Ed Oswald

The film industry is about to remove some of the roadblocks that have prevented legally recording downloadable movies onto DVD, which could also spur the creation of kiosks and other ways that consumers could burn their own movie discs.

The DVD Copy Control Association said special blank DVDs would allow this process.

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Verizon plans to use the allure of a free gaming service as a method to draw more subscribers to its fiber-optic Internet service FiOS, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. Called PlayLinc, the service would allow up to 32 gamers to talk to one another via voice or AOL Instant Messenger, as well as create private servers for invite-only games.

The telecommunications company previously acquired a stake in Super Computer International, which created the PlayLinc service. Verizon says moves like this are intended to help the company find new ways to generate revenue, as its traditional landline phone business continues to struggle.

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MTV Networks said Wednesday it had entered into an agreement with Atom Entertainment to acquire the company for $200 million. The company runs four Web sites including the popular AtomFilms.com and Shockwave.com, as well as gaming site AddictingGames.com and video site AddictingClips.com.

The acquisition of Atom marks a continuing effort by MTV to advance its multiplatform entertainment strategy. The company recently acquired entertainment brands XFIRE, Y2M, GameTrailers.com, IFILM, and Neopets.

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Nokia said Wednesday it had filed a complaint against Qualcomm in a Delaware court, asking it to force the mobile technology company to abide by its contractual obligations. The Finnish phone manufacturer accuses Qualcomm of not licensing GSM and UMTS technology on FRAND, or "fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory" terms. Along with the request, Nokia is also asking the court for injunctive relief in relation to patent infringement litigation surrounding technologies related to those standards.

Qualcomm has filed three separate legal actions against Nokia in U.S. Federal Court, a British Court and with the International Trade Commission, the company said. "Nokia is taking this action as a defensive measure to ensure there is a consolidated forum for addressing these issues," Qualcomm said in a statement. Through the court request, Nokia said it hoped to "solidify a framework for future intellectual property licensing negotiations."

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The University of California said Wednesday that it will join Google in its book-scanning project, giving the Mountain View, Calif. company considerable leverage in attracting other libraries to join the fold. At more than 100 libraries strong, the UC system will be the largest expansion yet. However, the news was also met with criticism from the program's detractors.

Books in the public domain from the library's collection will be scanned and entered into the system. Copyrighted books that have not agreed to be part of the Google Book service would get background on the title, along with a few lines of the text related to the search and where the title could be purchased.

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A federal judge dismissed a patent infringement suit brought by E-Pass Technologies against Microsoft and HP last week, saying there was no infringement, and granting motions by the two companies to dismiss the case. E-Pass had accused Microsoft and HP of violating patents surrounding the storage of information on multiple credit cards on to one electronic card.

The suit accused Windows Mobile and HP devices of infringing on the patent, and was filed in 2002. Microsoft said it respects the patent rights of others, and was pleased with the results of the decision. Neither HP nor E-Pass technologies had publicly commented on the situation.

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Following in the footsteps of Microsoft and Google, AOL said Wednesday that it would begin providing a custom e-mail domain services for its customers beginning in September. Like its competitors, AOL My eAddress would be provided at no charge.

The service would include the registration of a .com or .net domain, plus up to 100 personal e-mail accounts on that address. As well as using their personal domain for e-mail, AOL says it would allow customers to use it as their AIM screen name and to access restricted areas of the AOL network.

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One of Microsoft's biggest hires this year is leaving after only four months with the company. RSS guru and former Technorati engineer Niall Kennedy announced through his personal blog Tuesday that he was leaving Microsoft effective August 18 out of apparent frustration with the company's handling of Windows Live. According to Kennedy, the company was not providing him with the resources or manpower to complete his job.

"Windows Live is under some heavy change, reorganization, pullback, and general paralysis and unfortunately my ability to perform, hire, and execute was completely frozen as well," he explained. "It's easier to get funding outside Microsoft than inside at the moment, so I am stepping out and doing my own thing." Kennedy said he could have waited it out, but didn't "want to sit around doing little to nothing until Vista, Office, and Exchange ship."

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Sprint Nextel committed to WiMAX on Tuesday, saying it would use the technology for its 4G wireless broadband network. The wireless carrier would work closely with Intel, Motorola and Samsung to deploy the network nationwide, covering as much as 85 percent of the population in the top 100 markets when completed.

The news is a huge win for supporters of WiMAX, and especially Intel, which has been pushing the technology heavily. However, it is as equal a setback for Qualcomm, which has developed its own technologies that it receives high royalties for.

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Hoping to take advantage of the growing ubiquity of Wi-Fi, Sony said Tuesday it will be releasing the "mylo" in September. The mylo is a Wi-Fi enabled entertainment device that will be able to perform a wide variety of functions, with a focus on instant messaging.

The device, which name stands for "my life online," will allow the user to instant message, browse the Internet, make broadband calls, listen to music, send emails and view photos. No service contract or computer setup is required, and all it needs to operate is an 802.11b network.

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The Department of Veterans Affairs disclosed late Monday that another laptop containing data on up to 38,000 veterans has gone missing. The loss of the data is the result of a possible theft of a laptop from third-party contractor Unisys. The department was informed of the issue on August 3.

News of this latest loss comes just days after two teens were arrested in Maryland in conjunction with the theft of a government laptop with data on 26.5 million veterans and active duty personnel. The laptop was stolen in May, and recovered in late June.

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Google will pay at least $900 million in shared revenue to become the exclusive search provider for popular online site MySpace.com and other Fox Web sites. The deal is a big positive for News Corp, as it now has nearly recouped the $1.2 billion spent last year to acquire both the social networking site and gaming site IGN.

The agreement covers most of News Corp's Web properties. Also included is popular movie review site Rottentomatoes.com, Gamespy.com, fox.com, americanidol.com, and others. It does not include the Fox Sports Web sites, as Fox already has a deal with Google competitor MSN.

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What has been a foregone conclusion for many Mac users has finally been confirmed: Microsoft's Virtual PC is dead. In a statement provided to BetaNews Monday, the company said its Macintosh Business Unit has decided not to go forward with a version of the software native to the Intel platform.

"Developing a high-quality virtualization solution, such as Virtual PC, for the Intel-based Mac is similar to creating a version 1.0 release due to how closely the product integrates with Mac hardware," a Microsoft spokesperson said.

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In the wake of the announcement surrounding Apple's new Mac Pro quad-core desktops, the Cupertino company on Monday quietly slashed prices on its Cinema displays by up to $500 USD. The move is likely aimed at selling more of Apple's signature displays, of which every Mac Pro can support at least one 30-inch or at least two smaller displays.

Apple's smallest model, the 20-inch, has been reduced to $699 USD. This is $100 less than its previous $799 price tag. The mid-range 23-inch display was reduced by $300 to $999 USD, and the top of the line 30-inch now retails for $1,999 USD, a savings of $500 over its previous $2,499 price. All three models are available from the Apple store, and are shipped within 24 hours according to the Apple Web site.

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Microsoft plans to unveil new search technologies at the SIGIR conference in Seattle this week, an annual meeting of industry and academic experts in the field of information retrieval and search. Altogether the company's researchers are contributing 17.5 percent of all papers accepted at the conference, the single largest contributor.

The new technologies cover analysis of click-through patterns and browsing behaviors. In turn, these are added to search engine algorithms and can make the searches more relevant. Additionally, the technologies would help in the detection of so-called "click spam," say researchers.

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