainment Business.

"We expect our growth to continue to accelerate. Our news at E3 next week will underscore our commitment to bringing blockbuster entertainment experiences to everyone and to growing the Xbox entertainment brand globally."

The company added that users have downloaded almost 500 million pieces of DLC (downloadable content) from XBL and membership has jumped exponentially since the release of the New Xbox Experience last November.

The long awaited Microsoft Zune HD media player is now official, with the company introducing it today (without a price tag however).

"Zune HD is the next iteration of the Zune device family and brings a new level of listening and viewing experiences to the portable media player category," says the press release.

The Zune HD will have a built-in HD radio receiver and can output HD video. The player has Wi-Fi capabilities and an OLED touchscreen with a resolution of 480 by 272 pixels.

"The Zune music player is an integral part of the Zune experience," said Enrique Rodriguez, VP for Microsoft's video group and and will bring "cross-platform experiences and video content to living rooms around the world."

The software giant said it will also use Xbox Live to help spur Zune HD sales, "prominently" placing Zune content in the Xbox Live interface, allowing users to to download videos and songs for easy playback on the media player.

Skyfire has finally released the complete version of their smartphone mobile browser, promising a "PC-like web experience."

The browser is a free download and will display pages almost exactly as they would appear on a PC, similar to the Safari browser for the popular Apple iPhone.

Skyfire also notably supports Flash, Java, Silverlight and Ajax.

The browser in its current form will run on all phones using Windows Mobile 5 or 6 and Symbian phones with Nokia's S60 platform. A BlackBerry version is coming later.

Adds Skyfire business development vice president Raj Singh:

"The top two user complaints were that it took a long time to start up and it was slow when zooming in and scrolling, so we attacked those issues." Zooming is now instant and scrolling pages is "faster and smoother" adds Singh.

The much hyped Nokia Ovi Store is now live everywhere, and is available from your mobile phone as well as from desktop PCs and Macs.

So far there are only about 700 apps, games, and audio/video pieces of content, but Nokia promises 20,000 at least.

Check it here: Nokia Ovi Store

Be warned however, the site is running extremely slow as of publishing, from the PC and from the mobile browser.

In early March, the much anticipated horror sequel Resident Evil 5 was leaked to torrent sites and P2P, a full ten days before its official release date. Capcom was understandably upset, but launch month sales were spectacular and it appears those sales remain strong despite the leak.

Capcom CFO Kazuhiko Abe adds that sales of the sequel are currently at 4.97 million and rising, on "very strong demand".

Abe notes that the company sold 4.4 million units in March alone, and that the title will top 5 million within days.

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.

Last month we reported that the PC retailer Systemax, which has recently purchased Tiger Direct and CompUSA, was planning to buy the Circuit City name, brand and website, for $14 million USD.

The company has now completed the aquisition and has already revised and relaunched the Circuit City website. You can read more about the site, from the Systemax CEO here: Circuit City relaunch.

The new site has 24/7 customer service, more advanced search functions and more importantly photo and video galleries for every product in the store.

Along with the purchase of the website domain and all branding, Systemax was given "customer lists and information" and a "share of revenue generated over the next 30 months."

The hotly anticipated release of the Android 1.5 (Cupcake) firmware update is now official, says T-Mobile, and G1 users should begin to see this update soon if they have not already.

The official update list:
* System-wide:
o Refinement of all core UI elements
o Animated window transitions (off by default)
o Accelerometer-based application rotations
* UI polish for:
o In-call experience
o Contacts, Call log, and Favorites
o SMS & MMS
o Browser
o Gmail
o Calendar
o Email
o Camera & Gallery
o Application management

Performance improvements

* Faster Camera start-up and image capture
* Much faster acquisition of GPS location (powered by SUPL AGPS)
* Smoother page scrolling in Browser
* Speedier GMail conversation list scrolling

According to a report over at Open Salon, the upcoming Apple iPhone 3.0 firmware update is expected to hit the phone next month, and with it will come direct downloads of movies and TV shows, eliminating the need for a PC with iTunes.

Alleged screenshots (posted at the end of the article) seem to show direct links to “iTunes Movies,” “iTunes TV,” and “iTunes Movie Rentals.” All movies and episodes are separated by genre.

Apple has not confirmed or denied the rumor.

Currently iPhone/iPod Touch owners can only directly download podcasts.

We will keep you updated.

Sharp has introduced the 20-inch AQUOS DX LCD this week, the first HDTV at that size to include a built-in Blu-ray burner.

The TV also has a built-in digital TV tuner that allows users to record episodes and burn them to BD-R/R DL and BD-RE/RE DL discs. The company says up to 30 hours of HD video can be recorded to BD-50 discs, and the data can be burnt at up 7x speed.

Users can also play media stored on DVD-R, including MPEG-4 and AVC high definition video files.

The TV itself, is 720p resolution and has a 1,500:1 contrast ratio with 450cd/m2 brightness. For inputs, there are two HDMI ports, a VGA, a D4, and S-video and RCA. There is also an Ethernet port for Internet connectivity.

A German court has given both Universal and Warner Bros a preliminary injunction against the streaming video portal Zattoo.

The site had been running commercial spots using films from Universal and Warner. Zattoo shows free German TV channels on its site as free web streams while adding advertising to the content.

The studios however are now suing the site saying "its agreement with German channels does not allow it to insert commercials into its films."

Zattoo is now blocked from streaming any Warner and Universal films until a settlement is reached, and the site pays additional licensing fees.

The IPTV provider, which launched 4 years ago, has over 4 million registered users and is available in Germany, Denmark, France, Spain, Switzerland and the U.K.

Thanks to a new ruling in the U.S. District Court of Miami, a lawsuit filed last year against socialite Paris Hilton will go ahead to trial, despite pleas from her lawyers to have the case thrown out.

The lawsuit is over Hilton's lack of promotion for her film National Lampoon’s Pledge This , which had a limited theatrical run before being released on DVD by Vivendi.

The suit was filed by the investor group Worldwide Entertainment Group which claims the socialite's lack of promotion cost them $8.3 million USD in investments based on the film's performance.

According to IMDB, in the movie Hilton plays a sorority president who takes in a group of unconventional freshman girls seeking acceptance into her house. The movie is also ranked #31 in the Bottom 100 list of all time, with a 1.6/10 rating.

Warner Bros. has announced that the special 2-disc Director's Cut edition Watchmen Blu-ray disc will include a full PlayStation 3 video game, Watchmen: The End is Nigh.

The movie is expected to hit stores on July 21st, but there was no word on MSRP for the special edition.

Although it is unclear what extra features will be on movie/game version, the standard edition includes "11 making-of Watchmen shorts, Chemical Romance’s music video for “Desolation Row” and the studio’s debut of ‘Maximum Movie Mode,’ in which director Zack Snyder will appear as the film is rolling to explain various ins and outs of the creation process. Also on the standard Blu-ray edition is a new Web-enabled feature expanding the community screening experience to users’ Facebook friend network."

The game itself has already been partially released as a download via Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network. The physical game will include two segments, only one of which has been released so far.

T-Mobile G1 owners have begun receiving the Android 1.5 firmware update today, despite the carrier's warning earlier this week that the rollout could be delayed until June.

Coming with 1.5 is the addition of an on-screen keyboard. Users will be able to enter text while the phone is in portrait mode instead of having to rotate to landscape mode and open the keyboard. The new update will also add more Home Screen widgets including a widgets for the user's calendar, a music player, and a picture frame.

The addition of video recording, as well as the addition of video playback support for MPEG-4 and 3GP, is a welcome addition for many whose biggest complaint is the lack of video recording using the built-in camera.

According to major US retailer GameStop CEO Daniel DeMatteo, price cuts for the Nintendo Wii and PlayStation 3 will be coming in the Q3.

DeMatteo added that the company is forecasting 33.5 million hardware units sold at that point and is factoring in price cuts.

"That assumes that there will be price cuts on the PS3 and potentially one on the Wii," said DeMatteo, adding however that "it’s hard to tell if we actually need a price cut on the Wii to get to our numbers. There are some price cuts built into that assumption, but not until the third quarter."

DeMatteo also says that the current price of the consoles is too high given the global economic recession.

"The hardware price points, given this economic environment are potentially too high, and if the platform holders are going to make the numbers that they forecasted for the year, those prices would have to change.

"Also, if you think about it, these hardware prices have stayed up longer in this cycle than in any other time before, and in a very dire economic environment, those two things seem to be mutually exclusive.

A new Microsoft job listing has made it clear that the software giant is working on a "Zune Mobile" project.

The Windows Mobile Phone Entertainment team is searching for an engineer that can help develop an interface for the forthcoming Windows mobile phone while integrating Zune features into the popular Windows Mobile platform.

The posting adds: "Responsibilities will include (but are not limited to) developing features for the phone that drive the joy and fun of using the device. Everything from Zune Mobile experiences to killer photo capture and sharing experiences to winning application marketplaces showcasing both applications and casual games."

The Zune phone, dubbed "Pink", will use a "800x480 or larger touchscreen, multi-touch support, an accelerometer, electronic compass, digital camera and assisted GPS."

Eight successful months after launching the browser, Google has updated Chrome to version 2.0, bringing substantial upgrades and bug fixes.

According to the press release, the updated browser has patched and fixed over 300 bugs, bringing increased stability.

