Napster hopes that consumer attitudes towards music rental services will change when more suers turn to phones that also act as multimedia devices. So far, Apple Computer's iTunes has held back competition in the online music download market because the company's iPod (the biggest selling MP3 player) can only play music from the iTunes store.
Napster Chief Executive Chris Gorog told Reuters that Apple's approach was "anti-consumer". He believes that as more users turn to mobile phones for music playback, the access to a wider market will make them aware of the benefits of unlimited music subscription services.
"The key obstacle to date to moving into mass adoption for the subscription model has been the iPod which has had the very large majority of market share with MP3 players," he said. "But the dynamic that will be happening ... in this calendar year is the phenomenon of music-enabled cell phones."
Sony has released the latest firmware for the PlayStation Portable (PSP) console, v3.10, worldwide. The updater was released slightly earlier by SCE Korea some days ago. Here are the updates that 3.10 makes to the PSP system...
Support for PlayStation Network titles had been expanded
Support for the MPEG-4AVC format has been added under [LocationFree Player]
[Dynamic Normalizer] has been added as a feature under [Sound Settings] in [Settings]
[Conserve Memory] has been added as an option in [View Settings] under [Internet Browser].
The update is considered mostly as a minor update to the PSP system. Still missing is the PlayStation Network or PlayStation Store support, meaning users still have to rely on the PS3 console for that.
It is being reportedly that Finnish mobile phone giant Nokia, has redesigned its N-Gage gaming system and is already showing it to the industry. Apparently, at a secret location in Santa Monica last week, companies that include Sega, Disney, Sony, Glue Wireless and EA Mobile were shown some of the new features that the revamped device offers.
One interesting feature that the device supposedly offered is the ability to share gaming content with friends on a limited basis. One user could send a limited capabilities version of the game to another friend who can decide to upgrade to full versions over-the-air
N-Gage never really made it as a device and so was re-invented as a platform for gaming on mobile phones.
We wrote an article lately on the criticism Microsoft has received for its Digital Rights Management (DRM) included in the Windows Vista operating system that intends to make life harder for pirates. Unfortunately, as DRM has shown us in the past, these kind of restrictions hurt honest consumers every single day too.
Alex Ionescu, has written on his blog that he has produced code that could be used to bypass Vista's DRM. He did not publish the code but he promised in a later post he will publish some form of "safe, generic, proof of concept code that targets what I believe is a flaw in the Code Integrity/Driver Signing model."
As for credibility, it helps to know that Alex is a Microsoft Student Ambassador. These students are described as "the most talented students from around the world for their dedication, passion and involvement with Microsoft." This is likely to only be the first attack on the operating system's unwanted extras as hackers will line-up and take the challenge.
Recently we reported that YouTube plans to share revenue from advertising between the site and the user who uploads video clips to the site. YouTube Chief Executive Chad Hurley told this to an audience at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. However, he did not give any specific details on how YouTube will pull this off, and many are left with questions and doubts.
YouTube is the largest video site online, but there are several others who already offer revenue sharing deals to lure users to post their own content. Some of these sites also focus more on video quality than YouTube. However, the thing that sets them apart from YouTube is the audience of 30 million that YouTube generates monthly.
So that brings up another question; how will YouTube differentiate between users uploading pirated content and those uploading their own works? Whether or not people uploading works subject to copyright will receive a share for advertising is yet unknown, but the outcome is easy to guess.
Will YouTube have to implement some form of tracking system for pirated content to make sure users do not benefit from somebody else's work? If so, that would be quite a large task. "I'm sure they are working on a plan but it's certainly not a trivial undertaking," said Allyson Campa, vice president of marketing for Metacafe, which shares advertising revenue with video creators. "The tricky thing is the rights issues."
PS3 owners have been complaining on the official PlayStation 3 (PS3) forums about problems that the 1.5 system firmware upgrade have caused their systems. Mainly the problems seem to focus around Blu-ray movie playback freezing, as well as freezing during gameplay. There are also problems with wireless internet and controllers reported.
Sony has not made any direct recommendations on fixing this problem, but on the forum it seems the suggestion is to reconnect their wireless controllers, and attach their PS3 to their Internet router with a direct Ethernet cable. The n1.5 update fixed scaling problems with PS2 games and also added more online functionality.
One thing that becomes apparent is how little patience early adopters have these days. "We shelled out $600 big ones for this console and were loyal to buy the console as soon as we could get our hands on one," one owner wrote on Sony's forum. "We should not have to rig the PS3 by making sure we have our controllers off and the wireless setting is set to work only on Tuesdays and the sun has to be shining and it can't be colder than 30 degrees outside then our Blu-Ray reader should work properly."
WindTangent, a gaming company has been reporting that the parental controls on Microsoft's Windows Vista operating system are so strict they are disrupting gameplay. The company said that across RealArcade, Yahoo Games, AOL Games, and even on its own site, the security restrictions are effectively "breaking games". The reason for this is that the source games have no ESRB rating.
As a result, the system apparently find that the game is inappropriate for children and blocks them on any computer that has Parent Control running. "We worked with nearly every major casual game developer to get their games tested and compatible with Vista in our network in anticipation of these problems," founder Alex St. John, one of the creators of Microsoft's DirectX technology, said.
Microsoft however, is not impressed with the media's reporting of the issue and sent a statement to betanews..
"The recent claims made about Windows Vista online game compatibility issues have been grossly overstated and in actuality, a fraction of casual games are encountering temporary upgrade issues – a situation we have largely corrected and are committed to fixing within days," a spokesperson said.Read more...
A New York teen has filed a lawsuit against the record industry for defamation, violating anti-trust laws, conspiring to defraud the courts and making extortionate threats. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has called this kid a pirate and so the five record companies filed a lawsuit against him. Robert Santangelo would have been 11 when the alleged offense was committed.
He has denied sharing music with P2P file sharing networks and has said it is "impossible" for the RIAA to prove otherwise. He claims in his defense that any music the RIAA alleged that he pirated, he already owned himself on a store-bought retail CD. Robert and his lawyer, Jordan Glass, have demanded a jury trial and filing a counterclaim against the companies for allegedly damaging the boy's reputation, distracting him from school and costing him legal fees.
"The record companies have engaged in a wide-ranging conspiracy to defraud the courts of the United States," the court documents say. The teen says that the record companies are acting together in violation of the antitrust laws by bringing the piracy cases jointly and using the same agency "to make extortionate threats ... to force defendants to pay."
The BBC has gotten support for its on-demand download service, that would allow users to download TV shows within a week after they air. However, some tough conditions have been placed on the service by BBC Trust in regard to classical music, to help prevent a rerun of the BBC's Beethoven podcast debacle.
Full approval of the on-demand plans will follow a two month consultation, after which point the BBC can finally launch its anticipated iPlayer which viewers can use to watch or download any programme from the last seven days to their home PCs. After they have downloaded it, it will be available for 30 days.
Initially, the BBC had planned to allow the content to reside on the user's hard drive for up to 13 weeks, but the BBC trust insists that 30 days is enough time. The BBC Trust is independent body that replaced the corporation's governors at the beginning of 2007.
Philadelphia resident Mickey DeLorenzo decided to see if there is anything to the belief that Nintendo's Wii console can help you to lose weight while also being fun to use. He came up with an idea for an experiment while playing the Wii Sports boxing game with his partner. "On the fly, as I was typing my blog posts, I set up a daily regimen and went at it 100 percent," said DeLorenzo
He used the Wii console for 6 weeks, at 30 minutes per day, while not altering his diet in any way or stopping himself from indulging over the holidays. When all was done, he had lost nine pounds. He chronicled his progress on his blog at WiiNintendo.net, which includes before and after pictures.
"Seeing the 'before' and 'after' pictures, I am going to keep doing it. I am going to add some weights to the next round because I don't want to shrink to nothing," said DeLorenzo. He has never dieted or exercised for weightless in his life before this. A fitness Web site already has asked him to help it create "Wii workouts" and he already owns the Internet address WiiWorkout.net, which just links to his blog for now.
One has to wonder that if Nintendo's DS console armed with Brain Training exercises can have such a good effect (a fact that yours truly can vouch for), will Nintendo call up the experts and try to put together a title that aims at giving the gamer a good workout?
The Xbox 360 achievement points in gameplay is a prime example of gaming innovation from Microsoft. So far, the system has led to friendly competition among gamers, a cash-for-points business and of course, a leaderboard race. However, after spending hours playing games and accomplishing tasks for points, gamers have only had bragging rights.
That might change according to Xbox 360 fan site Unscripted 360, which claims to have a document that shows information of an upcoming "achievements-for-rewards program". According to the site, Microsoft has teamed up with sponsors to give away a number of prizes for in-game goals.
According to the blog, the program will be free and will launch some time next month. The owner of the blog, who goes by the name DeaconBlade 360, is an "Xbox Ambassador" and was awarded the Microsoft MVP Award for 2007 in the Xbox category. Microsoft didn't give any specific details about the program, but did hint that it might be real.
"We have nothing to say about these rumors or speculation," a Microsoft representative told GameSpot. "However, what we can tell you is that Xbox is always exploring ideas for how we can reward our loyal customers. As soon as we have anything new to share, we will definitely let you know."
A jury has found that Broadcom Corp. did not infringe on two video compression-related patents held by rival semiconductor maker Qualcomm Inc. The battle between these two companies is vicious and Qualcomm has many more enemies than just Broadcom. This 9 day trial included testimony from both chairmen, Broadcom's Henry Samueli and Qualcomm's Irwin Jacobs.
Qualcomm's general counsel, Lou Lipin, said that the company is very disappointed with the jury's decision but has not yet decided whether to appeal the case. Broadcom and the world's largest mobile handset maker Nokia Corp., are part of a group of wireless equipment makers who believe that Qualcomm's charges of royalties for rights to its patented inventions are excessive.
"We are obviously very pleased and very grateful for this jury's diligence in working to arrive at the truth, even when presented with some very complex and intricate engineering testimony," said David Dull, Broadcom's general counsel. Qualcomm and Broadcom really have en extensive legal battle running.
Qualcomm accuses Broadcom of violating two video compression patents and has filed lawsuits that accuse Broadcom of infringing on a combined 10 patents and "misappropriating trade secrets". Broadcom has filed lawsuits against Qualcomm for violating a total of 16 patents and is one of a group of six companies that have asked the European Commission to investigate Qualcomm's business practices.
Despite many anti-piracy efforts in the United States, piracy of movies and other types of digital content is still rising sharply, despite claims that litigation against file sharers is "working". The Solutions Research Group has collected the latest available data on P2P file sharing and has come to a startling find about how many people are actually downloading. Specifically, those using P2P file sharing system doubled in figures from 2005 to 2006.
One in five U.S. citizens have pirated a major film and two thirds of them have downloaded a film at least monthly. 80% of overall movie downloaders use so called "unauthorized" services to get their movies for free, as opposed to using a legal solution to get them. This bad news for the two major trade bodies, the RIAA and MPAA, who haver both resorted to legal action against thousands of U.S. citizens.
We reported some days ago that most Americans do not believe that downloading is a serious offense at all. "There is a Robin Hood effect. Most people perceive celebrities and studios to be rich already and as a result don't think of movie downloading as a big deal," said study director Kaan Yigit.
The European Parliament's committee for legal affairs met yesterday to vote on proposals for criminal penalties in relation to Intellectual Property (IP) rights. Among the possible violations is the illegal downloading of tracks of music. There is definitely a lot of division among MEPs over the legislation, with many amendments being tabled to limit or increase the level of penalties for infringements.
Some MEPs want patents to be left out of the directive completely, saying that EU member states already have sufficient legislation to cover that problem. Some say that it should only cover copyright and trademark violations. Liberal MEPs have called for personal use copies to be completely excluded.
However, some MEPs, like Dutch MEP Toine Manders want so called "fair use" copies to be included in the directive and also up to illegal music downloading.
Sports Interactive has been forced to abandon its Eastside Hockey Manager because of what the company describes as "mounting piracy". Managing director Miles Jacobson explained the situation in a forum post right after the company released the final patch for the game. Despite getting excellent reviews, the game's sales simply did not pick up, even in its strongest location, Scandinavia.
"The sales in Scandinavia, that had pretty much kept the game going, dropped heavily, from our analysis of the situation, mainly due to the game getting hacked before release, and pirated," Jacobson explained. The company had opted for digital distribution instead of offering a boxed version for the title.
"We had more licenses than any other hockey game in history, it was the best Hockey management game in the history of gaming. So, despite Hockey being a bit less popular post the hiatus of the sport in the US in 2004, we still couldn't fail, right? Wrong. The orders came in a drizzle, rather than a flood," said Jacobson.
"We scratched our heads trying to work out what had gone wrong. And then someone pointed out that the game was being pirated, and was available as a torrent from lots of different pirating sites. Then we sat there and watched as the claimed amount of downloads on those sites went up and up, as sales stayed static." he added.
The increasingly popular "Second Life" virtual world has gotten an exemption from eBay's ban of auctions for virtual items that gamers acquire in online games like World of Warcraft. This is not a change in eBay policy however, items from games like WOW and Everquest are still banned. A spokesperson for eBay explained that the decision comes from a company reconsideration of what a "game" is.
The spokesperson said that eBay questioned whether or not second life is actually a game, and so, for now at least, will allow its listings to remain on eBay. Second life is an advanced social-networking virtual "world" developed by Linden Lab. It got attention from the mainstream media in late 2006 and earlier this year.
As an extra interesting point; Sweden is the first state to open a "virtual embassy" in Second Life.
It doesn't take an expert to realize that the demand for online video content has never been higher, or even that the demand does not actually fall completely with major content companies anymore. Obviously, selling videos on a service as popular as iTunes has to be lucrative, but even places to get free video content, like YouTube, are raking in money from advertising.
Informa Telecoms & Media estimated that the total revenue for online video will expand to $6.3 billion by 2012. Right now, online video content is responsible for an estimated $538 million in the US alone. These details will undoubtedly attract many more players into the online video market, whether its to sell premium movies or host free homemade videos.
So far, the selection of movie download services have their undesirable limits. For example, most consumers would pick watching their premium video content on a TV screen instead of a PC monitor, and so far, download-to-burn services fall short. Devices like Apple's upcoming AppleTV aim to close that gap and give consumers more reason to pay for video content.
A patent application submitted by Matthew T. Jarman of Salt Lake City seeks to filter out foul language "on the fly" from being heard from your TV set. The system described, which uses a computer and a PVR, monitors the closed captioning that comes with most programs for obscene words. Users can select what they want blocked and if it comes up, the system will briefly mute the TV to spare the viewer from hearing it.
The settings are protected by a user ID and password. Additionally, the PVR had a mentioned method where it could determine if the use of a word is for a good or bad reason, like "bitch" for example, which can be insulting to hear, but not if it refers to a dog.
User preferences can also be used to block out entire channels or specific programs with the use of keywords for example. This differs from the V-Chip in that it allows viewers to enforce blocking between programming with the same rating.
