Wow, I can't believe that the Noughties are about to end in couple of hours time. It is quite mind-boggling to think that our site, AfterDawn, has existed through this whole decade - and then some (as our regulars remember, we celebrated our site's 10th anniversary in June). I could write once again, my "traditional" New Year's summary of the past year's events, but I wont do that this time. Instead, just want to chitchat to you about this past decade.
First of all, 10 years ago, we already had a site, AfterDawn.com, that we began building in March, 1999 and that went eventually live on June, 1999. All of us, the founders of the site, were in our early twenties. I had just moved from Helsinki to New York, with my partner and our baby girl. I was witnessing the golden age of the "dotcom boom", working on one of the "dotcom darlings" of that era in Silicon Valley. It seemed that anything you'd create on the Internet would turn into gold, eventually. You could understand easily how we had the energy to first go through a normal working day in our "real life jobs" and then spend 6-8 hours in the evening to write news articles, code, design and plan for AfterDawn's future.
HBO has added their own iPhone app to the App Store this week, offering an interactive program guide and previews and clips of upcoming shows.
Although full-length episodes are not available through the app, the app will give users a chance to buy full episodes from iTunes or Amazon with one-click.
Video clips will be available for True Blood, Entourage, Bored to Death and others, and behind-the-scenes features will be available alongside bios of the actors. The interactive guide will lets users check HBO episode guides for all shows or select favorites with notifications.
The app can also connect to Facebook and Twitter.
Rival premium broadcaster Showtime has an app as well, but streams some episodes for free.
Time Warner Cable and Fox are unlikely to reach a deal, says News Corp. COO Chase Carey, meaning tens of millions of Time Warner subscribers will not receive Fox programming starting January 1st, missing such draws as the Sugar Bowl and popular shows such as Family Guy.
Fox is asking that the cable company pay $1 per subscriber per month for use of Fox and 14 other channels, a giant increase from current licensing fees.
"At this time, it looks like we will not reach an agreement and our channels may very well go off the air in Time Warner Cable systems at midnight tomorrow, December 31," says Carey. "We deeply regret that millions of Fox customers will be deprived of our programming, but we need to receive fair compensation from Time Warner Cable to go forward with them."
When asked about a binding arbitration deal that Time Warner wants to delay the blackout, Carey says: "Some may ask why Fox isn't providing an extension while negotiations continue--the fact is that we've been trying since the summer to negotiate a fair deal and that further extensions simply extend the period of time that Time Warner profits from our marquee programming without fairly compensating Fox for it."
MobileTechWorld is noting today that Microsoft has a few job offerings available that seems to confirm that the software giant is looking to turn Windows Mobile into a gaming platform:
The posts are:
Principal Program Manager – LIVE Engagement Job
Xbox LIVE involves a lot more than building software. It’s about changing the way people have fun, interact and live. Help us create and deliver the most advanced online entertainment service on the planet. At Xbox LIVE, we’re accelerating the trend towards connected, social interactive entertainment by designing incredibly rich, multi-platform game and community experiences. We’re connecting players via the LIVE services on new devices beyond the console. We need a Principle Program Manager who can help drive the platform and bring Xbox LIVE enabled games to Windows Mobile. This person will focus specifically on what makes gaming experiences “LIVE Enabled” through aspects such as avatar integration, social interactions, and multi-screen experiences.
Amazon, notorious for hyping sales numbers but not really giving hard facts, has said this week that during the holiday season it sold enough Blu-ray players that if lined up side-by-side, it would measure over 27 miles.
VideoBusiness says the average width of a BD player is just about 17-inches. Doing some quick math (miles to inches then divided again by 17) we get that total sales were 100,630.
Obviously the numbers are speculation for now, but 100k units sold for the holiday season would be a massive number for just one retailer. NPD Group says overall units sales jumped 50 percent year-on-year, with profits growing 5 percent, mainly because BD players had prices slashed so low.
Seagate, the world's largest producer of hard drive disks, may finally be in trouble in a 10-year-old lawsuit brought against them by Convolve over technologies allegedly stolen.
An ex-Seagate employee has come forward and signed an affidavit claiming that Seagate, despite having a nondisclosure agreement (NDA) with Convolve, ripped off the small company's technology then destroyed evidence of doing so.
Convolve sued Seagate in 2000 for $800 million USD over patent infringement relating to technology used to reduce noise and vibration in HDDs. Researchers at M.I.T had developed the techniques and Convolve was the first company to sell it. In 1999, Seagate met with Convolve to discuss the technologies but the NDA stated that the larger company could not use what was learned for their own benefit. Within one year, Seagate released a competing technology called "Sound Barrier" which used Convolve's sound reduction techniques.
Paul A. Galloway, the former employee, says that Seagate only began to try sound reduction techniques after their meetings with Convolve, however management had failed to tell its engineers that there was an NDA in place.
“I was deceived by my management’s failure to tell me that the Convolve technology discussed within Seagate was NDA protected,” says Galloway. “If I had known about Convolve’s NDA with Seagate, I would not have worked on competing technology.”
Yesterday we reported that Karsten Nohl of Germany, an engineer and encryption expert, had broken the 64-bit A5/1 encryption algorithm currently used to secure and encrypt GSM phone calls made in most of the world's countries.
Today, Nohl has published a how-to guide on how to crack the encryption, saying that users with a high-end PC, a radio and some easily downloaded software can record phone calls using the codes.
"The message is to have better security, not we want to break you," says Nohl of his decision to make the codebook available via file sharing sites. "The goal is better security. If we created more demand for more security, if any of the network operators could use this as a marketing feature ... that would be the best possible outcome."
The 64-bit A5/1 algorithm is 21 years old and has been protecting GSM networks since its implementation in 1988. Law enforcement has had the ability to intercept GSM calls for decades, and regular wiretapping is also possible. 3G networks use fully secure 128-bit A5/1, and the GSMA says they are gradually phasing out the A5/1 for the more secure A5/3.
According to a pic sent in by a forum user, Apple may be ready to replace the aging iPhone 3G with an 8GB iPhone 3GS at the $99 price point.
First reported on the German apfeltalk forums, the user, .David, ordered a refurbished 8GB iPhone 3G and received the phone but in packaging suggesting that it was a 3GS model.
Says his original post (translated):
"Seems to be an iPhone 3G (back and no compass, FW) 3.0.1 on it. However, the packaging is clearly designed for an iPhone 3G [S] 8GB. Ordered was a refurbished 3G iPhone 8GB.
Vote: who have a refurbished iPhone 3G in a new packaging of the packaged iPhone 3G [S] 8GB, because the enhancement is clearly new. Which clearly indicates that the sale of the iPhone 3G [S] 8GB immediately imminent."
Another rumor from the mill this week comes from AndroidSpin which is saying that T-Mobile G1 owners will soon receive an OTA (over the air) upgrade to firmware 2.0 (eclair).
Says the blog:
Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls. All of your Android holiday wishes are coming true.
It has been confirmed that T-Mobile is releasing an Eclair update for the T-Mobile G1. The update will be at least Android 2.0 but more likely Android 2.0.1 as both versions have already been prepared as OTA updates. An anonymous source of ours has confirmed that both the Android 2.0 and the Android 2.0.1 are in the hands of some very fortunate people. Nothing can be released just yet due to Non Disclosure reasons.
Rooted users have had 2.0 firmware for some time, but it is nice to see (if the rumor is true) that Google hasn't forgotten about Android early adopters.
Ford will become the first car company to factory-install iTunes-tagging HD radios beginning next year, as well as offering Internet radio through Ford Sync from Bluetooth-streaming smartphones.
Twice explains that the "iTunes tagging radios will bookmark a song heard over an HD Radio FM station for later purchasing and downloading from the iTunes store. Consumers hit the "tag" button on the radio to store the metadata and unique identifier code of up to 100 songs in the radio's memory. The data can be transferred to an iPod docked with the vehicle's Sync system, and when the iPod itself syncs to iTunes via a PC, a list of "tagged" songs appears on the PC for preview, purchase and download."
The radios will be just some of a dozen 3rd party car radios that have iTunes tagging, but none of those come factory installed with any autos.
It is unclear what exact models will get the radios but Ford says "the first vehicles that will feature the new [iTunes tagging] capability will be revealed in early 2010."
According to screenshots sent into Gizmodo, the upcoming Nexus One Android phone will cost $530 unlocked or $180 with a two-year T-Mobile contract, similar pricing to that of the G1 which was released in 2008 as a subsidized phone and as an unlocked model as well.
Gizmodo spells out all of what they read from the shots so far:
• Yeah, it's $530 unsubsidized. Google's not going to be selling the phone at cost, like so many people considered. They're not going to save us from the "making money off of hardware" culture we've got right now, so this is basically just another Android handset, albeit a really good one
• If you want it subsidized, you'll have to sign up for a 2 year mandatory contract and pay $180 for the phone
• There's only one rate plan: $39.99 Even More + Text + Web for $79.99 total
• Existing customers cannot keep their plan if they want a subsidized phone; they have to change to the one plan, and this only applies to accounts with one single line
• If that doesn't fly with you, you have to buy the $530 unlocked version—this actually might save you money over two years if you already have a cheap plan
• Family plans, Flexpay, SmartAccess and KidConnect subscribers must buy the phone unlocked and unsubsidized for $530
• You can only buy five Nexus One phones per Google account
• There is language in the agreement of shipping outside the US
• Google will sell it at google.com/phone, which explains what they were doing with that page a few weeks ago
• Google will still call it the Nexus One apparently, and not the Google Phone
• If you cancel your plan before 120 days, you have to pay the subsidy difference between what you paid and the unsubsidized price, so $350 in this case. Or you can return the phone to Google. You also authorize them to charge this directly to your credit card.
Ministers in the UK have admitted this week that the Digital Economy Bill proposed to curb piracy and suspend multiple time offenders from the Internet will cost taxpayers £500 million, or about £25-a-year for every broadband subscriber.
The DEB would force ISPs to send warning letters to anyone downloading unauthorized movies, music and games and would kick multiple time offenders off the Internet after a third offense.
Assessments published with the DEB show that the "protective" measures will bring £1.7 billion in extra revenue for the film and music industries over the next ten years, as well as £350 million in VAT for the Government.
At least some of the ISPs haven't rolled over and died as of yet, with TalkTalk CEO Charles Dunstone recently publicly announcing: "Broadband consumers shouldn’t have to bail out the music industry. If they really think it’s worth spending vast sums of money on these measures then they should be footing the bill; not the consumer."
Large ISP BT had the same idea. Says John Petter, managing director of BT Retail’s consumer division: The bill is "collective punishment that goes against natural justice. Put yourself in the shoes of a small businessman who has a rogue member of staff. Your internet access could get cut off because of the actions of one individual. It really feels like the UK is out on a limb with these proposals compared to the rest of the world."
Nokia has announced that the company has filed a complaint with the United States International Trade Commission (ITC), accusing Apple of infringing on a number of Nokia patents relating to smartphones and other media devices.
The patents, according to Nokia, are "being used by Apple to create key features in its products in the area of user interface, as well as camera, antenna and power management technologies. These patented technologies are important to Nokia's success as they allow better user experience, lower manufacturing costs, smaller size and longer battery life for Nokia products."
"Nokia has been the leading developer of many key technologies in small electronic devices" adds Paul Melin, General Manager, Patent Licensing at Nokia. "This action is about protecting the results of such pioneering development. While our litigation in Delaware is about Apple's attempt to free-ride on the back of Nokia investment in wireless standards, the ITC case filed today is about Apple's practice of building its business on Nokia's proprietary innovation."
HDGuru reported today that DirecTV will launch the United States' first 3D HDTV channel in 2010, with an official announcement and more details to come at the upcoming CES event on January 7th.
The channel is possible because DirecTV has just added a new satellite to orbit, one that will be fully functional by March.
The source says the the "new DirecTV 3D channel will feature an assortment of movies, sports and programs in 3D. All programs are in HD 3D and meet the new 3D standards the major TV manufacturers support."
All current DirecTV HDTV boxes will receive the firmware upgrade which will give 3D playback and the channel will be compatible with all new 3D-capable TVs that are expected to be launched at CES from major manufacturers.
Reuters is reporting that the UK carrier O2 has been seeing large strains on its network thanks to the iPhone meaning AT&T users in the U.S. may not be the only ones getting accustomed to dropped calls and their texts getting lost in space.
The carrier saw an 1800 percent increase in bandwidth traffic year-on-year, mainly thanks to the iPhone, and the network repeatedly crashed over the past six months.
O2 has since invested $48 million USD into infrastructure and deployed 200 extra mobile stations, and says the problems should be solved.
"Where we haven't met our own high standards then there's no question, we apologize to customers for that fact," CEO Ronan Dunne added. "But it would be wrong to say O2 has failed its customers en masse."
Additionally, across the globe, China Unicom noted that they had sold 300,000 iPhones in the nation, gaining momentum after a notoriously slow launch.
Mozilla has confirmed that the next major re-haul of the Firefox browser, version 4.0, will likely be delayed into early 2011. The browser was originally slated for a Q3 2010 release.
Anticipated 3.6 and 3.7 updates will include security and stability enhancements, including separate processes for each tab, but will not include too many drastic changes. Firefox 4 on the other hand, will be given "Windows 7 look and feel," says TGDaily.
Analysts say the delay is good news for Microsoft whose Internet Explorer 8 has been stealing back some market share since the release of Windows 7. By most estimates, IE still controls about 65 percent of the entire browser market with FF in second at around 23 percent.
The Nexus One Android smartphone seems to be all but confirmed today after Google began sending out invites for a press gathering on January 5th.
The event will be focused on the Android operating system, and there is still a chance that the release could be NOT for the Nexus One, but those chances seem pretty slim, at best.
The purported smartphone will have the following specs (Pic via AndroidSpin):
Karsten Nohl of Germany, an engineer and encryption expert, announced at the Chaos Communication Congress this week that he had broken the 64-bit A5/1 encryption algorithm currently used to secure and encrypt GSM phone calls made in most of the world's countries.
If the algorithms are cracked, then outsiders could theoretically listen in on any phone conversation of their choosing, which would lead to extreme lapses in security and privacy. Nohl says: “This shows that existing G.S.M. security is inadequate. We are trying to push operators to adopt better security measures for mobile phone calls.”
The GSM Association, the group behind the algorithms, has called Nohl's "hacking" illegal. “This is theoretically possible but practically unlikely,” added Claire Cranton, an association spokeswoman, via NYT. “What he is doing would be illegal in Britain and the United States. To do this while supposedly being concerned about privacy is beyond me.”
User CollinE of the BenHeck forums has created an Xbox 360 laptop, and is currently selling it on eBay where it has a high bid of $1000 USD, so far.
The specs of the console are:
* 17" widescreen LCD with 1280 x 768 resolution * 20GB hard drive
* Ethernet port and cable
* Three USB ports
* Official 64MB memory card
* Xbox 360 wireless controller
* Xbox 360 headset
* Power supply
* Dimensions - 16.75" x 11" x 3.5"
While the laptop may be gigantic, it still beats the alternative, dragging your 360 console and TV around wherever you go (if you aren't going to a place with a TV), so take the good with the bad.
Kotaku, citing Impress, is reporting today that Sony is considering not using the Cell architecture for the PlayStation 4, and instead moving to a multi-core CPU, one that will be easier to develop for than the Cell.
Sony has repeatedly said the PS3 will have a ten year life span but it's interesting to see that the company already has the PS4 on its mind.
The source says the first alternative considered was an architecture based on the "Cell and Intel's Larrabee," which then moved to a "a modified version of the Synergistic Processor Unit," but both of those appear to have been abandoned.
According to an Amazon, Kindle e-books outsold physical books for Christmas 2009, a milestone.
"On Christmas Day, for the first time ever, customers purchased more Kindle books than physical books," reads the press release.
MSNBC brings up some good points however, as to why the press release may be more hype than substance:
* It's Christmas, so all of the Kindles that have been delivered over the past few weeks as gifts are finally meeting their owners. They're empty. They're hungry.
* There aren't any shipments going out on Christmas, so it doesn't make sense to place an order for a physical item.
* Amazon has been promoting the Kindle on its landing page for more than two years. This day was going to come eventually.
Regardless, it is a nice milestone for the Kindle device and all e-readers in general, which should continue to experience exponential growth over the next few quarters.
Earlier today, AT&T halted online sales of the iPhone in New York City, prompting giant media scrutiny which almost unanimously agreed that the carrier was trying to halt extra traffic to their already overworked networks. NYC is the most populous iPhone ownership city in the United States.
The carrier has still not explained the halting of the sales, but has quietly returned the phone to its website.
Recently, AT&T said that about 3 percent of its users account for just under 50 percent of all data use, and pointed to iPhone users without needing to say the name of the popular device.
When asked about the brief suspension all the carrier said was: "We periodically modify our promotion and distribution channels."
The Consumerist quoted CSRs as saying that "New York is not ready for the iPhone, you don't have enough towers to handle the phone." Other CSRs were quoted as saying that NYC had depleted its stock of available iPhones online. Clearly, they have not.
Palm has updated their webOSfirmware today, to version 1.3.5, rolling out the update to Pre and Pixi users.
The update removes the oft-criticized restriction on application storage space allowing for almost an unlimited number of apps to be installed now. The Palm App Catalog has also been updated to allow for background downloading and simultaneous downloads as well.
