News written by Andre Yoskowitz (April, 2008)

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has suffered another legal setback after a judge denied a ruling in a music piracy case this week. The judge ruled that "the sole act of making a music file available in a "shared folder" does not violate copyright laws."

In the case Atlantic v. Howell, the RIAA asserted that a "sound recording" that is legally ripped to a PC and then stored in any type of shared folder is unauthorized and illegal. The assertion was not really clear however, as a shared folder is a very broad category.

The RIAA saw some backlash for its assertion when the rumor was spread around the Internet that the RIAA believed that ripping CD music was illegal. The group cleared up the situation by saying that it doesn't consider ripping illegal but that adding music recordings to a shared folder that can be accessed by others in a P2P file sharing program is illegal and should be stopped.

Despite Blu-ray's victory over rival format HD DVD, it seems Blu-ray player sales are falling or seeing little to no growth in various markets.

The latest figures, according to the NPD Group, show that Blu-ray standalone players sales (excluding the PlayStation 3 and Blu-ray PC drives) have mostly decreased since the beginning of 2008, or seen no growth. Sales dropped 40 percent in the US from January to February and saw only a 2 percent increase from February to March.

The numbers don't seem to make sense though. HD DVD died out in February, yet sales have sputtered. One likely reason is price. Blu-ray players were selling for an average of $400 USD during March while just 3 months earlier in the holiday season they were selling for closer to $320 USD. An even better reason, according to NPD, is that standard definition DVD is "good enough" for the average consumer and that the upgraded video, audio and features just aren't worth the premium in price, at least not yet.

Paramount Pictures has mapped out its Blu-ray roadmap, marking its re-entry to the Blu-ray business a year after it signed exclusively to the now defunct HD DVD format.

The first three movies to hit Blu-ray will be "Face/Off," "Next" and "Bee Movie" which will hit retailers on May 20th. "Bee Movie" was a highly anticipated HD DVD title but was scrapped after Toshiba dropped production and support for the format in early March.

Two other box office hits, "Cloverfield" and "There Will Be Blood" will hit Blu-ray on June 3rd. Both were recently released on standard definition DVD. "Cloverfield" will also hit the international market in August, added the studio.

Another important date to note is June 24th when Paramount will "issue its first day-and-date Blu-ray Disc release," "The Spiderwick Chronicles."

According to Chart-Track, GTA IV has shattered previous launch day sales records in the UK, selling 610,000 units on its first day. The data is based on EPoS data and retailer estimates.

The previous UK sales record was 501,000 units, following the launch of GTA: San Andreas in 2004.

The game also set a new record for one day Xbox 360 software sales, moving 335,000 units. The old record was set last September at 266,000 with the release of Halo 3.

The PlayStation 3 sales record was completely shattered with the PS3 version of the game selling 275,000 copies. The previous record was a lowly 80,000 set last month with the release of Gran Turismo 5: Prologue.

Chart-Track says the figures are very accurate but will not be completely official until the group "has analyzed the data in its entirety on May 6 following the UK Bank holiday."

CinemaNow has introduced a new mobile feature for its service that will allow any web-enabled mobile device to download digital movies.

There is a catch however. You cant play the movies on your phone, the service only allows you to download the movies using your phone, to a PC at home, as long as the PC has the CinemaNow Media Manager installed and running. According to the service's FAQ section, "On CinemaNow Mobile you can browse the same CinemaNow video selection, watch trailers, make purchases and have the video download at any of your PC's."

If you don't really get the point of the service, CinemaNow tries to explain it better:

"Let's say you're at the bus station or at a friend's house, thinking about what to watch tonight when you get back home. Once you bought and sent your video to your home PC via your phone, it will be there for you waiting to be watched when you get back."

It is an interesting idea if you want to remotely download a film, but those who use CinemaNow know that a streamed movie starts very quickly so this service seems like it will only save a few minutes at best.

Rogers has finally announced that it will indeed be bringing Apple's iPhone to the Canadian market, meaning Canadian residents will no longer have to buy unlocked phones from the United States.

Rogers is the only GSM service provider in Canada so the choice seemed logical. However, Apple and Rogers had been in talks for over 8 months without getting anywhere.

Ted Rogers, president and CEO of Rogers Communications, announced the deal today. "We're thrilled to announce that we have a deal with Apple to bring the iPhone to Canada later this year," he said. "We can't tell you any more about it right now, but stay tuned."

Rogers reported a nice profit for the Q1 2008, $344 million CAD on $2.4 billion CAD revenue. Besides being the only GSM provider, the provider has a large chain of retail outlets making it easier to sell the phone from different fronts.

Microsoft has delayed the official release of its touted Windows XP Service Pack 3 because of a newly found "technical glitch."

The giant software company added that there was a "compatibility issue between the XP service pack and Microsoft Dynamics Retail Management System, a retail chain management program for small and midsize businesses."

The company had finalized the code for SP3 last week and had originally planned to make it available beginning today.

"In order to make sure customers have the best possible experience, we have decided to delay releasing Windows XP SP3 to Windows Update and Microsoft Download Center," the company added in a statement.

The same glitch also apparently exists between Microsoft Dynamics RMS and Windows Vista Service Pack 1, which was already released earlier this month and more recently via Automatic Updates.

"To help protect our customers, we plan to put filtering in place shortly to prevent Windows Update from offering both service packs to systems running Microsoft Dynamics RMS," Microsoft said. "Once filtering is in place, we expect to release Windows XP SP3 to Windows Update and Download Center."

Microsoft has announced that it will be cutting the price of its Xbox 360 console in four Asian markets in an effort to boost sales in the struggling Asian market.

The standard 20GB model was reduced to S$499, about $366 USD in Singapore, a significant 20 percent drop. In Taiwan, the price was cut 17 percent to NT$ 10,360, the equivalent of $340 USD.

The price was also dropped, but less, in China and South Korea which saw prices fall to 2,499 ($321 USD) in China and WON 369,000 $369 USD in South Korea; an 11 percent and 5.1 percent reduction, respectively.

Recent price cuts in Europe helped boost Xbox 360 sales 200 percent and it is apparent that Microsoft is hoping for at least a small boost in Asian sales.

Microsoft's VP of global marketing, Jeff Bell, added that "Microsoft has had trouble breaking into the Asian market because of the dominance of Kyoto, Japan-based Nintendo and different game preferences in Asia."

Maybe a price cut will help.

The Warner Bros. Television Group is set to resurrect its now defunct WB network as an online video site that will offer reruns of past popular shows such as "Friends" and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," among others. The site will also offer new original programming.

TheWB.com will target 16-to-34-year-old viewers and the new shows will be written and produced by Josh Schwartz, best known for "Gossip Girl" and the "The O.C."

The launch follows an industry trend, as media companies are having growing issues with attracting younger viewers who would rather spend time texting on cell phones or watching videos online at their own leisure. A prime example would be Schwartz's "Gossip Girl," which has generated low ratings for the CW network but has a strong loyal online audience.

In a somewhat strange move, the CW Network has recently pulled the show from online in an effort to boost TV viewer ship.

Schwartz is also currently developing a new show for TheWB.com that "takes viewers to the front of the line and behind the soundboard of a fictional Hollywood rock club," added Warner Bros.

TheWb.com will be distributed Fancast.com and will also be available on AOL video.

According to a new report coming from Asia, current iPhone builder Foxconn Electronics has been selected by Apple to produce the upcoming 3G iPhone model and that shipments will begin in June.

Citing "component suppliers as well as foreign institutional investors," the report says Foxconn was "recently instructed by Apple to begin procuring component materials for the next-generation touch-screen handsets for an initial test build no later than the end of May."

Apple expects to ship 3 million units in June and hopes to ship a total of 25 million over the product's life cycle, added the report.

The company has so far sold 6 million current-generation iPhone units worldwide but sales have been somewhat stifled by exclusive contracts with carriers. That should change with the upcoming generation however, as Apple hopes to expand to additional European nations and portions of Asia.

WE7.com has launched, and with it comes 500,000 free, ad-supported tracks from Sony BMG and a variety of independent artists.

As the company says, the site is a way for consumers to get the tracks they want "legally, safely and in a format they want".

We7's business model allows fans to listen to the music they want, completely free, but each tracks has a "short audio advert onto the front of each track."