However, since there is quite often a delay in the audio playback and closed captioning system, and the patent describes no way to get around this problem, you have to wonder if such a system (blocking obscene words on-the-fly) will actually work in practice.
Shuji Nakamura, a pioneer of laser diode science, has led a team of University of California-Santa Barbara (UCSB) researchers in creating a new type of blue laser diode. The group said that the new diode could potentially replace the c-plane violet laser diodes used by both Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD hardware.
UCSB said the team has achieved lasing operation in nonpolar gallium nitride (GaN) semiconductors and demonstrated the world's first nonpolar blue-violet laser diodes. "Our initial results of the first violet nonpolar laser diodes with a low threshold current density demonstrate a high possibility that current c-plane violet laser diodes used for HD-DVD and Blue Ray DVD could soon be replaced with nonpolar violet laser diodes, which require lower operating power and have longer lifetimes," Nakamura said through a statement.
The new blue-violet laser diodes displayed threshold current densities as low as 7.5kA/cm2 clear far-field pattern and a 405 nanometer wavelength. The gallium nitride-based laser diode is based on novel nonpolar orientations of GaN that were pioneered at UC Santa Barbara, according to the university.
Pioneer has introduced its new Blu-ray ROM / DVD recordable combo drive, the BDC-202. It reads Blu-ray Disc at a maximum of 5 x and allows a maximum burn speed of 12x for DVD media. The company offers the combo unit to offer consumers the ability to watch pristine quality high-definition (HD) movies on PCs.
"Blu-ray is in pole position to capture demand for HD movies: it’s supported by seven out of the eight major Hollywood studios. We’ve ensured that BDC-202 is price competitive to existing next generation drives so systems builders can enable consumers to access this extensive catalogue of Blu-ray titles in stunning quality," says Chris Tampsett, Director of Pioneer Europe Multimedia Division.
He added: "And with DVD and CD read/write compatibility, the drive provides a compelling mix of high-quality entertainment and practicality. We anticipate that it will lead the emergence of the Blu-ray format for both professional and personal use on computers."
Verbatim has announced another addition to its DVD product range, the Verbatim DVD+RW 8x with 4.7 GB storage capacity. Bringing 8x rewritable speed to this popular format will allow users to reduce the recording time by 40% while still providing the inherent flexibility of rewritable format. The new media will be available as 10 pack for GB£11.50 (RRP incl. VAT).
The new fast DVD+RW is primarily designed for video recording and streaming computer backup applications. Users record 4.7 GB of data in approximately 8 minutes. The discs can be rewritten more than 1,000 times. Similar to Verbatim’s entire rewriteable product family, the DVD+RW 8x is an excellent archival disc.
The Advanced Super Eutectic Recording Layer (SERL) ensures that users can enjoy perfect noise-free, high-speed data storage every time. With conventional rewriteable media, the recording layer deteriorates with every rewrite, meaning a decrease in quality. With Verbatim rewriteable media however, the recording layer is returned to perfect condition on every erase cycle, leaving a flawless disk for the next recording.
On the same day that Microsoft has officially released the Windows Vista operating system, Nero, a leader in digital media technologies, has announced several updates to the Nero 7 package. Among the updates are two new applications; DiscCopy and MultiMounter. Nero DiscCopy allows one click copying of discs of any format.
Nero MultiMounter is used with discs that have more than one session. It provides simultaneous viewing of the status of every session of multisession discs. There have also been several interface improvements made, some which have been added for the benefit of users of Microsoft latest operating system.
"We are very excited to work with Microsoft to deliver the next generation of home and mobile digital media entertainment innovation and functionality," said Udo Eberlein, COO, Nero AG. "Supporting this important new operating system strengthens our position in the digital media software marketplace and helps guarantee a positive computing experience for consumers."
"We are excited about Nero’s continued support for Microsoft technologies," said Liron Shaked, director of the Worldwide Consumer ISV Group at Microsoft Corp. "With the advanced capabilities of Windows Vista, combined with an industry leading solution such as Nero 7, we are continuing to help provide consumers with improved access to multiple forms of media across the globe."
The demand for Sony's PlayStation Portable (PSP) console and the PlayStation 2 (PS2) console reportedly dropped quite dramatically in the 2006 holiday season. There was a 71.7% drop in PSP shipments over the quarter and a drop of 23.3% for PS2 shipments worldwide. While these drops were becoming apparent, Sony was focusing a lot of energy airlifting PlayStation 3 (PS3) consoles to North America.
While Sony did manage to ship 1.83 million PS3 units before the end of the year, it is important to remember the difference between shipments and sales. Sony's figures seem to mirror a Microsoft warning last week about a global softening in demand especially for video games.
Sony knows that it will receive a loss immediately on the sales of PS3 console, due to the high manufacturing costs involved. However, the company had hoped to soften that loss a bit by reducing the price of the PS2 console and through a promotional campaign. However, now demand also seems to be falling for the PSP console at a time when the Nintendo DS is doing very well.
The Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (Elspa) needs to work more closely with the UK government, director general Paul Jackson has said. He emphasised how the group must boost the industry's standing. "What's been said to me is that so far we haven't really been punching our weight. Everybody is keen that we really step up to the plate, and we're equally keen to do so," he said.
He said that Elspa has already begun engaging more in the political arena "but we need to develop it more aggressively, not just with Government ministers but with shadow spokespeople and Lib Dem spokespeople."
"When I first joined the ELSPA board in '92 or '93 there was almost no interaction between us and the political world. There's been a huge growth in the interest in and appreciation of our industry in the last five or six years particularly," he said.
He added: "But I would say that we're facing enormous challenges, and that we as an industry need to step up and take them on."
Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter has made some predictions about Sony's PlayStation 3 (PS3) success in Europe. He firmly believes that the console will sell out shortly after going on sale and that within 12 months there will be a price cut of up to €150. He also dismissed claims that the high price point will put off consumers in the UK when it launches.
"The PS3 can command GBP 425 from the hardcore and I think you'll see price cuts a year from now, probably to GBP 300." he said. "I'm actually surprised that consoles are not priced more like other consumer electronics, with early movers charged a bunch and the mass market charged less."
He expects the UK stocks of the console will disappear quickly when launched on March 23rd, and Europe will follow the UK relatively soon afterwards. "There will be a few more games by then, with several great games announced for release in May and beyond, so I expect a full sellout by the end of April," he said.
He also downplayed the the threat of Microsoft's earlier launch (over a year in Europe) to the PS3, as well as Nintendo's success so far with Wii. "March is not too late, given Sony's production problems and only 800,000 Wii's sold in Europe last quarter," he stated. "My guess is that the Wii will be up to near 1.6 - 2 million by March 23, but that is far from an insurmountable head start."
An unnamed software pirate has been handed a jail sentence for selling counterfeit Microsoft products. The 42 year old Turkish man was described as a "clever offender" by the court. He allegedly sold 18,555 pirated products. He sold the products with falsified licenses and was arrested in June 2006 by German police. He has been given two years and eleven months total behind bars for his crimes.
Microsoft estimates the loss of the forged licenses at €4 million, including the money paid by customers who acquired software they were unable to use. The court said the mans actions were driven by sheer greed. Microsoft is also pushing mid-sized companies for compliance with license checks.
Any company that gets flagged for inconsistency will either receive an email or phone call from Microsoft. If businesses refuse a Microsoft audit of their software, it could result in legal action from the Business Software Alliance (BSA).
Sony BMG has reached a settlement with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) over the inclusion of copy protection software on millions of CDs sold by the label. Sony BMG is a joint venture of Sony Corp. and Germany's Bertelsmann AG. The deal will allow consumer to exchange CDs at issue and will reimburse consumers for up to $150 to repair any damage to their computers.
"Consumers' computers belong to them, and companies must adequately disclose unexpected limitations on the customary use of their products so consumers can make informed decisions regarding whether to purchase and install that content," FTC Chairman Deborah Majoras said in a statement.
Sony BMG reached a very similar agreement recently with 41 states and the District of Columbia, and no longer uses the software on CDs. "We are pleased to have reached this agreement with the Federal Trade Commission." The company said. The FTC said that Sony BMG broke the law because it disclose adequately that software would be installed.
Microsoft's Peter Moore has said that he believes there is nothing about Sony's PlayStation 3 (PS3) console that could give it an edge over the Xbox 360 in the console war. "I really don't know what I would look at there that we're really missing," he told IGN.
"I look at the games and I feel really good at where we stand from a portfolio point of view. The online service, they're still trying to get it up to speed and there's nothing really there that I can really point to that I wish we had."
PS3 fans proclaim that Sony's latest console is much more powerful than the Xbox 360, and favor it for the console war despite coming to the starting line a year late. One of the biggest weaknesses they point out in Xbox 360 is the use of the DVD format for game content. However, even some of Sony's biggest fans aren't willing to dish out the high price for the console, a fact that Moore couldn't help but mention.
"You know, certainly the price point of the PS3 isn't something that I want to emulate. It's very difficult for me to point to anything there that I think we're missing right now," he said. When asked about the terrific launch success of the Nintendo Wii, he said he is certainly a big fan of the console.
MAXCONSOLE is reporting that a second modchip for the Nintendo Wii console has arrived, already out-dating the Wiinja chip we reported about already. The chip is called "CycloWiz". Here is what it apparently features...
- Quicksolder (no wires required)
- Plays Wii Backups
- Plays GC Backups
- Play GC Homebrew
- Play GC Imports (swap needed)
- Built-in Audiofix (GC games using Streaming are working flawlessly, no patch needed)
- DVD-R / DVD+R support
- Optional chip disable wire
- Stealth even when chip is enabled
- Multi-purpose LED
The site reports that this chip is set to start shipping by the end of the week.
eBay-owned Internet telephony company, Skype, has added some new features to its "Skype for Business" package as well as some optional add-ons. The features are aimed at improving central management and IT administration. Skype launched its enterprise offering last year to mirror the success it has had in the consumer market, and now counts up to 30% of its users as business users.
The new features primarily concern internal management, including a new process to install the software on multiple workstations simultaneously, an improved "business control panel" for administrators to distribute SkypeOut calling minutes, assign phone numbers and deal with company-wide invoices. The features were actually added in the Skype 3.0 update in December, but were barely covered due to being over-shadowed by the consumer additions.
While the business version of the service has the same features that made the consumer service so successful (video calls, text chat, SkypeOut, SkypeIn etc.), the enterprise version has its own homepage with exclusive extras created with third-party developers. These include conferencing software and screen-sharing tools.
AT&T is delighted with the performance of its Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) service so far, and plans to ramp up deployments in the coming year. Chief Executive Officer Ed Whitacre spoke about the plans for IPTV at the company's fourth-quarter 2006 earnings call. He said the company targets to make the U-verse IPTV service available to around 8 million homes by the end of 2007.
"Our fiber-to-the-node network is performing better than we had anticipated," he said. "We're getting better bandwidth both on the short and long loop links. And the customer feedback has been very good, outperforming what's available from cable." AT&T's service is available in 11 markets so far, less than the company's prediction of 15 by the end of 2006.
Ever since the company began testing the service, it experiences glitches related to the software. The company said that the delays did not reflect any problems with the network architecture. "It works and it works well," Whitacre said of the infrastructure. "The delays and difficulties have been related to programming. And we think we are just about to get all those issues solved."
The software foe the IPTV service has been provided by Microsoft, which also supplies other services around the world including Deutsche Telekom, Telecom Italia, T-Online France, British Telecommunications and Swisscom, with several more in testing.
The world's largest mobile phone handset maker, Nokia, has admitted that the Multimedia unit suffered delays in raising production of some new multimedia models throughout the fourth quarter of 2006. The Unit produces phones with advanced multimedia features like video and music playback. The company did report that the situation has now improved however.
"There were delays, as opposed to what we expected, in ramping up operation areas in some new products. We were suffering from that almost throughout the quarter," Chief Executive Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo told a news conference. "The situation improved toward the end of the quarter."
"In that regard obviously we will target higher growth in that area, going forward. The ambition level in the unit needs to be higher." he added. Kallasvuo said that the group generally releases between thirty and forty new models annually and expects to do the same this year.
Considering that the PlayStation 3 (PS3) is the most expensive of the three next generation consoles, many gamers have decided to sit it out for a while and hope for a price drop. However in Canada, it must be frustrating to see that the Canadian online stores for Best Buy and Future Shop seem to have upped the price of the 60GB PS3 model.
The original sale price was C$659.99 ($560), and now both stores instead list it at C$699.99 ($593). Surely it must be frustrating to attempt understanding why any retailers would push away potential buyers for the sake of C$40. Not all Canadian retailers are doing this though.
"Our EB Games locations in Canada will hold their current PS3 prices...C$549.99 for the 20GB and C$659.99 for the 60GB," a representative for GameStop said. Sony did comment on the price hike...
"Although the suggested retail price (SRP) of the PlayStation 3 in Canada has not changed, some Canadian retailers have chosen to increase their retail price as a result of the weaker Canadian dollar. This increase is solely at the discretion of the retailer, as Sony Computer Entertainment Canada has not issued a price increase," An SCEC representative told GameSpot
Consumers who rented a DVD of BBC's Doctor Who series got some unexpected extras. Reportedly, they not only had the episodes of the TV show, but also scenes from the The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning. UK tabloid The Sun reported that "a manufacturing blunder led to footage of a maniac hacking off limbs appearing midway through an episode seen by hundreds of families"
The episode in question was "New Earth", the first episode of the second season, dispatched by online movie rental giant Netflix. A BBC insider said the mistake may have occurred because "both DVDs were made at the same time for release on the same day". The BBC has released a statement to address the issue.
"Due to a manufacturing problem, Disc One of the Netflix copies of 'Doctor Who: The Complete Second Series' DVD collection contains incorrect footage from another film. The special features section on Disc One is also inaccessible on rented Netflix copies."
"This error is only found on Disc One of Netflix copies of the series, not on any Doctor Who DVDs available for purchase in stores. We are doing our best to rectify this problem as soon as possible and apologize for any inconvenience or distress."
It is reported that the Nintendo Wii console has already fallen victim to hackers, with the release of a Modchip that will play game backups of the same region as the host console expected on February 1st. The Wiinja modchip only needs 5 wires soldered to the device. ISOs of Wii games have been available for download on the Internet for some time now. Here are some details provided on the chip...
I can't find any real confirmation on whether this product is the real deal or just another fake to trick the console scene. However, it is already available to order on certain mod sites and there isn't much reason to speculate that it is fake.
Read more...
Amateur filmmakers are increasingly turning to the Internet not only to achieve the fame they crave, but to also get paid for the distribution of their videos. Sites like YouTube are revolutionizing how we share and view video clips online, but there are many more sites offering filmmakers better video quality and the possibility of earning some money for their videos.
Joe Eigo is a martial arts expert who created a video "Matrix - For Real" and subsequently added it to the video site Metacafe.com. The video gathered great attention in a few months time, adding up to over 5 million views, and $25,000 in revenue for Eigo. "I was really surprised," said Eigo, who occasionally lands stunt man roles in movie and theater productions.
