News written by Andre Yoskowitz (June, 2008)

Samsung SDI said today that it will be spending over $500 million USD to boost production of next-generation OLED displays to six times its current level by mid-2009.

This latest move comes as panel makers try to get bigger shares of the growing market for OLED displays, which offer better contrast ratio, slimmer designs and better energy efficiency than current LCD or plasma displays.

Currently, however, production costs are still high, too high to make OLED TVs available to the masses.

Samsung currently produces small-sized AM-OLED screens used in watches and other handheld devices and there was no word on whether this large new investment will be to increase production of small OLED screens or for all OLED production including TVs.

Using 2-inch screens as a basis, the new investment should raise capacity from 1.5 million units a month to over 9 million by mid-2009.

MCE Technologies has announced it is bringing a 6x Blu-ray burner to Macs that can playback DVDs at 16x as well as read both Blu-ray and HD DVD.

The drive also has LightScribe compatibility and will allow professionals to author Blu-ray movies using Adobe Premier Pro CS3's Encore software. Non-professionals can use Roxio's Toast 9 Titanium (with the Toast HD/BD plug-in) to author more simple BD movies.

The bare drive is meant for Mac Pro or Power Mac G4/G5 running Mac OS X 10.4 or higher and can only use the HD DVD and Blu-ray playback if using Windows XP/Vista through a Boot Camp partition.

The drive will retail for $500 USD with an external model selling for $750 USD.

According to the specs, the new "Blu-ray drive works with all DVD and CD media, and writes to both 25 GB and 50 GB BD-R and BD-RE (rewritable) Blu-ray disks. Speed specs for the new drive are 6X for 25 GB BD-R, 4X to 50 GB BD-R and 16X to DVD±R. It also burns at 4X speeds to DVD±R DL, 5X to DVD-RAM and 40X to CD-R media, among others."

Sony Europe has confirmed that the PlayStation 3 DualShock 3 controller will finally hit Europe on July 4th, months after it was launched in Japan and North America.

The controller adds "rumble" vibration technology to the PS3, a feature that many gamers missed when the Sixaxis controller was released with the console.

"We are delighted to confirm that DualShock 3 will be released in SCEE territories in early July. We hope this will add to the intense gaming experience for our fans, as we continue to evolve PS3, its software and its peripherals," added David Reeves, president of SCEE.

The DS3 will cost GBP 39.99 and is usable for games such as Resistance: Fall of Man, Gran Turismo 5 and Uncharted: Drake's Fortune as long as you have firmware 1.94 or higher.

Today, Real announced the beta launch of its DRM-Free Rhapsody MP3 Store, a completely different service then its current DRM-based subscription service.

The new store will sell MP3s and has already secured the full catalogs of all the Big 4 music labels. The store also promises to allow subscribers full-length previews of any song they want before purchasing while non-subscribers can preview up to 25 complete songs.

Giving the store another edge over rivals such as iTunes, Amazon and Napster is Real's exclusive connection to MTV, CMT and VH1. Facebook users can also access the service and individual songs directly using the iLike application.

The Rhapsody service will not however, offer re-downloads for misplaced music like Amazon does.

Pricing for the service is identical to that of Napster, with individual songs costing 99 cents and full albums usually priced at $10. The company adds "Windows-only subscriptions will remain in place and cost $13 per month for PCs alone or $15 for those who also want device transfers to Rhapsody-compatible devices."

Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli is in the news again for talking about how PC game piracy has affected his company and sales of its blockbuster hit Crysis. Last month, Yerli said the company would no longer be PC exclusive because of piracy and would bring future titles to multiple platforms.

In this most recent interview, Yerli was asked what he felt were the reasons behind Crysis' "lacluster" sales and he responded with putting most of the blame on PC piracy.

"The PC industry is really, at the moment, I would say the most intensely pirated market ever. It's crazy how the ratio between sales to piracy is probably 1 to 15 to 1 to 20 right now," Yerli said.

"For one sale there are 15 to 20 pirates and pirate versions, and that's a big shame for the PC industry. I hope with Warhead I hope we improve the situation, but at the same time it may have an impact on [our] PC exclusivity in the future."

Panasonic executives are denying recent reports that they will have a 37-inch OLED TV on the market by 2012, and instead say that the launch date is closer to 2015. Official timelines were not available but the company did say R&D was continuing in Japan.

The recent reports had Panasonic readying commercial OLED displays at its Himeji production facility beginning in 2010. The manufacturer confirms the facility will eventually produce the OLED panels but not in time to have mass-produced displays by 2012.

"We are currently advancing research and development in view of OLED production at IPS Alpha's Himeji Plant for the future, but nothing specific has yet been decided on the commercialization of our OLED TV at the moment," added a spokesperson.

According to an article in the Financial Times, the BBC is planning on bringing a set-top box to the market that will allow iPlayer users to transfer web video to their HDTVs.

The set top box, which will face competition from Apple TV and the newly introduced Roku from Netflix would allow users with broadband connections to have instant IPTV.

Mark Thompson, BBC director-general, added, "There are many things out there in the market but what we haven't got is a simple standard, to mean that you can get services like iPlayer and Kangaroo."

It also appears the BBC is talking with content owners hoping to strike deals making their content available. If the set top box does come through, the BBC will most likely more directly compete with BSkyB and its digital video recorder service Sky+.

Would-be iPhone 3G customers in Canada have just been hit with the news that Rogers will require a 3-year contract for the smartphone along with the mandatory data plan.

The carrier also announced the price of the plans, with the cheapest at $60 CAD and the most expensive being $115 CAD although the the carrier did not say how much the phone itself will cost when it hits on July 11th.

The lower end plan will come with 150 minutes of voice calling, with unlimited evenings and weekends, 400 MB of data, 75 sent text messages, and unlimited incoming texts and visual voicemail messages.

The medium $75 plan will get you 300 weekday minutes, 750 MB of data, and 100 sent texts.

The most expensive, $115, will get subscribers 800 minutes of daytime calling, 2 GB of data, and 300 sent text messages.

Rogers said the 400MB plan is enough bandwidth for 200,000 emails and 3000 web pages browsed. The 2GB plan will get you 1 million emails and 16,000 web pages.

Despite unlimited access to all Rogers Wi-Fi hotspots, many predict that even 2GB will not be enough to satisfy most iPhone users. In comparison, in the US AT&T offers an unlimited data plan for $30 USD on top of a $39 USD voice plan.

Following in the footsteps of a few artists before her, the Australian singer/songwriter Joss Stone has begun encouraging fans to share her music online, going as far as to call piracy "brilliant".

In a recent interview, the artist admits she loves music but hates the music industry and feels that most artists are brainwashed by the industry.

When asked after a recent concert how she felt about piracy and unauthorized downloads on the Internet, she replied, “I think it’s great…yeah, I love it. I think it’s brilliant and I’ll tell you why,” Stone continued. “Music should be shared. [...] The only part about music that I dislike is the business that is attached to it. Now, if music is free, then there is no business, there is just music. So, I like it, I think that we should share.”

“It’s ok, if one person buys it, it’s totally cool, burn it up, share it with your friends, I don’t care. I don’t care how you hear it as long as you hear it. As long as you come to my show, and have a great time listening to the live show it’s totally cool. I don’t mind. I’m happy that they hear it.”

In order to "set an example", Portugal's first convicted file sharer has been sentenced to 90 days in prison. The man, who remains unnamed, had been in court after the Portuguese version of the RIAA accused him of unauthorized uploading of music on P2P networks.

The punishment was decided upon by the court in Portimão in an effort to set an example for future file sharers.

The Portuguese Phonographic Association (AFP), the Portuguese equivalent of the RIAA sent out a complaint about the file sharer which was confirmed by EMI. The user was accused of uploading a couple hundred of EMI's copyrighted songs. The courts confirmed that there were over 100 other complaints being investigated currently.

A spokesperson for the EMI said he was pleased by the decision, a "necessary evil" that should be employed to stop future file sharers. “The problem is people know they are doing something illegal, but they also know there are no consequences, at least until this week,” he added.

BT, the largest broadband service provider in the UK, has begun threatening "pirates" with disconnection from the Internet if they are found to be sharing copyrighted music over file sharing networks.

An anonymous broadband user forwarded one such email to TheRegister and the letter indeed showed that the woman was being threatened with disconnection for the unauthorized sharing of "Biology" by Girls Aloud. The sharing occurred using the file sharing program Ares in May and she received the letter this week.

Geoff Taylor, the chief of UK record industry trade body the BPI said in a statement, "Establishing partnerships with ISPs is the number one issue for the BPI, and we are beginning to form positive working relationships with BT, Virgin Media and most of the other major ISPs."

It was still unclear whether BT has signed on to the so-called "three strikes" procedure agreed upon by the record industry and the government. Accused users will get two warnings for infringing music copyright and the third strike will be disconnection from the Internet.

Taylor added, "Everyone agrees on where we need to be, and we are working closely with our colleagues across the music community, the more progressive ISPs, and government to get us there."

According to a Department of Justice press statement, Daniel Dove, administrator for the defunct EliteTorrents torrent tracker has been found guilty by a jury of his peers and now faces 10 years in jail for criminal copyright infringement.

To give a quick refresher on the situation, EliteTorrents, for at least a 3 year period ended 2005, was the most popular public torrent tracker in the US and was the site responsible for the pre-release of the workprint version of "Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith" before its theatrical release. It was all downhill from there for the site and its 3 administrators. The MPAA, FBI, local police and US Customs all came together as part of Operation D-Elite and forced the site off line while arresting the administrators. Scott McCausland and Grant Stanley, the other administrators, pleaded guilty to their crimes and were sentenced to 5 months of prison. Read more...

The BBC has announced they have begun testing the transmission of HD services over Freeview using the second generation DVB-T specification DVB-T2. If the trials are successful then HD can be introduced to Freeview by December of next year, says the broadcaster.

The new spec is supposed to offer "30 percent more data-carrying capacity" as DVB-T "under the same conditions."

Justin Mitchell, DVB-T2 modem development team leader for the BBC, added: “This is a big step forward in enabling the introduction of full HD terrestrial on Freeview by the end of 2009.”

The trial was approved by the DVB Project, the industry-led consortium which designed the DVB-T2 specification.

Freeview uses the over 10 years old DVB-T standard but hopes to move to the DVB-T2 standards soon, especially for "use in a post-Analogue Switch-Off environment".

In 2005, the BBC ran a trial of DVB-T based HD content over Freeview but compatibility issues and bandwidth limitations prevented anything more than a trial.

Google has just introduced its latest Windows application, aptly named Google Media Server which will allow users to share video content and other personal files, most notably from YouTube to UPnP compatible devices such as the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360.

The application works alongside the popular Google Desktop and uses the Google Desktop Search for locating media files. To run the Media Server, you will only need a PC with Google Desktop and the UPnP-enabled device. Google Media Server does the rest.