Other improvements:
Improved New Tab Page: The most requested feature from users was the ability to remove thumbnails from the New Tab page. Now you can finally hide that embarrassing gossip blog from the Most Visited section.

Full Screen Mode: If you've ever given a presentation or watched a large video using Google Chrome, you might have wished you could use every last pixel on your screen for the content. Now you can hide the title bar and the rest of the browser window by hitting F11 or selecting the option in the Tools menu.

Form Autofill: Filling out your information in forms over and over again can be tedious. Form autofill helps by showing information you've previously entered into the same form fields automatically. If at any point you want to clear out your information, that's easy to do from the Tools menu.

Increased Speed: Making the web faster continues to be our main area of focus. Thanks to a new version of WebKit and an update to our JavaScript engine, V8, interactive web pages will run even faster. We've also made sure that JavaScript keeps running fast even when you have lots of tabs open. Try opening a bunch of web applications and then running your favorite benchmark.

Marking the second time they have done so this year, US HDTV market share leader Vizio has sued rival LCD maker Funai, this time over TV patent infringement.

The suit is seeking a complete injunction of sales of the Funai TVs in question in the United States as well as monetary compensation.

The company is seeking "millions" in damages from profits realized by Funai from the sale of infringing products. The patents are related to "manufacturing, importing and distribution of HDTVs."

"Unlike Funai, our patent portfolio has not been rejected by the USPTO, we at Vizio respect the rights of intellectual property and we will not stand by while foreign competitors misappropriate our intellectual property," added Laynie Newsome, co-founder of Vizio.

Funai is best known for its HDTV brands Philips, Magnavox, Emerson, Sylvania, and Symphonic.

According to a report by Develop, Sony is experimenting with different ways to offer game rentals for the PSP handheld.

Users would be able to download and temporarily use the the full games which would have DRM that would make the game unplayable after a certain period.

Sony has also asked gamers via a survey whether they would use a subscription service "that offers a set number of game rentals each month."

It is unclear when, or if, any type of rentals would be made available, but the path should be more clear after the E3 event next month. We will keep you updated.

The Promusicae association, which encompasses Spanish record labels as well as international giants such as EMI, Universal, Sony and Warner has sued Spanish citizen Pablo Soto for $17.5 million USD, alleging that they profited handsomely from software that allowed the sharing of unauthorized music over the Internet.

Soto created three popular file-sharing programs and has admitted that he did make money from the programs but continues to claim innocence on the charge of "unfair competition," which is what the Big 4 is claiming.

In Spain, downloading free music is not illegal unless it is found to be for commercial use, so the Promusicae may be facing an uphill battle in court.

Soto feels the media companies are now targeting program designers as a way to make money after failing to win cases against alleged file sharers who downloaded music for personal use. Fans of the file sharing networks also claim that the companies already make up the "losses" claimed by the record labels through the so-called "iPod Tax" which means all Spanish citizens pay a small levy on any new CD, MP3 player or phone purchase.

Hulu has announced that it will stream its first live concert ever, the Dave Matthews Band, playing at the famous New York-based Beacon Theater on June 1st.

The concert is Hulu's first live entertainment event since the New Years celebration and the band says the concert, as well as a new iPhone game, are tie-ins for the group's upcoming album Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King.

Hulu recently added Disney as a partner, and has been growing in popularity, moving to second place behind YouTube in overall views and unique users.

There are also hints that the site will be finally going international this year, beginning in the UK by September.

According to a Cnet report, Sony has been speaking to the major record labels in an effort to open a music store for the PlayStation Portable handheld.

There has been no deals struck however, and the talks are still in very early stages, notes the sources.

The legal music download store would be available through the PlayStation Network and would put the gaming device in even closer competition with media players such as the Zune and the iPhone.

Adds Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter:
"This makes total sense that Sony would try to get content for the device. If Sony is smart, they would manage it the same way iTunes has and be device-agnostic. Whatever you get on a Sony site should play on an iPod as well.

"(Sony) should want that but right now you can't download a Sony PSP game to an iPod Touch because the operating system won't allow it. I know I can get music from iTunes to the PSP...It's just a question, but I wonder if Sony will configure the PSP so it would be incompatible with iTunes. They could come up with their own proprietary format for music so that MP3s won't work."

A Federal judge has shot down a RIAA request to have their usual team of forensic experts, whose actual expertise is questionable at best, examine Joel Tenenbaum's computer. Instead Judge Nancy Gertner ordered the RIAA to use a third party investigator, who will be required to provide her with a detailed description of their methods.

Although RIAA lawyers will be allowed to select their own forensic expert, the instructions they give to that individual will also be passed on to the judge, and their findings will be disclosed directly only to Mr. Tenenbaum's legal team. They will then be required to share the report with the RIAA.

In the past RIAA experts have shown a great deal of bias, even going so far as to claim a defendant in another case must have a second computer because the one she turned over for examination showed no evidence of file sharing software or even MP3 files.

The examination of Mr. Tenenbaum's computer will be limited to looking for music files, meta data about music files, evidence of file sharing activity, and evidence the hard drive has been wiped.

The civil trial against Mininova, brought forward by the Dutch anti-piracy outfit BREIN, has been postponed one month today.

The outcome of the case will determine whether the torrent indexing site will have to "actively filter" torrents from its index daily. If BREIN is triumphant, Mininova will be forced to remove all .torrent files that lead to unauthorized content such as pirated movies, music or TV shows.

“The reason for this postponement is solely due to personal circumstances of our attorney and has explicitly nothing to do with the content of the case,” says Mininova’s staff.

Additionally, Mininova President Erik Dubbelboer notes:

“The case wont say much about the legality of torrent sites, but it will give more insight into what measures BitTorrent indexers and similar services have to take in order to make sure that they don’t link to illegal content. In particular, it deals with the question of whether or not website owners have to actively filter content. In other words, is a notice and takedown policy sufficient or not.”

A team of researchers from the Swinburne University of Technology in Australia have announced today they have created a "five-dimensional" optical media that can hold up to 1.6 terabytes of data, and that could easily be on the market within 10 years.

The researchers used 'nanoparticles and a "polarization" dimension' to create the massive storage capacity. The team has already signed a deal with Samsung, who says the disc could potentially hold up to 10 terabytes.

"We were able to show how nanostructured material can be incorporated onto a disc in order to increase data capacity, without increasing the physical size of the disc," adds Min Gu, part of the team.

"These extra dimensions are the key to creating ultra-high capacity discs."

The Reuters report explains that "DVDs currently have three spatial dimensions but using nanoparticles the researchers said they were able to introduce a spectral -- or color -- dimension as well as a polarization dimension."

Microsoft has announced today that it will be bringing all 12,000 Netflix "Watch Instantly" streaming content videos to Windows Media Player in Vista.

Unfortunately for XP users, the on-demand service will not work with XP Media Center.

To use the content, you must be running Windows Vista Home Premium and Windows Vista Ultimate and be a monthly subscriber to Netflix. The videos are available through the Netflix app in Windows Media Player, under the "TV + Movies" category.

First time users will be asked to log in using their Netflix username and password and from there you can arrange your queue as well as search the vast library. You will also need Microsoft's Silverlight video/animation plug-in to run the app if you do not already have it installed.

The move also allows Xbox 360 users to playback movies via streaming.

The popular streaming online video site Hulu may be headed to the UK before September, according to sources, marking the first time the site will be available to users outside of the United States.

The report, from UK-based The Telegraph, says Hulu, owned by Disney, Fox and NBCU, is currently in negotiations with ITV, the BBC, and Channel 4 for content partners.

It is believed that the UK version of the site will allow users to watch TV episodes the day after they are broadcasted and each episode will be available for 30 days following its launch.

There is one snag however. Hulu wants to have full control over ad sales based on the content of Channel 4 and ITV.

"Hulu is proposing a model that works in the American marketplace – however Channel 4 and ITV will not consent to that," says the report citing an insider source. "Both parties always retain the commercial rights and sell their own ad inventory."

T-Mobile has announced today that the anticipated rollout of the Android 1.5 update for the G1 smartphone has been delayed at least one week, from the end of May to the first week of June.

The carrier did not say much but did say the delay is necessary to "ensure optimal functionality and smooth delivery."

The most anticipated addition is the the on-screen keyboard. Users will be able to enter text while the phone is in portrait mode instead of having to rotate to landscape mode and open the keyboard. The new update will also add more Home Screen widgets including a widgets for the user's calendar, a music player, and a picture frame.

The addition of video recording, as well as the addition of video playback support for MPEG-4 and 3GP, is a welcome addition for many whose biggest complaint is the lack of video recording using the built-in camera.

According to a post over at Engadget, the site has received a cease and desist letter over pictures of the alleged 'Slim PS3' that show the console with a heavily redesigned body that is completely slim-lined. The move gives the pictures more credibility, but we will not know officially until Sony stops denying.

The message says:

Dear Sir,

We just find that the following web pages on your website contain some confidential document and photos, which were highly possibly illegally
released and posted:

(redacted)

We are investigating this violation and will bring all necessary legal actions regarding this matter. In order to protect the confidential information and prevent you from further legal issues and infringements, please immediately remove those pages and keep our request confidential. If you have any question regarding this issue, please feel free to contact us.

Your cooperation is deeply appreciated.

Best regards

The pictures:

LG has begun shipping its high end BD390 Blu-ray player this week, with a price tag of $400 USD.

