Ed Oswald

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that YouTube is considering moving into the offline world by offering videos on television. Additionally, the company is working on a system that would allow content owners to better control their content by either blocking it, or charging for it if they so desire.

One begins to wonder how much of this most recent initiative is being pushed for by Google, who purchased the site in October of last year for $1.65 billion. With such a large investment, you have to think the search giant is looking for other ways to generate revenue.

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AT MACWORLD In his keynote address at Macworld in San Francisco Tuesday, Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the oft-rumored and much-anticipated iPhone, although the device is somewhat different than what had been expected.

Instead of launching a separate widescreen ipod and iPhone, Apple has combined three different devices into a single one. The iPhone is a widescreen iPod, cellular phone, and Internet communicator in one device, and would be a true smartphone according to Jobs.

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AT MACWORLD Apple CEO Steve Jobs took the lid off of its "iTV" project, renaming it Apple TV. Being billed as a "way to enjoy your media on a bigscreen TV," the unit would feature 720p HD video, a 40 GB hard drive, and component and RCA hookups.

Inside, the feature set is impressive: 802.11 b/g/n wireless connectivity, USB 2.0 inputs, and HDMI connections. The unit would run on a Intel CPU and allow auto-synchronization from one PC, although content could be streamed from up to five machines. The synchronization process would act much like the iPod does, Jobs said.

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AT MACWORLD - Starting off his yearly keynote at MacWorld 2007 in San Francisco, Steve Jobs said "we're going to make history." Indeed the company has -- with Jobs noting nearly half of the new Macs sold at retail have been to new Macintosh customers.

First, Jobs first hit on iTunes, which has just recently surpassed the two billion song mark, as well as surpassing Amazon to become the fifth largest retailer. On the television show side, 50 million have been sold, with 350 different shows available.

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Vonage has struck an agreement with EarthLink, which would allow it to resell the company's wireless Internet service in cities where the ISP controls the Wi-Fi network. Broadband service would then be sold under the Vonage name, the company said Monday.

Internet service would be bundled with Vonage's traditional business, VoIP. No launch date has been set for the new service, or what price it would sell at. However, it indicates a willingness by the company to expand its business outward to continue growth.

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Following its December 2005 purchase of Maxtor, Seagate is setting out to differentiate the two brands to attendees of the Consumer Electronics Show at Las Vegas. Its Maxtor line would focus on storage and backup needs, while Seagate drives will focus on data mobility.

Even before the acquisition, Maxtor focused on data backup applications. In 2001, the company was responsible for creating one of the first one-touch backup systems for consumers. Through a new consumer campaign, Seagate plans to show off those strengths.

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Hitachi introduced the first commercially available one-terabyte hard drive on Friday, delivering on a promise made nearly two years ago. The drive uses perpendicular recording technology in order to store data.

The Deskstar 7K1000 is slated to beginning shipping in the first quarter of this year at a retail price of $399 USD, or about 40 cents per gigabyte. In addition, Hitachi will also release a version of the 1TB drive, called the CinemaStar, aimed at the burgeoning DVR market.

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Even though XM Satellite Radio has achieved a positive cash flow, lagging subscriber growth to competitor Sirius is problematic. However, the news of both services moving ever so slowly towards profitability made Wall Street happy.

Once far outpacing its smaller rival in subscriber growth, XM now finds itself being outpaced by Sirius by over a 2 to 1 margin. For the crucial fourth quarter, the company added about 442,000 new subscribers, compared with 905,000 for Sirius.

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Microsoft will begin the New Year with eight security patches, of which at least two will be critical. Three will affect Microsoft Office, one each for vulnerabilities in Visual Studio and both Windows and Office, and three for flaws in Office alone.

At least one of the patches for Office is expected to address some of the zero-day attack threats that have appeared during the month of December. In recent months, Microsoft's productivity suite has become a more popular target for attackers.

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Taiwanese manufacturer Luxpro made headlines in March 2005 when it first showed off its first-generation iPod Shuffle clone at CeBIT. The company is now striking back, suing Apple for $100 million over lost sales.

Luxpro was emboldened by an appeals court decision which reversed an earlier ruling that the company had indeed infringed upon Apple's Shuffle design. Originally called the "Super Shuffle," Luxpro later changed the name to the Tangent in an attempt to avoid legal action.

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The ability to burn legally downloaded movies to DVD came one step closer to reality Thursday, as a studio-approved system to prevent piracy was introduced. However, there are still obstacles preventing widespread usage.

Called Qflix, the technology was produced by digital media software company Sonic Solutions. Compatible drives, media, and video services will display the Qflix logo to allow consumers to identify who supports the new technology.

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eBay on Wednesday announced that it will raise fees in both its standard and automobile auctions, while also announcing that it was the number one online destination on both "Black Friday" and "Cyber Monday."

In a letter sent to eBay users, eBay North America president Bill Cobb said the changes were necessary as part of a regular evaluation of its business structure. Increases are slated for the Insertion and Final Value Fees, as well as fees specific to eBay Motors that would take effect January 30.

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Kodak and Sony have set aside their differences, with both parties announcing a cross-licensing arrangement concerning each other's digital camera and imaging patent portfolios. The settlement also ends any litigation filed by either company.

The spat between the two companies began in March 2004 when Kodak sued Sony, alleging the company was infringing on several of its digital photography patents. Not long after, Sony fired back by countersuing over infringement of its own patents.

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A failed movie download service has taken Apple, Google and Napster to court, accusing them of violating patents for its digital entertainment platform. The technology covers methods to manage price and distribution of content.

Intertainer filed suit in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas on Friday. Altogether, the now-defunct service holds nine patents, although the lawsuit only involves the aforementioned patent, awarded to the company in 2005.

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EarthLink said Wednesday that its CEO had passed away a day previous, succumbing to complications from cancer. Garry Betty had stepped down in late November to take a leave of absence from the company.

Betty first joined EarthLink in 1996, after a stint as CEO of Digital Communications Associates. At the time, he was the youngest CEO ever of a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange.

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