More notably, battery power management has been updated for whenever the phone is in "areas of poor wireless network coverage," conserving more battery life.
The full list for the Pre is available here: Firmware 1.3.5
The full list for the Pixi is available here: Firmware 1.3.5
The IBTimes, a small UK tech site, is reporting today that the Google Chrome OS netbook has had its specs leaked, however it may just be another rumor based on some facts and a probability game.
According to the site, the highly anticipated (but unofficial) netbook will include the following specs (via Crunch):
* NVIDIA Tegra platform with ARM CPU
* 10.1-inch TFT HD-ready multi-touch display
* 64GB solid state drive
* 2GB of RAM * Wi-Fi, 3G, Bluetooth, Ethernet, USB ports, webcam, card reader
* Subsidized at less than $300, sold directly to consumers by Google
The RAM, the processor and the standard goodies (3G, Wi-Fi, etc) are more than likely but the pricing, the SSD and the screen are still likely rumor, especially since there is no chance that a multi-touch display could sell for under $300, unless the wireless carrier subsidy is very heavy.
Best Buy has started a promotion this week that will offer a free $50 gift card with the purchase of an Xbox 360 and an additional 360 Wireless Controller. The promotion is for the Elite Winter Bundle.
Amazon has slashed the price of the Xbox 360 Arcade to $180, a $20 price cut.
Additionally, a Xbox Live 12-Month Gold Card was dropped to $40, down from $50.
Jeremiah Gilliam of the Bronx has been arrested today after police officers found dozens of laptops, GPS devices and video game consoles in his apartment. How did the cops find him? Because he tried playing one of the stolen Xbox 360s online and signed in using the Xbox Live account saved on the system.
The youth whose Xbox had been stolen, was playing online at a friend's house and saw his own Xbox Live name sign in, prompting the family to call the police who then traced the IP address back to the address where Gilliam was staying.
The criminal was under investigation already for 13 robberies, and police suspect he broke into as many as 200 cars and homes in Westchester County.
"On the day of the burglary, the victim used another Xbox and saw his system was already online," said one of the arresting officers. "At the house, we found Xboxes, PlayStations, GPS units, laptops -- a total of 53 items, including stolen credit cards."
It appears that giant retailer Wal-Mart’s aggressive Blu-ray sales over the last quarter has paid off, with the company now about tied with Best Buy for BD market share.
The numbers, via the NPD Group, show that Wal-Mart now commands 30 percent market share of Blu-ray disc sales, about even with Best Buy at 35 percent. In May, Wal-Mart had around 20 percent while Best Buy had an impressive 45 percent.
Despite usually having better prices than BB, Amazon and Target remained in third and fourth place, with about 15 percent and 10 percent respectively.
Overall, consumer spending on BD movies was up 83 percent year-on-year, and retail chains are actively fighting for market share.
“We’re seeing it as more of a horse race with Blu-ray,” adds Russ Crupnick, senior entertainment industry analyst for NPD, via VB. “I think Walmart has made a strong effort over the past year, being aggressive with price. They are very specifically targeting an untapped market. They are saying this isn’t just a high-tech product. It’s something that women and families can enjoy.”
Francis "Frank" Janosko, a Massachusetts prison inmate, has been given an extra 18-month sentence for hacking a prison computer while he was in jail. The computer had been provided to inmates to help them with legal research for appeals.
Janosko hacked the system and stole personal data on 1100 prison employees, including Social Security Numbers and home addresses.
ComputerWorld explains that the PC used was a "thin client computer that simply connected to another machine on the network and did not store any data itself. The only program it was supposed to run was the prison's legal research application."
Prosecutors say the inmate "exploited an idiosyncrasy in the legal research software" which allowed him to access other programs as well as send emails and even download videos.
China Central Television (CCTV) released a program this week called "Confession of a Murderer -- Focus on Pornography and Violence in Online Games," which for the most part blames murder, drug addiction and even teen pregnancy on violent online video games.
The report goes as far as to say that up to 80 percent of the violent criminals in a particular prison were there because of crimes committed in part because of their addictions to online games.
Other recent reports from the CCTV have blamed social-networking sites and video games for lower test grades.
Chinese authorities have been cracking down on online gaming for months now, as well as pornography. The fight hit a boiling point when World of Warcraft was taken down for three months when the developer and the government could not come to an agreement.
As for the drug addiction aspect, the CCTV showed a program in which many teenagers became addicted to cough medicine and other harder drugs such as meth, as a way to keep up their energy to play online games all night, sometimes for 48 hours at a time.
According to Jay Sullivan of Mozilla, mobile Firefox, dubbed Fennec will be available "within days" for the Nokia N900 and later for a wider variety of handsets.
The browser is currently in final testing and should be available by the end of the year.
Most interestingly, Sullivan says the mobile browser will synchronize with its desktop counterpart and any pages open on a user's desktop will open in the mobile version as well.
"At the end of the working day you can walk away from your computer and keep on going on your phone," says Sullivan. "It encrypts all of the information and sends it back through the cloud between your desktop and mobile."
Sullivan says the group is working on a WinMo and Android version as well but that iPhone users will likely never get the browser. "Apple is very restrictive," he added. "As it's a pretty closed platform we don't see that happening soon."
After word spread that Apple had rented a stage for a "major" announcement in January, the rumor mill was at full speed that the oft-rumored Apple-branded tablet may finally be a reality.
The Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal and Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster all had stories over the past few days, claiming that a "a major product announcement" was set for January. Munster gives it a 50/50 chance of being the tablet, while the WSJ says Apple is already debriefing media companies on how their content would work on the devices.
Munster said the tablet would likely be 7-10 inches, and would be priced between $500-700, giving it competitiveness in the netbook market without actually being a netbook. The tablet's OS would be a tweaked iPhone OS, or a multi-touch-enabled Mac OS X.
Additionally, the device could have 3G wireless integrated, and could be sold through cell phone carriers. Covering all bases, the tablet could also include e-book software for books that could eventually be sold through the iTunes Store.
Comcast, the ISP found guilty of throttling bandwidth of BitTorrent users without first letting the public or the FCC know, has settled its class-action lawsuit today, agreeing to pay $16 million (minus $3 million in fees) to customers who were affected by their actions.
Says the ISP: "We are pleased to have reached a settlement in these consolidated class action lawsuits. Although we continue to believe that our network management practices were appropriate and in the best interests of our customers, we prefer to put this matter behind us and avoid a potentially lengthy and distracting legal dispute that would serve no useful purpose."
Comcast was sued by customers who claimed the throttling of P2P traffic violated consumer-protection laws by misrepresenting the service they were paying for, which claimed "unfettered" broadband in TV commercials and online.
The FCC got involved after the word of the throttling went public via bloggers, and the committee ruled that Comcast must change its network-management practices. The ruling was appealed however, and the new case begins in early January.
Large book retailer Borders has confirmed this week that the chain does not intend to build and sell their own e-reader, despite rivals Amazon and Barnes & Nobles seeing strong demand for their e-reader devices, the Kindle and the Nook.
CEO Ron Marshall added: "I don't anticipate us doing our own e-reader for a whole variety of reasons, not least of which is that we're not a technology company. We're booksellers."
Instead, the retailer will partner with the new Kobo e-book service, and make its book collection and content available to as many e-readers as it can. Kobo is set to launch in March, and Borders owns a 20 percent stake in the venture.
The e-book service should include a library of two million purchasable books, 1.8 million free books, and subscriptions for newspapers and magazine. Kobo will be compatible with the Nook, Sony Readers, iPhones, Android devices and BlackBerrys. Notably absent from the list is the Kindle.
A U.S. federal court has ruled against torrent indexer isoHunt today, ruling the site is guilty of inducing copyright infringement. Claiming the case is so similar to that of Napster and Grokster in the 1990s, the case will not get a full trial and was given summary judgment.
The case, which began in 2006 when Columbia, Disney, Tristar, Twentieth Century Fox, Universal and Warner Bros issued a complaint against the site and owner Gary Fung, seems to be finally over, with the site seemingly going the way of Mininova, which removed all illegal torrents in November, at least in the U.S. It should continue to run full steam in Canada.
The ruling says Fung ran the site with “purposeful, culpable expression and conduct, aimed at promoting infringing uses of the websites.”
In their case, the defendants pointed out many cases in which users of the site were encouraged to pirate, including torrent categories such as "top 20 movies," or the ‘Box Office Movies’ section of the site which encouraged users to upload the top 20 highest-grossing movies of all time.
Final Fantasy XIII, the latest game in the franchise that has sold 92 million copies, has helped boost PlayStation 3 sales in Japan, despite its hefty price tag of 9,240 yen ($103 USD).
"Make no mistake, this should help lift sales of the PlayStation," adds Yusuke Tsunoda, analyst for Tokai Tokyo Securities. "The Wii has peaked out, but PlayStation is still on the upswing."
The game doesn't go on sale in Europe or the U.S. until March, but developer Square Enix says it expects 2 million copies of the game to sell in Japan by that time. Investment bank Barclays says it expects worldwide sales of the game to reach almost 6 million.
In Japan, 1 million units were sold on opening day, and Enterbrain says the game will likely increase PS3 sales by 500,000 units.
According to former Microsoft executive and current Google exec Don Dodge, the software giant is now like how "IBM was in 1985" with stagnant growth, and slow innovation.
Although Microsoft remains the leader in a few areas, namely its operating system and productivity suite, competitors are trailing not so far behind, with Google and Apple being "faster" and "more innovative."
"Very few companies can dominate an industry for more than 20 years," Dodge said. "It is just the natural competitive cycle."
Dodge also says that tech companies perform better with company founders still at the helm, and Microsoft has lost this advantage with Bill Gates and Paul Allen stepping down from their daily roles. Steve Jobs of Apple, as well as Larry Page and Sergey Brin of Google remain active at the heads of their respective companies.
The former executive also named a few of Microsoft's glaring failures, calling Windows Mobile "obviously behind" the trend which is now led by the iPhone, and newcomer Android. Vista was a "large disappointment" as well, but Windows 7 helped to "redeem" that mistake.
AnandTech is reporting today that the Unreal Engine 3, the technology behind games such as Gears of War 2, has now been successfully run on an iPhone 3GS and a 3rd gen iPod Touch.
Says the editor: "The demo is both playable and has a flythrough. It’s using a modified Unreal Tournament level previously shown off at GDC. A virtual thumbstick on the left side of the screen controls your movement, while tracking your thumb in the lower right corner of the screen controls the camera. Just tap the screen to shoot. Mark said this is a tech test bed and they’re experimenting with several different control schemes including ones with tilt."
There is obviously more to be added, but the news is impressive to say the least. CES should bring more answers as well, says Epic, the company behind the engine.
Submitted earlier this month for approval, Qik's live streaming app is now available in the iPhone App Store.
The new updated app, dubbed Qik Live improves on the popular software which before could only record and upload video. Live allows for real-time streaming of your recorded video and works via the 3G cell network or Wi-Fi, and will work for all generations of the iPhone.
Streams can be public for all Qik users or private, as well as optional geo-locating, down to exact street and position. Movement will then create a virtual map trail for others to follow.
Qik Live is free but you must have 3.1 firmware installed.
According to a Harris Interactive survey of U.S. Internet users, it appears the average users spends about 13 hours a week online, however, the range is very large.
Over the past decade, online time has doubled from just under 7 hours in 1999 to the current survey results. At its peak, in October 2008 (during the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the upcoming election of President Obama), online time was over 14 hours.
For age breakdowns, the group spending the most time online was the 30-39 age group, with an average of 18 hours. 25-29 year-olds spent 17 hours on average, as did 40-49 year-olds. In total, there are about 184 million adults online, the same number for the most part as 2008.
“The increase in the number of hours spent online in the last two years compared to all previous years is striking. It probably reflects a growing ability to use the Internet, an increase in sites and applications, increased TV watching online and increased purchasing online,” said Harris. “Also, hours online may have increased because of the recession. Going online is free; going out usually costs money.”
Warner, Universal and Fox, three of the major Hollywood studios, announced in the last quarter that the popular Redbox kiosks would not be allowed to offer new releases of their films for the first 30 days after launch, taking a shot at the growing kiosk market which offers movie rentals for $1-a-night. The three studios account for 40 percent off the entire rental market.
Redbox has signed workaround agreements and continues to offer the titles, and has sued the studios as well. The kiosks continue to offer street-date films from Sony, Disney, Paramount and others.
According to Merriman Curhan Ford analyst Eric Wold, new popular releases such as The Hangover from Warner and Inglourious Basterds from Universal were stocked in about 85 percent of all Redbox kiosks on launch day, but it is still unclear whether they have one disc of the title, or twenty.
"We know that copy depth on workaround titles is going to be lower than for titles [Redbox gets] through distribution agreements," Wold told VB. "But in my discussions with Coinstar, they stress their workarounds are centered around getting as many copies in as many kiosks by Friday night."
Microsoft has applied for a a patent dubbed "Avatars Individualized by Physical Characteristics," meaning the company is considering introducing avatars that will look the gamer behind the controller.
Says the application, via Eurogamer: "An Avatar generator for a virtual environment reflects a physiological characteristic of the user, injecting a degree of reality into the capabilities or appearance. Thereby, many of the incentives of the real world are replicated in a virtual environment.Physiological data that reflect a degree of health of the real person can be linked to rewards of capabilities of a gaming Avatar, an amount of time budgeted to play, or a visible indication. Thereby, people are encouraged to exercise. Physiological data that reflect the health and perhaps also mood also improve social interaction in virtual environments. People seeking to meet and become acquainted with particular types of people are not thwarted by the artificiality of Avatars."
The data can accessed from third-party health repositories, a physiological sensor, or a health care smart-card.
Telefonica has announced its purchase of the VoIP provider Jajah for 145 million euro ($210 million USD).
Jajah is available in 200 countries and has a consumer base "in the millions." The service is used in many social networking apps as well as instant messaging (IM) clients.
The deal will be completed when it gains official approval from the Spanish version of the FTC, the CNC.
Telefonica is the first major carrier to purchase a VoIP provider, likely signaling the worry that traditional voice services on mobile phones will move to Internet calling in the next few years, especially with the broader release of 4G networking.
This week, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has said they are looking closer into the deal, seeing if the purchase would violate anti-trust regulations.
Google notes that mostly all acquisitions that get "second requests" from the FTC still end up getting approved, however, the time frame for the acquisition is now in the hands of the anti-trust regulators.
"We know that closer scrutiny has been one consequence of Google's success," adds Paul Feng, a Google product manage. The company remains optimistic the purchase will be approved.
According to TechCrunch, about 500,000 Barnes & Noble's Nook e-readers will have shipped by March, despite the company only making 60,000 of the device available in December 2009.
ODM Foxconn will step up manufacturing in the new year after B&N's low supply in 2009 despite high demand.
The bookseller has also told would-be consumers that new online orders will not ship until February 1st, leaving many consumers waiting over a month for their device.
In comparison, the Amazon Kindle is said to have sold between 300,000-500,000 units in its first full year in 2007, however, the technology available in the Nook and even the Kindle 2 is a far cry from the original e-reader device.
Vodafone will launch the iPhone on January 14th, with pre-orders already being taken.
O2's exclusivity deal ended in the Q3, and Apple announced that both Vodafone and Orange would begin selling the phone. Orange started selling the popular smartphone in November.
Users can get the 8GB iPhone 3GS for GBP 59 with a two-year contract that costs GBP 30 per month or get the phone for free with a 35-a-month contract.
"We started preparing our network over a year ago so that iPhone customers will really feel the advantage of being with Vodafone," added Guy Laurence, CEO of Vodafone UK. "We will offer an outstanding iPhone experience wherever our customers live, work and travel, delivering speed and reliability – something our customers have told us they really value."
The Black Broadcasting Network (BBN) has announced signing a deal with Verizon FiOS TV that will be the startup network's first distribution deal.
The network is aimed at the "urban" 18-35 demographic, and will include mainly Black and Hispanic-themed entertainment and "variety programming." Additionally, the station will offer sporting highlights from historically black colleges and universities as well as many boxing events.
"We are excited about our affiliation with Verizon FiOS TV," adds Black Broadcasting Network's Chairman and CEO Ricky Anderson. "This day established our existence in Broadcast Cable. The Network will focus on programming that is appealing, interesting, entertaining and culturally relevant to urban viewers today."
Vonage has released its VoIP apps for the iPhone and BlackBerrys today, allowing users to make international calls for cheaper.
BlackBerry users can make the calls through cell networks while iPhone users can make the calls while connected to cell networks and Wi-Fi.
Vonage unlimited calling plans cost $25-a-month and the apps are free.
"As mobile devices become more powerful, broadband networks become more available and 3G/4G data networks become more open, we envision a future where Vonage delivers calls, readable voicemail, texts, MMS, and video calls from any device, using any broadband connection," added Vonage CEO Marc Lefar.
Hewlett-Packard is taking heat this week after a video released on YouTube shows an internal problem with HP webcams, the fact that the camera has difficulty in recognizing black people.
The video shows two people, a black man named Desi and a white co-worker, Wanda. The problem is the webcams face recognition software, which in the video clearly does not work with Desi in the frame but works excellently with Wanda on screen.
HP says the problem is with low contrast in low lighting situations and they are working to fix it as soon as possible.