Earlier this month Google CEO Eric Schmidt noted that YouTube had yet to turn a profit and that the site eats most of Google’s outgoing bandwidth as well. The company always hoped to sell ads according to target demographics but have run into hurdles every step of the way. There may be million of viewers watching every second all day but the content is completely unstructured and there is no logical way to make a demographic study.

A new, leaked KMart flyer shows that Microsoft is indeed set to drop the price of at least one model of its Xbox 360 console line at the upcoming E3 event.

The ad, pictured below, shows the 20GB model selling for $300 USD, a $50 USD price cut from its current sale price. There was no indication of any rebate, or temporary discount so it appears this price will be the new asking price from Microsoft. All features appear to remain intact.

Two weeks ago we reported that Jesse Divnich said he expected a price cut across the board on Xbox 360s and that he also expected the introduction of a new model.

The new price for the Pro model leaves some unanswered problems however. The entry level Xbox 360 Arcade will only cost $20 USD less then the newly reduced price Pro model meaning Microsoft will have to either drop the price even lower or completely discontinue the model which seems more likely. The other problem is the now huge gap between the Pro and Elite models which sells for $450 USD. The software giant will either have to lower the price or upgrade the hardware to avoid cannibalizing its own high end model.

Late last year, the BBC launched its iPlayer, giving users over 400 hours of free BBC content to watch and download. Today, the broadcaster has announced the launch of the 2.0 beta of its iPlayer and promises a complete overhaul for the software.

The software now has an enlarged playback screen, a BBC schedule of both broadcast and webcast programs as well as a "'last played' section that allows content interrupted from previous sessions to be resumed, and a "More Like This" section that links to related programs and relevant Web sites."

The BBC Radio portion of the service has been upgraded as well to allow users to rewind and fast forward during live radio playback.

When it first launched, the iPlayer was only available for Windows XP users but has now expanded to the iPhone, iPod Touch, Virgin Media cable boxes, and the Nintendo Wii. After long time promises, Vista, Mac and Linux users finally have their support as well.

China Mobile has said that they are closer than ever to striking a deal to distribute the Apple iPhone in China now that the largest hurdle in negotiations has been cleared, the dropping of revenue sharing.

Talks between the companies have been on and off for over a year, with no notable progress.

"We've broken through the biggest obstacle and we are negotiating at the working level," said Gao Songge, deputy director of China Mobile's general department.

Yesterday, Sony confirmed that it was bringing a movie download service to US PlayStation 3 users. Today however, new reports have surfaced implying that no movie studios have yet to strike distribution deals with Sony for the new service, meaning the movie catalog for the service could be small to start.

Sony has been in talks with all the major studios, but so far only Sony Pictures is a definite, for obvious reasons.

"Sources at numerous major studios confirmed to me that while they have all talked to Sony, none have yet made a deal. The only one that's definitely on board so far is Sony Pictures," reads a report from Variety.

The report also suggests that in the future users will be able to transfer movie downloads from their PS3 to their PSPs.

According to a new Marketing Week article, Sony is reviving talks of a PSP-based mobile phone and that it could possibly drop the Ericsson name, at least for that one model.

Citing multiple sources from Japan and Korea, the article says the phone would "include elements of the PSP gaming handheld and that the process would be relatively simple, as components such as Wi-Fi are already well-suited to the device."

There was no other specifics mentioned besides the Wi-Fi but the dropping of UMD is almost a given due to its bulkiness and low popularity. The phone could go commercial by the holiday season 2009.

Sony Ericsson currently has a gaming phone, the F305, but it does not include and PlayStation hardware or software.

France's Orange, Belgium's Mobistar and Sweden's TeliaSonera have all now published details for their individual releases of the iPhone 3G

Orange has a couple different ways of obtaining the phone, will be selling the 8GB model for €149 with 2-year service and high-end options such as Origami, First and Jet. The 16GB model will cost €199 under that arrangement. For owners of the first generation iPhone, you can upgrade for discounted prices of €99 and €149, with a new two year contract of course. If you do not want the higher end options, then the phone will cost €199 for the 8GB, and €249 for the 16GB with the lowest data plan.

In Sweden, TeliaSonera there will be three different options for iPhone plans, dubbed iMini, iMidi and iMaxi options. iMini hardly seems viable as you will only recieve 100 minutes of talk time, 100 SMS messages and 100MB of data per month. iMidi makes each 250 each, while iMaxi moves it to 1000/1GB.

Mobistar only announced that they will have full details available July 4th but that they will have multiple options as well.

A new bill has just passed in New York that will allow a governmental advisory council to "examine the potential impact of violent videogames" and now heads off to the Governor before it can become a law. It passed almost unanimously in the Senate by a 61-1 vote.

If Governor David Paterson signs the bill, then the law will go into effect September 1st, 2010. The legislation will require that all console systems be equipped with parental controls and that ESRB ratings must be displayed on packaging. These practices are already standard, but neither is by bound by law and are done voluntarily.

The advisory council will consist of 16 members and will get to make recommendations regarding the current ESRB rating system. They can also offer "a parent-teacher violence awareness program to identify and appropriately assist students who may have a propensity toward violence."

Senator Andrew Lanza added of the bill, "There is some confusion with respect to what this bill actually accomplishes... The word prohibition was talked about. I want to be clear. This bill does not prohibit the sale of any video to anyone." Read more...

Nintendo has announced that its ever-popular Wii console will be headed to Taiwan on July 12th, marking the first time in months that any consoles have moved to new markets.

Although the console now has an official launch date in the region, imported consoles have been on sale for over a year now, with most stores selling the system with mod chips allowing users to play downloaded games.

Since its release in late 2006, the console has steamrolled the competition on its way to 25 million worldwide sales but both Sony and Microsoft should have a head start in the region where their consoles have been officially available since 2006.

Sony has confirmed that it will be bringing its anticipated movie download service to US PlayStation 3 users this summer. The PlayStation Network will be Sony's first service to offer the movie downloads and the service will move to the popular handheld PSP later in the year.

Kazuo Hirai, head of the PlayStation division, said that they service will also be available to Japanese and European users as well, but details wont be available until next month at least.

Any official details will be revealed at the upcoming E3 expo in July, added Hirai. He also noted that they company was continuously cutting costs to achieve profitability for the division by the Q2 2009.

"Please expect more from our evolving PlayStation business," Hirai told reporters.

With the announcement, also came word, through Sony documentation that the company was planning to offer a similar service through its video-capable Walkman line and through Internet Link enabled BRAVIA LCD TVs. No other details were available yet however.

Weinstein Co. has announced the launch of the "The Mist" on Blu-ray disc, meaning it will become the last major studio to make the jump over to the victorious HD format.

The Weinstein's first theatrical Blu-ray film will hit retailers on August 5th and will be the first HD movie release from the studio since the demise of HD DVD in February.

The disc will include "extensive extras" including audio commentary with director Frank Darabont, multiple making-of featurettes, deleted scenes, a series of behind-the-scenes Webisodes, as well as theatrical trailers.

The movie will be special 2-disc edition with one version being the original theatrical release and the second being a "black and white" version of the film. Each will ship with 1080p video and Dolby TrueHD 5.1 Surround audio.

Last November we reported that Gene Simmons, founding member of the rock group KISS, had gone off on Nine Inch Nails, Radiohead and college aged pirates, going as far as to call Radiohead "idiots" and saying "Every little college kid ... should have been sued off the face of the earth," for their unauthorized downloading of course.

He has followed his last tirade with some new comments, this time again blaming NIN and Radiohead but more importantly, the music fans. "The record industry is dead," Simmons notes "It's six feet underground and unfortunately the fans have done this. They've decided to download and file share." He then insisted that the aforementioned bands were "contributing to the demise of the record industry" by using new intelligent sales models that apparently he does not approve of.

When asked why KISS had not released a new CD since 1998's 'Psycho Circus', Simmons added that "there is no record industry around so we're going to wait until everybody settles down and becomes civilized. As soon as the record industry pops its head up we'll record new material."

According to a new iSuppli report, each unit of the upcoming iPhone 3G only costs $173 USD to assemble and manufacture, meaning Apple could be making upwards of $500 USD profit on each phone sold.

The research group said they "virtually" tore down the phone, based on internal experts in the cellphone and wireless technology fields and were able to estimate the costs of each part and finally the unit as a whole.

If the estimates are true, then the new device will cost 23 percent less to produce then its predecessor, which cost $226 USD to make. The cut costs can be attributed to falling prices on flash memory and other individual parts.

It is believed that AT&T in the US is subsidizing the iPhone for up to $425 USD and are selling the phone for $199. Using some quick math shows that AT&T is paying $624 for a phone that only costs $173 to produce, leaving Apple with huge profit margins in the process.

The report also added that the manufacturing costs should keep declining regularly and that if left untouched, the phone will cost $126 to produce in 2012.

JVC has announced that it will be introducing the "industry's thinnest" 1080p LCDs with built-in TV tuners next month.

At its deepest, the new 42-inch LT-42SL89 and the 46-inch LT-46SL89 are 2.9 inches deep, and each come equipped with new backlight paneling and power supply substrates making each set lighter and more efficient. Each set also boast Full HD 1080p resolution (1920x1080).

The new sets will be part of the JVC Procision line and the newly developed technologies should help the company put out even slimmer TVs in the future. "The backlight is 40 percent slimmer than the old panel, and weighs in at 26.5lbs while consuming 145W. The slimmer backlight was made possible not with more parts but with a more efficient integration of them," JVC says. The added low power consumption is accomplished "via the use of a direct-mount power substrate that does not use a fan to dissipate heat."

iLuv announced today that it has begun shipping the unique i1255 DVD/iPod hybrid player, which includes a DVD player with 5.1-channel surround sound as well as a built-in iPod dock.

All compatible iPods can output video to the attached TV and the DVD portion can support raw data CDs, DVDs and MP3 and JPEG photo discs.

The player also has an audio input for playback of devices other than the iPods using the 5.1 speakers.

Panasonic has announced that it is in the final stages of drafting plans for a new, cheap 37-inch, OLED-based HDTV that should have a price comparable to today's plasma and LCD displays.

The company says the actual designs and development have still not begun, but the TV should be commercially available in 2011 and will cost about $1300 USD.

Panasonic also noted that it hopes to enter the OLED TV business soon but that decision would mean releasing a smaller TV at a higher price.

Currently OLED TVs are still in the growing stages, and the only commercially available TV is the 11-inch Sony XEL-1. OLED TVs could be more mainstream in the upcoming years however as prices drop and the technology matures, especially given its advantages over LCD and plasma technologies. OLED displays will have much stronger contrast ratios, usually 1,000,000:1 or higher and produce true blacks as well as a lag-free image.

According to Billboard, Spain is the next country to adopt the 'iPod Tax', which will formally go into effect on July 1st.

