Ed Oswald

Paramount Home Entertainment announced late Sunday that it had decided to produce movies in the Blu-ray disc format, indicating that the studio may be considering releases of its movies in both next generation DVD formats. The studio had previously said that it would be supporting HD DVD, however Sunday's statement made no mention of the technology.

"After more detailed assessment and new data on cost, manufacturability and copy protection solutions, we have now made the decision to move ahead with the Blu-ray format," Paramount said in the statement. Representatives for HD DVD said they believe the studio still backs the technology, but they had not heard directly from Paramount and instead were basing their opinion on comments made by the studio to the press.

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Microsoft over the weekend revealed that PDF support would be integrated into the next version of its productivity software, known as Office 12. The announcement was made on Saturday at the Global MVP Summit, Microsoft's annual confab for its most valuable professionals.

The company says that it's adding the new format to promote "sharing across multiple platforms." However, the move fits in with Microsoft's other recent efforts to take on Adobe in areas where its rival has enjoyed considerable success.

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Yahoo said on Monday that it would lead a group that would aim to make books and traditional media more available on the Internet, while being respectful of copyrights.

Google had launched a similar project last year, but met strong resistance after authors sued the Web giant over "massive copyright infringement" last month.

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Move over Microsoft and Google. California-based Nuance Communications, makers of voice automation technology, said on Friday they planned to sue Yahoo in order to prevent the company from hiring 13 of its engineers. The company also accuses Yahoo of attempting to steal its intellectual property.

The engineers were working on a project for Nuance known as Directory Assistance Automation, which would negate the need for a live person to search for telephone numbers.

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Kodak earlier this week unveiled a wireless digital camera, and announced a partnership with T-Mobile Hotspot that would allow the unit to e-mail pictures without the need for a computer. The camera was initially scheduled to debut earlier this summer, but engineering and marketing issues delayed its release.

The new camera has a resolution of 4.0 megapixels with a 3x optical zoom. 256 megabytes of internal memory will allow users to store up to 1,500 pictures depending on resolution. Also, a three-inch LCD touch screen enables users to navigate the camera's features.

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The head of the International Telecommunications Union says the United Nations stands ready to take over control of the Internet if the United States relinquishes control as it is being pressured to.

Yoshio Utsumi said the ITU "could do it if we were asked to" at a news conference Friday. However, it appears the chances of such an event happening are slim to none.

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A representative of Microsoft's French division told ZDNet France on Friday that the company plans to release a third service pack for the Windows XP operating system. According to Bernard Ourghanlian, technical and security director at Microsoft France, the update is significant and a priority for Microsoft's developers.

Microsoft last updated Windows XP in August 2004, focusing on security issues. The changes came after the company received widespread criticism over the operating system's apparent lax security. No details have been received on the contents of the update, although it may include a version of WinFX being fine-tuned for the now four year-old version of Windows.

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RadioShack said on Friday it plans to sell AMD's low-cost Internet terminal in its stores next week. The $299 USD device, dubbed the Personal Internet Communicator, was launched last year in an effort to bring Web access to low-income families in developing countries.

The unit is part of an initiative by AMD to put computers in the hands of half the world's population by the middle of the next decade.

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The argument between next-generation DVD formats Blu-ray and HD DVD got even more heated on Thursday. Blu-ray supporters Dell and Hewlett Packard shot back at comments made Tuesday by Microsoft and Intel in an announcement of support for HD DVD, calling the two companies statements on Blu-ray "inaccurate."

At issue were comments made regarding Blu-ray's storage capacity, copyright protection and the format's "backward compatibility."

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Microsoft's CEO Steve Ballmer is scheduled to meet with European Commission competition chief Neelie Kroes next week, her spokesperson confirmed to the press on Friday. While the exact topic of the Wednesday morning meeting is not known, the EU had received complaints that possibly could lead to a new case against the software giant. Last year, Microsoft was forced to pay 497 million euros for antitrust violations.

A spokesperson for Microsoft played down the meeting's significance, saying it was a routine meeting to discuss policy issues with the organization. The discussion was not requested by Kroes, however; Ballmer is on a business trip and had requested a meeting with her while in Europe. Ballmer is also scheduled to meet Siim Kallas, EU administration head.

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Sony on Thursday announced that it had developed a new version of its proprietary memory card format called Memory Stick Micro. About a quarter of the size of its predecessor, Micro is designed for use in compact mobile phones. Sony, along with manufacturer SanDisk, will begin offering licenses for the technology starting next week.

"Sony and SanDisk recognize the rapidly growing market opportunity for memory cards with multimedia mobile phones, and are joining forces to develop the ultra-small Memory Stick Micro format to foster development of extremely compact multimedia mobile phones," Dr. Eli Harari, president and chief executive officer of SanDisk said. The product is expected to ship in the first half of 2006.

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The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has upheld the University of California and Eolas Technology's claims to patents surrounding the mechanisms used to embed interactive programs in a Web browser. The decision strikes a blow to Microsoft's charges that the patent is invalid.

Eolas had sued Microsoft alleging the plug-in architecture in Internet Explorer infringed on its intellectual property. A federal court agreed, and awarded Eolas $521 million in damages. Initially, Microsoft said it would alter IE and how the browser implemented ActiveX as a result of the ruling.

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Disney on Thursday unveiled its own MP3 player called the Mix Stick that it hopes would appeal to younger children who are increasingly turning to electronic toys over the traditional dolls and toy trucks. The company also is betting on its $49 retail price as a way to entice parents who may not be willing to spend $99 on an iPod Shuffle.

Mix Sticks will come in four different designs -- Disney Chrome, Forever Princess, Sassy Pixie and That's So Raven -- and are built for children age 6 to 12. However, from the characters selected for the designs, it appears Disney is attempting to target young girls.

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Hoping to cash in among audiophiles and those who want better quality in their music downloads, Nevada-based MusicGiants launched its digital music service on Wednesday. The music store will offer its tracks in Windows Media Lossless format, the first service to do so.

MusicGiants says these tracks would have up to seven times the quality of those available from competing services like iTunes and Napster, which offer songs at a bitrate of 128 kbps. In comparison, songs on MusicGiants will range from 470 kbps to as much as 1100 kpbs, producing a much more accurate reproduction of the music.

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BetaNews has learned that a quote widely attributed to Warner Music's digital music strategy chief Michael Nash, which received a lot of attention in the press, never actually occurred. Nash was quoted as saying they'd "cut him off," referring to Steve Jobs and iTunes if discussions were not favorable to Warner Music Group, and that "very few people buy music from digital downloads."

"He was misquoted in a lot of different sources," a Warner Music spokesperson told BetaNews. The comment first appeared on British technology site The Register, which had quietly removed the story by Thursday morning. The spokesperson would not comment on the status of any negotiations with Apple.

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