Apple poises itself to personalize future podcasts
A patent filing filed last January and published on the US Patent Office Web site Thursday indicates the company is looking for ways to give users more control over the content inside their podcasts.
Traditionally, the subscriber of a podcast has no control over the content within. Simply put, they subscribe to the content via a feed, and then the content owner sends them the content.
Bush grants funding to states for Real ID initiative
President Bush has apparently acquiesced to Congress' and governors' demands to assist in funding the Real ID initiative, with the appropriation of an additional $110 million in grants to assist in the upgrade of driver's licenses.
The Real ID project is aimed at developing a better system for identification when used as a method to gain entrance to federal facilities. This is seen as a counter-terrorism measure since it will ostensibly make it harder to fool the system with forged IDs.
FCC may approve DirecTV handoff to Liberty Media...somewhat
Three Republican FCC commissioners have approved News Corp.'s planned handover of DirecTV to Liberty Media, which would undo a deal that the FCC debated once already. But the two remaining Democrats have not yet signed off.
Both sides agreed to the handover in December 2006, which called for News Corp. to handover its 41% stake in DirecTV in exchange for Liberty's 16% voting share in Rupert Murdoch's media conglomerate.
Coming to a video site near you: more ads
Google announced Thursday that it will be beta testing a new AdSense program that would place ads in online video.
The company said that the new platform will extend across a variety of video sites, including Brightcove and Yume. Additionally, a number of social video sites including GodTube and others have signed onto the effort.
RIAA ex-defendant has counterclaim dismissed
One of the few RIAA defendants to have their cases dropped ran into some trouble in her effort to countersue the organization over its actions during the course of the case.
A federal judge dismissed Andersen's complaint on Tuesday, but gave her the option to refile within 30 days with the requirement that her attorneys be more specific as to which laws they allege the RIAA and its partner MediaSentry violated.
Sony BMG signs new mobile music deal
Sony BMG said Thursday that it had reached an agreement with Thumbplay to add about 7,000 pieces of content to the mobile media service.
Altogether the service has about 80,000 ringtones, wallpapers, games, videos, and voice-tones among other items. Sony said it will add content from its artists across most of those categories.
MySpace mulls launching digital music service
MySpace is reportedly looking into offering a digital music service in conjunction with record labels, possibly as a joint venture.
The social networking site declined to confirm its plans to BetaNews, only saying it "is not commenting on the rumors." However, several Web logs and the Associated Press are quoting sources within News Corp. claiming that the initiative is a reality.
One thousand Xbox Live games expected by year-end
In its annual demonstration of programming prowess at GDC on Wednesday, representatives of the Redmond company announced seven new community-created games for free via Xbox Live, and promised more...for the Zune.
Microsoft expects explosive growth through community-created games, stated its corporate vice president in charge of Xbox Live, John Schappert today. That growth would put some 1,000 plus games on Xbox Live by the end of this year, far exceeding its competitors' catalogs.
NAND Flash to cool off significantly in 2008
After projecting a 27 percent rise in revenue growth in NAND previously, iSuppli has abruptly lowered their projections, saying a single digit rise is much more likely.
The problem will extend to DRAM chips as well, a market already significantly softened during 2007. While many NAND manufacturers have the capability to switch to DRAM as a safe haven, struggles there will not provide much solace.
Sony taps Ensequence to deal with BD-J complexity
After many developers had already spurned Blu-ray Java (BD-J) in favor of HDi, the XML-based interactivity layer for HD DVD, the outcome of the format war is now forcing reluctant developers to accept the winner's methodology.
With the timing perhaps not coincidental, a deal was struck today between Sony Pictures Home Entertainment and interactive content developer Ensequence. The deal involves Sony Pictures reselling Ensequence's on-Q Create suite to Blu-ray partners for use on their discs.
Universal, Amazon hop on Blu-ray bandwagon as HD DVD prices fall
In a move that's about as surprising as the sun rising each day, Universal Studios said it would start to release titles on Blu-ray. Meanwhile, Amazon said it will give preferred placement to Blu-ray over HD DVD.
With Toshiba halting production of HD DVD players, the format is all but finished moving forward. Universal president Craig Kornblau said it's now clear what direction the industry must head to push adoption of next-generation optical discs.
After HD DVD: Who benefits, and what happens next?
With HD DVD out of the way, BetaNews sat down with Krishna Chander of iSuppli and Michelle Abraham of In-Stat to discuss the future of high-definition discs.
Toshiba's surrender in the two-year long next-generation disc war has finally put an end to what has seemed to be a never-ending stream of back-and-forth between two groups of technology and content producers, over concepts and features with very little to distinguish themselves from one another.
Thunderbird development starts afresh under new company
Mozilla launched Tuesday a company that is completely focused on its alternative e-mail client, while also announcing features planned for the next version of it.
Operating as a subsidiary, Mozilla Messaging will focus on development of Mozilla's e-mail strategies, chiefly Thunderbird. Like its predecessor, the client will still remain open source.
BBC adds shows to iTunes in UK
Britons were already able to enjoy a limited selection of American television content through iTunes, BBC is now the first British content provider.
The deal was announced Tuesday, and programs will be available for 1.89 pounds per episode. Programs to be offered include Life on Mars, Little Britain, and Spooks.
Apple cuts price of iPod Shuffle by 40 percent
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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