The player is the first of its kind to playback DivX videos at full 1080p, whether it is burned to a DVD or being played from a flash drive.

Other nice specs the player has is Wi-Fi, 1GB internal storage and Blu-ray BD-Live compatibility. The BD390 also has built-in Netflix and YouTube video streaming features.

The player supports 7.1-channel Dolby TrueHD and DTS HD Master Audio surround, and includes native 24 fps video without pulldown conversion.

Sprint Nextel has announced it will begin selling the hotly anticipated Palm Pre smartphone on June 6th for $200 USD with a new or upgraded two-year contract. The price is equal to that of the lower capacity Apple iPhone, the phone the Pre is most directly rivaling.

Alongside the announcement however, Sprint CEO Dan Heese did admit he expects shortages of the phone during launch week.

"We don't intend to advertise it heavily early on because we think we are going to have shortages for a while," Hesse added. "We won't be able to keep up with demand for the device in the early period of time."

Despite the high anticipation for the new smartphone, many analysts believe it can be upstaged right from the get-go by a cheaper, updated iPhone expected to be launched on June 8th.

CL King Associates analyst Lawrence Harris notes, "It would've been nicer if the device was out in the market for a longer period before any potential iPhone."

Following recent blockbuster leaks such as that of Resident Evil 5, Electronic Arts' Sims 3 game has been leaked to P2P, a full 15 days before its official release date.

The ISO file is 4.94 GB large and the game has had its Securom DRM cracked. The Sims 3 was set to be EA's flagship game for 2009 but may have some sales hindered by piracy. This is not always true however as despite being leaked, Resident Evil 5 still set sales record for the series.

The game has been downloaded hundreds of thousands of times already and is being called the "real deal" with little to no bugs or crashes.

EA has had a bad year so far in terms of piracy and leaks, especially with the debacle that came with the release of the hit game Spore which eventually led to a class action suit against the developer.

Last Friday Brian Toder, the lawyer for Jammie Thomas in her defense of RIAA copyright infringement allegations, filed a motion to withdraw from the case. It was unopposed by the RIAA, unlike Ms Thomas' request for a continuance while she finds a new lawyer.

If the objection were to come from anyone but an RIAA lawyer it would probably be surprising. But given their history of manipulating the legal system to ensure an unfair advantage over defendants no one should be shocked.

RIAA lawyers have no qualms about requesting a continuance when it suits their own purposes. In fact it's one of their favorite tactics to use whenever someone refuses to settle and instead insists on a trial.

Of course those continuances serve to cost the defendants money in legal fees (responding to RIAA motions).

Given the evidence against Jammie Thomas it seems unlikely the RIAA could have a stronger case. So why would they be opposed to her mounting the best defense possible?

It's pretty clear what worries them most is an opponent who understands the law. To date they have managed to avoid any judgement on the constitutionality of damage awards which amount to thousands or even millions of times the actual damages proven.

As Congress considers new royalties for US radio stations to pay labels for promoting their music it seems somewhat ironic that the largest broadcaster in the US appears to be in serious financial trouble.

Less than a year after being purchased by a private equity firm, Clear Channel Communications is working to restructure their debt, hoping to avoid bankruptcy.

Despite claims to the contrary by recording industry lobbyists, radio stations aren't making huge profits at the expense of the labels. In fact Clear Channel lost $428 million in the first quarter of this year.

The loss was primarily due to lower ad revenues. Revenue for the quarter dropped 23% from the same period in 2008.

With Circuit City out of the picture several billion dollars in electronics sales is up for grabs. Wal-Mart is upgrading the electronics departments in 3,500 locations to ensure they get a share of that money.

The changes will include additional space for Blu-ray players and movies, high-definition televisions, PCs, and mobile phones.

"Circuit City's business is up for grabs right now and we expect to get our share," said Gary Severson, Wal-Mart's Senior Vice President of home entertainment.

Another major move will be the addition of ePlay kiosks to 77 stores. They will offer DVD, Blu-ray, and video game rentals.

Mozilla has released the Alpha of their mobile browser dubbed Fennec for Windows Mobile phones.

According to Mobile Crunch, the updates are as follows:

* 3 months worth of bug fixes and performance upgrades.
* Fennec UI have been rebuilt entirely in CSS, allowing Mozilla to tweak the UI for different handsets without having to go in and change the hardcoding. This should make it a lot less complex to port Fennec to different screensizes and resolutions.
* Add-ons! Add-ons are an integral part of Firefox, and something much clamored for in its mobile spinoff. Add-ons won’t jump directly over from Firefox, but users are already hard at work at creating them.

Fennec - alpha 1 for Windows Mobile from Madhava Enros on Vimeo.

After having its downfall predicted for over a decade, it appears that demand for cassette tapes is actually increasing, with sales of the blank tapes increasing year-on-year.

TDK, the current market share leader for cassettes, has said it has sold one million of the blank tapes in the Q1 2009 already, blasting past expectations.

"We're pretty surprised actually because tape sales seem to be holding up very, very well," TDK spokesperson Craig Hill added. "We thought that they would tail off dramatically, year on year. In the last 12 months, we've seen a resurgence."

In the 90s, over 50 million blank tapes were sold every year, and by 2007 that number had dropped to just over 5 million.

Why demand is increasing however is the bigger question.

Says Andy Borthwick of aandcaudio.co.uk, "Cassettes for us over the last few years have actually increased in sales, for various reasons. There's a lot of people looking for them and they're not available on the High Street, so they're coming to specialist companies like ourselves."

In 2007, the founders of the infamous torrent tracker The Pirate Bay began their 'Buy Sealand' campaign, hoping to raise enough money to purchase the island of Sealand and offer broadband access and no copyright laws to all citizens. The campaign was an utter failure however, as the island is priced at $1 billion USD and the group only raised $40,000 USD or so.

They may not have their island, but the Pirate Bay now has its own anthem, courtesy of Swedish musician Montt Mardié. The single was given a YouTube video and the single is available for free, obviously, via the public tracker.

Says the Pirate Bay crew. Download, listen and share “To show the world, that we’re all The Pirate Bay…”

Beginning tonight, the long running online music service Napster will drop the price of their cheapest monthly subscription from $13 USD to $5 USD, allowing users to stream unlimited amounts of music while receiving five DRM-free MP3 tracks every month.

The new price cut is only available to U.S. users however, so international users are out of luck for the time being.

Premium subscription plans will still cost $15 USD a month giving users the same access but with the ability to take content to all portable devices with the notable exception of iPods.

The plan is very similar to that of the Microsoft Zune Pass, which offers unlimited streaming and 10 DRM-free tracks for $15 USD.

This week Verizon Wireless added a unique offering to their standard selection of subsidized phones. If you sign up for mobile internet service you can get a HP Mini 1151NR netbook for $249.99 ($199.99 after $50 rebate).

The netbook features a 1.6GHz Atom CPU, 1GB RAM, an 80GB hard drive, a 10.1" screen with a native resolution of 1024x576, and mobile broadband, 802.11b/g wireless ethernet, and Bluetooth connectivity built in. It comes with Windows XP Home installed.

In the nearly two years since the introduction of the original iPhone the line between smartphone and ultra-portable computer has gradually blurred. There's even talk that Nokia, a leader in the smartphone market, will have their own line of netbooks soon.

But given the issues that AT&T iPhone owners have had making full use of their mobile internet servce it will be interesting to see how Verizon's network holds up.

It's one thing to support mobile email and scaled down versions of web pages. It's something else entirely for thousands (or tens of thousands) of people to use the same bandwidth for even basic web surfing using a standard desktop browser.

If you're a well known artist today it's almost a certainty that any new album you record will be available on the internet before it goes on sale. Rather than complaining about the ineveitable, alternative members of Wilco have decided to stream their upcoming album themselves.

The obvious benefit from letting visitors stream Wilco (the album) from their website is a chance to sell them pre-orders for the album. Pre-orders will begin shipping on June 25.

They are also providing some incentive for fans to buy it instead of downloading from P2P. People who order from their website get the option to buy an exclusive t-shirt which won't be available after June 29.

There is also a tote bag offered and every pre-order includes a download of the new song 'You Never Know' and entry into a series of drawings to take place between now and June 29.

Prizes will include 4 tickets to any (non-festival) 2009 wilco show and an iPod nano with the new album already loaded.

RealNetworks has asked a Federal judge for permission to add an antitrust complaint against the MPAA to their existing lawsuit against the the DVD Copy Control Association (DVD-CCA). The suit began as a preemptive strike to establish that their DVD copying software, RealDVD, doesn't violate their license with the DVD-CCA.

Although the MPAA isn't directly involved in the licensing of DVD decryption technology, there can be no question they are behind the very existence of CSS encryption, which makes it illegal to rip DVDs in the US.

In their filing, RealNetworks lawyers wrote "The CSS agreement is being used to extend a legally granted monopoly over content into separate markets – to prevent competition from technologies that would allow a copy of content for fair use purposes. But the making of a copy of a studio DVD is authorized fair use under the Copyright Act."

The biggest hurdle to most fair use arguments is the very nature of fair use. It is not, as many people believe, a right given to the public.

Accused Microsoft product key counterfeiter Adonis Gladney has been convicted this week of violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and is now the first person to ever be convicted under the DMCA for violations relating to the circumvention of security protections on software.

