News written by Andre Yoskowitz (October, 2007)

The world's largest retailer, Wal-Mart, has begun selling Toshiba's second gen HD-A2 HD DVD player for $198 USD, setting a new low for stand-alone HD players.

The price cut has been talked about for weeks but it wasnt until the middle of the week that the new low price hit Wal-Mart locations around the US.

Wal-Mart spokesperson Melissa O'Brien confirmed the price cut and also added that "there are no limited quantities for stores or purchases."

The player was originally released earlier this year with a $500 USD price tag but it has been slowly lowering in price with Amazon selling it for $230 on a regular basis.

Its good to see the prices falling for HD players, and hope to see the trend continue at such a rapid pace.

Source:
HD Digest

According to public statements, the flash memory leader SanDisk has filed patent infringement suits against 25 different companies in Federal Court as well as in the US International Trade Commission.

Although it is not clear which of the patents have been allegedly infringed upon, SanDisk said the protection of their patents and the suits were made "to be fair to third parties who legitimately license from them."

According to Dailytech, the suits are against the following companies, some of which are very well known in the flash memory market; ACP-EP Memory, A-Data, Apacer, Behavior Computer (Emprex,) Buffalo, Chipsbank, Corsair Memory, Dane-Elec, EDGE, Imation/Memorex, Interactive Media (Kanguru,) Kaser, Kingston, LG, Phison, PNY, PQI, Silicon Motion, Skymedi, Transcend, TSR (T.One,) USBest, Verbatim, Welldone, and Zotek/Zodata (Huke).

SanDisk is looking for monetary damages as well as a permanent injunction in the federal cases. Being as the suits are against all of the company's competitors, a successful decision in favor of SanDisk could help give the company a monopoly in the flash memory market.

The PlayStation 3's latest firmware, version 1.94, will finally add support for "rumbling force feedback controllers", a feature that many gamers have wanted since the console's introduction last year.

Although the force feedback DualShock 3 controllers wont hit North America until at least spring 2008, apparently the recently released "Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction" is the first game capable of sending a vibrating signal.

Other games set for release soon, such as Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune and Assassin’s Creed, will ship with the rumble code built in and current hit games such as "Resistance: Fall of Man" and "MotorStorm" will eventually see downloadable patches that will enable force feedback.

If you really want to try the new features out, you may want to import a Japanese DS3 controller which will hit the market next month.

Source:
Dailytech

Home Media Magazine is reporting that for the week ending October 21st, Blu-ray squeaked out a victory in sales, a fact that would dispute Paramount's sales numbers for "Transformers."

The report says Blu-ray won the week by the thinnest of margins, 51% to 49%, but many expected HD DVD to dominate the week thanks to the large sales numbers reported by Paramount. The studio reported 190,000 units sold for the week but HMM says the number is closer to 120,000.

Paramount has stayed mum on the subject but regardless, HD DVD had its best showing against Blu-ray in over 9 months, despite the fact that Disney began offering a "buy one get one free" offer at select retailers including Best Buy.

Source:
HD Digest

Sony is celebrating the 7th anniversary of the PlayStation 2 by announcing that 120 million consoles have been sold worldwide making it by far the most popular gaming system ever released.

The company also said it had no plans to stop development for the PS2 until 2010 despite claims that the console was cannibalizing PlayStation 3 sales.

160 new games are expected for the system though March 2008 including "Guitar Hero 3", "Manhunt 2" and "Madden NFL 08" all of which should be huge hits. Additionally, Sony says it will be releasing a Ceramic White PS2 model bundled with "Singstar Pop" and two microphones for $149.99 USD.

"We look forward to the platform's continued growth and expect to sell approximately 12 million units worldwide by the end of March, leading us to anticipate that PlayStation 2's life cycle will exceed that of the original PlayStation," SCEA president and CEO Jack Tretton said in the announcement.

See you in 2010 PlayStation 2.

Source:
BetaNews

According to a new market survey, sales of traditional CRT monitors in China are plummeting and LCD sales are up 93 percent total while LCD PC monitor sales rose 37.6 percent from the comparable time frame in 2006.

In total, over 8 million monitors were sold during Q3 2007.

The survey brought up more interesting facts about the sales surge however. Apparently, the surge is in part thanks to the ongoing crackdown of internet use by the Chinese government. The government has been trying to control the population's internet use as well as prevent all access to websites the government considers "undesirable."

Part of the crackdown included the government stopping the issuing of licenses for new internet cafes, where currently over 70 percent of Chinese citizens go to access the internet. After the announcement was made, thousands of new internet cafes opened with most purchasing LCD monitors. Some of the largest internet cafes have over 400 PCs so the sales surge for LCDs seems reasonable when taking that into account.

Along with the general increase, consumers seem to be buying larger and larger monitors. "Due to the shortage of smaller PC monitor LCD panels, prices of 15 inch and 17 inch LCD monitors rose slightly. Conversely, prices of wide-screen and larger size panels continued to fall. As the price difference between the 17 inch and 19 inch sizes narrows, more consumers tended to purchase the 19 inch LCD monitors," said the report.

Yesterday, Samsung confirmed that it has indeed cancelled its BD-P2400 Blu-ray player and delayed the release of its much-hyped BD-UP5000 dual-format player until late December from its original expected release date in late October.

The BD-P2400 was expected to hit retail shelves with a $649 USD price tag but the player was essentially the same as its cheaper brother the BD-P1400, which sells for $550 USD but lacks HQV video processing.

Although no reasons were specifically given, it may be that Samsung wants to ensure that their player is Profile 1.1-compliant, which becomes mandatory next week.

Source:
BetaNews

Microsoft’s Indian branch has announced that Xbox Live will finally be heading to India starting November 5th and offering exclusive local content.

Users will have the option to download already-released UTV Bollywood films as well as trailers for upcoming movies. Microsoft also said there will be Silver and Gold memberships available as there are elsewhere in the world.

The company went on to say there would be a “rent a game” service available in which XBL users can rent the latest Xbox 360 titles for a fixed number of days before the games become unplayable.

"We have just celebrated the first anniversary of Xbox 360 in the country this year and it is with a celebratory spirit that we offer our Indian consumers even more entertainment options on Xbox 360," said Robbie Bach, global president of Microsoft's E&D Division.

"This is not only a firm reiteration of our commitment to the Indian market, but also an exciting foray into connecting our Indian consumers to a world of 7 million Xbox LIVE members around the world."

Source:
GI.biz

Michael Bay, the director of the blockbuster Transformers, has once again flipped his views on the competing HD formats, commenting to USA Today that he believes Blu-ray is in fact the superior format.

Although Transformers has broken all HD DVD sales records in just over a week, Bay had this to say about Paramount’s decision to go HD DVD exclusive, , “It's short-sighted and it has delayed consumers' moving to HD (home video). As a director, my critical eye is that Blu-ray is where my money is. Consumers are smart, and they are going to wait it out.”

Bay had originally made such comments, including this quote he made immediately after Paramount’s decision. “I want people to see my movies in the best formats possible. For them to deny people who have Blu-ray sucks! They were progressive by having two formats. No Transformers 2 for me.” A few days after his rant however, he changed his mind and instead praised the pricing of HD DVD’s hardware and said that he would come back for Transformers 2.

No matter what Bay thinks, and whether he’s back for the second installment of the blockbuster film or not, the movie will live on in HD DVD and the format war will continue on with no end in sight.

The legal download video service Vongo announced today that it had updates its software to version 2.0, adding more support for Windows Media Center Extenders.