The site also says that the artists and record labels will be paid every time the song is played on the site and that they will be paid from the revenue generated from advertising. We7 hopes the model will curb piracy and provide "a win-win situation for music fans and artists alike."

Additionally, 30,000 of the tracks can be downloaded and listened to later on portable media devices for free "with the attached advert, which can be removed after a set number of listens, or an amount of elapsed time."

Seeing the fact that retail game sales are at all time highs and showing no signs of slowing down, Blockbuster has announced that it will be upping its game offerings in all of the corporation's US locations.

The announcement comes just two weeks after Blockbuster made a billion dollar bid for the struggling retailer Circuit City in an effort to get a bigger foothold in the video game industry.

Blockbuster customers can now buy software, hardware, and accessories for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, and Nintendo DS at all the company's 4100 locations. There will also be more games available for sale and rental and there will be an expansion of genres available for each system.

There was no word on whether there would be PSP or PC offerings and it seems at this point that the two platforms have been snubbed from the company's expansion.

If the Toronto Star is to believed, then the Apple iPhone should be available in Canada before the summer.

The article cites "industry contacts" who reveal that Canada's only major GSM cell provider, Rogers, is hoping to introduce the iPhone "in time for it to be included in a campaign promoting touchscreen phones at the company."

Rogers' campaign will most likely start in late May or early June, before Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference in which it is widely expected that the company will introduce the 3G model of the iPhone.

Despite its reputation as having the highest-priced mobile data plans of any cellular provider in Canada, Rogers is also the most advanced. About two months ago, the carrier introduced an unlimited data bundle "that gives users both unfettered browsing on most of its devices as well as a set amount of MMS/SMS messages and voicemail." Rogers' also offers advanced 3G network features including "two-way video calling on supporting devices as well as 7.2-megabit HSDPA downloads on portions of its network. The 3G iPhone is understood to use a newer Infineon chipset that would support both normal HSDPA service as well as its faster variety on Rogers."

AT&T has denied any rumor that it resets packets to interfere with network connections of P2P users, in effect denying any "throttling" of network traffic, like Comcast was accused of doing a few months ago.

AT&Ts statement comes as a response to a report released this week by Vuze, the HD BitTorrent-based client. The client has asked the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to make new regulations prohibiting ISPs from throttling P2P traffic. The report also posted "the median reset rates experienced by more than 1,200 "autonomous system numbers," which are unique identifiers for individual IP networks and routers, as monitored using a plug-in Vuze began offering last month." Using the plug-in, Comcast users had the most frequent interruptions with BellSouth (part of AT&T) coming in second.

Showing at its booth at the High End trade show in Munich, Pioneer has unveiled its latest HD projector, the KURO KRF-9000FD home theater projector.

The "Liquid Crystal on Silicon (LCoS) KRF-9000FD is capable of displaying 1920x1080 pixel progressive video at sizes up to 14.5 by just over 8 feet." This is comparable to a 200 inch TV with even the minimum projected image about equivalent to a 60-inch TV screen.

The unit also uses a 2x motorized zoom lens allowing large images to be displayed in smaller rooms. The unit also boasts an impressive contrast ratio, 30,000:1. Another plus is Pioneer's focus n reproducing true blacks, which is seen in all its KURO line.

The company also claims great flexibility, "thanks to a lens that allows 80% vertical and 34% horizontal adjustments without affecting the image, leaving it square on the wall or screen. The native aspect ratio is 16:9 and movie theater-like 2.35:1 is supported. Brightness is rated at 600 ANSI lumens."

JVC has announced that will be making massive changes in an effort to recover its slowly dying HDTV business.

The company reported a loss of $455 million USD for the business, compared to $75 million USD for the previous year. The new loss will force the company to move its production to less expensive factories. Japanese and Scottish factories will be sold off and labor moved to Poland and Thailand respectively, added the company.

Plans were also made to shift emphasis to the large LCD TV business, which have higher margins and better sales. The company also hopes to move away from its more traditional rear-projection and tube TV businesses which are seeing fast declining sales.

Carphone Warehouse has confirmed that following their price cut on 8GB model iPhones, the unit has completely sold out in all of the retailer's stores.

A spokesman for Carphone Warehouse confirmed, "Our price promotion has given many more of our customers the opportunity to enjoy the iPhone experience."

"Due to this unprecedented demand we have now sold out of the 8GB iPhone and we're currently reviewing the stock situation."

"In the meantime, customers can still purchase the 16GB iPhone at the standard price at The Carphone Warehouse."

The retailer is now considering whether or not it wants to restock the item, with the cell network O2 stating the same thing. Both made the price cuts at the same time.

However, if you are still looking for the 8GB model, Apple still has alot in stock (they didn't drop price), both online and at its retail outlets.

Samsung and Sony will reportedly spend 1.8 trillion South Korean won (about $1.9 billion USD) to buy a new facility to upgrade their S-LCD Corporation joint venture.

The new upgrade will allow the companies to produce enough 8G LCD panels to meet "increasing global demand."

The Wall Street Journal adds that the "new manufacturing line will be located in the Tangjeong complex southeast of Seoul, where production will start in 2009. Monthly output is initially expected to reach 60,000 units, versus 50,000 sheets currently."

Samsung recently reported a robust first quarter flat-panel division profit of about 1.01 trillion South Korean won. The company also reported that margins were at a four-year high.

Both companies expect LCD TVs to be in high demand globally in preparation for the Summer Olympic Games in China.

The infamous torrent tracker The Pirate Bay has hit another milestone, 12 million peers. Making the announcement more impressive, is that only 5 months ago the site was at 8.5 million peers served.

More intriguing, from a torrent standpoint, is that TPB admin brokep says that since 2004 that amount of actual seeders on the site has increased substantially compared to hit-and-run leechers. He continues on that in 2004 only 20 percent of peers were seeding but that that number has increased to almost 50 percent, a huge number for a public torrent tracker.

Brokep added, “We have more seeders than leechers now. It was like 25% seeders 75% leechers [in 2004/2005], since then it’s gradually shifted over to 50/50.″

As if 12 million peers wasn't enough, brokep and the rest of TPB staff want a new milestone, and soon. “What we want you to do is to spread the word to your friends and make more people share files! Let’s break 15 million - and 20!”

Despite large growth in the high definition market, standard DVD sales continue to sag, and home video revenue will continue to fall, report a few notable analysts.

According to Reuters, 5 million HD movies have already been sold this year (mainly Blu-ray) and that puts the pace far ahead then 2007 which saw only 10 million movies sold for the entire year.

This strong growth however is not enough to make up for the continued sagging sales of standard definition DVDs. In 2006, movie studios generated $25 billion USD in revenue for home video releases. In 2007 the number fell to $23 billion and Citigroup analyst Jason Bazinet believes that number will fall again this year to $21.4 billion.

Citing "robust demand" for Xbox 360 consoles, Microsoft’s Entertainment and Devices division (Xbox division) has finally reported a profit, making $89 million USD for the Q3 fiscal 2008.

"During the three months ended March 31, 2008, Xbox platform and PC game revenue increased $418 million or 85% primarily as a result of increased Xbox 360 console sales, Xbox 360 video game sales, and Xbox Live revenue," the company said. "Xbox platform and PC game revenue increased $1.4 billion or 42% during the nine months ended March 31, 2008, as a result of increased Xbox 360 console sales, video game sales led by Halo 3, Xbox Live revenue, and Xbox 360 accessory sales."

Total sales for the fiscal year were up 34 percent to $6.57 billion. Microsoft cited 7.5 million 360 sales for the huge revenue growth.

The other electronic in the division is the Zune media device, which also appears to have helped to bring about the profit for the Q3. Microsoft did not go into any details however.

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has revealed that the company is not likely to cut the price of its ever popular Wii and DS gaming systems in the foreseeable future.

"Our earnings projection for the year is not based on hardware price cuts, and I don't think we are going to need them," said Iwata.

Despite supply shortages on huge demand for both systems, Nintendo revealed its fourth quarter earnings this week which showed the company has sold 18.6 million Wii consoles over the last 12 months, putting worldwide sales since launch at almost 25 million. The company also added that total sales were up 73 percent year on year "while operating income was up 115.6 percent and profit up 47.7 percent."

