SanDisk has announced the launch of the Sansa Clip+ MP3 player, which uses a microSD slot for added memory.
The player will work with SanDisk's slotRadio and slotMusic cards, which are cards purchased from retailers with preloaded music on them. You can of course add your own music to a microSD card and play it back.
"We made a great product -- the Sansa Clip -- even better," said Eric Bone, vice president, retail product marketing, SanDisk. "This small player packs big features, including a new microSD memory card slot that gives music lovers the ability to listen to thousands of additional songs in seconds. It's the perfect player for travelers, busy moms, fitness buffs or anyone looking to enjoy music without the hassle of loading songs from their computer or updating playlists."
The company also says the player is the first Windows 7 certified MP3 player.
The player should be available in multiple colorways, and available at Best Buy on August 31st. 2GB model will sell for $39.99, 4GB will sell for $49.99, and 8GB for $69.99 USD.
Fox will begin experimenting using Twitter to spice up their re-runs, beginning with the shows Fringe and Glee.
The episodes will add Twitter commentary along the bottom of the screen, most from the cast and the producers, but some moderated Tweets from regular fans as well.
The Tweets will come from the FRINGEonFOX and GLEEonFOX Twitter accounts, and cast members and producers will be tweeting live, as the episodes air.
The move marks the first time a major TV network will use Twitter during a prime time broadcast.
According to industry sources, the DirecTV Group is currently in talks with both TBS and TNT about offering their TV content online.
If the deal goes through, satellite subscribers would be able to watch the cable content on their PCs or TVs via the Internet, on demand.
The deal has not been made of yet, and is still in negotiations, say the anonymous sources, via Yahoo Tech.
Just recently, Time Warner Cable announced it had deals with 12 cable networks to have their content on the Internet.
The 12 networks are TBS, TNT and HBO; CBS Corp.'s CBS network; Syfy from General Electric Co.'s NBC Universal; BBC America, Cablevision Systems Corp.'s AMC, WE tv, IFC, Sundance, Discovery Communications LLC's Discovery and the Smithsonian Channel.
According to John Koller, Sony's Director of Hardware Marketing, the company has made the PSP Go battery non-replaceable in an effort to prevent piracy that has plagued earlier models, most notably the 1000 and 2000 models.
Using the infamousPandora's Battery, users of past PSP models could easily modify official PSP firmware and therefore play pirated games at their leisure. Sony wanted to avoid the same with the Go.
"We've had a lot of success with the 3000," Koller added via PSInsider."You won't be able to rip your games and play them on the system, the firmware precludes that. There's no external battery, so there's a number of protections put into place on the system."
Kotaku is reporting that a 250GB 'Super' Xbox 360 Elite is possibly on the way, and two retail leaks seem to confirm the fact.
The first ad, from the German Amazon, lists a 250 GBXbox 360 Elite bundled with Forza Motorsport 3 and 2 wireless controllers for €279.99, about $400 USD.
The second ad, from the South African retailer BT Games, shows the so-called "Super" Elite for R4699, or about $600 USD. The package also includes 2 wireless controllers and a 250GB HDD.
Kotaku got a response from Microsoft as well, who said "We've made no such announcement," on any 250GB Super Elite console, which is a strange move away from the normal "We don't comment on rumors and speculation."
For the week ended August 24th, console sales lagged in Japan again, with the PlayStation 3 seeing the largest drop, 65 percent week-on-week, to 2,052 units sold.
The drop has been attributed to the newly announced Slim PS3 model, which is expected to have strong sales at launch on September 1st.
The DSi and DS Lite led the pack with a combined 65,313 units sold, a 32 percent decline week-on-week.
The Wii saw a 43 percent drop to 26,972 units and the PSP saw a similar drop. The Xbox 360 held up the best among all the consoles, seeing a 2 percent drop to 8979 units sold.
Blockbuster along with partner NCR, is expanding its Blockbuster ExpressDVD rental kiosks to Big Y grocery stores in the states of Connecticut and Massachusetts.
The kiosks should be in all 57 Big Y locations by September 3rd, says the companies.
NCR currently has over 400 Blockbuster Express machines, in Publix and other grocery stores. Just like rival Redbox, the Blockbuster kiosks rent DVDs for $1 USD a night.
Although it is unclear why, Best Buy has been given a one month exclusive head start for the Universal Blu-ray films Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz.
The two titles are currently available at the retail chain, and Universal says they won't be available anywhere else until September 22nd.
Besy Buy has long been considered the top retailer for Blu-ray films and both films are expected to sell well.
It also appears that Best Buy has been given an exclusive run with the Anchor Bay Entertainment’s Blu-ray Grace which will become available elsewhere on September 15th.
Nintendo has announced the hiring of ex-Warner Bros’ anti-piracy director Neil Boyd, in an effort to put more pressure on retailers who sell DS piracy equipment such as R4 flash carts.
Those that continue to sell the piracy hardware will risk "damaging their relationship" with Nintendo, says MCV.
Boyd is also asking UK ISPs to put a stop to consumers that they know are illegally downloading games. Boyd will work directly for Nintendo’s senior global director for anti-piracy Jodi Daugherty.
“The four key areas in our fight are legal enforcement, consumer awareness, technology and lobbying,” notes Boyd. “Without all those coming together, we won’t solve piracy.”
Boyd warned UK retailers that Nintendo now has “more eyes and ears” on the street looking out for "DS piracy enablers" and says the company is willing to sending cease and desist letters to all who keep selling the devices.
Daugherty also added: “[Stocking these games] damages your sales, and it’s going to damage your relationship with us. We have no problem pursuing customers that continue to take steps to hurt the company.”
According to SCEA senior vice president of marketing Peter Dille, the company is prepared to change the marketing focus of the PlayStation 3 console, focusing more on the console's movie downloading and Blu-ray capabilities.
Dille says the company is looking to "reposition the hardware" to attract new buyers in the family market.
"We have been a game company for years and we would never walk away from that, but research confirmed there is a larger proposition under our nose," added Dille, via the LATimes. "We wanted to reposition as a total entertainment solution. We felt like we can really own entertainment."
Of course the ads will not forget that the console is first and foremost a gaming system, but the "new ad campaign will be aimed at moms and families as well."
One of the new ads calls the system "the greatest gaming, Blu-ray playing, move downloading system around," while a teenager complains that is grandmother is hogging the PS3 to watch movies and not letting him play games.
Global Gaming Factory X (GGF) stockholders have approved the company's decision to purchase the torrenttrackerThe Pirate Bay today, a non-surprising event given the fact that CEO Hans Pandeya owns the majority of the shares.
The buy price is 60 million Swedish kronor ($8.2 million USD) but questions still linger as to where the money will come from, and whether the stock will be delisted if the acquisition does go through. Trading in the company's shares have been halted since August 21st. The stock exchange recently said that "GGF lacks the ability to inform its stockholders in a correct, relevant and credible way" as to the acquisition and therefore "cannot be allowed to be traded."
Pandeya says the financing for the deal is secure however, although a few of the original investors did leave the venture to avoid all the media attention.
There is also questions as to whether the new legal Pirate Bay can actually work. Let's see if the acquisition goes smoothly first.
China Unicom has announced officially that the iPhone is headed to China, sometime in the Q4 of this year.
The launch will mark the first time the smartphone has reached the Asian nation after years of negotiations.
China has about 690 million mobile subscribers total and Unicom has about 141 million subscribers.
There are some notable differences from the Unicom deal compared to other iPhone deals however. Unicom must sell the phone for three years and will not share any revenue with Apple. The phones will be bought at wholesale prices and resold to consumers with a subsidy by Unicom to lower prices.
Wi-Fi is stripped from the Chinese iPhone, per government ruling. The phone should work with Unicom's new 3G network.
A man in Sweden has been arrested this week over alleged piracy, after 10,000 pirated films were found on a server in his cellar.
Police in Västerås were following a tip from the Swedish Anti-Piracy Agency Antipiratbyrån (APB) and raided the man's house.
The arrested man is believed to be a member of a file sharing release group or a warez site uploader, but there are no other suspects as of yet.
"We shall have to await the results of the technical investigation. As the case in question concerns a server there could be other file sharers either here in Sweden or abroad, it is too early to tell," district chief Fredrik Inglad added, via TheLocal..
The APB says the server had over 90 TB of copyrighted materials.
"We regard the man to be one of the leading figures behind the 'warez scene' syndicate which is responsible for all pirate copying. The police operation will help to stem the flow of pirated material onto the internet," added Henrik Pontén, an ABP lawyer.
Earlier this month, software giant Microsoft was shocked when they lost a patent dispute to i4i and were told that the word processing application Word would be blocked from sales starting in October.
Microsoft has appealed the decision and today has gotten some backup support from the large computer manufacturers (and big Microsoft customers) HP and Dell.
The companies asked the judge in the case to reconsider the injunction, or at least delay it by 120 days.
"The District Court's injunction of Microsoft Word will have an impact far beyond Microsoft," said the Dell and HP brief. "Microsoft Word is ubiquitous among word processing software and is included on [redacted] computers sold by Dell."
The full statement also mapped out how Dell would be hurt severely monetarily and would be forced to "restructure its products."
Apple has approved the Spotify application today, meaning the service will be hitting the App Store soon.
European users must pay a 10 euro monthly subscription and in return receive unlimited streaming of over 8 million songs via Wi-Fi or 3G for iPhone users.
The app took about a month to hit approval although Apple normally takes 2 weeks for "95 percent" of the apps, sparking some criticism that the company was not allowing the app because it might hurt iTunes sales.
The Canadian mobile phone carrier Bell Canada has announced today they have become the second provider in the world to offer the Palm Pre smartphone.
Until today, the phone had only been available via Sprint in the United States, and was launched two months ago.
The 3G capable phone has a 3.1-inch touchscreen with 480x320 resolution and a slider design which hides a full QWERTY keyboard. More notably, the phone uses Palm's own WebOS Linux-based operating system, which offers multitasking for applications and "Synergy" for contacts integration.