According to the company statement, the added support was the number one request voiced by its "passionate customer base." The previous software only supported two Windows Media Center 2 devices: the Toshiba Gigabeat S and V series.

The new software update adds support for the Archos 405 and 605WiFi as well the Creative ZEN Vision: M and W.

The company also said it would be adding more option in wireless connectivity including support for streaming video from a Vista or XP-based PC to the TV.

Vongo also said the "Personalized Recommendation Engine" was improved making it easier to find user-appropriate content.

Source:
BetaNews

With the arrival of software update 9.2, owners of TiVo Series3 and HD units will finally begin to see support for their DVR's TiVoToGo and Multi-Room Viewing. Until recently, those capabilities had been disabled due to security concerns about sharing copy-protected HD content.

Multi-Room Viewing allows "TiVo boxes to share recorded content back and forth" while TiVoToGo enables "subscribers to transfer shows from the DVR to the PC using the TiVo Desktop software or Roxio on the Mac."

HD content that is not marked with a copyright flag can now be copied using TiVoToGo although many don't see the point.

To have the capabilities enabled, TiVo had to get permission from CableLabs which licenses the CableCARD technology used by the high-definition TiVos. CableLabs had not approved TiVo's DRM technology for HD content until recently.

Source:
BetaNews

In early September SanDisk announced its View media player in two models, 8GB and 16GB and aggressively priced at $149.99 USD and $199.99 USD, a nice price cut from comparable iPod products.

Although the players have not yet hit the market, it seems SanDisk has added another model to its View line. On the official Sansa Store, the product page for the view shows a reference to a 32GB model. The price for the new model? $330 USD, a full $70 less than the 16GB iPod Touch.

No word on when the latest model will be released but the product page also says the smaller models will be released on November 6th at the prices stated before.

Source:
Dailytech

Earlier this year, we reported that the Manchester Cathedral was upset at Sony because a replica of the holy building was used without permission in the hit game Resistance: Fall of Man.

Although Sony has apologized, they refuse to admit any wrong doing, and it seems that it doesn't matter anymore.

"I think some important lessons have been learnt," said the Dean of Manchester, speaking to the BBC. "So we forgive Sony for what they have done, even though they still believe they have done no wrong."

"In an industry that is breaking new frontiers, it is important that long held traditions of film and television are maintained. These traditions include having courtesy, respecting the dignity of your subject, and admitting when mistakes have been made," he added.

"In so many ways Sony have failed to live up to these standards by disrespecting people of faith and the victims of gun crime in Manchester," he finally noted.

In what should not be a surprise to anyone, the Dean also added that visits to the Cathedral had substantially increased since the controversy.

Source:
Gi.biz

Earlier this week, the Australian tech site Smarthouse claimed that Toshiba and Microsoft were working on a new Xbox 360 that has a built-in HD DVD drive.

Microsoft has denied rumors of the sort in the past stating that DVD media is still "adequate for this generation of games" as well as the cost factor involved in putting an HD DVD drive in every console. They have not offered any word on the recent report, but Toshiba has denied any such development.

“It’s got nothing to do with us,” said a Toshiba representative. “But we know Microsoft doesn’t want to include the HD DVD drive so as not to limit the user’s experience.”

With the falling prices of HD DVD hardware and the inclusion of HDMI with all new Xbox 360s, it is conceivable that a new console with an internal HD DVD player could be in the works.

Should be interesting to see where it leads.

Source:
Dailytech

OiNK, the extremely popular private torrent tracker has been shut down and its owner’s home raided by both UK and Dutch police.

According to investigators, OiNK was the source of pre-release music which then spread to P2P networks as well as other torrent sites and blogs.

The tracker however, was private and membership required an invitation so it is safe to say the operators of the site felt secure from any legal fallout that recently happened to other public trackers and P2P sites.

One man, a 24-year-old resident of England, was arrested and the datacenter where OiNK's servers were located was raided in Amsterdam.

"OiNK was central to the illegal distribution of pre-release music online. This was not a case of friends sharing music for pleasure. This was a worldwide network that got hold of music they did not own the rights to and posted it online," said the IFPI in a statement.

According to the IFPI and British Phonographic Industry (BPI), the raids were a result of a two-year investigation and that the operators of OiNK were making substantial money from the site.

More news on any fallout this latest hit to the torrent community has.

Although it has certainly been a poorly kept secret, Microsoft has finally officially announced the Xbox 360 Arcade bundle which will include a wireless controller, HDMI output and a 256MB memory card. The memory card is a necessity because the Arcade does not have an internal HDD.

Also included with the console are five games: Boom Boom Rocket, Feeding Frenzy, Luxor 2, Pac-Man Championship Edition and Uno.

"As families gather together this holiday, it’s the perfect time to launch a new low-priced, high-value Xbox 360 that plays games, TV shows and music for everyone to enjoy," said Microsoft's Jeff Bell. "In addition to offering an incredible all-in-one package for families to get right into the fun, the Xbox 360 Arcade system features the industry-leading Family Settings, which allow parents to control what their kids are watching and playing -- and we know how important that control is to families around the world."

The new bundle will retail for $279.99 USD, the same price as the Core version of the system.

Source:
Dailytech

Speaking during their quarterly earnings conference call yesterday, Apple COO Timothy Cook stated that the company estimates that 250,000 iPhones were purchased by customers who intended to unlock them.

Cook also noted that most of the sales occurred after the phone dropped price recently.

Although he did not elaborate on where the numbers were taken from, they were most likely related to the amount of phones sold as compared to the amount of phones that have been activated on AT&T's network.

To date, 1.4 million iPhones have been sold in total, which would mean that 17% have been unlocked so far, which is a huge number, especially if you are AT&T's bottom line.

Apple also warned that future firmware updates would make unlocked iPhone inoperable, just as version 1.1.1 did temporarily.

Source:
BetaNews

Nintendo, in conjunction with the Hong Kong High Court, have announced that they have taken out a global piracy outfit by seizing over 10,000 illegal devices that are used to violate DS and Wii copyright and trademarks.

The game coying devices and mod chips were seized during a raid of Supreme Factory Limited. The French company Divineo SARL was also named in legal action after the raid.

"Piracy affects the entire video game industry, from large companies to independent developers," commented Jodi Daugherty, Nintendo of America's senior director for anti-piracy.

"It can destroy years of hard work by a team of very talented software developers, who strive to create games consumers enjoy playing. Copying the developers' work and spreading the game files globally is blatant stealing."

The Court has frozen the company's assets as well as put an injunction on distribution of such products.

Source:
GI.biz

Sony has said they will be installing 54 digital projectors into AMC movie theaters that have about 4x the resolution of home theater projectors.

The system, the CineAlta SXRD 4K digital cinema, will be placed in "12 screens in Dallas, 14 screens in Indianapolis, 16 screens in Riverside, and 12 screens in San Diego."

The systems involved will include the Sony SRX-R210 10,000 lumen model as well as the SRX-R220 18,000 lumen projector. The company says the systems were created specifically for use in movie theaters and that they would be paired with Sony LMT-100 Media Block Servers.

The projectors are capable of 8.8 MP resolutions which is equal to 4096 x 2160 pixels. That is four times the resolution of common HD home theater systems.

“This inaugural effort with AMC Entertainment is the latest example of the exhibition and motion picture industries’ continued adoption of 4K digital cinema technology,” said John Scarcella, president of Sony Electronics’ Broadcast and Business Solutions Company.

Its good to see movie theaters moving more towards digital projections and I hope to see the trend continue into the future.

Source:
Dailytech

At the FPD International 2007 show in Japan this week, Samsung has introduced a new 40-inch diagonal Full HD LCD TV panel that is an extremely thin, measuring in at 10mm thick.

