News written by James Delahunty (April, 2008)

Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. is on the verge of launching the latest edition in the Grand Theft Auto video game series, GTA IV, which is expected to break records and generate $400 million in sales over its first week. The Internet has flooded with reviews, previews and other commentary in anticipation of its Tuesday launch, and Take-Two will be delighted with the overwhelming amount of positive reviews.

The hype boosted the shares of the publisher as much as 3.4 percent, with Take-Two shares valued at up to $27.10 while Electronic Arts (EA) shares were valued at $25.74. "'Grand Theft Auto IV' is a violent, intelligent, profane, endearing, obnoxious, sly, richly textured and thoroughly compelling work of cultural satire disguised as fun," The New York Times wrote.

Take-Two Chairman Strauss Zelnick may have the last laugh if the game meets or even exceeds its expectations. Zelnick urged rejection of the Electronic Arts past offer, insisting the price was far too low, and said the company should wait until after the game's release. "Clearly there were very high expectations for the game going in and it looks like from the early buzz that it could exceed those already very optimistic expectations," said UBS analyst Ben Schachter.

Australian Federal Police (AFP) has been commended by the anti-piracy organization for the Australian music industry, Music Industry Piracy Investigations (MIPI) for targeting an international music piracy ring. The music piracy ring, which had an operation sourced in Sydney, distributed pirates music internationally. An organized gang in Australia are alleged to have manufactured tens of thousands of re-mixed compilation albums and distributed them through a complex network throughout Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific.

A total of eleven search warrants were executed in the raids, and one man was arrested. Among the locations raided are residential premises in Petersham and Canley Heights in Sydney, an optical disc manufacturing plant and a number of music retailers, supermarkets and other retail outlets that were selling pirate compilations featuring artists such as Justin Timberlake and UB40.

Enforcement action is also underway in New Zealand against an importer of the pirate product and a CD manufacturing plant with warning letters being sent to retailers that are stocking the pirate product.

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. has reported soaring profits for the first quarter of 2008 compared with the same period of the previous year. The consumer electronics giant, which specializes in products including cell phones, DVD players, flat-panel televisions and household appliances, said it earned ¥61.6 billion ($589.47 million), up from ¥23.4 billion for the same quarter of 2007.

Quarterly sales dipped 4% from 2.282 trillion a year earlier to 2.199 trillion yen ($21.04 billion). A spokesman for Matsushita said the drop was largely due to an exclusion in group sales of revenue from Victor Company of Japan, which had a status change from subsidiary to affiliate last year.

Sales of video and audio equipment rose 5% compared to last year, with strong demand for flat-panel TVs and DVD players. Matsushita President Fumio Otsubo told a Tokyo news conference that the company plans to put more effort into emerging countries such as Russia and Brazil, where a boom in demand for consumer electronics is expected.

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The NPD figures are out and nobody is surprised that the Nintendo Wii console is far up the ladder from its two competitors again. Microsoft and Sony ended the month only 5,000 unit sales apart, with the Xbox 360 taking the tiny lead. Specifically, the Wii console sold an impressive 721,000 units, followed by the handheld DS console which wasn't too far behind at 698,000 units.

The PlayStation Portable (PSP) sold more units than both the remaining next-generation home console systems, crossing the finish line with 297,000 units. As for the remaining two enemies, the difference was just 5,000 unit sales, with Xbox 360 selling 262,000 and PlayStation 3 (PS3) selling 257,000. The PlayStation 2 (PS2) console managed 216,000 sales. Do the figures sound impressive? They should as it represents a 46% growth in hardware sales over March 2007, to $551.3 million.

A rumor reported on AfterDawn and several tech sites online over the past few days stated that the LG Voyager touchscreen phone would be available on other carriers besides Verizon soon due to its success (has sold over 1.1 million units despite being tied to a single carrier). LG's public relations people contacted AfterDawn to inform us that this rumor is "absolutely incorrect".

It originated (as far as we can tell) from an Electronic Times article who got the information from a source at LG. The AfterDawn item references an Electronista source which also has updated now to correct the rumor.

Electronic Arts (EA) announced a significant milestone on Wednesday for itself and the entire games industry, revealing that 100 millions copies of The Sims series of games have been sold. The series was first launched in 2000 and since has been available on PC, Sony PlayStation 2 (PS2) and Nintendo Wii. The PC platform has hosted its strongest performance. It's original creator Will Wright (no longer involved with Sims) is considered to be one of the brightest sparks in the industry.

The milestone for Sims puts it up with some of the biggest names in gaming history, including Nintendo's Mario and Pokemon games, which sold 201 million and 175 million units respectively. The series, which allows players to control the day-to-day lives of simulated characters online or offline, has been published in 60 countries and 22 languages.

The European Commission has decided that the merger of Activision and Vivendi Games, which would create a new company called Activision Blizzard, will not "significantly impede effective competition in the European Economic Area or any substantial part of it." This outcome removes another roadblock from the impending merger, worth around $18.9 billion.

It was announced in December 2007 and considering it involves the world's number two and number three in the games industry, some red flags were raised. According to the EC's findings, the unified entity will "continue to face several strong, effective competitors, such as Electronic Arts, and the game console manufacturers, such as Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft."

One thing that was noted by the European Commission was Vivendi's ownership of Universal Music Group (UMG), which might make it easier for games published by Activision Blizzard to get licensing deals with UMG. However, the EC said that other studios still have a significantly large portfolio of music rights to choose from provided by other suppliers.

Apple Inc. has released version 3.1.1 of the Safari web browser to address several serious security problems. One of the vulnerabilities that has been fixed was widely publicized after being used to compromise a MacBook Air during a security conference. The update is available for both Mac and PC at about 39MB. It is highly recommended for all Safari users to ensure the security of their systems.

In total, four security bugs have been fixed by Apple. The aforementioned publicized security bug used to compromise a MacBook Air laptop at last month's CanSecWest security conference won Charlie Miller a $10,000 prize. The bugs also included a a heap buffer overflow present the browser's WebKit framework for handling JavaScript.

Psystar got international attention from the media just days ago when it announced plans to manufacture and sell a $399 computer capable of running the Mac OS X operating system, which would openly defy the End-User License Agreement (EULA) of the Mac software. Since then the media has attempted to probe this company, with some strange results which include it changing its physical address multiple times in days.

On Wednesday, Psystar's website was down for several hours. The company claims the site was taken offline because of problems processing credit card transactions. It markets its "Open Computer" as being less than a quarter of the cost of a high-end Mac. The company offers a basic configuration of a 2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo E4500 Processor, 2GB of RAM and an integrated Intel GMA 950 GFX processor.

Yet another new, innovative Internet music service has arrived. PluggedIn has launched with 10,000 free high-def music videos from studios such as Sony BMG and EMI. The service was launched by Overbrook Entertainment, which touts a partnership of music industry heavyweights James Lassiter and Ken Stovitz, as well as artist and award-winning actor Will Smith.

The site, now in beta, offers free music video streaming in HD at broadcast quality, which can be viewed full screen with a media player. PluggedIn also hosts over 1 million artist profiles. It has already gathered considerable attention in the industry, with Pat Magnarella (company founder whose clients included Green Day and the Goo Goo Dolls) calling the next generation of MTV.



"Until now, watching HD or even broadcast-quality music videos on the Web has been nearly impossible," Jeff Somers, CEO of PluggedIn, said in a news announcement. "Today we're announcing a major step forward in the way that fans can connect with the high-quality content and artists that matter most to them. We're focused on building a unique experience for fans -- a place where they can meet and interact with each other, and where they can enjoy, discover, and share premium quality video content."

Fring has developed an application for a variety of mobile phones that allow the owner to use AIM, Google Talk, MSN, Skype, ICQ and more, bring VoIP to "open" versions of Apple Inc.'s iPhone. It is not just limited to iPhone however, the beta software will work with over 500 devices using the Symbian S60 operating system or the Windows Mobile operating system. It also works with Sony Ericsson UIQ Smartphones.

According to the company, the new pre-release version of the software "is designed to both answer demand from iPhone-owning would-be Fringsters and at the same time enable Fring to learn about user experience, benefit from early feedback, and influence the R&D process of the full release version." A proper version of he software will be available later this year.

The reigning champion of opening-week performance in the videogames industry is the 2007 Xbox 360 smash-hit Halo 3. The title boosted the sales of Xbox 360 consoles and fell into shoppers hands until it reached a $300 million opening week. The launch and ripple effect was big enough for Hollywood figures to blame it for poor box office performances at the time.

Now Halo 3, which had a single platform release, may be dethroned by Rockstar's upcoming (and seriously delayed) Grand Theft Auto IV, which will enjoy a wider audience when it hits both the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 (PS3) platforms later this month. Variety cites industry analysts who boldly predict an opening week worth $400 million for GTA IV.

Sources close to the publisher, Take-Two Interactive, said that GTA IV is expected to sell about 6 million units in its first week on sale. Blockbuster CEO Jim Keyes expected the chain will sell twice as many copies of the new GTA title than it did Halo 3, while GameStop's Bob McKenzie says that orders are actually trailing behind the Halo 3 figures at the moment.

A prediction from Wedbush Morgan's Michael Pachter could turn out to be true if the UK demand for Wii Fit is anything to go by. Pachter said that Nintendo's upcoming Wii Fit title might have just enough punch to spur a renewed demand for the Wii console itself, and in the UK, Play.com, Amazon, Game, Shopto.net and Zavvi.co.uk have already stopped taking pre-orders.

As for the anticipated release of Wii Fit in the United States, the title has finally been given a $90 price tag. Wii Fit includes the software (game disc) and the Wii Balance Board. Since its release in December in Japan, it has sold more than 1.4 million units. It will be interesting to see how many will be snapped up in the U.S.




The pressure-sensitive Wii Balance Board extends the required activity from the player to the rest of the body. The board is used for an extensive array of fun and dynamic activities, including aerobics, yoga, muscle stretches and games. Many of these activities focus towards providing a "core" workout, a popular exercise method that emphasizes slower, controlled motions. Family members will have fun staying active and talking about and comparing their results and progress on a new channel on the Wii Menu.

Qualcomm Incorporated unveiled the first-ever MediaFLO technology demonstration broadcast over the air to an in-vehicle entertainment system at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) meeting in Las Vegas. The demonstration showed the flexibility of the MediaFLO platform as well as the delivery methods it can enable in a wide variety of scenarios.

The MediaFLO receiver, integrated in the rear center console, will receive live streaming television broadcasts on the MediaFLO platform at QVGA resolution. The center console controller allows users to launch the electronic channel guide, change channels and access optional features of the MediaFLO System.