"We're being much more selective about the videos than other sites because we think this is about entertainment," Metacafe founder Arik Czerniak said. Metacafe pays $5 for 1,000 views, and begins paying out for videos after 20,000 views (a minimum payout of $100). YouTube is also currently working on an ad revenue sharing system for original content.
According to wireless industry analyst firm ABI Research, Apple's iPhone does not fit the criteria to be described as a Smartphone, due to some limits imposed by Apple on the device. The problem is the phone's closed Operating System, which is against the possible inclusion of third-party applications. ABI defines a Smartphone as "a cellular handset using an open, commercial operating system that supports third-party applications."
When it was revealed the iPhone was running OS X, it led to speculation that the device could be used for all kinds of consumer-conceived functionality. However, Steve Jobs crushed those hopes when he revealed that the device is definitely closed to third party applications, despite its OS X roots.
"You don't want your phone to be an open platform...Cingular doesn't want to see their West Coast network go down because some application messed up," Jobs told Newsweek. ABI described a feature phone as being controlled by the operator, device manufacturer, and/or carrier, whereas Smartphones "are supported by a third-party ecosystem".
"We must conclude at this point that, based on our current definition, the iPhone is not a smartphone; it is a very high-end feature phone." said ABI principal mobile broadband analyst Philip Solis. He admitted that feature phones do have third party applications, "but these are relatively weak and limited applications that work with the middleware such as Java and BREW. Applications designed for smartphones can be written to access core functionality from the OS itself, and are therefore usually more powerful and efficient. The competition in an open environment also yields more cutting edge, rich applications."
20th Century Fox is threatening to delay its movie releases in Canada in attempt to stamp out rampant bootlegging. "Canada has become a hotbed for film piracy,"Bruce Snyder, Fox president of U.S. distribution said. "It's a serious problem." Before delaying the releases, he said that the company will withhold movies from theaters that camcorder wielding movie fans are known to frequent.
If that fails, then the company will resort to delaying the releases. According to an article by the Hollywood Reporter, Canadian laws prevent arrest and prosecution for camcorder possession in cinemas. In the U.S., it is illegal to operate any recording equipment capable of making bootleg copies from a screen in theaters.
Douglas Frith, head of the Canadian Motion Picture Distribution Association (CMPDA), which represents major Hollywood studios in Canada, said the group is pushing the Canadian government to pass stronger copyright protection laws while also training cinema employees to spot individuals recording movies.
Microsoft chairman Bill Gates believes that the Internet is set to revolutionize television within five years, thanks to the explosion of video content available online and devices that bridge the gap between PC equipment and CE devices. "I'm stunned how people aren't seeing that with TV, in five years from now, people will laugh at what we've had," he told business leaders and politicians at the World Economic Forum.
The rise in high-speed Internet connections and the success of video sites, especially Google Inc.'s YouTube, has already led to a noticeable decline in the time younger viewers spend in front of TV sets. Gates says that more and more people will give up the fixed program slots and advertisement interruptions offered by the conventional broadcast television and move toward the increasing flexibility available online.
"Certain things like elections or the Olympics really point out how TV is terrible. You have to wait for the guy to talk about the thing you care about or you miss the event and want to go back and see it," he said. "Internet presentation of these things is vastly superior."
Universal Studios has pledged 100 HD DVD titles to be released this year. The company exclusively backs the Toshiba-developed HD DVD format, over the Sony-developed Blu-Ray Disc technology. At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas earlier this month, many were skeptical about how no major title announcements were made by the studio for the HD DVD format.
Interestingly, the studio said that 90% of all the titles released this year will be "combo discs", meaning on one side there would be HD DVD data, and on the other side would be the good old traditional DVD-Video format. Many catalog titles will be among the releases, including The Bourne Identity, Meet The Fockers, American Pie, Erin Brockovich, and Liar Liar.
Users of the infamous YouTube video sharing site, will soon be able to get a cut of the advertising revenue that their uploaded videos produce. Needless to say, this only applies when a user uploads a video that he/she owns the copyright to. YouTube founder Chad Hurley said that the site is working to "award creativity". Other video sharing sites like Revver already split advertising revenues with users uploading original content.
What makes YouTube separate from these other sites is the fact that it gets an audience of around 70 million users per month. YouTube is also working to friendly its image to content providers by developing an "audio fingerprinting" technologies to identify copyrighted material, Hurley revealed in a session on social networking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
As for the revenue sharing system; YouTube users should not have to sit through long video advertisements before the content is shown; instead Mr Hurley said a clip of three seconds length was one of the options but added the details haven't been worked out yet.
A dutch consumer protection agency, Consumentenbond, has announced that it has filed a formal complaint with the Dutch antitrust watchdog NMa. The group claims it wants an investigation into the "illegal practices" of Apple's iTunes music service. "What we want from Apple is that they remove the limitations that prevent you from playing a song you download from iTunes on any player other than an iPod," spokesman Ewald van Kouwen said.
"When you buy a music CD it doesn't play only on players made by Panasonic. People who download a song from iTunes shouldn't be bound to an iPod for the rest of their lives." he added. The consumer group said it was inspired by the actions of the Norwegian Ombudsman, who gave iTunes until the end of September to fix its DRM problems or face legal action.
A spokesperson for Apple said the company is "aware of the concerns we've heard from several agencies in Europe." He added: "Apple hopes that European governments will encourage a competitive environment that lets innovation thrive."
Microsoft Corp. is currently investigating ways in which the company can become more cost competitive with its Xbox 360 console. One of the ways in which the company hopes to achieve success is asking the component makers for a price reduction. Specifically, the Redmond-based firm has requested its component makers and EMS providers to lower their component quotes by an average of 5-15% on a quarterly basis.
Microsoft is also investigating the cost competitiveness of Taiwan-based manufacturers of optical disc drives for its HD DVD add-on. Sources say Lite-On IT is the most likely beneficiary. Lite-On IT declined to comment, citing client confidentiality.
Google Inc. has announced some plans for the immediate future of Google Video and YouTube. When Google bough YouTube last year, many wondered if it was the end of Google Video or if indeed, all of YouTube's content would be transfered to Google Video instead. However, Google plans to change the Google Video search engine so that now it will bring up results from Google Video and from YouTube.
Users who click on results for a YouTube video will be redirected to the video page on the YouTube site. Google's plan is to eventually have Google Video as the primary search for all video content online. "Google Video will become even more comprehensive as it evolves into a service where users can search for the world's online video content, irrespective of where it may be hosted," according to a company statement.
YouTube will remain an independent subsidiary of Google. The company said it can "envision most user-generated and premium video content being hosted on YouTube," providing a hint that YouTube will soon sell premium content like Google Video. For now, it seems Google will have to keep convincing content providers that YouTube is good for promotion of content until it can provide a means to sell premium content to YouTube's massive userbase.
Microsoft Corp. has reduced its shipping estimate for the Xbox 360 console. Its Entertainment and Devices division posted a $289 million (&euro223.6m) loss for the second quarter also today. The company expects to ship 12 million Xbox 360 units by the end of June, down from a previous estimate that put the figure somewhere between 13 million and 15 million shipped.
"We are just being cautious about the second half," Microsoft CFO Chris Liddell told Reuters. "There's a reasonable amount of inventory in the channel." Despite posting a $289 million loss, the Entertainment Devices division was responsible for $2.63 billion (€2.03 billion) profit during the second quarter.
Microsoft pointed to repair expenses and the recent extension of Xbox 360 warranty from 9 months to a year in the U.S. and Canada for affecting the division's profitability.
Nintendo has announced that the total sales of the DS handheld console have passed 10 million units in North America. The company says that this means 9 units were sold every 60 seconds since the DS launch in November 2004. The dual-screen handheld which rivals Sony's PlayStation Portable (PSP) console, played a huge part in Nintendo's 40% rise in quarterly profits.
Worldwide, the total number of DS sales has topped 35.6 million. That figure breaks down as 14.4 million in Japan, 10.2 million in the United States and Canada and 11 million in other territories. The company also announced more than 20 software titles for North America. First party titles include Hotel Dusk: Room 215, Diddy Kong Racing DS and Wario: Master of Disguise.
The Advanced Access Content System (AACS) Licensing Authority has confirmed to the media that the AACS copy protection used to protect the contents of HD DVD and Blu-ray titles has been bypassed. However, the group wanted to make it clear that it was only a "limited" breach and that it does not represent a weakness in AACS, but displays a problem in software players instead.
The companies behind the AACS system have been investigating the claims from hacker muslix64 since the release of BackupHDDVD and the original YouTube video (which was removed) showing BaclkupHDDVD decrypting and extracting from Full Metal Jacket. Since then, HD DVD-rips have appeared on BitTorrent trackers and Usenet and Blu-ray got its own decryption tool, BackupBluray.
AACS spokesman Michael Ayers said that the hacker managed to get keys needed to decrypt the titles from "one or more pieces of software" but did not confirm whether the licensing for AACS would be revoked from the company(ies) who market the software. "We certainly have not ruled out any particular response and we will take whatever action is appropriate," Mr Ayers said.
Ray Maguire, managing director of SCE UK, told GamesIndustry.biz that the company has received welcome and positive feedback from retailers over the planned March 23rd launch of the PlayStation 3 (PS3) console. "We have had an incredibly positive response from our partners in UK retail," Maguire said. "There has been some great feedback on pre-order take up and the palpable anticipation from consumers."
European gamers were forced to wait for their chance to buy a PS3 console an additional 4 months after the original planned launch, and Sony wants to make it up by shipping 1 million units for launch day. There will also be 30 software titles available for the console when it launches. The 60GB version of the PS3 will cost €599 (£425 in UK), the 20GB version will not be available initially.
"With the strongest and biggest launch line up of any console in the history of our business and a unprecedented stock allocation for the launch period, we look forward to sitting down with our trade partners in order to finalize our plans for a very solid UK launch," Maguire said.
Nintendo has posted a 40% rise in quarterly profits, driven heavily by strong global sales of the company's handheld DS console. The Japanese game maker also stood by its forecast for record setting annual earnings. The Wii console is still also on track to sell 6 million units by March. The company didn't change its latest net profit forecast of ¥120 billion ($990.5 million) for the year to March.
Nintendo's strategy of attracting women, the elderly and casual gamers with the DS handheld console seems to have worked superbly; helped with successful titles such as Nintendogs and the Brain Training games. The strong figures were expected as Nintendo previously raised its outlook for the year to March three times.
"Numbers were really strong, but there was little surprise after the upward revision the other day,"Daiwa Institute of Research analyst Eiji Maeda said. "Going forward, its share price will be susceptible to new software titles for the Wii and foreign exchange fluctuations, both of which could affect full-year results."
Nintendo expects to see the success only continue to grow with considerable demand for the Wii console remaining in all its territories.
The pressure continues to pile up on Apple Computer Inc. over its use of Digital Rights Management (DRM) software that effectively ties music bought from the iTunes music store with the company's iPod brand of MP3 players. The Norwegian consumer ombudsman has given Apple a warning to open access to music downloads the company offers by October 1st or face legal consequences.
Last June, the Norwegian ombudsman said that iTunes violated the law by forcing its customers to play their legal music downloads on its iPods. The decision prompted other European countries to review the situation. "They must make iTunes music compatible with other players than the iPod by the end of September, or we will take them to court," the ombudsman, Bjoern Erik Thon, told Reuters.
"iTunes is imposing unreasonable and unbalanced restrictions that are not in accordance with Norwegian law," he added. He said the courts could impose fines on iTunes until the service offers downloads that are compatible with rival devices. The case would initially be handled by Norway's Market Council, and if appealed, would move on to ordinary courts.
In a bid to help prepare consumers for the digital transition effort in the United States, some top House Republicans want to put Government warning labels on Analog TVs. Unlikethe many Government health warnings you can find on products, this warning would read "This TV has only an analog broadcast tuner and will require a converter box after Feb. 17, 2009, to receive over-the-air broadcasts."
U.S. Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, the ranking Republican on the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, and U.S. Reps. Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., and Fred Upton, R-Mich, who also sit on the Energy and Commerce Committee have introduced the idea in the form of legislation. The legislation also requires cable and satellite service providers to notify customers on bills about the upcoming digital transition.
Broadcasters would also have to file regular reports detailing their consumer education efforts and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) would be required to create a consumer outreach effort and also file regular updates about how many consumers had redeemed coupons for converter boxes.
The National Association of Broadcasters has endorsed the legislation. "As we draw nearer to February 2009, we welcome all pro-consumer initiatives designed to positively educate America on the transition from analog to digital television," said Dennis Wharton, NAB Executive VP of media relations.
20th Century Fox has issued Google's YouTube service with a subpoena to hand over details on the (now suspended) user "ECOtotal". The company is pursuing this YouTube user for uploading full versions of recent episodes of The Simpsons and 24. Using the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), Fox was granted the subpoena by the US District Court for the Northern District of California.
A specific episode of 24 in question actually appeared on YouTube in advance of its 14 January premiere on the Fox broadcast network. "The uploaded material could cause Fox irreparable harm," Fox Entertainment Group vice-president Jane Sunderland has in her testimony. A YouTube spokesperson declined to comment to Reuters on the situation.
According to a report issued on Wednesday, the majority of Americans don't regard illegal movie downloading and sharing as a serious offense. The Digital Life America survey from Toronto-based Solutions Research Group polled 2,600 Americans between June and late September, and found that about 40% believed that illegal movie downloading was a "very serious offense".
Compare that 40%, to the 79% who believed that stealing a retail DVD from a video store is a very serious offense. A majority 59% considered "parking in a fire lane" a more serious offense than movie downloading. "There is a Robin Hood effect. Most people perceive celebrities and studios to be rich already and as a result don't think of movie downloading as a big deal," said Kaan Yigit, study director at Solutions Research Group.
Yigit warned that in order to challenge Internet piracy, online download-to-burn services and new companies entering the market will need to be more flexible in first-run and catalog content offerings and pricing. "Otherwise file-sharing will continue to thrive," he said.
A federal judge has dismissed the antitrust claims made by Morpheus owner StreamCast Networks against more than a dozen defendants. Among those listed is the eBay-owned Skype service. StreamCast claims that the founders of Skype (and original founders of Kazaa) broke an agreement to give StreamCast the right of first refusal for the technology behind Skype's VoIP service. StreamCast demanded over $4.1 billion and a court order to stop eBay from selling Skype services.
U.S. District Court Judge Florence-Marie Cooper concluded however, that StreamCast failed to make its case for relief under federal antitrust laws and dismissed all claims against Skype, eBay and the rest of the named defendants. Matthew A. Neco, StreamCast's general counsel, said the company will either appeal the ruling or seek to pursue claims in state court.
"This case is far from over," he said. StreamCast accuses the founders of Kazaa of taking the phone technology with them after they sold the P2P service, going on to "wrongfully profit from its use."
Online music download store eMusic has revealed it has reached 250,000 subscribers. The store sells DRM-free MP3 downloads from Independent labels all over the world. It has more than 2 million songs currently on offer, many of which are available with included Digital Rights Management (DRM) copy protection from stores like iTunes. eMusic offers subscription packages that differ somewhat from those offered by Napster and similar.