The prices however are nowhere near as good as they are in the United States. To buy the phone without contract will cost $600 CAD (about $549 USD) or you can buy it with a 3-year contract for $200 CAD ($183 USD) with a mandatory $45 CAD a month data plan that only offers a measly 500MB of data.
After weeks of leaked catalog ads unofficially showed off the price cut, Microsoft has officially dropped the price of the Xbox 360 Elite today, with the console set to sell for $299 USD beginning tomorrow morning, in the United States.
The Pro model, which features a smaller HDD, will drop to $249.99, and seems to be on the way out, in favor of the Arcade and Elite models.
“With the holiday season right around the corner, it’s already time to start looking for entertainment and gifts that everyone will enjoy,” added Shane Kim, corporate vice president of strategy and business development for the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft Corp. “If you’re looking for deep experiences that don’t require deep pockets, now is the time to purchase an Xbox 360. We’ve got the best games, a vast library of TV shows and movies, new music experiences, more ways to connect friends and family, and so much more on the horizon including ‘Project Natal’ — no controller required.”
Today we are going to review the new online streaming site ZapMyTV. Currently it is only in alpha stage and therefore missing many of its promised key features, which are free SD and HD programming, "multiple live cable programming, websites and share video emails, video conferences and video chats through their wireless laptop or any other portable digital media devices while anywhere in the world."
For this review, we will be checking what is available currently, in the alpha stage, with a look into the future of the service.
To join up, head to ZapMyTV.com and hit Join Now. You will be sent an email with activation link. The whole process should take only a few minutes.
Hit Watch Now and you will greeted by a new window with a toolbar. There are a few options on the toolbar so far but the first you want to check is the Channels Guide, which will give you an interactive listing of all the programming available. There isn't too much available right now, but you can watch QVC, some older programming, and some baseball games, as well as newer content such as Scrubs and WWE.
A Dutch judge has today killed the large torrenttrackerMininova, telling the site to either delete all copyrighted content from the tracker, or pay a €5 million penalty.
The site had been charged with "contributory copyright infringement," by the Dutch anti-piracy agency BREIN, as the site did no direct copyright infringement.
Mininova notably removed links if copyright holders flagged them, but as with all trackers, when one went down, five would take its place, making the whole situation redundant.
The new court decision says Mininova was profiting from "inciting copyright infringement" and made over €1 million in 2007 on ad sales. Estimates have said about 90 percent of Mininova content is infringing.
The site must now "adopt proactive filtering" of copyrighted content or face a large fine.
According to an "insider" who posted completely accurate info about the Slim PS3 months before its official release, a PSP-4000 is coming soon, one that will still have the UMD drive, unlike the PSP Go which has it removed.
The insider, who allegedly works in Sony's PS3 hardware department, was correct on the details of the Slim PS3 and PS3 firmware 3.0 and says the 4000 will be out "sooner than you realize" and that Sony will begin phasing out the 3000 very soon.
Besides noting that it will include a UMD drive, the source says not much else, and says the 4000 will be like the Slim PS3, "nothing to actually get excited about."
In an interview this week, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe president Andrew House has said the company expects a "a huge amount of growth for the [console] business" following the recent PS3 price cut and the release of the Slim PS3.
"I think what I've heard anecdotally is that this is the point people were waiting for - a redesigned model and, in Euros, a significant price reduction," House says, via GI.biz. "That's people's cue to jump into the business."
"I think as well that the pleasing thing when I look at the European landscape is that this is coming on what was already pretty robust sales, year-on-year. Even at the higher price point our PS3 numbers have been bang on track through this year, against a challenging economic environment."
"So I think we feel this can only mean a huge amount of growth for the business, particularly in the next three months. It's an exciting time, and it's great for us to be able to continue to deliver on the Sony promise - evolving, changing and hopefully delivering a better value proposition to the consumer," he concluded.
For the third time now in just a matter of weeks, a leaked catalog ad is showing the Xbox 360 Elite set for a price cut to $299 USD.
The latest ad, from Target and posted by Engadget, also shows a price drop on the 60GB Pro model that should lead the model to its ultimate demise.
Expected price cut date is August 30th.
In other news however, retailers in the UK will be soon raising the price of the Arcade Xbox 360 to GBP 159.99 beginning on September 1st due to the weakening USD.
According toSonyAmerica President Kaz Hirai, the company is set to take a loss on every Slim PS3 unit sold.
The console was launched last week after months of speculation, and will hit on September 1st with a pricetag of $299 USD/ 299 EU/ £249 / 29,980 YEN.
"If you're just talking about the hardware alone, the quick answer is yes," Hirai added, via the Times Online.
He did note afterwards however: "That makes good headlines, but I don't actually know that that's the true nature of the business that we're all in, whether it's PlayStation, Xbox or the Wii. I think the better indicator is to look at the business as a whole platform, to ask: are you profitable in terms of the hardware, software and peripherals. And the answer to that question is yes on a gross profit level since the last fiscal year."
Yesterday, the large public torrenttrackerThe Pirate Bay was taken down by Swedish police, and many users believed it was the end of the site, for good.
Today however, TPB admins have re-opened the site using a new ISP, with the tracker itself expected to be back up soon as well.
In re-opening the site, the Pirate Bay team has also posted a statement that uses one of Winston Churchill's famous World War II speeches. It may be over the top, but their message is pretty clear.
"We have, ourselves, full confidence that if all do their duty, if nothing is neglected, and if the best arrangements are made, as they are being made, we shall prove ourselves once more able to defend our Internets, to ride out the storm of war, and to outlive the menace of tyranny, if necessary for years, if necessary alone.
Even though large parts of Internets and many old and famous trackers have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Ifpi and all the odious apparatus of MPAA rule, we shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the ef-nets and darknets, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Internets, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the baywords.org, we shall fight on the /. and on the digg, we shall fight in the courts; we shall never surrender, and if, which I do not for a moment believe, the Internets or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the Anon Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in Cerf’s good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old.Read more...
Redbox has launched a new site today, SaveLowCostDVDs.com, in an effort to make public the current lawsuits the company has againstUniversal Studios Home Entertainment, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, and Warner Home Video.
The site shows off all related news stories to the suits, and also shows videos of Redbox president Mitch Lowe.
Redbox currently has 18,000 kiosks, and rents movies out for $1 USD per night. Studios like Universal, Fox, and Warner have pulled their new releases from the kiosks until one month after release date.
The Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) has accused the computer manufacturer Dell of 'dishonest business practices' this week, claiming that the company does not always honor its much advertised 'next-day parts and labor warranty.'
CREW has created a new website as well with the banner posted below, and has asked any user that has been wronged by Dell to post any similar issues. The group has also formally complained to the DC Attorney General.
The group says that the manufacturer is advertising false claims and specifically notes a recent $3.35 million settlement in January over similar issues.
“According to its website, ‘Dell puts you back to work fast.’ But for many customers, including me, that simply is not true. If Dell won’t honor its warranties, CREW, with help from the public, will hold Dell accountable. When a consumer pays for next day service, she should receive next day service,” says CREW executive director Melanie Sloan.
“If people in 34 states had enough problems with Dell for state attorneys general to step in, and Dell still refused to honor my warranty after the company settled that matter, then other people likely are having problems with Dell right now. Honoring a warranty is a matter of ethics and at CREW, we take action when confronted with unethical conduct. We hope D.C. Attorney General Peter Nickles will share our concern that Dell is engaged in deceptive marketing practices by failing to honor its warranties and launch an immediate investigation.”
RealNetworks has submitted their Rhapsody music subscription service to the Apple App Store this week, and is currently waiting on approval.
The app will allow users to stream unlimited music on their iPhone/iPod Touch for $14.99 a month. The app itself will be free as long as you have a Rhapsody To Go account.
The bigger question however is whether Apple will accept the application, being that it will possibly compete against Apple's iTunes platform.
Nokia has announced the launch of their first netbook today, the Nokia Booklet 3G which boasts some pretty powerful specs.
“A growing number of people want the computing power of a PC with the full benefits of mobility,” adds Kai Oistamo, Nokia’s Executive Vice President for Devices. “We are in the business of connecting people and the Nokia Booklet 3G is a natural evolution for us. Nokia has a long and rich heritage in mobility and with the outstanding battery life, premium design and all day, always on connectivity, we will create something quite compelling. In doing so we will make the personal computer more social, more helpful and more personal.”
The netbook also promises a strong integration with Ovi, including Ovi Maps, Music Store and Ovi Cloud Storage. Easy sync to Nokia devices is also in the cards.
Apple and Amazon Video On Demand have started rival promotions this week on digital movie and TV downloads, offering movies for under $5 USD and offering rentals for .99.
New digital films will also cost $14.99 at Amazon now, a discount from their previous $16.99 price tag, and occasionally cheaper than their physical media counterparts.
As an example, both sites have slashed the price of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, a May release, to $9.99 USD, while the DVD sells for $15 and the Blu-ray for $25.
Most competitors, such as CinemaNow and VUDU, offer new releases for over $17 USD.
FutureSource analyst David Sidebottom adds that Amazon has been trying to steal iTunes market share in the music market, with aggressive pricing. “I wouldn’t be surprised if they did the same on the video side."
The best deals, however, are on TV shows, with over 9 full seasons of popular shows available for under $5 USD.
A New York appeals court has ruled in favor of Yahoo this weekend, claiming its Launchcast Internet radio service is not required to pay royalties to copyright holders for songs it plays. The losing party was Sony BMG Music.
The claim by Yahoo was that Launchcast did not give users enough controls to be considered "an interactive service," which would require the royalty fees to be paid.
The judges added that Yahoo would only have to pay licensing fees to SoundExchange, the nonprofit organization that collects royalties for musicians.
"It's an immediate loss for the recording industry," notes Rey Sanchez, chairman of the department of music, media and industry at the University of Miami and a voting member of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, via Reuters.
"If the service had been deemed interactive, Yahoo would have to negotiate fees with every record label to use their songs. Instead, it only has to pay licensing fees."