Nintendo added that it hopes to sell 25 million consoles worldwide for the upcoming fiscal year. To meet growing demand, the company will also be ramping up production from 1.8 to 2.4 million consoles every month. Maybe this year there will be Wiis on the retail shelves next to all those PlayStation 3s and Xbox 360s.

Apple has announced the release of the fourth beta version of its popular iPhone software development kit (SDK).

Apple's developer website explains:"The fourth beta version of the iPhone SDK includes Xcode IDE, iPhone simulator with Open GL ES support, Interface Builder, Instruments, frameworks and samples, compilers, and Shark analysis tool". The SDK also promises to improve "Audio Toolbox, NSXML Parser support and redesigned UIFont."

The announcement came during the second quarter financial results press conference call where Apple executive discussed the SDK and future releases. The company says they have been in contact with over 200 Fortune 500 companies as well as 400 higher education institutions that are applying to become iPhone developers.

Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer added that the company has already signed up 200,000 developers.

The Chinese state media has announced that its country has now surpassed the United States as the world's number one Internet-using population.

The last numbers available to Reuters, at the end of February, showed that China had 221 million Internet-users, a measly 5 million behind the US.

"Despite a rapidly increasing Internet population, the proportion of Internet users among the total population was still lower than the global average level," the Xinhua news agency said, quoting the Information Ministry.

Despite the massive number of Internet users, the proportion was only 16 percent at the end of the 2007, compared to 19 percent for the world average. The US for example, has a proportion of over 70 percent.

China has the fastest growing population of Internet users however and BDA China, a Beijing-based research firm, added that it expects China to hit 280 million Internet users by the end of the year.

Sky, the British TV network has announced that its highly anticipated on-demand TV service Go!View will hit the Sony PSP this summer.

The service will allow owners of the gaming handheld to use the built-in Wi-Fi "to watch shows offered on Sky independently of the satellite connection." Users will have the option to either pay-per-view or sign up for a monthly flat-rate subscription model. The company did say the shows could be downloaded on a PC first then transferred to the PSP later if the viewer chooses.

The network did not yet release a list of the content that will be available or the pricing structure but say they expect to offer everything from sports to full movies. There was also no word on whether the service would be PSP-exclusive or if it would expand to other handheld devices such as the iPod Touch for one example.

Westinghouse has announced today the launch of its "flexible" PT-16H610S HDTV.

The TV is dubbed by the company as a "Flexible Lifestyle Display" and is built around a 16 inch LCD display that has 720p resolution of 1366 by 768 pixels. What gives the display its name is the TVs mounting and adjustability options. It can be hung upside down or mounted on a wall, thanks in part to its dual hinges and a display image that can rotate by 180 degrees.

The 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio TV has component and HDMI inputs as well as a built-in ATSC/NTSC/ClearQAM tuner. A new anti-glare coating makes images "visible even in bright conditions." Another interesting feature is that there are no buttons and the display has a touch keypad instead. When not in use the TV conveniently folds flat to take up less room.

Samsung has finally revealed the specifications for its upcoming fourth generation Blu-ray player, the BD-P1500.

The player was first talked about at this year's CES show in January and is 1080p-capable, and includes an HDMI 1.3 output with CEC support, allowing control through home theater systems.

Other notable features are an improved upconverter chip "and ports for USB and Ethernet cables, intended to simplify the installation of firmware upgrades." It supports all audio codecs including Dolby Digital, Digital Plus and TrueHD, but will not support DTS-HD until later this year.

Alcatel-Lucent has begun court proceedings for its lawsuit against Microsoft, complaining that Microsoft's Xbox game systems violates one of the company's 1993 patents "relating to the code for generating video frames."

The partnership says it plans to demand $1.50 USD for "every alleged misuse of the patent" but it is not clear what is considered a misuse. At worst, the suit could apply to all Xboxs and Xbox 360s ever sold.

Microsoft has so far disputed the claims and also says "that four fifths of the claim applies to video frames in Windows Media Player, which is available as a separate, free download and so wouldn't generate royalties for Alcatel-Lucent."

Alcatel-Lucent began its set of lawsuits in 2002 but had them split up and separated by technologies. In 2003, the company won a $1.5 billion USD verdict from MP3 audio patents but the verdict was overturned this year. Earlier this month however, the company won $368 million USD from Microsoft over patents relating to touchscreen technology.

Samsung has introduced its Touch of Color LCD line for desktops which claims to have the same excellent visual effects as its 6 series HDTVs.

Each LCD will have the same "blown glass effect with red accents at top and bottom" but what should be most notable is the very high contrast ratios. Samsung claims dynamic lighting lets "every display output up to a 20,000:1 contrast ratio," a much higher ratio than most LCD monitors or even HDTVs.

Another very interesting feature is that the displays will offer a "virtual screen effect that lets users split multiple video sources across one display."

The line will include 19-inch (T190), 22-inch (T220), 24-inch (T240), and 26-inch (T260) screen sizes. The smaller sizes offer a blazingly fast 2ms average pixel response time and the larger models output at 5ms. The larger models however also have an HDMI input and will allow for full 1080p video from Blu-ray sources and other full HD video.

GTA IV is sure to be the biggest title to ever hit the PlayStation 3 when it is released next week, and Sony definitely knows this. With that in mind they have officially announced a system bundle that will pack the game along with the 40GB model of the system for European and Australian customers.

“We are delighted to offer the millions of PS3 and GTA fans the ultimate gaming package,” said David Reeves, president of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe.

Those expecting to receive the new DualShock 3 controller with the bundle will be disappointed however. Each bundle will include only one SIXAXIS controller. Even more disappointing is the fact that Australian buyers will have to purchase the controller separately for the shocking price of AUD$99 ($92 USD) if they want it.

Claiming increasing retail and wholesale price, Netflix has officially announced that it will be adding a "modest monthly premium" for access to the rental company's Blu-ray catalog.

Confirming what was implied by Netflix's first quarter earning calls, President and CEO Reed Hastings made the announcement official.

"Purchasing Blu-ray DVDs costs more both at retail and wholesale than standard definition DVDs, and consumers are used to paying more for high-definition content in every other channel, including video rental stores, video-on-demand, and cable channels," Hastings added. "Because of the higher cost of Blu-ray and the consumer expectations around high-def content, we are planning on implementing a modest monthly premium for access to Blu-ray some time this year."

Nikko Citigroup analysts have upgraded their rating for Sony Corporation citing their anticipation that the company will break even or even turn a profit on the PlayStation 3 beginning in August.

If their prediction is accurate, then Sony will break even at least three months earlier than analysts had previously speculated. Sony itself was not sure when it would hit profitability on the console and Sony's Kaz Hirai said that the company would was shooting for the fiscal year beginning April 2008.

Sony has always said that PS3 production costs will only ever hit break even point when the "65nm Cell processor and the 90nm are shrunk to smaller, cheaper-to-manufacture sizes, and that comes with the side effect of drawing less power and creating less heat."

It should be interesting to see when profitability occurs because may lead to more price cuts for the consumer.

Sony Computer Entertainment said this morning that the oft-delayed PlayStation Home community online service was to be delayed again, marking the third official delay since the service was announced.

The service was initially announced in July 2007 and promised to "provide users with the ability to create their own avatars and participate in a real-time virtual world," something like the popular Second Life community. At that announcement, Sony said it would be available in the fall of 2007 but then delayed it until spring of this year.

With the latest delay however comes the ability for more users to join a closed beta test. The full public beta will hit in "fall" of this year barring any other delays.

"We understand that we are asking PS3 and prospective PS3 users to wait a bit longer, but we have come to the conclusion that we need more time to refine the service to ensure a more focused gaming entertainment experience than what it is today," said Kazuo Hirai, president of Sony Computer Entertainment, in a statement.

Apple has been granted a patent that could mean an official native instant messenger application is finally coming to the popular iPhone media device.

Apple applied for the patent after the launch of the iPhone in the summer of 2007 but it was only until recently that the U.S. Patent Office approved it. The patent describes "a new instant messaging interface for touchscreen devices that lets you manipulate chat conversations in real time by editing old chats." The patent also speaks about allowing users embedding videos and images, something you cannot currently do with the iPhone. What is not clear however is if the patent will be a revised SMS application or a brand new IM application.

Apple has already showed off that AOL's AIM messenger program can be used on the phone and many users eagerly wait the addition of MMS and IM applications.