The new tax will apply to all electronic devices "capable of copying or recording sound and images, even to the extent of applying to printers, scanners and ink cartridges." The fee will depend on each device with MP3 players costing an extra €3.15 each. Devices such as cellphones with cameras and MP3 players will only cost a €1.10 extra.

The tax is intended to give publishers and artists extra money to offset the alleged costs of piracy but has been very controversial in Spain and in other countries around the world as well. Both electronics makers and consumer groups have tried to fight to tax, and were successful for a while. In fact, the tax was first passed 18 months ago in Spain but has been delayed due to the debates.

The terms of the tax also say that "at least €110.2 million must be collected in the first year, but not more than €117.8 million." If more or less are collected, then the tax goes to the culture ministry for revisions.

Typhoon Touch Technologies has filed suit this week against 11 giants whom it claims have infringed on several important portable touch screen technology patents.

The companies are as follows: Apple, Dell, Fujitsu, Toshiba, Lenovo, Panasonic, HTC, Palm, Samsung, Nokia, and LG. Typhoon is looking for monetary compensation as well as an injunction stopping all production of the "infringing" devices.

Typhoon's legal representative Craig Weiner added that the scale of the suit could be tremendous, claiming that the amount of offending devices is probably "in the millions".

Softbank has announced that it will offer the iPhone 3G in Japan for the equivalent of $215 USD, a price comparable to North American pricing.

The phone is set to hit the region on July 11th, around the time when the phone hits over 20 countries around the world.

The price is of course contingent on a 2-year contract, and the $215 is for the 8GB model. The larger capacity 16GB model will cost the equivalent of $320 USD.

In comparison, Apple and AT&T will be selling the 8GB and 16GB models in the United States for $199 and $299 USD respectively with two year contract and data plan.

The video game developer Atari has filed suit against two Dutch gaming sites that have published unfavorable pre-release reviews of the upcoming game "Alone in the Dark." In the suit, the developer claims the reviews were written based on pirated copies of the game.

The sites, 4Players and Gamer.nl gave negative reviews of the game, 68/100 and 5/10 respectively, and posted the reviews two days before the official European street date. Because the reviews were based on "pirated" copies, Atari is seeking an undisclosed monetary settlement.

"Within an hour [after posting], Atari called to have the review pulled off, claiming there was an embargo till Friday," Gamer.nl commented. "Our review copy was sent directly to us by Atari and [was] not a pirated copy. They explicitly told [Gamer.nl] that they only let high scoring reviews break the post-release embargo date."

Although a pirated copy has been on file sharing networks for over a week, 4Players proclaimed that their copy was also retail. They said through the same "retail connection" they were able to have other games in the past.

ESPN and ABC have announced that they will be adding video content to the Veoh Web video service.

The agreement will allow Veoh to present hit shows such as “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Lost,” “Ugly Betty” and “Desperate Housewives,” as well as ESPN programming and game highlights.

Matt Murphy, the senior vice president for digital media distribution at Disney and ESPN Media Networks, added: “These types of partnerships allow us to reach our fans and viewers in a much deeper and more meaningful way…This is a world where you have to constantly re-evaluate your business and constantly look at partners and how they are running their businesses.”

There was no word on any of the financial aspects of the latest deal.

At a press event this week, Warner has revealed that its first BD-Live enabled titles will become available in time for the Winter holidays, as promised at CES.

Darcy Antonellis, president of Warner Bros. Technical Operations added that among the new interactive features would be "real-time viewing, a search engine, library access, and a 'recommendation tool' for other titles complete with e-mail reminders."

There will also of course be downloadable picture-in-picture, deleted scenes and trailers, as well as wallpapers and ringtones.

"I think it [BD-Live] has the ability to compete [with MySpace and YouTube] for a user's time because you are taking them online and you're able to create a community that we have never been able to do before," she said. 'That's huge for us."

Although the titles were not confirmed, Antonellis implied that the upcoming blockbuster 'The Dark Knight' was a likely candidate.

"These are exclusive opportunities that can be offered through this small community that is created with these [Profile 2.0] players," Antonellis said. "We are no longer limited by finite capacity on the disc."

According to a new report published in the Financial Times, the Beatles are currently in discussions with both Activision and MTV in an effort to bring licensing for the band's music to video games, most notably Guitar Hero and Rock Band.

The sources imply that any deal would be worth "several million dollars" and that the licensing deal could be struck within a matter of weeks or months.

One possible hurdle for the deal is that it needs to be approved by EMI who owns the master recordings for the band. Apple Corps will also need to sign off as they are in charge of the Beatles business interests.

Apple has been very selective with expanding licensing for the band and currently there are no authorized digital recordings of the Beatles available online.

According to a new report in the British Telegraph, the giant e-tailer Amazon is in talks to finally bring its popular Amazon MP3 store to Europe, and even as early as October.

The report says senior Amazon officials have been in talks with British labels to strike deals that would allow for the DRM-free store to open in the UK in October.

When the store launched in the US last year, Amazon had promised that a 2008 international launch was imminent and that it was likely to expand to Canada, Japan, and regions in Europe.

The British launch is sure to have a bigger impact in the UK then the US store is having in North America, as there are very few online stores that make DRM-free tracks available in the UK, and iTunes does not have the dominant market share that it has in the States.

The infamous torrent tracker The Pirate Bay has announced that in response to a new Swedish legislation passed this week, it will be offering encryption services to all of its users.

On Thursday, Sweden passed a new "surveillance law" which allows authorities to monitor all incoming and outgoing transmissions if they feel it is in the best interests on national security. The Pirate Bay had lobbied against the bill, but unfortunately their efforts for futile. In response to the bill however, all Pirate Bay users will be given an encryption option this week.

"Many people have asked me what we’re planning to do," admin Peter Sunde writes "- and the answer is “A lot!”. We’re going to help out in any way we can with fighting the law. This week we’re going to add SSL to The Pirate Bay. We’re also going to help out making a website about easy encryption - both for your hard drives and your net traffic. As some people know, we’re running a system for VPN-tunnels already and we’re going to lower the price for that as well and open it up for international users as well."

A federal judge has denied Microsoft's appeal in one of five patent cases brought against it by Alcatel-Lucent and says the software giant will have to pay $511.6 million USD in damages and interest.

In April a jury awarded Lucent $357.7 million USD and Microsoft had asked the judge to reconsider the award. Judge Marilyn L. Huff denied that request however and increased the damages payable. She said the new amount accounts for "prejudgment interest to compensate for how long it took to resolve the matter."

"We are disappointed that Judge Huff denied our request for a new trial," said Microsoft spokesman David Bowermaster, in an e-mailed statement. "We plan to appeal the rulings against us. We are confident that the damages award against Microsoft will not be sustained on appeal."

"We had always believed we had a strong case and are pleased that the judge agreed that the jury's thoughtful verdict was well reasoned and supported by the evidence presented during the more than monthlong trial on these two patents," said Alcatel-Lucent spokeswoman Mary Lou Ambrus in an e-mailed statement.

Officials in the United Arab Emirates have said they are growing more and more concerned with the rising levels of piracy in the region despite its reputation as the region leader in anti-piracy practices.

Estimates say 35-38 percent of all software sold in the UAE is counterfeit and that the number of pirated goods sold has risen 52 percent year over year. According to a survey conducted by the Business Software Alliance (BSA) and global market research firm IDC, losses attributed to piracy rose to $94 million USD up from $62 million last year.

Overall software piracy in the Middle East rose to $2.45 billion, up 24 percent year on year.

In a similar announcement, the Ministry of Interior noted that arrests for software piracy had risen 107 percent year over year and that number seemed to be still growing.

"Software piracy is the easiest type of piracy because software is not tangible," said Ahmad Al Jasim, regional manager of Autodesk Middle East. According to Al-Jasim, Autodesk sees a 55 percent piracy rate in the region.

"Software is usually on a CD and because a company's knowledge is on this small storage device people can actually easily pirate it. The fakes come in mass volume, primarily from East Asia."

IsoHunt, the public torrent site currently in legal trouble with the MPAA, has announced that it has made a new partnership with Creative Commons music distribution site Jamendo and will offer over 10,000 free and authorized albums on the site.

Despite coming under attack from the MPAA in 2006, IsoHunt has refused to shut the site down and continues to add features to the site. The main feature is the continued addition of Creative Commons licensed content. All CC media is free to be shared and licensed by its creator. The most notable use of CC recently is Nine Inch Nails releasing their Ghosts album earlier this year, for free, using a CC license.

Jamendo is a site that indexes Creative Commons licensed music and just recently hit 10,000 albums available. Adds Laurent Kratz, CEO of Jamendo, “Jamendo uses the Creative Commons licensing scheme to keep the rules very straight forward : copy as much as you can eat, the artist, the right-holders are ok. The new thing about partnering with a torrent portal like isoHunt, is that Jamendo has started an editorial work on top.” Read more...

After being unveiled a couple of weeks ago at the very consumer attractive price of $199 USD, the iPhone 3G is set to go on sale next month through Apple and AT&T.

According to new reports, it appears however that AT&T is subsidizing the phone, over $400 USD in some cases, just to be able to reap in the benefits of a 2 year contract including data plans.

Oppenheimer financial analyst Yair Reimer writes that as a general rule of thumb, wireless carriers subsidize the price of smartphones by about $200 USD and make it back from expensive data plans. AT&T it appears though, is losing $325-425 for each unit sold and could be buying each phone from Apple for as much $724 USD for the 16GB model.

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster also wrote a report estimating that Apple will make about $466 USD per iPhone. Bernstein Research's Toni Sacconaghi, in a separate report says he anticipates Apple is selling each phone at $700 USD.

Last week we reported that the AP had begun confronting a blogger over copyright issues, but it appears that both sides have come to a resolution in the dispute.

The AP had demanded that the site, the Drudge Retort, remove some of the new agency's content. In a statement, Rogers Cadenhead, owner of the site, said he is "glad" that the dispute is over but said he still believes the larger conflict over the use of AP content still remains.

An AP statement added that both sides considered the matter closed and that the agency was "having a constructive exchange with a number of interested parties in the blogging community" about the current relationship between bloggers and news providers.

The agency also added it was working on developing guidelines for it considered permissible use of content by bloggers.

"I think it would be helpful for bloggers and users of social news sites to know what the AP believes to be fair use of their copyrighted work," said Cadenhead's lawyer, Wade Duchene. "I hope that any guidelines that are issued are not interpreted as an agreed definition of fair use under copyright law", he added.

BenQ has announced the availability of what it claims is the industry's first desktop LCD to use a 16:9 aspect ratio. The new model, the E2200HDA, will fit widescreen HD content without the black bars that most current commercial displays have.

The display measures 21.5 inches diagonally, and can playback full 1080p content (1920x1080) from a variety of sources "without losing any detail."