According to Assistant U.S. Attorney Craig Missakian, Gladney sold tens of thousands of the counterfeited keys, which are used to activate legitimate software products such as Microsoft Office.

"The defendant couldn't have executed his scheme without counterfeit access keys," Missakian noted. "(The keys) allowed purchasers to load software on multiple computers."

Missakian admitted that even the US Marine Corp. had been duped into buying the phony keys, among thousands of other clients.

With his conviction, it looks like Gladney will likely face 3-7 years in prison, depending on "the amount of monetary damage he caused."

CNet adds that Gladney, a Los Angeles native "would advertise software licenses in large volume on his Web sites, abovegroundsolutions.com or agsolutionsspc.com. Customers paid their money and received licenses, which prosecutors say Gladney claimed legally covered between 25 and 750 users. Gladney would then ship them a CD loaded with software that authorities say was not designated as a retail product for sale to the general public, such as software that typically comes bundled in PCs."

Electronics giant Toshiba has announced a new lawsuit against Imation over several DVD patents. Toshiba is claiming that the company has been manufacturing and distributing recordable media without first establishing licensing agreements for DVD format specifications set forward by the DVD Forum.

"The infringement of Toshiba's patents by these companies, has negatively affected Toshiba's business, and also caused damage to the legitimate and licensed DVD product manufacturing and distribution business as a whole," the suit says.

Toshiba is seeking an injunction on the production, sales, and imports of the Imation discs, as well as monetary damages. The company will accept Imation establishing licensing agreements as an alternative resolution however.

DJ Danger Mouse, famous for being one half of Gnarls Barkley, and for his 2004 mashup CD They Grey Album (mixing the Beatles 'White Album' with Jay-Z's 'the Black Album') is releasing a new album this week, however there is one catch; there wont actually be any music on it.

In the case of the 'Grey Album,' record label EMI sent out cease-and-desist letters to all fans who posted the album anywhere online and even threatened those who protested the label's actions. The label and the DJ are still in an ongoing dispute and therefore Danger Mouse is not allowed to release any music under his own name.

The new album, Dark Night Of The Soul, as a way to get around EMI, will simply be cover art and a blank recordable CD-R. Burn the tracks (however you find them) to the CD-R and enjoy the music, says the DJ.

His official statement reads:

Danger Mouse's new project Dark Night Of The Soul consists of an album length piece of music by Danger Mouse, Sparklehorse and a host of guest vocalists, along with a collection of original David Lynch photography inspired by and based on the music.

At a breakfast panel about the future of filmmaking hosted by the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, Sony Pictures Entertainment CEO Michael Lynton has said he believes the Internet is a waste of time.

“I’m a guy who doesn’t see anything good having come from the Internet. Period,” was his exact quote.

His rant continued when he stated that the Internet has “created this notion that anyone can have whatever they want at any given time. It’s as if the stores on Madison Avenue were open 24 hours a day. They feel entitled. They say, ‘Give it to me now,’ and if you don’t give it to them for free, they’ll steal it.”

A separate panelist, Nora Ephron, said the Internet had affected print more than the movie business and added “We’re in the last days of copyright, if you want to be grim about it….Stop it. I dare you.”

Most online publishers use internal numbers, as well as those reported by Nielsen and comScore, to measure audience viewership. The numbers are never equal, but the discrepancies are usually not too bad. And then there is Hulu.

Last month, Nielsen reported that the popular video site had 8.9 million unique users for the month, while comScore reported a much higher 42 million for the same period. For April, the numbers get even crazier. Nielsen says viewers watched 373 million video streams, but at the same time showed a big decline in unique viewers, moving to 7.4 million for the period. Quantcast however, another online measurement provider, says they see no evidence of a decline in unique viewership.

Says Hulu of the Nielsen numbers: "There is work to be done."

The problem however, is in the fact that online measurement is still an unreliable science which can adversely affect advertising decisions.

According to NPD's recent April US sales figures, the Nintendo DS family set a new hardware record for the country with 1.04 million units sold for the month.

827,000 of the new updated DSi handhelds were sold while 215,000 DS Lite handhelds were sold as well. For its lifetime, there have been over 30 million units sold in the country.

"Nintendo systems and software represented 56 per cent of the industry total shares in April, indicating continued strong consumer preference for quality and value," noted Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America's executive VP of sales & marketing.

According to new figures from the NPD Group, video game software sales in the United States fell 23 percent year-on-year for the month of April.

Overall sales fell to $510 million USD, but NPD analyst Anita Frazier did note that the month had a particularly weak software release schedule.

"The number of new releases this month is fairly comparable to what was introduced last April, but GTA IV (on both PS3 and the 360) sold nearly 1 million more units last April than the entire top 10 list did this year," added Frazier.

"April 2008 also featured the release of Mario Kart for Wii, which has remained a top-selling game for this past year, and is on this month's top 10 list as well. This really illustrates the impact of comparing against a month when there were several new blockbuster titles new to the market," she concluded.

For hardware sales, all the next-gen consoles saw declines with Nintendo leading the way with 340,000 Wii units sold, a 55 percent decline year on year. Following was the Xbox 360 with 175,000 units sold, a 7 percent decline. Surprisingly, the PlayStation 2 came in next, posting a huge 30 percent increase in sales. The PlayStation 3 lagged behind again, with 127,000 units sold, a 33 percent decline year-on-year.

Yesterday we reported that rumors were flying that a 'redesigned' PlayStation 3 was to be revealed by Sony at the upcoming E3 event.

Today, pictures of a possible 'Slim PS3' have been leaked, showing off a 120GB hard drive, two USB ports, and a heavily redesigned body that is completely slim-lined.

Sony has added that "We don't know anything about the system in the photos, we currently don't have any plans for a redesigned PS3".

The pictures:

A new study by industry body PRS for Music has found that file sharing sites and P2P make popular musicians even more popular. More obviously, the study shows that the most pirated songs are almost always at the top of music charts such as Billboard at the same time.

The data notes that unsigned and newer bands were neither helped nor hindered by piracy. File-sharing networks have become somewhat of an "alternative broadcast network" which now rivals radio stations as a way of hearing music.

The study was performed by PRS chief economist Will Page and head of media tracking firm Big Champagne Eric Garland. The point of the report was to see if patterns of music usage among file-sharers can affect the "music is marketed and sold."

Also included in the report is the fact that legal action against file sharing sites such as The Pirate Bay has not stopped piracy in the least.

Finally, the authors concluded that "file-sharing sites are reinforcing divisions in the music world and only making the popular more popular." However, because the music is free, people did occasionally listen to bands they wouldn't normally try out. Not too many people are willing to pay for the right to listen to a band they may or may not like.

VUDU has announced today that it will begin offering music and video for free through its service, fully ad-supported.

The deal, made with Brightcove, will initially only include Sony music and videos. The company hopes to eventually add long-form content to the new service but there is no set roadmap.

The move will make VUDU one of the first media hubs to try to add advertisements as part of the working business model. Rivals such as the Apple TV and Roku provide access to existing services or use the standard pay-per-title model.

The ad-backed model has not been thoroughly tested but for the most part has failed miserably with the notable exception being Hulu, the video site which continues to see huge growth.

Sony has reported this week that the company, for the fiscal year ended March 31st, had a loss of $1.04 billion USD, the first time the company has reported a loss since 1995. Perhaps even more notably, the company said it expects a bigger loss in upcoming quarters as sales slide and the Yen grows stronger against the US Dollar.

Revenue for the period also fell 13 percent to $81 billion USD, with the company blaming a number of factors including "the slowdown of the global economy, the appreciation of the yen and the decline in the Japanese stock market."

The "PlayStation" division saw the biggest slowdown in sales year-on-year, mainly due to the strengthening Yen and a large decrease in sale of the aging PlayStation 2. Revenue in the division fell to $10.7 billion USD. Operating profit losses were cut in half however, to $597 million USD, thanks mostly to large reductions in the cost of manufacturing the PlayStation 3 gaming console.

Over 10 million PS3 units were sold for the year, along with 14 million PSPs and 8 million PS2 units. Software sales exploded for the PS3, up almost 100 percent to 103.7 million units. PSP software sales saw a decline of 10 percent.

Nokia, the world's largest mobile phone maker has announced this week that it will stop all investments into the Ovi Share media sharing site. The site had been the company's first major push into online services.

"Ovi Share ... is planned to be maintained in its current state," said the company, noting that the site would remain up and running for the foreseeable future.

Nokia started the service after it acquired Twango in 2007, finally launching the service to the public in early 2008.

Analysts believe however that this recent move is an admission of failure. The site has low usage numbers thanks to stronger sharing sites such as Facebook or Flickr.

"They definitely need to collaborate with Facebook instead of trying to replace it. Same thing with Twitter and Flickr," GC Research analyst Tero Kuittinen added.

On Tuesday the Judiciary Committee in the US House of Representatives approved the Performance Rights Act for consideration by the full House. If enacted into law as currently written, it would require most terrestrial radio stations to pay royalties to the copyright holder of each recording they play.

Under the current arrangement these broadcasters only have to pay publishers' royalties. This system was put in place based on the idea that radio exposure sells music.

Just like they seem to do with any use of a recording that doesn't make them money directly, the labels have characterized this as piracy. As usual they believe the problem isn't their own business model, but rather that people simply aren't giving them enough money.

The bill is still a long way from becoming law. A companion bill was introduced in the Senate earlier this year, but hasn't made it out of committee yet.

