News written by Rich Fiscus (March, 2009)

Apple unveiled the first beta of the next version of the iPhone and iPod Touch OS. It's currently available to registered developers, and scheduled to be released to consumers this summer.

"The new iPhone OS 3.0 is a major software release packed with incredible new features and innovations for iPhone customers and developers alike. It will keep us years ahead of the competition,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing.

In addition to the Copy and Paste feature mentioned recently by Digg’s Kevin Rose , new features will include expanded search capabilities, landscape view for Mail, Text, and Notes, and Bluetooth networking capabilities.

As with version 2 of the OS, version 3 will be a free upgrade for iPhone owners but cost $9.95 to upgrade an iPod Touch.

If the server problems last year, when the new iPhone and OS were released, and the year before, when the iPhone debuted, are any indication, it's probably a good idea not to plan on updating for at least a day or two.

Counting Crows frontman Adam Duritz announced on the band's website that they'll be leaving their label, Geffen, after 18 years. Although he didn't specifically say they won't be moving to another label, his explanation suggests that's the case.

"A lot of people think it's a tough time to be a band but we don't feel that way," wrote Duritz. "The internet opens a world of limitless possibility, where the only boundaries are the boundaries of your own imagination. We want a chance to push those boundaries back as far as we can. Unfortunately, the directions we want to go and the opportunities we want to pursue are often things that our label is simply not allowed to do."

Counting Crows may not be the huge sellers they were a decade ago, but they are exactly the sort of band whose sales have traditionally offset the risk (and losses) from new artists.

The fewer established artists the labels can keep, the less money they have to develop new talent. The less new talent they have, the fewer established artists they will have in the future.

As recently as ten years ago artists signed with a major label to expand their opportunities. It's telling that now they drop their labels for the same reason.

Pegasys, the company that sells the popular TMPGEnc line of products, is offering a discount on their latest authoring suite. TMPGEnc Authoring Works 4 features DVD, Blu-ray, DivX and DivX Ultra authoring.

If you already own a competitor's DVD or Blu-Ray authoring software you may be eligible to receive a $20 Amazon.com gift card with a purchase of the full version of TMPGEnc Authoring Works 4 from the Pegasys online store.

The offer is only good for owners of box products. If you downloaded the competitor's software it's not eligible for this competitive upgrade offer.

See the Pegasys website for more details.

A new application just added the iTunes store turns your iPhone into a remote control for Boxee. The free boxee remote app uses the iPhone's wi-fi connection, making it compatible with every platform Boxee runs on.

The remote application only has basic functionality right now. The company is soliciting feedback from users to see what they're interested in.

If you want to let them know what you think, or give them feedback about any other aspect of Boxee, you can go to their feedback page.

Perhaps the most glaring ommission in the iPhone's OS is support for Copy/Cut and Paste. Despite overwhelming demand for this standard feature of every modern OS, Apple hasn't deemed it important enough to implement in the first two generations of the phone.

According to Digg’s Kevin Rose this is going to change in the next version of the iPhone OS. Rose described the feature yesterday at SXSW Interactive, a companion to the SXSW music and film festivals held in Austin, TX.

We may know very soon if Rose's information is correct since Apple will reportedly be giving a preview tomorrow of the new iPhone features they're working on.

If you happen to live in the land of NTSC television, primarily North and Central America, you may have experience the frustration of trying to play video from other parts of the world. Maybe you got a black and white picture that seemed to "roll," or perhaps you didn't get any picture at all.

HDTVs are able to handle both NTSC and PAL video, regardless of where they are sold. But that doesn't mean there isn't still a need for good PAL to NTSC conversions.

A lot of HDTV owners still have analog TVs in use for one purpose or another. And of course some people still don't have a HDTV at all.

If you are one of the millions of people who have one of these NTSC TVs and want to watch PAL video you should take a look at our new guide on the subject.

The guide, titled Convert PAL Video to NTSC describes several methods for converting between the two standards. If you use Nero Recode or TMPGenc Xpress you'll find a section on each. If you don't use (or want to use) either one check out the instructions for using AviSynth.

Last week marked the one year anniversary of Hulu's public debut. Its launch seemed to mark a milestone. It was the first major network owned online video service run by people who seemed to "get it."

Over the last year Hulu has grown significantly. On his blog, CEO Jason Kilar pointed out that the number of videos available has grown from 12,000 to 40,000 in that time.

The number of partners providing that content and advertisers sponsoring it has also grown. They've gone from 50 to 130 providers and 30 to 175 advertisers.

The real key to all that success has been offering what consumers are asking for The recent decision to remove content from TV.com and block viewers using Boxee media center begs the question of whether that business model's days are numbered at Hulu.

It seems clear that Kilar and his staff are committed to tearing down the barriers to online video delivery, but as we saw last month, ultimately their entertainment industry masters have the final say.

With a history of knee-jerk reactions and paranoia over new technology, record labels are the last place you'd expect to find an innovative approach to music distribution. But that's just what one music industry insider laid out in a keynote address at last week's Digital Music Forum East.

Jim Griffin will be running a new non-profit project called Choruss. Simply put, its purpose is to figure out how to make money licensing music.

Griffin's experience in the recording industry includes founding the technology group at Geffen Records in the mid-90s.

Before you shake your head about yet another clueless music industry executive claiming to have solved the digital distribution problem it's worth paying attention to what he's saying. Much of it is a message we've heard many times, just never from the labels.

"Music’s greatest financial power is its ability to draw a crowd," said Griffin, "not our ability to control its quantity."

More importantly, he admitted "We do not pretend to know the answers, but we are certain that now is the time for experimentation and learning cannot come fast enough."

Nokia's Comes With Music bundles a subscription music service for unlimited downloads from a limited catalog of songs with select handsets. As access to the service spreads to new markets is it possible Nokia will convince labels it should come without DRM?

Nokia's Adam Mirabella has hinted at plans to do exactly that, saying "Digital Rights Management-free (DRM-free) is also on the roadmap for the future integration of Comes With Music."

DRM-free music has become the norm for individual song downloads, like those offered by iTunes and other online merchants. But the labels continue to insist on it for subscription services like Comes With Music.

While DRM theoretically stops people from making unauthorized copies, if you can use Google you can probably find a way to remove it. But unless you decide to do so you'll have problems playing DRM-laden tracks on most hardware.

In the case of Comes With Music you are limited to playing your music on just a single phone and one computer. At least they don't become unplayable as soon as your subscription runs out.

Boxee is a relatively new, free media center application for Linux, Intel Macs, and Apple TV boxes, and a new Windows version is in closed alpha testing. Last week I talked to Andrew Kippen of Boxee about their software, and the first thing he told me was how much they're looking forward to hearing from the Afterdawn community.

If you'd like to check out Boxee for yourself you can get the Linux, OS X, and Apple TV versions from their website. Stay tuned to Afterdawn for an announcement when the Windows alpha opens to the public. According to Andrew they're hoping to reach that point in another 2-3 months.

The technology

Nokia's CEO announced last week that his company is seriously considering entering the netbook market. Although there have been rumors of such a move since last year, this is the first time a company executive has confirmed them publicly.

Reports have Nokia probably working with a Taiwanese manufacturer to jointly design the platform, based either on the Intel Atom or Qualcomm Snapdragon CPU.

"All leading mobile network operators and retailers are adding connected notebooks and netbooks to their portfolios alongside mobile phones," said Ben Wood, research director at CCS Insight. "On this basis it comes as no surprise that Nokia is evaluating this segment."

In recent yeas there has been considerable overlap in the roles smartphones and netbooks play. It seems sensible for the world's number one smartphone maker to have a presence in both markets.