The new thin-film-transistor (TFT) LCD is the thinnest profile ever for a full-size HDTV. 10mm is the typical thickness of 20-inch LCD computer monitors, which are generally significantly thinner than regular HDTV sets.

According to Dailytech, "The screen is backlit using LEDs and can reproduce 92% of the NTSC standard for color saturation. Power consumption is reported to be 90 watts or less."

Source:
Dailytech

Once again rumors of an Xbox 360 with an internal HD DVD hard drive have surfaced, this time courtesy of a "senior Toshiba executive" in Australia.

According to Australian tech site Smarthouse, the exec is quoted as saying "An Xbox with a built in HD DVD drive is critical. (Microsoft) and we are working on it. It also has to be more than a gaming machine. Microsoft recognise(s) this. A version of the device may also be sold under the Toshiba brand name." Smarthouse also says that this new "Entertainment Xbox" is planned for release at the 2008 CES show in Las Vegas.

Of course Microsoft is not commenting but we will be sure to update you if any more evidence surfaces for this interesting new proposition.

Source:
HD Digest

Paramount Pictures has announced that its hit film Transformers has become the fastest selling HD movie ever, including the top selling launch day in HD history.

On its release date, October 16th, the movie sold 100,000 copies on HD DVD to set the record, and over its first week, over 190,000 copies were sold. As boasted by Paramount, Transformers is “the fastest and best-selling week one release on either high definitionformat as well as the best selling HD DVD ever.”

“The performance of the Transformers DVD and HD DVD has demonstrated the phenomenal success of this global franchise,” said Kelley Avery, president, Worldwide Home Entertainment, Paramount Pictures. “We’re happy to be kicking off the fourth quarter with a title that clearly shows home entertainment releases are still an event that drives consumers into stores — which is a win for both content providers and retailers.”

In other news pertaining to the movie, standard definition sales of the film hit 8.3 million, dwarfing the HD sales as well as setting a 2007 record for sales.

Source:
Dailytech

Beginning on November 1st, Microsoft will be cutting the price of its Xbox 360 Premium consoles in Japan from 39,795 yen ($348 USD) to 34,800 yen ($304 USD).

The Core versions will drop to 27,800 yen ($243 USD) which Microsoft hopes will put pressure on the PlayStation 3 and Wii which continue to sell better than the 360 in Japan.

The Wii however, is still cheaper in the country, selling for 25,000 yen ($219 USD).

Since its launch, the 360 has had trouble gaining a foothold in the Japanese market and recently Microsoft signed on big name Japanese developers to create games specifically for its Asian audience.

Source:
BetaNews

According to data provided by Strategy Analytics, the Apple iPhone was the fourth highest selling phone in the US during the third quarter, selling over 1.1 million during the quarter.

The data also showed that the phone was accounting for almost 13 percent of provider AT&T's overall sales, making it the best selling device for the carrier.

"Although the iPhone hasn't had an expansionary impact in the market, the iPhone has quickly assumed a leading market share position and raised the ante for smart devices," SA BuyerTrax chief Barry Gilbert said in a statement.

The analysts also believe in a quarter or two the phone could become the top US seller surpassing the Moto RAZR which has been on top for years.

According to the data, iPhone buyers had a total household income of more than $100,000 and most buyers were between 20 and 30 although almost 25 percent were over 50.

"[This] demonstrates that the device attracts buyers across a broad age spectrum," wireless analysis chief David Kerr said.

Kerr then added that most buyers were satisfied with the phone and its features but less satisfied with customer support, battery life and reliability.

TV-links.co.uk, the UK's most used piracy film website has been closed down and its owner arrested after a raid by the anti-piracy group, Federation Against Copyright Theft (Fact).

The closure was a first for major UK-based pirate sites and the owner, a 26-year-old man from Cheltenham, was arrested for charges relating to facilitating copyright infringement over the internet.

FACT claims that the site was providing links to pirated films as well as American TV shows.

"Sites such as TV Links contribute to and profit from copyright infringement by identifying, posting, organising, and indexing links to infringing content found on the internet that users can then view on demand by visiting these illegal sites," said a spokesman for FACT.

Kieron Sharp, director general of FACT said the site was just the first of what they hope will be a successful campaign to crackdown on piracy over the internet.

"The theft and distribution of films harms the livelihoods of those working in the UK film industry and in ancillary industries, as well as damaging the economy," he said.

The British Video Association (BVA) has stated that piracy caused an estimated £459 million in losses to the video, film and TV industries last year.

In an update to our article here, where it was reported that The Pirate Bay had somehow gotten the rights to the domain name IFPI.com, it seems the IFPI will now be preparing a lawsuit to get the domain back.

According to an IFPI spokesperson, "IFPI's website www.ifpi.org continues to operate as normal. The web site www.ifpi.com was acquired by a cyber-squatter who appears to have passed it on to an associate of The Pirate Bay," she said. "IFPI has already taken legal action to get the domain returned. We have filed a complaint at the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) under the dispute resolution procedure. This procedure is designed for classic cyber-squatting cases such as this which involve the use of a URL in bad faith."

The WIPO has indeed made new legislature pertaining to "cybersquatting" with rules that include that the domain cannot be used to "cause confusion with the complainant's mark" or be used to profit off the complainant's good name.

One of the admin team at TBP feels they have a strong chance of winning however.

"We have not done anything illegal or even immoral," he said. "I can't see why we shouldn't be able to keep the domain name. We're not going to bash IFPI on it, we're going to host our own IFPI on it," he added.

Thanks to the impact of the blockbuster Halo 3, the Xbox 360 was the top seller for September, barely beating out the Nintendo Wii.

NPD said that Microsoft sold almost 530,000 consoles for the month, up an astonishing 91 percent from August. Halo, for its part, sold 3.3 million copies for the month.

"True to its name, the game rubbed off on hardware sales too--the Xbox 360 realized its best month ever in unit hardware sales outside last holiday season," NPD analyst Anita Frazier said in a statement.

The Wii however, also showed surprising results. Sales rose 24 percent from August for a total of 500,000 sold. The number is also the new all-time high for US Wii sales in a month.

The PlayStation 3 continued to lag behind, falling 10 percent from August to hit only 119,000 units sold. Sony reps cited new price cuts and said the sales would rebound for the holiday season.

Source:
BetaNews

Seeing the massive success of iTunes, which recently sold its 3 billionth song, Universal Music has decided to offer their digital singles on USB flash drives in an effort to replace CD singles and gain more sales volume. Analysts have also said that retail margins are much higher on digital downloads than on physical copies of music.

The first tracks will be released at the end of this month and retail in the UK for about $10 USD. In comparison, a CD single of the same track will cost $6 USD.

Universal UK’s commercial director Brian Rose said “This is aimed at the younger, 12 to 24 year olds, who no longer believe that the CD is as cool as it used to be.”

Although the idea may work for the record label, there is no way music fans in that age group will purchase a single for 10x the price of the same track on iTunes.

Source:
Dailytech

The RIAA has continued its ongoing efforts to curb piracy on college campuses by sending 411 new "pre-litigation" letters with the threat of a lawsuit to 19 seperate schools.

The letters were sent to each of the following schools; Drexel, Indiana, Northern Illinois, Occidental College, SUNY Morrisville, Texas Christian University, Tufts, the University of Alabama, UC Berkeley, University of Delaware, University of Georgia, University of Iowa, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, University of Nebraska at Lincoln, University of New Hampshire, University of New Mexico, University of South Florida, USC, and Vanderbilt.