Despite claims that radio exposure no longer drives sales, labels continue to provide music to radio stations free of charge. If they really believe what they claim shouldn't they have stopped by now?

Following media mogul Rupert Murdoch's note that he may begin charging for online content for all newspapers in his empire, the New York Times has begun floating the same idea.

The Times has been hit particularly hard by the global recession as well as the decline in ad revenue for traditional media, and over the past five years has seen its stock price drop 90 percent. Currently, the NYT does not charge for online access to its content, but asks all guests to register one time.

In 2006, the company started the TimesSelect service, which forced users to pay extra to access archives and opinion columns but the service was a failure and in late 2007 the entire site was re-opened for everyone, free of charge.

A NYT staff writer, Jennifer Lee, via her Twitter page has discussed what occurred during a meeting with shareholders and explains that the company is currently "exploring a new online financial strategy" that would implement membership levels. Each level would have different access to content with obviously the most expensive having full access to the entire site.

Perhaps more notably, is the company's reflection on the failed TimesSelect service. They believe the service itself was sound (had over 500,000 subscribers) but failed because of poor marketing strategy. TimesSelect to make a comeback in 2009?

When Steve Jobs first demonstrated the iPhone 3G at last year's Apple Worldwide Developer Conference he bragged about the speed of its internet connection. Since then AT&T seems determined to stop people from using very much of that supposedly plentiful bandwidth for anything more than loading web pages or reading email.

Now AT&T officials find themselves on the defensive after the release of the iPhone SlingPlayer, which is only able to use the phone's Wi-Fi connection.

AT&T spokesperson Mark Siegel told Macworld it would be a violation of the company's terms of service for a program to stream video across their 3G network. He said "It’s about making sure all our customers have access to the wireless network,"

He claims it falls under the category of "redirecting television signals for viewing on Personal Computers" which is indeed prohibited under the TOS language, as is any use that causes "extreme network capacity issues and interference with the network."

Siegel suggested that those who want to use the SlingPlayer for iPhone or any other mobile platform such as Symbian or Blackberry should take advantage of the company's Wi-Fi hotspots instead.

Despite all the attention garnered by technology like streaming video and internet VOD, Americans still spend more money on discs than any other type of video delivery. In this year's update to their annual Entertainment Trends In America survey, analysts at the NPD Group found 88% of money spent on home video acquisition going to DVD and Blu-ray purchases and rental.

"Discs are still and by far the dominant way Americans enjoy home video, but there is an increasing appetite for digital options," said Russ Crupnick, entertainment industry analyst for NPD. "The good news is that the consumers engaging with digital video today also tend to be heavy consumers of DVDs and Blu-ray Disc, but it remains to be seen just how long physical discs and digital formats can co-exist."

Of course spending on discs and streaming aren't mutually exclusive. If you happen to be one of the several million Netflix subscribers you get access to their Watch Instantly service for free. As a result they've managed to become the country's most successful streaming video provider.

But there are still obstacles to streaming that go beyond dollars and cents. It's not terribly unreasonable for many Americans to stream a DVD resolution movie, but HD content isn't quite so simple.

Last week, while defending their RealDVD software in court, RealNetworks demonstrated a new product which uses the same technology. Referred to by the codename Facet, it's a DVD jukebox similar to the high end Kaleidescape systems which the DVD-CCA (DVD Copy Control Association) has been fighting over for years.

At RealNetworks'first quarter earnings call late last week Chairman and CEO Rob Glaser couldn't say much about it because of the ongoing litigation, but did give a quick overview. He called it "a complete hardware design and software stack running on top of Linux that delivers an integrated experience designed to be the successor to the standard consumer DVD player."

He also said his company has spent around $6 million on RealDVD already this year, and most of those expenses were related to the suit.

Like the much more expensive Kaleidescape systems, RealDVD stores DVDs with better encryption than the CSS used on the original disc. That means it would be much harder to copy the movies stored on a computer or Facet box than the original DVD.

Although this is rumor for the time being, a PlayStation Lifestyle article is stating that Sony will introduce a newly 'redesigned' PlayStation 3 at the upcoming E3 event, alongside the imminent release of the PSP Go! updated handheld.

There were no other specifics posted, but PSL posts a few possibilities including the fact that the redesign may just be new colors, such as white or silver to match current peripherals available.

Another interesting option is that the upcoming console will be a 'PS3 Slim,' adding some small updates such as Bluetooth 3.0. The console would also be lighter, and more streamlined, somewhat like the PS2 Slim models and the updated PSP models.

We will keep you updated on any developments.

Sony has announced that its popular e-book reader, the Sony Reader, will soon be getting third-party advertisements in an effort to gain revenue from the platform.

Steve Haber, president of the company's digital reading division, adds that the Reader is giving publishers new ways to generate revenue, especially as traditional media continues to see declining profits.

“There are so many avenues for the [e-reader] industry to grow, including advertising; this is truly the beginning,” Haber notes.

“Advertising is not part of the business model at the moment but I would imagine that when it comes to periodicals, newspapers and magazines, those businesses are built around the advertising model so I would imagine it going in that direction,” Haber added.

Earlier this month, the company launched an updated version of the device, dubbed the Danielle Steel Limited Edition.

Reports continue to appear about the long rumored Zune Phone. Ever since the successful launch of the first iPhone in 2006 there has been speculation that Microsoft intends to create a so-called 'iPhone killer' based on the Zune and running a future version of Windows Mobile.

The iPhone, of course, runs a stripped down version of OS X and includes iPod functionality.

Mary-Jo Foley of ZDNet is speculating that a new set of specs from Microsoft is part of a Zune phone project. She notes that the CPU and RAM requirements would make it faster than the iPhone, although that doesn't take the operating system into account.

OS X, being a UNIX derivative, is well suited for running on a mobile device like the iPhone or iPod Touch.

So far no one knows enough about where Windows Mobile is headed to say for sure how it would perform on any particular hardware.

First quarter revenue from Time Warner's Filmed Entertainment division, which includes motion picture, home video, and television production and distribution, was down more than $200 million from the same period last year. Despite the drop, profits for the division were up 10%.

The news wasn't as good for other divisions. While income for their Network Division, which includes of Turner Broadcasting and HBO, saw more than a 5% increase in revenue, the Publishing and AOL divisions' revenue dropped by half a billion dollars combined.

Total revenue fell fell $525 million, resulting in a profit of just under $1.2 billion.

Although this is another clear sign that the entertainment industry is being affected by global economic conditions it also shows that they are still doing very well. It's certainly better than their former music division, Warner Music Group, did over the same period.

Last week WMG reported a 17% drop in revenue compared to 2008.

Five more Canadian citizens have been arrested and face jail time and large fines this week, after being accused of pirating and selling DVDs of new full feature releases.

The five citizens are charged with violating Canada’s copyright act, which many, including the United States, believe are very weak. Just two weeks ago, the United States added Canada to its piracy Priority Watch List, calling the nation one of the worst "offenders of copyright piracy."

The current arrests are occurring at a time when the IFPI is telling Canada that free trade talks with Europe will be halted if the nation does not reform its copyright laws.

According to a new annual study from the Business Software Alliance, losses related to software piracy amounted to $50 billion USD last year, an 11 percent increase from last year.

The study did note however that most of the increase was a result of the weakening U.S. dollar.

Notable members of the BSA are Microsoft, Dell, Intel and IBM.

For the United States, the number related to piracy was $9 billion USD, and the study concluded that piracy rates were among the lowest in the world, with a number around 20 percent. However, because the US dominates the software market, the losses where higher than any other one nation.

A few of the notable findings, from the report are:

* While emerging economies account for 45 percent of the global PC hardware market, they account for less than 20 percent of the PC software market. If the emerging economies’ PC software share were the same as it is for PC hardware, the software market would grow by $40 billion a year. Lowering global piracy by just one point a year would add $20 billion in stimulus to the IT industry.

* The lowest-piracy countries are the United States, Japan, New Zealand, and Luxembourg, all near 20 percent. The highest-piracy countries are Armenia, Bangladesh, Georgia, and Zimbabwe, all over 90 percent.

* The highest-piracy regions are Central/Eastern Europe (67 percent) and Latin America (65 percent). The lowest regions are North America (21 percent) and the European Union (35 percent).

Sharp has announced it will be bringing AQUOS D series Internet-capable TVs to Japan this week, HDTV sets that add support for a Yahoo video service.

The service will "stream multiple content channels online using a built-in Ethernet link." Each of the sets are also 1080p, have 15,000:1 dynamic contrast ratios and have quick 120Hz refresh rates.

Each of the sets, at 32, 40, 46 and 52 inches have equal built-in 20W stereo speakers and 3 HDMI inputs.

The prices range from $2,052 USD for the smallest to $4,618 for the high end 52 inch model. There is no word on European or US releases.

Last month the French National Assembly surprisingly shot down the extremely controversial 'three strikes' laws which would disconnect alleged pirates from the Internet after two warnings.

This week however, the legislation, backed by President Nicolas Sarkozy, has been passed by the Assembly, putting the laws in the hands of the Senate after over a year of debate.

The bill, dubbed The Creation and Internet bill, passed 296 to 233 and will now head to the Senate on Wednesday for final approval.

The three strikes laws would work as follows: A new regulatory body would send alleged pirates a warning e-mail, then a written letter, and finally cut them off the Internet for one year for a third offense.