Adobe Systems is working on a new media file format to make life much easier for those working with digital movies. The DNG, or Digital Negative Specification format is used by photographers to archive Raw images. Adobe's vice president of digital media was speaking at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) meeting in las Vegas when he said the format would extend "open, interchangeable formats for digital still cameras into the realm of digital cinematography."

He said that CinemaDNG would make it possible for filmmakers will be able to use digital cinema cameras with confident and allow camera manufacturers to provide specialized functionality while ensuring instant file-format compatibility with existing work flows. The system addresses problems with using digital cinema instead of film for film makers.

With digital cinema creating digital cinema files involves a variety of formats, hardware and applications. Adobe promises to lead an initiative to "define an industry-wide open file format for digital cinema files to streamline work flows and help ensure easy archiving and exchange." The advantage for filmmakers according to Adobe, is avoiding roadblocks created by multiple devices, vendors and file formats, as well as being a format that can be archived long-term.

Philips, one of the best known consumer electronics companies on the planet, witnessed its first quarter profit drop 75 percent due to bad performing sales of television sets, particularly in the United States. Royal Philips Electronics NV reported $347 million net income, about 20 percent lower than the $433 million that analysts put out previously.

Net profit was $1.386 billion in the same period last year, boosted by the sale of the company's stake in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. "The U.S. remains the black spot, but when we look at the quarter it was tough all across," Chief Financial Officer Pierre-Jean Sivignon said in a conference call.

Last week, the company announced that it will license Funai Electric Co. Ltd. of Japan to market the Philips and Magnavox brands for five years in North America. In Europe, the Philips brand is much stronger than it is in the United States, but the company still lost money on TV sales and is unlikely to show any profit in the territory.

An alliance of over 800 local television stations has formed with the goal of deciding an accepted standard for for sending local digital TV signals to mobile phones, laptops and other feature-packed portable devices. The Open Mobile Video Coalition made their plans known at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) meeting in Las Vegas. The local broadcasters view mobile TV as the next (third) medium to delivery their content.

Members believe that advertising on mobile TV, if it is to take off, could amount to a $2 billion market. Upgrades that would need to be made to television stations would be a relatively low $100,000, or less, and the technology being added to portable players may not be very expensive at all for manufacturers soon, meaning a horde of compatible devices could be on the horizon.

"You now have three legs of a stool, whereas, before, you just had one," said Jim Conschafter, senior vice president of broadcast for Media General Inc., which owns 23 network-affiliated stations reaching 9.5 percent of U.S. households. Local television stations have fought an increasing amount of cable TV channels and newer innovative services year after year.

A number of the world's largest players in mobile technology have come together to agree on a licensing framework for their patents dealing with an emerging mobile technology. Long Term Evolution (LTE) promises to make everything from downloading videos to content sharing faster, although the first networks are not expected for at least two years and some operators may opt to wait longer until the technology matures.

"Today's announcement is a step towards establishing more predictable and transparent licensing costs in a manner that enables faster adoption of new technologies," Ilkka Rahnasto, head of Nokia's intellectual property rights said in a statement.

The companies have committed to keeping royalty levels for essential LTE patents in handsets below 10 percent of the sale price, and have agreed a maximum royalty in LTE-enabled notebooks must stay below $10. Nokia, Ericsson, Alcatel-Lucent, NEC Corp, NextWave Wireless, Nokia Siemens Networks and Sony Ericsson were among those involved.

Apple Inc. and China's largest mobile operator, China Mobile, are still not trying to work out a deal over the iPhone since previous talks broke off in January this year. Despite speculation that the two might come to an agreement to get the device "officially" into the country, the Xinhua News Agency reported that there are no on-going negotiations. "Our door will remain open as long as there is customer demand," China Mobile chairman Wang Jianzhou told an audience while speaking the 2008 Boao Forum for Asia.

Talks previously broke down because China Mobile felt that the revenue-sharing model proposed by Apple was unfair and excessive. Of course, while official talks have not yet resumed, this hasn't stopped a large amount of people in China from getting an iPhone anyway. Market research firm In-Stat reported that as many as 400,000 China Mobile users are already using an iPhone, exposing a flourishing gray market for the device.

Movie rental giant Blockbuster announced on Monday that it has made an offer for struggling consumer electronics retailer Circuit City. The second biggest consumer electronics chain in the United States, Circuit City questioned whether or not Blockbuster would be able to finance a deal. Blockbuster said that such a merger would provide a chain to sell electronics products alongside entertainment for them.

Blockbuster Chief Executive James Keyes said the offer is supported by board member Carl Icahn, who could be a source of financing. The rental chain has struggled to complete in Online rentals with leader Netflix for the past couple of years. Now it wishes to entice Circuit City shareholders for support.

Circuit City has advised shareholders to take no action until the board has had a chance to review the bid appropriately, which would see Blockbuster paying more than $1 billion for the chain. Circuit City shares climbed 30 percent in afternoon trading following the announcement.

Move Networks announced a $46 million Series C funding round led by Benchmark Capital that includes global technology leaders Cisco, Comcast Interactive Media (a division of Comcast Corp.), Televisa, as well as previous investors Steamboat Ventures and Hummer Winblad Venture Partners. The leader in high definition online television services touts patent-pending technology in the area.

It uses open Internet protocols to deliver high-quality live and on-demand video that easily and cost-effectively scales to millions of viewers while fully protecting the assets of the media company, and giving users the best video viewing experience in the industry.

"Viewers are demanding higher quality video at anytime and any place. Move's platform provides a solution that maximizes quality while at the same time meeting the demands of scalability and profits," said John Edwards, CEO of Move Networks. "This funding round is further validation by leading digital new media companies and infrastructure providers that Move Networks has the delivery services uniquely designed to meet the online monetization mandate of the world's largest media companies."

The world's largest mobile phone handset manufacturer Nokia has admitted that mobile television broadcasting is not catching on as previously expected. Despite the support for the DVB-H standard which is backed heavily by Nokia, only a few operators in Europe have opened any TV broadcasting services. The European Union backed the DVB-H standard last year.

"It's a bit in a turmoil," Niklas Savander, head of Nokia's Internet services, told a conference in Helsinki. Mobile phones on the market that can retrieve and playback TV programming use third-generation (3G) mobile networks, which allows the carriers to charge for data rates which ultimately can affect the overall quality of content, and the number of users.

"We have seen that there are multiple segments who are not interested in the broadcasting, but rather in downloads. Roll out is slower than also we anticipated a couple of years ago," Savander said.

Multicast Media Technologies, Inc. has announced the availability of turnkey live streaming using Adobe Flash Media Encoder as part of Multicast's Vidego Internet Video Platform. With Vidego Live Flash, Multicast now makes a turnkey online solution available to organizations and content producers wishing to broadcast sporting events, concerts, corporate communication, educational and promotional events.

"Because we deliver almost 4,500 live Internet broadcasts each month from venues all over the world, we know that producing a live online broadcast can seem like a complex undertaking. With our Vidego Live Flash streaming solution, we simplify the process and address the increasing market demand for engaging, real-time live Internet video and a flawless end-to-end integrated experience," said Jason Simpson, executive vice president of business development at Multicast.

Vidego Live Flash is administered by an intuitive interface that includes customizable media players, slide presentation synchronization, automated archival for on-demand playback, and a powerful reporting and analytics dashboard. "Multicast's Vidego leverages Adobe Flash technologies to help organizations beat the learning curve when it comes to delivering streaming media," said Laurel Reitman, senior product manager for Flash Server Services at Adobe.

Philips has developed a watermarking solution in its hospitality television sets and will have it available starting in May in a full range of HDTV sizes. The technology is developed to ease fears of movie studios and other content providers who traditionally provided early-release copies of movies to hotels and other services, where customers can enjoy the content.

Fears about digital piracy has caused many content providers to padlock their HD supply. In an effort to deter the unlawful copying of high definition movies in hotels and enable hoteliers to ensure that they remain available to their guests, Philips is leading the industry with its VTrack digital watermarking solution which will be demonstrated at the 2008 National Association of Broadcasters Show (NAB) in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the Keker & Van Nest law firm based in San Francisco filed briefs in federal court last week defending an eBay seller. Troy Augusto was reselling promotional CDs on eBay that he acquired at secondhand stores in the Los Angeles. His activity got the attention of Universal Music Group (UMG).

Augusto, who traded as "Roast Beast Music" on eBay, was sued back in May 2007 for 26 eBay auction listings involving UMG promo CDs. At issue is whether the "promotional use only, not for resale" labels on these CDs can trump a consumer's right to resell copyrighted materials that they own, guaranteed by copyright law's "first sale" doctrine.

Major record labels distribute promotional CDs to industry insiders to create buzz around recordings. These promo CDs often make their way into secondhand stores, where Augusto purchases them for resale on eBay. UMG stamps its promo CDs with labels declaring that the CDs may not be resold and remain the property of UMG. The "first sale" doctrine in copyright law, however, makes it clear that once the copyright owner sells or gives away a CD, DVD, or book, the recipient is entitled to resell it without needing further permission.

Rockstar Games' popular title "Bully" has been banned in Brazil, the largest nation in Latin America, over fears the title is too violent for children or teenagers. Judge Flavio Rabello banned the game from being important, sold, distributed or promoted on websites and in stores in the country on Friday. Retailers now have 30 days to comply with the ban.

"The aggravating factor is that everything in the game takes place inside a school," Rio Grande do Sul state prosecutor Alcindo Bastos said. "That is not acceptable." JPF Maggazine is the main distributor for the title in Brazil, but did not comment on the ban or indicate in any way yet whether it wants to appeal or not.

The request for a ban of the game, which lets players act out the life of a 15-year-old student, came from a local youth support center. Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. spokesman Edward Nebb said the decision will "prevent Brazilian consumers from enjoying 'Bully: Scholarship Edition,' it will not have a material impact on the sales of this popular title."

There have been several unconfirmed reports around the Internet recently that indicate Sling Media's SlingCatcher will be delayed until late this year. The SlingCatcher allows content to be streamed back to a television set while the company's Slingbox allows users to access content at home from anywhere in the world they can get online and sign in.

The SlingCatcher was supposed to hit the market in early 2007, but has since been marred with several delays. Engadget posted an email exchange between a user and Sling Media's VP of Sales Greg Wilkes which partially read: "Will the catcher ship in Q2? No. We are upgrading the user experience and making enhancements to the feature set. These may or may not all ship at the same time. Will the Catcher ship in '08? All indications point to this happening in 2008."

Betanews contacted he company to ask for a comment on the answer. "SlingCatcher will ship when it is ready and meets the high expectations we have set for ourselves at Sling Media," the site was told. EchoStar's acquisition of Sling Media may be a reason for a further delay as further enhancements to the device may now be made, or perhaps incorporation into EchoStar's Dish Network property.