Anyone who receives the letters have the option to either settle out of court with a record industry representative or face a lawsuit in federal court.

"While it's undoubtedly our last preference to bring legal action against students, music theft remains particularly acute on college campuses," general counsel Steven Marks said.

The RIAA also cites an NPD study conducted last year that claims that over 1.3 billion unauthorized songs were downloaded on college campuses and that over 50 percent of all students continue to illegally download music.

Thomson has announced that they will be selling their AV operations outside of Europe to the Audiovox corporation and that sale is expected to be completed by the New Year.

The company also said that it will be closing its European AV and accessory activities.

Thomson sold a variety of products from MP3 to DVD players, most notably under the brand name RCA. The sale will also transfer the rights to the RCA brand "within the AV products field." Audiovox already owns the rights to use the RCA name for consumer electronics accessories.

Source:
Dailytech

Film executives are blaming one of the poorest recent Hollywood Box Office weekend performances on the impact of the hit Xbox 360 game Halo 3.

The movie industry had expected the latest Ben Stiller comedy "The Heartbreak Kid" to rake in $25 million USD over its opening weekend but the movie fell far short and made only $14 million USD.

The execs, citing that the target audience for Ben Stiller comedies is young adults, predominantly male, the same as the target audience for Halo, proves that the game had some impact on the poor ticket sales.

Although it is possible that $10 million dollars worth of sales stayed at home to play Halo 3 all weekend, it is more likely that the less than warm critical reviews were to blame. Not to mention the movie had an "R" rating, while Halo had a "M" rating, meaning younger viewers could not see the movie but could play the game.

The October 5th weekend was the movie industry's worst October week since 1999, with only $80 million in ticket sales but its unbelievable that industry execs would blame Halo for the poor ticket sales.


Source:
Dailytech

On Monday, the HD DVD camp finally extended its "five free" titles promotion to Canada, after months of it being available only in the US.

The deal, which gives any purchaser of an HD DVD player the option to mail in for five free movies has been ongoing in the States for months on and off. The Blu-ray camp has had a similar promotion going in the US and Canada for some time now giving them an edge in the Canadian market.

Any buyer of a Toshiba HD DVD player, Xbox 360 HD DVD add-on (which is also made by Toshiba), or a Toshiba laptop with an HD DVD drive is entitled to the Canadian deal however, making it different than the US promotion.

The movies included are Aeon Flux, Babel, Freedom Writers, The Hulk, Pitch Black, The Thing, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, TMNT, Full Metal Jacket, Firewall, The Frighteners, U2: Rattle and Hum, Black Rain, Darkman and Syriana.

The only catch for the deal is the consumer is forced to pay a $10 shipping and handling fee for the free movies that can be paid via check or money order.

Source:
Dailytech

Although they have not made an official announcement yet, Apple has quietly dropped the price of their DRM-free iTunes Plus tracks from $1.29 USD to 99 cents.

The new price is equal to that of standard iTunes DRM crippled tracks.

It seems this latest move is in response to Amazon's DRM-free music store launch in which the tracks are sold for 89 to 99 cents a piece.

The official announcement is expected tomorrow in which Apple is expected to add to their DRM-free offering with music from independent labels while announcing the price drop.

Source:
BetaNews

Starting yesterday, Blu-ray, Best Buy, and Circuit City began a new "buy one, get one free" promotion on Disney Blu-ray titles.

The same deal is available online through Amazon. There is no set list for the retailers, but all include user favorites 'Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest,' 'Apolocalypto' and 'The Prestige.'

The promotion is set to last until the end of the week or until supplies run out, whichever happens first.

Seems like a good deal for those looking for early holiday gifts.

Source:
HD Digest

The former Kinks singer Ray Davies has agreed to a deal that would give his latest album, the "Working Man's Cafe", free with the Sunday Times newspapers.

The deal is very similar to the one Prince did last month when he gave his CD away free with The Mail on Sunday.

Davies said he was "truly excited that 1.5 million copies will be distributed to people who'll hear it organically... the way it was intended".

The deal calls for the album to come free with the paper on October 21st and a track from the album, "Vietnam Cowboys", will be available as a free MP3 download from the newspaper's website.

"It's an exciting opportunity I couldn't resist," Davies said. "Personally, it's about reaching as many people as possible."

This peice of news follows the decisions by Radiohead, Oasis, Jamiroqui, the Charlatans and Madonna to release music in new ways, usually cutting the record industry out.

Source:
BBCNews

DirecTV announced on Monday that it would be expanding its channel lineup to include 72 HD channels for those customers that have paid for the premium lineup.

The added channels are part of an effort to offer 100 HD channels by the end of 2007. At 72, DirecTV's lineup of HD channels far exceeds any other provider, cable or satellite.

The company's standard HD package costs an extra $9.99 USD a month and includes all HD channels associated with your particular DirecTV package. For an extra $5 USD however you can get access to all the HD channels as well as all local channels that are available in HD.

Source:
BetaNews

According to a Verdict Research report entitled "UK Music and Video Retailers 2007", legal digital downloads of both video and music rose 81 percent in the UK to 112 million pounds.

The report also predicted the market would grow to 163 million pounds by the end of the year and 600 million pounds by 2012. 600 million pounds would equate to 13.5 percent of the total music and video market.

"The percentage figures may fall some years, but the cash growth through the tills is big," said Mick Gladding, lead analyst at Verdict.

"It is a very exciting market, probably the most important influence in video and market retailing because it provides a very attractive method for customers.

"It is highly convenient to shop from home and is a low-cost way of delivering music to the customer from the retailers' point of view."

With new players like Amazon and Nokia joining the market, and the ever increasing DRM-free content, Verdict Research sees an added boost to the market coming, especially as the UK and the world move to be completely digital.

Source:
Yahoo

It seems that LG's upcoming dual format HD player, the BH200, will be the first player to hit the market with secondary BD-Java support.

The BDA has mandated that all Blu-ray players that launch on or after October 31st will need to include many features, including full BD-Java support, to be considered Profile 1.1 compliant which no current players are.

LG however, will be the first. Speaking of the BH200, the company says the player will include "full profile specifications" to be 1.1 compliant.

The company has been criticized in the past for its lack of support of HDi, the technology that powers HD DVD's interactive features, but it seems to be turning it around for its second gen player.

Source:
HD Digest

Despite the fact that both Microsoft and Sony have lowered the price of their next-gen consoles in preparation for the holidays, Nintendo has said that demand is so high that it will not drop the price of its Wii console.

"We'll stay at $249 for the foreseeable future," says Nintendo senior vice president of marketing George Harrison.

In recent months, Microsoft has dropped the price of the Xbox 360 by $50 USD while Sony has introduced a new cheaper, 40GB model in Europe and Japan. There have also been rumors floating around that Sony will drop the price of its 80GB model once the 60GB model completely sells out.

Source:
BetaNews

IFPI.com, the domain previously owned by the infamous anti-piracy outfit, The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) has now somehow found its way into the hands of The Pirate Bay, the infamous torrent tracker.

Making the situation even more ironic, The Pirate Bay admin team says it will now use the domain to host the newly founded International Federation of Pirate Interests.

The main domain of the IFPI, ifpi.org, is still working but anyone trying to access ifpi.com are redirected to a Pirate Bay server with a splash screen showing "International Federation of Pirate Interests."

Brokep, one of the admins of the Pirate Bay had this to say, "International Federation of Pirate Interests (IFPI) is the new international federation we're starting in order to get the word of piracy spread."

When asked how they got the domain, Brokep responded, "It's not a hack, someone just gave us the domain name. We have no idea how they got it, but it's ours and we're keeping it."

