French Copyright Law Builds Momentum
Lawmakers in France's lower legislative house approved by a 296-193 margin a bill that would force digital music stores to open up their proprietary formats on Tuesday. The bill would also mandate companies to share their copy-protection technologies so that players can be used on the consumer's choice of services.
The bill threatens to change the digital rights management landscape. These technologies are what have allowed Apple to continue it's near-stranglehold on the legal music industry, and now is helping the company become a force in digital video.
Sun Opens Up UltraSPARC Chip Design
Sun said Tuesday that it plans to open up the processor design of its UltraSPARC T1 Processor under the terms of the GNU GPL open source license. The move is aimed at creating an ecosystem around the technology and regain lost ground ceded to Sun's competitors.
The UltraSPARC T1 processor has eight cores, which can run up to four simultaneous processes.
Nokia Predicts Death of Music Industry
A Nokia executive says that music device and camcorder makers would be the next industries to feel the pinch from mobile phones, saying they would see a similar market collapse as the photo industry. In 2000, the company forecasted the end of that industry, and from recent developments that looks like it is holding true.
Companies that make much of their money from photography are finding it harder and harder to stay in business as profits dry up amid the ever-increasing number of camera phones. Two high-profile companies have already thrown in the towel: Agfa-Gevaert in 2004, and Konica Minolta, who said it was leaving the business in January.
Google Cashes in with Finance Portal
Google on Tuesday introduced a new section of its site that would focus on financial information, including stock prices and news. What makes Google Finance different, however, is its charts -- investors would be able to see with more clarity what news stories are causing the stock to move.
Using headlines culled from Google News, the chart would be able to show the user whether a certain event or story is having an effect on the stock price itself. The charts can be moved through time periods by clicking and dragging and zooming in for more detailed information, much like the functionality used in Google's mapping product.
New IE Bug Can Crash Browser
A newly discovered flaw in Internet Explorer can cause the browser to crash when visiting a malicious Web site, security firm Secunia said in an advisory Monday. The flaw was first discovered last week by security researcher Michal Zalewski and posted to a popular security mailing list.
"This might not come as a surprise, but there appears to be a *very* interesting and apparently very much exploitable overflow in Microsoft Internet Explorer," Zalewski wrote in the e-mail.
Microsoft Ups Xbox 360 Shipments
Microsoft said Tuesday that beginning this week, it will ship two to three times the number of Xbox 360 consoles to retailers. The company says its component issues have been ironed out and manufacturing partner Celestica has begun manufacture of the console, allowing Microsoft to ship more units to its retail partners.
The company will have 80 games available on the platform by June. Some of those new titles include "The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion," "Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter," "Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Legend," and "X-Men: The Official Game." Additionally, Microsoft announced that its Xbox Live Marketplace has reached 10 million downloads, and that 85 percent of consoles have downloaded content from the marketplace.
MS Handheld an iPod and PSP Killer?
Microsoft's own answer to the iPod may not come in the form most people are expecting. According to BetaNews' own sources and those referenced in a Monday article in the San Jose Mercury News, the folks in Redmond may be looking to kill two birds with one stone.
Plans are rumored to be in the works for a device called the XPlayer. This device would combine an Xbox-like gaming device with a multimedia component that would play video and audio. This would mean that in one fell swoop, Microsoft would have a competitor to the PSP, Nintendo DS, and the Apple iPod.
MS Looks to Spur 360 Development
Hoping to spur innovation in Xbox 360 video games, Microsoft delivered a pre-release version of its tools and technologies development platform at the Game Developers Conference in San Jose Monday. Dubbed the XNA Studio and Framework, the company is betting that it would help developers streamline and optimize the process of creating games.
As well as offering these new tools, Microsoft also announced it was opening up its Xbox Live platform to allow developers to innovate on top of it and add the functionality in their game titles.
AOL Opens Up AIM Further
AOL said Monday that it was launching a new Web site in hopes that developers would create new applications to be used in a new AIM Web page creation tool. Called IAmAlpha.com, the site would allow developers to upload snippets of DHTML and then create applications from those snippets or those uploaded by others. These modules could then be embedded into a Web page. The modules are based on AOL’s ModuleT open format that enables the syndication of mashups, Web content and Ajax applications.
"With the I Am Alpha website, our flexible and extensible module-building tools and a little creativity, the possibilities for modules are endless," said Kerry Parkins, Director of Audience Product Management for AOL. "The modules that developers generate will be vital as we create a new platform that will make it even easier for the more than 63 million active AIM users to connect with their circle of 'buddies' and others within the AIM community."
Microsoft Confirms Vexcel Buy
Microsoft on Monday confirmed rumors by saying it had a pending deal to acquire remote sensor maker Vexcel. The buy would improve the company's digital mapping efforts. Microsoft said in a statement that Vexcel's technologies would be used to "deliver a dynamic immersive digital representation of the real world."
The Boulder Daily Camera, a newspaper in the company's Colorado hometown, first reported news of the acquisition on Friday. That news quickly spread to several Web logs, although the company held off on confirming the merger until Monday. Vexcel, which has been around since 1985, currently has 131 employees.
Study: Despite Delay, the PS3 Still Wins
Even with its twelve-month head start, the Xbox 360 will still be second to Sony's PlayStation 3 in terms of market share by 2010, research firm In-Stat said on Monday. However, In-Stat said it expects Sony's share to shrink quite a bit due to stronger competition from both companies.
The firm also found that total shipments of the next-generation consoles would be more than the current generation. This would be due to an expected widening consumer demographic, the study says.
VeriSign Acquires m-Qube
VeriSign continued its efforts to break into the mobile media business Monday with the acquisition of m-Qube, a company that assists in the development, delivery, and billing for mobile content. The purchase is VeriSign's third in the sector, following 3united and Kontiki.
While it is better known for Internet security and management of the .com and .net domains, VeriSign also runs a mobile content business. However, it only contributes about a fifth of the company's overall revenue.
Fandango Inks Deal with Cingular
Online movie ticketing service Fandango said Monday it had partnered with Cingular Wireless to allow the carrier's customers to view movie information and purchase tickets through their cellular phones. Additionally, customers would be able to access the service using Cingular's VoiceInfo product.
By sending a text message with a zipcode to "FNDGO" (36346), users would be able to receive information on movie times and ticket availability. The companies said future services could include movie-related wallpaper, ring-tones, and games.
Microsoft Takes on Overseas Phishers
Microsoft said on Monday that it would launch a global phishing enforcement program, beginning with the filing of over one hundred suits against phishers in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. 53 of these suits would be started by the end of the month, with at least 100 in progress by June of this year.
The company said it started its legal push overseas first because its investigations have uncovered the phishing problem is at its worst in these regions.
UMPC: Why Microsoft Thinks You Need It
Microsoft believes consumers are looking for an uncompromised level of computing on the go. Thus, it began the process of developing what is now called the Ultra-Mobile PC back in 2002. Heading that team is Otto Berkes, the device's architect and now general manager of the UMPC team.
In an interview with BetaNews, Berkes says the impetus behind the creation of this new type of computing device has to do with several changes in the industry. Today's desktops and laptops are not designed for true "on the go" use, he explained, but people are increasingly going mobile.
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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