Microsoft's XP SP3 release manager Chris Keroack has announced that the long awaited Service Pack has been released to manufacturing channels and will hit OEM and enterprise customers by April 29th.

On that day the SP3 will also be available for download from the Microsoft Download Center but it will be an optional download, most likely in response to the company's recent debacle with the release of Vista SP1.

The key features of Service Pack 3 are "Microsoft's updated Management Console 3.0, which appears in Windows Server 2008 and Vista; the new Windows Installer 3.1; an update to Wi-Fi protected access; and support for Network Access Protection, the "health checking" component used by Windows Server 2008."

The official SP3 feature list is available here: Microsoft XP SP3 update list

Thanks to an apparent leak by Amazon there is now some information available on the availability of Sony's PlayTV add-on for the PlayStation 3.

The PlayTV will turn any PS3 into a "fully-fledged digital (or personal) video recorder." Amazon has it with a July 31st release date and with a price tag of £59.99. The gadget will boast "dual TV tuners, so all current Freeview channels will be available, and offer a 7-day EPG."

TV programming can then be recorded to the PS3s HDD and played back whenever you choose. Sony however, has denied official comment on the release date or price.

"We have yet to make an official announcement with regards to the release date and price of PlayTV in the UK, and we do not comment on rumour or speculation," said a Sony spokesperson.

In a situation that should crush the credibility of the ongoing court case, it has been revealed that police officer Jim Keyzer, the "star" witness in the investigation against the The Pirate Bay was recently employed by Warner Bros, one of the companies suing the admins at TPB.

The website tpbKopit.se made the discovery yesterday after searching the officer's Facebook profile. He has since deleted his profile but the damage is done.

Pirate Bay’s Peter Sunde (brokep) added: “He [Keyzer] confirmed that he is an employee there and we can’t see it in any other way than this being the reward for a work well done from the new employer of the police, the entertainment industry”

“This is a legal outrage. Talk about biased,” Sunde continues. “Keyzer is in charge of the investigation. No matter the reasons to switch employer, this investigation has not been fair. We have felt that the investigation has concentrated on trying to locate something to point out as wrong with The Pirate Bay instead of determining if the activities of the site are unlawful or not.” Read more...

Nokia is set to launch Australia's first subscription music service tomorrow in an effort to use its huge music industry clout to knock Apples' iTunes platform from the top.

The service however, should see issues as it has been revealed that songs bought from the store will be incompatible with the dominant market leader for portable media players, the Apple iPod.

Price could be another problem if you do not use the subscription plan, as each track will cost $1.70 and albums will sell for $17. However, for $10 a month, Nokia will "allow customers to stream an unlimited number of full-length tracks directly from a player built into its music store website."

The songs can be downloaded via compatible Nokia phones or on the PC and then synced over. Nokia says the 5310, 5610, 5700, N78, N81, N82, N91, N95, N96 and N76 handsets are all compatible, and other phones will work as long as they support Windows Media Player.

The Hong Kong based manufacturer Sunlink, using technologies adapted from iView, have claimed they have produced "the first portable commercial product in the world with a built-in pico-projector."

The media device, dubbed the Sunview PMPP will have a 3.5-inch touchscreen and will have the ability to output images onto walls and projection screens using the integrated pico technology.

Other companies, such as MicroVision have been actively working on such projectors but have not been able to get them into commercial devices.

The Sunview will store file on removable SD cards and "due to its use of Windows CE 5.0 and Office Viewer, can play photos, movies and presentation files." Each player has a remote so that users can control the player from up to 20 feet away.

There was no word on when the player would go on sale or a price tag.

France's largest retailer, the Carrefour Group has announced that they will be launching a movie download service that will allow customers to buy or rent movies and TV episodes.

The Group operates supermarkets and grocery stores around Europe that carry DVDs but wants to "expand its focus on entertainment, bringing it closer to customers."

Carrefour's international non-food chief, Christophe Geoffroy, said the "shopping experience would be simple and fast, with downloads taking about 3 minutes," probably meaning that most videos could be streamed. He also noted that VOD (video on demand) market in Europe was not currently great but growth was expected. He cited analyst research which predicts "Europe's movie download market will be worth over about 690 Euros (over $1 billion) by 2011."

The announcement follows Tescos similar announcement last week in which they launched a music and video download site focusing on MP3 albums.

Recently showed off at the Display 2008 expo trade show in Japan, Sony has introduced new "ultra-thin" OLED display televisions that are even thinner than its current XEL-1 model.

The XEL-1, which is currently the industry-leading OLED display is 11-inches,and measures 1.4mm (0.06in) thick. The new display model showed off will measure 0.3mm, a huge improvement from the current model.

Sony says that thanks to a "new TFT substrate and less glass, the same resolution of 960x540 pixels is possible despite the reduction in dimensions."

Even more impressive, but nowhere near commercial production, is a thinner 3.5-inch prototype display that measures a measly 0.2mm (0.008in) and features a 320x220 pixel resolution. The display will most likely be used in media devices or even mobile phones.

Italy, France, Germany and Scandinavia have begun offering DVD movies on a new format called DVD-D which is unique because it is self-erasing.

By self erasing I mean that the content on the discs are erased exactly 8 hours after the movie is first played in any DVD player or PC drive. The timer is slightly longer for DVD-Ds that have software on them, 48 hours to be exact. The new format is available at kiosks, bookstores and gas stations for about 1/3 the price of standard retail DVDs and seem to be growing in popularity.

After the time is up, inserting the disc into a player will give you a "No Disc" error message. More interestingly, there are recordable DVD-D discs available which can be recorded at up to 8x speed and DVD-5 capacity. After ordering the blanks, the client can then "specify how long the data is to remain, having the option of one-time viewing only, or a time period of 8 hours, 48 hours or otherwise."

Chinavasion has introduced a portable LCD screen for the Nintendo Wii that will allow you to play your Wii games wherever you are.

The new 7-inch TFT LCD display offers a small resolution of 480 x 234 and has built in 2.0 speakers.

The company also promises that using the display is easy, and is simply a "matter of attaching the base of the unit to the back of the Wii."

All of the necessary ports on the unit are cloned "so you can simply plug in your Nintendo power cable and keep all of your USB accessories."

According to a Times Online report, the upcoming 3G Apple iPhone will be "radically different" appearance-wise then the current models available for sale.

As quoted by the article, "Industry sources told Times Online that the device will have a 'radically different' appearance to the current device, which has a 4.5-inch screen and slick, aluminium backing.

"Among the possibilities are flip version, which would enable the screen to be larger, and a sliding model with a regular Qwerty keyboard - as opposed to a touchscreen one."

The article also adds what other outlets have been saying for weeks, that Apple has placed an order with its Asian manufacturers to produce 200,000 of the new model by the end of May and 2 million units by the end of June.

It is still unclear when the new model will launch, but many have speculated June, the one year anniversary of the launch of the current iPhone models.

Harmonix and MTV Games have announced that Judas Priest’s 1982 classic album, "Screaming For Vengeance" will be the first complete album to be added to Rock Band's downloadable content catalog on both the Xbox Live Marketplace and the PlayStation Store.

The album will hit XBL on April 22nd and the PSN two days later. Each track will cost $1.99 USD for individual songs or $15 USD for the full album.

Although full album releases were promised before Rock Band even hit retail shelves, this is the first available album, 5 months after the game's release. Harmonix CEO Alex Rigopulos says “...a big reason that it's taken us so long to get them to market is that the actual technical delivery of the assets required for any one song - they're actually pretty complicated. You're often dealing with masters for the older stuff that were recorded on analog. Often it takes a long time to even locate those masters. The right takes and the right edits have to be found, and in some cases old gear that's not in use anymore has to be resuscitated to transfer the stuff to digital.”

Iomega has announced its all-new Media Xporter drive, a game console-oriented 2.5-inch portable hard drive that will provide storage for both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 consoles.

The company says the new drive will make it "easier than ever to use game consoles and high definition televisions and other large screen TVs to share photos, videos, and music collections with family and friends."

The very portable, wallet-sized drive is USB powered and will use the USB 2.0 ports on either console to offer a plug-and-play solution alongside 160GB of media storage.

According to the press release the drive is "designed for use the Xbox 360 and PS3, the Media Xporter is also compatible with Apple computers and Microsoft Windows and is bundled with software to convert media to console-friendly formats, where necessary."