Critics of the bill have warned that the bill may lead to innocent people being punished, if their computers or networks are hacked.

The socialist Patrick Bloche adds that the bill is "dangerous, useless, inefficient, and very risky for us citizens".

John Kennedy, chairman of the IFPI, applauded the move, adding that the bill is "an effective and proportionate way of tackling online copyright infringement and migrating users to the wide variety of legal music services in France".

Microsoft has confirmed this week that it expects Windows 7 to ship before the end of 2009, in time for the holiday season.

Previously, it was believed the company would ship the new operating system around the three-year anniversary of Vista (in early 2010), but Windows VP Bill Veghte has now admitted different. Veghte also notes that Windows Server 2008 R2 will ship at the same time.

The news comes one week after Microsoft made available the Windows 7 Release Candidate. A few notable PC builders, such as Acer, have even been publicly stated they believe a final version of Windows 7 will be available in October.

Veghte also says that Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, when used together, will "deliver significant cost savings and productivity gains with features such as DirectAccess and BranchCache. Microsoft is making sure to tell businesses—now more than ever—about how the new versions of its software can help save them money in the long run."

Howard Stringer, Sony CEO and chairman, has confirmed that the company will be expanding the PlayStation Network to other devices, although he declined to note what devices.

In the same interview, Stringer discussed the fight between open source and proprietary technologies while also noting that the company made plenty of mistakes in the past with music and video file formats.

"Customers today want to be able to freely access content via the Internet, information technology," he added. "This requirement represents a threat to our content business, and to existing frameworks for rights management. I don't see that we have any choice, though. We have to create a sanctuary which provides customers an environment for their enjoyment."

"That is how we can change a threat to the content business into an opportunity. A lot of people thought Sony's content download service was doomed, but it's in a pretty good place right now in the form of the PlayStation Network, available to PS3 users for network gaming, video, etc. The DRM is based on Marlin, an open scheme developed by consumer electronics companies and other companies.

According to a new Forbes report, Nintendo is the sixth most reputable company in the world, beating out its console rivals Sony and Microsoft.

The firm Reputation Institute rated over 1000 companies for the report and placed Microsoft at #30 and Sony at #126, although it is notable to remember that Nintendo is the only purely videogame company in the list.

Using 65,000 online interviews from interviewees in 25 countries, each company was given a "pulse" rating from 1 to 100, with 100 being the peak of reputation "strength."

Nintendo scored a very high 81.63, while Microsoft scored a 78.05 and Sony had a decently high 72.21. Year-on-year, Sony fell while Microsoft rose. Nintendo was a new addition to the list.

Possibly surprising, the top ranked company is Ferraro the maker of the extremely popular Ferrero Rocher chocolates. Furniture maker Ikea finished second and Johnson & Johnson came in third.

View the whole list here: World's Most Reputable Companies: The Rankings

For the week ended May 3rd, handhelds lead the way in console sales for Japan, with the DSi and DS Lite at the head of the class with 56,673 units sold for the period.

The data, from Media Create, shows that the Sony PSP came in second, moving 49,557 units.

For full consoles, the PlayStation 3 led the way again in the region, selling 23,588 units for the week.

The rest of the list looks as follows:

* PSP - 49,557
* DSi - 49,133
* PS3 - 23,588
* Wii - 21,546
* DS Lite - 7540
* Xbox 360 - 7313
* PS2 - 5479

The much anticipated Nokia Ovi Store will launch with 20,000 items, says Executive VP of services Niklas Savander, a number much higher than that of most rivals when they just launched.

The store is set to launch in mid-June and will include short-form videos, games and other general apps.

Nokia will also use the GPS in many of its smartphones to filter content, with most "local tools getting more prominence when a user is in the area."

In comparison, Apple launched the App Store with 500 apps, and the Android Market recently opened with only 70 apps. Apple now has over 40,000 apps however.

The European Parliament has blocked a proposal that would clear the way for internet users to be disconnected on nothing more than accusations by copyright holders. Their amendment to a proposed telecom reform directive states "No restriction may be imposed on the fundamental rights and freedoms of end users, without a prior ruling by the judicial authorities."

This language is clearly directed at legislation which lobbyists for the recording industry have been demanding for some time. In last year's Digital Music Report the IFPI (an international equivalent of the RIAA) said "In 2008 [ISP Responsibility] must become a reality."

They were referring to proposals in several countries that would force ISPs to disconnect customers who have been accused of copyright infringement via P2P network.

The legislation being considered, most notably French President Nicolas Sarkozy's 3 strikes plan, hasn't become a reality yet. But proponents of disconnecting internet service from accused copyright infringers are still trying hard to push the legislation through.

Vuze, the popular Java-based BitTorrent client formerly known as Azureus has now released a portable version, but for a price, $9.99 USD to be exact.

The version can be carried around on a flash drive or external HDD and the decision to sell the version was based a recent survey of Vuze users that showed 72 percent of users own a portable drive.

Because most people do not have Java installed on their portable drives, Vuze To Go has its own virtual operating system in conjunction with the ‘virtualization’ technology company Ceedo.

Chris Thun, Director of Marketing for Vuze added that the price tag was unavoidable thanks to their deal with Ceedo.

“We’ve invested in creating a portable solution that has an entirely different ease-of-use relative to any other solution in the market. We believe that if we’re solving a real problem in an elegant way, our users will be willing to pay for it.”

“The Vuze application bundled into Vuze To Go is still open source. However, the Ceedo virtualization package is not open source,” Thun concluded.

Over the past week, rumors have been flying that the music-playing search site SeeqPod had finally been sold to Microsoft who has been interested for awhile in the assets of the bankrupt company.

The main fuel for the rumor fire was the fact that the site is down but has a message saying "While we're cocooned for metamorphosis..." on the frontpage. Clicking on the word “metamorphosis” brings you to Microsoft Search.

A Washington Post article confirms that SeeqPod is indeed in talks with the software giant, but that no deal has been made. The deal would not be a full acquisition, and Microsoft would rather "negotiate a piecemeal sale of its technology assets and find new jobs for its core technology team."

Microsoft is said to be looking into the assets including "its targeted crawling system for finding playable media on the Web, its search index of 14 million playable search results and 500 million associated text pages, its recommendation and discovery system, five related patents, and the teams associated with each of these technologies."

SeeqPod is currently in Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection thanks to a pending lawsuit brought forth by the Big 4 record labels. An anonymous source says SeeqPod will not settle and does not want to "become an ATM machine" for the music industry.

The University of Missouri's journalism school has just added the iPhone/iPod Touch to the incoming Freshmen required supplies.

"Lectures are the worst possible learning format," said Associate Dean Brian S. Brooks. "There's been some research done that shows if a student can hear that lecture a second time, they retain three times as much of that lecture."

Brooks did note however that theoretically any MP3 player could be used. "You could use a Zune, for example," he noted.

Why Apple devices then? Simply because being so expensive could benefit students on financial aid.

"If it's required, it can be included in your financial-need estimate," Brooks added. "If we had not required it, they wouldn't be able to do that."

By having an Apple device however, it is easier to download the lectures, as it has a special section in the iTunes Store. "There are about 50 other schools across the country that are doing this," he concluded.

Harman Kardon has announced it will release its first Blu-ray player, dubbed the BDP-10, and will be BD-Live capable.

The BDP-10 will also have "advanced audio codec support and will play back 1080/24p videos without pulldown conversion." A USB slot allows for JPEG and DivX playback from flash drives.

Harman Kardon is known mainly for its home theater A/V products but has been expanding of late. It remains unknown what kind of Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD support the player will have but it will support bitstream versions of the audio formats.

According to new data from iSuppli, the HDTV maker Vizio has now become the leading North American LCD maker, taking the spot from Samsung.

For the Q1 2009 ended March 31st, the company's market share jumped from 13.8 percent last quarter to 21.6 percent. Samsung's market share only dropped slightly, but enough to move it to second place, at 19.9 percent.

iSuppli says Vizio's success is directly related to the ongoing global recession. "Since the onset of the downturn, with budgets becoming increasingly tight, consumers are finding the company's inexpensive sets more alluring," iSuppli analyst Riddhi Patel added.

On average, 42-inch Vizio LCDs retail for $850 USD, while competitors such as Samsung and Sony sell theirs for $100-200 USD more.

Earlier this week, Trent Reznor, front man for Nine Inch Nails, spoke out against the arbitrary Apple App Store approval process, after his application submission was rejected. I implore you to read the entire article here before continuing with this article: NIN iPhone application gets rejected.

Apple has now reversed the decision blocking the iPhone app however, following the intense criticism of the approval process that followed the move.

The app, NIN: Access, allows users to access streaming music and videos from the NIN homepage.

The app was blocked because it violated Section 3.3.12 from the iPhone SDK Agreement, which doesn't allow for objectionable and vulgar content. The song "The Downward Spiral," which was available for streaming, has many curses in its lyrics.

"Thanks Apple for the clear description of the problem - as in, what do you want us to change to get past your stupid... standards?" Reznor wrote in his rant.

Apple did not explain the new decision, adding: "It's not something we comment on."

Google has launched a video demo of the new Cupcake Android 1.5 firmware update this week, following the announcement that the update will be available for all 1 million US users starting this week.

The most anticipated addition is the the on-screen keyboard. Users will be able to enter text while the phone is in portrait mode instead of having to rotate to landscape mode and open the keyboard.