RIM has confirmed a second BlackBerry email outage this week, seemingly acknowledging that their systems may not yet be ready to handle the large increase in smartphone owners.
The smartphone maker attributed this outage to a glitch in the latest update to the BBM instant messaging program. The bug cause an "unanticipated database issue within the BlackBerry infrastructure."
RIM is known for secure and stable emails, and outages can cause corporate customers money, especially if the outages are for extended periods of time.
Adds John Jackson, vice president and wireless analyst at CCS Insight, via the WSJ: "It's a consequence of the architecture that makes RIM RIM. They invested heavily in upgrading their backup systems after outages in 2007 and 2008, and made some high-profile hires. So that it's happened twice in a week, albeit with a limited duration and geography, indicates gaps."
In August, software giant Microsoft lost in court to tiny Canadian company i4i over patent violations relating to customized Extensible Markup Language (XML) and was told to either update Wordor stop selling it entirely. The company was also fined $290 million USD
As part of the broader Officepack, the full suite accounts for over $3 billion USD in sales per year for Microsoft.
Today, Microsoft has released a mandatory patch for Office 2007 that will bring Word in compliance with the court's decision. The patch, dubbed the 2007 Microsoft Office OPK Master Kit Download, will cut some custom XML editing capabilities from Word and other Office suite products. The patch is mandatory for legal US users of Office 2007.
Microsoft lost their final appeal yesterday.
"In this case, a small company was practicing its patent, only to suffer a loss of market share, brand recognition, and customer goodwill as the result of the defendant's infringing acts," said the judge in the ruling.
Three days ago, Barnes & Noble said that some customers who pre-ordered the Nook e-reader may not receive their device by Christmas, and the company was giving a $100 online gift card to those who did not get theirs in time.
Today, B&N has noted that all early consumers will receive their device in time.
Says Mary Ellen Keating, B&N spokeswoman: "We're pleased to tell our customers today that we're shipping out all our orders in time." During the first announcement, Keating said most likely under 5 percent of buyers would not receive the e-reader in time.
The popular e-reader, the Amazon Kindle has been hacked this week, allowing for all purchased content to be transferred off the device via a PDF file.
Kindle e-books are sold as .AZW files which have DRM that stops users from transferring the purchased books to other devices that are not Kindles.
That should no longer be a problem thanks to Israeli hacker "Labba" who has cracked the DRM. A second hacker, "I <3 cabbages," has released the "Unswindle" program, which will reformat digital content downloaded and stored on the Kindle for PC app, converting it to easily movable formats, such as PDF.
"Cabbages" did note that Amazon's DRM process was tough to crack, although ultimately Amazon's work was in vain. "Amazon actually put a bit of effort behind the DRM obfuscation in their Kindle for PC application. And they seem to have done a reasonable job on the obfuscation. Way to go Amazon! It's good enough that I got bored unwinding it all and just got lazy with the Windows debugging APIs instead," he said.
According to recent Nielsen figures reported by MobileCrunch, the Apple iPhone 3G is now the most popular phone in the United States, despite RIM having about double the market share.
The numbers shows the Apple iPhone 3G/3GS at 4 percent, with the Blackerry 8300 series in a close second at 3.7 percent.
Somewhat surprising is the high ranking of the RAZR (the full line) in third at 2.3 percent.
One of the biggest news stories of the month so far has been the buzz built by the Android 2.1 phone, the Nexus One, built by HTC to the specifications of Google.
Today, Engadget has posted the specs, which are highlighted like this:
* Android 2.1
* 11.5mm thick
* 512MB RAM, 512MB ROM, 4GB microSD in-box expandable to 32GB
* 5 megapixel camera with mechanical AF and LED flash
* HSPA 900 / 1700 / 2100, 7.2Mbps down and 2Mbps up. EDGE will work for T-Mobile and AT&T but 3G will NOT work on AT&T, only on T-Mo.
* 3.7-inch WVGA AMOLED display
Warner Music Group (WMG) announced a deal with online video service Hulu to offer music videos, artist interviews & concerts from Atlantic Records, Rhino Records and Warner Bros. Records. This follows a deal with EMI, which brought that label's content to the service last month.
Hulu is in the process of launching pages for a variety of artists. One has already been established for the band Muse, and pages for Jason Mraz and Fueled have been announced.
More artist pages will be announced early next year.
Its nice to see Hulu continue to expand their offerings and music is certainly a logical step. Still, it's worth noting that as more content partners have come on board there has been increasing pressure on Hulu executives to control access more tightly.
It was this pressure which led to both TV.com and Boxee users losing the ability to stream videos from Hulu earlier this year.
Labels like WMG have a history of insisting on limiting online offerings to the point of devaluing them. If adding their content ultimately means tighter restrictions on how you can watch Hulu videos it's a step in the wrong direction.
Today LG Electronics announced a mew LCD TV panel which will be the world's thinnest, measuring just 2.6mm thick. The announcement was timed as a promotion for the company's exhibit at CES, where the new panels will be on display.
The reduction in panel thickness was made possible in part through the use of LED backlighting. This also improves image quality compared to older LCD panels
The panels also feature a 120Hz refresh rate and full HD (1080P) resolution.
Although not officially anounced yet, the date for next years Apple Worldwide Developer's Conference appears to have been chosen.Not surprisingly it will begin on June 28 to coincide with both the anniversary of the original iPhone's release and the expiration of AT&T's exclusive carrier deal.
With all the bad publicity and customer ill will generated by AT&T during their time as the ecxlusive iPhone partner you can be sure this will be more than just another iPhone launch. It will be Apple's chance to make a new start, either with a new US carrier deal or a completely open arrangement like Google is planning for their Nexus phone.
Assuming there is also an accompanying OS update, as their has been with each successive iPhone launch, it will also be the first time iPhone owners have been charged for it.
Thanks to the restrictions placed on them by the same accounting rules which have required them to charge iPod Touch owners for previous updates, they must charge for updates released more than three years after an iPhone is sold. Changes to these rules could mean Apple can offer free updates for the life of the device. They would also be able, for the first time ever, to immediately show the full amount of revenue generated from the next iPhone launch on their books.
As Blu-ray continues to grow in popularity, more and more people are considering the purchase of a BD-ROM drive. To date the biggest obstacle for many consumers has been the price, which until the last few months has consistently been over $100 for even a reader.
Earlier this year Lite-On introduced the iHOS104 BD-ROM drive. At around $60 for the OEM version and $70 for the retail model it's currently the least expensive Blu-ray reader you can buy.
James Cameron's epic 3D blockbuster Avatar appears to have been slowed in the United States by severe snowstorms on the East coast, opening to an estimated $73 million USD in domestic sales, good for the second largest December launch of all-time. The movie also had the third largest Friday opening of all-time, at $27 million.
'I Am Legend' opened to $77 million in December 2007.
Worldwide, the movie has already made an estimated $232 million, almost surpassing the movie's gigantic budget.
Sales will undoubtedly be compared to James Cameron's last movie, Titanic, which spent 6 months in theaters bringing in $600 million domestic and $1.8 billion globally.
The tiny iPhone/iPod Touch developer Tapulous has noted that they are approaching $1 million in revenue per month, an extremely high number for the company which has 20 employees and only makes one type of game, the popular Tap Tap Revenge 3 and its variants.
Tapulous says its series of games have been installed on 20 million iPods and iPhones, and 600 million songs have been played. ComScore says the game is installed on a full 35 percent of all Apple app user's phones or devices.
Even more importantly, the company is now profitable, joining a select few of app developers such as Zynga and PlayFish to make it big and remain profitable.
"It's going to be big and all of a sudden people are going to say, 'holy cow, where did those guys come from?'" adds CEO Bart Decrem.
Tapulous, which can be compared to a Guitar Hero-esque music rhythm game, makes money by charging for special Tap Tap games (such as a Lady Gaga or Dave Mathews Band version), through ad sales, and by selling individual tracks for the game.
A group calling themselves the Iranian Cyber Army temporarily took down the microblogging service Twitter yesterday, re-routing users from the site to their own page.
That page had a picture of a green flag followed by the words: "This site has been hacked by the Iranian Cyber Army."
It is still unclear whether the group has any actual ties to Iran, and how serious the breach was.
Twitter admitted that "its Domain Name Systems' records were temporarily compromised but have now been fixed. The site says it will update with more details once we've investigated more fully."
There are alternatives for users who want to pinch and zoom like iPhone users can, such as the Dolphin Browser, however native support is still lacking and should be even with the release of firmware 2.1 next month.
However, a post on AllDroid.org is touting a new alpha version of a multitouch ROM, which is based on the European Droid (Milestone).
The ROM creator says the ROM will kill your Google Maps Navigation GPS however.
According to The Consumerist, some customers who pre-ordered the Barnes & Noble Nook e-reader may not receive their device by Christmas, and the company is offering a $100 online gift card to those who will not get their order.
The company says it is trying its hardest to have all early pre-orders in buyer's hands by Christmas Eve but if it does not happen, B&N says "with our sincerest apologies, we will send you an e-mail notification on December 23rd with a $100 Barnes&Noble.com Online Gift Certificate." Consumers will then get their devices on the 29th.
Added Barnes & Noble spokeswoman Mary Ellen Keating in response, via Cnet: "The vast majority of customers who pre-ordered nooks and were given a pre-holiday estimated shipping date should receive their devices in time for the holidays. We are working very hard to keep up with the demand and to get all nook orders out the door and to customers on or before Dec. 24. Unfortunately, there may be a very small percentage of customers who may not receive their nooks before the holiday. We communicated with this handful of customers yesterday, offering our sincere apologies and providing them with the following: a nook holiday gift certificate so that they have something to wrap and give if it was bought as a gift as well as a bn.com gift certificate that can be used online. Any customer who has not yet received their device but whose ship date prior to the holidays has changed in anyway was notified yesterday of updated timing."
Bing! Information Designs LLC., a small computer-based design firm in the midwest, has sued Microsoft today over the name Bing, the name Microsoft chose to relaunch their popular search engine as.
Bing! alleges trademark infringement as well as unfair competition, claiming "Microsoft's use of the name dilutes the value of it and confuses the public about the companies' relationship to each other." The design company has used the name since 2000 and has pending application for registration of the mark.
The design company is looking for "actual and punitive damages including having Microsoft pay for corrective advertising to remedy the confusion it caused." The actual monetary amount was not disclosed.
Microsoft did not seem too bothered by the complaint, with spokesman Kevin Kutz adding: "We do not believe there is any confusion in the marketplace [between the search engine and the design firm]."
Bing currently owns around 10 percent of the search engine market, a far cry from Google's 65 percent share.
Comcast has launched the streaming TV service Fancast Xfinity TV this week, featuring shows that have not been available online until now.
Originally dubbed Comcast On Demand Online, beta testing for the service began in June for Comcast ISP subscribers. The service will be available through Fancast.com and Comcast.com.
Xfinity TV will include programming from 27 networks including A&E, AMC, Discovery Channel, History, TLC, and TNT.
Warner Home Video has announced that beginning in the Q1 2010 all of their new Blu-ray releases will include a standard definitionDVD copy as well, making all Warner releases the aptly dubbed "Combo Packs."
All Combo Packs will include a digital copy as well.
Making the move even more aggressive is that Warner will no longer offer straight Blu-ray films, and the Combo Packs will remain the same price as current Blu-ray releases, with no added premium.
Most of the major studios now offer combo discs, with Disney and Warner pioneering the way.
Additionally, Warner will begin offering Blu-ray Double Features beginning in February, which will offer two BD catalog films for an MSRP of $25 USD. The first to be released are includes Dirty Harry/Magnum Force, Analyze This/Analyze That, Presumed Innocent/Frantic, Miss Congeniality/Miss Congeniality 2 and Grumpy Old Men/Grumpier Old Men.
Struggling Internet TV startup company ZillionTV has announced the addition of Major League Baseball to their content providers list, giving access to MLB.com through the oft-delayed VOD service.
Programming will be ad-supported and will give access to archived games, both classic and more recent.
Originally set to launch in the Q2 2009, Zillion has been pushed back until the Q3 2010, despite full backing by the major Hollywood studios Sony, Fox, Universal, Paramount, Warner and Lionsgate.
Zillion will also offer movies, TV and other merchandise for rental or sell-through through the service.
“We’re one of the first on-demand services to bring major league sports content to our viewers right from the start,” added Mitch Berman, executive chairman of ZillionTV, via VB. “The addition of MLB.com to our content portfolio means that we’re helping expand the reach of major professional sports within the growing digital space and attracting a new generation of fans who are eager to watch sports programming on their schedule and their terms.”
According to new reports, Verizon is upgrading their network in preparation for the iPhone in 2010 as well as the Palm Pre.
PhoneArena is reporting that there is a PalmPre Plus listed in Verizon's internal inventory system, and that it will be available in very early 2010, after Sprint's exclusivity agreement ends.
It is not clear what the "Pre Plus" brings that warrants the "plus," but it is unlikely that the device will be much different than the current Pre.
Additionally, Verizon is "tweaking" their network so it can withstand the high data usage of iPhone users. AT&T users have criticized the carrier unmercifully over dropped calls and slow receiving of emails and text messages through their iPhones. AT&T also has an inferior 3G map, and speeds are lacking.
Amazon said this week that the Kindle e-reader has already had a record month in December, despite the month being only in its third week.
Although not disclosing the exact sales figures, the e-tailer has said Kindle sales are at an all-time high, thanks to massive holiday order volume. Unlike in 2008, the e-tailer has enough stock to keep up with demand this year, notes Amazon.
As a way to push even more sales, the company is offering free two-day shipping on Kindle orders, with the offer lasting until the 22nd meaning any buyers will have their Kindle in time for Christmas, guaranteed. The Kindle DX does not have the same promotion.
Mozilla announced this weekend that the final release of Firefox 3.6 had been delayed into early 2010, while at the same time releasing 3.5 beta 5 instead of a release candidate.
Beta 5 has 130 new bug fixes, including a major TraceMonkey JavaScript rendering engine bug that was causing crashes. Additionally, the private browsing mode, password retrieval and fast startup mode were updated.
"Beta 5 builds are being tested by QA now, targeting a Thursday release unless we get to RC [Release Candidate] first," Mozilla had said earlier in the week. "We are really, really close to being code-complete & only need 8 more patches and a TraceMonkey merge. If we can go to build today or tomorrow, QA will scrap Beta 5 and we'll release RC to the beta audience ASAP."
"Mozilla released a fifth version of Firefox 3.6 to its more than 600,000 beta users as part of its continuing program to gather feedback and get fixes into the hands of the people evaluating the preview," added Mike Beltzner, director of Firefox, via CW. "We expect to be able to issue a release candidate before the end of this year, but we'll likely hold off on the official release until early in the new year."
VideoLAN, the group behind the extremely popular free media player VLC has said that development for the Mac version of the software may come to an end soon, as volunteers have almost completely disappeared.
All VLC versions are developed on a volunteer basis but it seems that the Mac version has had its volunteer corps drop to zero for most of the time.
A 64-bit Mac VLC has already been put on indefinite hold and VideoLAN says that VLC 1.1.0 may be the last Mac version, ever, unless more developers are found.
Active volunteers have deep knowledge of C, Cocoa and Xcode.
RIM announced its quarterly earnings on Thursday, showing record BlackBerry smartphone sales and a 59 percent increase in Q3 profit, smashing expectations.
Another notable figure was that 80 percent of all new subscribers were non-corporate, showing that RIM's push into the consumer smartphone market is working. RIM originally sold mainly to corporate customers but has moved towards the larger non-corporate market with phones such as the BlackBerry Pearl and Storm.
"The consumer side is growing real fast," co-Chief Executive Jim Balsillie added. "It's not like this isn't a competitive space with big companies trying to do well and yet we're No. 1."
10 million BlackBerry units were sold in the quarter, a record for the company. In comparison, Apple sold 7.4 million iPhones in the same quarter, although they make higher margins per phone.
According to a new British Phonographic Industry (BPI) survey, illegal downloading is not decreasing at all despite a new plethora of legal alternatives.
BPI CEO Geoff Taylor specifically cited a rise in downloads from blogs and newsgroups and called the results of the survey "very disappointing." The online poll surveyed 3000 people in the UK between the ages of 16 and 54.
Perhaps even more notably, users that currently downloaded from unauthorized services even said they planned to increase their pirating in the next six months.
Adds Taylor: "There are now more than 35 legal digital music services in the UK, offering music fans a great choice of ways to get music legally. It's disappointing that levels of illegal peer-to-peer use remain high despite this and the publicity surrounding imminent measures to address the problem. It's vital that those measures come into force as quickly as possible. The growth in other, non-peer-to-peer methods of downloading music illegally is a concern, and highlights the importance of including a mechanism in the Digital Economy Bill to deal with threats other than peer-to-peer."
Putting to rest any worries that PlayStation 3 owners may have had that their online gaming would soon turn to a pay-for service such as Xbox Live Gold, a leaked survey showing off the company's considerations for premium subscriptions shows that online gaming will remain free for everyone using the PSN.
The survey, posted on CVG, shows that for $70-a-year, a premium PSN subscription would give users free access to PSOne Classics, full game trials, cross-game voice chat, Netflix without the disc in the tray at all times, user-to-user challenges, cloud storage and even an extended warranty.