While Napster will allow a customer to download as many tracks as they want and play them as long as they keep paying their subscription fee, eMusic offers packages that have a limited number of downloads that can be made during the month. Of course, once you stop paying the monthly fee, you don't lose access to your downloads like you do with Napster's service.
In December, eMusic announced that it had sold its millionth download.
Apple Computer Inc. has patched a flaw in Quicktime that could be exploited by an attacker to run arbitrary code on a machine. The bug was discovered by a group of researchers who were investigating the Macintosh operating system and some third party software titles for it as part of the "Month of Apple Bugs" program. A total of 31 discovered vulnerabilities will be announced as a result.
This specific bug in QuickTime could be exploited using a specially crafted web page to cause a buffer overflow vulnerability in order to execute the arbitrary code. So far this is only issue patched by Apple itself. The fix prevents the Quicktime software from launching a malicious RTSP URL by performing additional validation.
A UK company has filed a lawsuit against Apple Computer Inc. over the click-wheel technology used in the infamous iPod models. Quantum Research Group accuses Apple of infringing on its patents. "Some are based on Cypress' PSoC chip and used in a way we believe infringes our patent," Quantum Research Group CEO Hal Philipp told Electronics Weekly. The lawsuit was actually filed in December 2005 but has only reached the media recently.
Of course, Apple has responded to the lawsuit claiming the company did not infringe on any patents and also filed a countersuit against Quantum for noninfringement. Philipp told Electronics Weekly that there has been some talk about a settlement but that he believes the case will go to trial sometimes in 2007.
Following the previous release of the BackupHDDVD tool that can be used to extract unencrypted files from HD DVD discs if you have the appropriate keys for the AACS protection, hacker muslix64 has managed to do the same for Blu-ray. He has revealed the Alpha version of BackupBluray, basically the same thing for Blu-ray as BackupHDDVD is for HD DVD.
This release is not for everyone! This is only for those who wants to experiment with early version of Blu-ray decryption.
Known limitations:
Don't support BD+
Don't support Volume unique key
Only support one CPS unit key per disc
I don't clear the HDMV_copy_control_descriptor in the stream
Don't have any FAQ or document so far...
You have to provide your own CPS unit key.
The playback seems to work with VideoLan
Because I don't have any Blu-ray equipment, I will need the help of the community to go further with Blu-ray decryption.
I have only test this with one video file...
Stay tuned!
As was mentioned, this does not support BD+, which is an extra layer of protection unique to Blu-ray. Nevertheless, this is yet another excellent accomplishment for muslix64.
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Sony has confirmed that the PlayStation 3 (PS3) console will finally launch in Europe on the previously speculated March 23rd date. Only the 60GB version of the console will be available at launch while the 20GB version will become available later on. The console went on sale in both North America and Japan in the fourth quarter of 2006. Production problems mostly related to the included Blu-ray technology delayed the console's launch in Europe at the time.
The PS3 will enter the next generation console war in Europe behind the competition, Microsoft and Nintendo. The Xbox 360 console has sold over 10 million units since its launch in late 2005, and the Wii console had a strong launch in Europe, selling more than 700,000 units. The 60GB version of the PS3 will cost €599 for most of the territory.
Europe had been picked as the territory to delay launching because Sony believes it is the most complex market for distribution. "Sony felt it was better to delay in one market rather than risk failure in three markets and ending up disappointing everybody,"Phil Harrison, head of worldwide studios at Sony Computer Entertainment Europe.
The hybrid Blu-ray / HD DVD stand-alone player shown by LG Electronics at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), does not sport the official HD DVD logo alongside the Blu-ray logo. Unfortunately, while the player can play back content from HD DVD discs, it does not support the HDi (formerly known as iHD) interactivity layer that is used mainly for menu purposes on HD DVD titles.
The BH100 player was touted as being compatible with both next generation formats at CES, making the transition to high definition much easier for the average consumer. However, without the support for HDi, some users will see the HD DVD capabilities of the format as crippled. Apparently, the player will access HD DVD titles and create an "on the fly" menu for users.
Additionally, Betanews cites a source as saying the reasoning for not allowing the official HD DVD logo to be shown on the LG player expands beyond the lack of support for HDi. To be approved for a HD DVD logo, a player must also have a network connection for so-called "networked community scenarios" support for persistent storage features such as saving bookmarked scenes from a video, or downloading a trailer; and a secondary decoder for picture-in-picture (PIP) support.
Microsoft Corp. has defended the included Digital Rights Management (DRM) software on the Windows Vista operating system. In particular, the copy protection built in for high definition content has received criticism from experts. Vista has the ability to downgrade the video quality and the audio quality of content if the hardware does not have required copy protection technology in place.
Specifically this means that a user with a video card that contains a DVI or component output and no High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP) may receive downgraded quality while trying to play back content from HD DVD or Blu-ray Disc titles. Microsoft has insisted that the DRM in place would only be put into effect on "premium content".
Peter Gutmann, a computer science lecturer at the University of Auckland, recently referred to Vista as "broken by design" and intentionally crippled the way it displayed video. He he described Vista's Content Protection specification as "the longest suicide note" in history. "The sheer obnoxiousness of Vista's content protection may end up being the biggest incentive to piracy yet created," he wrote.
Google Inc. is always looking for ways to expand on its successful advertising business. It's Adsense program is the advertising choice of all different types of websites, and with tests currently being run on video advertisements for websites powered by Adsense, it is clear that web giant wants to stay on top of the game. It appears that Google may be choosing in-game advertising as its newest venture.
The Wall Street Journal has reported that Google is close to acquiring Adscape Media Inc., a company that sells software that delivers ads through video games. While Google didn't comment on the report, it said the company is "always considering new ways to extend Google's advertising program to benefit our users, advertisers and publishers," and that "in-game advertising offers one such possible extension among many others."
Last year, Microsoft purchased Massive, an in-game advertising company, in a $200 million deal. Adscape chairman, Bernard Stolar, is not new to the videogame industry having worked with Sony, Sega and Atari in the past. His company is already working with major publishers to integrate ads into videogames.
Apple Computer Inc. has reported a 78% increase in profits for the 3 months to December 30th, helped extensively by strong sales of the iPod music player over Christmas. The company revealed its net profit for its fiscal first quarter rose to a record $1bn (£508m) from $565m a year earlier. Additionally, firm said its revenues rose to $7.1bn from $5.8bn compared with the year before.
Apple sold 21 million iPods (a 50% growth from the previous year) and 1.6 million computers (a 28% growth from the previous year). Shares in the firm rose 5% in after hours trading in New York following the release of the results. The results were way ahead of market expectations. "This one was for the record books," Apple's chief financial officer Peter Oppenheimer said.
Google Inc. is testing out its video advertising program with content provided by Sony BMG and Warner Music Group. The company has long had plans to offer video advertising to webmasters through the Google AdSense program. The advertisements would be billed on a cost per thousand impressions (CPM) model as opposed to a "pay per click" model you regularly see with text ads provided by Google.
"Over the past few months, we have run tests to figure out how we work with our partners and advertisers to combine high quality video content with ads and then distribute them (over) the Google AdSense network," the company said in statement. A limited number of select sites have been chosen for the latest tests.
Previously Google performed a public trial of its video advertising service with Viacom's MTV Networks, which provided music videos to run on a select number of Web sites running Google ads. A website owner will be able to select a "channel" of similar videos to display as ads on his/her website that will get optimal attention from visitors.
BitBurners.com has put its new MediaBase service into Public Alpha testing mode ahead of its launch. The new feature, which is still under development, aims to create a robust, reliable database of writable DVD media quality scans. For now, the service allows you to view and submit scans (using Nero CD-DVD Speed) of recordable DVD media, but as suitable tools are launched it will add support for next generation formats.
The principle of the MediaBase is simple: Users can submit their Nero CD-DVD Speed quality scanning data, provide their subjective rating for the media (0-5 stars) and write a brief textual comment/review. As more data is collected, the database will start to have statistical validity and they will be able to produce very interesting quality statistics and information about the DVD recordable media on the market.
For now, the service is suitable for the more advanced power users of DVD recorders and software, but of course, searching for scans is very easy. Media quality scans are important to track the highest quality media available on the market and to help users avoid wasting their money on garbage media that would be better used as a frisbie.
Microsoft Corp. has hinted that its Zune player ands services could be available in Europe by the end of 2007. The company claims it is happy with the sales of the Zune so far in the United States, saying Zune has 10.2% market share "in the 30 gigabyte category". Marketing Director, Jason Reindorp, told Reuters that Microsoft was realistic about the competition it faces in the iPod-dominated market.
"You couldn't get a more entrenched competitor," he said at the annual music industry Midem Net conference in France. "But we feel really good about the first steps that we've taken." He revealed that Microsoft was still not ready to announce any official launch plans for Europe, but that it could be out by the end of the year.
"The industry moves in this sort of Christmas to Christmas cycle. So you can expect that there will be more devices, more features in the market at that point," he said. "Our next round of introductions will probably be in time for the holiday of this year." Reindorp said the company planned research with focus groups in Europe to see how the device could be modified to better suit a European consumer.
Independent labels around the world have revealed they want to become the "fifth major" in the music industry by forming a new agency called Merlin. Independent record labels are responsible for 80% of all new releases, but only 30% of the revenues. Using Merlin, many Independent labels will be able to cut deals with download stores and mobile services on their behalf.
This will make it much easier for Indie labels to offer their content to consumers through sites such as MySpace. Downloads will be in the MP3 format and will play back with any MP3-compatible portable player. Universal Music Group, Sony BMG, EMI and Warner Music are known as the four major record labels; Merlin revealed on Saturday that it will now act as the fifth major.
In a statement Merlin said it aims to "improve access and level the playing field with new and emerging media." Download stores will gain access to its members content through just one deal, compared to the thousands of separate negotiations that would otherwise take place.
The Finnish and Norwegian Consumer Ombudsmen along with French and German consumer organizations have demanded that the iTunes music store contract terms be altered to become more "consumer friendly". A letter has been sent to Apple from each country containing several requests. Once again, the "iPod-iTunes" tie is criticized for not giving consumers the option to play iTunes downloads on more players.
The group pushing Apple to offer consumers a fair deal believes that any contract terms that prevent users from playing their legally purchased music on more than one type of player should be removed. For now, the organizations recommend that consumer be allowed to rip CDs burned from iTunes downloads to DRM-free audio files that can be played with a variety of consumer electronics devices.
The mentioned method is already used by many iTunes customers regardless of whether it might be legal or not in the users' territory. As an official change of policy from Apple however, this could only serve as a temporary solution and the organizations have suggested that the company devise another solution and that development takes place by September 2007.
iTunes must also change its contract terms, losing the right to modify rules for using the service unilaterally. The company cannot modify existing contracts whenever and however it wants. iTunes must also change its terms so that the risk of damage to music files or of damage caused by them is divided more fairly between the company and the customer.
The €599 price for the 60GB version of the PS3 console in Europe does not apply to both the UK and Ireland. In the UK, retailer sources have confirmed that the 60GB version of the console (20GB version is not expected to be available at launch) will cost about £425 (about €647 / US$838). Sony UK boss Ray Maguire previously stated that the UK price was a "bargain".
A retail source suggested to GamesIndustry.biz that the higher price point has not been driven by Sony at all, but by the major retailers. Not too far away, in Ireland, the price is also higher than in the rest of Europe. The 60GB version of the console will cost Irish gamers €629.99, a difference that Sony blames on VAT rates in the country.
Sony is expected to confirm the UK price along with the speculated March 23rd European launch date in an official announcement next week.
Netflix is set to start offering streaming movies to its subscribers over the Internet. The company will launch a service soon that will initially include 1,000 titles and will be free to use (with some limits) to subscribers of its DVD rental service. Instead of having a maximum number of movies to watch, the service will have a cap on the hours of content watched per month.
For subscribers paying $5.99 per month for example, 6 hours of video can be streamed in a month. For those with the more popular $17.99 per month plan, 18 hours of video content can be streamed. Streaming the movies keeps content providers feeling safe and not having to worry about full file downloads being cracked.
In order to use the service, an Internet connection of at least 1MB/s is required (3MB/s to stream video in its native resolution). There are no plans yet to offer HD content through such a service. Netflix claims that one browser applet download will allow customers to begin watching movies within 15 seconds of pressing play.
"While mainstream consumer adoption of online movie watching will take a number of years due to content and technology hurdles, the time is right for Netflix to take the first step," Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said. "Over the coming years we'll expand our selection of films, and we'll work to get to every Internet-connected screen, from cell phones to PCs to plasma screens."
Nero, the company behind the world-famous Nero Burning Rom suite, has announced its SecurDisc data protection technology. The company has called it the first solution for the access control and performance reliability of data stored on optical media that allows it to be distributed and shared securely. The technology provides several layers of data protection to users.
SecurDisc prohibits unauthorized access to data through password protection, detects altered data on authored media through checksum verification, increases performance and reliability through redundantly stored data and authenticates the origin of data through digital signature verification.
"SecurDisc is a breakthrough in that it provides the first secure means to use optical disc media for the sharing of confidential data," said Udo Eberlein, COO of Nero AG. "We envision this new flexibility and security for data distribution to be of immediate interest to many companies, organizations and individuals. It also provides us with another powerful means to create additional partnerships in the digital media space."
SecurDisc supports CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R, DVD-R DL, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+R DL, DVD+RW, and DVD-RAM media, and is supported by the Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Vista operating systems. The benefits of this technology are realized with CD and DVD media authored via SecurDisc-certified devices and carry the SecurDisc logo.
Microsoft Corp. sold 92,000 HD DVD add-on drives for the Xbox 360 console in 2006 according to figures released by the NPD Group. This figure is, of course, much lower than the 687,300 PlayStation 3 (PS3) consoles sold, each including their own Blu-ray player. However, the 92,000 HD DVD drives sold were bought for the sole purpose of playing HD DVD movies, whereas Blu-ray drives are included in every PS3.
The figure was made up with 42,000 sales in November, and 50,000 sold in December. The figure shows that only 2% of Xbox 360 owners showed enough interest in high definition movies to buy the HD DVD add-on, but it is impossible to know how many PS3 owners bought the console with the Blu-ray player being what they were most interested in.
According to analyst Nomura Securities, Sony will miss its sales target of 6 million PS3 consoles by the end of March 2007 by 25%. This would lower the total sales to 4.5 million by the end of the Sony's fiscal year. The analyst blames poor sales of the console over the holiday period (caused by several supply problems) for the new predictions.
To emphasize how it believes this will affect sales in the long-term the analyst also gave predictions for the year ending March 2008, with a reduction from the predicted 16 million figure to 10 million. Then to go one year further to the year ending March 2009, it predicts a reduction from the 18 million figure to 11 million.
Sony has shipped over 1 million PS3 consoles to the North American market and according to NPD, has sold 687,000 of those units in the region. The PS3 console is expected to launch in Europe in March 23rd.
