Ed Oswald

Amazon recently began testing a program similar to Google's AdWords that would allow a Web site owner to place sponsored links on their sites to generate additional revenue. The online retailer began testing the service in late January, however it has not announced any official launch date or revealed the third-party provider of the sponsored links, as the company is not hosting that portion of the service on its own.

As well as displaying sponsored links, the service would also intersperse links to Amazon products, which the company hopes would become a major source of traffic to its sites.

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IBM's upcoming Power6 line will aim to address some of the problems of its predecessor, while running at speeds well above that of today's processors. The Power5 line, also known as the G5 chip included in Apple's iMac and PowerMac desktops, has suffered from power and heat dissipation issues.

These issues were enough for Apple to drop IBM's Power architecture in favor of cooler and more power efficient Intel chips at last years Worldwide Developer Conference. Since then, the iMac and Apple's high-end laptop, the MacBook Pro, have made the transition, with the rest of the line expected to be all Intel by year's end.

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The European Commission will open an investigation into the way that music rights holders are collecting royalties from Internet sites operating within the European Union, antitrust regulators said on Tuesday.

Current laws require a service to obtain a license to operate within each country, which can make the process of offering digital music within the EU very costly. Fees are paid to the country's arm of the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers, known as CISAC.

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Google debuted Gmail Chat on Tuesday, a service that would allow users of the client to start instant messaging chats from their Gmail account, as well as save their chat like e-mail messages or see when contacts are online through the Google Talk network. The features are very similar to those recently added to MSN's Hotmail service and Yahoo's mail client. The service will work with either the Internet Explorer 6 or Firefox 1.0 browsers.

Gmail Chat will also synchronize a users Quick Contact list with his or her messaging contacts list to show a list of that person's most frequently contacted buddies. When a chat is initiated from this list, a chat window would open from within the browser, thus eliminating the need for the user to download the standalone Google Talk client.

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CBS' premium movie channel Showtime launched its content in the iTunes Music Store Tuesday, adding three of its network-produced television shows to over 50 television shows already available from the service. As with other programming, the videos are available for $1.99 USD each.

Along with allowing subscribers of the premium channel another option to view programs from the network, company executives see it as a way to draw new viewers in. Several television shows have seen increased ratings as a result of adding their programming to the service.

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Facing increasing pressure from its rivals, Apple on Tuesday introduced a 1GB nano as well as cutting prices on its Shuffle line. The moves are designed to make Apple's ubiquitous players more affordable to a broader segment of the market, as well as to respond to price pressures from rivals.

Analysts have been predicting a smaller nano since before Macworld in January. However, many predicted after no Shuffle refresh at the yearly convention that the small player's days were numbered.

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Opera released details of a plan Monday to further integrate BitTorrent capabilities into an upcoming version of its Web browser, saying integrating the technology would allow for faster and more efficient downloads of large files. The move could also anger intellectual property holders however, who see the network as a boon to piracy.

The two companies recently signed an agreement that would allow Opera to integrate the file-sharing technology into version 9 of the browser. A technical preview would be available soon, the company said.

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Maryland is now considering legislation that would ban Internet hunting, a new fad among some enthusiasts of the sport that allows the user to fire a gun remotely at live game. However even avid supporters of the sport are working to have it outlawed.

At least ten states now have laws on the books prohibiting the practice, and Maryland State Senator John Astle, a hunting enthusiast that says Internet hunting "flies in the face of the hunting ethic," has put forth legislation in the state to stop the practice there.

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Count Dell as the latest victim of the Apple iPod -- well, sort of. The electronics manufacturer on Monday said that it would be discontinuing its hard drive-based players, however it will continue offering the 512MB Dell Ditty for the foreseeable future. The move would axe the company's 5, 20, and 30GB players. Analysts say that Dell was never able to differentiate itself from its competitors, thus it got lost among the multitude of Windows-based players available on the market.

The Ditty, which launched in September, includes an FM tuner, small monochrome screen, and PlaysForSure compatibility. Dell has not released sales figures for the unit.

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Fon Technology, a Spanish start-up that provides technology to allow users to share Internet access with neighbors, announced Monday that it had secured 18 million Euros ($21.7 million USD) in financing from Skype, Google, and two venture capital firms.

Fon wants to create a block-by-block grid of shared wireless connections worldwide, allowing users of the service to access the Internet for free or a small fee where the service's users are sharing their Internet. The technology is loosely based on the same peer-to-peer technology made popular by Napster.

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Several wireless carriers have begun to pressure BlackBerry maker Research in Motion to settle its patent dispute with NTP, fearing a potential shutdown could cause trouble for their customers using the service.

Over four million of BlackBerry's customers are jointly served by U.S. carriers, and any shutdown of the service would not only affect RIM but consequently those wireless carriers as well, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.

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At least two online services will be introducing features that would allow e-mail marketers to pay to ensure their messages don't end up being blocked as spam. Both AOL and Yahoo plan to start offering the service within the next several months.

In exchange for paying a small fee of a quarter of a cent to one cent per message, the sender would be guaranteed delivery and the e-mail would be marked as legitimate in the header.

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As expected, VMware on Monday introduced VMware Server, the successor to GSX Server. The company hopes that by giving away its entry-level product, it will drive users to upgrade to its for-pay ESX Server, as well as position the company as the leader in virtualization technology. While VMware Server will require a "host" operating system in order to use its features, ESX requires no host.

"With VMware Server, we are ensuring that every company interested in, considering or evaluating server virtualization for the first time has access to the industry-leading virtualization technology," company president Diane Greene said in a statement. The product is the second free offering from the company: in December the company released VMware Player. The beta of VMware Server can be downloaded from FileForum for both Windows and Linux operating systems.

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Toshiba agreed Monday to purchase U.S. power plant company Westinghouse for $5.4 billion, far more than the company was expecting to garner through a sale of its assets. The Japanese electronics maker will retain a controlling 51 percent stake of Westinghouse, however several minority investors are expected to come forward before the transaction completes by the middle of the year.

Even though it may seem as Toshiba may have nothing to gain from such a transaction, the conglomerate's wide range of products actually include boiling water reactors. Westinghouse produces the more commonly used pressurized water reactors, used by 60 percent of the industry. But the market has looked at the transaction unfavorably: some say the company may strain itself financially by spreading its resources too thin. The stock fell a half percent following the news on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

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An inquiry into the French file sharing law that was passed late last year making peer-to-peer networks legal will be discussed at a hearing held by the Commission for Cultural Affairs and Commission for Economic Affairs. France's Culture Minister Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres will appear at the hearing.

The law would legalize the sharing of music and films as long as a flat fee of several euros per month is paid. Even with the promise of some compensation for file swappers' activities, the record industry says such a plan would undo years of work to combat piracy.

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