Im sure everyone agrees the Pirate Bay will be a better host than the IFPI.

Source:
TF

Madonna has become the latest and biggest artist to leave the record industry when she signed a $120 million USD record deal with the concert promoter Live Nation.

With the deal, Live Nation gains the exclusive rights to three new studio albums, as well as all merchandise, tours and licensing of the Madonna name.

The news follows the announcements of Nine Inch Nails, Oasis and Jamiroqui to sell its music directly to the public, leaving the record labels completely out of the picture. Radiohead recently did something similar by deciding to sell its albums digitally while allowing the fan to decide how much they want to pay for it.

The contract is for 10 years, by which point Madonna will be almost 60.

Warner, who was outbid by Live Nation, wont lose Madonna completely however. She still owes the label one more album and Warner still has the rights for a greatest hits CD. Additionally, Warner gets to keep the rights to songs produced by Madonna while she was with Warner.

Although Madonna's best days as an artist are arguably behind her, many see the recent announcements as the beginning of the end for the record labels. Perhaps they will understand that the artists deserve more of the revenue then is currently given but seeing how long it took the labels to respond to digital music, that is doubtful.

The new version of the iPhone unlocking software SimFree will free all iPhones using the 1.1.1 firmware as well as unbrick any unlocked units damaged by the upgrade.

This should be welcome news to anyone who had their expensive device bricked by Apple's updated 1.1.1 firmware. Many consumers were left furious by the results of the firmware upgrade and especially that Apple's official response was "buy a new one."

According to the SimFree team, its latest version 1.6 will "FIX all phones that anySim and iUnlock bricked with the 1.1.1 update."

However, there is a catch to unbricking your phone. It requires the user to downgrade their firmware to 1.0.2 but you must pay $99 USD for the software to do that. It is still a hefty price, but cheaper than purchasing a new iPhone.

Users around the web have confirmed that the software does work.

Source:
Dailytech

In a recent Australian-government commissioned report, it was stated that plasma and LCD TVs consume more power than traditional CRT displays and it seems that "strict" regulations may be placed upon them by the government.

The report was the government's Equipment Energy Efficiency Committee's response to the country's "skyrocketing" energy consumption. The Committee also speculated that the TVs could overtake air conditioning and refrigerators as the major contributors of household greenhouse gases.

According to the report, TVs will need to have energy rating levels applied to them just as other household appliances do. The new system, set to begin next year, will restrict most current Plasma and LCD TVs from being used in the country.

More information when it becomes available.

Source:
BetaNews

Throwdown, a metal band famous for “destroying” a stage at Ozzfest has called upon file-sharing fans to help support the band by "stealing their album...[and]help bury the label."

Dave Peters, the front man of the band had this to say, “I play in a metal band. We have sold around 200k records across 3 releases. We’re not ‘huge’ by any stretch but do alright and live off (and ON subsequently) the road. Fans and friends ask me all the time how I feel about “stealing music. I just told someone yesterday I have a hard time seeing it as stealing…when I don’t see any money from cd sales to begin with.”

Continuing on about his anger at the state of the record industry, “If you want to squeeze an opinion on theft out of me, ask me about the dude that grabbed our tshirt off the table tonight in Detroit or better yet.. ask me about record contracts.”

He followed up with a message to file sharers and fans of the band,

“I encourage our fans to acquire our album however they please. The philosophy I’ve adopted is that if you’re supporting disc sales, you’re keeping the old model around longer…the one that forces dudes like me to tour 9 mos/year if they want to make ends meet with a career in music.”

Sony has introduced its latest internal PC Blu-ray BD-R burner which doubles the write speed from previous Sony internal burners and can write at 4x.

The new writer, the BWU-200S can write a full 50GB BD-R disc in 45 minutes as compared to previous writers which would take 90 minutes to fill the disc.

Besides the ability to write to BD-R, the drive can also burn DVD+-R at 16x and burn to DVD-DL. Software is also included allowing for the capture of HD content captured in HDV 1080i format from HDV camcorders.

The drive is compatible with both XP and Vista, says Sony.

“Advanced optical storage technologies, such as Blu-ray Disc technology with its vast capacity compared to DVD technology, will be key enablers for next generation PC applications like HD personal video content and high-definition TV recording,” said Wolfgang Schlichting, research director for removable storage at IDC. “Sony's many innovations in optical storage have prepared the company to be a leader in the Blu-ray Disc writable market.”

Sony says the drive will be available only directly from the company starting in November and sell for about $600 USD.

After the recent announcement that the 40GB PlayStation 3 would be coming to Europe and amid speculation that it is heading to North America next month, Sony has confirmed that Japan will be getting the new model on November 11th, with an exclusive white color.

The unit will be available in both “Clear Black” and “Ceramic White” colors and sell for 39,980 yen ($341 USD) when it hits. The white color will be the first official color variation since the system was launched last year.

Also coming with the new unit will be a DualShock3 controller instead of the standard SIXAXIS. European 40GB models will have the SIXAXIS as the DS3 is not expected to hit North America or Europe until spring 2008.

Finally, Sony also said they would be giving a free copy of Spider-Man 3 on Blu-ray to the next 20,000 purchasers of any PS3 in Japan including the 20GB and 60GB models currently in stock.

Source:
Dailytech

Phillips has introduced a new line of mid-sized flash-based media players, starting with the SA9345 which will come in the 2 and 4 GB variety.

Each of the varieties has a 1.8 inch color screen, but more intriguing is the touch-sensitive controls and the player's size, a slim 0.3 inches.

The device plays MP3 and WMA audio files as well as WMV video. The video files however, are limited to 24fps and software is provided to convert from AVI, MOV, MPEG-1/2/4 and VOB (DVD) files to something compatible for the player.

Phillips claims 20 hours of audio or two hours of video, but independent results have reported only 10 hours of audio playback.

The 4GB model will be available in North America soon, but no word on price. In the UK the players will sell for £99 and £129 respectively.

Source:
Electronista

The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that the 40GB PlayStation 3 model is on its way to the US, following its debut in the UK later this week.

Citing an "industry source" as well as a major game retailer, the Reporter says the 40GB model will retail for $400 USD and have the same features as its brother model in the UK meaning less USB ports and no backwards compatibility for PS2 games.

Last week we reported that leaked Best Buy internal documents showed the 40GB model was coming to the US but without a price or release date. The Reporter says it will hit the US by early November.

Source:
GI.biz

On Friday, HP updated its Pavilion media center PCs with the option to add mixed-format HD drives that can read both Blu-ray or HD DVD titles giving users the option to upgrade without fear of a format becoming obsolete.

The d4995t, m9000z and m9000t Pavilion Elite models, will all have the option to add the mixed format drives but there will be two options for the drive as well. A basic version will allow only Blu-ray writing and both format reading and the more expensive drive will allow writing and reading for both formats. Both drives will also include HP's LightScribe feature.

The cost of the upgrade will vary from $250 to $400 USD depending on the system and the drive you are upgrading to.

Source:
Electronista

Apple has accidentally become a source of piracy after the fourth episode of the latest season of “Stargate Atlantis” was leaked before the series season premiere on Apple's iTunes platform. Quickly after the leak, the episode made its way to BitTorrent and other P2P networks.

The mistake has not been made public by Apple but the company has offered a $2 USD iTunes credit to all fans of the show who downloaded the show mistakenly thinking it was the first episode.

The error, it seems, was caused by a mix up in the production numbers and broadcast numbers of the episodes. The show is not shot in chronological order and therefore the fourth episode, entitled “Doppelganger”, was shot first making its production number 401 although it had a broadcast number of 404. No doubt the iTunes store mistakingly offered the the episode as the season premiere based on the production number and not the broadcast number.