"Sony is considering offering a premium PlayStation Network subscription in the future," reads the survey. "The subscription offering would provide new premium features you could choose to pay for and are in addition to the features currently available for free such as access to online multiplayer gaming (current features would remain free)."
Despite numerous online reports that the company was shutting down completely and firing all its employees, Psystar's lawyers have called the reports untrue, and that the company will continue to fight in court.
K.A.D. Camara, of Camara & Sibley says: "Psystar does not intend to shut down permanently."
The Psystar site was down yesterday but has since been re-opened, possibly as a way to squash the rumors.
The illegal Mac clone maker was issued a permanent injunction to stop selling hardware running Apple's Mac OS X operating system and they have until December 31st to comply.
Psystar only remains a company, it appears, to fight in court the legality of the $50 Rebel EFI software that allows Intel-based PC users to install and run Mac OS X. "Customers can buy Rebel EFI, a machine from us or from Dell, and with Rebel EFI, install OS X on whatever computer they please," noted Camara.
According to an Impress report, the Apple iPhone owns about 46 percent of the entire Japanese smartphone market, with the iPhone 3GS controlling 21.4 percent and the older iPhone 3G controlling 24.6 percent.
Domestic smartphone sales have taken a giant hit thanks to the Apple devices, with the Sharp's Windows Mobile-based Advanced W-ZERO3 losing half of its market share in just one year, falling to third place.
77 percent of iPhone users use data for over 30 minutes every day, with Android users a distant second at 66.8 percent. WinMo users are even farther behind at 54.6 percent.
In September, Gonzalez pleaded guilty to 20 counts of identity theft, wire fraud, computer fraud and conspiracy after hacking the corporate systems of TJX Companies, BJ's Wholesale Club, OfficeMax, Boston Market, Barnes & Noble, Sports Authority, Dave & Buster's, Hannaford Brothers, 7-Eleven and Heartland Payment Systems.
Gonzalez's lawyers have submitted a psychiatrist evaluation which concluded that the hacker's behavior did indeed shows signs of Asperger's.
The convicted felon faces 15 to 25 years for his crimes and is asking the judge for a sentence closer to 15.
Sony has announced that owners of the Sony Reader e-reader device will have more content available to them via the Reader Store, including new magazine and newspaper subscriptions.
The New York Post and the Wall Street Journal will be available as subscriptions, and the Reader Daily Edition will get daily downloads from popular papers such as the Boston Globe, the International Herald Tribune, the New York Times and almost a dozen others.
Barron's and other magazines will arrive via the e-reader as they would if you had ordered a physical copy, weekly, bi-weekly or monthly.
Following a disappointing quarter that showed a 4 percent decrease in sales and a 60 percent drop in revenue, Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein has confirmed the upcoming webOSfirmware update, likely version 1.3.5 for its smartphone line.
For the quarter, Palm shipped 780,000 phones, but only sold 573,000, a 4 percent drop year-on-year. Losses totaled $85.3 million USD and revenue fell from $191.6 million to $78.1 million. Palm's stock fell as much as 18 percent after the news.
The firmware update will remove the app limit cap of 64MB, and will improve overall performance, stability and speed. Wi-Fi reception will be stronger and the Pixi will see more features added.
Rubinstein did not say when the update will hit, but many believe it will come at the CES event next month alongside the debut of new Palm smartphone models.
According to a new Tweet from Sprint, the carrier's Android devices will update in the next couple of months from firmware 1.5 to 2.1, skipping over 1.6 and 2.0 completely.
Says the Twitter update: "Slight clarification on Android OS updates for the HTC Hero & Samsung Moment. Will be updating straight to Android 2.1, not 2.0, in 1H2010."
2.1, shown off most recently on the Nexus One, will have "3D elements," animated backgrounds, a webOS-like pull-out app and preview tray, as well as more home screens among other improvements.
Released just this week, the Zune HD Twitter app is already being updated after users criticized the application for automatically censoring any explicit words written by users in their Tweets. Perhaps more upsetting was the fact that there was no option to turn the censoring off.
The censoring is a new trick for a Twitter app, with more popular clients such as TweetDeck not even having censorship as an option. Twitter's direct site does not censor either.
Microsoft responded within hours to the online complaints (via Cnet): "The recently released Twitter for Zune HD application has been abbreviating some explicit words in tweets when viewed on the device. However, these explicit words do appear in their full text on the Twitter site or on any other Twitter client. We have identified the issue and are taking steps to update the application as soon as possible to ensure Twitter for Zune HD users are able to view tweets in their original state."
The latest beta build of the popular torrent client uTorrent has added video streaming support, giving users the chance to preview and play their video files while they are downloading.
“Our hope is to transform getting media using uTorrent from a ‘load-wait-watch-tomorrow’ to more of a ‘point-click-watch’ experience,” says Simon Morris, BitTorrent VP of Product Management.
uTorrent is not the first client to add the feature, but uTorrent is the most popular client in the US and Europe, by far.
The new column, "Stream," is pretty straightforward. Hit the Play button and the video will begin to stream, however when it begins depends on how much you have downloaded and how many seeds. The better seeded, the better.
You can change the media player used for the streaming in the configuration page, and it is recommended to use VLC or MPC.
Avatar, the epic blockbuster from director James Cameron was released today worldwide but some viewers of German midnight showings were foiled by DRM, when the protection system caused the video to not be decoded for the digital 3D showing.
Originally reported by Heise.de, the digital 3D copies sent to German theaters had problems with its encryption and therefore could not be decoded.
TorrentFreak says "the complex DRM system, which involves several certificates and server-delivered time-sensitive keys for hard drives and projectors, failed in a way consistent with the movie’s epic status. Unfortunately, after working for several hours cinema workers failed to decrypt 150 gigabytes of data, which resulted in at least one location reverting back to the 2D version."
“We regret the failures and the associated discomfort, but we are confident that we will be able to play the premiere both in 2D and in 3D,”added Oliver Fock, general manager of CineStar group.
The Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) has announced the release of the final Blu-ray 3D specifications this week, creating a uniform policy for future Blu-ray 3D compatibility, both for hardware and software.
The specification will also allow for the PS3 to playback BD 3D content in 3D.
Blu-ray.com adds that "the specification allows every player and movie supporting it to deliver full HD1080presolution to each eye. Moreover, the specification is display agnostic, meaning that Blu-ray 3D products will deliver the 3-D image to any compatible 3-D display, regardless of whether that display uses LCD, plasma or other technology and regardless of what 3-D technology the display uses to deliver the image to the viewer's eyes."
The PS3 PlayStation Home service has hit 10 million users, says Sony, a new milestone.
Additionally, Sony announced the launch of three new Home themes, based on Uncharted 2, Ratchet and Clank: A Crack in Time and MotorStorm.
"PlayStation Home is fast becoming the meeting place of choice between users and developers," added Dan Hill, SCEE European Home business manager.
"Every new game space enhances the overall experience for consumers, offering more variety, more choice and more enjoyment from a PlayStation Home session. The more game spaces there are, the better it gets, and the number of spaces keeps on growing."
"For developers, there's no better way of driving interest in their titles than giving fans a hands-on, interactive experience based around the game itself. A game space in PlayStation Home ought to be a core element of every studio's marketing strategy for new titles."
Facebook today has completed their privacy settings re-haul, and frankly it is pretty scary what is now available for the whole world to see. In an ironic moment, founder Mark Zuckerberg had his previously hidden personal photos plastered all over the Internet after the changes some of which show the founder "shirtless, romantic and even clutching a teddy bear."
One of the main changes is the addition of Publicly Available Information. Before, you were allowed to hide all info besides your name, but now PAI means that Your name, Gender, Profile photo, Current city, Friends, Networks, and Fan pages are available to all Facebook users, always, as well as search engines unless you specifically cut that part out.
If you are an active Facebook user, it is probably smart to check the Settings->Privacy Settings page and make sure you read through all the options.
It appears that the Google Nexus One smartphone may not be the only wild card the search engine giant has up its sleeve as the Washington Post is reporting that the company is creating a Chrome OS Netbook as well.
The sources say that Google is actively in talks with one hardware manufacturer about building a Google netbook, built directly to the specifications of the company. The company has even been given an RFP (request for proposal).
The netbook, if true, would hit for the 2010 holiday season and would be sold directly by Google. There will also be mobile connections, meaning it may be available with subsidy from AT&T or other carriers.
The WP article speculates that Google will move away from the Intel Atom processors found in most current netbooks and instead move to an ARM CPU, possibly the extremely powerful and not-energy-hungry Nvidia Tegra.
According to USA Today, citing data from the FBI, gaming console thefts have risen a giant 285 percent since 2007, mainly due to the jump in popularity of consoles in general, especially handhelds such as the DS and the PSP.
FBI representative Anthony Weiner adds: "They seem to become bigger targets for theft. It's the omnipresent, miniature electronics crime paradox: Even as crime goes down, when you have more electronics, you have more theft."
In 2007, overall gaming system thefts was 11,074. That number jumped to 21,732 in 2008 and has jumped to 42,615 so far in 2009. On the other hand, overall property crime (including electronics thefts) has fallen from 10 million in 2006 to 9.8 million in 2009.
Notes Larry J. Siegel, criminologist at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell: "Criminals are rational. They steal things that have high value, are easily transportable and easily sold. The most expensive thing in my house is my refrigerator, but nobody is trying to steal my refrigerator."
PSP and PSPgo owners can now download graphic novels to their handhelds from popular publishers such as Disney and Marvel via the PSN Digital Comics service which has gone live today.
There are currently 550 issues available at launch and prices range from $0.99 to $2.99. There are popular titles such as X-Men and Spider-Man already available.
To download the novels, users will have to update to the latest firmware update, install the reader, and then download what they want.
USAToday adds: I've tested out the Reader with a couple issues of Astonishing X-Men, and it seems to work pretty well. The readers uses an autoflow feature, where users click the directional pad to move between panels. Sometimes, the readers zooms in and out to show key sections of the panel or to get a better view of the text. Users also have the option of manually zooming and moving through the panels if they choose. The comics look sharp on the classic PSP model I used to test the reader.
Last week we reported that AndroLib figures were showing the Android Market had hit a new milestone, 20,000 applications available.
Today, Engadget is quoting Google who has said the number is not entirely true, as there were 20,000 applications created but not all are active still in the market.
Google says there "are currently more than 16,000 free and paid apps in Android Market." The company did not give a breakdown of free to paid apps, which is estimated at about 60 percent free.
Amazon is set to release a free Kindle e-book app for BlackBerry smartphones "soon," but declined to give a specific timetable.
Additionally, new Kindle software is coming for Macs "soon" as well, again without a timetable.
Amazon has the Kindle software currently available for the iPhone as well as for Windows users, with the applications available for free. One of the disadvantaged of the iPhone app however is that content outside of novels is not available including magazines, blogs, podcasts, etc. It is likely that the BlackBerry application will have the same restrictions for the time being.
A federal judge has awarded Apple a permanent injunction against illegal Mac clone maker Psystar this week, banning it from selling any hardware running the Mac OS X operating system.
* Copying, selling, offering to sell, distributing or creating derivative works of Mac OS X without authorization from Apple.
* Intentionally inducing, aiding, assisting, abetting or encouraging any other person or entity to infringe Apple's copyrighted Mac OS X software.
* Circumventing any technological measure that effectively controls access Mac OS X, including, but not limited to, the technological measure used by Apple to prevent unauthorized copying of Mac OS X on non-Apple computers.
* Playing any part in a product intended to circumvent Apple's methods for controlling Mac OS X, such as the methods used to prevent unauthorized copying of Mac OS X on non-Apple computers.
* Doing anything to circumvent the rights held by Apple under the Copyright Act with respect to Mac OS X.
Spotify has announced the updated release of Spotify for Android, which is available for free from the Android Market or from m.spotify.com.
The company says the updated app now inlcudes:
* URI support - Open/Share Spotify URI’s to or from SMS, email, the Facebook or Twitter apps, etc.
* Updated player with cover art swipe support (similar to the iPhone version).
* Android 2.0/Eclair support. Spotify now runs on the popular Motorola Droid phone.
* Home screen widget - control Spotify from the home screen!
Last week three of the four major labels launched a new service in the US called Vevo. Vevo offers music videos from their acts, and features 100% professionally produced and officially sanctioned content.
First some history. Vevo is essentially the product of negotiations between Universal Music Group (UMG) and Google over content licensing for YouTube. Since it was announced two of the three remaining majors (EMI and Sony Music) have signed on, each taking a share of ownership in the company. The fourth major, Warner Music Group, has decided not to get involved just yet.
Although they run the servers and take a cut of ad revenue, Google doesn't share in ownership of Vevo.
The purpose of Vevo is fairly simple. Label executives were looking for a way to make monetize their content. If you didn't know that before visiting Vevo, it would become quickly apparent. When you watch a video there are often small ads which appear at the bottom of the video and links to one side for buying the music you're listening to. You are also given the option to link to a particular video or getting code to embed it in a webpage, both of which include ads which play before the video starts.
Phandroid has revealed the specs for AT&T's first Android device, the Motorola Enzo/Backflip.
The smartphone will use MOTOBLUR and Android 1.5 and has a touchpad on the back of the keypad which helps give the phone its nickname.
Surprisingly, the Backflip will not come with any Google apps except for Maps, as the screenshots show that Yahoo search is the default, as well as AT&T Navigation and other AT&T branded apps.
The full specs:
• 528 MHz Qualcomm MSM7201A
• 512 MB ROM
• 256 MB RAM • 3.1 inch display 320 x 480 (HVGA)
• 5 megapixel camera with LED flash
• WiFi / Bluetooth 2.0 / GPS • OS Android 1.5 with Motoblur
• GSM 850/900/1800/1900 W-CDMA 850/900/1700/1900/2100
• Reverse flip keyboard
• Rear directional touchpad
The MPAA has announced that the United States Congress has allocated $30 million in funding for anti-piracy measures, part of the Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property Act.
"Congress took a major step forward by providing $30 million in funding for new FBI agents, federal prosecutors, and local and state law enforcement grants to protect American jobs and creativity by cracking down on the theft of movies and other intellectual property," added MPAA chairman and CEO Dan Glickman.
$20 million will go to "new state and local economic, high technology and Internet crime prevention grants," says TheHollywoodReporter, while $8 million will go towards new FBI agents "targeting IP crimes." The final $2 million is for "new Department of Justice IP prosecutions."
Glickman also lauded the piracy crack-down operation dubbed Holiday Hoax which has so far led to the arrest of seven sellers of counterfiet software and movies, and the confiscation of 79,796 counterfeit CDs and 79,610 DVDs. "Copyright industries in the U.S. lose $25.6 billion a year in revenue to piracy, the U.S. economy loses nearly 375,000 jobs either directly or indirectly related to the copyright industry, and American workers lose more than $16 billion in annual earnings," he noted.
According to a new study conducted by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, about 15 percent of American teens "sext" using their mobile phones, sending either sexually-oriented texts messages or sending photographs/videos in which they are nude or otherwise disrobed.
The older the teens get the larger the percentage gets, and the study shows that boys and girls are equally as likely to "sext".
"Kids have experience with it," adds Amanda Lenhart, a Pew research specialist. "It's something they have to deal with and talk about in their lives."
The report is based on interviews with 800 teenagers with their guardians in September. WiredSafety.org says the numbers may be skewed to the lower side because the teens were with their parents. "If this many teens were willing to admit it in front of a parent or guardian, you have to wonder how many teens are really doing it," says Parry Aftab, executive director of the group.
Those with unlimited texting plans, as well as those that paid for their own service were the most likely to sext.
A teen in California saw his cell phone bill balloon to almost $22,000 this month after using 1.34 GB of data without an unlimited bandwidth plan.
The 13-year-old had just been added to his father's family plan, which did not include any data usage. The plan was then charged per megabyte.
Luckily for the teen and his father Verizon said they would be crediting the account the entire amount, and the teen has had his account suspended (by his father).
Verizon says it always investigates into astronomically high bills.
This week, the FBI has arrested 47 year-old Gilberto Sanchez of the Bronx, NY (aka "theSkilled1" online) for uploading the film to MegaUpload.com and charged him with copyright infringement.
Sanchez now faces up to three years in prison as well as a $250,000 USD fine.
"We're supportive of the FBI's actions," noted Fox, the distributor of the film. "We will continue to cooperate with law enforcement officials to identify and prosecute those who illegally steal our creative content."
Perhaps more notably then the arrest is the fact that the indictment does not make it clear how Sanchez got the workprint in the first place, meaning it is possible that he was not the source of the leak.
Apple has noted that the Canadian iTunes Store is now offering HD movies, with all titles selling for between $15-25 CAD.
You can rent the movies for $5-6, with new releases going for the higher price point. The available catalog isn't very deep yet, but there are new releases such as Inglourious Basterds and Star Trek as well as popular catalog titles such as Iron Man and Wall-E.
Microsoft has finally launched their native Twitter application for the Zune HD, offering its users a faster way to access the popular microblogging service through the device.
The app includes most of the service's core features, including search and favorites but will lack GPS geo-location as well as a native photo viewer and other more advanced features found in apps such as Tweetie on the iPhone.
Many users had complained about using the microblogging site through the Zune's built-in browser and the app is a noticeable improvement. It is also free.
Beginning next month, McDonald's will start offering free Wi-Fi in 11,000 of its American locations.