While admitting he has little interest in video games, horror-writer Stephen King has used his Entertainment Weekly column to strike out at those who want to ban the sale of violent video games to minors. King believes that such a move would be undemocratic, and misguided, as, he says, it is up to the parents to monitor their own children's electronic entertainment.

The Shining author's outrage was sparked when he learned a bill in Massachusetts would ban the sale of games deemed violent to individuals under the age of 18. "What makes me crazy is when politicians take it upon themselves to play surrogate parents. The results of that are usually disastrous. Not to mention undemocratic," he wrote.

In King's opinion, the violence depicted in many of the most controversial video-game titles is reflected from behavior that already is commonplace in society where it's real and not a game. "What really makes me insane is how eager politicians are to use the pop culture as a whipping boy. It's easy for them, even sort of fun, because the pop-cult always hollers nice and loud. Also, it allows legislators to ignore the elephants in the living room," he said.

According to Down Under website MacTalk, Australia may be among the first to get its hands on a 3G iPhone that isn't locked to a single provider through an exclusivity deal with Apple. A correspondent of the Aussie site got the information from local resellers who were briefed by Apple earlier this week. The iPhone is expected to become available in Australia in June, according to the report.

While being supported by multiple carriers, Mac resellers will also apparently be allowed to sell the handset too, while in other countries only Apple stores and a carrier with an exclusive deal can sell the item. While the 3G version of the iPhone is not specifically mentioned, speculation points at a June release for a 3G iPhone in general, which means Australia would be unlikely to get an older model just as new one is released.

Also expected from Apple in June is the iPhone 2.0 operating system as well as an over-the-air download service. All of the pointers in the third beta of the iPhone SDK and industry buzz indicates that the next iPhone model will be 3G, and frankly the speculation and anticipation is so widespread now that anything less will be viewed as a disappointing move by the Mac maker.

Following the announcement of iPlayer support in Nintendo's Wii video games home console, and the subsequent revelation that the lack of support for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 (PS3) was due mainly to Microsoft and Sony, PS3 users have decided to go ahead and enjoy BBC's iPlayer anyway. A coder called "Ixalon" has created an unofficial site for the PS3 which spoofs the Wii's user agent and makes the Javascript and CSS of iPlayer's site "PS3-friendly".

So that means by pointing the PS3's browser toward the unofficial site, UK PS3 owners can enjoy content from BBC's iPlayer now. The iPlayer offers TV programming in the UK and is designed specifically for those who want a second look at an episode they watched on TV, of those who simply missed a certain episode while it aired.

The video content that is delivered to PS3 users through this method is the same Flash 7 video that the BBC provides for Wii users. The Flash 7 video has a higher bitrate than normal to attempt to match the iPlayer quality. While it was possible to view the iPlayer site from the PS3 console before, it wasn't as easy as just visiting a URL, which is...

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the United States has whipped several major retailers and manufacturers for slacking in their duty to inform consumers about the February, 2009 transition to digital TV broadcasts in the country. The regulator discovered that the companies involved were not making an effort to warn consumers about need for a converter box to use an analog television for broadcast TV next year.

In total, fines of over $6 million were handed to the likes of Best Buy, Wal-Mart, Circuit City and Target. The retailers allegedly failed to label analog television equipment with notices that explain they won't work without extra equipment after the DTV transition. Vivitar, Precor, and Syntax-Brillian were also accused of, and fined for illegally importing and selling outdated equipment.

Precor claims that it was only selling the outdated televisions to commercial customers who use it for workout equipment, while Syntax-Brillian claimed the fines were unnecessarily excessive and unconstitutional. In its defense, the FCC does claim to have warned the companies before it decided to fine them, and they now have 30 days to appeal.

According to Kwon Young-soo, CEO of LG Display, the company has seen growing demand for small-size LCD sets in recent times as more consumers dump bulky old televisions for newer flat-screens. "Demand is strong for 26-inch or smaller TVs. The market is shifting to LCD rapidly," Kwon said at a media event after quarterly results on Thursday. LG Display is the world's No. 2 manufacturer of larger LCD screens.

"Demand for small-sized TVs and cheaper notebook computers is something we hadn't had expected and counted in," Kwon said. He re-assured the industry by saying that an anticipated oversupply in 2009 will be milder than had been expected. LG Display will soon begin mass-production from its eighth-generation production line early next year.

Smaller LCD screens are useful when working with more limited space than a living room can provide, like a bedroom or kitchen.

Sony Electronics has announced another two Blu-ray Disc recorders for the Japanese market. The electronics giant will offer two new models with 320GB and 500GB hard disk drives in the territory to add to its existing line-up of Blu-ray equipment. The BDZ-A70 and BDZ-T90 read and write both blank Blu-ray and blank DVD media. The BDZ-A70 comes with a 320GB HDD while the BDZ-T90 has a larger 500GB HDD.

A useful feature for the new Blu-ray recorders is the ability to transfer content from recordings to portable devices like Sony's PlayStation Portable (PSP) handheld console (stored on MemoryStick DUO media) or to a Sony Walkman handheld portable media player (PMP) device.

Connection to the portable media players is achieved using a USB cable. The models sport the High-definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) for connectivity with other HD equipment along with 1080p/24 support. Both models are expected to be available in Japan this month starting at ¥170,000.

The recent decision to add iPlayer support to the Nintendo Wii console left many wondering why Sony's PlayStation 3 (PS3) or Microsoft's Xbox 360 didn't get a similar announcement before. According to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), the reason for it has to do with the manufacturers of the consoles themselves, who were apparently excessively demanding on details about iPlayer's implementation into their hardware.

Erik Huggers of the BBC said that both companies have expressed interest in bringing the iPlayer software to their consoles. BBC's iPlayer allows TV viewers in the UK to catch up on programmes they missed on television for free. Huggers said that with the PS3's build-in web browser, upcoming iPlayer support is almost inevitable for it.

"If you want to get [iPlayer] on the PlayStation or Xbox, they want control of the look, the feel and the experience. They want it done within their shop, and their shop only," Huggers claimed.

The Xbox 360 does not have an Internet browser, meaning its implementation would be more difficult. The traffic levels to and from the iPlayer have been significant enough to spark a row between the BBC and many of the ISPs in the territory about who should pay for much needed upgrades.

Sun has revealed that it is developing a royalty-free and open video codec and media system. Company officials made the announcement at the Sun Labs Open House event in Menlo Park, Calif. "The main benefit is that you don't have that now and there are markets, key markets like the Web, that are in need for the Web 2.0 experience a foundation of royalty-free for the media element," said Rob Glidden, global alliance manager for TV & Media at Sun.

The Sun project has been titled OMS, which stands for either Open Media Stack or Open Media System, and it is derived out of Sun's Open Media Commons initiative to develop royalty-free solutions for all digital media content. Proprietary technologies dominate the online video growth right now, including Adobe's Flash.

OMS video will be based on H.26x technology, but is still only at its beginning stages. When asked about availability of OMS technologies, Glidden would only say, "Stay tuned. I have no announcements on any commercial implementations or time frame."

A federal appeals court stated on Friday that it will not re-examine a previous ruling made in favor of TiVo Inc. in a patent dispute with Dish Network Corp. TiVo was awarded $94 million to be paid by Dish Network for patent infringement offenses. Today's decision brings TiVo closer to the payout and also provides it leverage to tout in negotiations with other providers who want to use DVR technology.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld a ruling from a lower court that found DVRs distributed by Dish (formerly Echostar) violated a TiVo patent at a software level, while it did overturn the previous ruling that Dish DVRs infringed TiVo's patent at the hardware level.

Dish Network is now preparing to file an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court while TiVo praised today's court decision in a statement. "Today's ruling brings us closer to resolution of EchoStar's infringement and reconfirms the strength of TiVo's Time Warp patent," the statement said.

Eight teenage girls who assaulted another girl they had lured into a house before posting a recording of the incident to YouTube had done so to gain worldwide exposure. The use of the Internet, and particularly YouTube, which is home to millions of clips uploaded by users, to achieve the goal has opened a debate about how much responsibility sites like YouTube need to take for the content on their servers.

Media experts have stated that sites like YouTube should not get the blame when something like this happens. Furthermore, Kelly McBride, the ethics group leader at the Poynter Institute, believes this video's existence is a good thing in a way. "The fact that the video was shot because they were seeking publicity was secondary," McBride said.

McBride continued: "A crime was committed in our community, and if there's a videotape of it, I want some information. That video was incredibly revealing. It told more truth about what happened than any other form of reporting could have told." On Friday, a judge set bail for each of the defendants at $30,000 while prosecutors said that seven of the girls would be tried as adults for their role in the vicious attack.

The European Parliament has rejected a plan to criminalize file sharing by private individuals, as well as rejecting a proposal to ban repeat copyright abusers from the Internet for their activity. A plenary vote on Thursday resulted in 314 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) voting in favor of an amendment which scrapped disproportionate measures to protect copyright on the Internet. 297 MEPs voted against the amendment.

"The vote shows that MEPs want to strike a balance between the interests of rights holders and those of consumers, and that big measures like cutting off Internet access shouldn't be used," said Malene Folke Chaucheprat, a European Parliament spokeswoman. France has already adopted such measures and may seek to push the issue at a European political level when it takes over the six-month rotating presidency of the European Union in the second half of this year.

The Oliviennes strategy, which was setup to fight copyright infringement on the Internet in France includes a three strikes approach, taking away the Right to have an Internet service account from those caught sharing copyright-protected music three times. "One badly drafted, rushed through amendment was adopted which is in contradiction to the rest of the text," said Frances Moore, Executive VP of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI).

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has been locked into a war of words with Internet Service Providers (ISP) in the United Kingdom about who should be responsible for upgrade costs required for networks. The service providers claim that the bandwidth needed to support BBC's iPlayer is putting considerable strain on their networks, meaning they will need to be upgraded.

Ashley Highfield of the BBC believes that ISPs should be solely responsible for upgrade costs for their networks, while Simon Gunter, from ISP Tiscali, believes the BBC should contribute to the costs. The iPlayer allows viewers to catch up with programmes they missed on TV, and in its first three months of operation, 42 million programmes were accessed.

It is estimated that upgrades needed by ISPs in the UK to cope with the extra bandwidth demand could cost in the region of £830m. "The question is about whether we invest in extra capacity or go to the consumer and ask them to pay a BBC tax," Gunter said. Highfield responded to the comment, saying its inflammatory nature is not helpful.

As we previously reported on AfterDawn, Flickr added a new video service to its site just days ago, allowing users to upload short-clips to the photo-sharing service. These days, online video has become so popular and is in increasing demand, so Flickr made a decision to boost its web-service with the feature.