Other specifications include a very high 10,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio and automatic color adjustment. The display has a relatively fast 5ms pixel response time and will have built in speakers. There was no exact word on what inputs would be available on the display but rest assured there will be a couple of HDMI and DVI.

At this week's CommunicAsia technology expo, the popular Japanese TV broadcaster NHK unveiled a projection system that implements Super Hi-Vision (SHV) technology, and has resolution of 7680x4320, four times the resolution of current 1080p technology (1920x1080)

The demonstration, which took place in Singapore, showed the screen measuring about 300 inches diagonally, or 6.6 x 3.7 meters. The broadcaster used two LCOS projectors, each rated at 8000 lumens as well as a 33-megapixel sensor.

As a demonstration, NHK showed off images it had recorded with an 8k studio camera. To make the demo even more impressive, the broadcaster used a 22.2 channel sound system for the audio.

NHK, which began working on the technology in 2002, believes the technology, in 10 years when it is small enough to be commercial, will succeed current HDTV technology.

The Sony PlayStation 3 moved to the top of Japanese console hardware sales for the week ended June 15, using the launch of the blockbuster PS3-exclusive hit Metal Gear Solid 4 as a springboard.

According to figures from Media Create, the PS3 sold 75,311 units for the week handily beating out any other console including the very popular Sony handheld, the PSP.

The Nintendo Wii lagged behind in sales for the first time in a while, selling only 45,564 units. As always, the Microsoft Xbox 360 barely made a dent in the sales, selling a measly 2163 units

According to the data, here are the rest of the figures for the week: Read more...

InFocus has announced its latest projector for the UK, the X10 which is capable of Full HD 1080p and features a 16:9 native aspect ratio as well as a contrast ratio of 2500:1 that can be increased to 7500:1 using the company's special Active Iris lens.

The projector's 300W lamp gets a 1200 lumens brightness rating and has an expected 2000 hours of operation. The "1.2:1 fixed lens is able to create a clear image up to nearly 17 feet, or over 200 inches. Vertical Digital Keystone Correction is adjustable up to 13 degrees. The The DarkChip1 DLP chipset was sourced from Texas Instruments and the DLP color wheel is a 7-segment unit, calibrated to the D65K color accuracy standard," reads reports.

NEC says that the company has developed technology that will make 8x Blu-ray burners a reality in the near future.

The average current Blu-ray burners can record at 2x or 4x and NEC drives can burn at 5x. For the most part, thanks to high prices, Blu-ray burners have taken a back seat to drives that are only capable of reading Blu-ray discs but it appears NEC is doing its best to change that.

Samples of the new 8x chipset have already been sent to manufacturers and the technology should "merge a digital signal processor (DSP) with an analog one." The analog processor was originally intended for 20x DVD burners.

NEC is combining circuits that would normally be housed separately and by doing so will reduce the size of the system-on-chip by 20 percent and cut power consumption by one-third.

The drive maker has also created a cheaper version that can read Blu-ray discs at fast speeds but does not offer Blu-ray recording. There was no word on commercial availability but NEC did add that it was working on technology for 16x BD drives.

Microsoft has announced that it will be extending the effective lifespan of all music purchased from its now defunct MSN Music service.

When the service shut down, Microsoft imposed an August 31st deadline for the shutdown of its DRM servers effectively stopping users from authorizing the music they had purchased when the service was up and running. It appears the software giant has had a change of heart and will now extend the life of the music until "at least" 2011. Despite the new decision, the company still warns users to make permanent backups and not just leave the music on portable media players. In 2011, Microsoft will reexamine the servers and extend the period if users still require it.

The original decision had been criticized by users and was a glowing reminder of the risks of using DRM to "protect" music.

Since the close of the MSN Music service, Microsoft has been pushing its customers towards the Zune Marketplace or URGE as preferred online music services.

Telecinco, Spain's leading television channel, announced today that it has filed a lawsuit against the video sharing giant YouTube claiming the site has violated its intellectual property rights.

The TV station which is owned by Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi added that YouTube had "refused to adopt effective measures" to stop clips of the station's programming from appearing and reappearing on the site.

"YouTube is exploiting content that belongs solely and exclusively to Telecinco," said the channel's secretary general, Mario Rodriguez in a statement. The statement went as far as to say that clips on YouTube were airing Telecinco programming before they were even broadcast in Spain.

"For this reason we have the right to order that this illegal exploitation cease and to demand economic compensation," Rodriguez said.

Telecinco said in a separate statement, "YouTube does not deny the systemic infractions of rights which are carried out in its website but it defends itself by saying they are committed by its users, not by it."

Apple has announced that its popular iTunes platform has hit yet another milestone, 5 billion songs purchased since the store's launch in April 2003.

The latest milestone shows that sales are picking up at an impressive clip especially considering it took 3 years for the store to hit its first billion. It took the store just 3 months to go from 4 billion to 5 billion sold.

Apple had an even more impressive number to announce however. The company says that movies are being purchased or rented from the store at a rate of 50,000 a day, a huge increase that can mostly be attributed to Apple's recent deal to begin renting movies. That deal was struck in January of 2008. Doing some simple math shows us that Apple is selling or renting 1.5 million movies per month, and the company now claims iTunes is the world's most popular online movie store. I'm sure no one will refute that claim if the numbers are true.

Despite another year of falling CD sales and the leaking of his album to P2P networks weeks ago, the prolific rapper Lil Wayne's latest CD, “Tha Carter III” sold 420,000 copies on launch day and has surpassed 1 million for its first week sold, marking the first time in 3 years that an album has sold over a million in its initial week. The sales also eclipses any other CD launched this year, including big ticket names such as Mariah Carey and Usher which sold under half of what "Tha Carter III" has.

Making the news even better for the rapper and the labels behind him, is that hip hop sales have been seeing the largest declines recently, down almost 25 percent year on year from 2007. Lil Wayne has not released a CD since 2005, but has been featured on over 70 other artist's songs in the last 12 months and has released tons of mixtapes.

“He stayed connected and nurtured his audience,” said Sylvia Rhone, president of Universal Motown Records. “He was always working. And I think the rabid following he’s cultivated is reflected in those sales numbers.”

Last month, we reported that the blockbuster PC game Mass Effect was set to have rolling DRM, the form of DRM unflatteringly known as "phoning home" as every 10 days the game would connect to Bioware's servers and re-activate itself. After the report surfaced around the Internet though, the backlash was too much for the company and they decided to remove the DRM from the game.

As was said then, "BioWare has always listened very closely to its fans and we made this decision to ensure we are delivering the best possible experience to them," said BioWare community manager Jay Watamaniuk.

"To all the fans including our many friends in the armed services and internationally who expressed concerns that they would not be able re-authenticate as often as required, EA and BioWare want you to know that your feedback is important to us."

The game of course still has DRM though, and the DRM is upsetting gamers. Instead of "phoning home", the game only needs to be authenticated once but can only be installed 3 times, total.

According to a new iSHARE study, the 3G iPhone should have a hard time getting footing in Japan, the country where technology is light years ahead of the rest of the world.

91 percent of Japanese adults polled said they have no plans to buy the phone, at least not in the near future. The other 9 percent all planned to buy the device and many are SoftBank users, the carrier brining the iPhone at launch.

The same survey was done in July of 2007 and at that time almost 10 percent of those polled said they would buy the phone if their carrier made it available so it appears demand is somewhat down.

iSHARE did not have exact reasons for the low demand but did note that SoftBank is third in subscriber base and only 23 percent of those polled were current SoftBank users. NTT DoCoMo is the clear leader at almost 40 percent, but they do not hold an iPhone distribution contract.

77 percent also noted that they prefer a removable battery, something Apple refuses to do with their media devices. The largest hurdle will most likely be that the iPhone does not bring anything the Japanese have not seen already. 3G is standard on Japanese networks for both calls and data services and most new phones have Japan-only 1Seg digital TV and high resolutions such as 800x480. The iPhone will have neither when it launches.

According to a new survey by the University of Hertfordshire, 14-24 year old iPod owners have on average 842 unauthorized songs on those iPods and download an average of 53 more each month.

The survey polled 1200 participants from that age range and that own iPods and found that nearly 70 percent download unauthorized music on a regular basis. 42 percent of those surveyed also admitted to uploading music to P2P networks.

The survey was commissioned by British Music Rights (BMR) and CEO Fergal Sharkey had this to add. "I was one of those people who went around the back of the bike shed with songs I had taped off the radio the night before. But this totally dwarfs that, and anything we expected," he added of the results.

BMR has been campaigning to make legal music services more appealing and easy to use while at the same time making piracy less appealing. The group feels the best way to do this is to have ISPs offer unlimited music download services as an additional fee to a standard broadband package.

"The positive message is that 80 per cent of downloaders said they would pay for a legal subscription-based service, and they told us they would be willing to pay more than a few pounds a month," added Sharkey.

The official PlayStation Blog has announced that with upcoming firmware update v4.00 the PSP will add integrated Google searches directly into the XrossMediaBar interface.

The update will "replicate the Google Internet search experience, delivering the same search results that you’d get at www.google.com." The blog adds users will have a history recall of 20 items.

After you have installed the latest firmware, simply click on the XMB Network icon and go to new Internet Search icon. You can then use Google search as if you were on a home PC.

Additionally, the 4.00 update will bring a new feature allowing the user to "change viewing speed during playback of videos stored on your Memory Stick PRO Duo, so you can speed through or slow down what you’re watching."

In an effort to become more environmental friendly, Sony has announced that they will be starting a new series line of green HDTVs beginning with the BRAVIA JE1.

The JE1 is the inaugural TV from the line and is a 32 inch LCD. Sony promises it uses about 70 percent less power over the course of a year by using efficient fluorescent backlights and more efficient screen filters. The JEI uses less lighting tubes than a standard HDTV by "generating more light and allowing more existing light to go through."

The products used in the set itself is actually made from recycled plastic, Styrofoam, and optical film used from previous HDTVs that have hit their lifespan.

Other specifications of the TV are mid-range, including 720p output, static contrast ratio of 2,500:1, two HDMI inputs, a digital TV tuner and other standard inputs.

Last week we reported that analyst Jesse Divnich had said he strongly expects either a price cut or a model introduction of the Microsoft Xbox 360 before or at the E3 event.

According to new sources, it appears Divnich will be right and there will be a new model introduced at E3. If the claims are to be believed, the oft-rumored 60GB Xbox 360 Pro will emerge and replace the 20GB HDD model when it begins shipping in August.

It was unclear whether there would be a price cut as well or the addition of more HDD capacity for other 360 models.

We will keep you updated.

JVC has debuted three new HD Everio camcorders which promise to bring new features never before seen on camcorders.