The episode was available for 24 hours on iTunes before it was replaced by the real season premiere.

More updates on whether Apple will have to compensate MGM for the leak.

Source:
TF

In a somewhat surprising move, Microsoft has made their Internet Explorer 7 browser available to anyone running Windows XP or Windows Server 2003, in an update that removes Microsoft's Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) validation software from the browser.

Before the update, only users running genuine Microsoft products could update from the terrible IE6 browser, but now even those with pirated Windows can update.

"Because Microsoft takes its commitment to help protect the entire Windows ecosystem seriously, we’re updating the IE7 installation experience to make it available as broadly as possible to all Windows users," remarked IE7 program manager Steve Reynolds on the IE Blog. "With today’s 'Installation and Availability Update,' Internet Explorer 7 installation will no longer require Windows Genuine Advantage validation and will be available to all Windows XP users."

The move is likely to give some of the browser market back to Microsoft which it has been losing to strong competitors such as Firefox and Opera.

Source:
Dailytech

According to Alexa stats, the MPAA seems to have a victory in regards to halting piracy caused by the once popular torrent site TorrentSpy. The figures show that since a federal judge ordered the site to log all user data and consequently ban access to US users, their traffic has fallen dramatically.

TorrentSpy founder Justin had this to say when they decided to censor US users, "Whatever future awaits, the innovations of peer-to-peer technology and the jobs and opportunities it creates will take place outside of the USA."

Other torrent sites have seen increased growth however since TorrentSpy's decision, with sites such as Mininova and ThePirateBay seeing substantial growth.

You can view a chart of the decline in traffic here courtesy of TF.

It remains to be seen whether Demonoid and Isohunt will see the same results after placing bans or having bans placed on them by anti-piracy groups like the MPAA or CRIA.

Source:
TF

Fastmac has announced that they will begin selling the first and only 2X Blu-Ray optical drive upgrade for Apple laptops including iBooks, PowerBooks and MacBook Pros.

The drive is slimline and the Fastmac site gives these specs for the new drive, "supports reading, writing and re-writing to single and dual layer Blu-ray media at up to 2x speeds. The drive is also compatible with standard DVD and CD media and can write to DVD-R and DVD+R media at 8x speed in single layer and up to 2.4x speed in dual/ double layer mode. It can rewrite to DVD-R and DVD+R media at 4x speeds. The drive also supports DVD-RAM reading and writing at up to 5x speeds and standard CD-R and CD-RW burning at 8x speeds."

The upgrade will be available within 30 days and will have a $1000 USD price tag.

Source:
Press Release

Universal will finally be launching its HD DVD site that it announced over a month ago at www.universalhidef.com.

Besides offering tons of downloadable content, the site will also give you support for error codes as well as share clips with other users. The shop will also allow viewers to shop for items they saw in the movie, pushing product placement to new heights.

"HD DVD provides a consistent platform that allows us to go beyond DVD to deliver the best possible next generation HD experiences and begins to introduce consumers to the infinite potential of web-enabled content," said Craig Kornblau, President of Universal Studios Home Entertainment and Universal Pictures Digital Platforms. "With our web-enabled features, we wanted to deliver capabilities that compliment the HD movie watching experience while also offering a destination online that gives users the opportunity to dive deeper into their favorite movies and TV shows. We've just begun to explore HD DVD's potential and this infrastructure lays the foundation for us to easily evolve with consumer preferences."

Source:
EngadgetHD

Following yesterday's official announcement by Sony that a 40GB PlayStation 3 would be offered for £299 in the UK, Nick Sharples, director of corporate communications for Sony Europe, said that the 60 GB model would be going the way of its American counterpart, into oblivion.

Just like in North America, the 60GB has stopped being produced and when the current stock is depleted, that is the end of that model in the UK. The 40GB model will then be the only unit available for purchase in the UK. The new model however, lacks a multi-memory card slot and PS2 backwards compatibility which could presumably be an issue for some potential buyers.

"We are looking forwards, not back," Nick Sharples said "It was clear when Sony first launched the PS3 in the UK that backwards compatibility as a feature was an issue, it's now becoming less and less important."

When asked how much stock was left, Sharples would not give an exact number but figured there was 2 to 3 months of stock left.

"Anyone who wants to buy a 60GB PS3 for Christmas is not going to have a problem", he stated.

What is still unclear is whether a new model will replace the 60GB SKU or if the 40GB model will remain as the sole SKU available in the UK.

Citing the web metrics site Compete.com, it seems that although the number of high-def early adopters using Netflix is still small, the users are very favorable of HD DVD over Blu-ray.

According to the data, 48,000 visitors to Netflix viewed the HD sections of the site from June-August 2007 which was about 0.3 percent of total traffic. The numbers then get a bit more interesting. About 65 percent of the traffic checked out Blu-ray titles but when asked to set a preferred format, HD DVD was chosen by about 70 percent making it by far the more favorable format.

The numbers contradict recent reports and even a statement by Netflix CEO Reed Hastings that said in an interview that "customer demand for both formats at Netflix was pretty evenly split."

Source:
HD Digest

According to Digital Journal, Rogers Wireless will be bringing the Apple iPhone to Canada in a few weeks.

Although not confirmed by Apple or Rogers, Canadian retailers are the sources behind the rumor. However, the price the retailers are citing is extremely high, $799 CAD.

If that price is true, it would be unbelievable to see the device sell well, considering the price is a $400 premium from American retailers.

More information when it becomes available.

Source:
BetaNews

This week at the CEATEC JAPAN 2007 event, Hitachi announced that they had successfully created a quad layer Blu-ray disc that can store up to 100 GB of data.

To sweeten the pot even more, Hitachi says the discs are compatible with existing Blu-ray players and drives after an easy firmware update.

Hitachi says they are now working on "improving the signal quality of its quad-layer technology" so that it can be ready to hit the market soon. The company also boasted that they were working on a eight-layer Blu-ray disc capable of storing 200GB of data.

What is left to be pondered is how expensive these discs will cost to manufacture. Movie studios may just opt to release their titles over two standard Blu-ray discs than invest in new expensive equipment necessary for these larger capacity discs.

This is not the first time recently that we have heard of improved capacity on optical media. In March, New Medium Enterprises developed a four-layer DVD it called the Versatile Multilayer Disc (VMD) that is capable of storing 20GB of data, double the current DVD-9.

Sony has announced that they have dropped the price of the 60GB model PlayStation 3 in the UK, as well as introduced a base level 40GB model.

The new pricing and the new console will become available on October 10th with the larger capacity model dropping to GBP 349 and the smaller model retailing at GBP 299. The 60GB model will also come in a "value pack" that will include two first party games. The pack will replace the current bundle sold for GBP 425 but will not include an extra Sixaxis controller.

In making the 40GB model so cheap, Sony cut a few features. There is no multi-memory card slot, two less USB ports, and no backwards compatibility with PS2 games.

"As we approach our first PlayStation Christmas, it is satisfying to be able to offer UK consumers the choice of two PlayStation 3 packages both now representing remarkable value," commented Ray Maguire, MD of SCEUK.

"We have a brand new 40 GB machine that represents an excellent entry point into the world of high definition games and movies, and we have the fully featured 60GB machine being offered with two next-generation gaming experiences at a highly competitive price."

David Reeves, the president of Sony Europe noted as well, "The introduction of the new PS3 has been the result of extensive research into the entertainment needs and preferences of the next-generation PS3 owners."