The deal, signed with AT&T, is very similar to that of Starbucks, where users can access the Internet for free, no purchase required. Previously, the Wi-Fi was only free for AT&T customers, and $2.95 for two-hours otherwise.
McDonald's says internal research found that customers would be more willing to buy more food if they had free Wi-Fi.
"We're excited about it. One thing our customers have told us is: 'We like your Wi-Fi, but would you make it free?' This is one thing they've consistently asked for. It's just another reason to come to McDonald's," said David Groom, chief information officer for McDonald's USA.
The financial details were not revealed so it is unclear how AT&T will make any money for offering their network.
Undoubtedly the biggest news of the week so far has been the unveiling, although unofficially, of the Google Nexus One smartphone, the first Android device to use 2.1 firmware.
Today, we have the first video of the Nexus One in action, although it is only a short clip showing the boot up sequence. Interestingly, the phone seems to be placed on top of the box for the device, meaning the rumored release date of January 5th could be accurate as well.
Note: Starting this week, we at AfterDawn are introducing a Video Daily segment relevant to the tech world and giving our users something a little "different."
AdweekMedia has announced that Apple has won the "Brand of the Decade" award among others in their publication's “Best of the 2000s” advertising awards. The company also did well in the publication's Reader's Choice Poll.
CEO Steve Jobs won "Marketer of the Decade," mainly due to his innovations in the digital music world (iPods) and in the smartphone market (iPhone). In the reader's choice poll, Jobs won by a large margin, garnering 51 percent of the vote. In second place was Larry Light of McDonalds.
For "Brand of the Decade" the margin wasn't as high, but Apple still ran away with it, beating out Google for the award, and in the reader's choice poll.
The iPod was given “"Product of the Decade"” by the magazine while the readers gave the award to the iPhone, followed by the iPod.
According to Sony Computer Entertainment executive VP and CTO Masayuki Chatani, the company is mulling monthly subscription fees for the PlayStation Network.
"We would face difficulties if our business depended solely on the sell-and-forget model. After we sell the hardware, though, we continue to sell products such as content and services," said Chatani, via GI.biz."We can also accept payment in a growing number of ways. In addition to single-payment packaged software, there are also schemes like monthly fees or per-item charges."
Now it is of course possible that Chatani was only speaking about monthly fees for multiplayer online games or unlimited content subscriptions, but it remains unclear.
Sony has repeatedly denied that it will turn the PSN into an Xbox Live-style subscription model but has hinted at upcoming "premium" services.
The highly anticipated e-reader, the Barnes & Noble Nook, has been torn apart and "rooted" by the boys over at NookDevs and the process as well as the specs are now online.
* Samsung S3C6410 Processor
* Synaptics TM169 Touchscreen controller
* Internal 2GB SandiskmicroSD card for internal storage
* 3 partitions
o sdb1: system: ext3 250 MB
o sdb2: update? ext3 150 MB
o sdb3: internal memory: ext3 1309 MB
* Sierra Wireless MC8777V wireless modemin data only mode
The e-reader is also using a modified Android 1.5 firmware, and being rooted it seems just a matter of time until the Nook is given added functionality.
If you are interested in rooting your Nook, check here: nookDevs: Rooting
TeliaSonera has announced the launch of the world's first 4G LTE (Long Term Evolution) network in Sweden and Norway, using Samsung's commercial 4G LTE dongles.
4G offers speeds of up to 100Mbps, ten times faster than current 3G services from TeliaSonera.
“We are very excited to be part of the world’s first LTE commercial service from TeliaSonera. It is a truly historic step forward in the mobile industry,” added JK Shin, executive vice president and head of the Mobile Communications Division at Samsung Electronics. “As an industry leader and innovator, Samsung will continue to offer the most advanced mobile technology to satisfy consumers’ unmet needs.”
“We are very proud to be the first operator in the world to offer our customers 4G services. Thanks to the successful cooperation with Samsung we can offer 4G to our customers in Sweden and Norway earlier than originally planned,” notes Kenneth Karlberg, President and Head of Mobility Services, TeliaSonera.
The dongle can be connected to any portable device (notebook, netbook, tablet) via USB and should have backwards compatibility with 3G, HSPA, and EDGE services.
In a quick update to our ongoing coverage of the Google Nexus One Android smartphone, BoyGeniusReport has a couple more pictures of the device in action as well as comparison to Android's first ever phone, the G1.
According to a new study by the GFK Group, Internet users do not want to pay for online content, ever, no matter the content.
The study, based on interviews with 16,800 adults in the United States and 16 European nations showed that 87 percent of respondents are not willing to pay for online content, and 33 percent even said they wanted everything for free, without ads.
The numbers were most skewed in Eastern Europe where only 7 percent of all the respondents said they would pay for online content, while the numbers were better in the U.S. where 17 percent said they were willing to pay. However, 21 percent of Americans were in the "free, no ads" category. The numbers are slightly better in the UK, at 18 percent willing to pay and Sweden had the highest at 23 percent.
In Spain, 54 percent of respondents said they want everything free, with no ads, a huge number for the developed nation. The same went for France, at 50 percent. France only had 8 percent of respondents willing to pay at all.
The study is bad news for content holders, who have been struggling to find profitable ways to bring content online.
According to Sony Computer Entertainment's Masayuki Chatani, the new slim redesign of the PlayStation 3 could have been even smaller, and could have possibly had its HDD stripped out.
One alternative was the use of flash memory. The advantages of using flash memory are smaller size, decreased running costs, and lower noise levels (although the PS3 runs pretty quietly regardless). Disadvantages are price-per-GB.
Another alternative to an HDD was to completely get rid of physical storage and instead let users save all game data, personal files and settings online, via the PlayStation Network.
Chatani said bothe options were actively considered but the HDD won out. "We felt that the price would be too high for the amount of storage capacity the PS3 needs," he adds.
As for other considered redesigns, Chatani says the power supply was considered being made external, just like in the Slim PS2, however that "would have imposed restrictions on transport and use, making it harder to use freely."
The Chinese State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) has shut down hundreds of unauthorized file sharing sites in the past week, all of which offered movie, games and music downloads for free.
"In recent years, some websites publicly spread a large number of pirated films, TV dramas and other programs. Some of these programs contain lewd content. Such behaviors severely harmed young people's health and copyright owners' interests," said a SARFT official, quoted by the Xinhua News Agency.
The same official added that copyright regulation is a "long-term task" and the sites will be shutdown for good if they do not take down all illegal content.
BTChina.net has reported that SARFT took down 530 torrent trackers, none of which had licenses from the administration.
In an ironic twist, the shutdown of all the torrent sites has led to an increase in pirated DVD sales on the streets. "When they buy DVDs from me, almost everyone talks about being worried that the free movie downloads would disappear," a peddler told the China Daily.
According to new figures from AndroLib, the Android Market has reached a new milestone, 20,000 applications, taking just five months to double up from 10,000.
Of course the number does not compare to Apple's 100,000+ App Store, but Android is a newer platform and handsets running the OS have had smaller sales than the iPhone and iPod Touch.
The figures show that almost 38 percent of the apps are paid while the rest are free.
The amount of new apps every month continues to grow as well, and should continue to do so given the increasing amount of Android handsets coming in 2010.
Warner Home Video has announced the the release date for the long-awaited Blu-ray version of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, as well as a price.
The nine-disc set will be released on April 6th, and will include only the theatrical versions of the films, which should anger many would-be buyers who hoped for the extended versions. The set will also include digital copies for each film, and pre-orders start on March 2nd.
The MSRP is $99.99 but Amazon will likely offer the set for $69.99-79.99.
Reuters is reporting today that the upcoming Nexus One will not only be available as an unlocked version directly from Google but also as a subsidized phone through T-Mobile, making it more affordable for possible buyers.
Sources say the phone can be available as early as January 5th.
"In the long term Google will become a seller and get commission from operators," added the sources, saying that other carriers will agree to Google's terms eventually.
There is still no word on how much the unsubsidized phone will sell for.
Nintendo has launched two new Wiimote colorways today, pink and blue, giving Wii console owners the ability to have 4 separate colorways for their remotes.
Each unit has MotionPlus, and will include a protective sleeve.
Gamers playing four player games can now have a different color controller for each member, but otherwise the new colorways are just that, new colors.
The items begin shipping on February 14th at the same price point of current models.
The Wiimotes are the same size but Nintendo's release pictures are different sized.
The Sony PlayStation 3 hardware is closer to break even, says iSuppli, with parts from a 120GB model dropping to an estimated cost of $336 USD. The console sells for $300 in the US and the equivalent of $438 in the UK, and prices are expected to continue falling into the Q1 2010.
Adds iSuppli analyst Andrew Rassweiler: "In light of these factors, the PlayStation 3 probably is already at or near the tipping point for profitability."
iSuppli had previously suggested that Sony was losing up to $50 per console, despite the unit selling for $100 more than it currently sells for.
"Since the introduction of the PlayStation 3 in late 2006, Sony has subsidized the price of every console sold, a deficit the company has made up for with game sales and royalties," added Rassweiler.
The most expensive component of the system is the Blu-ray drive, which costs an estimated $66 USD. In second is the Nvidia Reality Synthesizer graphics chip at $45.82, and the Cell processor chip is down to $37.73.
Engadget today has a gallery of pics of the upcoming Google 'Nexus One', and the new Android 2.1 firmware looks very impressive.
The phone is running on T-Mobile, includes an enhanced 3D app tray and has a grid that when pressed reveals small previews of all the homepage screens, similar to the Palm Pre. There is also a track ball and that's about it on the sleek design.
Cox Communications, the U.S' third largest cable provider, is set to sign a deal to carry the Epix HD channel starting next year.
Additionally, the company is about to sign a deal with Dish Network, the most popular satellite TV provider.
Epix, started earlier this year by Viacom, Lions Gate and MGM, offers pay-for streaming titles but so far has only signed a distribution deal with Verizon.
Cox has 6.2 million customers, Dish has 14 million and Verizon has 2.7 million FiOS TV subscribers. Epix hopes to compete with premium channel Showtime, which has over 17 million subscribers currently.
Thanks to HDi, large scale 3D projection televisions are now becoming more affordable, with the company announcing that their latest 100-inch displays will cost up to $15,000, a $50,000 discount off the comparable Panasonic display.
The 2D/3D laser-driven TV was even called “without a doubt, the best demonstration of 3-D technology I have ever seen” by Appleco-founder Steve Wozniak.
According to the SanJoseBizjournal "the company claims its technology offers greater-than-high-def resolution and draws 80 percent less power than existing 2-D flatscreen plasma monitors of the same size. The company says it also offers a 95 percent reduction in manufacturing pollution, and a 100 percent reduction in harmful chemicals and radioactive components. At 10 inches thick, HDi’s 100-inch diagonal display weighs 75 percent less than equivalent plasma and LCD displays."
The UK-based online retailer eXpansys is reporting that the Motorola Milestone (the DROID without Google Maps Navigation) has sold out in the region in "record time," a brisk 2.5 hours.
"Today (Thursday 10th December) the first shipment of the Motorola Milestone was delivered into the UK, to be sold exclusively by eXpansys.com. Within 3 hours of the product being listed as 'in stock' on the eXpansys site it sold out. This makes the Motorola Milestone the fastest selling gadget in the website's 11 year history, even more successful than the iPhone", said the retailer, via Pocket-lint.
The company added that they were forced to increase their direct order from Motorola twice, but that they should be re-stocked in time for Christmas.
Adds Roger Butterworth, eXpansys' CEO: "The demand for the Motorola Milestone has been staggering. We received the units at 10am on Thursday, 2.5 hours later we had sold out. A second shipment is already on the way and should be arriving in time for Christmas orders".
Hello!
We are currently testing the newly written code.
More downtime is hopefully not necessary, but might
be a possibility. Welcome back, we missed you!
The site seems to have much of its content intact
but users to the site may notice some bugs since the
site is apparently still being worked on.
The site is indeed very glitchy still, but the word that the site is back online should be a welcome relief to torrent users who recently saw the end of Mininova.
Claiming a first, Universal has announced a mobile commerce campaign partnership with Adgregate Markets, meaning consumers can buy the Blu-ray or DVD of the blockbuster Inglourious Basterds via their mobile phones.
Using Adgregate's "ShopAds, consumers can view ads of the film, pre-order the film, or shop for the best price online.
“This innovative partnership with Adgregate Markets fits perfectly with Universal’s strategy of providing home entertainment consumers maximum flexibility and convenience when it comes to purchasing and viewing their favorite films,” says Universal Studios Home Entertainment president Craig Kornblau.
Left Behind Games, infamously known for their Christian-themed PC games, have decided to expand their games to gaming consoles, announcing the launch of Bible Adventures for the Xbox 360 and the Wii.
The game is not a port of the old NES game by the same name but instead "a brand new game that happens to have the same title, this one set in their "Charlie the Church Mouse" series of educational games on the PC," says 1up.
The new adventure will "educate young children by teaching them academic lessons vital to early childhood development through Bible stories," added Left Behind CEO Troy Lyndon.
"Parents and kids already love the Charlie Church Mouse Bible Adventure games for the PC," Lyndon continues. "Our strategy is to follow Nintendo's example by including up to 18 story animations and mini-games, providing significant value for our customers. We expect our financial projections to grow exponentially as we transition from a PC game developer to a Wii & Xbox developer."
NCR, the maker of Blockbuster's Express rental kiosks has acquired small kiosk maker DVDPlay, allowing for an expansion into the west coast, most notably California.
Although the financials were not disclosed, DVDPlay operates 1300 kiosks, mainly in the grocery stores Safeway and Kroger. Before the acquisition, NCR had 2500 kiosks, a fraction of Redbox, which now has over 22,000 and is still expanding.
"The DVDPlay acquisition really expands our presence,” adds NCR Entertainment VP and general manager Alex Camara, via VB.
All the current DVDPlay kiosks will be replaced by Blockbuster Express kiosks, which have larger capacities and can be upgraded to include digital downloads.
The acquisition will mainly give Blockbuster express "a higher profile in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Denver and Chicago," says Camara.
UPDATE 1: The WallStreetJournal is reporting now that the phone will be called the Nexus One. There is no word on whether the rumored Google Voice implementation will be in effect, killing the need for a voice plan but requiring a data plan from a GSM carrier such as AT&T or T-Mobile.
Techcrunch is reporting this weekend that the oft-denied Google Phone is a reality, with Google employees confirming it all over their Twitter homepages and the Google Mobile blog announcing that they are in fact testing the phone with imminent release set for early next year.
Despite previous rumors however, the phone hardware will be manufactured by HTC but the phone will not be sold through a carrier and instead directly from Google as an unlocked handset. The phone's looks are said to be based on the upcoming HTC Passion or the HD2, which Google had input on the design of.
The creatively dubbed "Google Phone" will be available next month, as an unlocked GSM device, and will be the first phone to run Android 2.1, which has so far only been tested by Google employees. The phone runs on a Snapdragon processor, has a "super high-resolution" OLED touchscreen, has two mics, no physical keypad, is thinner than the rival iPhone, and has a very large resolution camera. New visual enhancements include animated desktop wallpapers (such as water that ripples when you touch it), voice-to-text for every application, and other incredible features.
Apple has announced that starting on December 26th they will be giving away a free song or popular application via iTunes, starting a "12 days of Christmas" promotion.
If you are a fan of free things and use iTunes, check back daily, says Apple.
Last week we reported that a 22-year old woman was arrested in Chicago for recording three minutes of the newest "Twilight" film with a digital camera at the movie theater, and was forced to spend two days in jail awaiting a hearing.
Samantha Tumpach faced up to three years in jail after being charged for criminal use of a motion picture exhibition.
Making it worse is the fact that Tumpach wasn't filming the movie and was instead taping parts of her sister's birthday party, which was taking place at the movie theater. Although the movie is in the background in clips, there are longer clips of family and friends singing happy birthday to Tumpach's sister at the theater. The situation was met with justifiable outrage from almost everyone who read about it, including the director of "Twilight: New Moon," who said the woman should have the charges dropped.
Fortunately today, the prosecutors have tossed out the case against her, and apologized for the time she had to spend in a holding cell.
"She’s traumatized by this," added her lawyer Dominick Dolci. “This is the worst event of her life and she wants to put it behind her.”
About a year ago we asked you guys to help us to translate our site to your own language. The whole translation process has evolved quite a lot during the past year and several new translation projects are currently on-going. However, two language versions are approaching the point where they could go finally go live.
Now, if you happen to speak a fluent speaker of either Spanish or Dutch and also understand English (well enough to be able to translate from English to your own language) -- and want to see AfterDawn available in your own language, contact us using our feedback form. We unfortunately can't pay for your efforts, but can send various AfterDawn merchandise to the most active volunteers as a thank you (and can write you a letter telling that you've helped with this project, if you want one).
The workload that there is left is relatively small -- just by spending couple of hours on it would help us dramatically to get these translations launched.
Help us out here :-)
P.S. We welcome other translation volunteers too -- we have on-going translation projects currently in Norwegian, Danish, German, (Brazilian) Portuguese and French. Just contact us if you'd like to participate.
According to a new study, it appears that teenagers don't necessarily care if it is illegal to text while driving, and will still not care even if it is made into federal law.
Texting in general is up 1000 percent since 2006 and Americans will send an estimated 1 trillion messages in 2009. Officers say it is harder to cite drivers while texting, as compared to those speaking on their phone.