The HD30 and HD40 are the first camcorders that capture picture in AVCHD (H.264) or MPEG-2 format with the ability to use either. AVC is better quality and more efficient but MPEG-2 is widespread and might be easier for some to edit.

The HD40 also claims to be the "longest-running HD camcorder available" with its ability to record up to 50 hours of 1920x1080 video at "Extended Play" mode. Of course at full quality, recording time is only 15 hours, but that it is still a very long running time. The HD40 boasts a 120GB HDD and the HD30 offers the same recording capabilities but with a built-in 80GB HDD instead.

T-Mobile has announced today that they will be offering the new 8GB 3G iPhone for 1 euro (about $1.50 USD) in Germany when purchased with a 69 euro monthly contract for 2 years.

Since Apple has dropped its insistence on revenue sharing and made the phone available non-exclusively in over 70 countries worldwide, carriers now have the option to subsidize the cost of the phone in an effort to lock the consumer into expensive data plans for long periods of time.

The original iPhone, which went on sale last June, sold six million units despite high prices and carrier exclusivity deals so at least on the outside it appears the 3G model will sell better.

T-Mobile added that the 8GB model would cost 170 euro if bought with the minimal data plan, of 29 euro a month and that the price would range between those prices for other data plans.

The 16GB model will sell for similar but with a range of 19.95-249.95 euros.

AOL has created a new Radio application for the Apple iPhone that will allow users to connect to AOL servers via EDGE, 3G or Wi-Fi and listen to local CBS radio stations. The application won an 'Apple Design Award' last week at the annual WWDC.

Making the app even more intriguing is that the service will be free, but ad-supported, just like traditional radio is. There will be over 200 AOL and 150 CBS stations available in 25 different genres.

Apple noted this about the application, "Reliable audio streaming and improved battery life are achieved by using AudioFileServices and AudioQueueServices, while SCNetwork manages the best narrowband or broadband streaming based on whether users are connected via EDGE or Wi-Fi."

How is the quality though? AOL VP Kevin Conroy says it is "as good as listening to a CD".

The Frankenthal district court in Germany has thrown out a lawsuit against a suspected unauthorized file sharer after claiming that the evidence used to prosecute him was "obtained in an unconstitutional way".

The evidence was originally obtained by Swiss-based anti-piracy agency Logistep, which provided the users IP address to the content owners. The rights holders then used the IP address to begin the criminal complaint. Prosecutors then asked for the user's name from his German ISP and used it to begin the civil lawsuit. That same process has been used to start almost 30,000 similar lawsuits in Germany over the years.

The court has now ruled however that the ISP is not allowed to give out the defendant's names because file sharing "doesn't count as a serious criminal offense." That his name and address were handed over violates citizen's constitutional right to privacy, the ruling read.

As there is no common law in Germany the case wont affect the thousands of other alleged file sharers in the same position but the decision should give defendants more leverage if they choose to take the case to court.

Verizon has announced that they will be stopping access to tens of thousands of Usenet discussion areas including the very popular alt.* groups that have been around since the late 1980s.

Verizon spokesman Eric Rabe said only a select few newsgroups/discussion groups would be offered to customers going into the future. It appears the decision is in response to political "strong-arming" from New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo who wants strong restrictions on all newsgroups.

Cuomo added that his office had found child porn on at least 88 newsgroups, although that percentage is tiny compared to the over 90,000 newsgroups that exist. "We are attacking this problem by working with Internet service providers...I commend the companies that have stepped up today to embrace a new standard of responsibility, which should serve as a model for the entire industry," read a press statement from Cuomo's office.

Newsgroups are a pre-Web technology that has relied on ISPs and Universities to operate servers in which users can exchange messages and files.

With the decision however, comes the shut down of many useful newsgroups such as symantec.customerservice.general, us.military, microsoft.public.excel, and fr.soc.economie. which have longed helped users.

Nintendo has sued the peripherals maker Nyko for allegedly violating Nintendo patents and trademarks pertaining to the Wireless Nunchuk add-on for the Wii-mote.

The complaint, filed in Washington, claims that Nyko's "Kama" controller "wholly appropriates the novel shape, design, overall appearance and even the color and materials used in the Nintendo Nunchuk controller."

Additionally, Nintendo says even the Kama's packaging infringe on trademarks held by Nintendo. The entertainment giant wants monetary damages and the removal of the product from stores.

AT&T representative Michael Coe has said the company believes it is "inevitable" that heavy Internet users will eventually have to pay some sort of surcharge for the extra bandwidth demand placed on the network.

The ISP along with other providers have been seeing a huge surge in traffic for its DSL services, which can be attributed to a small group of users. Coe added that only 5 percent of customers are currently accounting for 46 percent of overall bandwidth used per month. These users may need to be charged extra.

Although DSL is switch-based unlike cable Internet access Coe says the highly disproportionate use is still affecting other users.

The new stance is similar to other ISPs, such as Rogers in Canada and Comcast in the States which has said it is considering using a 250GB softcap and charging overage fees for users who cross that bandwidth cap.

Critics complain however, that the caps would unfairly punish users who use tons of bandwidth legitimately to, for example, watch movies through Hulu or Netflix, download movies from iTunes or play online multiplayer gaming. The critics do have a point, not everyone is a BitTorrent user.

According to developing partners, it appears that Sony is preparing a new controller for its PlayStation 3 console, one which can "break apart" into two units each of which have Wii-mote-like motion sensing functionality.

Although not officially announced by Sony, the controller has been sent off to a few developer partners already meaning an E3 launch is possible.

If true, the controller could help bring the casual or family gamer over to the PlayStation 3. The Nintendo Wii currently dominates the casual gaming audience.

The original PS3 controller, the Sixaxis did include some motion sensing ability but nowhere near the freedom of movement a Wii-Mote allows.

Jesse Divnich, an expert analyst from the firm EEDAR, has said that a Microsoft Xbox 360 price cut, or maybe a model introduction, will happen before or at the E3 event next month.

Without citing any specific sources, Divnich says he is "very confident" a price cut is coming, or perhaps the introduction of a new version. Blu-ray model anyone?

It is unclear how drastic the price cut will be, if it comes, especially as Microsoft currently sells its Arcade version for $280 and Elite model at $450, both priced to compete with rivals Nintendo Wii and Sony PlayStation 3 which sell for $250 and $400 (for cheapest model) respectively.

Divnich continued on by saying that the newly released blockbuster Metal Gear Solid 4 should be a catalyst for PS3 sales due to its exclusive nature and he expects a high attach rate.

Warner Bros. TV has announced that it has signed deals to have its content distributed on WB-branded channels on Dailymotion, Joost, Sling Media, TiVo and Veoh Networks.

Each channel will include content from TheWB.com and KidsWB.com as well as other series that are currently not distributed online. The studio did not reveal the series as of yet however.

The new channels will launch in mid-September and will join current studio channels on AOL and Comcast's Fancast. The company noted that popular social networking site Facebook has an application for WB content as well.

TheWB.com, currently in beta, has hit shows such as "Gilmore Girls", "Smallville", "Friends," "The O.C." and "Veronica Mars."

After announcing the TV late last year, Sharp has finally begun selling the largest single panel HDTV on the planet, the LB-1085's which stands at 108 inches diagonally. The company says the display is designed for public, outdoor use, and has a rich picture that at 1080p results in 76 million colors. In comparison, most commercial LCDs reach almost 17 million.

As is standard with all Sharp displays, the LB-1085 will have three HDMI connections, dual component inputs, one S-video, dual RCA connections, and computer input through both a DVI video port and a minijack input. For sound the TV is equipped with dual 15W speakers under the monitor.

The TV will go on sale in Japan in early July and already has one buyer, the Shinjuku Piccadilly movie theater. Other countries including the US will have soon have the chance to purchase the TV, for approximately $101,000 USD but it was unclear whether the build-to-order TV would be sold to individual customers or just companies.

The research firm NPD has released US console hardware sales data for the month of May, and Nintendo was the clear winner, again, although Sony and Microsoft did have a few figures to boast about.

The ever popular Wii had sales of 675,089 for the month, and the extremely popular handheld, the DS had sales of 452,608.

Sony continued to beat out Microsoft, selling 208,709 PlayStation 3 units compared to 186,500 Xbox 360 units sold.

Software sales were up exponentially for Sony year-on-year thanks to strong sales of Grand Theft Auto IV, Haze and SingStar. Overall for the month, sales were up 234 percent. The company also noted that GTA IV had a higher attach rate than the Xbox 360 with a 32 percent rate for US PS3 owners.

In the UK it has been ruled that the creation and sale of modchips are infact legal, overturning a past ruling by a lower court.

The UK Court of Appeals ruled in favor of vendor Neil Higgs, who had been arrested on 26 charges of selling modification kits for consoles, most notably the PlayStation 2, Xbox and Xbox 360. For those unaware, modchips allow gamers to play pirated games, usually downloaded from the Internet. The ruling subsequently invalidates the lower courts ruling and Higgs is free to go. He will also be re-compensated for all his legal costs.

The appeal was based on the point that modchips do not circumvent copyright protection even though they are key to piracy on consoles. According to the ruling, "while modchips are integral to the piracy of console games, any act of copyright infringement has been already committed before modchip use or installation."

Nintendo has announced that it will be teaming up with Activision to release their first third party hardware bundle for the DS handheld. The bundle is part of the launch of the anticipated Guitar Hero: World Tour.

The bundle will include an exclusive silver and black console with Guitar Hero: World Tour branding, the game, and the necessary peripheral to play the game. The game is set to go on sale on June 22nd.

"We are thrilled to be the first third-party publisher to partner with Nintendo on this unique offering," said Dusty Welch, head of publishing for RedOctane.

Activision's Guitar Hero franchise is becoming one of the largest blockbusters in history and in just a few years has already surpassed $1 billion USD in sales in just the North American region.

The giant e-tailer Amazon and the once huge audio/video retailer Tower have started new sales on Blu-ray movie titles, with some popular movies reaching as low as $12 USD.

Amazon, for its deal, has slashed the price on a few popular titles and added a new "Buy 2 Get 1 Free" offer. A few of the movies seeing price cuts are 'Blade Runner,' 'I Am Legend', '3:10 To Yuma,' and '300.' The B2G1F promotion will last all week and includes 95 titles including 'The Fifth Element,' 'Hellboy,', 'Underworld Evolution' and 'Spider-Man: The High-Definition Trilogy.' You can view the complete list here: Amazon "Buy 2 Get 1 Free" offer.

On the other hand, Tower has slashed the prices of many Blu-ray titles, some even lower than that of Amazon. Just like the e-tailer, there is free shipping on orders above $25 USD.

A few of the notable price cuts have '300', '3:10 to Yuma' and 'Blade Runner' at $12 USD, the cheapest price I have seen for great BD movies in a very long time.

Although on TV it normally shuns commercials, the publically supported, non-profit broadcaster PBS has announced that it has struck a deal to have several of its shows streamed on the new (and getting more and more impressive) Hulu website.

