Ed Oswald

At least five million of Verizon's 48 million landlines appear to be up for sale in an effort to focus more on wireless and broadband, the Wall Street Journal said Wednesday. The company hopes to raise as much as $8 billion in order to fund its other projects, including its FiOS project and a possible buyout of Vodafone's stake in Verizon Wireless.

The first group includes 1.6 million lines in Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine, with a possible value of $2 to 3 billion. The second group involves former GTE lines in Indiana, Ohio and Michigan, with an expected value of $4 to $5 billion.

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Microsoft chairman Bill Gates made a surprise appearance at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles Tuesday, saying the company has plans to extend its Xbox Live franchise to computers and cell phones.

Called "Live Anywhere," the service would link the 150 million Windows-based computer gamers and more than 1 billion cell phones that are video game-ready. Gates also said the capability would be built into Windows Vista when it ships in early 2007.

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Those who pre-ordered the Red Hot Chili Peppers' new album through a joint promotion between iTunes and Ticketmaster should have received an e-mail with a concert ticket presale code Monday. But for some, that e-mail never came.

In the iTunes Music Store, Apple said those who pre-ordered the album "Stadium Arcadium" were to receive special videos along with a presale code which would allow them to buy concert tickets a full four days ahead of the general public.

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Microsoft patched two critical code execution flaws in both its Windows and Exchange products, as well as denial of service issue within Windows as part of its monthly Patch Tuesday program. Missing, however, was an expected cumulative patch for Internet Explorer.

Some security watchers believed that the Redmond company would issue another cumulative patch to patch numerous new vulnerabilities that have surfaced in the browser. Both Secunia and eEye Digital Security list several flaws in IE severe enough to pose a system compromise risk.

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Nintendo said Tuesday that it will make its next-generation console, dubbed the Nintendo Wii, available in the fourth quarter of this year. The timing of the console means its release will occur at roughly the same time as Sony's PlayStation 3, expected to launch on November 17 in North America.

Nintendo of America's executive vice president Reggie Fils-Aime made the announcement at the company's press conference at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles. Fils-Aime declined to specify pricing, saying instead that those details would be provided later this year. To support the launch of the Wii, Nintendo will be making available the next installment of the "Legend of Zelda" series, he said.

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AOL said Tuesday it will be laying off 1,300 workers in response to the changing needs of its business. Most of the affected employees are in the company's customer support facilities, and its Jacksonville, Fla., call center would be shut down completely. According to an AOL spokesperson, calls to its help lines have fallen by about 50 percent. The service says the drop in support requests has a lot to do with the increasing sophistication of its users.

Although support calls are dropping, the company is also suffering from shrinking revenues and falling subscriber numbers. The Reston, Virginia ISP lost another 865,000 subscribers, bringing its subscriber base to 18.6 million as of last quarter. Additionally, revenue fell seven percent. However, there were some positives in the quarterly numbers -- the company saw its ad revenues on its free services increase by 26 percent.

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Microsoft on Tuesday opened up its Windows Live Messenger Beta to the public, as well as introducing bundled VoIP service Windows Live Call in six additional markets. Additionally, Uniden and Philips have introduced cordless phones that would be compatible with the Live Call service.

The Live Call service is being provided by Verizon in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France and Spain. Beginning next week, Live Call will expand to Austria, Belgium, Finland, Ireland, Italy and the Netherlands, the company said.

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BitTorrent said Tuesday that it had struck a content deal with Warner Bros. Entertainment to use the network to distribute movies and television shows. It is believed to be the first of its kind between a file-sharing company and the entertainment industry.

The service would begin this summer, say BitTorrent executives. Television shows could sell for as litlle as $1, half the price of iTunes video downloads. The company's technology has sparked the interest of Hollywood as a easy way to distribute digital content, said BitTorrent president Ashwin Navin.

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Sony late Monday solidified its commitment to release the PlayStation 3 this fall in North America, announcing a release date of November 17 as well as pricing on two models to be made available at launch. Also as expected, the next-generation console will debut with a steep price tag.

A PS3 model with a 20GB HDD will retail for USD $499 USD, while a 60GB version will set the gamer back USD $599 USD. However, it's likely that most gamers will opt for the more expensive console, as the basic model is missing several key features.

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Cable provider Cox may be considering replacing its own digital video recorders with a TiVo-branded service, as at least one subscriber has reported receiving surveys that focused on the topic of DVRs. A poster to the TiVo Community forum who goes by the name "BrettStah" first mentioned the survey in a posting Thursday,

The survey, which has been confirmed by BetaNews, asks several questions of the user regarding their current survey, as well as a potential offering including the TiVo service.

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Microsoft confirmed Friday that it plans to debut a new Windows Live service in the coming months that would allow users to ask questions and receive responses from fellow users. Additionally, the answers to these questions would be searchable.

Called Windows Live QnA, the service will allow for users to vote for the best answers and respondents, which would help users decide which answers are likely the most reputable and who has consistently provided high-quality answers.

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Microsoft's attempts to bolster security may hurt it in the enterprise sector, an analyst report said Monday. Behind the Boston analyst firm

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TiVo said Monday that it was launching its on-demand advertising product that would deliver content to subscribers via the Now Playing section. Over 70 advertisers and 100 brands would be initially available from the service, called "Product Watch."

The one to sixty minute commercials would be organized into five categories: Automotive, Entertainment, Financial, Lifestyles, and Travel and Leisure. The subscriber would then be able to select and search for advertising to be downloaded, or subscribe to a brand and receive video content continuously.

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Apple enthusiast site Think Secret reported Friday afternoon that sources expect the Cupertino company to release the highly anticipated MacBook on Tuesday. The laptop will be the Intel-based successor to the company's popular iBook line.

In related news, a coding glitch on the Apple Web site has all but confirmed the name change. Beginning late Thursday, and still appearing occasionally Friday, Apple's iPod page was replaced with a blank page with the hierarchy "Home > Hardware > MacBook" shown.

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Free Peers, the company that owned and operated the BearShare network, has agreed to pay $30 million to the Recording Industry Association of America to avoid a copyright infringement lawsuit, court documents indicated Thursday.

Free Peers has also agreed to disband and promised to not operate any unlicensed music download services.

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