As many of you may have already noticed, rips of HD DVD movies have started to appear on several BitTorrent trackers and on Usenet. Not to be confused with the constant flow of available HD movies, these rips come right from the HD DVD retail discs after the AACS has been stripped away by a recent hack, and are not captures from HDTV broadcasts.
The "EVO" files which hold the content can reportedly be played back with software like CyberLink's PowerDVD Ultra. The entire rips could be up to 30GB in size (the max storage a dual layer HD DVD disc provides), so widescale downloading will probably not occur for some time yet.
Among the titles available for download are the hits Batman Begins and Superman Returns, both showing high quality VC-1 video in 1080p.
Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom, founders of the Skype Internet telephony service and the original founders of Kazaa before it was acquired by Sharman Networks, have unveiled yet another creation. This time, the two have launched their new Internet TV service, Joost. Originally dubbed "The Venice Project", it bills itself as the first free global TV distribution platform.
"People are looking for increased choice and flexibility in their TV experience, while the entertainment industry needs to retain control over their content," said Joost Chief Executive Fredrik de Wahl. The number of channels that will be available on the service has not been revealed.
Friis and Zennstrom invested money they both received from eBay after the sale of Skype in the new service.
A report shown on Tuesday showed that more than half a group of surveyed stores in the United States had Sony's PlayStation 3 (PS3) console in stock. "Our channel checks yesterday of 52 retail stores, from boutiques to big-box retailers, showed that 28 of the 52 stores had PS3 consoles in stock, while none had Wii consoles in stock,"American Technology Research analyst Paul-Jon McNealy said in the research note.
He noted that most of the stores had just 1 digit figures of stocks while only one had more than 60 units on offer. With supply shortages of the console lasting since its mid-November launch, many have interpreted the available stocks as being a sign of slowing demand for the console.
However, Sony spokesman Dave Karraker dismissed this belief by claiming that the company is airlifting more than 100,000 units to North America weekly. "It isn't because demand has weakened, it is because we have kept the supply pipeline moving," he said.
Nintendo was very fortunate over the holiday period in the UK, managing to sell over 200,000 Wii consoles and over half a million DS handheld consoles. The company cited Chart-Track figures in its announcement. Across Europe, unlucky gamers looking for a Wii found mostly empty shelves as 700,000 units were quickly purchased.
After its launch in Europe on December 8th, the Wii console became the fastest selling gaming console ever during its opening weekend. As for the games, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess topped the chart for the console with over 500,000 copies being sold, meaning that 70% of new Wii owners bought the title.
Also with the DS selling more than 500,000 units over the month of December in the UK, Nintendo insisted that it was not only the biggest selling console over the Christmas period, but in the entire of the year 2006. The DS sold 1.7 million units across Europe in December.
"We have enjoyed one of the most successful Christmas holidays ever, with both Nintendo DS and Wii selling at staggering rates," said Nintendo Europe marketing director Laurent Fischer. "We are facing such high demand for both platforms that unfortunately we are facing stock shortages. However we are doing everything possible to combat this by attempting to deliver both consoles and games to retailers on a daily basis."
According to Japanese website Nikkei.net, Sanyo has developed a blue laser diode which will pave the way for more acceptable writing speeds for both the HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc formats. The diode, which is fully compatible with both formats, will speed up data access on the discs and will be able to provide burn speeds of "up to 6x on dual-layer discs".
This would be a great improvement over the current available burners for both formats. While it is possible, there are no hints to whether this diode will be used anytime soon to produce a hybrid HD DVD / Blu-ray Disc burner. A 6x burner for dual layer discs is a big step in the right direction either way.
Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) has issued a statement apologizing for the mix-up which led to the company incorrectly claiming it won an Emmy for the Sixaxis controller technology. The company instead was awarded the Technology and Engineering trophy for the design of the DualShock controller. The company blames the error on a "miscommunication".
The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences had contradicted the earlier report from Sony. "I would like to confirm that Sony did not win for their PS3 controller, they won for their Dual Shock analog controller." a spokesperson said at the time.
"In a press release dated January 8, 2007, SCEA announced we had been recognized by NATAS with a Technology and Engineering Emmy Award for the Sixaxis wireless controller." A Sony statement reads. "Due to miscommunication between the two organisations, this information was incorrectly reported."
The company goes on to confirm its win for the DualShock technology and apologizes for the confusion it caused.
According to Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA), 2006 was a record setting year for the UK games industry. There was a 7% increase in the number of games sold, bringing the total figure to 65.1 million titles. All-format sales reach £1.36 billion, a new record according to ELSPA and a rise of 1% over 2005.
The majority of games sold for consoles were for the PlayStation 2, followed by Xbox 360, Xbox, Wii and GameCube. PC games also had a terrific year, with software sales up 7% making it the best year for the platform. Handheld sales also did very well, with titles sold for the PlayStation Portable (PSP) and Nintendo DS just trailing the PS2 figures.
The sales of DS games just slightly finished higher than those for the PSP. "We are thrilled to see the industry growing and software sales continuing to rise," said ELSPA director general Paul Jackson.
"With the new generation consoles and new handhelds there are some amazing titles out there and consumers are continuing to enjoy them. There are new and exciting games available and more and more family orientated and mentally stimulating titles to grasp and hold the interest of all ages. This is also a testament to the industry and it will continue to gain momentum." he added.
Following a very successful launch of the Wii console, Nintendo has raised forecasts for its full-year profits by 20% to ¥120 billion (€774.9 million), for the year ending March 31st 2007. The forecast that 6 million Wii's will have been sold by March has not been changed. Nintendo expects sales of the DS handheld console to rise to 23 million units, roughly a 15% increase.
Software sales targets have also been pushed up to 21 million games for the Wii consoles (previously 17 million) and up to 100 million sold for the DS. Nintendo now expects a total of ¥900 billion (€5.8 billion) in sales this year, compared to a previous forecast of ¥509 billion.
While Microsoft's Zune provided little or no challenge to Apple's iPod in the portable music player market over the holidays, it was revealed at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) that gaming content will be available for Zune within the next 18 months. This means the Zune will be used as Microsoft's first serious entry into the market for portable gaming, currently dominated by Nintendo and Sony.
Peter Moore, the head of Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business division, which includes the Xbox and Xbox 360 game consoles, made the announcement. The large screen featured on the first released versions of the Zune music player is ideal for gaming. The device also has wireless compatibility, allowing users to share music with some limits.
However, since the current generation of Zunes do not have support for the type of graphics applications in the Nintendo DS or Some PlayStation Portable (PSP) systems, we can expect to see the gaming capabilities only added in newer versions of the Zune released over the next 18 months.
According to Japanese magazine publisher Enterbrain, Nintendo's Wii console is close to 1 million units sold (or has reached it by now) in the territory. According to Enterbrain's survey, which covered 3500 stores, the Wii managed to sell a strong 989,118 units between console launch on December 2nd and January 7th. The company compared the figures against those for the PS3, which has suffered from stock shortages.
An estimated 466,716 PS3 units have been sold in Japan since the PS3 launched on November 11th. Enterbrain had no statistics for the Xbox 360's performance in the territory, but Microsoft has struggled to secure a firm foothold in Japan (however, stats from Media Create shows that the release of the platform exclusive Blue Dragon boosted the console's sales).
The Xbox 360 has managed to move over 10.4 million consoles since its early launch, but with the production of PS3 units picking up, and Nintendo managing to keep up demand for the Wii, the freedom that Microsoft felt during 2006 has quickly turned to tough competition.
Hi Guys! AfterDawn.com gave me (Dela) permission to ask for you to participate in voting for an Irish "hope for 2007" award. The award is given out at an annual award show in Ireland. It recognizes several new talented acts and lets the public decide which one should get the "hope" award for the next year. Acts that are given this award, will generally go on to do very well.
This year the nominees are The Blizzards, Delorentos, Electric Penguins, The Immediate, Luan Parle and Royseven. Royseven is a band I like a lot both because their debut album is incredible and because the guys themselves are really a great bunch. They have been pushing themselves hard to promote their work; if they get this award, they most definitely deserve it.
CLICK HERE TO VOTE - You can vote for any of the bands here, I am asking that you check Royseven out and give them your vote before Friday at 6pm (GMT) when voting finishes. Obviously I don't expect that you vote "blindly", so here's some music samples I could dig up on the net.
UPDATE: It's past 6pm so I guess voting is closed, if it still accepts votes, go ahead and vote, you never know ;-)
President and Group Chief Operating Officer of Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc, Kaz Hirai, has reaffirmed the company's belief that the PlayStation 3 (PS3) console is not matched in performance by any other gaming console. "I have heard many people say our competitors' systems are just as powerful as the PS3. That simply is not true. No other next generation entertainment system pushes the envelope on advanced technology like PS3." he told Blu-ray Today.
The Sony boss, who was ranked by Entertainment Weekly as one of the most powerful executives in the entertainment industry, did however admit that packing so much advanced technology into the machine has caused problems for the company, leading to launch delays and stock shortages.
"I don't think anyone could have foreseen the difficulties we encountered in the production of the blue laser diode for the PlayStation 3, which ultimately delayed the launch of PlayStation 3," Hirai said. "We were asking our teams to develop millions of components for the PlayStation 3, like the Blu-Ray disc player and cell broadband engine, that had previously only been produced in the thousands."
Microsoft Corp. has further strengthened its content offerings through the Xbox Live Video Marketplace by signing a deal with Lionsgate. The movie studio which offers titles such as Blair Witch Project, Crank, Saw III and Hard Candy will offer content in high definition through the service. Existing partners such as MTV Networks, Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros. have all benefited greatly from the service since launch.
"This partnership is great for Lionsgate. The Xbox gamer is the same moviegoer who wants to watch Saw III or Crank," commented Jon Ferro, executive vice president for Lionsgate. "That is why we are so thrilled to bring Lionsgate films to Xbox Live Video Marketplace. Bringing our content to this audience makes perfect sense and reflects our commitment to remain at the cutting edge of content distribution to new media platforms,"
One of the most appealing benefits from the Xbox Live service is it delivers content through the Internet, but unlike other services, the downloads are ready for display on any TV set immediately with no preparation or "in between" device necessary. "Bringing our content to the coveted gaming audience on the Xbox 360 has been a huge success and has exceeded our expectations," said Andrew Mellet, VP of video on demand for Warner Bros.
Motorola Inc. announced on Monday that it is set to include Microsoft's Windows Media Digital Rights Management (DRM) software on upcoming multimedia phones. The announcement was made at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), during Chief Executive Ed Zander's keynote speech. Supporting Windows MediaDRM opens up Motorola phones to music from many online music download stores.
Mobile phones with music playback capabilities have yet to enter the same "spotlight" as items such as items such as Apple's iPod. However, Finnish mobile phone giant Nokia revealed that last year the company sold almost 40 million multimedia phones in total and nearly 70 million music phones.
We reported yesterday about how Boris Johnson, an outspoken Tory MP, had blasted videogames and placed the blame for falling literacy rates in youths almost completely on them. Paul Jackson of the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA), has responded to the criticism, saying that while he respects Johnson's opinions, he fears the MP is "painting his picture with too broad a brush".
"The games industry is often a scapegoat for many problems society encounters with youths. But instead of placing blame where it should not lie, we need to educate parents and carers of the 21st Century child," he said. He continued to say games are a "great source of education in their own right" and gave examples such as how the Civilization and Total War series offer historical lessons.
As another example, he pointed out Nintendo's Brain Training game for the Nintendo DS handheld saying it provides "mental stimulation, memory and reaction improvement, and entertainment and enjoyment in equal doses". He also denied that games lead children to become speechless, motionless "blinking lizards". "A large quantity of games that children play require a huge amount of movement and social interaction," he said.
Sony Computer Entertainment America has confirmed that in the six weeks following the launch of the PlayStation 3 (PS3) console, over 1 million units were shipped to North America. The company did not give any figures for the number of units actually sold to consumers but did deny claims that there is a surplus of stock available in stores in some areas saying the "PS3 has been selling out at retail outlets across North America".
According to the company, it is this demand that helped the PS3 hit the 1 million milestone in less time than both the PlayStation and PlayStation 2 consoles. "SCEA went to great lengths to help meet demand for PS3, including airlifting systems into North America on a weekly basis to ensure a steady stream of units were available to consumers throughout the holiday season," said SCEA boss Jack Tretton.
"The fact that we were able to reach the one-million mark faster than our top-selling platform, PS2, further validates the strength of the PlayStation brand and our belief that consumers are ready to experience true high-definition gaming." he added. The number of units shipped to Japan is still unknown.
Samsung Electronics will soon offer a plasma TV that swaps data wirelessly with set-top boxes and PCs. At this year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the focus is on wireless technology more than ever. Bridging the gap between PC equipment and TV sets is the focus of many new products from giants like Apple and Microsoft, which will rely on wireless technology to transmit data.
Samsung chose the 802.11n wireless standard, but didn't rule out adopting other standards based on HDMI or 802.11a or even powerline networking. The company will also offer new 120hz LCD TVs, putting the emphasis on crisper and smoother picture.
Pioneer Corp. has announced plans to launch a new high definition plasma TV this summer. The company has described it as being the most advanced plasma high definition television. It promises richer colors, deeper shades of black and better contrast than predecessors. Pioneer will launch the product this summer to compete with products from Samsung, LG Electronics and Hitachi.
"We have to find our own balance and not simply follow the competition,"Katsunobu Shioda, general manager of Pioneer's home entertainment business group, told Reuters at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). Pioneer admitted that the new product will cost more than its predecessors but claims the quality will make up for it.
Pricing information and what sizes the new display will be available in will be announced in May.
Boris Johnson, an outspoken Tory MP has once again managed to pick the right topic to draw optimal attention to himself. The man, who once referred to U.S. President George W. Bush as "a cross-eyed Texan warmonger" and Tony Blair as "a mixture of Harry Houdini and a greased piglet", has picked a new topic for headlines; videogames. He says it is time to "garotte the Game Boy and paralyze the PlayStation".
Specifically, he is blaming video games for falling literacy rates among today's youths. "Millions of seven to 15 year olds are hooked, especially boys, and it is time someone had the guts to stand up, cross the room and just say no to Nintendo," he said. "It is about time, as a society, that we admitted the catastrophic effect these blasted gizmos are having on the literacy and the prospects of young males."
He cites falling interest in reading among children and the numbers of students in University without adequate writing skills. "I refuse to believe that these hypnotic little machines are innocent," he said. He went on to mention figures that put Britain as having the highest number of computer games per household, and that 89% of homes with children have a gaming console.
Sling Media is also going to fight to get its products into consumer living rooms to bridge the gap between the PC and Television set. At CES, the company will show off a nifty and affordable device called the SlingCatcher (may not be final name) which is slated to hit shelves sometime in the summer. The device, which will cost less than $200 will rival products from giants like Microsoft and Apple.
The SlingCatcher sports all the needed connectivity; Component Video, S-Video, HDMI, Ethernet and some USB ports. It includes an (optional) hard disk drive and uses WiFi to stream content from a source PC. An interesting factor for this device is there are no needed file conversions before sending the data to your TV since it literally just relays whatever is displayed on your monitor.