For the second time this month, a leaked catalog picture shows that Microsoft is set to drop the price of the Xbox 360 Elite to $299 USD.
The first leak, from Meijer, was uploaded to Kotaku two weeks ago. The latest, through Engadget, shows a Wal-Mart flyer showing off the same price cut.
According to an interview with Arstechnica, Sony’s Director of hardware marketing John Koller has made it clear that PlayStation 3 backwards compatibility will not be coming back to the console, ever.
The original PS3 models supported PS2 games, using certain hardware, and European consoles supported the games via software emulation. Later versions, such as the 40GB model in North America, removed BWC.
Says Koller: "It's not coming back, so let me put that on the table...It's not as big as a purchase intent driver as you may be hearing," he says. "We've got such a substantial lineup of titles on the PS3; most people are buying the PS3 for PS3 games. They've buying it for PS3 games and Blu-ray movies."
The Nintendo DSi was once again at the top of Japanese hardware sales for the week ended August 16th, propping up an otherwise sluggish week.
95,957 units of the handheld were sold for the week, including 7921 older DS Lite consoles. The Nintendo Wii was in second place, moving 47,732 units. Following behind was the Sony PSP handheld, which saw a 15 percent increase in sales, to 39,882 units.
The biggest "winner" for the week was the Xbox 360 which saw a 70 percent increase in sales to 9162 units.
The PS3 lagged behind at 5944 units sold, but is expected to see a giant jump sales after the release of the Slim PS3 on September 1st.
According to a new Piper Jaffray note this week, analyst Gene Munster says he expects Apple to eventually get into the HDTV market providing a full home entertainment system alongside the Apple TV media device.
Additionally, Munster says that a new, updated Apple TV is coming before Christmas, including DVR and a monthly sub to iTunes TV shows.
"We believe Apple is exploring a subscription-based offering for its TV content in iTunes," says Munster, via The Street. "Apple could leverage its deep library of content with many network and cable channel content owners to provide unlimited access to a sub-library of its TV shows for a standard monthly fee."
Adds Apple COO Tim Cook of the Apple TV:
"It is clear that the movie rental business has really helped Apple TV and there are more and more customers that want to try it," he says, noting that sales were up 300 percent year-on-year. "We're going to continue to invest in it, because we fundamentally believe there is something there for us in the future."
As for the HDTV, Munster expects a 2011 debut, and the completion of a full Apple home entertainment center.
According to a new TechCrunch article, Yahoo has begun advertising Internet Explorer all over its portal, telling Firefox users they could switch to the “new, safer Internet Explorer 8″.
Last year, when Yahoo was not in cooperation with Microsoft the company had quite a different banner, telling users to switch to the “NEW safer, faster Firefox 3.″
According to a new Bernstein Research note, the research team believes Apple will sell over 80 million iPhones in 2012, a giant increase from current sales.
For 2008, the company shipped almost 14 million iPhones and expects to sell over 30 million in 2009. The research company sets expectations at 50 million for fiscal 2011 as well.
The largest growth factor is the iPhone's expansion to new carriers, most notably Verizon in the US in 2011, when their exclusivity deal with AT&T runs out.
In a different note, RBC Capital Markets iPhone shipments will increase to over 82 million by 2012, enough to take an almost 20 percent market share of the smartphone market.
"Despite the iPhone’s introduction more than two years ago, competitors continue to lag iPhone’s sleek touchscreen experience, robust third-party applications platform, and tight multimedia integration," Mike Abramsky of RBC says, via Apple Insider. "Off the strength of its brand, innovation, and customer loyalty, Apple is expected to retain its premium carrier subsidy versus competitors, sustaining above-peer margins for its smartphones. We believe Apple will sustain its lead in content, games, and apps, which we expect to expand to include mobile commerce, user-generated content, advanced gaming, etc."
A Chinese court has sentenced four pirates to jailtime and given the site a 11 million yuan ($1.6 million USD) fine for their part in distributing pirated software, including Windows XP and Office.
The BSA applauded the decision, calling it the first successful large scale online piracy conviction in the nation.
Hong Lei and Sun Xiansheng, who ran the website, received three and a half years each, as well as 1 million yuan ($146,000) fines. Two other pirates received two year prison sentences as well as 100,000 yuan ($14,600) fines.
The largest fine however, was given to the Chengdu Share Software Net Co., which ran the pirate's site. The company was fined 8.7 million yuan ($1.3 million) and had 3 million yuan ($439,000) of its revenue taken in forfeiture.
Over 10 million people downloaded software from the site in its few years of operation.
"The verdict of this case represents the end of China's largest online software piracy syndicate and marks a milestone in China's efforts to crack down on Internet piracy," added the BSA.
Roku, creators of the Roku Digital Video Player, have announced that they will be redesigning the interface of their set-top player so it works more like the Netflix interface via an Xbox 360.
Says Roku spokesman Brian Jacquet, via VideoBusiness, "browse and add functions for ordering Netflix’s digital titles, similar to the new features on Xbox 360 will be integrated into Roku’s new navigation."
The Irish ISP Eircom will begin blocking traffic to the public torrenttrackerThe Pirate Bay on September 1st, doing what many other Irish ISPs have refused to.
Thanks to a settlement with the Big 4 record labels in January, Eircom already uses a three-strikes law for pirates who are repeat offenders. The deal also had a clause that stated access must be cut off to the Pirate Bay if requested.
Just this week, the ISP UPC said it would not comply with the label's request to block traffic to the Pirate Bay. “Should the rights holders proceed with their threat of legal action if UPC fails to block access to Pirate Bay, UPC has every intention of vigorously defending its position in court,” added a company spokesperson, via The Irish Times.
Justice Peter Charleton of the High Court issued the blocking order in July, added that the music being "stolen" is “by hard-working artists, some of whom indeed may be very wealthy, but some of whom may be trying to do their very best to making a living out of what they love”.
Amazon has warned U.S. buyers that there will be supply shortages of the Slim PS3 when it launches September 1st.
In response, the e-tailer says they will be limiting sales to one console per household.
"As you may know, the PlayStation 3 120 GB is in great demand, and there are shortages of this product across the US,"says Amazon.
"In an effort to provide as many customers as possible with the opportunity to purchase PlayStation 3 120 GB, we are limiting the total number of PlayStation 3 120 GB units that can be purchased. As a result, each household may only purchase one PlayStation 3 120 GB unit."
Amazon UK made a similar statement yesterday, however they are allowing up to 5 consoles per household.
Panasonic has introduced the first in-car Blu-ray player today in Japan, dubbed the CY-BB1000D, which includes a 1280x720 resolution 7-inch screen that will playback Blu-ray films in 720p.
The player supports Bonus View features but not BD-Live as there is no active way to connect to the Internet.
The CY-BB1000D will hit Japan next month and will sell for about $1060 USD. There was no word on a NA or EU release.
Sony has told GI.biz today that the PSP Go will be finally headed to the UK on October 1st, launching with a retail price of GBP 224.99.
The handheld sells for $249 USD and EUR 249, which is what the the original "fat" version sold for in 2005, however the handheld is selling at a premium in the UK, where it originally sold for GBP 199.99.
Also beginning October 1st, and announced at GamesCom, Sony will be launching PSP Minis, small games (100MB and under), that looks like direct competition toApple and iPhone App Store. Sony says their will be 50 titles available by the end of the year.
Additionally, the PSP will get a "Digital Reader" by December, that will allow users to read comic books on their handheld from Marvel.
Yesterday at the GamesCom event, Sony unveiled the long anticipated Slim PS3, noting the console would include a 120GB HDD and will launch on September 1st with a pricetag of $299 USD/ 299 EU/ £249 / 29,980 YEN.
The Slim will feature a 32 percent smaller and 36 percent lighter form factor and will also consume 34 percent less power. Notably, the Slim removes the otherOS ability (addition of Linux on partition) but adds Bravia Sync so users can control the PS3 via their Sony HDTV.
Today, PS3NEWS is reporting that a CECH-2000B Slim model has been filed with the FCC featuring a 250GB hard drive.
The article says the documents were filed by Sand Dollar Enterprise a company "represented by SCEA's General Council, Riley Russell."
Last week, Microsoft was handed the stunning decision that they had violated a patent pertaining to Extensible Markup Language (XML) and would be forced to stop selling Word, its flagship word processor, available as part of the Office suit that brings the company $3 billion in revenue every year.
The software giant has filed an appeal however, trying to stay the injunction claiming that if upheld, the injunction would cause "irreparable harm" to the company.
If the appeal does not work, Microsoft will have to cease sales of Word 2003 and 2007 within 60 days and pay $290 million USD to i4i who controls the patent.
"If left undisturbed, the district court's injunction will inflict irreparable harm on Microsoft by potentially keeping the centerpiece of its product line out of the market for months,"added Microsoft.
Microsoft also added that the injunction would hurt much more than the company's bottom line, stating it would disrupt most retailer and hardware partners, such as Best Buy, HP, Dell and others.
The site came back in 2006 but in 2007, the admin Adi was taken to trial and acquitted of any complicity to criminal copyright infringement. After that, the site went down and now remains as a host for eDonkey and other tutorials.
Interestingly today however, Adi added a blog post saying that BREIN is back to appeal the 2007 case, and a court case is upcoming.
Recently, I got a letter from the Department of Justice, stating that they want a re-trial which they desperately lost back in July 24 2007.
I’m really surprised that they want another shot at trying to make us look as criminals. Nobody expected the DoJ to go for an appeal after an embarrassing defeat 2 years ago.Read more...
Last week we reported on the imminent launch of the Dell Android phone, the Mini3i. Today, the phone has gone live, with mobile163 getting pictures.
The specs:
* Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE class 12
* Size: 68.6cc
* 103g grams weight
* Dimensions: 58 x 122 x 11.7mm
* Display: 3.5″ nHD 640×360 LCD, 18-bit, 262K colors
* OTA capable
* Microsoft Exchange support
* Google, AIM, Yahoo and MSN IM support
* 3 megapixel auto-focus, flash, 8x digital zoom camera with 30fps video shooting mode, built in photo editor
* USB 2.0, Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR
* A-GPS * On-screen QWERTY keyboard, hardwriting recognition, multi touch UI
* MicroSD slot
* NO 3G OR WI-FI
Netscape Communications founder Marc Andreessen has launched a new web browser, dubbed RockMelt along with two former partners, Eric Vishria and Tim Howes.