For example, the California Highway Patrol says they have handed out 163,000 tickets to drivers using phones to make phone calls since May 2008 but only 1400 texting citations.
"The handheld cell phone is relatively easy for us to spot, we can see when somebody has their phone up to their ear," adds CHP spokeswoman Fran Clader. "But with the texting it's a little bit more of a challenge to catch them in the act, because we have to see it and if they are holding it down in their lap it's going to be harder for us to see."
Currently, 19 states have banned texting while driving while 9 other states prohibit it for drivers under the age of 21.
Apple has countersued Nokia this week in their ongoing patent dispute claiming now that Nokia is infringing on 13 of Apple's patents.
"Other companies must compete with us by inventing their own technologies, not just by stealing ours," Apple General Counsel Bruce Sewell added.
Nokia sued Apple in October over 10 alleged patent infringements relating to the iPhone's connectivity to wireless networks and wireless data. Apple says that Nokia "sought to gain an unjust competitive advantage over Apple by charging technology licensing fees well in excess of standard industry practice." Additionally, Apple is also claiming that a few Nokia models infringe on Apple patents relating to how computers recognize devices when they are attached.
Apple is seeking a full dismissal of Nokia's suit, as well as attorney's fees and monetary damages for the alleged infringements.
Earlier this year Apple became the most profitable mobile phone maker in the world, a giant milestone considering it sells one-eighth the amount of phones rivals like Nokia do.
Nintendo has announced that the DS/DSi handheld has set a new sales record in the U.S., selling 1.71 million units for the month of November, beating out the previous record of 1.57 million set also by the DS earlier this year.
Additionally, the Wii also surpassed 23 million lifetime sales for North America.
"Nintendo products top Amazon.com's Most Wished-For and Most Gifted lists for videogames, and Wii remains at or near the top of the most-searched for videogame terms on Yahoo!," adds Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America's executive VP of sales and marketing. "As families and friends gather for the holidays, Nintendo games offer the best shared experiences."
The New Super Mario Bros. continues strong software sales as well.
Apple has confirmed that they are actively trying to fix a problem within iTunes 9 that is causing sync issues for users.
There have been numerous complaints since September over the sync issues but Apple did not even acknowledge the problem until this week.
"We are aware of the issue and are investigating," said an Apple spokesman, via ElectricPig.
Most of the problems are being encountered by iPod Classic owners, which have seen their players eject themselves, or fail to sync.
Most new players, such as 5G Nanos and iPod Touches have had no problems.
According to Kaufman Brothers senior analyst Shaw Wu, Palm smartphone sales held up during the last quarter, with 670,000 Pre and Pixi units being sold between September 1st and the end of November.
Over the summer, Palm sold 823,000 units, but the fall quarter tally is much higher than most analysts expected.
Manufacturing and selling prices will continue to drop, but Wu still expects Palm to have a heavy loss.
Electronista says "the researcher justifies his view of the company by arguing that many investors are "overly negative" about Palm and ignore some of the advantages of its phones, such as multi-touch support and a top-to-bottom integration of the OS and hardware. Even if not always commercially successful, it could be an "attractive acquisition" for a company hoping to get an edge in smartphones."
The bigger question remains as to where Palm will move their smartphones after Sprint exclusivity ends next year. Verizon seems the likely next carrier given CDMA usage.
Last monthIntel agreed to pay rival chip-maker AMD $1.25 billion USD to settle all legal complaints, most stemming from anti-competition suits filed in the US and the EU.
Today, AMD has confirmed they have received the full $1.25 billion settlement check, and all complaints are finished.
Additionally, both sides agreed on a renewed five-year cross-license agreement. AMD says they are beyond satisfied with the agreement as it will allow the chip makers to compete "on a level playing field."
Intel must also now follow a new set of guidelines agreed upon by both companies.
The larger chip maker is still on the hook in the EU however, with the EC threatening a billion dollar fine for patent violations.
The U.S. videogame industry has fallen once again, says the NPD Group, dropping 7.6 percent for November, lamely entering the holiday season on a low note.
"This should not be viewed as a healthy start to the holiday season," says top videogame industry analyst Jesse Divnich.
The sales slump is even more surprising given the huge launch of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and the strong Thanksgiving/Black Friday week of sales.
Says NPD analyst Anita Frazier: "Breaking even seems more out of reach. In order to break even to last year, December sales would have to be up 36 percent over December 2008." Overall, the industry is down 12 percent year-on-year.
For hardware, the Wii topped the list at 1.26 million units sold, followed by the Xbox 360 at 820,000 and the PlayStation 3 at 710,000. The PS3 was the big winner, with sales rising 90 percent year-on-year. Xbox sales were flat, and the Wii was down 35 percent.
T-Mobile has announced the launch of carrier billing for the Android Market, allowing users to buy apps and then be charged on their monthly mobile phone bill instead of having to buy on the spot via Google Checkout.
In terms of refunds, any apps deleted within 24 hours will not be charged.
The MyTouch 3G, Cliq and G1 will all be receiving the update before December 30th.
Says the post:
"Beginning on December 9th T-Mobile Android device customers will begin to receive an update to the Android Market application to allow for purchases to be charged to their T-Mobile account. This allows customers to quickly purchase paid applications without entering credit card information! If you are an Android device customer here are some details of the change:
* The Market application update will be invisible to you. No steps are necessary to receive the update!
* To ensure that the update is received by all users T-Mobile and Google will stagger the update. You should expect to have the Market update by 12/30/2009.
* Once you receive the update you will be able to purchase paid applications using your credit card or your T-Mobile account.
* Reminder: Any applications uninstalled within 24 hours will NOT be charged to your T-Mobile account or credit card."
Microsoft has announced that they will be opening up the recent additions of Facebook, Twitter and Last.fm to minors, as long as they can obtain parental approval first.
Until today, Xbox 360 users under the age of 18 could not access any of the social networking applications.
The update went live today in the EU and everywhere except for the United States where it will go live on the 15th.
Minors must use the auto log in option for each app, or risk being prompted to ask for parental permission each time they want to use the apps.
"Thanks for your patience as we worked to develop the best solution to ensure that we are able to offer an age-appropriate environment for everyone on Xbox Live," says Major Nelson.
According to GfK Chart-Track, Nintendo has sold over 10 million DS/DSi handhelds in the UK, making it the best-selling console in the history of the region.
"Nintendo's Touch Generations range of software, which has been expanding the definition of videogame, has resonated strongly with people of all ages, extending its appeal to a non-traditional gaming audience, which now sees people aged between five and 95 picking up and playing Nintendo DS consoles," said Nintendo.
"The achievements of titles such as Dr Kawashima’s Brain Training: How Old Is You Brain? and More Brain Training alongside recent launches including 100 Classic Book Collection and 42 All-Time Classics, has seen the Nintendo DS system significantly expand the audience traditionally associated with videogames."
The original DS "Fat" went on sale in March 2005 and the stats suggest one in every six UK citizens own the handheld.
Although the number is improving, comparatively the original iPhone sold over 1 million in its first 3 months in the US, and exclusive carrier AT&T has under half the mobile subscribers that Unicom has. The iPhone 3GS sold over one million units in its first weekend this year.
Unicom also announced it hopes to add over 1 million 3G users every month, and the iPhone is part of that goal. Additionally, Unicom has been gaining users from China' gray market. Those that purchased iPhones from Hong Kong and abroad are activating the phones through Unicom, as a way to use to the 3G wireless data.
According to Mobile Crunch, a release candidate of Mobile Firefox is coming next week, finally giving users an in-depth look into the browser.
Says Mozilla’s VP of Mobile Jay Sullivan, as indexed by the source:
* Release candidate next week, final release within a few weeks
* Adblock Plus and around 30 other extensions are already playing friendly with Mobile Firefox, though they need some tweaking for the smaller screen
* Firefox won’t be the default browser on Maemo 5, though Nokia is considering the switch for Maemo 6 (which is coming in late 2010. We scooped the details and screenshots of Maemo 6 back in May.
* While they need pretty beefy hardware to make Mobile Firefox tick, the N900 isn’t the bottom line. "Everything now on the mid- to high-end is fine."
* The Windows Mobile build is 3-4 months behind the Maemo build
* They’re focusing on webapp features. In its current state, web apps in Mobile Firefox can pull data from the accelerometer and GPS, and store data in memory for offline use
* In 2010, they plan to add multitouch support, haptic feedback, camera usage, WebGL, and improved Javascript support.
HBO has started its first Blu-ray-only TV ad campaign, promoting a plethora of the broadcaster's most popular catalog titles such as Band of Brothers, True Blood and Entourage.
The spots will run through the Christmas holiday on male-oriented channels such as ESPN, Spike, G4, FX and during football games on Fox.
“We traditionally advertise HBO DVD titles in the fourth quarter to promote top-of-mind awareness during the holiday retail period,” adds Meredith Vincent, VP of marketing at HBO, via VB. “This year we have shifted our holiday campaign focus to Blu-ray. Our goal is to build awareness for HBO on Blu-ray, and specifically for shows like True Blood, Band of Brothers, Rome and John Adams.”
AT&T has noted today that they are considering changing the way smartphone users access wireless data, complaining that 3 percent of all their users use about 40 percent of all wireless data, straining the carrier's network.
"What we are seeing in the U.S. today in terms of smartphone penetration, 3G data, nobody else is seeing in the rest of the planet," said Ralph de la Vega, president and chief executive for mobility and consumer markets at AT&T. "The amount of growth and data that we are seeing in wireless data is unprecedented."
Most of the 3G data use comes from users of the Apple iPhone, and the same group are the biggest complainers of AT&T's network, which allegedly has delayed text and voice messages as well as slow downloads for videos and music.
AT&T said they would first try to "encourage" users to cut back on data, despite the fact that they pay good money to have unlimited plans. "We’re going to try to focus on making sure we give incentives to those small percentages to either reduce or modify their usage, so they don’t crowd out the customers on those same cell sites," added de la Vega.
Rental giants Blockbuster and Netflix have won a patent infringement suit this week over their customer notification email systems, successfully defending against a lawsuit filed against them by Media Queue.
Media Queue and video game rental company GameFly settled out of court for the same lawsuit in March.
The patent allegedly violated was Media Queue's "243" technology in relation to contacting customers by email to notify them of their account statuses.
Amazon has begun bundling digital copies with sales of physical Blu-rays and DVDs, giving buyers a chance to watch the film almost immediately while they wait for their title to ship.
The new promotion, dubbed Disc+ On Demand works on 313 titles. Says Amazon: "Buy select DVDs and Blu-ray discs and watch the Amazon Video On Demand version instantly as a gift with purchase."
There are newer titles such as Funny People and many catalog titles such as The Wizard of Oz and Ghostbusters in both DVD and Blu-ray.
Notably, some of the digital copies will be rentals while others will be permanent downloads. Those with rentals are available for 30 days after download and can be played back on any device that supports the Amazon Video On Demand platform, including PCs and Macs.
According to Insight Media, the popularity of 3D gaming will explode in the next five years, alongside the expected growth of 3D-capable displays.
The report says 40 million 3D-capable devices will be installed by 2014, with a good number being consoles, including the PS3 which is firmware-upgradable to 3D.
"We have spent considerable time on our forecasting methodology and believe we have created something that is truly new, innovative and ground breaking," added Chris Chinnock, president of Insight Media, via GI.biz.
"We have played Stereoscopic 3D games for hundreds of hours and can report that the latest technology does not result in eye strain or fatigue," notes Dale H Maunu, lead analyst on the report."Our experience leads us to believe that S-3D gaming is more immersive and compelling that traditional gaming on a 2D screen. We spoke directly with gamers, game developers, and game publishers as well as display makers to build a complete picture of the future of gaming, along the way going from sceptical middle-age display veterans to 3D gaming fanboys."
Nielsen has released their latest A2/M2 Three Screen Report, and it appears that consumers still spend 99 percent of their video time in front of the TV despite large increases in DVR and online video playback.
“Americans today have an insatiable appetite for not only content, but also choice,” says Nic Covey, director of cross-platform insights at Nielsen. “Across all age groups, we see consumers adding the Internet and mobile devices to their media diet — consuming media anytime and anywhere possible.”
For the Q3 2009, time spent for DVR was up 21 percent and online video was up 34.9 percent, yet the numbers didn't even put a dent in traditional TV time.
* In 3Q09, the average American watched 31 hours of TV per week, with 31 minutes spent in playback mode with their DVR.
* In addition, each week the average consumer spent 4 hours on the Internet and 22 minutes watching online video.
* The average consumer spent 3 minutes watching mobile video each week.
* Almost 99% of video content watched in America is still done on traditional television
* DVR and Online Video continue to show solid growth – up 21.1% and 34.9% respectively in time spent from Third Quarter 2008
* Teens continue to watch mobile video the most, at just over 7 hours per month, though mobile video is not just a young medium, as mobile users Adults 45-54 report viewing nearly 3 hours of video on their mobile phones
Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment has announced the launch of the Upgrade2Blu service today, offering $8 USD off of the Blu-ray version of many Disney movies you may already own on standard DVD.
The site allows you to select a title you own, print out a rebate form, and gives an address to send the form plus a proof-of-purchase tab from the DVD cover. You will then be sent your $8-off coupon via an email.
There are 57 titles currently available and consumers can keep their DVDs they currently own.
Last week we reported that a French court had ruled against Nintendo in its case against the Divineo group, a seller of DS flash carts which allow for homebrew, and the playback of music, movies and pirated games.
Nintendo says they are "extremely disappointed" with the decision and plan to appeal very soon.
"The Divineo France company had already been prohibited by a Hong Kong court to manufacture, market or export products intended to circumvent Nintendo’s technical prevention measures," said Nintendo. "In 2008, the Hong Kong court handed down two judgments ordering Max Louarn and Divineo France to pay Nintendo EUR 44,605,082 damages. Nintendo is yet to receive these damages and is seeking enforcement of the judgments through the court at Avignon. Nintendo maintains that infringement of its intellectual property rights, on its trademarks, software, its technical prevention measures and its videogames is causing damage to the whole videogame industry, preventing developers from gaining the full benefit of their hard work and creativity, but also to the customers who expect the highest standards and integrity from products bearing the Nintendo name."
Time Magazine today named the Motorola Droid its Gadget of the Year, giving the smartphone a victory over the Apple iPhone as well as other innovations of 2009.
The first smartphone to use Android 2.0 firmware, the powerful device has a large touchscreen, a QWERTY keypad, 5MP camera, an Arm Cortex A8 processor at 550 mHz and 16GB memory. The iPhone 3GS came in fourth place, mainly for its continued evolution and the popularization of "augmented reality" applications.
Also on the list were the new ultraportable Dell Adamo XPS, the Nook e-reader, a couple of innovative cameras and more.
According to the latest Hitwise figures, Google's market share rose 1.4 percent for November, taking share from rivals Yahoo and Microsoft's Bing.
Google moved to 71.6 percent, Yahoo fell to 15.4 percent, Bing slid to 9.3 percent and Ask moved up to 2.7 percent.
Despite different numbers from NetApplications, comScore and Hitwise, each statistics reporting company has Google with over 65 percent share, and each shows that Yahoo and Microsoft have little ability to put dents in the giant's market share, despite costly advertising campaigns and new partnerships.
Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz blamed the large decline on "lost toolbar distribution deals" but added that the company is not "interested in aggressively bidding on costly deals to bolster its search share."
Hitwise sampled 10 million Internet users in the U.S. and says Bing and Google saw large traffic growth in shopping and travel queries while Yahoo saw large drops in many categories including over 20 percent in health queries.
Last month we reported that members of the XDA Developers forum had created a way to allow users to run the Google Maps Navigation internationally on their DROIDS or G1s, which is currently not supported officially.
As of today however, rooted Android users abroad can no longer use the impressive free turn-by-turn GPS application, as Google has blocked it.
Reads the XDA post: "Google has made some anticipated changes to block us from using Navigation outside the USA. It looks like Brut.all is going to be looking at the original proxy idea again. For now, you might as well upgrade to 3.3.0, as it does have some cool new features (and you can always revert if necessary). Stay tuned to the thread for more details."
Yesterday Vevo, the online video partnership between Google and Universal Music Group, Sony Music, and EMI launched. Notably absent is content from Warner Music, the only one of the four major labels not participating.
Reportedly A2IM, which represents more than 200 independent labels is also in talks to provide content for the service.
Vevo was envisioned as a sort of premium YouTube, where content is provided solely by labels. Besides watching the videos on Vevo, you can create and share playlists, embed songs in web pages, and buy them from online stores like iTunes and Amazon.
Rather than being simply a distribution center for music videos, Vevo is intended to help sell artists with profile pages featuring interviews and other promotional content.
So far Vevo appears to be having a rough time keeping up with traffic. Once things calm down a little and they get the kinks worked out come back for our review of the service.
Dell has unveiled their latest ultraportable notebook today, the Vostro V13, which should cost one-third the price of the competing Macbook Air and one quarter the price of the Adamo XPS.
Thinner than the Air at .65-inches thick, has a 13.3-inch display and will weigh only 3.5 pounds. Base configuration includes a webcam, ExpressCard slot, 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and a Celeron processor for $449 USD. However, you will only get Ubuntu Linux as an operating system with the base configuration, as well as 2GB DDR3 RAM and a 5400RPM 250GB HDD.