According to Microsoft, sales of the Xbox 360 gaming console in Europe have "more than doubled" since last month's across the board price cut.

Another interesting note the company reported on was that the 360 has an attachment rate of about 7 games for each console after 27 months on the market, in comparison to 3.8 units for every Sony PlayStation 3 and 3.5 games for every Nintendo Wii.

"Xbox 360 is truly the next-generation console of choice among consumers, and today’s numbers are proof that we are delivering on our commitment to achieve critical mass in Europe," said Chris Lewis, vice president of Microsoft Interactive Entertainment Business in Europe.

"The highly competitive ERP, coupled with entertainment content that's appealing to everyone in the home, makes Xbox 360 the ultimate high-definition entertainment choice, and it’s clear that we’re already seeing this resonate with consumers."

Just days after the rumor hit the Internet, Nintendo has denied that there are any plans for a launch of a new redesigned DS Lite at this year's upcoming E3 event.

The rumor and speculation began when Enterbrain president Hirokazu Hamamura made comments that suggested Nintendo was ready to headline E3 with a new hardware revision to its very popular DS handheld.

"We cannot comment on the specifics of what will be announced at E3, but at the very least there won't be anything like what Mr. Hamamura suggested, so [we] would like to clearly deny this," said Nintendo Japan's head of PR.

"We're having a hard time understanding what kind of evidence [Mr. Hamamura] had for saying this."

Hamamura suggested, citing past moves by Nintendo, that a new hardware revision is in the works because the company does such revisions every two years. The Nintendo DS Lite was launched two years ago, in 2006.

Universal has announced its roadmap for Blu-ray releases this summer and has added that its Blu-ray titles will see same day release dates as its standard definition counterparts.

The studio, which was once the premier supporter of the now obsolete HD DVD format, announced that 'Doomsday' would be their inaugural Blu-ray title, and that 40 other films would follow in the second half of 2008.

According to the source article, the releases will include 'Hellboy II: The Golden Army,' 'The Incredible Hulk,' 'Wanted,' 'Mamma Mia,' and 'The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.' In hopes to spur sales of the new Mummy installment, 'The Mummy,' 'The Mummy Returns,' and the spin-off 'The Scorpion King' will be released in late July as well on Blu-ray.

Confirmed by the official Sony blog, the company will be bringing several prominent new updates to the PlayStation 3 console including a new video service and in-game XMB.

Peter Dille, the senior VP for marketing with the PlayStation Network, confirmed that "some form of a new video service is definitely in the works", different from "others you've seen or used." The PSN currently only allows users to download demos and video trailers. In comparison, Microsoft's XBL allows users to rent and purchase full movies and TV episodes.

The other main update will be the addition of in-game XMB access. XMB is simply the main menu interface on the PSP and PS3. Dille states "that by the end of the year, some form of in-game XMB will be launched, complete with an Xbox-like achievements system."

The mobile phone groups O2 and Carphone Warehouse have announced they have slashed the price of the smallest capacity Apple iPhone in the UK by 100 pounds.

The price cut comes ahead of the launch of the new upcoming 3G model.

The 8GB model will be available for 169 pounds until June 1st while the 16GB model will remain at its now markedly expensive 329 pound price tag. The device remains O2's fastest selling device and the operator hopes the price cut will create even more momentum before the launch of the new updated model.

Earlier this month T-Mobile reduced the price for the smaller iPhone in Germany in an effort to spur sales.

"More and more this is starting to look like they want to clear stock of an older model, with a looming revision to the iPhone which will likely include 3G," CCS Insight analyst Ben Wood told Reuters.

"But also we think the iPhone has slowed down during the first quarter and we think this (a 3G launch) should give sales a bit of a lift."

After having access to their site blocked in February, the infamous torrent tracker The Pirate Bay is fighting back against the group that forced the block, threatening to sue the music industry lobby group The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) for monetary damages.

In February the IFPI accused the Danish ISP Tele2 of "aiding and abetting copyright infringement" and went to court to get the ISP to block access to the torrent tracker.

One of TPB's admins, Brokep, wrote in the official blog that the site would be seeking monetary damages for the access block if Tele2 wins its court appeal. The site remains DNS blocked until the court case is resolved. The block, in all its irony, has had a reverse effect. The Pirate Bay has jumped up 5 spots in Denmark's most popular sites traffic-wise, thanks mainly to all the media publicity surrounding the court case and the site.

Comcast, the United States' largest cable operator, and Pando Networks, have jointly announced they will be issuing a call for a "P2P bill of rights and responsibilities". Comcast also said they would begin using Pando's file sharing technology software.

The two companies hope to "convene a group of industry experts" to talk about what options and controls are necessary for consumers using P2P applications. More importantly, the companies want to "address what processes and practices ISPs should use to manage file-sharing running on their networks." One of the questions they hope to solve is "whether P2P users should have the right to control their computers' resources when using P2P applications."

For the tests, both companies will "examine how file-sharing programs run on other ISP networks, including cable, DSL, fiber and wireless and measure things like performance, speed, distance and geography and bandwidth consumption."

According to a new analysis by The NPD Group, Amazon's MP3 store is having little to no effect on the flourishing success of the iTunes store.

The study revealed that only a measly 10 percent of all Amazon MP3 users are iTunes converts and that the majority are new to direct digital downloads. NPD entertainment analyst Russ Crupnick feels that the report shows that the new stores don't necessarily draw customers away from the behemoth that is iTunes.

Amazon currently sits in fourth among all US music sales and "claims just a tenth of the sales volume at its online store," the study adds. Amazon is behind Best Buy, Wal-Mart and iTunes and will need to "significantly increase its digital sales rate to surpass the higher-ranked stores" reads the study.

MySpace TV has announced that it has signed a content distribution agreement with ShineReveille. The new international partnership will allow ShineReveille "to distribute MySpace TV series’ over TV and on DVD to an international audience."

As part of the deal, MySpace TV can continue to distribute content in the United States and maintains all international web and mobile distribution rights. ShineReveille is a distributor of "a broad array of programming from independent producers and U.S. networks around the world in 150 different territories."

Travis Katz, Managing Director of International for MySpace added in a statement, “MySpace provides the creative community with a launch pad to virally test and distribute content to the world’s largest focus group. MySpaceTV has quickly become Hollywood’s digital playground and our relationship with ShineReveille opens up the globe to MySpace’s international content creators.”

The large British retailer Tesco has announced that it will be launching Tesco Downloads, a digital and video store.

The service will be similar to that of Amazon and Wal-Mart which offer a "web-based interface". The service will offer 3.3 million songs initially with about half being unprotected MP3 versions that will work with all media devices including iPods. The other 1.6 million tracks that have DRM will be available as MP3s by the end of the year, added the company.

Pricing structure is the same as it is in the UK, with £0.79 per track and £8 per full album. As an added bonus however, Tesco will "tie the online store to its physical presence and will offer clubcard points for each download that translate to discounts either on other products or content at retail shops."

The store is accessible immediately but the store will formally launch in May with the full music catalog. Movies and TV episodes will be available later in the year, promises the company.

The BBC's head of digital media technology Anthony Rose has reported that the PlayStation 3 is on the iPlayer's "roadmap" and that official support will be coming, eventually.

Rose, writing in his blog, was reacting to the now popular website ps3iplayer.com, which has allowed any PS3 owner to stream the iPlayer on their console.

"We'd love to be on every popular device tomorrow, including the PS3, and it was on our roadmap," he wrote.

"We're investigating the optimal video profile and browser proposition to enable us to officially make iPlayer available on PS3 in due course."

For the time being, official support for the iPlayer is only on the Nintendo Wii and Rose wants to make it more accessible but claims the company is "hampered by resource limitations."

According to a report in the Electronic Times, the LG Voyager touchscreen phone has been so popular with its current exclusive US carrier, Verizon, that the company is looking to introduce it with other carriers.

Citing an unnamed LG official, the report says the phone's success has been so "surprisingly strong" that AT&T and Sprint versions will be available sometime this year. Despite being limited to only one carrier, the handset has sold over 1.1 million units to date.

There was no word on when this year the new versions will be available or even what changes will be made to the new editions except for the obvious CDMA to GSM network switch for AT&T. For Sprint, the carrier will either need to "launch a broadcast digital TV service or else strip out the MediaFLO TV tuner that would be supported both by AT&T and Verizon's existing network."

Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter has forecasted that US video game sales will have jumped 47 percent year on year from March 2007 to March 2008 to $850 million USD.

More official NPD Group data will be available later this week, but Patcher also reported that the PlayStation 3 will have outsold the Xbox 360 but that both combined were outsold by the ever popular Nintendo Wii. He estimated the Wii sold 700,000 consoles for the month.

More interestingly, Patcher also reported that he belives "Nintendo is now diverting a significant portion of its supply to Europe due to the weakening dollar, but that the company did ship the US its "fair share" in March to support the launch of Super Smash Bros. Brawl."

Since its launch in early January, YouTorrent has become one of the most, if not the most, popular BitTorrent search engines. The site, which claims it is "the world's first real-time torrent comparison search engine",has announced however that it will be shifting policy and will now only "index sites that host torrent files linking to “licensed” content."

The site, which currently attracts 10 million unique visitors per month, has seen enormous growth over the past month, mainly thanks to its ability to search most of the bigger BitTorrent sites. The policy change will eliminate that last fact and could end YouTorrent's enormous popularity.

Patrick, one of founders of YouTorrent, explained: “Due to the uncertain nature of the source and accuracy of the results returned by some engines, we have decided to reduce our engine selection to ones that claim the provision of licensed, certified content.”

At the NAB yearly meeting this week, Sony has reaffirmed its commitment to Blu-ray Java (BD-J) and announced new upgrades to all authoring software by Sony and third party sources.

With these latest announcements, Sony hopes to silence critics which had complained, and rightfully so, that HD DVD was the far more advanced format in terms of authoring functionality.

In January, Last.FM began offering music streaming on-demand instead of by simple genre or keyword searches. Three times a day users can listen to a track of their choosing regardless of artist or genre.

With the format change also came affiliate partnerships with iTunes, Amazon and 7Digital that allows Last.FM users to click through from any song they are listening to and purchase the tracks from said affiliates.

It seems the recent change in format has led to substantial added sales, a 119 percent overall increase in cd and download sales through the affiliates.

Martin Stiksel, Last.fm's founder, feels the stats demonstrate that free on-demand music will encourage physical purchases and that the music industry should adopt more on demand models. "In just over two months it's become clear that people will buy CDs and downloads if they get access to the kind of service we offer. No one else can give music fans this amount of music for free -- but more importantly also drive their discovery, as we do through our unique recommendation engine. That's why people are sticking around on Last.fm -- minutes spent on site are up 118% month-on-month -- and discovering new music to listen to and buy," he added.

According to a new Jupiter research study, "a combination of disinterest and unnecessary hurdles" is currently stopping most mobile phone users from using mobile music downloads.

Out of the 1800 respondents, two thirds (a bit over 66 percent) said there was nothing the carriers could do to make them want to buy music on their phones while 28 percent said they were interested in ringtones. The remaining 14 percent were interested in purchasing full tracks.

Of those who could not be conned into purchasing tracks, the price of the downloads was the main barrier. Many said they would reconsider if the prices were equal to those of say Amazon or iTunes but many carriers charge a huge premium "to offset the extra network Bandwidth costs."

"Absent some exciting new business models, music labels and carriers will continue to cede most of the digital-music turf to Apple," Jupiter says.

Besides price issues, those polled were also frustrated by the inaccessibility of the music, with many finding it very hard to find or download using a phone. Many also complained about ridiculous DRM restrictions on the music as well as the quality.

After being shut down by the CRIA last November, the popular public torrent Tracker site Demonoid has seemingly made its long anticipated return.

The greeting message at the site reads as follow: "Welcome back!

Since a few months ago, Deimos, the site administrator, lacks the necessary time to take care of the website, because of personal matters he's been needing to attend to. For this reason, he has decided to leave the site staff.

Before leaving, he assigned a new site administrator from among his friends to take care of the site. The old moderator team will continue helping with the site, unchanged. We will try to keep running everything just as it always has been.

The trackers and website seem to be working properly, and should any issues arise, they will be taken care of as soon as possible. The site might be going on and offline over the next days as we work out any problems.

Welcome back, and enjoy your stay!

The new reopening is also coming with conspiracy theorists however. Many point out the example of ShareReactor, the large eDonkey site which was closed down by raids in 2004 but made a return in 2006. It was revealed that the site was under “new management” and traffic declined so low that the site was taken down again.

Shuttle has announced the launch of its latest small form factor PC, the XPC G5 6801M Vista , which includes a dual format HD drive by LG allowing playback of bothHD DVD and Blu-ray films.

The PC uses a Radeon HD 3450 with full 1080p Resolution which can output in either DVI or HDMI through a bundled adapter.

Somewhat surprisingly, the Shuttle will run on an AMD CPU, with basic setups starting at a 2.2GHz Athlon 64 X2 all the way up to its latest 3GHz equivalent. "The system also comes with at least a dual DVB-T tuner for digital over-the-air broadcasts, a 320GB hard drive, and 2GB of memory." At its cheapest, with the Blu-ray/HD DVD drive, the 6801M Vista costs $1,721 USD and is available now.

Famitsu publisher Hirokazu Hamamura has today said that Nintendo is "likely to introduce a new version of its DS handheld" at the upcoming E3 event.

Without specifically mentioning sources, Hamamura cited "murmurings in the industry as well as historical evidence" as signs of an upcoming replacement. Nintendo has released a new or updated handheld every 2 years since the early 90s and the DS Lite was released in 2006.

Nintendo has not commented on the story, and "has nothing to say at this time," according to a spokesperson.

There have been few details about a new replacement but many have speculated that a new upgrade would add "media functions, such as dedicated audio and video playback as well as an additional slot for removable storage."

Blockbuster has announced that it will finally be expanding its Blu-ray offering. Despite Blu-ray's official launch in June 2006, the large rental service only began stocking the HD discs in July 2007 in limited offerings.

The company will now be expanding its Blu-ray offering from 1700 stores to 5000 stores within the United States and Canada. For those who use the online mail service, the company will offer Blu-ray as an optional default medium. In store, HDTVs paired with PlayStation 3 consoles will serve as demonstration kiosks.

Although Blockbuster has never specifically explained the low offering of Blu-ray films in its stores, the reason was most likely the existence of HD DVD, Blu-ray's now obsolete format rival. Had tables been turned, Blockbuster could have been stuck with many discs with low resale value.

The PlayStation 3 has surpassed another milestone in Japan, passing the 2 million units sold mark after a strong sales week.

Sony's popular handheld, the PSP, had a very strong week as well in the territory and sold 121,000 units for the week ended April 6th. The Nintendo DS sold under half of the PSP, with 55,000 units for the week. The usually strong Wii sold a little less than usual at 44,600.

The PS3 sold 11,000 units as of April 6th to hit the 2 million sold milestone in Sony's home territory.

The rest of the list, courtesy of the source article are as follows:

* 1. PlayStation Portable (120,964)
* 2. Nintendo DS (55,190)
* 3. Nintendo Wii (44,618)
* 4. PlayStation 3 (11,303)
* 5. PlayStation 2 (10,423)
* 6. Xbox 360 (1452)

Sony Computer Entertainment America has revealed that a new PlayStation 3 SKU will be hitting retail shelves to accompany the release of Konami's Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots.

The new bundle will have a "gunmetal grey" colorway console, a copy of the game, and "very, very Limited edition" packaging, according to Sony.

Besides the latest bundle, Sony will also be resurrecting the 80GB PS3 for an MGS4 bundle and that bundle will include a PS3 DualShock 3 controller and the game.

As another added incentive, consumers that pre-order the game will receive a free Metal Gear Saga Vol. 2 DVD and "a voucher for access to the Metal Gear Online beta trials."

After banning access to the site on Tuesday, Indonesian ISPs have now stopped blocking YouTube and other file-sharing Web sites. The sites had been blocked because an anti-Islam film produced by Dutch politician Geert Wilders brought complaints from Indonesian users.

Instead, the ISPs will try to block individual pages that host the movie.

"It is like removing cancer from the body without making the patient die," Information and Communication Minister Mohammad Nuh told reporters.

On Tuesday, the Indonesian government ordered the ISPs to block YouTube, MySpace and other video sharing sites but most users had no trouble circumventing the ban.