Howes and Andreessen sold their company, Opsware Inc to Hewlett-Packard two years ago for $1.6 billion USD.
Not much else is known about the browser but it appears that it will be designed in some way to work directly with Facebook. Andreessen is a board member of the social networking site.
"There are all kinds of things that you would do differently if you are building a browser from scratch," added Andressen in a past interview with the NYTimes.
According to a GameInformer article, the Xbox 360 still has a high failure rate, of 54.2 percent, due to the dreaded RROD, e74, and other errors, a number much higher than its current console rivals.
The PlayStation 3 had a 10.6 percent failure rate and the Wii was even lower, at 6.8 percent.
The survey used 5000 readers, but the article does mention a few notes to go along with the numbers. The Xbox 360 is the mot used console of the three, with 40 percent of respondents saying they use it 3-5 hours per day compared to 37 percent for PS3 owners and under 20 percent for Wii users, meaning the numbers may be a bit skewed.
Additionally, those surveyed found Microsoft to have the most "unhelpful customer service," with consoles taking almost a month to be repaired or replaced, compared to 8 days for a PS3 or a Wii. 56 percent of respondents found Nintendo customer service "very helpful" compared to 51.1 percent for Sony and a measly 37.7 percent for Microsoft.
Blockbuster has announced that they will begin offering a service that allows users to watch movies via their Motorola handsets.
The rental company is stepping into mobile video for the first time, and has been struggling for years now, losing market share and customers to rivals such as Netflix and RedBox.
There was not too much details available on the plan however the company said it would be an expansion of the OnDemand movie download service that is currently available through set-top boxes.
There was no word on release date, file format, or price.
Kevin Lewis, Blockbuster's vice president for digital entertainment, did add however that the service would debut with "thousands of films" available.
Today at their press conference during the GamesCom 2009 event, Sony has announced the long hyped Slim PS3, along with across the board price cuts on current models, a PlayStation Network update and the addition of Firmware 3.0.
Price Cuts
The price cuts are $100 USD on current models, including 160GB bundles and will be effective in North America as of tomorrow and already effective in the EU.
Firmware 3.0
Firmware upgrade 3.0, set for a September release, will include a lot of aesthetic changes to the XMB as well as the addition of "What’s New, Status Indicator, Friends List, PlayStation Store Shortcuts, Personalization and improved Trophies."
For more information on the upcoming firmware upgrade, watch the official Sony video on it:
According to Joystiq, the PlayStation Network will be down tomorrow from noon to 2PM EST for "maintenance," conveniently timed as Sony is set to have a press conference at the GamesCom event.
While the service is down, PSP and PS3 gamers will not be able to play online or access the store.
Rumors have been floating around that the store is closed so Sony can release, unannounced, firmware 3.0 which could possibly bring software emulation for PS2 backwards compatibility.
A judge has ruled today that Matthew Miller of Delaware must pay $210,000 in damages and court costs for selling hundreds of counterfeit copies of popular software on the auction site iOffer.
The Business Software Alliance (BSA) adds that the software includes Photoshop, Office and software from Autodesk. Miller would pirate copies of the software, burn them to DVDs, and sell them to customers for about $10 USD.
Miller was caught after he agreed to sell $11,900 worth of software to an undercover agent for $45 USD.
The fine is $195,000 in damages and another $15,000 in court costs and lawyer fess. Miller must also delete all "infringing" copies of the software in "his posession."
Jenny Blank, the BSA's senior director of legal affairs, added: "In the course of our efforts to stop software piracy, BSA and its member companies rarely take action against individuals. We prefer to educate and inform the public about the risks and consequences of using illegal software. But there are instances when the activities of individuals are both reprehensible and blatant, requiring the BSA and its members to act swiftly and definitively." "This kind of piracy is arguably one of the most devious types of Internet-based piracy because it involves actual sales of unlicensed software to consumers," says Blank. "Consumers should be aware that the majority of these 'too-good-to-be-true' offers originate from unscrupulous vendors. Not only are the products and services offered by these individuals often shoddy, counterfeit or downright fraudulent, but the consumer may be tricked into giving away sensitive financial and identifying information. You may think you're saving money, but in the end, it could be far more costly."
According to a new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the average age of adult video gamers is now 35, and video gamers are also fatter, less healthy and more depressed than non-gamers.
The study used data from 500 adults in Washington aged 19-90. About 45 percent of the adults studied reported playing games. Washington was chosen because Seattle has the highest Internet usage level in the US.
The CDC team, says the BBC, studied the perception of "mood, personality, health status, physical and mental health, body mass index (BMI) and quality of life" of the gamers.
The study found that female video gamers were less healthy and were more depressed that non-gamers while male gamers had higher BMIs.
CDC's James B. Weaver added:
"Health risk factors, specifically a higher BMI and a larger number of poor mental-health days, differentiated adult video game players from non-gamers. Video game players also reported lower extraversion, consistent with research on adolescents that linked video-game playing to a sedentary lifestyle and overweight status."
Japanese porn producers have sued 10,000 South Korean Internet users this week over breach of copyright for their part in uploading copywritten adult films to sites and P2P networks.
The lawsuit was filed in Seoul and the Gyeonggi province however National Police Agency spokesmen refused comment.
"Police will look into the case to see whether there was any breach of the law before deciding whether to initiate criminal probes against them," added a police officer, off the record, via the AP.
The lawsuits claim the distribution of the porn is "very harmful to juveniles," and should be stopped.
"We selected about 10,000 user IDs that earned financial benefits from habitually uploading pornography on websites," added an unnamed official.
The porn producers are looking for financial damages.
The online retailers FNAC and Pixmania, of Portugal and Spain, have cut the price of their current 80GB PlayStation 3 stock by €100, down to €300, making a move that many expect Sony to officially announce next week.
Also anticipated alongside the price cuts is the release of a Slim PS3, which will cost about the same price and will include a 120GB HDD and slimmer design, and cooler processor.
Thanks to the XM radio show Covino and Rich, the world now has video of what appears to be a third generation iPod Touch, which includes a camera and a microphone, two highly anticipated additions.
In proof of the authenticity, the hosts show a 2009 copyright and a chrome back which does not yet have any logos or legal notices.
BitComet continues to lose market share, which is easily eaten up by front runners uTorrent and Vuze.
The data comes from over 165,000 unique users and is collected by the Tribler team from Delft University of Technology.
The "other" category holds 20 different clients that failed to reach the 1 percent plateau. "Unknown" clients were unidentifiable by libTorrent and thus get their own category.
Transmission for Macs and Linux saw the biggest share gains, moving up 44 percent to almost 3 percent of total market share. Vuze saw strong gains as well.
In just another confirmation of an upcoming, and highly anticipated price cut, a CAG user has taken a picture of an FYE poster that shows that the 80GB model of the PlayStation 3 will see a price drop to $299 USD and the 160GB model will drop to $399.
Sony is expected to announce the price cut at the Gamecon event next week, along with the probable release of a Slim model PS3.
Last September, Minnesota woman Jammie Thomas was convicted of sharing 24 unauthorized tracks via P2P and was told to pay the RIAA $220,000 in damages. Thomas was granted a retrial however, and the case went to verdict again in June.
Thomas was found to have "committed willful violation" of the copyrights on all 24 songs and the jury awarded the RIAA and the media companies $1.92 million USD, equivalent to $80,000 for each song.
Today, the U.S. Department of Justice has called the gigantic fine constitutional, and acceptable.
The legal brief, via Cnet, says: "Congress took into account the need to deter the millions of users of new media from infringing copyrights in an environment where many violators believe that they will go unnoticed."
Prosecutors, during the case, made sure to note that current intellectual property laws allow copyright holders to sue for up to $150,000 USD per work "stolen."
Yesterday we reported that China Unicom had made a large purchase of 5 million iPhone 3GS units, but today the carrier is denying the reports, calling the rumors "definitely not true."
China Unicom’s spokesman Yi Difei added that “talks between us and Apple have been going on for some time”, but no deal has been made as of yet, as some hurdles have not been cleared.
Apple spokeswoman in beijing Tiffany Yang also added that there was still no official word on the iPhone's launch in China.
According to video game market analyst Michael Pachter, PlayStation 3 stock is dwindling in the UK and Japan, implying a new model (Slim PS3) is in the works as well as possible price cuts.
Speaking to VG247, Pachter noted that retail channels in both regions are "drying up" with orders being held until the end of the month.
"The retail commentary I’ve seen has come out of the UK. We heard Japanese retail a few weeks ago say they weren’t going to be getting any more PS3s after August 8, and now we’re starting to hear UK retail say they cannot re-order PS3s until month-end,"added Pachter. "And that suggests there will be a model change."
Pachter also said the upcoming Gamecom should bring big news from Sony, the PS3 Slim, as well as a price cut on the current models.
"If Sony’s practice is the same as it was in the past, and the Slim is more of a redesign of the components to drive down cost, then I think we will get a price cut."
The UK retailer Argos has announced it has discontinued sales of the 60GB model of the Xbox 360, adding more fuel to the rumor that the model is being phased out and that the 120GB Elite model will be coming down in price to fill the price point at $299 USD or GBP 169.
"We are very sorry but Microsoft have discontinued this line," says the retailer's site.
Last week we reported that Dellwas set to release an Android-based phone in China, and today BoyGeniusReport has the specs and an early, blurry pic.
The phone is "launch ready" and could launch as soon as next Monday.