For $600 the configuration adds Windows 7 Home Premium, a Core 2 Duo ULV processor and larger, faster HDD.
The included six-cell battery gives an estimated 5 hour battery life.
MySpace has announced that it has acquired certain assets from online music service Imeem in an effort to expand their streaming music offerings.
The deal was completed for under $1 million USD, says the WSJ.
Imeem is a streaming music service that allows users to create playlists which can be shared with other Imeem users or via social networking sites. Imeem has raised over $25 million in venture capital since its launch in 2003 and makes most of its revenue through ad sales and the sales of merchandise such as ringtones.
“MySpace Music and Imeem share a common vision and commitment to further enabling the socialization of content across the Web,” added MySpace CEO Owen Van Natta. “This deal will allow us to leverage Imeem’s industry leading technology and over time, meaningfully integrate their products into the MySpace Music experience.”
RIM, maker of the BlackBerry smartphones, has announced a distribution deal in China, one that should help the company expand its phones into the world's most populated nation.
The deal, with technology company Digital China, will "help RIM further expand its business in China" while giving them access to a large national distribution network.
RIM has made BlackBerry smartphones available in China since 2006 through China Mobile but sales have been extremely light, and marketing has been even lighter.
"Digital China's extensive knowledge and market presence will further expand the opportunity for RIM in China," said RIM CEO Jim Balsillie.
Beginning tomorrow, the Apple iPhone will finally launch in Israel, with carrier Cellcom being the first carrier to offer the device. Within the next week, Orange and Pelephone will offer the smartphone as well.
Notably, each carrier is only being required to buy 80,000 iPhones for resale, however, Bank of America Merrill Lynch analyst Haim Israel says the carriers will be purchasing much more.
Israel has one of the highest mobile phone penetration rates in the world at 125 percent, and it is estimated that 80,000 Israelis currently use unlocked iPhones bought online or abroad.
The analyst also believes that "the iPhone will boost average revenue per user by 30 percent...thus, the average payback period would be only 13 months."
Microsoft has reminded users today that support for Windows 2000 and Windows XP SP2 will end on July 13th, 2010, giving users enough time to upgrade.
After July 13th, there will no longer be any security updates or assisted support and users will be completely on there own. Additionally, Windows 2003 Server will move from "Mainstream Support" to "Extended Support" and will become unsupported in 2015.
Windows 2000 is currently in SP4, and has had all of its other service packs retired in the past decade. Users are encouraged to upgrade, even just to XP SP3. XP Service Pack 2 users are encouraged to update to SP3 (which is free), Vista or 7.
Google has announced the public launch of Google Chrome for Macs today, with the first beta of the browser now available.
The Windows version was released last year and the Mac version was slated for May of this year but hit delays even prompting Google co-founder Sergey Brin to call Chrome's absence on the Mac as an "embarrassment."
The beta works on Macs with Intel processors only, and will require OS X 10.5 or higher.
"We've been working hard to deliver a first-class browser for the Mac — it took longer than we expected, but we hope the wait was worth it!" says Google. "We wanted Google Chrome to feel at home on the Mac, so we've focused on uniting our clean, simple design with subtle animations and effects to create a snappy and satisfying browsing experience on OS X. As you might expect, the speed of Google Chrome for Mac is something we're very proud of. If you have a Mac, try installing the beta and see how fast it launches — there's hardly even time for the icon in the dock to bounce!"
Sony has unveiled the latest firmware upgrade for the PS3 today, version 3.15, which brings two main new features.
The first is the addition of the PSP Mini emulator to the PS3, allowing for playback of the Minis from your home console as well as your handheld. If you own any Minis already for the PSP, you can re-download it free from the PS Store for the PS3.
The second feature is data transfer between PS3s, which Sony explains as follows:
This feature enables you to easily transfer all of your saved data from one PS3 to another. So if you decide to get a new PS3 you can make sure you don’t loose any of your existing content. Content such as games, game save data, and videos downloaded from PlayStation Network can be transferred to the new PS3 system and deleted from the current PS3. Other content, including personal media files (photos, music, videos), can be copied onto the new PS3 and remain on the current PS3 system.
Apple has removed 1000 apps from the iPhone App Store after it was discovered that the developer Molinker was using a review scam to give its own apps 5-star reviews.
The developer has now been banned from the App Store and had all of its 1000 apps removed. Molinker had created about 1 percent off all App Store apps.
The issue was brought to Apple's attention by reader "SCW" of the iPhoneography blog.
SCW wrote: "I would like to highly suggest to take a deep look into not only the 'reviewers' but I will almost bet that all of these users redeemed 'Promo Codes' for these apps in order to only access the US app store & publish these endless slew of fake postings. All to increase the developers ratings, status, sales & ultimately have a pay-off when potential customers see such high ratings & then just buy the apps."
The reader also says that the reviews were all written in the same short, disjointed style.
Phil Schiller of Apple confirmed this week that the apps had been removed and the developer blocked. "Yes, this developer's apps have been removed from the App Store and their ratings no long appear either."
The major record labels Warner, Sony BMG, EMI and Universal are on the hook for up to $6 billion USD in damages after being accused of pirating 300,000 tracks.
The report says that the labels continually make compilation CDs without first securing the rights to the music, simply putting it on a "pending list" to deal with later. That "later" has yet to come. So far, since the mid-80's, the pending list has ballooned to over 300,000 tracks.
Says David Basskin, the President and CEO of the Canadian Musical Reproduction Rights Agency Ltd, via Michael Geist: "The record labels have devoted insufficient resources to identifying and paying the owners of musical works on the Pending Lists."
A group of musicians in Canada have now filed a class-action lawsuit against the Big 4, and the CRIA (Canada's RIAA), over illegal use of thousands of tracks.
“The conduct of the defendant record companies is aggravated by their strict and unremitting approach to the enforcement of their copyright interests against consumers,” says the suit.
At a launch party in New York City last night Boxee representatives announced the beta version of their web-based media center program which runs on Windows, Linux, OS X, and AppleTV set-top boxes. The company also released additional details about the upcoming Boxee set-top box. It will be manufactured by D-Link and go on sale to the public next year.
Both the Boxee Box and the Boxee beta software will be on display at January's Consumer Electronics Show (CES). The software will be released to the general public at that time as well.
Before then access to the beta will be by invitation only, eventually opening to current users of the Boxee alpha version.
In addition to the new UI, the new Windows version of Boxee adds DirectX Video Acceleration (DXVA), allowing you to take advantage of newer graphics cards' video decoding capabilities.
The Boxee Box will have both wireless (802.11N) and wired Ethernet to connect to your home network and the internet, as well as 2 USB ports and a SD Card slot to read files locally. Video and audio connections will include a HDMI port, S/PDIF connector, and 2 channel analog audio out.
Owners of the Motorola DROID smartphone should begin getting the latest update to their Androidfirmware today, version 2.0.1, which is being pushed over-the-air (OTA) as of this week.
The update will first and foremost fix the autofocus issue of the DROID's camera, as well as improve battery life and improve the Visual VoiceMail service. Audio quality for music playback and calls should be slightly improved as well.
Although unconfirmed, it appears a new unlock screen may also be part of the update, as well as improvements to "overall stability and speed," says Electronista.
Google's anticipated 2.1.0 update, which will include more important updates should hit in early January.
Google has added real-time results to its search engine this week, allowing for up-to-the-second updates from social networks networks such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter.
Microsoft's Bing search engine announced a similar partnership in October for real-time results.
"I would say that real time search is the natural evolution of universal search," says Marissa Mayer, Google's vice president of search products and user experience.
Mayer also added that Google was not selling ads alongside the real-time searches just yet, waiting instead until the consumer experience with the RT searches was "perfected."
Additionally, Google announced the launch of Google Goggles, a service that allows mobile phone users to take pictures of products and then receive pricing and other results about the product.
A federal judge has officially placed graduate student Joel Tenenbaum on the line for $675,000 USD, the fine he was given by a jury after being found guilty of sharing 30 unauthorized songs via P2P networks.
Judge Nancy Gertner signed off on the damages, meaning Universal gets $292,500, Warner gets $225,000, Sony BMG gets $112,500 and Arista gets $45,000.
Despite signing off on the giant fine, Judge Gertner once against expressed concern over the "astronomical penalties" available to copyright holders, and noted that Tenenbaum missed out on an opportunity to shape the future of fair use laws.
"As it made clear previously, the Court was prepared to consider a more expansive fair use argument than other courts have credited—perhaps one supported by facts specific to this individual and this unique period of rapid technological change. For example, file sharing for the purposes of sampling music prior to purchase or space-shifting to store purchased music more efficiently might offer a compelling case for fair use. Likewise, a defendant who used the new file-sharing networks in the technological interregnum before digital media could be purchased legally, but who later shifted to paid outlets, might also be able to rely on the defense," says Gertner.
Amazon has announced it will be updating its Kindle 2 and Kindle DX e-readers next year in an effort to increase marketability for vision-impaired consumers.
The new features will include an audible menu system that uses text-to-speech. Using the system, users can navigate the menus and books without visual assistance. Device owners will also be given a new font that is twice the size of the current largest font for the device.
The update will be available during the "summer" of 2010 and was prompted by feedback from Amazon users.
Stats from Swedish organization Netnod showed that Internet traffic in the entire country dropped 40 percent when Ipred went into effect in April, mainly due to a cutback in BitTorrent traffic.
TheLocal is reporting that Internet traffic is at all-time high now in the nation, although the numbers can hardly be considered set in stone at the moment.
“Spotify and the various television channels ‘Play’ sites haven’t yet released their statistics. There is guaranteed to be certain increase in file sharing, but it isn’t possible to tell exactly how much,” added researcher Kristoffer Schollin.
Anti-virus protection company McAfee also says that file-sharing sites have grown by over 300 percent since Ipred.
“Then you have the illegal video streaming sites, which aren’t file sharing in the traditional sense, but which play the same role for users. Watching a movie via a streaming video directly in your web browser is becoming more and more popular,” Schollin adds.
Despite the large growth of Blu-ray on the whole over the past two years, a few studios have scaled back on their TV series releases in Blu-ray, rolling back to DVD-only releases.
A few of the series in question are Nip/Tuck, Rescue Me and Damages, popular on TV but apparently not as popular on BD.
Overall, TV series on Blu-ray sell only 5 percent of the copies they do on DVD, compared to 15-25 percent for most new releases in both formats.
The discrepancy in sales can mainly be attributed to the larger pricing differences, which can be over $10 for most releases. For example, the price difference of a DVD and Blu-ray of a new release (such as Harry Potter 6) can be under $5 while most, if not all TV series have a difference of over $10, with some as high as $20 for premium cable channel programming.
“The significant amount of content and multiple discs make the financial model challenging for many TV series on Blu-ray and is a significant reason for the methodical approach studios are taking to release product,” added Rosemary Markson, VP of TV marketing for Warner Home Video, via VB. “Unfortunately, Nip/Tuck Blu-ray sales were insufficient to continue releasing in the format.”
Microsoft has killed off the Windows 7 Family Pack promotion, claiming the "limited time" offer has expired, just in time for the Christmas holiday.
The Family Pack offered a 3-license pack of Windows 7 Home Premium for $150 USD, a sharp discount off individual MSRPs of $120 each.
Microsoft has acknowledged the demise of the promotion, although consumers on the Internet have been claiming the end of the promotion since as early as December 1st.
External sellers via Amazon and eBay have now increased the price of remaining Family Packs to over $250 USD, taking advantage of consumers who still want the pack.
The online music video service Vevo has added EMI Music to its list of content providers, with the EMI artist catalog set to be added to the service on Tuesday.
Vevo is a joint venture from YouTube, Universal Music Group, Sony Music and AT&T. The company has deals with Abu Dhabi Media and CBS Interactive Music Group as well.
Videos are available through Vevo.com, through a YouTube channel and through special Vevo-branded embed players on social networking sites such as Facebook.
The music video site is negotiating a deal with Warner Music Group.
Vevo is supported by ad revenue which is shared by all the labels and venture members. The site will also sell concert tickets and other merchandise.
The so-called "Hulu for magazines" online newsstand is set to be launched officially tomorrow, says Peter Kafka of the WSJ.
"And now, it's really, really official. Digital storefront/"hulu for magazines" to be announced tomorrow," reads the Tweet.
The newsstand is being developed by Time Inc., Condo Nast and Heasrt, three of the major global publishers. The move is being made to counter continually declining print circulation for U.S. magazines.
The rumor has it that consumers would have the chance to buy print or electronic copies of the magazines or pay for a subscription for the digital copies. It would also develop software standards for viewing the content on iPhones, Blackberrys, eBook readers and other devices.
Microsoft has acknowledged and apologized for a temporary outage of the Bing search engine this week.
The statement says that the outage came after testing and a "configuration change" made to the site. The change led to "unfortunate and unintended consequences" which included the complete take down of the search engine.
Says Satya Nadella, Microsoft senior VP of Online Services Division: "As soon as the issue was detected, the change was rolled back, which caused the site to return to normal behavior."
The site was down for about 30 minutes total including fixing the problem.
Nadella added that Microsoft is looking to the incident so that it can never happen again.
According to ComScore Bing recently surpassed 10 percent market share in the U.S., a far cry from Google's 65 percent share but a nice increase for the search engine which was relaunched less than six months ago.
Microsoft noted this week that they had launched over 300 "enforcement actions," such as lawsuits and raids in an effort to crackdown on rampant piracy of the company's software.
The actions took place in 70 different nations around the world. The software giant has also created nine "forensics labs" in different cities used to detect pirated software.
Twelve raids took place in China, with the China Copyright Administration raiding companies charged with alleged counterfeiting of software. A lawsuit was also filed against a Chinese "system builder for hard-disk loading piracy."
Significant legal actions were filed in India against pirated software sellers, many of whom were selling counterfeit Windows 7 discs for under $5 USD.
Microsoft acknowledges that only a tiny amount of bottom line sales come from nations outside of North America and Western Europe however it needs giant developing markets such as India and China to lead future growth.
Costco has said it will begin increasing Blu-ray merchandise in its retail stores by up to 50 percent, while also offering "sharp" discounts on films and players.
Additionally, Costco has showcased the format in its monthly publication Costco Connection, while giving it prominent placement in stores.
“Blu-ray Disc movies are now the focus of our department,” says Blu-ray consumer Claudia Augello in the Costco Connection. “Members will always find at least 100 titles. But for the holidays, we’ve brought in more than 150. We pride ourselves on offering the newest releases at great savings.”
Blu-ray films will be priced down to $9.99.
The retailer adds that Blu-ray player sales are up 450 percent year-on-year.
Google has announced that they will be officially launching the Chrome Extensions site next week, giving Chrome browser users a chance to download add-ons, one of the features that has made rival Firefox so popular.
The new Extensions Gallery will list all the extensions and offer a one-click download to add the extension to the browser's shell.
There are currently hundreds of extensions for the browser, but none are officially supported by Google.
Additionally, Extensions will only be available for Chrome on Windows, despite the upcoming launch of the Mac version. Chromium for Windows and Macs supports extensions.
Internet Explorer remains the market leader at just under 65 percent, but Chrome, Safari and Firefox have been taking market share since their respective releases. Firefox stands at almost 25 percent, Chrome at 4 percent and Safari at 4.5 percent. Internet Explorer held a 93 percent market share in 2003.
Sony has announced it will be producing the 2010 FIFA World Cup in 3D for Blu-ray, after it covers the event using Sony 3D cameras.
The company will then release the "Official 3D Film" of the event on Blu-ray, so far without a timetable or price.
Finalized 3D Blu-ray specifications should be released by the Blu-ray Disc Association before the start of the new year.
The World Cup starts in June in South Africa and is expected to be watched by hundreds of millions.
“The transition to 3D is underway, and we at Sony intend to be leaders in every aspect. Our sponsorship of the FIFA World Cup allows us to leverage our cutting-edge 3D technology and premier products with dazzling content to produce a unique and totally compelling viewing experience,” adds Sony chairman/CEO Howard Stringer. “3D viewers around the world will feel as though they are inside the stadiums in South Africa, watching the games in person.”
LG Display has announced that it has begun mass production on the world's first Full HD 3D LCD monitor, a 23-inch display with 1080presolution.
Consumers will use shutter glasses to deliver the full HD resolution.
The panel will use LG's own "high performance 3D exclusive controller," which allows for improved capabilities of resolution and picture quality as well as processing of more than twice as much image data as current 3D LCDs. For those not interested in 3D, the panel can switch back and forth to 2D.
Davis Lee, LG Display's Vice President and head of IT marketing department says: "LG Display has made a major breakthrough in the display industry race to deliver the depth and dynamic nature of 3D images. LG Display will continue with efforts to keep pace with the fast growing 3D market with leading 3D technology and products in order to create new value for customers."
According to new figures from TorrentFreak, uTorrent is no longer the most used torrent client in the world, being surpassed by the Chinese client "Thunder." The data was collected from 357 million unique peer IDs from all over the world.
About 30 percent of all tracker connections come from China, with the U.S. as a distant runner up at 8 percent.
Thunder/Xunlei has taken the lead from uTorrent and the stats were taken from OpenBitTorrent, PublicBitTorrent and Denis Stalker trackers. Vuze remains close in third place.
