RIAA Sues XM Over Recording Device
XM Satellite Radio's receiver difficulties continued Tuesday as it was sued over the new Pioneer Inno device, and partner Audiovox halted shipments of its Xpress Model radio due to a FCC request. The news follows an earlier disclosure by the company that the FCC had ruled the SkyFi2 was not in compliance with its emission standards.
The RIAA's lawsuit, filed in a federal court in New York, alleges the satellite radio provider is committing "massive wholesale infringement" of copyrights by allowing users to save songs heard on the service to the device. The suit claims that users who have the device would no longer have a need to purchase digital music.
Microsoft Wants to Simplify Mapmaking
Microsoft released new technology Tuesday that it says would allow users to take existing road maps and satellite imagery, and overlay it with specialized maps to create imagery for their specific needs. The technology has been made available as a free download called MapCruncher.
The project was the brainchild of Microsoft researchers Jon Howell and Jeremy Elson. The two, which are avid cyclists, thought of the idea after looking at a cycling map of King County in Washington State for routes to work.
Microsoft Countersues Lucent Over Xbox
Microsoft struck back at Lucent late Monday, filing a countersuit in an attempt to have the company's patent infringement lawsuit dismissed. Additionally, it accused Lucent of violating several Microsoft patents.
Lucent claims video decoding technology within the Xbox 360 infringes on its patents. It said Microsoft had failed to license the next generation system, and filed suit in April.
Report: Open XML ISO Standard Unlikely
Microsoft is fairly likely not to have its Open XML document format accepted as a standard by the ISO, research firm Gartner said in a research note last week.
The reasoning behind this is that the standardization body has already approved the OpenDocument Format (ODF), and would likely not accept two standards.
Discovery Offering TV Shows on iTunes
Discovery Communications announced on Tuesday that it had added programming to the iTunes Music Store, Including television shows from its TLC, Animal Planet, Travel Channel, Discovery Health Channel and Discovery Kids networks.
Available shows include the "World's Best" travel series from the Travel Channel, "Amazing Babies" from Discovery Health, "Kenny the Shark" from Discovery Kids, "Mythbusters" and "Extreme Engineering" from Discovery, and "Most Extreme" from Animal Planet, among others.
BellSouth: No Call Data Given to NSA
With the NSA's recently uncovered domestic call tracking program facing increasing public criticism, BellSouth said Monday that after an internal review it determined it had not given any call data to the NSA. The company, along with AT&T and Verizon, was accused of supplying the agency with the call records of millions of Americans in a USA Today report last week.
BellSouth said that following the report, an investigation was conducted to see if the company had been supplying the NSA with such information. "Based on our review to date, we have confirmed no such contract exists and we have not provided bulk customer calling records to the NSA," the company said in a statement.
AMD Focuses on Energy Efficiency
AMD said Tuesday it is working to make its line of processors more energy efficient, basing the new chips on those it has already brought to market. The advances would be most important to notebook users, where power consumption plays a large part in battery life.
Today's AMD chips use as much as 90 watts of power; with the new process, power consumption would be reduced to 35 to 65 watts. The result is a more power efficient and cooler processor, which also allows manufacturers to build smaller form factors.
Apple Unveils Intel Based MacBook
Arriving a week later than many had expected, Apple on Tuesday unveiled the MacBook, intended to replace both the iBook line and 12-inch PowerBook. The release completes Apple's laptop transition to Intel processors.
The MacBook comes with an Intel Core Duo processor running at either 1.83 GHz or 2.0 GHz and 13-inch widescreen display. With the update to Intel processors, Apple said the new models are up to five times faster than their predecessors.
Creative Sues Apple Over iPod
Facing increasing losses and running out of options in its battle against the iPod, Creative on Monday filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission and a lawsuit in United States District Court for the Northern District of California alleging patent infringement.
At issue is the so-called "Zen Patent," which Creative was awarded in August 2005. The company says that it engineered and demonstrated the interface that Creative's players, as well as competing players, use well before the first iPods were shipped.
Microsoft to Launch URGE This Week
Microsoft's next chapter in its battle against the iPod and ITunes begins this week, as the company releases Windows Media Player 11 to the public. Additionally, Microsoft will promote heavily a test version of the URGE music service, a project it co-developed with MTV.
Seeing that a seamless ecosystem is what has propelled the iPod to its iconic status, Microsoft has also taken a page from the Apple playbook and co-developed a portable player called the "Clix." The new device is a project between Windows-based player market leader iRiver and the Redmond company.
Mixed Antitrust Messages for Microsoft
The Justice Department on Friday gave Microsoft some mixed messages as to compliance with a 2002 antitrust settlement, saying its IE7 search enhancements were not anti-competitive, yet rebuking it for the same foot-dragging policy it has been accused of in the European Union.
As a result of the non-compliance, the Justice Department has asked to extend its oversight and restrictions on the company until 2009, which Microsoft has voluntarily agreed to. At issue, as in Europe, is the quality of technical documentation to be provided to rivals.
Firefox Continues to Make Gains
Firefox continues to make slow gains globally, with the market share of Internet Explorer beginning to stabilize, Web analytics firm OneStat.com reported on Friday.
Worldwide, market share of Internet Explorer fell slightly to 85.17 percent from 85.82 percent in January, while usage of Firefox rose slightly from 11.23 percent to 11.79 percent in May. Apple's Safari browser also made modest gains, at 2.02 percent from 1.88 percent in January.
High Court Sides with eBay
eBay has won a major battle in its patent infringement case against MercExchange, with the Supreme Court unanimously ruling to set aside a judgment by a lower court that a federal judge was required to issue an injunction as soon as a company is found to be using another's technology.
The Justices ruled that a judge is at liberty to look at several factors before deciding on an injunction after a jury verdict. Experts said that any decision from the high court will likely have ramifications in future cases, and argued that it could be one of the most significant patent fights in recent times.
Nokia to Launch Googleized Net Tablet
Nokia and Google plan to announce Tuesday a version of the cell phone manufacturer's Internet tablet device that comes preinstalled with the Google Talk. The service would allow for voice conversations and instant messaging on the device, which uses a Wi-Fi connection to connect to the Internet. According to the Wall Street Journal's sources, the device would be available globally at a price of around USD $390.
Along with Google, Nokia is talking to other companies about porting their communication software to the device. The Nokia 770 Internet Tablet was first launched in September of last year. It allows for web and e-mail browsing, as well as multimedia playback.
Real CEO: Allowing FairPlay a 'Mistake'
RealNetworks' CEO Rob Glaser told the British newspaper the Guardian in an interview Thursday that the music industry erred in allowing Apple to create devices that used a closed digital rights management system that is exclusive to the iPod, called FairPlay.
Glaser's comments came as part of a bigger interview in which he talked about the state of Real's music business as well as the industry in general. The company has butted heads with Apple in the past, most recently through its Harmony project.
Ed's Bio
Ed Oswald is a freelance journalist from the Reading, PA area. Although he has written across a variety of subjects, Ed’s passion and focus has been on technology and gadgets. His work regularly appears on tech news sites BetaNews, PCWorld, and Technologizer, and has been syndicated to eWeek, Time’s Techland blog, VentureBeat and the New York Times.
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