However, not all Flickr users see this as a good addition to the site. Several "protest groups" have sprung up since, where disappointed users gather to show their feelings about the new video service. One such group, titled "No Video On Flickr", had the following message...

"We, the undersigned members of Flickr, free and pro, agree that video has no place on Flickr. Other sites on the web accept video already, but do not accept photos. We all joined Flickr because of its dedication to photography and photographers, and we want Flickr to remain true to this dedication. It is our request that this feature and addition to Flickr be removed."

The next update for the PlayStation 3 (PS3) console from Sony Corp., v2.30, expected to arrive next week, will add support for the DTS-HD Master Audio format, much to the delight of audiophiles. The upcoming firmware update is publicized more for improvements it has in store for the PlayStation Store platform.

The PlayStation Store will move away from being a web-access driven service on the console to a proprietary application, providing navigational improvements and better download times. However, for a better Blu-ray experience, the inclusion of support for DTS-HD Master Audio will be treat all-around.

The console was criticized by audiophiles at first for the absence of support for the lossless format, which provides a perfect compressed recording of the original master recording. The lack of support for DTS-HD was enough motivation for many early adopters of Blu-ray to choose more expensive stand-alone Blu-ray hardware.

Home video rental giant Blockbuster is reportedly planning to offer a set-top device that can delivery video from the Internet directly to a television. This would put Blockbuster in direct competition with products such as the Apple TV device, which has gained less-than-perfect sales since its launch, despite on-going hype. The development would also get Blockbuster ready for tougher competition with Netflix, which is already developing something similar with LG Electronics.

"We're talking to numerous companies and vendors about products, services, alliances and initiatives that can help us achieve our mission to transform Blockbuster into a company that provides access to media content across multiple channels -- from our stores, by mail, through kiosks, through downloading, through portable content-enabled devices -- so it's not surprising that there are rumors out there," a Spokeswoman for Blockbuster is reported as saying by the Hollywood Reporter.

The new service would be an extension to the MovieLink service that was previously purchased by Blockbuster. The reinvention of the Blockbuster brand could prove to be successful if it comes to the market, but it could also hurt Blockbuster's core and vital business. It would be a stand-alone product like Apple TV, as opposed to offering downloadable support for existing products such as Microsoft's Xbox 360.

News Corp.'s social-networking giant MySpace.com has struck a deal with British media company, ShineReveille International, to make its content available on broadcast television outside the United States, or on DVD media. The company retained the right to distribute video content from the MySpaceTV service online, on mobile networks and through broadcast television.

It was expected that MySpace would announce the agreement at an interactive media conference in Cannes, France, on Thursday, for its content, which includes several series co-produced by MySpace. Examples of the popular online video content included in the agreement are Roommates and Special Delivery.

Inside the United States, content from MySpace has already made its way to the airwaves. A MySpaceTV production called Quarterlife use used to fill a gap in programming resulting from the recent Hollywood writers strike by NBC, and the series has since been picked up by the Bravo cable channel.

Netblender will soon offer the ability to owners of an iPhone or an iPod touch that will allow the handheld devices to integrate with Blu-ray hardware. This new technology that will link Blu-ray equipment and content to the popular Apple devices, BD Touch, will allow users to perform certain tasks such as using an iPod or an iPhone as a remote control for Blu-ray equipment.

"The sophisticated user interface of the iPhone enables greater user interaction as well as the power to leverage the iPhone’s existing network. Search, e-commerce and advertising possibilities related to movie content abound when one imagines real-time communication between the iPhone and the content currently being displayed on a Blu-ray player," the company says.

Features that are mentioned include possibly using Blu-ray players to send digital copies of movies to an iPod or iPhone, and enabling both to sync video content in this manner. The company is expected to give more information on Thursday.

With the switch to all digital television broadcasts in the United States just over ten months away, about 5.3 million U.S. households have taken advantage of the Government's discount coupons for digital TV converter boxes. For homes in the U.S. that rely on over-the-air analog broadcasts, the DTV switch literally means black-out unless a converter box is used.

According to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), about 10 million coupons have been requested since the program began at the start of the year. Each coupon is worth $40 (on the purchase price of a box, priced around $60), and each household is entitles to a maximum of two coupons.

While demand is certainly outpacing supply, officials are worried that a large amount of people are still completely unaware of the DTV switch approaching. "We're doing a pretty good job so far," Meredith A. Baker, head of the telecommunications agency, said at a Senate hearing. "We have a lot more work to be done."

As of Friday, 280,128 coupons had been redeemed as consumers wait for stocks to hit the large retailers like Wal-Mart and Best Buy. It is estimated that about 20 million homes rely on over-the-air signals, and 70 million televisions could need converter boxes.

As we previously reported, there had been a call on Internet Service Providers (ISP) in Indonesia to block access to YouTube due to the availability of an anti-Koran video. The video, titled "Fitna," (which translates as "strife") shows some scenes of terrorists attacks including footage of the World Trade Center, Spanish train bombings, London bombing aftermath and other Islamic fundamentalist violence and hate speech.

While this extreme content is shown, the video picks several quotations from the Koran which presumably is believed by the film's creator, Dutch politician Geert Wilders, to inspire the actions depicted in the recordings. The video starts and ends with a now infamous picture of the Islamic prophet with a bomb in his hair, while a ticking sound is heard in the background.

Toward the end of the video, Wilders instructs any Muslim who is affected by the content to tear out pages from the Koran that contain verses which could incite violence, hatred and discrimination. The reaction to the video was mostly negative from Dutch politicians and leaders in the Islamic world, as well as Muslims who are offended by its content.

However, it has raked up millions of views on the large number of websites that now host the content. Indonesia, which is the world's most populous Muslim nation, banned the video and pressured ISPs to block access to YouTube. PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom), PT Telekomunikasi Selular (Telkomsel) and PT Exelcomindo Pratama Tbk and Indonet all have complied and blocked access to the video-sharing giant.

Adobe has launched the Adobe Media Player along with downloadable content and instructional videos on Wednesday. The new software will rival players such as Microsoft's Windows Media Player (WMP) and Apple's QuickTime. Video content is also being offered by the company, including episodes of CSI: Miami and CSI: New York, along with music videos and similar content.

Adobe aimed for the media player and video service to be free to all users, paid for by showing advertisements. Users can subscribe to their available shows, sort their favorites and get reminders when episodes become available. Whether the shows are available for download or streaming, or are DRM-protected or DRM-free, is totally up to the content provider.

The service, which will work with Vista and Mac OS X, brings about the possibility of advertising content based on the videos in a much better detailed and directed manner than previously done. For example, the clothing worn by actors or the surrounding objects could be advertised to the viewer.

You can download the Adobe Media Player at:
http://www.adobe.com/products/mediaplayer/

The iPhone / iPod Touch version of the Safari web browser has become the most used mobile browser for Internet browsing, according to research from StatCounter. It sits ahead of the Symbian operating system in the U.S., but sits behind it on a worldwide scale, while both ultimately trump Windows Mobile. Of course, the iPhone/iPod only account for 0.23 percent of the overall browsing in the United States.

On a global scale, they account for 0.08 percent of all browsing activity, which is actually quite good considering the number of countries the products are available in. StatCounter is not alone in its findings for the iPhone browser either, Net Applications also puts Symbian ahead of the iPod and iPhone software on a global scale

Net Applications estimates 0.19 percent of worldwide browsing is done with an iPod or iPhone, whereas 0.25 percent goes to Symbian. The success of the iPhone and iPod in web-browsing is the attempt that Apple made to a unified, full browser experience.

Adobe's Flash Player is used to display graphics content on millions of websites around the world, as well as being one of the (if not "the") most used technologies to drive the Internet video revolution. As a result, it has support in a large number of browsers installed on users' machines, and so it is an attractive target for those who seek to deliver malware to your computer.

A term has even been coined to address the occurence and growth of malware being delivered to a users' PC through a flash advertisement; Malvertisement. It was a flash vulnerability that won Shane Macaulay a laptop at the PWN TO OWN convention when he successfully broke into a machine running Windows Vista.

"These vulnerabilities could be accessed through content delivered from a remote location via the user's web browser, e-mail client, or other applications that include or reference the Flash Player," Adobe wrote in its advisory, in which it classifies its patches as "critical".

Back in January of this year, Adobe and a group of related companies fixed their software to block malicious individuals from creating .SWF files that enabled cross-site scripting attacks.

Sony has introduced its brand new headphones which it claims to be the first digital noise-canceling set, cutting out a 99 percent of ambient noise by Sony's calculations. The MDR-NC500D product apparently is the first ever headphones set to use digital technology with "Artificial Intelligence". An internal processor automatically calculates the correct cancellation profile to suit the characteristics of ambient noise.

Pushing the "AI Mode" button in normal usage will make the headphones automatically select between three different cancellation modes to suit the surroundings, but manually selecting is also possible increase the "AI" fails. A monitor switch is also included to temporarily listen to external sounds.

Sony advertises the product as being capable of 15 hours operation between charges.

Nokia Corp. is continuing to work on its answer to Apple Inc.'s touted iPhone. The new Nokia gadget, codenamed "Tube", also includes a touch-screen interface and apparently has a similar design. The product was shown off in a slide at the Evans Data Developer Relations Conference in Redwood City, California. It showed examples of the graphical display capability in the phone with a promotion for the movie Shrek the Third.

"It's our first touch device," said Tom Libretto, vice president of Forum Nokia. The company has not made public information on when it intends to have Tube on the market. While Apple handheld products have received extra-ordinary success in the past few years, Nokia believes it can compete with the iPhone while MP3 player manufacturers concede defeat to iPod.

During his presentation, Tom Libretto emphasized the huge different in shipments of phones from Nokia's range and the Apple iPhone. Since its June 2007 launch, the iPhone has sold about 5 - 6 million units. "We've done that volume since we've had dinner on Friday," Libretto said. One notable point about Nokia's upcoming "Tube" model is that, unlike iPhone, it supports Java.

President of Sony Corporation and CEO of Sony's Global Electronics Business, Ryoji Chubachi, has spoken of the corporation's plan to increase the market share of its Blu-ray Disc products dramatically. In the present, the DVD format accounts for about 80 percent of global demand for movie discs, according to Chubachi.

The Sony boss said that the company will offer Blu-ray devices in a wider range of products as part of an effort to increase the global market share of its Blu-ray products from 20 percent to 50 percent, and all of this by the end of 2008. Chubachi made the comments at a press conference in Taipei, April 3rd.

Among the new Blu-ray devices to be offered based on Chubachi's comments, are LCD HDTV's with Blu-ray disc recording functionalities. He said Sony will extend its Blu-ray promotion beyond mainly the PlayStation 3 (PS3) console and Blu-ray recorders, to "I.T. Devices". The PS3 console has been the biggest promotional tool for the Blu-ray format thus far.