The shows are “Nova,” “Wired Science,” “Carrier” and “Scientific American Frontiers.”

Each show will a solitary 30-second ad before each program and the revenue will be split between Hulu and PBS. Andrew Russell, the senior vice president who runs PBS Ventures, reasoned on how the company's need for revenue could balance with its traditional heritage.

“It is very important to carry the principles of public television into these environments,” he said. Notably, he added, the deal only allows for the commercials at the beginning of the shows. “We do not allow interruption of our programs,” he finished. Russell also made it clear that certain advertisers would not be allowed to have commercials on PBS programming such as tobacco companies or politicians.

Currently, PBS offers some of its shows online on its own website, a few other shows on Joost (with superimposed ads), and some clips on a YouTube channel. Making digital distribution even harder is the fact that PBS only has the rights to a fraction of its shows. For example, "the show Nova is produced by WGBH in Boston, which acquires individual episodes from various production companies."

The French mobile carrier Orange has announced the launch of Musique Max, a desktop and mobile music download store. The service has music from the Big 4 labels plus independents, "with an emphasis on French artists."

Musique Max will be a subscription based store, but there will be a limited amount of songs you can download per month. For €12 a month, users are allowed to download up to 500 songs. If you want more, each track will cost an additional 99 euro cents.

Making the service unique, and very intriguing, is the fact that the songs never "expire" even after your monthly subscription is up. Any song you've downloaded is yours to keep, whether you cancel the service or not.

The only catch however, is that the songs, at least for the time being, are DRM-riddled Windows Media files. Orange had hoped to open a DRM-free store, but it appears the labels would not allow it. The songs can be played on a maximum of 5 PCs and 5 portable devices but notably the songs are locked out of the dominant market leader, the iPod which cannot play locked WMAs.

The Spanish company Telefonica has announced it will distribute the iPhone to 16 countries in Latin America and the Czech Republic after striking a deal with Apple.

"The 16 countries where we will distribute the iPhone have a market potential of 500 million people, making us one of the global leaders in the distribution of these revolutionary handsets," Telefonica Chairman Cesar Alierta said in a statement.

Telefonica already sells the phone in the UK and Ireland through O2 and will begin selling the device in Spain on July 11th.

The 16 new countries are the Czech Republic, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela.

Unlike its current markets however, the new markets will not be exclusive for Telefonica as America Movil has already signed a deal to distribute the phone in most of those countries.

The giant German conglomerate Bertelsmann is in talks with its partner Sony to sell Bertelsmann's half of the jointly owned music company Sony BMG back to Sony.

Each company has owned 50 percent of the music publishing firm since its launch in 2004 and Sony has the option to buy Bertlesmann's stake if it ever chooses to sell any or all of its stake.

So far spokespeople for both companies have declined to comment on the speculation.

The sources for the rumor also added that Bertelsmann CEO Hartmut Ostrowski has decided its time to move out of the music business, citing the spectacular fall of physical CDs sales.

In 2006, Bertelsmann sold the rights of BMG Music Publishing's catalogue to Vivendi and if this current deal goes through could end their run in the music business.

The Vänsterpartiet, translated to the Left Party of Sweden, held its annual congress last weekend and passed a motion that will legalize the online sharing of copyright material.

During the debate on whether to pass the measure, the infamous torrent tracker The Pirate Bay was cited as why current copyright legislation is outdated.

“The farce that is the ongoing legal procedures against The Pirate Bay also shows how legal security is in risk of being compromised by those trying to enforce the current ban on file sharing.”

Members continued on, “To many of us in the Left Party, file sharing is something positive in the same obvious way that public libraries are.”

Additionally, the measure asks for the end of "big brother" tactics such as surveillance, entrapment and lawsuits for alleged pirates.

The party only holds 22 seats in the Swedish parliament currently but hopefully this measure will see the light with the other political parties in Sweden.

This morning Microsoft announced it had filed 21 federal lawsuits against resellers it believes are selling pirated copies of Windows and Office software.

The software giant added that the companies that are being sued are selling PCs which are pre-installed with unlicensed copies. Eight of the companies were already sued for the same issue and settled the past lawsuits.

For most of the cases, Microsoft learned of the piracy from customers using the company's piracy hotline. Some of the computers also failed the company's Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) online validation tool for legitimate Microsoft software.

"These legal actions are about protecting Microsoft's customers from falling victim to some dealers who operate a business model of peddling pirated and counterfeit software," Microsoft attorney Sharon Cates said in a statement. "Some companies previously involved in these lawsuits have discontinued their illegal business practices; others have not."

Six of the companies are from California, two in Texas, two in Washington, and others around the country in Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia.

Iomega has announced that they have released their own Iomega DVR expander which will work with Scientific Atlanta DVRs and TiVo and will give users up to 500GB of extra storage capacity.

The DVR Expander connects via an eSATA connection and is capable of 1.5GBps transfer speeds. 500GB should be able to hold up to 300 hours of SD TV programming and just over 60 hours of HD programming.

The drive is identical, technically, to the Western Digital DVR Expander which has been out for several months and will be compatible with any eSATA-enabled DVRs from Scientific Atlanta. Those boxes are available from cable providers such as COX, Time Warner, iO Cable and Rogers.

The drive will retail for $199 USD, the same price as its Western Digital counterpart.

SanDisk has agreed in principle to purchase the wireless MP3 player company MusicGremlin for a currently undisclosed amount.

The latter company, which was launched in early 2003, built media players called 'Gremlins' that could download music from a subscription service directly, using Wi-Fi, thus eliminating the need for a PC at all. Users could then share their songs with other Gremlin users.

The technology is still somewhat rare despite the fact that Microsoft has tried to use it in their Zune line and SanDisk has even used it in their Sansa Connect players. SanDisk's Sansa Senior VP Daniel Schreiber says the features brought by Gremlin will play a "key role" in future Sansa media players.

Schreiber added that MusicGremlin will be fully integrated in SanDisk and will no longer continue its own services. It appears that SanDisk was also somewhat forced to make this move as it tries to steal more market share from the dominant leader Apple. Its Sansa Connect players currently use Yahoo's unlimited music subscription service but the service has since closed.

The Big 4 record label EMI has said they have finally reached a settlement in its lawsuit brought against XM Satellite Radio.

The lawsuit, which was brought forward in May 2006, revolved around the Pioneer Inno music player which allowed suers to record on-air streams from XM programming. EMI, and the rest of the Big 4 labels considered that ability a violation of copyright and subsequently sued the satellite radio giant. The player cannot distinguish the difference between authorized and unauthorized music and brought comparisons to cassette players that can record streams right from FM radio.

EMI's settlement marks the end of the lawsuit, which had already seen 3 settlements last December for Warner, Universal and Sony BMG.

The terms of the latest settlement were not disclosed.

Disney has announced that it will begin streaming full-length movies online, for free, from its "Wonderful World of Disney" collection.

As part of a deal with ABC, the films will air on ABC every Saturday night for the summer and then will be available for free on www.Disney.com/WonderfulWorld for the week following the broadcast.

“Streaming full-length films on Disney.com takes our acommitment to delivering world-class online entertainment to the next level,” stated Paul Yanover, executive vice president and managing director, Disney Online. “This is a wonderful partnership with ABC, and just another example of how Disney’s unmatched, high-quality content can be leveraged on multiple platforms.”

The movies, according to the Disney press release are:

* “Finding Nemo” – currently available online through June 13
* “Monsters Inc.” – airs on ABC Saturday, June 14 at 8pm; available on Disney.com June 16-20
* “Haunted Mansion” – airs on ABC Saturday, June 28 at 8pm; available on Disney.com June 30-July 4
* “Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen” – airs on ABC Saturday, July 5 at 8pm; available on Disney.com July 7-11
* “Princess Diaries 2” – airs on ABC Saturday, July 12 at 8pm; available on Disney.com July 14-18
* “Freaky Friday” – airs on ABC Saturday, July 19 at 8pm; available on Disney.com July 21-25
* “Peter Pan” – airs on ABC Saturday, Aug. 2 at 8pm; available on Disney.com Aug. 4-8

Robbie Bach, Microsoft's president for entertainment and devices has once again denied the rumors that have flared up on the internet that a Blu-ray enabled Xbox 360 or a Zune mobile phone is coming soon, or at all.

When asked if a Zune phone was coming to rival Apple's iPhone, Bach said "there are plenty of Windows Mobile products on the market right now and that Microsoft doesn't have any plans to make phones ourselves."

When told that rumors had flared up again about a Blu-ray Xbox 360, Bach added the rumors are "so far out that there isn't anything to talk about."

When asked if he felt HD disc formats were a failure so far, Bach added, “You have to look at how fundamentally compelling the difference is between a progressive scan DVD player and the picture that it can produce and what you get on a high-definition player. The reality is there is some difference, but most people look at it and say, "I am not going to pay extra for that."

Sling Media has shown off proof that they have created a software application that will allow iPhone and iPod Touch users to access their Slingbox machines via the media devices.

The company says the software is still in pre-Alpha stage of development but eventually Slingbox users will be able to access their satellite and Freeview channels from the media devices using a Wi-Fi connection at home.

Sling Media hopes to have a fully working app available by the end of 2008 and it could be sold through the new iPhone Apps store that is set to launch later this month.

One issue with that however, is that Sling is currently not an approved Apple developer. That could change in the future though.

Motorola has announced today that it has inked a deal with Paramount to start a movie download service for its millions of mobile phone customers.

The service will launch in the UK at first and then move to Germany, Italy, Spain and France. The service is different than other mobile offerings however and will not allow on the go downloads. Users will instead have to download the movies to their PCs and then move them over to memory cards on their Motorola phones.

The company is hoping that customers will pay up to £8.99 per movie to watch on the small screen.

“We’re expecting significant consumer interest in the movie download store, with blockbusters available from just £5.99,” said Andrew Till, senior director of applications and service portfolio of the multimedia team at Motorola. “The first 40 films being made available mark a significant step change in our content strategy and we look forward to adding further rich material in the coming weeks and months.”

The broadband provider Comcast has been served with three class-action lawsuits this week for its former practice of throttling BitTorrent file transfers for some of its users.

Late last year, users from Comcast's 14 million broadband subscribers were outraged to learn that the provider was interfering with their file sharing traffic, most notably with torrents. The FCC then got involved and there have so far been a few investigations and public hearings into the matter.

The three lawsuits, filed in California, Illinois and New Jersey each claim that the company "misled consumers when it promised to offer unfettered access to all the content, services, and applications that the Internet has to offer."

"Comcast's clandestine techniques are similar to those used by totalitarian governments to censor the use of the Internet," states the Illinois complaint.

"No doubt Comcast would characterize the behavior as illegal and malicious hacking if perpetrated by others on Comcast and its customers."