The new update will also add more Home Screen widgets including a widgets for the user's calendar, a music player, and a picture frame.

The addition of video recording, as well as the addition of video playback support for MPEG-4 and 3GP, is a welcome addition for many whose biggest complaint is the lack of video recording using the built-in camera.

Futuresource Consulting and Macrovision appear to be circulating a study from last year in which they accuse people who copy legally purchased DVDs of piracy. Yesterday Home Media Magazine's Chris Tribbey was reporting it had just been released.

There's no indication from Futuresource that a new report has been completed and the numbers quoted in Tribbey's article are identical to last year's study.

It's probably not a coincidence they are publicizing this report as the Library Of Congress is considering potential exemptions to the DMCA's anti-circumvention clause. Macrovision's copy protection technology can be found on VHS, DVD, and now Blu-ray releases.

If an exemption were to be approved for consumers to make fair use copies of their own discs it could become much more difficult for studios to justify paying for Macrovision's BD+ protection.

It's also possible this is intended to support the lawsuit agains RealNetworks' RealDVD program, which the studios are suing to keep off store shelves.

As the Library of Congress considers requests for exemptions to the DMCA, as they do every three years, the MPAA is focusing on reversing a decision from 2006. That's the year they began allowing professors to bypass copy protection (CSS, ACSS, etc,...) "for educational use in the classroom by media studies or film professors."

As if to demonstrate the absurdity of their position, MPAA representatives have now given a demonstration of why they believe this exemption isn't necessary. They argue that the solution is for educators to use a camcorder to record the video as its played on a TV.

Watching a recording of their demonstration it's difficult to believe someone could keep a straight face while either presenting it or watching it. The MPAA representative explains that not only do you have to find a way to zoom in perfectly on the TV (to avoid seeing it in the frame), but you should also work in the dark for best results.

The MPAA has long claimed that copy protection is necessary for them to continue selling discs

In a filing with the Library Of Congress earlier this year they argued "these protection technologies have enabled producers of movies and TV shows to distribute their valuable content in higher quality, more convenient digital formats such as DVDs and Blu-Ray."

EMI Music has released their financial report for fiscal year 2009, which ended in March, showing a company that appears to be doing better than others in the recording industry. Cost cutting measures put in place by Terra Firma, the label's owner since 2007, have resulted in earnings of £163 million ($219 million).

Despite his company performing better than other labels, CEO Elio Leoni-Sceti said "we cannot afford to be complacent," adding "we have some exciting new releases coming up, a much deeper understanding of the music consumer and a new engaged relationship with our artists to build on."

This is a major turnaround from the previous year when EMI reported a loss of £142 million. The reversal corresponds to the first full year of Terra Firma ownership.

Earlier this month we reported that the popular T-Mobile G1 Android handset, which recently sold its one millionth handset, would be updating to Android version 1.5 (Cupcake) in Germany bringing the addition of an on-screen keyboard, more widgets, video recording and finally, stereo Bluetooth.

The carrier has now confirmed that the update is headed to US G1 users as well beginning before the end of next week. T-Mobile hopes to have all 1 million G1s updated to 1.5 by the end of May.

The most anticipated addition is the the on-screen keyboard. Users will be able to enter text while the phone is in portrait mode instead of having to rotate to landscape mode and open the keyboard.

The new update will also add more Home Screen widgets including a widgets for the user's calendar, a music player, and a picture frame.

The addition of video recording, as well as the addition of video playback support for MPEG-4 and 3GP, is a welcome addition for many whose biggest complaint is the lack of video recording using the built-in camera.

Both Mozilla and Opera have now criticized Microsoft over the upcoming Windows 7 operating system, claiming there are a few settings that make the OS anti-competitive.

The browser companies say that users who "opt to upgrade to Windows 7 from Vista rather than install fresh are given an "express" option that automatically reverts the default browser to Internet Explorer even if Firefox, Opera or another browser was set as the default before."

There is a "custom" option that lets users keep their browser settings, but Mozilla and Opera say Microsoft is hoping users will be unaware of the custom setting, or will consider it too much extra work.

"Our initial review suggests this is a blatant use of the Windows operating system to change the market dynamics of browser usage," Mozilla chairman Mitchell Baker adds.

Opera CTO Hakon Wium Lie agreed with Baker and believes the "express" option is a "problem."

Hulu, the currently US-only online video service jointly run by Fox, NBCU and Disney, has begun signing content deals with international television producers, perhaps hinting at a global launch in the near future.

In under 18 months, Hulu has moved to become the third place video site online, behind YouTube and Fox Interactive, seeing 380 million clips viewed last month.

The main complaint with the service is the fact that it does not exist outside the US, but it appears Hulu is ready to expand the service to eight "leading broadcast markets."

“We’re having discussions in the top six to eight markets…we’re laying the groundwork,” noted Andy Forssell, senior vice president of content acquisition and distribution.

In the UK, Hulu has signed deals with Endemol (producer of Big Brother) and Digital Rights Group, which will bring episodes of Green Wing, Peep Show and Doc Martin.

The large Bollywood distributor Saavn has also signed a deal with the online video site.

According to new figures from the NPD Group, Blu-ray standalone sales for the Q1 2009 increased over 72 percent year-on-year from 2008, to over 400,000 units.

Perhaps even more importantly, dollar sales increased to $107.2 million, an increase of 14 percent year-on-year.

"The rising penetration of high-definition televisions and lower Blu-ray player prices are broadening the format’s market opportunity," added Ross Rubin, director of industry analysis at NPD. "Even as options expand for accessing movies digitally, Blu-ray is carrying forward the widespread appeal of DVD into the high-definition marketplace."

The aptly named March 2009 update “Blu-ray Report” also showed that Blu-ray had reached 90 percent awareness in the US in the past six months. Six percent of respondents also added that they were “extremely or very likely” to buy a player in the next six months, which was slightly up from 5 percent last time the "Report" was issued.

Yesterday Amazon officially announced the latest addition to its line of eBook readers, the Kindle DX. It features a 9.7 inch screen, which has two and a half times the area of the standard Kindle.

"Personal and professional documents look so good on the big Kindle DX display that you’ll find yourself changing ink-toner cartridges less often," said Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com Founder and CEO. "Cookbooks, computer books, and textbooks – anything highly formatted – also shine on the Kindle DX. Carry all your documents and your whole library in one slender package."

Besides the increased screen size, the Kindle DX also adds PDF support and auto-rotation of the image similar to the iPhone. The changes are designed to open new markets for which the small size of the original isn't suitable.

Arizona State University, Case Western Reserve University, Princeton University, Reed College, and Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia will all be trying out the new Kindle by distributing them to a sampling of students for use as a textbook reader.

"The Kindle DX holds enormous potential to influence the way students learn," said Barbara R. Snyder, president of Case Western Reserve University. "We look forward to seeing how the device affects the participation of both students and faculty in the educational experience."

Warner Music Group's revenue for the second quarter of 2009 is down more than $100 million dollars compared to the same period last year. A statement from the company blames the decline primarily on worldwide economic conditions and a release schedule weighted heavily toward the last part of the year.

WMG's one semi-bright spot is digital (internet-based) revenue, which accounted for $173 million of the $668 million total. Unfortunately that's a negligible increase from the $171 million brought in a year ago.

With CD sales continuing their freefall, that 26% of their revenue is arguably the most relevant to future performance.

Unless someone at WMG comes up with a way to greatly increase income from music downloads it looks like they are in for a very rough year. And maybe that's not a bad thing for the music industry.

So far the major labels have proven inept at the online music business to say the least. You don't have to look any further than the recent switch to variable pricing for song downloads to see how bad their track record is.

The labels insistence on tiered pricing, implemented recently by all the major online music stores, doesn't look any more promising than previous efforts. In fact it seems to benefit resellers and consumers at the expense of label profits.

The major record labels spent 5 years convincing Apple to sell hit music for a premium price in the iTunes store. Nearly a month into the new pricing scheme, which lowers the price of some songs to $0.69 while raising others to $1.29, hasn't been the cash cow label executives expected.

The problems seemed to begin immediately after the new pricing scheme was introduced. Although the number of songs sold jumped, it wasn't an across the board increase.

In fact, sales of tracks priced at $1.29 actually fell. Fortunately for Apple, revenue from sales at the lowest tier were enough to make up the difference, resulting in a net gain.

According to Digital Music News the labels haven't been quite so lucky. They are reporting label revenue under the new price scheme has actually dropped.

If the trend continues it would seem the labels have managed to accomplish the exact opposite of what they wanted. Their chief complaint about iTunes, almost since its inception, has been that it gives Apple too much power in the market.

Sony has said that it will be bringing the music and video download service VidZone to European PlayStation 3 consoles this summer, allowing users to watch music videos at their leisure, for free.

VidZone currently runs the service from their own independent website, and is has deals with Sony BMG, EMI and over four thousand independent labels. The service on the PS3 will be ad-supported and will allow gamers to stream over 25,000 music videos and "behind-the-scenes commentaries."

"VidZone is not just about giving music fans access to thousands of music videos, but offering a completely interactive and personalised music experience," added VidZone CTO Michael Russo.

The VidZone application will be made available through the PS3’s Xross Media Bar (XMB) with a later firmware update and will allow users to create playlists, save a video library, or select any individual video from the catalog.