The specs:
* Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE class 12
* Size: 68.6cc
* 103g grams weight
* Dimensions: 58 x 122 x 11.7mm
* Display: 3.5″ nHD 640×360 LCD, 18-bit, 262K colors
* OTA capable
* Microsoft Exchange support
* Google, AIM, Yahoo and MSN IM support
* 3 megapixel auto-focus, flash, 8x digital zoom camera with 30fps video shooting mode, built in photo editor
* USB 2.0, Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR
* A-GPS * On-screen QWERTY keyboard, hardwriting recognition, multi touch UI
* MicroSD slot
Apple and AT&T have been sued this week in Louisiana over alleged misrepresentation of MMS availability on the iPhone.
The class action suit says, according to TGDaily, that "both companies aggressively promoted the MMS features of iPhone OS 3.0 and the iPhone 3GS using advertising on TV, radio, newspapers, direct mailers, and on the Internet," although it was not really available.
There are so far over 10,000 people represented by the suit.
AT&T is added in the suit because plaintiffs allege that the carrier does not have cell towers that support MMS. As proof they point to the WWDC 2009 keynote where an Apple created slide does not show AT&T as a vendor that supports MMS.
It will be interesting to see where the suit goes, given that AT&T has noted that MMS support will be coming "by late summer."
Earlier this month, China Unicom and Applefinally came to an agreement to bring the popular smartphone, the iPhone, to China, albeit with Wi-Fi missing.
Today, showing they mean business, the Chinese carrier has ordered 5 million iPhone 3GS units, for about $1.46 billion USD. As a notable comparison, Apple sold just over 5 million iPhone units globally in the last quarter.
Says China Unicom GM of Customer Development Yu Zaonan, via BGR, the 3GS will sell for ¥2,400/$352 (16GB model) or ¥4,800/$704 (32GB model).
Toni Sacconaghi, an analyst from Sanford C Bernstein, expects Apple to make profit of ¥1100 for each unit sold.
A new study, conducted by Pear Analytics, has revealed that most of the Tweets written on Twitter are "pointless babble."
The study placed Tweets into six categories, pointless babble, conversational, pass-along value, spam, news and self-promotion and found that most Tweets fell into the first category.
"Mostly many people still perceive Twitter as just mindless babble of people telling you what they are doing minute-by-minute; as if you care they are eating a sandwich at the moment," said Ryan Kelly, a study researcher, via Channel Wire.
The study used 2000 English-language Tweets from Americans, taking in Tweets for 6 hours a day, for two weeks period.
The "pointless babble" category was over 44 percent, followed by "conversational" at 37.6 percent, "pass-along value" in third at 8.7 percent, "self-promotion" at 5.85 percent and finally "news" at 3.6 percent.
"With the new face of Twitter, it will be interesting to see if they take a heavier role in news, or continue to be a source for people to share their current activities that have little to do with everyone else," added Pear Analytics researchers. "We will be conducting this same study every quarter to identify other trends in usage."
Gartner has released their second quarter smartphone sales data this week, which shows Nokia clearly still in the lead, but slowly losing market share to RIM, Apple and HTC.
The numbers are for worldwide sales and shows Nokia with 45 percent market share, down 2.4 percent year-on-year. Apple exploded to 13.3 percent from 2.8 percent and RIM and HTC made smaller gains at the expense of Nokia, Fujitsu and "other" companies.
According to newly leaked emails, it appears that Microsoft knew about i4i's XML patent but decided to go ahead with Word anyways.
"We saw [i4i's products] some time ago and met its creators. Word 11 will make it obsolete," said one email from Martin Sawicki, a member of Microsoft's XML for Word development team. "It looks great for XP though."
The email was written before the release of Office 2003, when Word was in its 11th edition.
Microsoft lost the case yesterday to i4i, and a judge ruled that the software giant must cease selling Word 2003 and 2007 in the United States in 60 days, cutting into a $3 billion revenue business.
Microsoft has a plethora of options, but a few seem most likely if an appeal fails. The company can update Word to circumvent the infringing aspects, which IW explains is the "program's ability to open and read documents that contain custom XML—a form of the Extensible Markup Language format." The company could also settle with i4i for royalties. If anything, Microsoft can buy the patent or the company. Regardless, Word will still be on retail shelves in 60 days.
The latest Apple rumor today from multiple Internet sources is that the company has scheduled an event for the week of September 7th, most likely to announce a new iPod Touch as well as iTunes 9 and "Cocktail".
Apple normally holds an event after Labor Day, normally to launch updated iPods and iTunes software so the date does not seem to far out of the ordinary.
The expected iPod Touch revision will add a camera and a mic, as well as video recording and editing software.
The event would also put Steve Jobs back in the spotlight for a keynote address, his first since returning to work after a 2009 liver transplant.
According to Cowan and Company analyst Doug Creutz, the upcoming expected price cuts on the Sony PS3, Microsoft Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii may not help spark sales in the United States as predicted.
Creutz says the ongoing economic downturn has consumers still pressured and even large discounts may not help boost the lagging market.
"We are concerned that, given pressures on the consumer, price cuts may not have the stimulative impact to hardware and software sales that they have had in the past," says Creutz.
The analyst did note however that price cuts would benefit each console, if the Wii was cut to $199, PS3 160GB down $100, and the Xbox 360 Elite to $299.
"We expect hardware price cuts on all platforms by September, with announcements possibly as early as next week’s Gamescom," Creutz noted, via GI.biz.
In a giant decision today, a federal district court judge has ruled against Microsoft, and told the software company it must stop selling the extremely popular Word word processing software in the United States.
The victor company, i4i, has only 30 employees but claims Microsoft violated a patent pertaining to Extensible Markup Language (XML). The judge agreed.
Microsoft has 60 days to appeal, or cease selling Word, a key component of the Office bundle. The company was also fined $290 million USD. Microsoft says Office accounts for over $3 billion USD in sales per year.
"It's not a question of fear or pride or anything else," added Loudon Owen, i4i chairman, via USA Today. "We're very respectful of Microsoft, but when you're in the right you have to persevere."
Microsoft will obviously appeal.
"We are disappointed by the court's ruling," says Microsoft spokesman Kevin Kutz. "We believe the evidence clearly demonstrated that we do not infringe and that the i4i patent is invalid."
i4i has the patent for "customized XML," which has been the default format for Word files since the 2007 edition. If the ruling stands, Microsoft would not be allowed to sell the 2003 or 2007 editions.
Frederick Wood, of Seattle, has been convicted and sentenced to 39 months in prison in prison this week for using the infamousP2P client Limewire to steal personal information from over 100 unsuspecting sharers.
Kathryn Warma, assistant U.S. attorney in the Computer Hacking and Internet Crimes Unit of the U.S. Attorney's Office says the identify theft is very common, but not to many people know it exists.
Wood, says Warma, would type keywords such as "tax return" or "bank account" into the Limewire search box which allowed him to download files with that type of personal information from shared folders of naive or unsuspecting Limewire users.
The convicted felon also searched specifically for college financial aid forms, says PCWorld, which include "exhaustive personal and financial information about the family." Wood would then use the info to open accounts, receive credit cards, and make purchases in their names.
"Many of the victims are parents who don't realize that Limewire is on their home computer," added Warma.
Last week we reported that Microsoft was planning to kill off the Xbox 360 Pro model, while at the same time lowering the price of the larger capacity Elite model.
Today, Kotaku is reporting that rumor is indeed fact, and a Meijer catalog leak shows the Elite seeing a price drop on August 30th, alongside the imminent phase out of the Pro model.
The Elite will see its price drop to $299, leaving only two options on the market, the $199 HDD-less Arcade model and the now $300, 120GB HDD Elite.
Of course, "Microsoft does not comment on rumors or speculation," but we know better already.
Jon Lech Johansen, known notoriously as “DVD Jon” for his work in cracking the CSS encryption on DVDs, had received a subpoena this week as part of the AppleiTunes anti-trust case.
The subpoena was sent so everyone involved can gather any relevant documents that Johansen may still have, says Electronista.
DVD Jon has been asked to "provide any communications with Apple regarding his efforts to make iPods inter-operable with content purchased outside of iTunes, along with discussions relating to syncing iTunes purchases with non-Apple media players."
More specifically, the subpoena asks for any documents involving the FairPlayDRM scheme. DVD Jon created software that circumvents FairPlay as well as Windows Media protection, using the legal method of re-encoding the song on the fly in its original program, removing the DRM.
According to Chinese site 163.com, and reported in English by TechCrunch, Dell is set to launch a China-only mobile phone soon, using the Android platform, and dubbed the mini3i.
The device will be distributed through China Mobile, and should launch later this week.
The mini31, known as an Ophone, is expected to be one of a few similar devices, coming from HTC, Lenovo and Dell and each using Android operating systems.
Ophones use TD-SCDMA (Time Division Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access), China's 3G equivalent, meaning importing the phones to the EU or US will not be worth it if you need data.
According to new Nielsen data, gamers spent the most time in history this June playing video games, with the Sony PlayStation 2 taking the lead for most minutes.
Playtime was up 21 percent year-on-year, and the PS2 regained the top spot from the Xbox 360. Average playing time was 768 minutes for June, or about 25.6 minutes per day.
The 360 has been on the rise since last year, at the expense of the Wii, but the giant console base of the PS2 is hard to beat.
In terms of gender, the Wii is on top by far for women, with 360 on top for male gamers.
The much anticipated Xbox 360dashboard update is ready to roll beginning tomorrow (August 11th) and will include a plethora of new updates for console owners.
Enjoy the convenience of finding and buying new games right from the comfort of your own living room. Download a wide selection of full Xbox 360 games over Xbox LIVE. Games on Demand will be available for purchase on Xbox LIVE starting August 11 as part of the Xbox LIVE Update. You will be able to browse and purchase games through the Xbox LIVE Marketplace on the Web starting August 13.
* Shop- Games on Demand are found in the Game Marketplace and include a large library of favorite titles right from the start. More titles are added every Tuesday, so check back whenever you’re in the mood for a great new game.
* Purchase - Purchase full games using Microsoft points or a credit card. Games are downloaded directly to your console (hard drive required), and your purchase history is stored by Xbox LIVE, meaning you can delete games and re-download them again if you run out of space.