According to the research firm Gartner, sales of smartphones doubled in North America for the Q1 2008, a huge growth even in comparison to the category's growth world wide.

The growth was spurred by growing popularity for Research in Motion's BlackBerry line and the Apple iPhone.

Apple sold 1.73 million iPhones for the first three months of the year, enough to move into a 5.3 percent share of the worldwide smart-phone market. That number should be much larger soon, thanks to the launch of the new 3G version of the phone and deals Apple has struck to bring the phone to every continent.

MP2P Techonologies has announced that they were recently served with a lawsuit by the Spanish branches of the Big 4 labels. Warner Music Spain, Universal Music Spain, EMI music Spain and Sony BMG Music along with the Spanish branch of the IFPI, the Promusicae, are seeking $20 million USD in damages for what they call "unfair competition."

"We intend to vigorously defend ourselves against this shake down attempt by the major label cabal," said Pablo Soto, founder and CEO of MP2P Technologies. "Rather than embracing technology, they have chosen a path that will ultimately lead to their own demise, as evidenced by the label's consistent decline over the past decade. Litigation is in itself not a valid business model for them, however, it has been a dogged and futile pursuit of theirs since the advent of P2P."

"PROMUSICAE (Spanish branch of the IFPI; international arm of the RIAA) tried to proceed with civil suits against users of P2P networks in Spain and, after being halted by the Court of Justice of the EU, it has now decided to go against a neutral communication tool such as P2P technology," added Soto.

Sony announced yesterday that it had updated its top of the line BRAVIA XBR HDTV lineup with new sets across the board.

The XBR8 series will see a new 46 and 55 inch model which are Sony's first to have LED backlights. The improved lighting provides a better contrast ratio and more even and color accurate images. The two new TVs will each include the "new BRAVIA Engine 2 PRO for rendering the image, 120Hz panels to improve the picture in fast movement, a hooks for the BRAVIA Internet Link adapter, and a media port for connecting iPods and other media players."

Each of the models have four HDMI 1.3 inputs with deep color support, component jacks, PC inputs and Ethernet for connecting to the Internet.

A new XBR7 set will feature more traditional fluorescent backlighting but will include the same other features such as deep color HDMI 1.3, 120Hz panels and Ethernet.

There was no word on price but the entire line will be available in the fall.

According to figures from Media Create, for the week ended June 1st, Japanese console hardware sales saw a nice surge and the PSP remained dominant.

The Sony handheld sold 71, 986 units for the week, up from 64,449 for the week before it. The ever popular Nintendo Wii trailed behind with 50,851 units sold, up from last week's 49,047 units sold.

The Ninendo DS sold well again, with 38,355 and the PlayStation 3 saw a surge as well, to 9169 units, up from 9017.

As is now expected in the Japanese market, the Xbox 360 lagged very far behind, selling only 1959 units for the week.

Virgin Media ISP and the British Photographic Institute (BPI) have begun sending out a fresh batch of letters to customers who they suspect are participating in the unauthorized downloading of music and movies.

These customers will receive an 'informative correspondence" from both Virgin and the BPI which will "educate them on how to safely download music without being at risk of legal action."

The BPI, unlike other organizations like the RIAA, does not believe in suing users before they have at least received ample warnings, and acknowledges that some of the unauthorized downloads may have been done without the owners knowledge or consent. Unsecured wireless, children, and other family members using the computer without owner knowledge were the reasons given.

Geoff Taylor, chief executive of the BPI, added: 'Education is absolutely key to reducing the extent of illegal downloading and we are pleased to be working with Virgin Media on this campaign.'

The BPI however also notes that anyone who receives several warnings but "continues to offend" will have their Internet account cut off by the ISP and face legal consequences.

Philips has announced that it will be showing off a new 22-inch 3D display at the upcoming InfoComm 2008 event on June 18th.

The display is based on a WSXGA (1680x1050) LCD panel and will use Philips' WOWvx technology "to provide 3D-like images without requiring users to wear special viewing glasses." Technically, WOWvx uses Philips' internal 2D-plus-Depth (the 2D image and its depth map) format "and combines it with the Declipse format developed especially for autostereoscopic 3D displays such as this one. Declipse provides additional "background" information for a more realistic 3D effect."

The company says the display can be used commercially in digital signs used for advertising, retail and gaming applications at casinos. Other specifications include a standard 16:10 aspect ratio, 300cd/m2 brightness, a 1,000:1 contrast ratio and relatively fast 5 ms response time.

The display will go on sale during the Q4 2008, although there was no word on pricing.

Japan's largest retail chain, Tsutaya, has announced that it will be starting an HD video on demand (VOD) service that will allow users to download titles from home using the acTVila portal that is popular on Japanese plasma and LCD HDTVs.

The chain did not specify what format the videos were in, but did say that users will have 48 hours to watch the films or TV shows as many times as they want.

Tsutaya has over 27 million members and 1,330 branches in Japan and added it plans to make deals with Paramount, Warner Brothers, Walt Disney and NBC Universal to expand its available online library to 2000 titles. The chain also added that "high-speed fiber-optic connections are required for use of the service," and about a quarter of Japan's 48 million homes are currently equipped.

The service is set to launch tomorrow with downloads of the first seasons of Heroes, Lost and Desperate Housewives. Each full length movie will cost 735 yen (about $7 USD) with other prices unknown right now.

In the third of five lawsuits brought forth against Microsoft by Alcatel-Lucent SA, a federal jury has ruled that the Microsoft Xbox 360 console does not violate any patents held my Alcatel-Lucent and threw the case out.

The technologies company had wanted $420 million USD in damages. On the other side however, Microsoft had counter-sued for $11.5 million USD in damages, claiming that Alcatel-Lucent had infringed one of their patents.

The jury ruled that "one of Microsoft's patents was invalid and found that Alcatel-Lucent didn't violate another four of the company's patents."

Last year, in the first of the five trials, a jury ruled that Microsoft's Windows Media Player "infringed Alcatel-Lucent's patents for the MP3 digital-audio standard" and awarded the latter company a huge $1.52 billion USD settlement. The verdict however is now on appeal and it appears the damages award will be lessened.

In what should be welcomed warmly by owners of jailbroken iPhones or iPod Touches, members of ZodTTD have announced they have successfully ported the extremely powerful media player VLC (Video Lan Client) to the media devices.

Dubbed vlc4iphone, the port has its own frontend and will make your iPhone or iPod Touch capable of drag-and-drop playback of MP3, XviD, FLAC, MPEG2, MPEG4, h264, and OGG formats.

According to the official post on the site the project is still in beta, but it is expected to be released to the public in the near future.

The list of new additions, according to the post, are:
* Compiled in FFmpeg!
* MANY more decoders supported, including support for XviD, h264, MPEG4, FLAC, 3GP, MP3, MPEG2, AVI, and more!
* Added volume control.
* Fixed a warning when no media is found.
* Increased the size of vlc4iphone's binary from 5MB to 24MB! Lots of media goodness packed inside!

In commemoration of its upcoming Nine Inch Nails: Lights in the Sky tour, the band has released a nice five-track EP on its website with songs from itself and four other bands which are on the tour.

According to the NIN website, the songs are all "high quality, DRM-free, fully-tagged MP3 files" and each download will even come with "cover art and a pack of digital extras."

The five track EP includes the following songs:
1. a place to bury strangers - "to fix the gash in your head"
2. does it offend you, yeah? - "we are rockstars"
3. crystal castles - "crimewave (crystal castles vs HEALTH)"
4. deerhunter - "like new"
5. nine inch nails - "echoplex"

For those interested in picking up the free EP, all you need to do is sign up here and provide a working email address. You will then be emailed a download code for the EP and digital extras.

In early May, the band was applauded for fighting back against the record companies and giving away part of its album "Ghosts I-IV" for free in better-than-CD quality. The band also offered the CD in physical format and the rest of the CD in digital format for much cheaper prices than most CDs cost today. Their "experiment" is said to have netted $1.6 million USD for the band, with little to no production costs and nothing to pay to the labels.

CBS has said that it has struck a deal with Yahoo to allow its web videos to be shown by the latter company. The deal is part of an ongoing plan for CBS to have new outlets online for its TV shows.

The deal means Yahoo would join the CBS Audience Network, which now includes huge web outlets such as YouTube, AOL, MSN,, Joost, Veoh, and Bebo.

The whole Network offers short movies and shows from CBS, CSTV and Showtime, and with this new deal should reach over 90 percent of the web. All the clips are supported by advertising and are free to users.

CBS has always maintained that it would rather have its content available to as many internet users as possible, unlike broadcasting rivals such as NBC Universal which have rigidly tight restrictions on all content.

The indie horror distributor Blue Underground has revealed its upcoming Blu-ray roadmap, following its decision in March to start Blu-ray support.

Blue Underground has now released their initial title line-up and the list includes 9 popular favorites from filmmakers such as Dario Argento, Ralph Bakashi and William Lustig.

The nine titles are 'The Final Countdown,' 'The Bird With The Crystal Plumage,' 'The Stendhal Syndrome,' 'Maniac (1980),' 'Vigilante (1983),' 'Fire & Ice,' 'Dead & Buried,' 'Two Evil Eyes,' and 'Uncle Sam: I Want You... Dead!'

The distributor also says all of titles will be on"BD-50 dual-layer discs with full 1080p encodes and DTS-HD Lossless Master Audio 7.1 Surround and/or Dolby TrueHD 7.1 Surround audio."

Just hours after it was announced for Canada, Apple has announced that it will be launching movie rentals and sales via iTunes in the UK.

The deal, exactly like that for Canada, has deals signed with 20th Century Fox, Walt Disney, Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros., MGM, Sony Pictures and Lionsgate.

The UK store will only have 700 films available however, with 100 of those being available in HD.

"We’re kicking off movies on the iTunes Store in the UK with over 700 films for purchase and rent", said Eddy Cue, Apple's vice president of iTunes.

"We think customers in the UK are going to love being able to enjoy their favourite movies on their iPod, iPhone or on a widescreen TV with Apple TV."

Reports have surfaced from CNBC that Verizon is in talks to buyout rival carrier Alltel for $27 billion USD, an almost 8x premium over its current pre-interest, pre-tax earnings. The deal would be considered a friendly takeover as Goldman Sachs is in charge of the acquisition.

The reports say that allegedly there was an auction in the spring of last year for the company but that the value was too high. They now see the company's up front value as low enough to be acquired.

The deal should have its fair share of benefits for the acquiring company however. Alltel's service areas overlap Verizon's and Alltel even has a roaming deal with Verizon to allow Alltel customers to borrow Verizon airspace when there is none of their own. Buying out would help reduce competition and increase subscriber totals substantially.

Neither Alltel or Verizon had comments on the speculation. Currently, AT&T has the largest customer base in the US, but this deal could narrow that gap substantially for Verizon.