Japan's NTT Communications Corp, something of an innovator and leader in mobile phone services, has a peculiar and interesting service ready to be tested in the country. The general idea in a nutshell is to let testers use their mobile phones to download content that triggers certain fragrances. In the test, 20 users are asked to keep aroma pots in their rooms that are equipped with infrared sensors capable of receiving signals from a mobile phone.

Sixteen different aromatic essences are stored in each pot, ranging from chamomile to peppermint. Using NTT DoCoMo Inc's i-mode Internet service, the testers choose from music and video clips to download. When a download begins, the phone will send a signal out for the infrared sensors on the aroma pot which will then blend the required essences to emit the appropriate scent.

As many as two hundred different fragrances can be produced from combinations of the original sixteen. Some are made to be useful, such as fragrances that help concentration or sleep. The trial will last between April 10th and April 20th, and if successful, it could be commercialized as "Mobile Fragrance Communication," and offer more features such as the ability to send files with scent attachments.

Following the fall of the HD DVD disc format, all eyes turned to Microsoft's Xbox 360 console, expecting a response to the news that could come in the form of a Blu-ray-equipped Xbox 360 unit or optional peripheral. It wasn't long until the rumors started circulating about deals and orders from Microsoft that indicated such a move, but again, Microsoft firmly denied any plans to physically support the Blu-ray format.

Sony Corp. on the other hand embraces the inclusion of a Blu-ray drive in the PlayStation 3 (PS3) console, providing full HD video from BD media to owners, as a key advantage over the Xbox 360 console and a win-win package for consumers. Microsoft does take the need for HD-video capabilities seriously it seems, but instead of back the format of its rival (yet), the company has put its money on digital distribution.

"We have always said online is the way to go," Microsoft's Neil Thompson said, predicting that physical media would give way to downloads within the next three years. He declined to accept the view that Microsoft has abandoned owners of the HD DVD add-on drive. "We said to people they had the choice; we didn't force it on them as we didn't put it in the box," he said.

Imeem (legally "imeem") has announced the acquisition of SNOCAP for an undisclosed amount to the press today. The leading social media networking site made the strategic acquisition of SNOCAP while it is already using its powerful content identification technology on its own service. SNOCAP specializes in identifying digital audio streams by use of a Digital Registry, and ensuring that content owners and artists receive payment for the use of their property.

Those who have benefit from SNOCAP technology include record companies, independent labels and unsigned artists, with over 110,000 unsigned and unaffiliated artists relying on the technology to manage their own distribution and sell their music online. SNOCAP MyStores makes it possible to sell music on popular venues such as MySpace.

Artists that utilize SNOCAP MyStores to distribute music include The Rolling Stones, Coldplay, Diddy, Nickelback, The Shins, LCD Soundsystem, Lily Allen, Sean Paul and Corinne Bailey Rae. Imeem depends on SNOCAP technology to allow users among its 24 million unique monthly visitors upload, listen to and share music, while offering artists and labels the choice to make their music available through imeem.

Chinese Internet company Baidu may be forced by a Chinese court to damages claims totaling US$9 million to three record companies. The claim is the tip of the iceberg in a copyright infringement test-case that could expose the Chinese internet giant to a multi-billion dollar liability. The record industry claims the service helps to "deep link" users directly to hundreds of thousands of copyright infringing music tracks.

In April 2007 a setting ruling found Yahoo China guilty of facilitating mass copyright infringement for operating a music delivery service very similar to Baidu's. That ruling was confirmed in December 2007 by the Beijing Higher People’s Court, the final appeals court.

The record companies' infringement claims against Baidu are based on 127 of their own music tracks. They seek the maximum statutory compensation under Chinese law of RMB 500,000 (US$71,000) per track. This creates total claims of RMB 63,500,000 (US$9m).

"Baidu is China's largest violator of music copyrights, generating huge revenue by deliberately providing access to illegal content. The scale of what it is doing can be summed up by the fact that if the courts were to rule that Baidu should pay maximum statutory damages for all the infringing tracks available through its service it would have to pay many billions of dollars in compensation. That would be an enormous but appropriate price to pay for a company that is failing to take what are quite simple steps to respect the rights of artists and record companies and protect the content of IFPI's members," John Kennedy, Chairman and Chief Executive of IFPI, said.

Carphone Warehouse has revealed that it has no intention of cooperating with the record industry's BPI or the UK Government in a plan to disconnect users who are caught engaging in illegal file sharing activities. "Our position is very clear, we are the conduit that gives users access to the Internet, we do not control the Internet nor do we control what our users do on the Internet," CPW CEO Charles Dunstone said in a statement.

The UK Government has been putting pressure on Internet Service Providers (ISP) to co-operate with rights holders to clamp down on illegal file sharing. "I cannot foresee any circumstances in which we would voluntarily disconnect a customer's account on the basis of a third party alleging a wrongdoing. We believe that a fundamental part of our role as an ISP is to protect the rights of our users to use the Internet as they choose. We will fight any challenge to the sanctity of this relationship with every legal option available to us," Dunstone said.

The Register contacted a spokesman for Carphone Warehouse, who said the company is not going to be bullied by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) trade organization, which sent it a letter demanding a written agreement within 14 days. The letter allegedly threatens court action if the ISP fails to respond. "There's a difference between that and the BPI's public statements on cooperation," the spokesman said.

Apple Inc. has issued a security patch that addresses eleven security vulnerabilities with its QuickTime multimedia playback software. Of the eleven security problems addressed, nine could potentially be used by a malicious user to run malicious code on a victim's computer. Eight of the vulnerabilities affect both Mac OS X and Windows versions of the software, while the remaining three are exclusive to Windows XP SP2 and Vista.

The worst flaws can be exploited with a specially crafted movie file, often delivered to unaware used through email messages. Due to the wide and cross-platform distribution of the QuickTime software, it is a constant target of crackers who use the discovered vulnerabilities to hijack machines.

In 2007, Apple fixed 34 QuickTime vulnerabilities, after fixing 28 QuickTime holes in 2006. So far this year, the tally is up to 16 specific QuickTime fixes. This latest fix comes shortly after security researchers managed to compromise a MacBook Air laptop using a zero-day vulnerability, taking advantage of a hole in Apple's Safari 3.1 Web browser.

CyberLink Corp. launched the latest version of PowerDVD 8 last week. The company, which is an innovative solutions provider for the connected digital lifestyle, has fine-tuned the latest version of PowerDVD to provide maximum playback performance in supporting the latest high-definition video and audio formats. CyberLink PowerDVD 8 introduces new ways for consumers to enjoy movies beyond just watching.

It supports HD audio and video standards and formats, including AVCHD and Blu-ray Disc, and has Pure Home Theater Audio support, letting users enjoy unmatched clarity and purity through their high-definition, 7.1-channel home-entertainment system, or on the go using a notebook. A new Movie Remix feature promises to let users "create their own stories" by rearranging scenes, adding dialog and commentary, subtitles, and on-screen effects.

"Now CyberLink PowerDVD 8 not only offers the best movie experience on the PC, it offers a totally new way to get immersed in movie entertainment," said Alice H. Chang, CEO of CyberLink. "PowerDVD extends the user experience from the realm of watching movies on the PC to a new online universe of shared experiences. With a built-in database for organizing a movie collection, and the ability to share information, opinions, and remixes via the online community MoovieLive, PowerDVD users now have more ways than ever to enjoy movies."

Panasonic has become the first-ever consumer electronics company to ship 100 million mobile phones in the Japanese market, after first selling its TZ-801 analog handset in 1979. The TZ-801 was designed for a car phone service of NTT Public Corp., the government-owned forerunner to the privatized NTT. The TZ-802A followed in 1985, and it could be detached from a car holder and carried around over the user's shoulder.

The phone system weighed about 7 kilograms. In 1987, the company shipped its first handheld units, with the release of the TZ-802B with its brick-like design. It developed its next model for the PDC (Personal Digital Communications) network, which was a standard developed in Japan that didn't take off elsewhere.

By June 1997, the company had shipped 10 million units. After the launch of NTT DoCoMo's 3G service in 2001, Panasonic was one of the first to produce a compatible handset for the network, which was the first ever commercial 3G service to launch at the time. Around the same time, Panasonic had shipped 50 million units.

Nowadays Panasonic's phones are like those from any other company, with dozens of features that would have seemed impossible in 2001 with an emphasis on multimedia consumption (both Panasonic's big screen TVs and its newest phones carry the Viera brand).

A lawyer working with Swiss anti-piracy outfit Logistep has received a ban from practicing as a lawyer for six months. Elizabeth Martin sent inappropriately agressive and deliberately false and misleading letters to thousands of alleged file sharers that had supposedly been infringing on the rights of Call of Juarez game owned by Techland.

In short, Martin has written to the file sharers and demanded a payment of €400.00 in compensation for the alleged copyright offense if the user wanted to avoid going to court. The letter went on to lead readers to believe that they would be found guilty in court and would be responsible for their own court fees, which would be "substantial."

Along with the promise of a guilty verdict, she warned the file sharers that a decision against them would amount to "hundreds of thousands of euros." The letter also ended with a threat to seize and resell the personal belongings of any user who was found guilty and couldn't pay a fine. "If you are not able to pay the damages ordered by the court, our client will seek to gain the amount by the sale of your goods," the letter concluded.

The Norwegian Consumer Council (NCC) is advising Internet users not to sign letters admitting guilt for sharing movies on P2P networks. Some file sharers have been targeted with letters from Norway's Simonsen Advokatfirma DA on behalf of the movie industry, but these letters have all only reached ISPs so far, who have yet to budge.

The law firm wants the ISPs to forward the letters on to the users in question, who presumably are only known by Internet Protocol (IP) address now. The Norwegian ISP industry association is currently advising all of its members not to forward the letters to its customers at this point.

If they did actually reach a user, then the NCC advises the user not to sign them. "The statement deprives the consumer of due process and puts him in a state of critical legal uncertainty, with practically unlimited legal responsibility. We cannot imagine that this law firm would ever advise their own clients to sign such a letter!"

As well as admitting guilt, a user who signs is also making a pledge not to engage in illicit file-swapping again. The NCC notes that copyright needs to be protected and respected, but that only a court of law can determined questions of guilt, innocence, and penalties. It takes the stance that punishing users for mere allegations of file-sharing would be a "violation of that person's human right to participate in society."

Along with being an internationally known nut, who headed up the "Manson Family" responsible for the death of actress Sharon Tate and other horrible crimes, Charles Manson always considered himself to be an artist. Now Manson wants fans to be able to download and edit/alter his record "One Mind" in any way that they see fit, opting for the Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.