Nokia, the world's largest mobile phone maker, has announced it will be cutting its smartphone offering in half next year, despite losing market share to rivals RIM and Apple.
"We see ... really fierce competition certainly in the high end, but we also see it in the mid to low end of smartphones increasing," said Jo Harlow, chief of Nokia's smartphone unit, via Reuters. "We will defend our position, but we believe we also have tools to play offense as well as defense."
Part of that "defense" will be to push smartphone prices lower while at the same time increasing margins. Recent figures showed that Nokia had lost smartphone market share for the most recent quarter, from 41 percent to 35 percent.
"Reducing the number of smartphone models makes a lot of sense ... but Nokia has to be very careful in finding the right balance: its large product portfolio has been one of its strong competitive advantages in the past," concludes Bernstein analyst Pierre Ferragu.
The NPD Group has released its latest survey, dubbed Kids and Gaming 2009, and the results show that 82 percent of all American 2-17 year-olds considers themselves "gamers."
NPD says about 55.7 million kids currently game in the US, with the smallest group being two-to-five year olds at 9.7 million. The largest segment is nine-to-eleven year olds at 12.4 millions.
The next biggest group of gamers, twelve-to-fourteen year olds, spend the most time playing, at about 10.6 hours per week.
"The decline in teen usage of videogames is likely due to diversifying, maturing interests, which translates into stiffer competition for their mind and wallet share," added Anita Frazier, industry analyst at The NPD Group, via GI.biz. "In addition to competition from other areas of the entertainment space, more school work, activities, and parent-imposed time limits on gaming are factors which the data suggests may be contributing to this dip in older teen engagement."
NPD interviewed "over 5000 members of the company's consumer panel" for the survey.
Apple has confirmed that it will be purchasing music streaming service Lala although financial details have not been released as of yet.
Lala had been struggling and the CEO recently announced that prospects of turning a profit in the near future were slim to none. Lala has an 8 million deep song library and allows users to stream unlimited for 10 cents a track or purchase the track for $0.79.
The new purchase will allow for Apple to add full-length streaming toiTunes instead of the current 30-second clips and could even lead to a streaming radio service for the platform.
Lala and similar service iLike currently partner with Google to allow for quick discovery of music via the search engine.
Apple has $31.1 billion in cash and likely could purchase Lala for under $500 million.
According to Maxconsole, a French court has ruled against Nintendo this week in its case against the Divineo group, a seller of DS flash carts which allow for homebrew, and the playback of music, movies and pirated games.
The court said that Nintendo is "purposely locking out developers" and they should allow anyone to develop applications, especially those that increase the usability of the handheld like flash carts do.
Technically, the case says that flash carts are legal, at least in France and likely for the rest of the EU, and could also lead to Nintendo being forced to open the handheld up to more developers.
YouTube has posted today that they have begun testing a "feather" version, a lighter version of the site which will allow for the quickest loading and playback of the videos.
One of our priorities is ensuring that videos always load and playback quickly. However, a consequence of rolling out higher quality video, HD and, more recently, 1080p, is that playbacks might suffer if bandwidth or computer processing power is low. There are also a few countries where bandwidth is at a premium and videos can take several seconds to start playing.
Let's face it: in this age of instant gratification, even several seconds of loading time can feel like an eternity.
With all of this in mind, "Feather," an ultra light watch page, launches today in TestTube, our ideas incubator where we test out new products. As you can see by the below screenshot, the player still features prominently, but will default to standard quality. Related videos, comments and other familiar features from the current watch page are kept to a minimum. All of this results in a user experience that aims to keep things simple and the videos loading and playing quickly. If we see adoption go up along with improvements in latency, we'll look to roll this out of TestTube and make it more widely available.
A 22-year old woman was arrested in Chicago this week for recording three minutes of the newest "Twilight" film with a digital camera at the movie theater, and spent two days in jail.
Additionally, Samantha Tumpach now faces up to three years in jail after being charged with count of criminal use of a motion picture exhibition.
However, Tumpach says that she wasn't filming the movie and was instead taping parts of her sister's birthday party, which was in part at the movie theater. Although the movie is in the background in clips, there are longer clips of family and friends singing happy birthday to Tumpach's sister at the theater.
“It was a big thing over nothing,” Tumpach added of her arrest. “We were just messing around. Everyone is so surprised it got this far.”
After being nabbed by an employee, managers called the police which checked the camera and found about three minutes of footage.
“It was never my intention to record the movie,” concluded Tumpach.
In the past decade free video tools ranging from encoders to editors and authoring software have made a major mark on the digital video landscape. At one time those tools were primarily used by the hardcore power users willing to put in the hours necessary to grasp the technical details intimately.
More recently successors to tools like IfoEdit, DVD2SVCD, Gordian Knot and AutoGK have come a long way in terms of both useability and functionality. In fact MPEG-4 encoding seems to be dominated by these tools despite the availability of good consumer alternatives. We decided to take a look at some of the tools in use today and see how they stack up.
We chose five programs to review. Our criteria were that they should all encode to multiple formats, including MPEG-4 AVC/H.264. In fact all the tested programs encoded to both MPEG-4 AVC and MPEG-4 ASP (XviD). We also looked for programs which have been in development for a while. With one exception, every program was initially released at least three years ago and the last one is from an established encoder GUI developer. All are relatively mature products so they shouldn't have any big problems.
We ended up choosing SUPER, Handbrake, StaxRip, HDConvertToX and MeGUI.
According to GfK Chart Track data, the Nintendo Wii has sold 6 million units in the UK, the fastest console to hit the milestone.
The console launched in December 2006 and reached the 6 million plateau on November 28th, 2009.
"With its inclusive, family friendly and fun nature, we’re very pleased Wii seems to have captured the imagination of over six million families across the UK and reached such a landmark sales figure in such a short space of time,"added David Yarnton of Nintendo UK.
"We'll work even harder to ensure that the interest in Wii stretches over months and years, appealing to people of all ages and gaming experience."
Last month, e-reader maker Spring Designs sued Barnes & Nobles over breach of contract and infringement, claiming that off-the-record meetings led B&N to create their Nook device based off ideas for SD's Alex e-reader.
Today, a San Jose court dismissed SD's request for a preliminary injunction, meaning the Nook is free to be sold as planned. The judge said the suit did not show clearly that the Nook was damaging sales of the Alex, and that there is a "genuine dispute" as to whether B&N stole any of SD's ideas in the first place.
There is no date for the actual trial but pre-trial hearings are expected to be quick. It is notable that both devices have two screens (one black and white e-paper and one smaller color touchscreen) and both are based on the Android operating system.
According to CVG, Logitech is busy developing a UMD drive add-on for the UMD-less PSPgo handheld, a device that would plug directly into the PSPgo and allow playback of UMD movies and games.
The snag, however, is that "the only problem is that it'll make the PSP a little bulky", says the report.
Despite the sources, a Logitech UK response said "We're not aware of it, so it may be something the US office is working on."
The PSPgo is Sony's first entry into the physical media-less gaming market as the handheld can only play games that are downloaded to the internal memory or a memory stick.
Wal-Mart has announced it has started a new Nintendo Wii promotion, offering a $50 giftcard with any purchase of the $199 console.
The deal starts on Saturday and lasts until December 12th, or while supplies last.
Additionally, the retail chain will be offering up to 20 percent off "top 2009 videogames" including Halo:ODST and the new Tekken 6.
“Even in these economic times, we see how important it is for Santa, Mom, Dad, Grandma, Grandpa, husbands, wives, boyfriends and girlfriends to be able to give the perfect gift,” says Wal-Mart. “We also know that a lot of wish lists today—for all ages—include a range of videogames. Well, this weekend we’re planning to make a little ‘Wii History’ … so to speak.”
According to sources speaking to Gizmodo, a Google-branded smartphone "is a certainty," despite Google's continual denial of such a device.
The sources say over the next month "Google Phones (most probably in early, prototype form) will flood the Mountain View campus. They'll don large LCDs while running a new version of Android—either Flan or the version of Android beyond it—which our source spotted running on Google's handset as well as a laptop."
Gizmodo even offers that the current Android OS used by handsets such as the G1 and DROID is not "real" Android. We will see that "real" version soon enough, however.
According to a recent press release, Microsoft will be updating the Xbox LIVE Avatar Marketplace on December 3rd to add avatar pets allowing users to finally have that pony they have always wanted.
The price? 240 MS points.
The software giant says users can also get a “Chocobo” as a pet for a limited time, as long as they register via a Final Fantasy XIII page here: Xbox.com/FFXIII page
The pets available at launch are:
Large Dog
Pug Dog
Dog in Bag
Cat
Siamese Cat
Long Haired Cat
Goldfish
Guinea Pig
Pony
Monkey
Bird
Snake
Cable giant Comcast is one step closer to finalizing a deal with General Electric that will give the media company a 51 percent majority stake in NBC Universal, the struggling broadcast and movie unit.
The merger can move forward now that Vivendi has agreed to sell their 20 percent stake in NBCU to GE for $5.8 billion USD.
Of course, the Vivendi deal will need to be approved by FCC regulators but the sale should not meet much resistance.
If approved, Comcast will buy their stake for $30 billion USD. That deal will need regulator approval as well and could take up to 18 months to complete.
Universal has announced the launch of the new Blu-ray “Flipper” discs, releases that feature the Blu-ray on one side, and a DVD release on the flip side.
The first films to be made into “flipper” discs are the Bourne Trilogy, which will be released on January 19th, individually. Each of the films will be “flippers,” and will include the feature film and bonus features.
"Universal's flipper discs are the perfect way for consumers to future-proof their collections while still enjoying their favorite movies on all their existing DVD players,"adds Craig Kornblau, President of Universal Studios Home Entertainment."The flipper disc offers an easy way for viewers to convert to Blu-ray now or at any time in the future, confident in the fact they will be able to experience their home entertainment purchases in the highest quality picture and sound when they do."
In the press release, Universal uses terms such as “industry-changing,” but I do recall purchasing HD DVD “flippers” in 2007, including Universal films. Why did it take so long for Blu?
Yesterday, it was reported that Mac clone maker Psystar had settled with Apple for $2.675 million USD, and today it appears that the clones have been officially taken down from the computer maker’s website.
The three clones, the OpenDuo, Open(Q) and Open(7), each of which came with the Mac OSX installed, are now listed as “out of stock.” As part of the settlement, Psystar paid damages for copyright infringement, violation of the DMCA and breach of contract. Apple dropped the rest of the charges.
Notably, Psystar is still selling its Rebel EFI product, a $50 item which allows for third-party installation of Mac OS X on computers not sold by Apple. Psystar has sued Apple in a separate court in an effort to have the product deemed legal.
The software allows for Intel-powered PCs to install 10.6 Snow Leopard, bringing about the term “Hackintosh,” where the operating system is installed on netbooks. Apple has claimed the software is the same as "trafficking in circumvention devices" and is hurting the company.
According to new reports, Google is negotiating with the media industry to stream individual TV episodes via YouTube, for a fee.
YouTube currently has TV shows available, for free, with advertisements, but it appears as if Google wants to expand the business model into flat-rate video playback with no commercials. The episodes will cost $1.99 USD each and will be available the day after they broadcast.
The sources say negotiations are still in preliminary stages but that both sides "seem optimistic," especially given YouTube's gigantic market share in the streaming video market.
Google may face a problem with the new model, however. Viewers will only get to stream the show, and not download it to their computers to keep forever. The pricing remains exactly the same though. The media execs cite studies that show that most people that download TV episodes only watch them once, but clearly there are people who want to keep it to watch it over and over. I mean, why else would they pay for it?
Nokia has filed lawsuits this week against major CRT and LCD makers, alleging price fixing.
The companies, or their subsidiaries, named in the suits are AU Optronics, Hitachi, LG Electronics, Philips Electronics, Samsung Electronics, Seiko Epson, Sharp andToshiba.
"The investigations are into alleged cartel activities, effectively price fixing, in the supply of both CRTs (cathode ray tubes) and LCDs (liquid crystal display) — components that we have bought in significant volumes over a number of years. Had we not been overcharged for them our profitability would have been higher," says Nokia spokesman Mark Durrant.
According to an official Justification Review Document, the U.S. Department of Defense has ordered 2200 PlayStation 3 consoles in an effort to expand their supercomputer.
The current supercomputer has 336 PS3s arrayed in a cluster, all running a Linux operating system. The consoles have Cell microprocessors, and offer the best value for devices that can be used in the supercomputer.
The systems purchased are 160GB "fat" PS3s because they can run alternate operating systems, unlike the slim PS3s which cannot.
BoingBoing adds: "In the document, it is pointed out that a 1U server with two 3.2GHz cell processors can cost $8,000, while two Sony PS3s cost about $600. This is justified even though the PS3-spec chips deliver 150GFLOPS of performance compared to 200GFLOPS of a standard 3.2GHz IBM Cell microprocessor."
According to Thomas Weisel analyst Doug Reid, Apple may choose to add the iPhone to the T-Mobile lineup of smartphones starting next year, leaving Verizon out to dry for their recent foray into anti-iPhone ads, mainly promoting the Motorola DROID.
Reid says Verizon will likely not get the smartphone until 2011 when 4G infrastructure is more widely available.
T-Mobile uses GSM and EDGE data making the move pretty straightforward if necessary however T-Mobile's 3G operates on a different band than that of AT&T, and needs T-Mobile network support, which could prove costly for Apple to implement.
Additionally, T-Mobile is much smaller than Verizon or AT&T, and has 33.4 million customers which wouldn't leave much growth for Apple. Both AT&T and Verizon have over 70 million customers.
Just one day after announcing that it was delaying retail shipments one week for its Nook e-reader, Barnes & Noble has announced that anyone who ordered online after November 20th would not be receiving their devices until January 11th, a week later than currently promised.
For those hoping to get the device in-store, B&N says there will be a limited amount available beginning December 7th.
The Nook is the first e-reader that is expected to significantly compete with market leader Amazon's Kindle, and the Nook has superior hardware including Wi-Fi, a microSD slot for added memory and a second touch screen, in color, which is used for control and navigation. The Kindle has none of those features, but does have superior battery life.
It appears the start of the holiday season was good to console makers Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft, with each reporting strong sales for the week of Thanksgiving.
Nintendo sold 500,000 Wii units for the week and 1 million DS/DSi handhelds, a new record surpassing that of Game Boy Advance sales during Thanksgiving week 2002.
"Holiday shoppers are finding value in our products' prices, and through a gameplay experience that's unique to Nintendo," added Cammie Dunaway, executive VP of sales and marketing.
Sony, continuing strong momentum since the launch of the slim PS3 in September, sold 440,000 PS3 units for the week.
"The 2009 holiday season got off to an amazing start for PlayStation, with all key retailers showing a significant increase for PS3, PSP and key holiday titles over Black Friday and the holiday weekend," added Patrick Seybold of Sony Computer Entertainment America.
Sony Computer Entertainment Euroep has announced it will be offering another free game to PSPgo handheld owners, the second time they have done so.
Any PSPgo owner with a PlayStation Network account can sign in and choose between Gran Turismo, Assassin's Creed: Bloodlines or MotorStorm: Arctic Edge. German users can choose LittleBigPlanet instead of AC: B.
Early adopters were given Gran Turismo for free when the console launched in October, and the new offer is valid until January 10th.
The move comes amidst the news of giant retailer HMV slashing the price by GBP 75 to GBP 149.99 in the UK. The handheld started with an MSRP of GBP 224.99 but after one week HMV had already slashed the price to GBP 200 due to lack of demand.
The Business Software Alliance (BSA) has announced that they have now doubled the reward for workers who whistleblow on their bosses for using pirated software.
The reward is now £20,000.
The move comes amidst new research that showed that about 70 percent of all workers in London would turn on their bosses for "dodgy business practices" while 20 percent of those said they would be even more willing to do so during the holiday season so they could have more spending money for their families. That number increased to 40 percent if the workers felt their job was in jeopardy in the near future.
“Many cash-strapped employees are willing to supplement their earnings in the run up to Christmas by reporting illegal business practices, and the affects of the recession are making them even more likely to expose corporate wrongdoings,” added Alyna Cope, BSA UK Committee spokesperson, via CBR “London businesses should take note and make every effort to ensure that their software licensing is up-to-date.”
In another "where did you pull these figures from" type note, Cope says that London businesses alone use £179 million worth of pirated software each year and that a "10% drop in piracy rates would generate over 13,000 new jobs, £1.08bn in tax revenues and contribute £4.46bn to the UK’s economy."
Wow, I can't believe that the Noughties are about to end in couple of hours time. It is quite mind-boggling to think that our site, AfterDawn, has existed through this whole decade - and then some (as our regulars remember, we celebrated our site's 10th anniversary in June). I could write once again, my "traditional" New Year's summary of the past year's events, but I wont do that this time. Instead, just want to chitchat to you about this past decade.
HBO has added their own iPhone app to the App Store this week, offering an interactive program guide and previews and clips of upcoming shows.
Time Warner Cable and Fox are unlikely to reach a deal, says News Corp. COO Chase Carey, meaning tens of millions of Time Warner subscribers will not receive Fox programming starting January 1st, missing such draws as the Sugar Bowl and popular shows such as 
In addition to the new UI, the new Windows version of Boxee adds DirectX Video Acceleration (DXVA), allowing you to take advantage of newer graphics cards' video decoding capabilities.