Samsung has said it will become the latest company to begin offering new extra-wide 16:9 aspect ratio LCDs for notebooks.

Currently the electronics giant produces 15.4-inch, 16:10 screens found in most notebooks but it will begin 15.6-inch screens that are usually known to be better for movie viewing and side-by-side documents.

According to reports from display industry insiders, the production will start in November with commercial notebook releases being seen in early 2009.

Other display makers such as AU Optronics and LG Display are also reportedly producing 17.3-inch LCDs at the same 16:9 ratio that is usually targeted at HD viewing.

Sony has announced that it will be introducing dynamic in-game advertising on the PlayStation 3 in both the UK and the US.

Marketers and companies interesting in having the ads in games are now able to engage "through advertisement distribution partners" and Sony announced that IGA Worldwide was selected as the PS3's first partner.

"The PS3 platform is primed to leverage the high growth potential of the in-game advertising market", said Phil Rosenberg, senior vice president, SCEA.

"Ads that are organic to the environment not only benefit developers and advertisers, but also create a richer experience for gamers."

Analysts have said the dynamic advert market will reach $800 million USD by 2012 and it is clear Sony wants a piece.

The Japanese mobile carrier Softbank has announced that it has signed a deal with Apple to bring the iPhone to Japan later this year.

There was no details on pricing, availability or whether the deal was exclusive for the country.

Softbank has about 19 million subscribers in Japan but still lags decently far behind NTT DoCoMo and KDDI in market share.

Although the Japanese are a huge market for the iPod line of media devices, the iPhone may not be so impressive to a country whose cell phones are years ahead technologically then ours.

Regardless, rival NTT DoCoMo spokesman Shinjiro Minami added that his company was unhappy at the turn of events as DoCoMo had been trying to ink a similar deal for months.

"The user interface is very attractive and it's a product that's likely to draw Apple fans in Japan," he added.

So far this year Apple has struck deals to sell the iPhone in over 20 new countries, including markets in Asia, Australia, Europe and South America.

Apple has announced that they will now be making movies available for sale and rental on iTunes Canada.

Apple has signed the deal with major film studios 20th Century Fox, The Walt Disney Studios, Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros. Entertainment, Universal Studios Home Entertainment, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (MGM), Sony Pictures Television International and Lionsgate and Maple Pictures to make the movies available on the iTunes platform in Canada.

The company says there will be 1200 movies available rent or purchase and that 200 are available in HD resolutions.

“Canadians have made iTunes the most popular place to find and buy music and TV shows online,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of iTunes. “We’re thrilled to give iTunes customers access to over 1,200 movies from major studios to rent or purchase, whether to enjoy at home on their widescreen TV with Apple TV or on-the-go on their iPod.”

Apple has finally fully launched its iTunes U platform in the UK, after the service has been successfully running in the US for some time.

For those unfamiliar, iTunes U uses the iTunes store to allow colleges and universities to "add learning and course content to for students to access anywhere."

Apple says the service is "transforming learning in the classroom, outside the classroom, and where there's no classroom at all".

As with the iTunes store, users can search, download and play course content as if it were music or a movie.

Although the content is aimed at students, it is available to anyone who has the software installed, on both Macs and PCs. The content is also syncable to iPods and iPhones so students can take it with them to lunch or other activities.

The large electronics company LG has announced it will be releasing three new PC Blu-ray drives with a price range of $200 USD to $380 USD.

The three drives, the BE06, GBC-H20L, and GBW-H20L are the latest in a successful line from LG. The BE06 is an external model which connects through a USB 2.0 port. It is supposed to be compatible with "all" Blu-ray disc formats, as well as all CD and DVD formats. The drive however, can only write DVDs and CDs at up to 16x and 24x speeds respectively and read BD-R at 6x speed. BD-REs can stream at 2x. That drive will cost $380 USD.

According to an NPD report, only 9 percent of US HDTV owners plan to buy a Blu-ray disc player in the next six months.

The survey by NPD was carried out in the middle of March, after Blu-ray killed off the rival HD DVD format. Although sentiments may have changed in the months since the survey was taken, I would assume the numbers are still pretty accurate, considering reports of Blu-ray sales show declining results.

The survey also showed that about 40 million US homes have at least one HDTV and that 9 percent amounts to a lowly 3.6 million units.

There was however, more interesting numbers to note. NPD added that only 45 percent of HDTV owners had even heard of Blu-ray or HD DVD meaning that 22 million HDTV owners were not even familiar with HD optical formats.

The British authorities have confirmed that at least 6 former users of the torrent site OiNK have been arrested, more than the single user that was reported on Friday.

All of those arrested were pre-release uploaders, people who shared full albums days or weeks before the official retail date. The arrest were all made between May 23rd and May 28th and include 5 men and 1 woman, all aged between 19 and 33.

Allegedly, all suspects were arrested on suspicion of “Conspiracy to Defraud the Music Industry” and were fingerprinted and forced to leave DNA samples.

The BPI left a statement about the matter, but for now most of the details remain vague. "The BPI and IFPI worked with the police in order to close down the OiNK tracker site last October. The illegal online distribution of music, particularly pre-release, is hugely damaging, and as OiNK was the biggest source for pre-releases at the time we moved to shut it down. We provided the information to assist this investigation, but this is now a police matter and we are unable to comment further at this stage."

Apple has announced the acts that are set to perform at its iTunes Festival: London performance this year.

Among the notable artists are James Blunt, McFly, N.E.R.D., The Zutons and Chaka Khan which will perform live sets in front of about 1000 fans in Camden.

Each of the recordings will then be recorded and sold exclusively on Apple's iTunes platform.

Other performers include Death Cab For Cutie, The Ting Tings, Feeder, CSS, I Was A Cub Scout, Jamie Lidell, and Pendulum, and a few unannounced artists.

According to internet and print reports, it appears that the 3G iPhone could hit the UK with a £100 price tag, thanks to carrier O2 subsidizing the cost of the phone.

Apple could be using this new strategy with O2 to help boost sales and help the company hits its 10 million iPhone sales target for the year.

Although still not officially confirmed, Steve Jobs is expected to unveil the 3G model at this years WWDC08 developer event on June 9th.

In the UK however, the Times says "a source close to the deal" has revealed that the model will hit shelves in early July.

Ben Wood, a CCS Insight analyst, added: "They are also looking for more flexibility on how the operators can price the iPhone, although I am not convinced that they will let them have open season on the price, as they have a lucrative iPod market to protect".

Nintendo of America's senior director of project development, Tom Prata, has revealed that there are at least 100 WiiWare games currently in development.

Citing WiiWare's early success, Prata also explained that the developing games are the products of "working with developers... to bring the products to consumers in a timely manner".

"Currently, there are about 100 games in development for WiiWare at various stages of completion," Prata added.

WiiWare, which was launched in the US last month with six games, in Japan in April with nine games, and Europe on May 20th with eight games has seen early success, especially for the game LostWinds.

Analysts at Wedbush Morgan Securities have reported that there is the likely possibility that Netflix will strike a deal with Microsoft to stream movies through the Xbox 360.

The report came after the investment banking firm looked through comments made by Netflix management. If the report turns out to be true, the popular online rental service would be able to stream movie directly to million's of consumer's gaming consoles.

"As we have speculated in the past, we believe that one of Netflix's partners is Microsoft. We arrive at this conclusion based upon Netflix management repeatedly mentioning 'Internet enabled video game consoles'," said a Wedbush Morgan statement.

"While there are three such consoles, only one - Microsoft's Xbox 360 - has a sufficiently large installed base to make sense from a streaming partnership with Netflix."

"The competitive advantage of such an alliance is clear: Netflix customers who are Xbox Live members will have the ability to stream online content through their Xbox 360s directly to their televisions. The ability to do so is available without the Xbox 360, but requires a measure of technological sophistication and a high tolerance for failure," it added.

The Canadian ISP MoxioColo has been served with cease and desist orders from CRIA to shut down the popular torrent sites What.cd, SumoTorrent, BTMon and FullDls.

CRIA, the Canadian equivalent of the RIAA, was in the news last year as well for getting Demonoid closed down after it had moved to a Canadian ISP.

This time it seems that the ISP is not going to back down however, and Sean Corbin, CEO of Moxie Communications added "We will not be following the request and will be fighting for the rights of our clients as to date laws in Canada protect them. We have looked into the matter and from what we understand these sites are not breaking any laws in Canada. If we do not comply they might bring legal action against Moxie Communications, as they believe without us these sites could not do what they do so therefore we are as bad as they are.

According to a vendor survey by IDC, the Apple iPhone saw its market share shrink in the "smartphone" market for the Q1 2008. For the fourth quarter 2007, the iPhone had about 27 percent of the market which has now shrunk to just over 19 percent.

It seems that all of the lost market share was taken back by RIM's Blackberry line which moved from 35.1 percent to 44.5 percent market share in the same period. IDC analyst Ramon Llamas added that RIM's success is because it has finally widened its appeal from the "professional" segment which had been its core consumer.

Although IDC did not reveal the total amount of smartphones sold for the quarter, Apple has said it sold 1.7 million iPhones, including overseas sales.

Additionally, Palm picked up market share as well, moving from 7.9 percent to 13.4 percent for the quarter. IDC added, "Palm also did really well. It posted a sequential gain mainly on the strength of the Centro phone."

Earlier this week, the musician Prince did a cover of the popular song "Creep" originally by Radiohead at a concert at the Coachella. After word spread, tens of thousands of curious fans went to YouTube looking to get at least a glimpse of the performance. There was a problem however, NPG Records, Prince's label had quickly advised the site to take everything down related to the song and there were no videos to see.

There was one problem with that however. Not even Radiohead could see the fan videos, of their own song. Thom Yorke, lead singer for the group, first heard of the cover via text message and after his bandmate was unable to view a video on YouTube he quickly called his publicist.

"Really? He's blocked it?" asked Yorke, who figured it was their song to block or not. "Surely we should block it. Hang on a moment."

Yorke added: "Well, tell him to unblock it. It's our ... song."

YouTube's policy is that if they receive a complaint from a copyright owner they take down the infringing video. This situation is a lot more tricky however, as Radiohead owns the song copyrights despite the fact that it is Prince singing it.

Amazon has announced that it will be making 5,000 more books available for its popular e-reader device Kindle, adding to the already 120,000 downloadable titles available.

The new titles are available thanks to a recent deal struck by Amazon and the large book publisher Simon & Schuster.

At last week's BookExpo America convention, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos continued to praise the Kindle and the benefits of electronic books. "That's one of the great things about electronic books. They don't go out of stock." His statement came in response to the recently sold out title "What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception." People want it, but it is sold out everywhere.

The Kindle was launched last November and now accounts for over 6 percent of the site’s total book sales. Amazon says it expects that number to increase significantly over the next few years.