"One Mind is pure Charlie, no additions, no corrections, no added opinions, filters or editing. This is all new material, the most recent as far as we know, consisting of songs, trance-poetry, conversations, raps, ramblings, musings and more," says Family Jams' website (Manson's label).

However, considering the source of the music, one would be inclined to expect remixes and editing of his songs to be of a satirical nature at least. (hopefully?)

Verizon is citing a widely publicized article in which an HDTV enthusiast on the AVS Forum experimented with Verizon's FiOS and Comcast's HD offerings to defend a potentially misleading advertisement claim. The testing found that Comcast's re-compressing of HD video (to make way for more channels) had very undesirable results for customers. The quality comparison showed that Comcast quality was pale in comparison to FiOS in recordings taken of the same program, on the channels at the same time.

Sure, Verizon has every right to smile and tout about the results, but an advertisement campaign which claims that FiOS TV offers "pure uncompressed High Definition," could be considered as badly misleading. While FiOS does not re compress its video content, the content providers do compress it before providing it to cable companies.

"It's true that content owners compress their video before sending it to video service providers," Verizon media relations director Bobbi Henson said in an e-mailed statement. "But we forward the signal to our customers the way that we receive it."

In the growing market for digital music downloads and related services, the companies who can provide the tech have to pay huge sums of cash to get label support. In the last year we have seen the music industry more forward by providing music downloads without Digital Rights Management (DRM) and to back services that allow users to consume music for free with advertisement support.

However, such services pay a hefty price for label support, so bad that it essentially may kill a service before it has a chance to flourish. For example, SpiralFrog, which is an advertisement supported service, paid more than $3 million in advances to Universal Music Group (UMG) before it went live. Ever since, it has paid even millions more in licensing fees.

Imeem is rumored to have paid $20 million in advances and also gave labels equity in the company. It disputes the $20 million figure, but the equity is a matter of public record. Sometimes the demand from the record companies is so much that it makes deals impossible. A mobile messaging company halted negotiations after a label demanded 85% of the company's gross revenue -- music licensing not involved.

Microsoft Corp. has revealed that it will appeal a jury verdict on Friday that ordered it to pay $367.4 million to Alcatel-Lucent for two offenses of patent infringement. Meanwhile the company was found not to have infringed on a video decoding patent related to the way the Windows operating system plays DVDs, which wasn't appreciated by Alcatel-Lucent.

Alcatel-Lucent spokeswoman Mary Lou Ambrus said the company was disappointed on the decision over the video patent. Still, $367.4 million is no small sum, and Microsoft is set to contest the decision. "We do not believe the jury's verdict against Microsoft on the two user interface patents is supported by the facts or the law," said Tom Burt, a deputy general counsel at Microsoft, in a statement.

He continued: "We will move immediately to have the two verdicts against Microsoft overturned." This is just the latest decision in many stemming from the approach taken by Lucent Technologies in 2003 in claiming patent infringement offenses by Gateway Inc. and Dell. Alcatel bought Lucent in 2006.

The bad luck experienced by the Grand Theft Auto series of video games in Australia has continued with the upcoming GTA IV. Rockstar confirmed to the Sydney Morning Herald that the game has indeed been edited, with certain things cut out so that it can receive an MA15+ rating. The Office of Film and Literature Classification awarded the game the rating making it suitable for individuals over 15, while it does not have a rating for over-18s.

In its rating, the board advising consumers that the game contains "strong violence, strong coarse language, drug and sexual references". Rockstar did not reveal exactly what was cut out of the game for the ratings board to consider it suitable enough for 15 year olds.

Back in 2001, Grand Theft Auto III was refused classification (although sold thousands of copies beforehand) because players could pick up prostitutes. An edited version of the game was released in the country later, and an edited version of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City was also sold to Australians to gain a rating.

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas was pulled from retail shelves despite having an MA15+ rating after the "Hot Coffee" modification disaster hit the developer. Soon after, an edited version was sold in the territory (and others). Grand Theft Auto IV will be released in Australia on April 29.

Owners of the Sony PlayStation 3 (PS3) console can enjoy rumble technology now with the DualShock 3 controller announced at the Tokyo Game Show last year and released in Japan on November 11th. Scheduled for release in the United States on April 15th, the DualShock 3 is arriving at some stores already who have permission to sell the item immediately after receiving it.

The DualShock 3 costs $54.99, which is $5 more than the SIXAXIS currently goes for. A Sony representative told MTV that the SIXAXIS controller will not be available after it's completely sold through at retail, expected to be around summer. The U.S. release targeted the arrival of Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, one of the most anticipated games for the PS3 platform.

Sony will change its PS3 model bundles to include a DualShock 3 controller instead of a SIXAXIS controller within the next few months. Additionally, the Metal Gear Solid 4 package will include the high-anticipated Title, an 80GB PlayStation 3 (PS3) console and a controller.

The world's largest video-sharing website, YouTube, has teamed up with The Rolling Stones to launch a new entertainment channel for fans. A statement from Universal Music Group and the band says that fans can upload questions to the Stones about "Shine a Light", a documentary about the band and "any other burning questions."

"By visiting www.youtube.com/livinglegends, viewers will be able to upload footage of themselves asking their questions to Mick Jagger and/or Keith Richards," the statement said. "The best questions will be personally answered, with the subsequent footage of the Rolling Stones available to watch exclusively on this new YouTube channel in a few weeks' time."

YouTube will launch the new music channel titled "YouTube Living Legends" which will invite top artists from around the world to communicate with fans using the site. The YouTube / Rolling Stones collaboration comes just after MySpace launched its new music services for artists.

According to figures released by Enterbrain, during March, Nintendo's Wii games console outsold Sony's PlayStation 3 (PS3), while the PlayStation Portable (PSP) outsold the DS handheld for the first time in six months. Nintendo managed to move 265,542 Wii units in the five weeks to March 30th, while Sony sold 81,579 units of the PS3.

Microsoft's Xbox 360 console has struggled to gain any momentum in its life so far in Japan. During March, the Xbox 360 sold a weak 13,127 units, keeping it far behind its rivals in the home-console market. As for handhelds, Sony considerably beat Nintendo during March, selling 415,415 PSP units compared to 255,124 NDS units.

The strong sales for the PSP in March reflect the chart-topping performance of Capcom Co Ltd's Monster Hunter Freedom 2G. After a very weak first year, the PlayStation 3 (PS3) has come back swinging since late 2007 following price drops, improved games line-up and possibly the victory of the Blu-ray disc format in the next generation DVD format war.

Online social-networking giant MySpace has announced MySpace Music, a joint venture with Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group, and Warner Music Group. that will go head to head with iTunes, recently revealed to be the largest music store in the United States after over-taking Wal-Mart. The service will weave new services into online profile pages of more than five million musicians.

Methods of generating income will include selling tracks that can be freely copied by fans, ringtones, concert tickets and merchandise. "We look to music as an area where we want to do something huge; something historical," MySpace chief operating officer Amit Kapur told AFP. "We plan to really change the game entirely."

According to MySpace, over 30 million people visit the Music Channel every month. The new service will be rolled out in the United States in coming months. No financial terms or further details of the deals with the record companies were disclosed.

We have heard research that link video games to almost every human emotion in existence and still have come no closer to figuring out the true effect, if any, that this content has on impressionable minds. Nevertheless, since it is a hot and controversial topic in almost all regions where video games enjoy strong sales, we like to publish the results of studies and let users renew the debate.

Develop Magazine has conducted research that involved 292 World of Warcraft players aged between twelve years and eighty-three years. The results allegedly show that, contrary to a popular belief and several other papers, playing video games that depict levels of violence leads players to feel calmed and tired.

Of course, whether World of Warcraft is the best title to determine the effect is debatable too, but it still is an interesting result. "There were actually higher levels of relaxation before and after playing the game as opposed to experiencing anger but this did very much depend on personality type," said Jane Barnett, who headed the Middlesex study.

Warner Bros. announced on Thursday that several more of its upcoming titles will be available through video-on-demand (VOD) services in the UK around the same time as their DVD release dates. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford and Beowulf were available shortly after their DVD release date (1 and 15 days respectively) on Sky, Virgin, BT and Xbox Live.

Viewers spend a few pounds to watch a movie as many times as they want within a 24 hour time frame. Warner's UK strategy for VOD mirrors trials in the U.S., Benelux and Nordic regions where spending on DVDs and VOD services rose due to increased cross-promotion and marketing exposure.

Josh Berger, President and Managing Director of Warner Bros. U.K. said the initiative attempts to meet consumer demands to "see what they want, how, where and when they want it." When asked about the quicker availability of VOD after DVD releases, Gideon Lask, head of e-commerce at U.K. entertainment retailer HMV, said he agreed with Berger that "customers should have the opportunity to discover and enjoy content the way they want to ... either through physical purchases or via downloaded content."

Victoria Police raided a music retailer in Sydney Road, Brunswick in Melbourne earlier today, seizing thousands of allegedly pirate music CDs and DVDs. The successful raid by Victoria Police marks the launch of Operation Rein in the Rip Offs. Police searched the premises and removed five thousand discs openly on sale and extensive burning equipment that was housed in a back room.

This nationwide operation is being spearheaded by Music Industry Piracy Investigations (MIPI) and will target unscrupulous retailers across Australia who are blatantly selling pirate music discs and ripping off consumers, songwriters, artists and legitimate music retailers.

"This proactive raid by the Victorian Police signals the start of a national campaign by the Australian music industry to crack down on rogue traders that are damaging the music industry and ripping off consumers by selling pirate music. No matter where they are located, we will find
illegal traders that are selling pirate music and take appropriate enforcement action," Sabiene Heindl, General Manager of MIPI, said.

A 35 year old male is currently assisting Victorian Police with their inquiries in relation to today's raid. Criminal penalties for copyright infringement are up to $60,500 and 5 years imprisonment per offense for individuals, and up to $302,500 for corporations.

The European Commission is to probe a state grant to Channel 4 in the United Kingdom. An assessment will be made on whether the grant distorts competition in the UK TV market. While Channel 4 does not receive public funding, it will receive a £14 million grant to aid its transition to all-digital broadcasting.

However, a commercial rival has complained that Channel 4 does not need to receive tax payers month, since it had sufficient cash to meet the capital costs. Channel 4 is a public service broadcaster, and so needs to be able to transmit its high quality material as such. This is how the hand-out has been justified.

"The information provided so far by the UK does not enable the commission to assess whether, given the costs of its digital switchover obligations and taking into account its commercial revenues, Channel 4 will have in the short term a net public service cost which would allow it to receive state aid," the EC said today.

The corporation ended 2005 with an annual profit of £99 million on sales of £894 million.