* Playing and Sharing - As with other LIVE content, your game license is linked to your Xbox LIVE account. Download your purchased games to any console you are logged into with your Gamertag, and anyone else can play on the console that your game was originally downloaded to. No physical disc is required to play these games!
* Find Manuals - Game manuals can be viewed, downloaded, or printed from Xbox.com. Just locate your game in Web Marketplace and select “See Game Manual”.
The FAQ, entitled, FAQs: what did you do, why so much, and what now? explains what the convicted file sharer did, why the giant sum, and what his plans for an appeal are.
Q: What did you do with 30 songs that got you nailed?
A: I downloaded them and shared them on Kazaa. They also proved in court (because I admitted it) that I used Limewire, iMesh, Morpheus, Napster, and Audiogalaxy, but it doesn’t matter.
Q: Isn’t that a huge friggin’ number just for that?
A: The RIAA and the Judge in this case succeeded in convincing the jury that the DMCA act of 1999 (http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap5.html) should be applied here. The ranges specified are:
According to a new comparison chart posted via the official Rogers site and screened by BoyGeniusReports, it appears that Apple will be releasing an 8GB model iPhone 3GS in Canada, a smaller capacity then has been otherwise available for the popular smartphone.
The 8GB model will be cheaper than current versions for sale, and should give Canadian consumers the chance to get the phone without its usual price tag. Notably however, 8GB will not leave you much room for movies or music.
According to sources speaking to BoyGeniusReport, the upcoming iTunes 9.0 software update will include Blu-ray support and iPhone App management, along with social networking integration.
Blu-ray support would be a welcome addition, and the App management would allow users to connect their iPhone or iPod Touch and visually manage the apps.
Social networking integration would allow easy access to Twitter, Facebook and Last.fm.
For now, this is rumor and Apple has not confirmed or denied any of the details or a release date for iTunes 9.
According to JAIB, via figures from PinchMedia, the percentage of iPhone users that are using jailbroken phones is on the rise, moving from 7 percent to 8.43 percent from June to the end of July.
Also notably, the percentage of sessions from jailbroken iPhones increased to 6.65 percent from 6.2 percent.
The quick rise could possibly be attributed to the recent denial from the App Store of the Google Voice Mobile app last week, which led to developer Sean Kovacs putting the app up for free on Cydia, the software application store available to jailbroken iPhone/Touch users.
The two popular digital distribution services Steam and Direct2Drive have begun a indie game promotion this weekend, each slashing prices drastically.
Steam is offering, via their "Weekend Deal," ten top sellers, Audiosurf, Blueberry Garden, Braid, Crayon Physics Deluxe, Darwinia, Everyday Shooter, Gish, Mr. Robot, The Path and World of Goo bundled for $30 USD. Most sell independently for $10 each.
Direct2Drive, from their end, is offering a "Best of Indie" bundle which includes the popular games Zeno Clash, Defense Grid: The Awakening, Democracy 2, The Path and Cogs for $17.75 USD.
NBC Sports has announced it will be moving all its HD video-streaming feeds to the latest build of Microsoft's Silverlight, including the upcoming 2010 Winter Olympics.
The broadcaster will use Silverlight 3 across all its HD sports broadcasts, and committed to Microsoft after testing "many different technologies", says Perkins Miller, senior vice president of Digital Media at NBC Sports, via VB.
NBC Sports used Silverlight for the stunning HD feeds of the Summer Olympics in China last year, and this year used Silverlight to stream over 35 hours of Wimbeldon tennis coverage.
The most popular BitTorrent client, uTorrent has moved onto version 2.0, albeit in beta form for the time being, and promises tons of updates and changes.
-- 2009-08-04: Version 2.0 Beta (build 16081)
- Change: disable toolbar offers for Wine installs
- Feature: New Setup guide & Speedtest.
- Change: uninstaller is added to all user profiles
- Fix: crash when assigning new label to torrents from RSS
- Change: Incomplete downloads sort after completed downloads if sorting by "Completed On"
- Feature: Add Moldova to peer flags
- Change: Added upnp host cache to speed up upnp nat resolution on misbehaving routers
- Fix: maintain category list selection on update for some edge cases
- Change: if selected, install start menu and desktop shortcuts to all users instead of only current user
- Feature: Grayscale disabled toolbar buttons
- Fix: fixed uTP selective ack bug (would cause connections to stall and time out)
- Fix: fixed uTP fast re-send bug (would sometimes re-send packets that shouldn't be re-sent)
- Change: prompt to take associations in installer only if any others exist
- Fix: buffer overrun vulnerability in create torrent dialog
- Fix: uTP recovers faster after timeout
- Feature: uTP supports window sizes smaller than the packet size
- Change: reduced uTP overhead slightly by ramping up packet sizes at lower rates
- Feature: enable and disable toolbar buttons according to selected torrents
- Change: UAC must be completed to install in Vista or higher
- Fix: memory leaks in main window, protocol associations, settings dialog, general tab
- Change: Tweaks to Ask toolbar offer
- Feature: UDP tracker support
- Fix: only change run on startup if installer is shown
- Change: added support for 3:rd party applications to more easily be configured to access the uTorrent web UI, i.e. to pair the applications
- Fix: make "alternate upload rate when seeding" apply when the seeding is set by the scheduler
- Fix: align "Web Seeds" in torrent creation dialog
- Fix: translated strings in uninstaller
- Fix: http seeds would not reconnect after stopping and starting torrent
- Fix: http seed for multifile torrents
- Fix: regression in 15562 that caused frequent crashes
- Feature: New installer with EULA, file association
- Fix: uTP issue on low-latency high-throughput networks
- Fix: copying long filenames to clipboard no longer results in garbage or crash
- Fix: fixed web seed support for multi-file torrents
- Change: torrent whose "Force Recheck" is greyed out will not recheck when asked through multi-torrent selections
- Fix: when adding torrents through URLs via commandline, we would always open the add torrent dialog
- Fix: handle multi file torrents with web seed urls that incorrectly don't end with a slash
- Fix: make sure web seed urls end with a slash for multifile torrents
- Fix: setup Vista firewall
- Fix: remove settings on Vista during un-installation
- Feature: New "Transfer Cap" pane in Preferences
- Feature: uTP can be enabled or disabled using "Enable bandwidth management" checkbox in Preferences
- Fix: Check at startup for incompatible versions of NVIDIA nForce firewall
Gov. Pat Quinn of the state of Illinois will sign an amendment to the state's Vehicle Code this week, making Illinois the 17th state in the US to have a ban on texting (text messaging) while driving.
The bill does have the exception however if the driver pulls over to park, or puts the car in neutral while stopped in traffic.
Since last year, 16 states have banned texting while driving including Oregon, New Hampshire, Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, North Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, Washington and Washington DC.
There are currently senators planning to push a bill that would make it federally illegal to text while driving. Recent studies have shown increased accident rates caused in part thanks to texting and show that texters are at substantially increased risk of getting into accidents.
"With drunk driving it was important to pass tough laws, but the laws won't really have any effect unless they're enforced and the public knows about it and it's properly adjudicated," says Barbara Harsha of the Governor's Highway Safety Association. "So passing a law isn't the solution, it's only part of it."
The satellite provider Dish Network has announced a deal with Image Entertainment that will bring Image's library to Dish's 14 million subscribers via pay-per-view and VOD.
“We’re very pleased to be working with Dish Network to bring our vast library of entertainment content to their subscribers,” added Steve Saltman, senior VP of worldwide television for Image. “This agreement greatly expands our ability to deliver programming into households across the country.”
Andy Karofsky, VP of programming for Dish, says, via VB: “Dish Network is excited to bring even more PPV and VOD offerings to our already substantial collection of more than 6,000 titles. Image Entertainment offers a great selection of HD movies, television series, comedy specials and other sought-after programming we’re confident our viewers will enjoy.”
Panasonic has announced the launch of Amazon VOD on their current Blu-ray player set-top line, finally enabling the service after promising it months ago.
The enabling comes with the latest firmware upgrade for the players, and will bring Amazon VOD and its 45,000 movies and TV episodes to the players, including over 1000 movies and shows in HD. You must register first with Amazon VOD to access the service.
The players with Amazon VOD access are the DMP-BD60, the DMP-BD80, the dual Blu-ray/VHS DMP-BD70V model and the DMP-BD15.
“The introduction of Amazon Video On Demand to our Viera Cast offerings gives every owner of a 2009 Panasonic Blu-ray player access to a vast collection of movies and TV shows, including HD-quality new releases, on virtually any digital television,” added Richard Simone, Panasonic’s entertainment group director. “And you can take it on the road with you too with Panasonic’s Viera Cast-enabled, B15 portable Blu-ray Disc player.”
“Panasonic and Amazon Video On Demand have built a great customer experience that easily allows customers to shop, purchase or rent from our library of over 45,000 movies and TV shows with no subscription fees,” concludes Bill Carr, Amazon VP of music and video. “Using Panasonic's line of Viera Cast-enabled Blu-ray players, even more customers can now instantly experience Amazon’s compelling HD-quality, new release movies and TV shows from their living room.”
TiVo has announced a new deal with Rovi that will bring Rovi TV movie and music data to many of TiVo's DVRs and other services.
The exact terms were not revealed but MCN says Rovi will provide "entertainment metadata including program and movie descriptions, rich-media content, celebrity biographies, original editorial content, cast and credits information, album reviews and other information."
Rovi currently has metadata for 1 million TV episodes, 400,000 movies and 13 million music tracks.
"It is important for TiVo to be able to provide our subscribers and technology distributors worldwide a broad range of data and we are pleased that Rovi's data solutions gives us the ability to provide even more movies, music, and TV show information to them,"adds TiVo general manager and vice president of international Joshua Danovitz.
LG has noted that their upcoming 15-inch OLED TV will hit store shelves by December, as it is currently in production, says OLED-Display.
LG's OLED Sales and Marketing VP, Won Kim, added that the TV went into production in July and the TV will hit Korea in December followed by a global launch.
The company says the TV will have a 30,000 hour lifespan, and will have a bigger resolution than Sony's XEL-1, which has a 960x540 resolution.