"It works completely independent of how the media was encoded,"Jamie Odell, Sling's VP of product marketing told GigaOM, "so you don’t have to worry about what file format it is." More details on this product will be revealed tonight at a press conference in Las Vegas.
At a keynote speech at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Microsoft's Bill Gates and Robbie Bach are expected to confirm that the console has reached over 10 million units sold and speak about IPTV functionality. The Xbox 360 being able to serve as a set-top box for Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) would be neat. Microsoft's own video download store has gotten praise for its performance so far, especially with HD content.
Not many details are available about the announcement just yet but the functionality is set to appear sometime later this year. Also, apparently no customers would be "left behind", meaning all Xbox 360 consoles out will be able to participate in the service at some level.
The recently released Blu-ray title, The Descent, is reportedly causing big playback issues with some early Blu-ray Disc players. Apparently, the cause is that some of the first Blu-ray Disc players don't support the BD-Java environment, which is used for interactivity features on Blu-ray titles. The movie is reported to give a black screen on some of the players.
The Sony BDP-S1 player and Pioneer's BDP-HD1 are affected the worst by the problem. Sony has promised a firmware update, early this year, to add BD-J support but the Pioneer users are out of luck for now. Samsung's BD-P1000, Panasonic's players and the PlayStation 3 all are reported to play back the disc fine.
Some Samsung players need the latest available firmware installed to overcome glitches.
While both HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc have a layer of copy protection known as Advanced Access Content System (AACS), one company is emphasizing how Blu-ray is safe from BackupHDDVD due to it's extra included Digital Rights Management (DRM). Bit-tech.net has an article up about another layer of protection for Blu-ray, known as BD+.
The article publishes quotes from an email apparently received from Cryptography Research Inc. (CRI), the company responsible for BD+. The company seems to be taking advantage of the reported failure of AACS on HD DVD discs, to emphasize the extra security measures that BD+ offers to those content companies in the Blu-ray camp.
"BD+ is a ground-breaking security technology which is designed to enable HD optical formats to recover from major piracy attacks without revoking players or affecting legitimate users. It is a safe-guard that is only available for studios releasing titles in the Blu-ray disc format. BD+ does not exist for the HD DVD format, and was not compromised in the Muslix64 hack." the email reads.
In the past few years we have seen Apple bring a digital music player to the market, the iPod, which has so far completely held off competition. We've seen mobile music phones emerge but fail to have the same impact thus far. We've also seen video capabilities added to portable devices and the next generation of consoles putting an emphasis on high definition video content.
However, right now, some of the world's largest electronics giants are going to clash over which one can dominate the world's living rooms with their equipment. With services such as iTunes offering TV show and movie downloads, there is a reason to close the gap between PCs and the other consumer electronics equipment in your home.
Apple will soon launch it's "iTV" device which can use a wireless network to stream video content from the iTunes software straight to your television. The iPod maker's arch enemy, Microsoft, is also expected to outline its home media server, code-named "Quattro," at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) next week.
The Xbox 360 console has media extension features built in, but to get the most out of it you need to have Microsoft's Windows Media Center OS installed somewhere in your home and with the operating system's struggle over the past few years, that does limit what the average consumer can get from it.
Verizon Wireless is expected to announce it will begin offering content from major U.S. television networks to mobile phone users. According to the New York Times, citing "people apprised of the deal," the service should be available in the United States around March this year. It is reported to consist of 8 channels and will include content from NBC, CBS, Fox and MTV, with reported interest from ESPN.
Like Apple's TV show sales on iTunes, content would be available to subscribers shortly after it first airs on TV. To offer the service, Verizon is teaming up with Qualcomm subsidiary MediaFLO U.S.A. MediaFLO has developed technology to transmit high resolution video content through its own network.
MediaFLO is also reportedly in talks to offer TV shows through other wireless phone companies. The media companies would receive fees from consumer subscriptions to the service. The programs would be among the first full-length television shows to be offered to cellular subscribers in the United States.
While you don't have to be an expert to know that the more activity you are performing, the more calories you burn, a study has confirmed that armed with the proper activity driven software, video games can be an effective tool to fight obesity in children. Mayo Clinic obesity researcher Lorraine Lanningham-Foster wanted to find out exactly how much energy some games on the market require from children.
"In this day and time, children really love to play video games," Lanningham-Foster told GameSpot. "And even though we might want children to be outside and engaged in more traditional children's play, I don't think that children are going to abandon video games anytime soon...It's important to look at it this way because video gaming may potentially be a better way for obesity researchers to develop better interventions for children."
The research involved a group of 25 children, 10 of which are described as "mildly obese". The children were tested in 5 separate states of activity...
Sitting watching television
Sitting and playing a traditional game (Disney's Extreme Skate Adventure)
Playing activity demanding game (Nicktoons Movin (PS2)
Playing activity demanding game (Dance Dance Revolution Ultramix 2 (Xbox)
Walking on threadmill at 1.5mph while watching television
The study concluded that the children burned the same amount of calories while sitting watching TV and when playing a traditional game. However, playing the Jellyfish Jam game on Nicktoons Movin' tripled the calories burned, with the obese children burning 5 times as many calories as they would sitting watching TV.
Read more...
In co-operation with Carmanah Technologies Corporation, one of the fastest growing renewable and energy-efficient technology manufacturers in the world, NEC has announced a solar-power system that can be used with its LCD monitors. The solar-powered system is designed to produce approximately 293 kilowatt hours of electricity per year, or 800 watts per day.
It appears NEC's main focus to market the product are corporations, selling it as a way to reduce electricity expenses each year. "Working in the LCD display industry is a new project for Carmanah, and we are excited to work with NEC Display Solutions in this joint venture on new energy-saving technologies," said Mark Spilsbury, Account Manager for Carmanah.
Saved solar energy can last for days of normal usage when running a typical LCD monitor. Multiple monitors can be run simultaneously; however, the run time of a battery would vary depending on usage and the number of devices drawing on the power.
"Using solar power not only significantly reduces electricity costs, but it also reduces environmentally harmful emissions," said Richard Atanus, Vice President of Engineering, Technical and Environmental Services for NEC Display Solutions. "Plus, with the batteries having a life expectancy of over 20 years, depending on the number of cycle times, and a panel life of 50 or more years, the investment return is considerable."
Cingular Wireless has announced plans to demo video sharing with mobile phones at next week's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. The new service isn't "video file sharing" as we know it, but instead the ability to send live stream video to other subscribers using compatible handsets. The actual sharing of video content takes place during a phone call.
During a live call, a user can activate a live video stream which allows the other caller to then see what is going on around the caller while he's talking. The audio portion of the call will work through an embedded speak phone. In order to use the service however, Cingular customers will need to have a few things.
Firstly a compatible handset with video sharing enabled is an obviously necessity. Also, since the service operates on Cingular's 3G wireless network, each party will have to be in a 3G coverage area for it to work. This is definitely no groundbreaking service in terms of the limited sharing of video content it allows.
What is interesting though, is how hard will this service hit a network's precious bandwidth. Limited available bandwidth has been holding back video phone capabilities thus far.
With news of the company's upcoming dual-format player to be displayed at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) just fresh, LG is again using the shotgun method to somewhat unify both blue-laser, next generation formats by releasing a Blu-ray writer / HD DVD reader combo. The GGW-H10N drive will playback Blu-ray, HD DVD, DVD & CD discs and can burn to dual layer 50GB BD-R / BD-RE (re-writable) discs.
The burner also doubles the industry's standard rate for 25GB single-layer BD-R recording with 4x speed. It is expected to ship around March in the United States carrying a hefty price tag of about $1,200, which going by today's prices is considered a bargain since all the features are packed in to one drive.
The GGW-H10N is also the first to support "SecurDisc" technology co-developed with Nero. SecurDisc gives users the option to protect their burns with password encryption, digital signature & checksum integrity checker.
Luxpro, a Taiwanese electronics firm that was involved in a legal dispute with Apple over its digital music players, plans to sue Apple for lost revenues. Apple had accused Luxpro of copying its iPod Shuffle model and won an injunction against the company in Taiwan, forcing Luxpro to halt productions. However, after appealing to the Taiwanese High Court and Supreme Court, Luxpro had the ruling overturned.
The change led the way for Luxpro to sue Apple for lost revenue while there was an injunction active against the company. Luxpro marketed a similar sized player to the shuffle, also made of white plastic but the courts in Taiwan found that "the appearances of the two products are significantly dissimilar".
The company has resumed selling its Super Tangent digital players "in Latin America and eastern Europe". According to the Financial Times, chairman Wu Fu-chin revealed that the company plans to take steps to recoup the lost revenue. Apple's iPods are by far the dominating music player, acting as the main driver behind the company's success in recent years.
UPDATE: Luxpro chairman Fu-Ching Wu has revealed in a statement that the company has filed for $100m in damages from the "valuable market opportunities" lost during the injunction.
Microsoft's Zune player did take a decent portion of the HDD-based MP3 player sales at large retail stores but failed to make the Top 10 list according to market researcher Current Analysis. Among the top 10 list were 8 different iPod models and 2 SanDisk models. The firm tracks figures at Best Buy, Circuit City, CompUSA, Staples and RadioShack in its research.
The Zune did capture 12% of the HDD-based player market according to the firm, but it is important to point out that it doesn't track figures from some retail outlets like Wal-Mart or Apple's own stores. "Microsoft did well for a newcomer, but it was competing in a segment that accounted for only one-fifth of all holiday sales," Current Analysis Research Director Samir Bhavnani said.
He applauded Apple's persistence in the market. "It has retained its top spot without having to turn on a subscription-based download service as a new product offering." he said. He also revealed that he does not expect Microsoft to sit back and not attempt to bring the Zune further into the market.
"Looking forward to 2007, I expect to see Microsoft offer a flash-based competitor to SanDisk and the iPod Nano/Shuffle in addition to a less bulky (hard-drive-based) player," Bhavnani said.
Due the appearance, removal and subsequent re-appearance of a celebrity sex video on YouTube, a Brazilian judge has ordered that the site be shut down. Brazilian model Daniela Cicarelli, and her boyfriend Tato Malzoni, are embarrassingly the stars of a sex video that YouTube users persist to re-upload every time the video sharing site removes the video at the couple's request.
Eventually they were driven to a lawsuit contesting that YouTube should be forced offline while the video remains hosted by the service. The judge agreed but since Google, which owns YouTube, operates out of the United States, it is extremely unlikely that the the site will be taken offline for any amount of time.
The only way the ruling would have its desired effect would be if a U.S. court decided to agree and mirror the Brazilian judge's ruling. Brazil, of course could block access to the site in the country but that won't change the fact that the video is still available. The liability of video sharing sites such as YouTube over content uploaded by users is still unclear.
Electronics giant Samsung has revealed the development of a chipset that will allow mobile phones and other mobile devices like PDAs, pick up over-the-air digital transmissions. Samsung claims users would be able to switch between channels with good reception even while traveling at a high speed. The company is set to show off the technology at next week's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.
There are some issues that need to be worked out first for this technology to be usable. Firstly, broadcasters will have to broadcast a separate signal for mobile devices using the Samsung technology. This issue is reportedly being addressed already. This shouldn't be a problem as it opens the door for more ad revenue from the mobile audience.
The harder part will be convincing the cellular carriers to play along. Some carriers have already invested in their own video content services, like Verizon's V-Cast or MobiTV, so mobile phones being able to pick up over-the-air free transmissions probably doesn't sound very desirable even though there should be considerable consumer demand for it.
Samsung's technology does have one notable advantage for cellular networks, it does not use up any of the carrier's bandwidth. Take SlingMedia's SlingPlayer Mobile for example; it can stream video from SlingBox to a Windows Mobile handset, but carriers disapprove of its use and have threatened heavy users with higher prices.
Nintendo's new Wii console is reported to have beaten analyst predictions in the United States. Analyst Lazard Capital, had predicted the console to sell 1.2 million consoles in the U.S. in 2006. Sony is believed to have sold around 700,000 PS3 units in the U.S. in 2006 while the analysts predicts that sales figures for the Xbox 360 in North America will have reached 4.5 million by December 30th.
"Our checks indicate that Nintendo's Wii console continues to sell well, while Sony's PS3 supplies improved somewhat towards the end of the holiday period," said Colin Sebastian of Lazard Capital. The firm also predicted that U.S. software sales will have increase by about 5% over the previous year, "driven by incremental sales for next-generation software and ongoing solid PS2 and DS game sales."
Among the list of best selling titles offered by the analyst are Guitar Hero 2, WWE Smackdown Vs RAW 2007, Gears of War and Legend of Zelda: The Twilight Princess.
Movie rental giant Blockbuster has announced that it has exceeded its target for online rental subscribers in 2006, passing over the 2 million mark. The announcement sent its shares up 6.6%. The company managed to lure a total of 500,000 subscribers since the end of the third quarter.
"These numbers are pretty surprising. Blockbuster not only made the numbers they guided to, but exceeded them and did it in a pretty dramatic fashion,"Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter said. Blockbuster Chief Executive John Antioco touted the "Total Access" plan as being a main part of the success.
The Total Access plan allows customers to return DVD rentals by mail or exchange them in stores for free rentals. Blockbuster is in tough competition with Netflix, which said its subscribers would reach 6 million by year's end.
According to a report on Variety.com, the movie download service for the Xbox 360 is outperforming rival services like Amazon's Unbox service. It appears that consumers prefer ease of use over the broad availability of content offered by retail giant Amazon.
Since the Xbox 360 console is directly connected to TV sets, it leaves out the hassles of having to burn movies and other in-between processes that are necessary with downloaded movies. The availability of high definition copies of movies is even driving customers to download box office flops, with studios reporting a noticeable preference for HD versions of movies.
"If you look at our sales charts, movies like The Perfect Storm, Unforgiven and Swordfish are all doing disproportionately better than you would expect, and the only explanation is that they're available in HD," said Ross Honey, senior director for media at Microsoft's content and partner strategy group.
Warner may be unveiling its hybrid, double sided Blu-ray / HD DVD discs, dubbed Total HD at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) next week in Las Vegas. In an Interview with the New York Times, Warner chief executive and chairman, Barry M. Meyer, explained that the company has created the Total HD discs because while HD DVD and Blu-ray show no signs of going away anytime soon, consumers are still left baffled about the competing formats.
"The next best thing is to recognize that there will be two formats, and to make that not a negative for the consumer," said Meyer. "We [Warner] felt that the most significant constituency for us to satisfy was the consumer first, and the retailer second. The retailer wants to sell hardware and doesn't want to be forced into stocking two formats for everything. This is ideal for them."
The Sony-led Blu-ray camp and the Toshiba-led HD DVD camp failed to merge both formats into one unified next generation format, and now it appears that third party companies are looking to fill the gap. Beside this news about the Total HD discs, LG also plans to show a Blu-ray / HD DVD combo player at CES.
The main problem with many of today's online video download services is the majority lack a burning features, which locks a movie to a PC and whatever display and audio equipment it feeds to. CinemaNow has had a burning option for very few of its titles but there have been reported complaints regarding playback issues. Now the movie studios have approved a new system that uses an old content protection.