The iPhone Dev Team has delivered the Mac OSX version of a much-anticipated software development kit (SDK) for the development of "unsigned code" to be used with iPod Touch and iPhone. This allows developers to bypass the official pathway laid by Apple to get applications running on the iPhone. A version of the SDK for the Windows platform is expected to be released within the next day.

The PwnageTool tool will be useful for anyone who is interested in developing for the Apple platforms. Many developers have already retrieved Apple's official iPhone SDK and registered for the iPhone developer program, but have been left in the dark over whether or not they can build applications with Apple's imprimatur.

The iPhone Dev Team developed the iPhone unlock tool last year and claims that hundreds of thousands of users have unlocked their iPhones already. According to the team, hacks built with PwnageTool cannot be blocked and defeated by software updates from Apple.

More information:
http://wikee.iphwn.org/news:pwnage_announcement

Sony Corp. has unveiled a small video camera capable of recording high-definition (HD) video to a flash memory card. The company claims that the video camera is the world's smallest and latest HD camera to be made available to consumers. It is set to go on sale in the Japanese market this month.

The device, which weighs a mere 300 grams (or 10.6 ounces), measures 32 mm x 119 mm x 63 mm (1.3 inches x 4.7 inches x 2.5 inches). It is advertised as being able to record up to 55 minutes of digital video with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels on an 8GB memory card.

Sony camcorders and its Cyber-shot digital cameras continue to be Sony's top profit earner. The new world's smallest HD camera will go on sale on April 20 in Japan, comes with a high price tag of 130,000 yen ($1,271). It will be made available in other regions later.

Adobe Systems Inc. has started public trials of its software delivering television shows to viewers over the Internet. The planned service will provide ad-supported subscriptions to viewers and will include some top television programs like CBS Corp.'s CSI, Survivor and Big Brother. A company official revealed details on the service on Thursday.

Partnerships with content providers that include CBS and MTV-parent Viacom Inc. will drive the service, providing vital content to gather a base of regular users in the increasingly competitive market for online video. The programming will be available to users through the Adobe Media Player, said Adobe Senior Director of Product Marketing Mark Randall.

While not revealing anymore financial information, Randall said that Adobe and its content partners will share revenue from the advertisements displayed with the videos.

Britain's free-to-air digital TV service will offer high-definition (HD) channels to viewers with the proper equipment by 2012, in time for the Olympics. Ofcom had already hinted at plans to launch HD on Freeview and today, it set out plans after consulting with broadcasters. Initially, three channels will be available in Freeview in select regions in 2009 and four HD channels will be available by as digital switchover is completed by 2012.

One of the four slots will be held by the BBC Trust while others will be awarded the remaining three slots after a bidding process. The applications will be judged on their efficient use of spectrum, diversity of content and the contribution of public services. The bidding is expected to include Channel 4, Channel 5 and ITV.

The move of HD to Freeview will enable terrestrial broadcasters to compete with pay-TV options from Virgin and BSkyB.

Popular video sharing entity Blinkx is offering a new service called BBTV. The Joost-like service combines video content with speech and visual recognition technology, and combines the video content with the Internet in a whole new way. Offering full-screen TV-quality video, BBTV can link what you're watching with relevant information on the Internet - learn about who's on-screen, what's being said and more.

To use BBTV, you must be using Windows 2000, XP or Vista. It is delivered in the form of a 1.8MB installation file. "The Web is the largest repository of connected information in the world on any subject and from myriad sources," Blinkx founder and CEO Suranga Chandratillake said. "BBTV delivers television over the Internet, but it also fuses that TV with the wealth of information on the Web, rather than appearing as just another layer floating above it."

The service offers content from about 40 different independent movies, as well as Blinkx' current partners and plans to expand the content offered within the next few months.

A very interesting article by bfdtv on the AVS Forum revealed the effects of a HDTV provider choosing to sacrifice quality for quantity. Comcast is degrading HD video on some of its systems to make room for more HD channels in response to increased competition from DirecTV and Verizon FiOS.

By early April, most Comcast systems will recompress and degrade their HD, much like DirecTV and Dish Network do on their MPEG-2 channels. Comcast has allocated a maximum of two HD channels per 38.8Mbps QAM and has now changed, attempting to squeeze three channels instead.

Bfdtv compared the quality of the same programs on Comcast and Verizon FiOS, recording the same program from the same channel, at the same time. A test the user ran last year had shown no difference between the two providers, but things are a lot different now.

The upcoming software update to be rolled out to all TiVo subscribers promises to speed up performance of the DVR interface. Slow performance from TiVo equipment has generated customer complaints going back eight years to when the company was founded. The 9.3 update aims to speed up common tasks for the user.

No longer will the DVR pause for nearly a minute while it reorders Season Pass priorities or stall for half a minute upon the creation of a Season Pass. In these areas, users will see improvements between 10 and 30 seconds. TiVo Central, the default dashboard that appears when you press the TiVo button on your remote, will also load about 1 second faster.

Several seconds are also shaved off the delay when a recording is confirmed. The update doesn't seem to be offering any new features, but it does have some unspecified fixes related to CableCARD. An exact date for the release has not been specified, but it is expected in April.

DivX, Inc. announced that the latest Blu-ray Disc player from Denon, the high-end audio/video brand owned by D&M Holdings Inc., has been given DivX Certification. This puts the product in a growing list of DivX Certified products. The DVD-3800BDCI will go on sale in the Japan and U.S. markets at the end of this month. This is the second Denon Blu-ray player to receive DivX Certification.

"DENON is a world leader in high-quality home theater systems and audio products. By extending the DivX standard into next-generation Blu-ray devices, we're further delivering on our strategy to provide consumers with a high-quality video experience on any kind of device, from the PC to the living room and on the go," said Kevin Hell, CEO of DivX, Inc. "DivX is just as relevant as a feature on a Blu-ray player as on standard DVD players and we expect more and more Blu-ray players to incorporate DivX technology."

Indonesia is requesting that Internet Service Providers (ISP) block access to YouTube in response to a video posted by a Dutch lawmaker. The video in question accuses the Koran of inciting violence. Geert Wilders, leader of the Dutch "Freedom Party", made the film which sparked radical Muslims to call for his death during protests outside the Dutch embassy in Jakarta.

Indonesia's information minister, Muhammad Nuh, contacted YouTube asking it to remove the film, according to Cahyana Ahmadjayadi, the ministry's director general for information technology. "Our efforts include asking Internet service providers to block access to YouTube. They have started doing it now," Ahmadjayadi told Reuters.

If you have been following the news lately you will know that this latest episode has seen some scattered violence which we won't go into in this article. One interesting point however is that Mydin Mohamed Holdings, a supermarket chain in Malaysia which sells many electronic goods, has flagged "Dutch-origin" products in its stores across the country and is urging its own customers to boycott the goods in protest.

The recent decision by antitrust regulators to approve the proposed merger of XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio in the United States has gained criticism due to its reasoning. In 1997, when the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved rules to create the new services, it insisted that both XM and Sirius certify that radio equipment can pick up signals from both providers.

"At the very least, consumers should be able to access the services from all licensed satellite DARS (digital audio radio service) systems and our rule on receiver inter-operability accomplishes this," the FCC's 1997 decision reads. While this rule aims to make it easier for a consumer to switch between services, no such interoperable radio equipment is readily available to consumers.

The important thing about this fact is that it was cited by the Justice Department as a reason to clear the merger. Basically, since the goal of making and selling interoperable equipment to consumers failed, the regulators found that both companies don't compete as much as previously thought.

Users of XM buy one type of radio and users of Sirius buy another, and automakers pre-install systems based on whichever company they have an exclusive contract with. Therefore, users of each service are unlikely to change to its competitor as it would need different equipment. Then, of course, there is also the claims from both providers that satellite radio has different competition in this decade including iPods and HD Radio.

A new update has been released for the popular and useful freeware burning tool ImgBurn. As always, ImgBurn has been released with a long changelog. When v2.4.0.0 was released in February, it added support for burning audio CDs. The software can handle almost anything that can be decoded with DirectShow/ACM, including AAC, APE, FLAC ,MP3, MPC, Ogg, PCM, WAV and WMA.

Here is the changelog for v2.4.1.0...

• Added: Support for the TAO write type as a real option rather than just a fallback if SAO fails.
  
• Added: Support for burning APE/FLAC/WV files with an embedded CUE sheet as if they were normal image files.
  
• Added: Accurate audio duration calculation (via a dummy Decode pass just before the burn) leading to less gaps/padding and no missing audio data.
  
• Added: Support for new BookType related options known as 'Active Setting' on NEC/Optiarc drives (to swap between the 'Permanent' and 'Temporary' setting)
  
• Added: The ability to have the open/save dialog boxes always default to the folder specified in the 'File Locations' tab within the Settings window. (otherwise it'll default to the MRU one)
  
• Added: 'New Project' option to the File menu in Build mode.
  
• Added: When the program is unable to find any cells to use for the LB when buring a DL disc in Build mode, it now tells you extra info about which Cell to split and where to do it.
  
• Added: Support for reading discs recorded using the TAO write type.
  
• Added: Context/popup/right click menu to the 'Add file or folder to source list' button in Build mode (the green +) with the option of 'Clear Source MRU List' on it.
  
• Added: Options to enable/disable the success/error sounds after certain program functions.
  
• Added: 'Show Non-Present Devices' option to the 'Automatic Write Speed' form when 'View By' is set to 'Device' (It's enabled by default).
  
• Added: 'Translated By' Field to the 'About' box.
  
• Added: The ability to define the start LBA when building an image - useful for custom disc layouts.
  
• Added: Variable 'PreGap Snapping' whereby gaps will snap to the nearest second (multiple of 75 frames) if within the specified range. (i.e. 1 second, 72 frames will snap to 2 seconds)
  
• Added: If you don't enter a path for the file in Build/Read modes it'll use the 'Image Files' default one configured in the Settings (File Locations tab).
  
• Added: You can type a relative path into Build/Read modes destination box and it'll resolve it when you click Write/OK.
  
• Added: Saving a project file now writes the previously selected LB info from the 'Create Layer Break' window. This can then be used when loading the IBB via CLI so the user isn't prompted to pick a LB, thus allowing for batch builds.
  
• Added: 'Don't Enable Sound' checkbox to the ImgBurnPreview options.
  
• Added: A button in the settings to reset the burn statistics.
  
• Added: 'Device.CDROM' Shell extension option where you get 'Read using ImgBurn' as an option when you right click on any CD/DVDROM drive. (It's off by default because windows appears to make it the default option - hence double clicking on the drive opens ImgBurn!)
  
• Added: Option to turn off the funny quotes on the Ez-Mode Picker screen. (For people without a sense of humour ;-) )
  
• Added: The ability to sort tracks in the order of the 'Track Number' field in any available file 'Tag' within the 'Create CD CUE File' window.
  