Gateway has now debuted their top-of-the-line Quad HD 30-inch display which it says is capable of a 1600p resolution.

The display can upconvert standard definition video to HD and even upconvert 1080p HD to 1600p. There are a variety of inputs for the display including HDMI, DVI-D, VGA, component, S-Video, and composite interfaces.

A USB 2.0 hub with six ports is also built in as well as the display having anti-theft software which when set up will allow the display to work with only one PC. The system carries a 2560x1600 resolution and has built in speakers. The price? $1700 USD if purchased through Gateway.

Source:
BetaNews

According to Sony, over 580,000 units of the new PSP Slim have been sold in Japan since its release two weeks ago.

The company also said the figures include the 77,777 special edition models that were made to celebrate the launch "Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII" which was released a week before the main console.

The sales figures eclipse the total sales for the original PSP which was launched in December of 2004.

Sony has not released figures for the PSP Slim in North America or Europe, but expects to soon.

Source:
GI.biz

Toshiba has showed off a prototype of a new HD DVD recorder that is capable of burning up to two hours of 4 Mbps MPEG-4 high-definition video to regular DVD-+R, +-RW or -RAM discs.

Dubbed the RD-X7, the recorder would be the first HD DVD recorder to support DVD although it would not be the first HD recorder to do so. Sony has a few Blu-ray recorders capable of doing so. Toshiba did say the recorder would be the first to support a "new file format adopted just three weeks ago by the DVD Forum, called "HD Rec."

The two hours of video is most likely when recording to dual-layer DVDs (DVD 9) and not single-layer DVD-5, although it is not clear yet.

It doesn't appear the recorder will be ready for the holiday season, but Toshiba said two other similar models without the HD-Rec support will be available in Japan for the holidays.

Microsoft announced on Thursday that its blockbuster game Halo 3 had reached $300 million USD in sales in its first week of release. Those numbers make it by far the fastest selling video game in history as well as one of the largest entertainment launches in history.

Even better news for Microsoft is that the game has fueled a console sales spike, which have doubled from the weeks before the game was released. Reuters even reported that sales of the 360 beat out sales of the Wii for the week.

"'Halo' is truly a cultural phenomenon, and the launch of 'Halo 3' is an important milestone for Xbox 360 and for video games as entertainment and as an art form," added Bill Gates.

The company also said that over 2.7 million users had played the game through Xbox Live accounting for over 40 million hours online.

Source:
BetaNews

Duluth resident Jammie Thomas has been found guilty by a jury in US District Court of having downloaded and shared 24 specific unauthorized music files and was ordered to pay the recording industry $220,000 USD.

The number, although ridiculously high, could have been much worse. The evidence presented shows that Thomas' system could have been responsible for pirating over 1700 tracks meaning she would have been liable for up to $16 million USD.

The case, which only lasted a day, had tons of testimony from corporate representatives including unbelievable testimony by a Sony BMG rep that said that all ripping of music from retail CDs, even for personal use, is theft. Imagine that, getting the music from your own paid for CDs, and you are a thief.

However, the evidence was too obvious for Thomas to have a chance. A shared Kazaa folder was found on her system although Thomas still maintains she has no idea who put it there.

Unfortunately, the shared folder linked to a Kazaa account which directly linked to an IP address which linked directly to a MAC address used by a broadband modem connected to Thomas' computer. Clearly too much evidence for innocence.

$220,000 USD for 24 songs, what has happened to the world?

According to NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker, copyright holders are "losing the battle" against piracy and that the battle will be completely lost unless governments and industries get proactive in fighting it.

The chief spoke out about the piracy issue at an anti-piracy summit hosted by the US Chamber of Commerce.

Zucker hopes intellectual property violations will take center stage and also hopes that Congress will create "dedicated IP enforcement departments and to offer federal grants for state and local governments to escalate their own policing efforts." Zucker also wants any and all advertisers and credit card companies to stop supporting web sites that are "overwhelmingly devoted" to making unauthorized content available such as Warez forums or torrent trackers.

To an even higher extreme, Zucker wants all ISPs, university networks, search engines and user-generated content sites to install filtering technology to would block all pirated content. Critics have argued an approach like that would be ineffective but Zucker doesn't seem to care.

"Technology has been and continues to be an incredibly powerful tool to combat theft, whether we are talking about hard goods or digital goods," Zucker said. He admits the tools will never be perfect "but committed development of technology has the potential to reduce dramatically the traffic in counterfeit and pirated products."

The Business Software Alliance (BSA) has announced that in the first six months of 2007 it prevented over 36,000 unauthorized software products from being sold on numerous online auction sites.

The Alliance also said that the retail value of the pirated software that could have been sold on the auction sites came out to over $8 million USD.

"And this is the tip of the iceberg", said John Wolfe, director of internet enforcement at the BSA.

"This represents auctions we have identified as infringing our members' copyrights and taken action to have them closed by the auction site owners. Some auction offers may lead to dozens or even hundreds of purchases of illegal software."

"When buying software on auction sites, people need to be concerned if prices appear too good to be true. Counterfeit copies may not give you the functionality and full benefits of a legal version.

There is also a significant data protection risk in that counterfeit software may be linked to hackers looking to access your network," Wolfe added.

In a separate but related study performed by IDC, the group revealed that over 50% percent of software purchased on auction sites have had malware embedded into the code.

The Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) has announced that it has renewed its popular "Five Free Discs" promotion through at least the holidays, and they have also refreshed the list of titles.

The offer is still the same and any buyer of a qualifying Blu-ray player or the PlayStation 3 will be eligible to receive the movies via mail.

According to HDDigest, the new 18 titles offered will be'Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl,' 'Wild Hogs,' 'American Psycho,' 'Chain Reaction,' 'The Devil's Rejects,' 'Flight of the Phoenix,' 'Full Metal Jacket,' 'Hart's War,' 'The Last Waltz,' 'The Omen,' 'The Patriot,' 'The Prestige,' 'Species,' 'Stir of Echoes,' 'Superman: The Movie,' 'S.W.A.T.,' 'Swordfish' and 'Ultraviolet.'

To find a list of eligible players, the BDA says to visit this site here.

Source:
HD Digest

Although Microsoft has yet to officially announce it, retailers in the US have begun taking pre-orders for a new Xbox 360 "Arcade" bundle, set to hit retail shelves later this month.

The new bundle will include a Core system, a memory card, a wireless controller and five Xbox Live arcade titles including classics like "Pac-Man Championship Edition" and "Uno."

Both Toys R Us and Amazon have the bundle listed at $279.99 USD and Gamestop has removed all listings for the regular core system, suggesting that this new bundle will replace the current regular Core system.

Source:
GI.biz

Verizon Wireless Chief Marketing Officer Mike Lanman has said that the company will be adding four new devices to its lineup of phones set for release in the holiday season 2007. One of these phones, the LG VX10000 Voyager he claims will be an "iPhone killer."

"We think it'll be the best phone ... this year. It will kill the iPhone," Lanman added.

The device has a 400x240 touch screen but Verizon says it is shaped more like the LG enV than the iPhone.

The Voyager's touch screen affords "large icons, and the now-familiar "swiping" motion navigates through an eye-catching UI." It also has a handy QWERTY keyboard which allows the user to handle tasks using either the keyboard or the touch screen.

Verizon also says the phone has "Full HTML browsing, VCAST support, a new mobile e-mail service managed by Verizon, and mobile IM client."

The device also includes an almost standard 2MP camera, a music player, and stereo speakers. The internal memory is expandable to 8GB via microSD and the music player can support MP3, Windows Media Audio, and AAC files.