Microsoft has launched the newly updated Games for Windows Live, version 3.
According to the press release, a few things have been updated, including an in-game marketplace, account management tools, piracy protection, and a new theme.
In-game Marketplace The biggest feature is the in-game marketplace, which lets you purchase items for your game from within the game itself. You no longer have to exit your game to view or purchase Game Add-ons.
Once you've bought something, Games for Windows - LIVE will download the Game Add-ons and install it all from within the game. You no longer have to leave the game experience to grab the latest addition to your favorite game! You can also re-download previous purchases if you need to as well.
Account Management
You can manage your Games for Windows - LIVE account without leaving the comfort of your game with these features:
According to a new roadmap, it appears TDK is set to become the first company to offer a 3.5" hard drive with 2.5TB capacity.
The storage company is currently testing 640GB drive platters that will fit in standard 3.5" drives, and could, with 4 platters, offer 2.56TB of data capacity.
Any mass production would not start until November however, with peak production likely starting in January.
TDK is also planning to create 640GB thin notebook drives, which will be in full production by December. Rival Seagate has already announced a similar notebook drive however, with no launch date.
Konami has announced that they will begin reissuing popular Sony PlayStation 2 games in Europe soon, confirming recent Internet rumors.
"They are proper reissues," says the publisher, via Eurogamer. "Konami has put them out at budget price because of demand. They are re-manufactured. They are ours."
The games set for reissue are: Suikoden Tactics, Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner, Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater and Silent Hill 2, 3 and 4.
"We've manufactured certain amounts depending on the title," Konami noted, "and they're being bought by wholesalers so will likely pop up in independent rather than chain stores."
The games will cost anywhere between GBP 10 and GBP 20, with most probably towards the higher end of the spectrum.
Warner Home Video has sued the "disc destruction" company IWMB for $10 million USD, claiming that the company was not destroying the DVDs and Blu-rays as promised, and instead selling them for full profit.
The company has a contract in place to destroy excess title inventory caused by retail returns of unsold movies, but instead, alleges Warner, they sell the movies at below market prices to small retailers. Warner claims IWMB has already sold 750,000 of the discs.
The studio is claiming that they stand to lose over $10 million in revenue due to IWMB's actions, because the cheaper products cannibalize Warner's market priced movies.
“The illegal sales of Warner product have caused WHV substantial injury and unless enjoined, threaten irreparable harm to WHV,” reads the lawsuit, via VideoBusiness. “Defendants’ sale of the Warner product at lower-than-market prices not only deprived WHV of the benefit of possession of the product, but has also undermined and diluted the value of the home video titles.”
Kyrgyzstan's largest torrenttracker, Torrent.kg has been shut down this week over copyright infringement violations, with police seizing all of the site's servers.
The country, which borders China, has a population of 5.5 million, many of which use torrents for movies and music.
The site, when taken down, read: “For reasons beyond our control the site is temporarily suspended. The administration hopes for a speedy solution to all problems. We apologize for any inconvenience caused.”
The owner of the site, via the site's forum, says he expects the site to be back up soon, and is asking users to not remove any torrents from their clients as of yet.
Adds Tolkun Umaraliev, a blogger from Kyrgyzstan, via TF: “Piracy cannot be stopped in Kyrgyzstan, because people – consumers – do not really know what piracy is, and that it is illegal. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, our market has been filled with underground VHS cassettes of Hollywood movies poorly translated into Russian and underground audio cassettes of western singers. And their prices were reasonable – consumers could afford them.”
Microsoft has announced the lineup for its upcoming Games on Demand service today, which will launch on August 11th alongside the Xbox Live Dashboard update.
The games can be purchased with a credit card or using MS points. There was no word on pricing details, however some forum users are claiming Bioshock will cost $30 USD.
Back in 2006, EliteTorrents admin Scott McCausland received five months in jail for his part in the pre-release upload of Star Wars Episode III. After his sentence however, he was put on a government monitoring list, and forced to wear an ankle bracelet and have his computer monitored at all times.
This week however, he has finally come off that monitoring list, and is off probation.
Says McCausland, via TF: “I have officially been off probation since July 12th. What a great feeling to finally be free from the clutches of evil (or the federal government). It was actually a really easy time on probation. It was 2 years, dealing once a month with my probation officer… who was really a great person.”
“I haven’t had a clear head since May 25th, 2005. Over 4 years of what I would call the worst period of my life is over,” he adds.
Following in the footsteps of other big name "pirates" such as Peter Sunde, McCausland hopes to move on and forward with his life.
“I will be hopefully starting back to school for my MBA in the spring. And I am getting married in May 2010. Aside from the economy, I couldn’t ask for anything more,” he concluded.
Just a week after shutting down the large Argentinean file-sharing site Qsound, the anti-piracy group IFPI has shut down two more sites, Zona-mp3.com.ar and Deathvalley.com.ar.
Qsound had 1,500 registered users sharing music files and the IFPI says the "site contained more than 2,000 posts linking to around 3,000 unauthorized music files before it was closed."
Zona-mp3 had 11,000 users "and more than 2,000 postings of mostly local rock repertoire, was shut down after local labels organization CAPIF notified the site’s Internet service provider."
Deathvalley, the largest of the three, had 30,000 members and was dedicated to music piracy as well.
OCZ has announced the launch of their Colossus solid-state drive (SSD), which will offer an impressive 1TB of storage space.
The drive will be aimed at consumers needing an external drive and will be specifically marketed to gamers, due to its extremely fast speed and high capacity.
ComputerWorld says the drive will use a Indilinx controller and will "come with two or four controllers depending on the capacity, and can be configured for internal RAID 0 for increased performance."
Each controller is a virtual drive, running off a seperate RAID controller.
The drive has "a maximum sequential read rate of 261MB/sec and a maximum sequential write rate of the same rate." "The initial results we have tested show that the Colossus really excels in the small file random reads/writes," an OCZ spokeswoman said, viaCW.
Now however, comes the only catch, the extreme price tag. A standard 1TB 3.5" HDD costs between $70-120 depending on model and make. The Colossus will run you $2200 USD. Maybe a thing to consider before throwing it in that new rig you have been making.
A Japanese Nintendo DS game pirate has been sentenced to 2.5 years in prison and given a nearly $100,000 USD fine, after being convicted of making 1000 ROMs of DS games available for download.
The man, Yoshiaki Asagiri, was arrested in late 2008 and was charged with "distributing games online without permission" and the "breaking of Japanese copyright law," says Kotaku.
The sentencing judge called Asagiri's crime a "trampling" of the efforts of the game developers and publishers, who have spent time and money on bringing the games to the public.
Nintendo has stepped up their efforts against piracy of late, with the new decision following right on the footsteps of a DSifirmware update that has completely killed off flash carts used to play pirated games and run unauthorized software.
The popular e-tailer Amazon has slashed the price of the Uncharted 160GB Sony PlayStation 3 model, offering the system for $449 USD to American customers.
According to unnamed executives familiar with the situation, Netflix is preparing to bring its "Watch Instantly" streaming service to the Nintendo Wii and the Apple iPhone/iPod Touch via Wi-Fi.
"Watch Instantly" allows Netflix subscribers to view over 12,000 movies and TV episodes, via the Xbox 360, LGBlu-ray players, TiVos, Sony Bravia HDTVs and many other devices. If Multichannel's report is accurate, the service could be heading to three new devices, and soon.
Important to note however, is that the iPhone/Touch app would most likely block the viewing of content over the 3G, due to AT&T's alleged throttling of bandwidth intense applications. So far, most bandwidth intensive video content apps have been relegated to Wi-Fi only.
Thanks to the leak by a Zune MVP on Twitter, the world now has over 20 new leaked photos of the upcoming Zune HD media device.
The Twitter link was taken down due to suspected NDAviolations, says the source, but they managed to download most of the pics.
The device has been rumored to be launching in September or October, the same month the alleged iPod Touch 3 is set to launch, with camera and microphone.
The screenshots show off the HD radio interface as well as cover art, but nothing else. Hopefully soon we will learn more details, including price.
According to a "reliable" source speaking to PlayStation Insider, August 18th will bring the much anticipated Sony PlayStation 3 price cut, possibly alongside the launch of the equally hyped Slim PS3 model.
The rumor also says there will be other price cuts in the "PS family of products" leading to speculation that a PSP model could be seeing a cut as well.
Fueling the fire of the rumor is the fact that on the 18th, Sony has planned a 3 hour press event at GamesCom in Germany.
Even more so, says PSInsider, 7-Eleven franchises in Japan will stop taking orders for 80GB PS3s this week, discontinuing the model "for the manufacturer," leading to even more speculation.
According to his latest blog post, The Pirate Bay founder and spokesperson Peter Sunde is stepping down from his position, hoping to move along with his life, one that has been under media scrutiny for years now.
"The past years I’ve been very active in the discussion of the current state and the future states of the internets. It’s an important cause and I will not give the fight up.
However, I have decided to not be the spokes person for The Pirate Bay anymore. The reasons are many but most importantly it takes too much of my time. I want to build something new and I want to focus my energy in a different direction. I have projects waiting to be finished, a book is waiting to be finalized and many more books are waiting to be read.
Our issues has been raised to another level and it’s time for biological dispersal. At the same time, I have a feeling of being sessile when I need to be the most motile creature ever. The regeneration will continue with me in another place.
Today marks the end of a small era for me, but I am simply leaving a role in order to be a person instead.Read more...
Nintendo has announced Facebook integration in the DSi handheld, following a recent firmware update that will now allow you to upload pictures taken on the handheld right to your FB profile.
The integration is now available in the US, EU, Australia and Japan.
According to GI.biz, "the update means that when users are reviewing photos they have stored in their DSi camera album, they see a Facebook icon on the touchscreen which, when tapped, instantly transmits the photo to the user's Facebook profile."
"Facebook and Nintendo DSi build on the trend of personalisation that is so important to consumers," adds Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America's executive VP of sales and marketing. "We're giving people the tools to express themselves in creative new ways and show off the results to their friends and family on Facebook."