• Added: The ability to define a default folder for Project files (*.ibb).
  
• Added: The ability to define a default folder for Language files (*.lng).
  
• Added: Support for 'WavePack' files (*.wv) in the 'Create CD CUE File' window.
  
• Added: A failed read of a sector in read mode now maps that sector to a file name and the result is shown in the log.
  
• Added: Support for reading unicode file names in MDS v1.5+ files.
  
• Added/Changed: When running in 'Portable' mode, certain paths will be saved relative to the exe's folder if they're at the same level or below it. (i.e. 'D:ImgBurnSoundsSuccess.wav' becomes '.SoundsSuccess.wav')
  
• Added/Changed: When build mode detects you're building DVD Video/HD DVD Video/Blu-ray Video/OS installation discs, it now tells you exactly which settings will be modified in the 'conflicting settings detected' message box.
  
• Changed: When saving an project file, the initial file name is now taken from the image file name (but with an 'ibb' extension), falling back to using the volume label, then MRU value and finally just 'My Project.ibb'.
  
• Changed: Handling of manually entered file names in build/read mode to parse environment variables.
  
• Changed: Updated ImgBurnPreview.exe to the latest code - this one has support for audio.
  
• Changed: If the bootable image (in Build mode) isn't a multiple of 512 bytes in size, the user can now choose to proceed anyway.
  
• Changed: Tweaked some of the TOC parsing code to work around bugs found in certain drives.
  
• Changed: Tweaked the UDF file system parsing code to minimise the amount of Random access reads and potentially speed up the process by a substantial amount when lots of files are present.
  
• Changed: You can now build 'pure' bootable images/discs without having to add a 'dummy' file to the source box.
  
• Changed: The 'Restore Defaults' button in the settings now resizes itself to fit the string.
  
• Changed: The 'Languages' list is now sorted alphabetically.
  
• Changed: Limited the initial height of the 'Create CD CUE File' window to that of the desktop area (for people using 800x600 and below where it wouldn't quite fit on the screen).
  
• Changed: Settings screen is now wider to better accommodate longer translated strings.
  
• Changed: The buttons on the 'Filter Drivers' screen now auto-resize themselves to fit the translated string.
  
• Changed: The 'Create MDS' windows now uses picture buttons for Add/Remove/Move etc just as the 'Create CUE' window does.
  
• Changed: All controls have been changed to the 'TTnt*' unicode style so you can use/view a properly translated GUI on a normal 'English' Windows install.
  
• Changed: The folder 'IBB Files' now defaults to using the name 'Project Files'.
  
• Changed: The folder 'IBG Files' now defaults to using the name 'Graph Data Files'.
  
• Changed: The folder 'IBQ Files' now defaults to using the name 'Queue Files'.
  
• Changed: Moved some of the 'select a folder' type options in the settings to a new 'File Locations' tab.
  
• Changed: The 'Start' button in Read mode is no longer disabled when CSS/AACS protected media is detected. There's just a warning that it won't work (warning can be disabled in the settings).
  
• Changed: Date/Time pickers in Build mode now display the selected date/time according to the 'Short Date' format as found in Regional Settings within Control Panel.
  
• Changed: Log entries for 'File System(s)' no longer translate the 'None' word when there's no file system present in the image. (The Log is supposed to be English)
  
• Changed: Removed the need for a second basic parsing of the file system on the disc when in Read mode (as the automatic destination file name was generated).
  
• Changed: Under Vista/2008, the Volume Label displayed by ImgBurn is taken from the 'File Set Descriptor' (when set) rather than the 'Logical Volume Descriptor' to match the behaviour of Windows.
  
• Changed: 'DVD+R Reserve Track' is now enabled by default.
  
• Changed: Removed the pre-read/verify 'Samsung Set Magic Speed' option. It was often slow to complete and not very well supported by some Samsung drives.
  
• Changed: Optimised the code that checks for interfering programs so they're all done at the same time rather than individually.
  
• Changed: Updated the code that checks for interfering programs to look for newer versions of DVD43.
  
• Changed: Prompt user if auto retries of tray cycling still don't make the drive initialise the disc properly between write and verify.
  
• Changed: Handling of the 'Delete the image when done' option when the image is a CUE file. The user can now delete the CUE without deleting the files it calls upon (if more than 1).
  
• Changed: The 'Open/Save As' file dialog boxes within the Log window now default to the 'Log Files' file location as specified in the settings.
  
• Changed: The 'Open/Save As' file dialog boxes for IBB, IBG, IBQ and LOG files now default to the appropriate folder - as specified in the settings.
  
• Changed: Some of the messages that can pop up when performing 'Display IFO Layer Break Information' on a drive so that they're appropriate for a drive rather than an image file.
  
• Changed: Updated ImgBurnPreview to v1.1.1.0 - Based on Jeanl's latest code.
  
• Changed: The log entry for 'BookType' now displays the permanent setting unless the 'Active Setting' is actually set to 'Temporary', in which case it displays the temporary one!
  
• Changed: Modified the names of the 'Browse for...' entries on the 'File' menu to make them less confusing.
  
• Changed: 'Read Disc Information' command reverted to asking for 32 bytes of data, not 34. (Some dodgy drivers appear to hang when it's 34)
  
• Changed: Updated the installer to NSIS 2.36
  
• Changed/Fixed: Removed the double image file initialisation when trying to burn the currently selected file in Write mode when it wasn't actually marked as 'Queued' in the Write queue (i.e. having already burnt it).
  
• Changed/Fixed: The 'Automatic Change Book Type' option for NEC drives now sets the 'Active Setting' to 'Temporary' so the correct value is actually used.
  
• Changed/Fixed: Tweaked some of the code that deals with expanding relative paths passed via CLI or stored within IBB project files.
  
• Changed/Fixed: Most of the forms are now dynamically created at runtime as and when need. This cuts down on the resources used by ImgBurn (especially GDI objects) and speeds up the loading time. (GDI object count is down from ~1100 to ~550)
  
• Changed/Fixed: CD-TEXT options/controls in the 'Create CD CUE File' window are now disabled when the selected Track isn't an audio track.
  
• Changed/Fixed: Silently fail (failure is still logged) when MCN control fails with the 'ERROR_NOT_SUPPORTED' error code.
  
• Changed/Fixed: Potential workaround for drives that hang when being queried to see if they support LabelFlash.
  
• Changed/Fixed: Better ACM 'acmStreamConvert' handling so the program knows when all the data has been converted (even when buffered under Linux/Wine).
  
• Changed/Fixed: When verifying, if the track on the disc is smaller than the one in the image file the user is asked if they want to continue or not. If they choose to, the disc's track is padded out (zero filled) to the size of the image file's track so that the verification process works properly. (otherwise it would just sit there waiting for more data that was never coming)
  
• Changed/Fixed: Don't add the current image file name to Write mode's 'Recent Files' list when a 'Read' operation fails.
  
• Changed/Fixed: The 'Delete image' button on the 'Insert next disc' window didn't prompt the user when deleting multiple files (like in a CUE with lots of audio tracks).
  
• Fixed: Incorrect handling of 'desktop' at the start of a destination image file path in Build/Read mode if it was followed by another folder name - i.e. 'desktop
  ew imageimage.iso'
  
• Fixed: The default paths (i.e. before any settings have been read) were incorrect when loading the program with the '/PORTABLE' CLI switch.
  
• Fixed: When writing a Multisession disc, the 'Writing Session X of X' and 'Writing Track X of X' log entries weren't always being written if the session/track was small.
  
• Fixed: A bug when attempting to send a CUE Sheet to the drive ending in the error 'SendCueSheet Bug! - CueSheetVariant 13' being shown.
  
• Fixed: Wrong 'REM LEAD-OUT' entry in *.cue file when created using the 'Create CD CUE File' window.
  
• Fixed: Better support for old drives that want weird LeadIn/LeadOut 'DataForm' values (non MMC compliant values) in the 'SEND CUE SHEET' parameter list.
  
• Fixed: A bug preventing the 'Logical Volume Identifier' field in the 'File Set Descriptor' from being updated when changing the volume label of an image.
  
• Fixed: The Layer Break 'Preview Selected Cell' feature didn't always work when working with Image Files/Drives - the preview window would take ages to appear and the 'ImgBurnPreview.exe' process would need terminating via Task Manager.
  
• Fixed: Problem with analysing track pregaps on drives that fell back to using the 'Read Sub-Channel' command when 'Read CD' failed.
  
• Fixed: Various problems when using the legendary 'old skool' Plextor SCSI CD-ROM drives.
  
• Fixed: When SAO wasn't available and the program fell back to using TAO, multi track images weren't burnt correctly. (They came out as 1 long track because I'd made no effort to make it work properly!)
  
• Fixed: The 'Add file or folder to source list' button in Build mode was being enabled after 'Calculate' even when there was no text in the field to it's left.
  
• Fixed: Access violation when you're in Build mode with Device output and you press 'Cancel' on any of the prompts that come up before the build actually starts.
  
• Fixed: A problem where ImgBurn could get stuck at the start of a read/verify operation.
  
• Fixed: When reading a disc using only ISO9660/Joliet file systems (no UDF) from DVD+RW/DVD-RAM/BD-RE the image would be 1 sector too short.
  
• Fixed: Divide By Zero bug if you terminate a verify operation whilst it's still analysing the tracks on a CD.
  
• Fixed: Memory leak if you cancel the 'Open' file dialog box from within the Log window.
  
• Fixed: A problem where a file name such as 'desktopimage' in the Read mode destination box was not being parsed correctly to have 'desktop' replaced AND the '.iso' file extension added.
  
• Fixed: The 'ACM' audio decoding fallback method wasn't working - acmStreamConvert failed.
  
• Fixed: CD-TEXT info at 'Disc' level wasn't always added to the CUE file made by the 'Create CD CUE File' feature.
  
• Fixed: When warned that 'Test Mode' *might* not work with the current media (and the user accepted the warning), it was actually being turned off rather than being left on.
  
• Fixed: The 'Changer Control' buttons were sometimes being disabled when they shouldn't have been.
  
• Fixed: 'Retrying (x of y)...' was wrong in the log when close track/session/disc failed at the end of the burn. x was always 1 number too big.
  
• Fixed: No image being added to the combobox on the medium changer control window when running under Vista.
  
• Fixed: The 'Medium Changer Control' feature didn't work properly on Vista/2008.
  
• Fixed: Incorrect file name sorting in the ISO9660 file system - files starting with '_' came before the others using 'A-Z'. (This prevented WinXP install discs from working)
  
• Fixed: Memory leak when loading a CUE containing multiple index points for the same track.
  
• Fixed: Read modes 'Default Destination - MRU' option wasn't working.