Verizon has one of the largest and strongest networks in the US and it will be good to see this new "iPhone killer" at work.

The admins over at The Pirate Bay have decided that their extremely popular torrent tracker has reached its performance limit and have announced that they are currently working on a more efficient open source tracker that will even protect better against anti-piracy groups.

TPB also said they had moved their servers to a new datacenter and added an extra four brand new servers making their total an impressive 16. The new datacenter also allows for better protection against DDoS attacks and "nullrouting the spam-nets from anti-piracy organizations."

According to the tracker design page, the "new tracker will be capable of blocking and/or logging known p2p vandals such as MediaDefender, BayTSP, MediaSentry and EZ2net." The new tracker should also help ensure the privacy of its users as well as using less bandwidth while connecting to more peers.

Source:
TF

Citing Enterbrain data figures, Reuters is reporting that the Nintendo Wii outsold the PlayStation 3 in Japan by over 4 to 1 in the six month period ending September 2007.

From April to September, Nintendo sold 1.6 million consoles in Japan while Sony sold 385,492 of their next gen consoles. Also noted in the report was the fact that the Microsoft Xbox 360 continues to struggle and sold only 122,565 consoles during the same period.

The demand for the Wii is so high still that yesterday, spokesperson Reggie Fils-Aime admitted that the company would not be able to meet holiday season demand this year.

Source:
GI.biz

According to an official post on the company's website, Joost 1.0 is now available to the public, allowing all interested parties to download and run the service that had been in a private beta for the last couple months. For those not familiar, Joost 1.0 allows users to watch TV on their PCs for free as the service is paid for through ads.

“For us at Joost, we are exhausted, but excited. Many of us have put as much as two years of our lives into this little 'project,' and owe a great deal to our families for supporting us, to our friends for not ignoring us, and to all the beta testers who cheered us on and helped with ideas, feedback and lots of bug reporting," Joost said.

The service is still in beta, but now an open beta will allow Joost developers to quickly fix all bugs that are identified.

The service will be available for Windows XP and Vista as well as OS X 10.4.


Source:
Dailytech

Building on previous promotions that offered five to seven free HD DVD movies with the purchase of a qualifying HD DVD player, Best Buy is now offering a total of 9 discs with a purchase of the new $399 USD Toshiba HD-A30.

The deal was first revealed in this weeks circular and ups the ante for HD bundles.

The first five movies are available via mail through the "Five free discs" promotion while two others, '300' and 'The Bourne Identity' come included with the HD-A3. The final two free movies are available at Best Buy at the point of purchase.

"It’s a good start to a [HD DVD] collection," Best Buy spokesperson Brian Lucas said.

A good deal indeed, especially with a good player.

Source:
HD Digest

Although Sony America has yet to confirm or deny it, leaked Best Buy documents seem to prove that a new 40 GB PlayStation 3 bundle is coming to the US.

The documents show the new console having a retail price of $399 USD and coming bundled with Spider-Man 3 on Blu-ray disc. The console will have an early November launch date.

Previous models of the PS3 have FCC product numbers of CECHA01 and CECH01, respectively and last week Sony filed documents with the FCC for a product with the number CECHG01, sparking a flood of rumors that a new model was coming soon.

More information when the new model is confirmed.

Source:
GI.biz

This morning, Microsoft launched the beta for its long awaited Windows Media Center Internet TV platform. The company's Internet TV platform was supposed to be an Xbox 360 initiative but it appears it will be seen on Windows Vista machines first.

If you are an owner of Vista Home Premium or Vista Ultimate then you can simply access the free TV content without the need for a hardware TV tuner. According to Microsoft, over 100 hours of programming will be available during the beta including concerts and news clips as well as sports highlights.

Microsoft also said that the Xbox 360, Linksys, D-Link and HP Windows Media Center Extenders would be able to stream the content to HDTVs.

"We are excited to reveal the first series of totally quiet, cool, and sleek-looking Media Center Extender devices, designed to deliver the ultimate entertainment experience to every TV set in your home," said Joe Belfiore, Microsoft's corporate vice president for Entertainment and Devices eHome Division.

"These products are the initial third-party devices that can wirelessly connect a TV with a PC, with features including live high-definition TV, PVR, movies, pictures, music and online services. In addition, the Internet TV beta allows Windows Media Center as well as Extender users to enjoy free high- quality television from some of their favorite studios and networks in Media Center, directly over the Internet."

Reggie Fils-Aime, the president of Nintendo America has made comments indicating that the company will not be able to meet the demand for its ever popular Wii console during the upcoming holiday season.

“We have been sold out worldwide since we launched,” said Fils-Aime. “Every time we put more into the marketplace, we sell more, which says that we are not even close to understanding where the threshold is between supply and demand.”

Fils-Aime also added that Nintendo was pushing production hard to meet the demand but that the issue "is not a lack of production.”

“The issue is we went in with a curve that was aggressive, but the demand has been substantially more than that. And the ability to ramp up production and to sustain it is not a switch that you flick on. We're working very hard to make sure that consumers are satisfied this holiday, but I can't guarantee that we're going to meet demand. As a matter of fact, I can tell you on the record we won't,” he added.

Since its launch, the Wii has led every weekly sales chart and recently surpassed the Xbox 360 as the best selling next-gen console.

Source:
Dailytech

Although they have yet to confirm or deny the reports, it appears Samsung is canceling production of its high end Blu-ray player, the BDP-2400 and delaying their dual HD player, the much awaited BD-UP5000.

The reports, corroborated by retailers, speculate that the company canceled the player because it was "unable to meet the October 31 deadline for BD 1.0 specifications."

The BD-UP5000, originally scheduled for an October release however will not be cancelled but is delayed until at least December.

Samsung will be the second manufacturer to release a dual HD player, following the somewhat popular but expensive LG BH100.

Source:
Dailytech

According to sources within Microsoft, the company will be holding an event tomorrow to debut the new second generation line of Zune media players.

Both Bill Gates and J. Allard will be on hand for the event and the announcement should include the introduction of flash memory-based Zunes.

Although the Zune has a 10 percent share of the HDD based player segment, Microsoft hopes to take a bigger share of the more popular flash memory based segment.

Although it is not entirely known what the devices will look like, we do know the HDD-based Zune second gens will look the same as its first gen brother but be noticeably slimmer. The flash based players are said to look like the iPod Nano but with included Wi-Fi and higher storage capacity.

Microsoft hopes to manufacture 2.5 million second-gen Zunes with about 2/3 being of the flash based variety.

The players are expected to go on sale in mid-November.

Source:
BetaNews

EMI has allegedly sent intimidating letters to MP3tunes, a San Diego based website that allegedly "aggregates 'free' music tracks posted by its users."

The letters threaten lawsuits if MP3tunes fails to take down links to EMI's copyrighted material. Of course, EMI also wants monetary compensation.

"Beyond that, we invite MP3tunes to make a substantive proposal both to redress past infringement of EMI works and to a ensure that there will be no future infringement of EMI works," attorney Steven Fabrizio wrote to MP3tunes' counsel.

As a response to the letters, MP3tunes filed a lawsuit of its own, declaring that its business model is legal. Ira Sacks, the company's counsel, also sent a letter to EMI informing them that they had removed 350 tracks from the site but that the take down notices do not comport with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

"Your attempt to place the burden on MP3tunes to determine which of the songs on its web site are infringing by providing (i) a link to the EMI website which provides a 'non-exhaustive further listing of EMI's recording artists' and (ii) a representative list of songs which you demand be disabled, fails to comply with EMI's obligations under the DMCA," Sacks wrote.