AllofMP3: IFPI Raid a Publicity Stunt
Russian music store AllofMP3, which has long been under scrutiny by U.S. and European regulators for selling music without paying any royalties to artists, called out European music industry group IFPI Thursday, claiming the service is legal and a recently publicized raid was made up "sensational news."
The response followed news that the IFPI and British police raided the home of a 25-year-old London man who was selling vouchers to use on AllofMP3 as payment, and then transferring money to the Russian company's off shore bank accounts.
AllofMP3 Closer to Being Shut Down
While authorities in the United States and Europe can't directly shut down Russia music store AllofMP3.com, which they say sells songs without paying licenses or royalties to artists, they have been successful in cutting off the site's ability to take money from customers outside Russia.
PayPal, MasterCard and Visa have already stopped handling payments for the service, leading AllofMP3 to resort to a "voucher" system, which United States and European consumers could use to purchase music. Songs on the site are offered for pennies, far less than licensed services like Apple's iTunes.
Microsoft 'Popfly' Shows Off Silverlight
When Microsoft introduced Silverlight -- its new platform for building rich Internet applications -- at MIX last month, consumers had one key question: Why should this interest me? Microsoft made its first attempt at an answer Friday with the alpha launch of "Popfly."
In simple terms, Popfly enables users to create mashups (a single service that utilizes multiple services), gadgets, Web pages, and even applications. But the real power of the new online service -- and what sets Popfly apart from Yahoo Pipes -- is the ease in which it can be done, without any technical know-how or development experience.
Zango Sues Spyware Remover, Again
For the second time, adware provider Zango has sued a software developer over its anti-spyware solution, this time targeting PC Tools and its popular Spyware Doctor program that comes with Google Pack. Zango, previously known as 180solutions, sued Zone Labs in late 2005.
Like its previous lawsuit regarding ZoneAlarm, Zango claims Spyware Doctor illegally removes Zango software from users' PCs without their express permission. PC Tools has rated Zango an "elevated" threat currently, but is in the process of reclassifying the software, perhaps to a more critical rating.
Apple: Fake Memo Didn't Come from Internal Server
Apple attempted to squash the confusion surrounding a fake memo published on AOL blog Engadget Wednesday, which claimed both the iPhone and Leopard were being delayed and temporarily led to a major drop in Apple stock. The company says the memo was not sent from its servers.
Instead, the fake memo was simply crafted to look like it came from Apple and contained the same wording that typically accompanies legitimate internal communication from the company's Bullet News system. The e-mail was then sent to a handful of employees, one of whom passed it to Engadget.
Microsoft Makes Largest Buy in History
Furthering the pace of consolidation in the Internet advertising industry, Microsoft on Friday announced it will acquire aQuantive for around $6 billion - its largest acquisition in history. Microsoft is paying nearly an 85 percent premium for the company.
Microsoft was rumored to be bidding for 24/7 Real Media, one of the smaller advertising firms up for sale, however WPP Group announced it won the deal Thursday for a price of approximately $649 million. Last month, market leader DoubleClick was acquired by Google, and Yahoo purchased ad firm Right Media.
Microsoft Votes in Support of ODF
In a surprise move, Microsoft announced Thursday that it had voted in favor of OpenDocument (ODF) being added to the American National Standards (ANSI) list. But some industry watchers say the move is largely a PR ploy that is not backed by real action.
Microsoft has pushed for its own Office Open XML formats to become international standards, receiving certification from European standards body Ecma and submitting them to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). A vote on ISO standardization is expected in late 2007 or early 2008.
New AACS Protection Cracked Already
The cat and mouse game continued Thursday between the movie industry and those wanting open access to the content they purchase. Software vendor Slysoft released an update to its popular AnyDVD HD program that copies the latest HD DVD and Blu-ray titles - bypassing the newest AACS copy protection.
Like CSS is for DVD, AACS (view specs) keeps high-definition discs encrypted such that they cannot be copied. Two main keys are utilized by the standard: a device key used by hardware and software players, a volume key stored on each movie title that can be used to decrypt its contents.
Google Unveils Biggest Site Redesign
In a move that is sure to alienate Google traditionalists, the search company unveiled the biggest change ever to its homepage Wednesday, making a push toward what it calls "a universal search model." Believe it or not, the idea started with Britney Spears.
Marissa Mayer, Google's vice president of search products and user experience, introduced the new design and search results page at the company's Searchology media event. The idea is simple: instead of having separate search results pages for the Web, images, news and more, the top results from each category are combined onto a single page.
Amazon to Open Music Download Store
Online retailer Amazon.com on Wednesday confirmed rumors that it plans to open a music download store to compete with Apple's iTunes. Unlike competitors, however, Amazon will only sell songs in the unprotected MP3 format.
Amazon says it will offer millions of songs on the as-yet unnamed service, which come from 12,000 record labels. Most of these will be smaller, independent labels, as EMI is the only major to have agreed to license its tracks without digital rights management.
Halo 3 Set to Debut September 25
At a special event in Los Angeles late Tuesday, Microsoft announced that its highly-anticipated "Halo 3" title for the Xbox 360 will hit store shelves on September 25. A multiplayer beta for Halo 3 begins today, and Microsoft is launching a Halo-styled Zune next month.
Halo 3 is the final installment in Microsoft's most popular gaming franchise, which was created by developer Bungie Studios. The game promises to "set a new standard for interactive storytelling and social gaming by engaging consumers worldwide in Master Chief’s epic battle to save humankind." Multiplayer support through Xbox live is a major selling point.
RealNetworks Inks Deal with Vodafone
A day after Napster secured a deal to power the music services on Motorola's new ROKR handsets, RealNetworks has inked a similar agreement with European wireless carrier Vodafone. But Real had to buy into the partnership.
Music offerings on Vodafone are currently powered by Sony NetServices, a joint venture of Sony DADC and Sony Europe, which was acquired Wednesday by Real. Both streaming Internet radio to mobile phones and music downloads are available through the solution.
TiVo Introduces 'Swivel Search' Feature
TiVo on Tuesday unveiled a new feature to help customers navigate through the hundreds of channels they receive and find programming that actually interests them. Named "Swivel Search," the new option will begin rolling out to Series2 and Series3 TiVo users Tuesday.
Dubbed the first "TV-centric on-screen search tool," Swivel Search (view a demo) starts on a program itself rather than requiring the user to type in keywords or titles. TiVo customers can select "More options" on a program to access the feature, which pulls up detailed information on the show or movie.
Office Open XML Support for Mac Delayed
Mac users will have to wait a bit longer if they wish to read or edit documents created with the new Open XML formats in Office 2007. Microsoft has delayed an update for Office 2004 for Mac until two months after the release of Office 2008 for Mac.
In the meantime, a standalone converter is being offered in beta, but its functionality is limited. It will convert .docx files from Office 2007 to the basic rich text format (RTF), which is compatible with both Office v.X and Office 2004. Microsoft recommends re-saving the document as a .doc before sending it to others.
Gates: 40 Million Copies of Vista Sold
During his keynote at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference Tuesday, Bill Gates told an audience of developers that 40 million copies of Windows Vista have sold in the first 100 days of the operating system's release - a figure more than the install base of Windows' competitors combined.
The 40 million sales figure does, however, includes copies of Vista that were sold before the OS launched at the end of January through upgrade options on new PCs. Still, Gates said the rate of adoption of Vista is twice that seen for Windows XP in 2001. Premium editions of Vista account for 78 percent of sales, he added.
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