Sonic Solutions Inc. will introduce its Qflix system on Thursday which can be used to burn movies bought over the Internet or used with Kiosks. Specifically, the system burns DVDs that are protected with Content Scrambling System (CSS), the same weak scheme used with the majority of retail DVDs to date. Surely there is some other form of content protection included to prevent easy copying.
However, this is still not exactly what consumers are looking for as it is reported that consumers will need "new blank DVDs and compatible DVD burners to use it". I guess it remains to be seen what exactly that means in practice. The company also said that burning a disc using the system will take about 10 or 15 minutes.
Enabling its usage with Kiosks is interesting though; allowing consumers to possibly choose from thousands of movies and TV shows to make custom discs.
Despite reports last September that LG will not be manufacturing a dual player for both competing formats for high definition content, HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc, the company has given a welcome surprise by announcing it will be showing a dual-format player at CES next week after all. A player for both formats has been anticipated by both content providers and consumers alike.
LG did not give many details on the technology used in the player, or how much one will cost. It did say however that the unit is expected to be available in the United States in early 2007 and promised further details will be given at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) being held in Las Vegas January 8th - 11th.
"LG expects this technological breakthrough to end the confusion and inconvenience of competing high-definition disc formats for both content producers and consumers." a press release from the company states.
Macrovision, a company that specializes in mainly Digital Rights Management (DRM) / Content Protection technology, has acquired Mediabolic, a company that develops software for home entertainment networks. The deal is worth $43 million. Macrovision said Mediabolic's entertainment networking technology will boost its content delivery and protection services.
"Mediabolic's software is a strong fit with our roadmap to help content owners transition from the world of physical media to the digital world," Macrovision CEO Fred Amoroso said. Mediabolic develops software that connects televisions and other home entertainment devices to PCs to share multimedia.
In a move believed to be a response to the rumors that Toshiba plans to make some price drops on HD DVD equipment, Samsung has also moved to lower the price of its Blu-ray player, the BD-P1000. With the PS3 available in the United States, stand-alone Blu-ray players will take a hit to the included Blu-ray drive in the PS3 models. Additionally, HD DVD hardware is generally cheaper.
Effective immediately, the MSRP has been cut to $899 from $999, making wholesale prices around $500 - $800. The price drop might not prove very effective in the long term if the rumors about Toshiba's plans are true, but it's still good to see standalone equipment prices falling.
Of course, the price is still too high for the average consumer to be interested in the player.
With the world moving towards high definition video content, Toshiba's Surface-conduction electron-Emitter Display (SED)HDTV technology has caused a massive buzz ever since its prototypes were displayed at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in 2006. IGN called them "easily the finest panel HDTV displays we had ever seen", due to their spectacular display and the promise the technology holds.
SED was created by both Toshiba and Canon in partnership, and works by using individual electron emitters for every color in every pixel. That amounts to a whopping 6,220,800 electron emitters in the prototype displays. Toshiba touts a contrast ratio of 100,000:1, towering over the 3,000:1 common with today's LCD and plasma displays.
After its appearance at CES in 2006, Toshiba revealed that the displays would not launch by the end of the year as had been speculated, but was more in line for a Q4 2007 launch. The prototype displays failed to make a return at CEDIA 2006. However, Toshiba and Canon revealed plans for a $1.5 billion manufacturing plant in Hyogo Prefecture, Japan, which led to speculation that production could begin in 2006.
It is being reported that due to some software issues, Apple's new iTV device launch will have to wait for some weeks after the Macworld Expo. Apple CEO Steve Jobs is expected to have a lot to say about the new streaming media device, which the company hopes will push Apple further into your living room. Sources close to Apple say that the device is now expected to launch either in late January or early February so some operating system issues can be worked out.
Taking time to fine tune the Mac OS which will reportedly run the device is critical to providing a flawless user experience to owners. The device is also expected to ship under a different name. Apple has not said very much about the $299 device, keeping most of its features quiet in a typical Apple fashion.
Apple was clear though that it believes the device will finally bridge the gap between PCs and the consumer electronics devices in your living room. It will deliver wireless streaming content from computers running iTunes to display devices throughout the home and sports all the latest Input/Output connectors.
With 103 million units sold by March 2006, the incredible success of the PlayStation 2 (PS2) console is expected to continue to leave the PlayStation 3 (PS3) behind right in to 2008. Even Sony itself has commented that the lifespan of a console is around 10 years. "The PS2 will have legs well into 2008," says Michael Pachter, an analyst at Wedbush Morgan Securities in Los Angeles.
BusinessWeek reports on video game maker Square Enix Co. running advertisements in Japan for its new game Seiken Densetsu 4, or Legend of the Sacred Sword, which all end with a familiar PlayStation logo; but the game is made for the PS2 not the PS3. While you would expect developers to slow down advertisement for the older of the consoles, it is predicted that the PS2 will continue to leave behind all the new consoles during 2007.
"The PS2 probably has the capacity to sell more than any other gaming console," says Simon Jeffrey, chief operating officer at Sega of America. By the end of March this year, the PS2 is expected to have totaled a whopping 114 million sold so far. By the end of March, Sony estimates that 4 million PS3 units will be sold; a figure that has been marked down to account for the production problems and delays that marred the PS3 launch.
At next week's Consumer Electronics Show (CES), there will be no shortage of high definition displays to check out and no shortage of content on Blu-ray and HD DVD discs looping to feed the displays. LG wants to cause a stir itself by demonstrating full HD 1080p experimental television footage from Nippon Hoso Kyokai (NHK), a broadcaster in Japan. The content will be shown on a series of 37", 42", 47", and 55" LCD TVs.
They will be showing off content recorded with 1080p "high speed motion cameras". NHK is also the broadcaster who brought us the Ultra High Definition Video (UHDV) experiment which involved 18 minutes (3.5TB worth) of a massive 7680x4320 resolution, running at 60fps with 22.2CH audio, a 4x7 metre screen for a public demonstration and motion sickness for viewers.
IGA Europe Vice President, Ed Bartlett, has told GamesIndustry.biz that the use of in-game advertisements may help developers to keep the Intellectual Property of their works. He made the claim during an interview with the site. "Part of the reason I set this up with Hive originally was so that we could get more revenue to fund games perhaps without getting publishers involved, and retain control of the IP." he said.
He named two titles; Stoked Rider and Trackmania, that have been made available via free download from the help of IGA, while in turn improving the finances of their developers. "Obviously the more players you have the more ad revenues you get, which makes it almost a self-fulfilling model. By having a bigger audience you bring in more ad revenues which means you can offset the costs even further," he explained.
He continued: "When you look at a big triple-A console release you're never going to be able to offset the entire cost of the release through advertising. But I think with a PC-only release, where you're reiterating a technology which has already been paid for and developed as it was with Trackmania, then I think you're looking at some exciting new models."
With the PlayStation 3 (PS3) console only out in North America and Japan for a matter of weeks, the last thing anyone is wondering is how many units will ship by a date as far away as 2010 - except of course for a new report by Research and Markets which predicts 75 million units will have been sold by then. The prediction also hands Sony the console war but indicates that the electronics giant will not achieve nearly the dominance it did with its past efforts.
"The console is not expected to dominate as much as its predecessor, the PS2, due to late launch issues in the PAL region and the early lead of Microsoft's Xbox 360," the report states. The report is entitled "The Transforming Global Videogames Market: The Emergence of Next Generation."
Sony does claim to have the most powerful system available to consumers but it's all that power under the hood that caused delays and has kept the price of the console very high. Nevertheless, Sony and the PlayStation trademark has a loyal fanbase and is ready to challenge both Microsoft and Nintendo in 2007 and beyond -- with many more still touting it as the favorite.
Cyberlink, the company behind the infamous PowerDVD line of software has denied that there is a vulnerability present in its software that would ultimately allow the decryption of AACS on a HD DVD disc. Specifically, the company said that the encryption "Title Keys" are not kept in the system memory where one could guess hacker Muslix64 got them. The company also said the YouTube video showed no proof that the software was used in the hacking process.
BackupHDDVD is made to strip the AACS content protection from HD DVD discs and rip the contents to a HDD. However, the tool alone is useless, you need to proper keys in order to decrypt the content and it seems others have not been able to obtain the keys. Cyberlink defended its software in an email to blogger Chris Lanier.
The company said that it is confident that its software protects the content of HD DVD discs. As for BackupHDDVD, the video promised more details will emerge in January, so hopefully we will have more details then.
Cyberlink, the company behind the infamous PowerDVD software, released PowerDVD Ultra, made specifically for playback of high definition video content. With support for both Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD titles, this piece of software is exactly what we all dream would become hardware soon. It is built to support all the extra features that both camps cram into their shiny new formats.
Playback of HD video is not a problem with support for H.264, HD MPEG-2, and WMV-HD. It is optimized for high-definition graphics processors from Intel, NVIDIA and ATI with improved support for Widescreen monitors and the latest content protection standards for digital connectors.
Interactivity features on discs work perfectly with both BD-J and iHD supported, meaning all overlayed menus, movie bookmarks, picture-in-picture commentary etc. are supported. For the audio freaks, there is support for pure high-definition audio with Dolby Digital Plus, TrueHD, DTS-HD and home-theater audio support with true 7.1 channel Dolby Digital EX and 5.1 channel DTS.
Toshiba is reportedly preparing to focus its efforts mainly on the HD DVD format offerings at CES. The company will stand behind and push the format despite predictions that disc sales are likely to drop over the next couple of years. A group of companies backing the HD DVD format are to hold a news conference on the first Sunday of 2007, January 7th.
President and CEO of Toshiba's Digital Media Network Company, Yoshihide Fujii, is expected to announce the firms path forward for the year. Some speculate that the company will announce lower prices for HD DVD hardware. When quizzed on the subject, Fujii didn't give any details but did say he expected the next price threshold to be $399, with $299 following next.
The price of hardware to play high definition video content is still quite high and leading many consumers to ignore the area for now. There has also been worrying developments for the companies that developed the Advanced Access Content System (AACS) copy protection with the release of the BackupHDDVD tool, which can be used to rip certain HD DVD titles (providing you have the keys needed).
The title of this article touched on two questions that have caused a stir in the last few days. To begin, we'll take a look at a video that can be seen on YouTube that apparently shows an Xbox 360 exploited into running code (specifically a Linux coming soon message) while running Peter Jackson's King Kong. The video has got a mixed reception from the community; some believe it is real, some believe it is just another bluff.
Those who doubt it point out that it could simply be a custom modified shader created to give the illusion that there was a discovered exploit to run homebrew code. This is possible since hackers found that the vector shaders in the King Kong demo on the Kiosk Disc could be modified (also on the final game).
However, this was shown at the Chaos Communication Congress, an annual meeting of the international hacker scene, organized by the well known Chaos Computer Club. It was shown during one of the "Lightning Talks", a daily event that consists of one hour of several short (limited to 5mins) talks.
When it appears there are defects in an Apple product, even if they are minuscule, it seems they are widely reported more so than most other electronic products. As proof, a thread on Apple's discussion forums has made several tech sites and blogs. Specifically, users are complaining about whining sounds coming from their 2G Nano models (and have been doing so for some time). The claims about how loud or invasive the sound is vary by user.
It seems to cover all 2GB, 4GB and 8GB models and none of the reports mention the sound coming from previous generation models. This has lead some to speculate that the noise is caused by a new component. Engadget decided to test it out with a 2GB model but could only hear a whining sound literally if the player was right beside their ears.
One owner, russgra, claims that the noise is the first thing he noticed when he got his 8GB Nano, whereas Energie said he would not have noticed if he didn't see the problem mentioned in the forums. This makes you wonder how many people have an actual "problem" with their model and how many are just unnecessarily whining.
As we reported a few days ago, a hacker known as Muslix64 released a tool called BackupHDDVD to rip video content from several available HD DVD titles. He also provided a video that you can watch here of the tool in action, showing how it copies the files to a HDD which are then played back. Testing of the tool and keys provided show that it does actually work, although not "perfectly".
Whether or not this tool can actually be used to make a full backup, or if it will lead to such tools, the fact that any decryption has taken place is obviously worrying the media companies behind the Advanced Access Content System (AACS) copy protection. While making tools to decrypt AES encryption can be done, it is the decryption keys getting loose that worries the media companies more.
The AACS system was developed by companies including Walt Disney Co., Intel Corp., Microsoft Corp., Toshiba Corp. and Sony Corp. to protect optical disc formats made specifically for HD content, including Toshiba's HD DVD and Sony's Blu-Ray. A spokesman for one of the AACS companies (didn't identify the company) said that it was aware of the developments and was looking into it.
Russian-based AllofMP3.com has chosen to be defiant after a lawsuit was filed against the service in New York. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) claims that the service is illegal and infringes on its members' copyright by failing to pay fees to record companies while selling music at prices less than 10c per DRM-free download. The RIAA claims that 11 million songs have been pirated and wants to be compensated.
Considering that the RIAA expects $150,000 per "infringement", that brings the lawsuit to a figure of $1.65 trillion, just under the Gross Domestic Product for the United Kingdom in 2005. The lawsuit was filed against Media Services (which owns AllofMP3) on December 21st in New York. AllofMP3 denies that it is an illegal service and claims it complies with Russian laws - making it a legal site.
The company pays fees to the Russian royalty collection society, ROMS. Therefore, it believes the responsibility to compensate copyright holders properly lies with ROMS. Despite the ridiculously large figure provided by the RIAA in the complaint, AllofMP3.com has kept up its defiant attitude.
Google is once again displaying its intentions to be the big player in the online video distribution game with a pending investment in Xunlei ("Thunder"). The Shanghai-based company offers a P2P application designed to make the swapping of large video files easy and reliable. Just like the dominant sites like YouTube and Google Video, there is plenty of unauthorized content available.
The service has an estimated 100 million users. Therefore, the company is trying to use its userbase as a negotiation tool with content providers, looking to strike deals in similar fashion as its western counterparts. Google, with its Google Video and YouTube services, seems completely determined to push content providers into deals, while taking the risk of copyright infringement lawsuits.
Google has gone up against content providers in the past. Challenges to Google's "Book Search" plans are still ongoing from authors and publishers and there has been disagreements over web linking, indexing and thumbnail creation by Google. With video, Google has put itself up against the media giants and several analysts predict numerous huge lawsuits are coming.
Napster hopes that consumer attitudes towards music rental services will change when more suers turn to phones that also act as multimedia devices. So far, Apple Computer's iTunes has held back competition in the online music download market because the company's iPod (the biggest selling MP3 player) can only play music from the iTunes store.
Sony has released the latest 
It is being reportedly that Finnish mobile phone giant Nokia, has redesigned its N-Gage gaming system and is already showing it to the industry. Apparently, at a secret location in Santa Monica last week, companies that include Sega, Disney, Sony, Glue Wireless and EA Mobile were shown some of the new features that the revamped device offers.