After the ban, the Jakarta Post newspaper wrote in an editorial that the block "sent a disturbing sign that the president and his advisers are not only dumb, but also dangerous. It shows a mind-set that takes us back a decade to the era of censorship."

The controversial film, which shows scenes of recent terror attacks alongside verses from the Islam holy book, the Quran, has been "condemned as racist and misleading by governments around the world" and has led YouTube to being banned in several countries including Turkey and China.

The large UK retailer Shopto has confirmed that a new PlayStation 3 bundle including the upcoming blockbuster game Grand Theft Auto IV will be hitting Europe on April 29th.

It was still unclear however who would be distributing the product in the UK. Gem, which has the exclusive distribution contract with publisher Take-Two, and Centresoft, the company that handles distribution for Sony seem the two likely candidates.

"We know for a fact it is coming out in Europe and we are expecting an announcement in the UK any time," confirmed Igor Cipolletta, COO of Shopto.com.

"We are not sure if Gem or Centresoft are distributing it yet, that seems to be the hold up," he added.

The bundle will have a MSRP of GBP 299 and will be on retail shelves the same day as the launch of the game.

Although Microsoft ended production on its Xbox 360 HD DVD addon it hasannounced that yesterday a software update was made available for the drive and its thousands of owners.

All the user has to do to get the update is to attempt to play an HD DVD movie in the drive and Xbox Live will immediately prompt you for an update. If you do not have access to Xbox Live, the download will be available from Microsoft later this week.

The update is mainly to improve compatibilities with select titles. There have been reports of playback problems on the drive for certain movies and Microsoft says that they should be eliminated after the new update. Network features have been expanded as well but it is still unclear for how long studios will maintain the content for those network-enabled movies.

Flickr, the well known photo sharing site, has announced that it will begin offering video Streaming in an effort to rival the dominant market leader, YouTube.

Flickr, which is owned by Yahoo!, made the announcement today but with a hitch. Movies will be Limited to only 90 seconds long and 150 MB in size. The movies will be shown as thumbnails next to user's uploaded photos.

All Flickr visitors "will be access all of the tools for videos that they can currently for photos - namely users can add comments, captions, comments, geotags, and privacy restrictions so only friends or family may view their videos." The videos can also be embedded on other sites.

Flickr's staff said the new decision was based on the fact that an increasing number of digital cameras and DSLRs offer video recording. Although it will now offer video streaming, the company insists it does not want to be the next YouTube and instead wants a more personal touch for friends and family to upload short movies. Read more...

The BBC has announced that its popular iPlayer will be coming to the Nintendo Wii console soon marking the second time in recent weeks that the BBC has made partnerships for its service.

For those unaware, the iPlayer offers content from many of the BBC's TV shows and radio stations.

"Working with Nintendo marks another exciting milestone for BBC iPlayer," commented Erik Huggers, group controller for Future Media and Technology at the BBC.

"It underlines our commitment to reaching new audiences by making BBC iPlayer available on as many platforms as possible.

"The BBC's catch-up TV service can now be accessed on an increasing number of different platforms - from the web and portable devices to gaming consoles. It will shortly be available on TV."

The one hitch is that current Wii owners need to pay a fee to have the Internet Channel but the BBC noted that it is looking into way to making the iPlayer service completely free in the future. Read more...

To anyone who was upset at the demise of HD DVD, Amazon has announced a credit for any early adopter who bought an HD DVD player before February 23rd of this year.

Anyone who purchased the player is eligible and should receive an email with a code for $50 USD in credit for a future purchase at the e-tailer. Recently, Best Buy announced a similar credit offering for early adopters.

The fine print of the email looks like this:


Amazon.com Special Offer: $50 Off a Future Purchase

Fine Print:

* On February 23, 2008, the last manufacturer of HD DVD players announced it was ceasing production of those players.


** Offer cannot be used to pay for special-order titles, e-books or downloadable e-content, wireless service plans, gift certificates, gift-wrap, taxes, or shipping and handling charges. $50.00 promotional credit is per HD DVD player purchased prior to February 23, 2008--up to 10 units for a maximum credit of $500.00. Read more...

According to Bill Gates, the upcoming Windows 7 operating system will be arriving sooner than previously reported, and as soon as 2009.

During a speech for the Inter-American Development Bank, Gates said, "Sometime in the next year or so we will have a new version. [of the Vista OS]"

It is unclear if Gates meant the full commercial rollout of the new OS or just a beta but either way it seems development is moving swiftly. Microsoft has already sent a test version of Windows 7 to the US government. Previously, Microsoft reported that Windows 7 was coming at the earliest in 2010.

Continuing on, Gates talked out about his excitement for the upcoming operating system. "I'm super-enthused about what it will do in lots of ways."

There is still no word on what new features will be added, but we will keep you updated.

Following last month's launch of a 19-inch 10,000:1 Digital Fine Contrast ratio display, LG has announced the launch of the W2252TQ 22-inch Widescreen monitor with the same contrast ratio.

Like its smaller brother, the display is "powered by LG's picture enhancing Chipset, F-Engine," and LG claims the latest display has the "best image definition and colour reproduction available today."

Among the other notable specifications, according to the source article, are:

- 10,000:1 DFC (when in F-Engine "Movie Mode")
- 2ms response time (grey-to-grey)
- 1680 x 1050 resolution
- 300 nits brightness/16.7cd/m2
- 170 degree viewing angle

According to "sources" cited by MTV News, Microsoft has been developing a Wiimote-like controller for the Xbox 360 for 9 months and plans to release it at some point this year.

The new 360 controller will be similarly shaped to the Wiimote and will have "a speaker, microphone, four LED lights, A/B/X/Y face buttons, an analogue stick and an underside trigger."

Gameplay would be like "Halo, Gears and Forza in waggle form", but there seems to be some issues with the development of the controller so far. Developers are split at Microsoft with some wanting it to be as Wii-like as possible while others want the controller to be more feature rich. If the controller is exactly like the Wiimote, games can be ported from the Wii, argues the first set of developers.

The source also notes that Microsoft is working on Mii-like avatars and that the software is being created by Rare.

The rough sketch by the source looks like this:

WhyBuyGames.com,, the large European online rental company has announced that it will be adding Blu-ray movies to its current stock of video games.

The company secured external capital investment to fund the expansion, has said the decision was made due to the growth in Blu-ray player sales. The company also noted that sales "jumped sevenfold since the collapse of Toshiba's HD-DVD format."

Co-founder Aaron Barrett says he hopes that Blu-ray will account for as much as 20 percent of the company's profits in the future but that Xbox 360 games are the most popular at the moment. PlayStation 3 games were gaining popularity however.

"There has been a significant rise in PS3 game rentals this year," he said. "Due to the increase in PS3 game rentals we decided to expand our services to offer Blu-ray films and have noticed that customers are increasingly adding these into there rental queues."

"The videogame rental market has had significant growth over the last five years and is forecast to increase further but at a steadier rate," he noted. "With the cost of game development for next-gen consoles rising, the RRP has to be adjusted to reflect this - which puts game purchases for a lot of people at a low priority. Read more...

The Lenovo Group has announced the completion of the sale of its mobile phone handset division to a group of investors. The sale, which was originally announced last week, was finally completed today and marks the end of Lenovo's try in the mobile phone business.

The company, which specializes in desktop and notebook PCs, decided their mobile phone business was a failure and was distracting from the company's core businesses. The deal has been valued at $100 million USD and was approved by shareholders on March 17.

Lenovo's phones were sold mainly in Asia and accounted for $108 million USD in revenue during the quarter ended on Dec. 31, 2007. That small figure only accounted for 2.4 percent of the company's total sales during that Period and the total shipments declined by over 30 percent year over year.

Recently, the large ISP Comcast began sacrificing quality for quantity in their broadcasts by degrading the quality of their HD video to make room for more channels.

Beginning on April 9th, Rogers Cable, of Canada will follow suit and will begin compressing 15 of its HD channels. The channels affected by the new announcement, according to Digital Home Canada, are as follows:

* HD PBS Buffalo
* HD WGN
* HD The Score
* HD Showcase
* HD National Geographic
* HD Mpix
* HD Discovery
* HD MORE
* HD TMN
* HD NBC Seattle
* HD SUN
* HD RAP
* HDA&E
* HDCNN
* HDNET

The selection of channels are so-called "premium networks" that subscribers normally purchase separately from basic digital and HD channels. Using a comparison picture provided by the source article, the Compression artifacts are very noticeable. Fortunately, major American networks such as ABC and FOX, and Canadian networks CBC, CTV, Global, and sports network TSN were omitted from the list.

