Ed Oswald

Fox and Apple have joined to provide access to content from the hit television show's current season. Starting with the top 24 semifinalists this week, music performances will be on sale for 99 cents per song, and beginning March 11, videos of the performances will be available for $1.99.

Fans of a particular contestant will be able to pre-order performances starting Monday, and the content will be downloadable automatically the day after the show airs. In addition, Fox is giving iTunes exclusive access to direct links of streaming media from the American Idol official website. If users want to download the performances for local use, a link will be provided.

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Motorola expanded its mobile music reach into the Asia-Pacific region with the completion of the Soundbuzz buy.

Terms were not disclosed. Motorola said that it will help to expand Soundbuzz's current offering beyond China, and will put MotoMusic in 13 countries across the region. It also gains licenses from the four major music labels, and about 45 independent labels.

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San Francisco-based company Second Life has opened up its virtual world to the mobile phone, and is looking for interested beta testers to put the application through its paces.

Functions are mapped to the keypad of the phone, and the experience has been reformatted to work on the smaller screen of these devices. Obviously due to the bandwidth requirements, a 3G handset is needed.

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A GSM version of Palm's Centro is apparently on tap for the AT&T network for release next Thursday, according to a report in popular mobile blog The Boy Genius Report. Although details are scant, it appears that the phone carries much of the functionality that its CDMA counterpart has.

Palm released the Centro for the Sprint network last October at Digital Life in New York City, aiming to put all the functionality of the Treo into a smaller form factor. The Centro received generally positive reviews.

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The chief executive officer of SCO will leave once it reorganizes through a deal with Stephen Norris & Co. Capital Partners.

McBride's exit will be effective as soon as the restructuring plans take effect. The company said Thursday that it was offered $100 million to go private and reorganize by SNCP, which would take it out of bankruptcy.

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While frustrated retailers claim that the failure rate for Microsoft's next generation console is near 30 percent, Microsoft has said it is likely closer to five percent. So who's right?

The first unbiased measurement comes from SquareTrade, whose business is in handling warranties for electronics. Using a sample of about 1,000 systems, it found that the 360 had about a 16.4 percent failure rate.

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Maybe it's due to how easy Apple has made it to search the web via Safari on the device, but the number of search queries on the iPhone are shocking Google.

When Google first saw the results, executives actually asked its engineers to ensure that there wasn't an error in the calculations. The logs were run through again and the result was the same.

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Google released on Wednesday an updated version of its Android SDK, including a new user interface that separates it from Apple's iPhone, and layout animations for iPhones.

Initial betas of the SDK included a user interface that many commented was quite similar to that of the iPhone. With this update, m5-rc14, the UI is beginning to take on a look of its own.

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Three companies are set to use the backdrop of the 2008 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona to debut a device that can use WiMAX technology to make calls.

The device has been co-developed by Tokyo-based companies NetIndex and Kaga Electronics, and Israel company Runcom. The phone is fully complaint with WiMAX, and will provide full VoIP functionality.

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The unfortunate combination of an attachment error and a week-long sickness by the school's attorney gave the appearance that the school was ignoring a court order, according to an admission made by a university official to BetaNews.

Multiple press and Internet sources reported throughout the week that Oklahoma State University has been attempting to stonewall the Recording Industry Association of America by refusing to turn over a list of students' names suspected of trading in unlicensed files. Those students are currently listed as anonymous "John Does" in a federal court trial brought forth by RIAA members.

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Nintendo of America has asked the office of the US Trade Representative to begin pressuring foreign governments to crack down on counterfeit material.

Using an process called a "Special 301," Nintendo filed its complaint with the USTR. Through that method, the agency opens up the process to the public for comment in order to pinpoint areas of concern.

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Although it is not confirmed, Google has entered into a joint venture with Top100.cn, which will allow Internet users to download licensed music for free.

Top100 already provides a for-pay music download service in China which also offers free streaming. It was founded with 20 million yuan in start-up capital from Chinese basketball star Yao ming, Yao's agent Zhang Mingji, and businessman Ge Chen. It is unclear what will happen to this service when Google steps in.

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Microsoft admitted Wednesday that it sales for its flagship Xbox 360 game console were in fact so strong that it hasn't been able to maintain inventory levels.

Redmond may be playing the expectations game as NPD data listing monthly console sales is due shortly, and may show some weakness due to these supply problems. Microsoft's game marketing chief Jeff Bell said it could have an impact on its sales.

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Analysis of the LCD TV market by electronics analyst firm iSuppli confirms earlier findings that established brands have vaulted ahead of upstart Vizio, making a return to the top of the charts in the fourth quarter.

But two analysts' firms have differing opinions on the breakdown. In the results of a survey from DisplaySearch, Sony took number one at 12.8%, while Samsung followed closely behind at 12.3%. iSuppli's data showed a more substantial lead for Samsung at 14.2%, followed by Sony at 12.5%.

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The two companies announced a solution Wednesday that lets safety personnel talk to each other through its public safety radios and Nextel phones.

Both are framing it in the context of September 11th, which showed how vulnerable the nation's emergency communications infrastructure was. By allowing those with Nextel walkie-talkie cellular phones to talk directly to those with public safety radios, an important hurdle is cleared.

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