According to Sony's recent earnings figures, the company has sold 24 million PlayStation 3 units globally since the console's launch in late 2006.
Total software sales, including PSN downloads for games, hit 190 million overall.
Overall, however, the picture was not rosy for Sony's financials, which followed the lower than expected numbers at Microsoft from last week.
The PlayStation division, which includes PS3, PS2, PSP and Viao PC/notebook sales, saw a year-on-year decline of 37.4 percent leading to an overall company-wide JPY $37.1 billion loss (about $389 million USD)
The Nintendo Wii remains the clear leader, with a 51 million unit install base, followed by the Xbox 360, at 31 million.
According to a new survey on 'American Internet habits' reported by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, online movie watching has doubled over the last two years.
35 percent of those surveyed said they had watched a TV show or movie online in 2009, up from 16 percent in 2007. About 25 percent of those watching content said they did so through their TV.
Says VB, "According to Pew, 62% of online users watched video through a sharing site in April, topping the 46% of Internet users who used a social networking site, the 19% who downloaded a podcast and the 11% that updated their status on Twitter."
89 percent of adults 18 to 29 now watch online video, with over 36 percent doing so on a daily basis.
VuNow has announced that they have added Roxio CinemaNow content to their VuNow Internet TV service.
The service allows users to watch video content directly from their TVs without the need for a PC. The service connects to YouTube, many global TV stations, and now over 10,000 CinemaNow movies.
"VuNow offers consumers the broadest choice of online video content for today's living room," added Prakash Bhalerao, Verismo Networks CEO. "By partnering with Sonic, we're able to give our customers even more entertainment options - from TV episodes to Hollywood new releases."
A VuNow Pod, used to access the content, costs $129 USD.
Sonic Solutions has announced that they will finally be bringing HDstreaming to its Roxio CinemaNow online video service, using a new technology dubbed Sonic CineVision Adaptive HD which the company promises will make films look Blu-ray-esque in 1080pfull HD.
Sonic's competitors, such as iTunes, Amazon, VUDU, and Sony have all had HD streaming or downloads for some time now.
CineVision Adaptive HD will also be available "as part of the company’s CineVision Master Encoding system" says TWICE, "enabling others to maximize the quality of streaming video content."
The CineVision Master Encoding system is used in current Blu-ray production, so the company says the streaming quality will be second to none.
The FIMI (Federazione Industria Musicale Italiana) and the FPM (Federation against Musical Piracy) have declared their intent to sue the founders of the torrenttrackerThe Pirate Bay, seeking monetary damages of 1 million euros.
The lawsuit will be against the site's founders, Peter Sunde, Fredrik Neij and Gottfrid Svartholm.
Adds Enzo Mazza, President of FIMI, via TF (in regards to the proposed sale): “The claim is also based on the principle that by selling the site to others, the founders have confirmed that the whole illegal operation of The Pirate Bay was to make a profit and it is therefore unacceptable that someone can take the money and then escape without repairing the damage.”
According to Sony Corp. CEO Nobuyuki Oneda, manufacturing costs for the PlayStation 3 have dropped 70 percent since the console's launch in 2006, leading to more speculation that a price cut is coming soon.
"The cost reduction since we introduced the PS3 is very substantial and this is on schedule," said Oneda, via GI.biz"We don't disclose how much of the PlayStation 3, specifically the cost deduction, was achieved during the past two years. But that is on schedule." When asked for exact figures, he added: "About 70 percent, roughly-speaking."
At launch, the console cost, (unconfirmed), $800 USD per unit, meaning Sony was losing a substantial amount of money on each console shipped.
As of January 2008, costs had reportedly fallen 50 percent to $400 USD and now, according to the latest report, the console will cost $265 to manufacture, meaning Sony is actually making money on hardware sales, finally.
The 80GB model of the console retails for $400 USD.
After just three hours of deliberations, a jury has ruled that convicted pirateJoel Tenenbaum has willfully infringed on copyrights, and has awarded the RIAA and the media companies $675,000 USD, $22,500 for each of the 30 songs he admitted to sharing.
In some ways, Tenenbaum should be grateful, as the jury could have awarded up to $150,000 in penalties per track. In the recent ruling against Jammie Thomas-Rasset, the jury awarded the RIAA $1.92 million USD, on only 24 tracks.
Tenenbaums Harvard Law professor Charles Nesson added of the decision: "It's a bankrupting award."
"I'm disappointed, but not surprised, but I'm thankful that it wasn't much bigger, that it wasn't millions," Tenenbaum added, via Arstechnica. Tenenbaum also specifically noted that if he loses on appeal, he will be forced into bankruptcy.
On the other hand, the RIAA was ecstatic with the jury's decision: "We are grateful for the jury’s service and their recognition of the impact of illegal downloading on the music community. We appreciate that Mr. Tenenbaum finally acknowledged that artists and music companies deserve to be paid for their work. From the beginning that’s what this case has been about. We only wish he had done so sooner rather than lie about his illegal behavior."
SanDisk has announced the launch of the Sansa Clip+ MP3 player, which uses a microSD slot for added memory.
Fox will begin experimenting using Twitter to spice up their re-runs, beginning with the shows Fringe and Glee.
According to industry sources, the DirecTV Group is currently in talks with both TBS and TNT about offering their TV content online.
According to John Koller, Sony's Director of Hardware Marketing, the company has made the 
Kotaku is reporting that a 250GB 'Super' 
For the week ended August 24th, console sales lagged in Japan again, with the PlayStation 3 seeing the largest drop, 65 percent week-on-week, to 2,052 units sold.
Blockbuster along with partner NCR, is expanding its Blockbuster Express 
Although it is unclear why, Best Buy has been given a one month exclusive head start for the Universal 
According to SCEA senior vice president of marketing Peter Dille, the company is prepared to change the marketing focus of the PlayStation 3 console, focusing more on the console's movie downloading and 
Global Gaming Factory X (GGF) stockholders have approved the company's decision to purchase the 
China Unicom has announced officially that the iPhone is headed to China, sometime in the Q4 of this year.
A man in Sweden has been arrested this week over alleged piracy, after 10,000 pirated films were found on a server in his cellar.
Earlier this month, software giant Microsoft was shocked 
The Canadian mobile phone carrier Bell Canada has announced today they have become the second provider in the world to offer the 
A Dutch judge has today killed the large 
According to an "insider" who posted 
Yesterday, the large public 
Redbox has launched a new site today, SaveLowCostDVDs.com, in an effort to make public the current lawsuits the 
The Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) has accused the computer manufacturer 
RealNetworks has submitted their Rhapsody music subscription service to the 
A New York appeals court has ruled in favor of Yahoo this weekend, claiming its Launchcast Internet radio service is not required to pay royalties to copyright holders for songs it plays. The losing party was 
According to data from Chitika, 
The 
According to a new Piper Jaffray note this week, analyst Gene Munster says he expects 
A Chinese court has sentenced four pirates to jailtime and given the site a 11 million yuan ($1.6 million USD) fine for their part in distributing pirated software, including Windows XP and Office.
Roku, creators of the 
The Irish ISP Eircom will begin blocking traffic to the public 
Netscape Communications founder Marc Andreessen has launched a new web browser, dubbed RockMelt along with two former partners, Eric Vishria and Tim Howes.
According to a GameInformer article, the 
A judge has ruled today that Matthew Miller of Delaware must pay $210,000 in damages and court costs for selling hundreds of counterfeit copies of popular software on the auction site iOffer.
According to a new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the average age of adult video gamers is now 35, and video gamers are also fatter, less healthy and more depressed than non-gamers.
Japanese porn producers have sued 10,000 South Korean Internet users this week over breach of copyright for their part in uploading copywritten adult films to sites and 
In June we reported that small 
Last September, Minnesota woman Jammie Thomas was convicted of sharing 24 unauthorized tracks via 
Gartner has released their second quarter smartphone sales data this week, which shows 
Frederick Wood, of Seattle, has been convicted and sentenced to 39 months in prison in prison this week for using the 
According to new Nielsen data, gamers spent the most time in history this June playing video games, with the 
The much anticipated 
Convicted copyright infringer Joel Tenenbaum has opened a FAQ on his website today to help explain the recent file sharing judgment against him.
According to a new comparison chart posted via the official Rogers site and screened by BoyGeniusReports, it appears that 
The two popular digital distribution services 
NBC Sports has announced it will be moving all its 
Gov. Pat Quinn of the state of Illinois will sign an amendment to the state's Vehicle Code this week, making Illinois the 17th state in the US to have a ban on texting (text messaging) while driving.
The satellite provider Dish Network has announced a deal with Image Entertainment that will bring Image's library to Dish's 14 million subscribers via pay-per-view and VOD.
Microsoft has launched the newly updated Games for Windows Live, version 3.
According to a new roadmap, it appears TDK is set to become the first company to offer a 3.5" hard drive with 2.5TB capacity.
Konami has announced that they will begin reissuing popular 
Warner Home Video has sued the "disc destruction" company IWMB for $10 million USD, claiming that the company was not destroying the DVDs and Blu-rays as promised, and instead selling them for full profit.
Just a week after shutting down the large Argentinean file-sharing site Qsound, the anti-piracy group 
OCZ has announced the launch of their Colossus solid-state drive (SSD), which will offer an impressive 1TB of storage space.
According to the DigiTimes, 
The popular e-tailer Amazon has slashed the price of the Uncharted 160GB 
According to unnamed executives familiar with the situation, Netflix is preparing to bring its "Watch Instantly" 
Thanks to the leak by a Zune MVP on Twitter, the world now has over 20 new leaked photos of the upcoming 
According to 
According to Sony's recent earnings figures, the company has sold 24 million PlayStation 3 units globally since the console's launch in late 2006.
According to a new survey on 'American Internet habits' reported by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, online movie watching has doubled over the last two years.
VuNow has announced that they have added Roxio CinemaNow content to their VuNow Internet TV service.
Sonic Solutions has announced that they will finally be bringing 
According to 