Rumors have begun circulating that eBay is actively looking to offload Skype and that search engine giant Google is a willing buyer.

Skype, which was purchased by the auction company in 2005 for $3.1 billion USD, has not shown eBay the growth it expected and now it seems the company would rather get rid of it then continue to try to turn a profit. For fiscal 2007, the VoIP service recorded a decent sized loss which led to the ousting of CEO Niklas Zennstrom.

It is not sure whether Google wants a partnership or to purchase the company, but both eBay and Google refused comment for the time being.

More information as it becomes available.

After massive delays, Nokia's N-Gage service is finally up and ready for business, letting smartphone users download games.

"We are live! The games, the devices, and the community are all here for you to finally get your teeth into. There will be an official announcement on Monday, but for you, the N-Gage faithful we wanted to let you know we're up and running" read the official N-gage blog.

At launch, only owners of the Nokia N81 8GB, N81 SD, N82, N95, and N95 8GB phones will be able to use N-Gage, but more compatible models are coming, says the company.

Nokia also adds that there is huge interest for gaming on cell phones and interest keeps growing.

"We did a survey in England and 90 percent wanted to play games, but very few had actually bought a game for their phone," said Christophe Joyau, responsible for services at Nokia in Scandinavia. Joyau notes that mobile gaming has been a failure so far because "there is nowhere to try games, gaming experiences have been poor, and the games are difficult to use." Nokia hopes N-Gage will solve all these problems.

It appears that the Apple iPhone isn't selling as well as hoped in Germany , and in response Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile arm will be dropping the price of the media device 99 Euros for a promotional Period of two months.

The promotional period will begin on April 7th and end on June 30th and is a pretty steep discount from the device's MSRP of 399 Euros. The company does note however that the price drop is only on the 8GB model. There is another catch to the price drop however. "Customers must agree to a monthly calling contract that costs at least 89 euros per month. Those opting for a new "starter" iPhone contract that runs 29 euros per month can purchase the phone for 249 euros during the two month period."

After the price cut, Germany appears to be the first country where the iPhone price has fallen under the Apple suggested price suggesting lackluster sales.

Panasonic has announced that it plans to incorporate brand new, miniature plasma displays in cellphones and other small media devices.

The low-voltage plasma technology will be used in phones using AT&T's "Mobile TV" service which will "provide full-length television content and sporting events from major US channels, due to launch in May."

At a press event in the States, Mark Balsama, national marketing manager for Panasonic said: "I have a very exciting announcement to make..."

"For nearly a decade, Panasonic's engineers have been secretly working on a thin, lightweight low-voltage compact Plasma display ... We will be able to incorporate miniature plasma displays into both consumer and business telephone products starting this fall. They will rival OLED displays for brightness, contrast and thinness, and can be manufactured for much less money."

"We'll be able to put plasma in Cell phones, business phones, consumer phones, corded phones, cordless phones, and even door intercom monitors and fax machines. We will revolutionise the consumer electronics business, as Panasonic has done many times before."

According to Reuters, the media research firm Interpret has revealed that just about 60 percent of American consumers are now aware of Blu-ray as a disc format and that the number of households with Blu-ray players is approaching the 10 million mark.

The report, a survey of consumers aged 18-54, is unfortunately outdated already however, as it was conducted in mid-January, Right after Warner's decision to go Blu-ray but before the recent demise of rival HD DVD.

The study did find some interesting stats however. Men 18-34 in the US had a Blu-ray awareness of 76 percent while awareness is at 56 percent in Great Britain, 49 percent in Germany, 45 percent in Japan and a lowly 30 percent in France.

Sony has reported that it intends to continue cutting production costs across the board on its goods as well as fulfill "more orders in an attempt to offset the reductions in export profits caused by the strengthening yen currency."

The current economy of the United States has seen the dollar lose significant ground to the yen over the past year and that fact could impact whether or not the electronics giant can offer another price cut on the PlayStation 3 gaming console in the near future. Last year, a price cut on the console spurred a sales growth beyond expectations.

"As to the situation of the US dollar's weakness in the medium to long term, we already have a strategy to deal with it," said Ryoji Chubachi, Sony president.

"We will lower our production costs as possible as we can and we will choose production sites to cope with the industry's weakness, and in the short term, we will try to accept more orders."

According to MSN Money, "for every JPY 1 gain versus the US dollar, Sony loses around JPY 6 billion (USD 58.3 million / EUR 37.5 million). In the past year the yen has moved from an exchange rate of 111 to the US dollar, to 102.5 - representing a loss of around JPY 51 billion (USD 496 million / EUR 318 million) for Sony."

According to a new NPD Group report, 72 percent of all Americans played video games in 2007, up almost 10 percent from 2006. From the group that said they played video games, half of them played games online.

The study, "Online Gaming 2008" reported that PC was the driving force behind online gaming but that console users were increasing their online playtime.

"Despite the buzz in the industry regarding online gaming, it is still relatively small compared to offline gaming," said NPD Group analyst Anita Frazier.

"There is still a large, untapped market for gaming in general and online gaming in particular."

Another interesting note was that children aged 2 to 12 accounted for over 25 percent of online gaming,and that 18 to 24 year-old represented only 10 percent of online gaming.

Not surprisingly, the Xbox 360 was the favored system for consoles and online play and that 360 owners "actually spent more time per week using their console to play games online than PC and PS3 owners."

The report was based on a survey of 20,240 consumer panel members which was conducted for two weeks earlier this year.

Despite widespread rumors to the contrary, Microsoft has once again denied that they are bringing a new generation of Xbox 360s with Blu-ray internal drives.

The rumor began again after DigiTimes stated that Lite-On was working on a Blu-ray drive for Microsoft and that shipments were beginning later this year.

Microsoft has since denied the rumor. “Lite-On is not manufacturing Blu-ray drives for Xbox 360. As we have stated, games are what are driving consumers to purchase game consoles and we remain focused on providing the largest library of blockbuster game available.”

The Microsoft representative added, “For our customers who want a premium movie experience we offer the largest library of on-demand HD content available and the ability to play back DVDs in High Definition.“

Orange France,, the service provider for the Apple iPhone in France has released the sales figures for the device in the country marking the first time an individual country's iPhones sold stats have been released by anyone but Apple.

According to Pocketlint, an "Orange France spokesperson has said they have sold 90,000 iPhones in total since the device went on sale in late November last year."

Of the 90,000 units sold, 86 percent were sold with an iPhone-specific price plans and the remaining 14 percent were not which is odd because it is a legal requirement in France.

Last month, the UK iPhone operator O2 claimed the device was the "company's fastest selling device it has ever had in the UK," but did not go into any sales figure.

At the beginning of the year Apple announced that they had sold 4 million units worldwide.

According to the latest figures from Chart-Track, the Microsoft Xbox 360 is very close to hitting 2 million units sold in the UK. The figure, when hit, will be a big milestone for the console.

Thanks to a sales spurt brought upon by the Easter season and recent price cuts, the console is now in fierce competition with the PlayStation 3 in the territory.

Dorian Bloch, director of UK sales monitor Chart-Track, added, "We are very close to clocking through 2 million 360s in the UK. It should be next week."

The 360 originally launched in the UK in December of 2005 and reached the 1 million sold milestone after 60 weeks. The PS3, which was launched in ther territory in March of 2007, hit 1 million sold last month.

"The Xbox 360 is extremely well liked in the UK and very strong," added Bloch. "Sony has a long way to go to overtake it in the UK."

Although unconfirmed, industry sources are quoted as saying that Lite-On IT is currently developing Blu-ray Disc-(BD) ROM drives for the Microsoft Xbox 360 console and that they will begin shipments in the 3Q 2008.

Lite-On is one of the suppliers of the current Xbox-360 INTERNAL DVD-ROM drive but Lite-On and Microsoft have not commented on the speculation.

The sources continued by adding that Microsoft decided to switch to BD after the demise of HD DVD and that the new BD-drives will be fore next generation Xbox 360 game consoles.

Lite-On already ships BD-ROM and BD burners on a steady basis.