"Music has always been popular on PS3 and now VidZone is set to transform the way we view music videos by letting you completely tailor your experience and is just one more reason for PS3 to be the most valued player in your living room," concluded Isabelle Tomatis, hardware and platforms marketing manager at Sony Computer Entertainment Europe.

The software giant Microsoft has officially started distributing the Release Candidate version of Windows 7. As expected, today they expanded the distribution to all of us average Joes, who now get a hold of the future de facto operating system.

The release candidate is said to include the same set of features as the final product so it will provide a good glimpse into Windows 7. Microsoft however doesn't recommend this version for the beginners for it is still in development and therefore unstable and insecure.

You also cannot upgrade previous Windows installations to Windows 7 RC. You need to make a clean install which will also be the case when the final Windows 7 comes out. Beta or RC versions can neither be upgraded to final version.

Windows 7 RC is available in 32-bit and 64-bit versions for five languages - English, German, Japanese, French, and Spanish. The file is in ISO format so you will need a DVD burner and an appropriate burning software such as ImgBurn or Nero.

Trent Reznor, front man for Nine Inch Nails, has spoken out against the arbitrary Apple App Store approval process, after his application submission was rejected.

As posted on his personal blog, the rejection letter was as follows:
"Thank you for submitting nin: access to the App Store. We've reviewed nin: access and determined that we cannot post this version of your iPhone application to the App Store at this time because it contains objectionable content which is in violation of Section 3.3.12 from the iPhone SDK Agreement which states:

"Applications must not contain any obscene, pornographic, offensive or defamatory content or materials of any kind (text, graphics, images, photographs, etc.), or other content or materials that in Apple's reasonable judgement may be found objectionable by iPhone or iPod touch users."

The objectionable content referenced in this email is "The Downward Spiral". Since the app is live on the App store, please make the necessary changes to the application as soon as possible, and resubmit your binary to iTunes Connect. Thank you
Regards,
iPhone Developer Program "

According to a leaked roadmap, the touchscreen Android Samsung i7500 seems to be headed to T-Mobile in the US later this year.

The leaked calender shows a phone very reminiscent of the i7500 shipping in the fall.

The phone is expected to have an American launch, especially because it supports the 1,700MHz frequency needed for 3G access on T-Mobile USA.

The leak also appears to show off the new T-Mobile G2 (HTC Magic) shipping in June with a $179 USD price tag. The G2 would also signify the end of the G1, which will see a price cut to $149 or less.

The Research In Motion (RIM) BlackBerry Curve has outsold the Apple iPhone in the Q1 2009, according to NPD figures.

NPD analyst Ross Rubin added that the Curve was helped by its widespread availability (its available through Sprint, AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon) and Verizon's recent BOGO on the phone.

Overall, the Curve came out on top, while the iPhone slipped to second and the touchscreen BlackBerry Storm took third.

NPD did not release any numbers with the ranking but analysts believe RIM took about 50 percent of the smartphone market in the Q1, up from 35 percent in the Q4 2008. Both Palm and Apple fell 10 percent each.

Last month we reported that the Sony PlayStation 3 had outsold the Nintendo Wii in Japan for the month of March, marking the first time in 16 months that the Wii wasn't the top seller in the region.

According to new data figures from Enterbrain for April, the PS3 has done it again, outselling its rivals for the second month in a row.

For the month of April, Sony sold 108,530 units, with Nintendo moving just 67,116 Wii units.

The console was given a boost thanks to the movie Final Fantasy VII Advent Children Complete and the release of a playable Final Fantasy XIII demo.

The Digital Entertainment Group has announced they have added Deloitte and DivX as active associate members.

The DEG now has 64 members from the entertainment industry.

Deloitte has over 500 media clients in the United States and "helps companies identify ways to reduce costs as well as aid in solving operational problems."

DivX is an implementation of the popular low-bitrate MPEG-4 standard. It helps users create and share digital video.

“As our industry continues to evolve, we invite the participation of all companies to help us explore new horizons for entertainment technology,” added Ron Sanders, DEG president and Warner Home Video president. “Deloitte and DivX are both welcome additions to the DEG and we are eager to have their participation.”

On April 1st, one month before its theatrical release, a workprint version of X-Men Origins: Wolverine was leaked online, and saw giant amounts of downloads.

The release, being a "workprint", had some special effects missing, as well as the occasional view of wires still attached to actors during action scenes.

Despite this leak however, the movie appears to be successful at the box office, making $35 million USD on its opening day on Friday and making a total of $87 million USD for its first weekend. Comparably, the blockbuster Iron Man made the same amount on its first day.

Production companies says the movie cost about $140 million to create, so $87 million is not quite spectacular, but not to shabby either.

Following in Fox's footsteps, Disney has announced that it will become the second studio to release two different "classes" of DVDs and Blu-ray Discs, a "premium" version, and a bare-bones rental version.

Starting in June with the movies Morning Light, Confessions of a Shopaholic and Jonas Brothers: The Concert Experience, the studio will offer the premium version with extras and other "value-added material" while also offering the cheaper stripped-down rental versions.

The move follows that of 20th Century Fox, however with some significant differences. Disney will offer the rental versions at a lower price point, whereas Fox offers both versions at the same price. Fox also controls what rental or retail outlets can buy, however Disney gives all companies the option to buy what they please.

The rental units will not be shrink wrapped and will have no promotional inserts inside either. For example, the Jonas Brothers premium DVD, with digital copy and bonus features, has a MSRP of $39.99 USD while the single disc rental version will have the movie only, and has an MSRP of $29.99 USD.

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has said today that the 'bizarre' Wii-no-Ma video service will eventually hit North America and Europe.

The service, released today in Japan, the channel is set around a virtual living room that can house 8 Miis.

The Miis can relax and watch programming Nintendo has come up with in conjunction with a Japanese ad agency, and supply ratings for the video material.

"Wii-no-Ma service is available only in Japan at the start, but the overseas deployment is under planning in the future," added Iwata. "As Japanese videogames, anime or manga are very favoured all over the world, we also anticipate a great possibility of same spread for video programmes."

The large fine imposed on Nintendo by the European Court over price fixing has been reduced today, from EUR 149.128 to EUR 119.24 million.

The fine, given to Nintendo and seven of its European partners, was over price fixing on consoles between 1991 and 1998. Because all parties co-operated with the court ruling, the fine was reduced.

"The Court recalled that the basic amount of the fine may be reduced where the undertaking has effectively cooperated in the proceedings," said the new court decision. "In the contested decision, the Commission took account of John Menzies’s cooperation, with the result that it reduced that undertaking’s fine by 40 per cent.

"The Court held that pursuant to the principle of equal treatment, since Nintendo produced the relevant documents at the same stage of the procedure and its cooperation must be regarded as comparable, it must benefit in this respect from the same level of reduction of fine."

The developer Valve has sued Activision Blizzard over unpaid royalties this month, claiming the company underpaid them by over $400,000 USD.

The dispute started in 2002 with a copyright infringement claim by Valve against Sierra Entertainment, who was purchased by Activision in 2004. In 2005, Sierra agreed to "stop generating cyber cafe licenses to players of Valve games, including Counter-Strike." At the same point, both companies agreed that an outside auditor would determine the amount of royalties owed to Valve.

As explained by Gamasutra, "that judgment was not made until this month. On April 6, the arbitrator declared Activision (formerly Sierra) to owe Valve a total sum, including interest, of $2,391,932.

On April 7, referring back to a claim first made March 3, Activision declared Valve to have been previously overpaid $424,136 in royalties, and said it would subtract that amount from its ordered payment. Thus, Activision cut a check for $1,967,796 -- the court-ordered amount minus the alleged overpayment.

But Valve says Activision never raised its overpayment allegation with the arbitrator, and the two companies already had a longstanding agreement to recognize the arbitrator's judgment. Furthermore, Activision has already threatened to sue Valve to recover that $424,136 if Valve seeks to confirm the $2,391,932 order."

The United States has added Canada to its piracy Priority Watch List, calling the nation one of the worst "offenders of copyright piracy."

Adds the US Trade Representatives (USTR): "In this time of economic uncertainty, we need to redouble our efforts to work with all of our trading partners - even our closest allies and neighbors such as Canada - to enhance protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights."

ESA (Entertainment Software Association) of Canada CEO Michael Gallagher approved of the move adding: "Canada's weak laws and enforcement practicies foster game piracy in the Canadian market and pave the way for unlawful imports into the US."

The ESA believes Canada need to strengthen its lax rules on piracy, ban mod chips completely, "provide Customs officials with the authority to seize counterfeit products on the Canadian border" and create "incentives" for ISPs to stop piracy at its source.

"Canada contributes significantly to the development of today’s leading games - creating thousands of high-paying jobs along the way," Gallagher added. "We are eager to see Canada become a full partner in protecting these products on the way to market."

Disney has announced that it has now obtained an equal equity stake in the popular online video site Hulu, giving it equal influence with founders NBCU and Fox.

Some of the popular content that will be available immediately are current and hit TV shows from Disney and ABC such as Lost, Dancing with the Stars and Hannah Montana. There will also be "popular library titles" from Walt Disney Studios.

Hulu has rapidly become the third place video site online, behind YouTube and Fox Interactive, seeing 380 million clips viewed last month.

Disney's deal is the first time the company has moved its TV lineup from its own ABC.com streaming site.