We wrote an article lately on the criticism Microsoft has received for its 
Recently we reported that YouTube plans to share revenue from advertising between the site and the user who uploads video clips to the site. YouTube Chief Executive Chad Hurley told this to an audience at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. However, he did not give any specific details on how YouTube will pull this off, and many are left with questions and doubts.
PS3 owners have been complaining on the official PlayStation 3 (PS3) forums about problems that the 1.5 system 
A New York teen has filed a lawsuit against the record industry for defamation, violating anti-trust laws, conspiring to defraud the courts and making extortionate threats. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has called this kid a pirate and so the five record companies filed a lawsuit against him. Robert Santangelo would have been 11 when the alleged offense was committed.
The BBC has gotten support for its on-demand download service, that would allow users to download TV shows within a week after they air. However, some tough conditions have been placed on the service by BBC Trust in regard to classical music, to help prevent a rerun of the BBC's Beethoven podcast debacle.
Philadelphia resident Mickey DeLorenzo decided to see if there is anything to the belief that Nintendo's Wii console can help you to lose weight while also being fun to use. He came up with an idea for an experiment while playing the Wii Sports boxing game with his partner. "On the fly, as I was typing my blog posts, I set up a daily regimen and went at it 100 percent," said DeLorenzo
The Xbox 360 achievement points in gameplay is a prime example of gaming innovation from Microsoft. So far, the system has led to friendly competition among gamers, a cash-for-points business and of course, a leaderboard race. However, after spending hours playing games and accomplishing tasks for points, gamers have only had bragging rights.
A jury has found that Broadcom Corp. did not infringe on two video compression-related patents held by rival semiconductor maker Qualcomm Inc. The battle between these two companies is vicious and Qualcomm has many more enemies than just Broadcom. This 9 day trial included testimony from both chairmen, Broadcom's Henry Samueli and Qualcomm's Irwin Jacobs.
Despite many anti-piracy efforts in the United States, piracy of movies and other types of digital content is still rising sharply, despite claims that litigation against file sharers is "working". The Solutions Research Group has collected the latest available data on 
The European Parliament's committee for legal affairs met yesterday to vote on proposals for criminal penalties in relation to Intellectual Property (IP) rights. Among the possible violations is the illegal downloading of tracks of music. There is definitely a lot of division among MEPs over the legislation, with many amendments being tabled to limit or increase the level of penalties for infringements.
The increasingly popular "Second Life" virtual world has gotten an exemption from eBay's ban of auctions for virtual items that gamers acquire in online games like World of Warcraft. This is not a change in eBay policy however, items from games like WOW and Everquest are still banned. A spokesperson for eBay explained that the decision comes from a company reconsideration of what a "game" is.
A patent application submitted by Matthew T. Jarman of Salt Lake City seeks to filter out foul language "on the fly" from being heard from your TV set. The system described, which uses a computer and a PVR, monitors the closed captioning that comes with most programs for obscene words. Users can select what they want blocked and if it comes up, the system will briefly mute the TV to spare the viewer from hearing it.
Shuji Nakamura, a pioneer of laser diode science, has led a team of University of California-Santa Barbara (UCSB) researchers in creating a new type of blue laser diode. The group said that the new diode could potentially replace the c-plane violet laser diodes used by both 
Pioneer has introduced its new 
Verbatim has announced another addition to its 
On the same day that Microsoft has officially released the Windows Vista operating system, Nero, a leader in digital media technologies, has announced several updates to the Nero 7 package. Among the updates are two new applications; DiscCopy and MultiMounter. Nero DiscCopy allows one click copying of discs of any format.
The demand for Sony's PlayStation Portable (PSP) console and the PlayStation 2 (PS2) console reportedly dropped quite dramatically in the 2006 holiday season. There was a 71.7% drop in 
The Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (Elspa) needs to work more closely with the UK government, director general Paul Jackson has said. He emphasised how the group must boost the industry's standing. "What's been said to me is that so far we haven't really been punching our weight. Everybody is keen that we really step up to the plate, and we're equally keen to do so," he said.
Sony BMG has reached a settlement with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) over the inclusion of copy protection software on millions of CDs sold by the label. Sony BMG is a joint venture of Sony Corp. and Germany's Bertelsmann AG. The deal will allow consumer to exchange CDs at issue and will reimburse consumers for up to $150 to repair any damage to their computers.
eBay-owned Internet telephony company, 
AT&T is delighted with the performance of its Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) service so far, and plans to ramp up deployments in the coming year. Chief Executive Officer Ed Whitacre spoke about the plans for IPTV at the company's fourth-quarter 2006 earnings call. He said the company targets to make the U-verse IPTV service available to around 8 million homes by the end of 2007.
It is reported that the Nintendo Wii console has already fallen victim to hackers, with the release of a 
Amateur filmmakers are increasingly turning to the Internet not only to achieve the fame they crave, but to also get paid for the distribution of their videos. Sites like YouTube are revolutionizing how we share and view video clips online, but there are many more sites offering filmmakers better video quality and the possibility of earning some money for their videos.
According to wireless industry analyst firm ABI Research, Apple's iPhone does not fit the criteria to be described as a Smartphone, due to some limits imposed by Apple on the device. The problem is the phone's closed Operating System, which is against the possible inclusion of third-party applications. ABI defines a Smartphone as "a cellular handset using an open, commercial operating system that supports third-party applications."
20th Century Fox is threatening to delay its movie releases in Canada in attempt to stamp out rampant bootlegging. "Canada has become a hotbed for film piracy," Bruce Snyder, Fox president of U.S. distribution said. "It's a serious problem." Before delaying the releases, he said that the company will withhold movies from theaters that camcorder wielding movie fans are known to frequent.
Universal Studios has pledged 100 
A dutch consumer protection agency, Consumentenbond, has announced that it has filed a formal complaint with the Dutch antitrust watchdog NMa. The group claims it wants an investigation into the "illegal practices" of Apple's iTunes music service. "What we want from Apple is that they remove the limitations that prevent you from playing a song you download from iTunes on any player other than an iPod," spokesman Ewald van Kouwen said.
Google Inc. has announced some plans for the immediate future of Google Video and YouTube. When Google bough YouTube last year, many wondered if it was the end of Google Video or if indeed, all of YouTube's content would be transfered to Google Video instead. However, Google plans to change the Google Video search engine so that now it will bring up results from Google Video and from YouTube.
Nintendo has announced that the total sales of the DS handheld console have passed 10 million units in North America. The company says that this means 9 units were sold every 60 seconds since the DS launch in November 2004. The dual-screen handheld which rivals Sony's PlayStation Portable (PSP) console, played a huge part in Nintendo's 40% rise in quarterly profits.
The Advanced Access Content System (AACS) Licensing Authority has confirmed to the media that the 
In a bid to help prepare consumers for the digital transition effort in the United States, some top House Republicans want to put Government warning labels on Analog TVs. Unlikethe many Government health warnings you can find on products, this warning would read "This TV has only an analog broadcast tuner and will require a converter box after Feb. 17, 2009, to receive over-the-air broadcasts."
A federal judge has dismissed the antitrust claims made by Morpheus owner StreamCast Networks against more than a dozen defendants. Among those listed is the eBay-owned Skype service. StreamCast claims that the founders of Skype (and original founders of Kazaa) broke an agreement to give StreamCast the right of first refusal for the technology behind Skype's VoIP service. StreamCast demanded over $4.1 billion and a court order to stop eBay from selling Skype services.
Online music download store eMusic has revealed it has reached 250,000 subscribers. The store sells DRM-free 
Apple Computer Inc. has patched a flaw in Quicktime that could be exploited by an attacker to run arbitrary code on a machine. The bug was discovered by a group of researchers who were investigating the Macintosh operating system and some third party software titles for it as part of the "Month of Apple Bugs" program. A total of 31 discovered vulnerabilities will be announced as a result.
A UK company has filed a lawsuit against Apple Computer Inc. over the click-wheel technology used in the infamous iPod models. Quantum Research Group accuses Apple of infringing on its patents. "Some are based on Cypress' PSoC chip and used in a way we believe infringes our patent," Quantum Research Group CEO Hal Philipp told Electronics Weekly. The lawsuit was actually filed in December 2005 but has only reached the media recently.
Following the previous release of the BackupHDDVD tool that can be used to extract unencrypted files from 
The hybrid 
BitBurners.com has put its new MediaBase service into Public Alpha testing mode ahead of its launch. The new feature, which is still under development, aims to create a robust, reliable database of writable 
Microsoft Corp. has hinted that its Zune player ands services could be available in Europe by the end of 2007. The company claims it is happy with the sales of the Zune so far in the United States, saying Zune has 10.2% market share "in the 30 gigabyte category". Marketing Director, Jason Reindorp, told Reuters that Microsoft was realistic about the competition it faces in the iPod-dominated market.
Independent labels around the world have revealed they want to become the "fifth major" in the music industry by forming a new agency called Merlin. Independent record labels are responsible for 80% of all new releases, but only 30% of the revenues. Using Merlin, many Independent labels will be able to cut deals with download stores and mobile services on their behalf.
Netflix is set to start offering streaming movies to its subscribers over the Internet. The company will launch a service soon that will initially include 1,000 titles and will be free to use (with some limits) to subscribers of its DVD rental service. Instead of having a maximum number of movies to watch, the service will have a cap on the hours of content watched per month.
As many of you may have already noticed, rips of 
Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom, founders of the Skype Internet telephony service and the original founders of Kazaa before it was acquired by Sharman Networks, have unveiled yet another creation. This time, the two have launched their new Internet TV service, Joost. Originally dubbed "The Venice Project", it bills itself as the first free global TV distribution platform.
Nintendo was very fortunate over the holiday period in the UK, managing to sell over 200,000 Wii consoles and over half a million DS handheld consoles. The company cited Chart-Track figures in its announcement. Across Europe, unlucky gamers looking for a Wii found mostly empty shelves as 700,000 units were quickly purchased.
According to Japanese website Nikkei.net, Sanyo has developed a blue laser diode which will pave the way for more acceptable writing speeds for both the 
Hi Guys! AfterDawn.com gave me (Dela) permission to ask for you to participate in voting for an Irish "hope for 2007" award. The award is given out at an annual award show in Ireland. It recognizes several new talented acts and lets the public decide which one should get the "hope" award for the next year. Acts that are given this award, will generally go on to do very well.
Motorola Inc. announced on Monday that it is set to include Microsoft's Windows Media 
Samsung Electronics will soon offer a plasma TV that swaps data wirelessly with set-top boxes and PCs. At this year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the focus is on wireless technology more than ever. Bridging the gap between PC equipment and TV sets is the focus of many new products from giants like Apple and Microsoft, which will rely on wireless technology to transmit data.
Boris Johnson, an outspoken Tory MP has once again managed to pick the right topic to draw optimal attention to himself. The man, who once referred to U.S. President George W. Bush as "a cross-eyed Texan warmonger" and Tony Blair as "a mixture of Harry Houdini and a greased piglet", has picked a new topic for headlines; videogames. He says it is time to "garotte the Game Boy and paralyze the PlayStation".
Sling Media is also going to fight to get its products into consumer living rooms to bridge the gap between the PC and Television set. At CES, the company will show off a nifty and affordable device called the SlingCatcher (may not be final name) which is slated to hit shelves sometime in the summer. The device, which will cost less than $200 will rival products from giants like Microsoft and Apple.
In the past few years we have seen Apple bring a digital music player to the market, the iPod, which has so far completely held off competition. We've seen mobile music phones emerge but fail to have the same impact thus far. We've also seen video capabilities added to portable devices and the next generation of consoles putting an emphasis on high definition video content.
Verizon Wireless is expected to announce it will begin offering content from major U.S. television networks to mobile phone users. According to the New York Times, citing "people apprised of the deal," the service should be available in the United States around March this year. It is reported to consist of 8 channels and will include content from NBC, CBS, Fox and MTV, with reported interest from ESPN.
While you don't have to be an expert to know that the more activity you are performing, the more calories you burn, a study has confirmed that armed with the proper activity driven software, video games can be an effective tool to fight obesity in children. Mayo Clinic obesity researcher Lorraine Lanningham-Foster wanted to find out exactly how much energy some games on the market require from children.
In co-operation with Carmanah Technologies Corporation, one of the fastest growing renewable and energy-efficient technology manufacturers in the world, NEC has announced a solar-power system that can be used with its LCD monitors. The solar-powered system is designed to produce approximately 293 kilowatt hours of electricity per year, or 800 watts per day.
Cingular Wireless has announced plans to demo video sharing with mobile phones at next week's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. The new service isn't "video file sharing" as we know it, but instead the ability to send live stream video to other subscribers using compatible handsets. The actual sharing of video content takes place during a phone call.
Movie rental giant Blockbuster has announced that it has exceeded its target for online rental subscribers in 2006, passing over the 2 million mark. The announcement sent its shares up 6.6%. The company managed to lure a total of 500,000 subscribers since the end of the third quarter.
The main problem with many of today's online video download services is the majority lack a burning features, which locks a movie to a PC and whatever display and audio equipment it feeds to. CinemaNow has had a burning option for very few of its titles but there have been reported complaints regarding playback issues. Now the movie studios have approved a new system that uses an old content protection.
Macrovision, a company that specializes in mainly 
With the world moving towards high definition video content, Toshiba's Surface-conduction electron-Emitter Display (SED) 
With 103 million units sold by March 2006, the incredible success of the PlayStation 2 (PS2) console is expected to continue to leave the PlayStation 3 (PS3) behind right in to 2008. Even Sony itself has commented that the lifespan of a console is around 10 years. "The PS2 will have legs well into 2008," says Michael Pachter, an analyst at Wedbush Morgan Securities in Los Angeles.
IGA Europe Vice President, Ed Bartlett, has told GamesIndustry.biz that the use of in-game advertisements may help developers to keep the Intellectual Property of their works. He made the claim during an interview with the site. "Part of the reason I set this up with Hive originally was so that we could get more revenue to fund games perhaps without getting publishers involved, and retain control of the IP." he said.
Cyberlink, the company behind the infamous PowerDVD line of software has denied that there is a vulnerability present in its software that would ultimately allow the decryption of AACS on a HD DVD disc. Specifically, the company said that the encryption "Title Keys" are not kept in the system memory where one could guess hacker Muslix64 got them. The company also said the YouTube video showed no proof that the software was used in the hacking process.
Cyberlink, the company behind the infamous PowerDVD software, released PowerDVD Ultra, made specifically for playback of high definition video content. With support for both Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD titles, this piece of software is exactly what we all dream would become hardware soon. It is built to support all the extra features that both camps cram into their shiny new formats.
The title of this article touched on two questions that have caused a stir in the last few days. To begin, we'll take a look at a video that can be seen on YouTube that apparently shows an Xbox 360 exploited into running code (specifically a Linux coming soon message) while running Peter Jackson's King Kong. The video has got a mixed reception from the community; some believe it is real, some believe it is just another bluff.
Russian-based AllofMP3.com has chosen to be defiant after a lawsuit was filed against the service in New York. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) claims that the service is illegal and infringes on its members' copyright by failing to pay fees to record companies while selling music at prices less than 10c per DRM-free download. The 
