Nate Mook

Apple is expanding its iTunes Store beyond just music and videos into the realm of television show downloads. The Cupertino company has secured a deal with Disney to offer shows from ABC including Desperate Housewives, Nightstalker, The Suite Life, and Lost for $1.99 per episode.

Five TV shows will be available initially for purchase and playback on a computer or new video iPod. Each episode will come in a resolution of 320x240 pixels. The lack of downloadable legal content has plagued competitors' devices, but Apple's moves on Wednesday show the company was ready to put its marketing muscle behind the new video iPod.

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Barely a month after the release of iTunes 5, Apple has launched version 6 of the media player software, which adds Amazon-like customer reviews and recommendations to the iTunes Music Store. "Gifting" is also now enabled for customers to buy music for others, who receive an e-mail with download information.

With iTunes 6, Apple has expanded its library of music videos in order to make content available for the video iPod; each will cost $1.99 USD to download. Pixar is also making six short films available through the iTunes Music Store for the same $1.99 USD price. Videos take about 20MB of disk space and contain the same FairPlay usage rights as music downloads. TV show downloads will also be offered.

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It's official. At an event in San Jose Wednesday, Apple ended months of speculation by introducing the first video-enabled iPod, moving the company into the portable media center space.

"Yes, it does video," Apple CEO Steve Jobs said in his keynote address as the audience erupted in applause.

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At a special event for members of the press Wednesday morning, Apple CEO Steve Jobs took the stage to finally end the rumors about "One more thing..." First up on his list of announcements was a new iMac, which is thinner than previous models and includes a built-in iSight camera and Media Center-like capabilities.

A new application dubbed "Front Row" provides a 10-foot interface that lets iMac users control music, video and pictures while relaxing on a sofa. Text and graphics are enlarged for viewing at a distance.

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UPDATED Microsoft and Yahoo announced on Wednesday a blockbuster interoperability deal that will reshape the landscape of the fragmented instant messaging market. The companies will connect their IM networks so users on each can communicate with one another using text and voice chat free of charge.

Starting in the second quarter of 2006, customers of both services will be able to see their friends' online presence, share emoticons, and add new contacts from either Yahoo! Messenger or MSN Messenger to their buddy list.

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Microsoft and RealNetworks have announced a wide-ranging settlement of Real's long-standing antitrust suit, which is composed of three separate agreements valued at $761 million and resolves all disputes between the companies.

The music and games portion of the deal includes $301 million in cash and the marketing of Real's products and services. Real's Rhapsody music service will be showcased across Microsoft's Web properties, and the company's games offered through MSN Games and Xbox Live Arcade for Xbox 360.

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While Web logs and podcasts have yet to cross over from fad to mainstream, that hasn't stopped Web leaders from embracing the new mediums in order to avoid missing the next big thing. To that end, Yahoo has expanded its news search to include what it calls "grassroots journalism" from blogs and Flickr.

Yahoo says the move is designed to "augment professional journalism" and enables users to search only blog results alongside Flickr photo thumbnails and Yahoo My Web links. The idea is to expose consumers to opinions, analysis and commentary on various topics that may not be covered by mainstream media.

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Centercode is seeking beta testers for a new product designed specifically for T-Mobile USA wireless customers. Although details of the device were not disclosed, it integrates convenience, communication and entertainment features with built-in Wi-Fi and GPRS support.

Applicants to the beta test must be current T-Mobile customers using GPRS. A Windows desktop with broadband Internet connection is required, as is use of Wi-Fi and MSN Messenger. According to Centercode, "There will be a limited number of beta test candidates for this test, so please make sure to apply at your earliest convenience if interested." To sign up, visit the Centercode Callout.

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Weeks before Microsoft is expected to release the October Community Technology Preview of Windows Vista, build 5231 has found its way onto the Internet. The pre-Beta 2 release incorporates minor updates over the September CTP that debuted at PDC 2005, including an early build of Windows Media Player 11.

Internet Explorer 7 has also received a minor facelift, with its tabs moved below the address bar to match the interface style used by the likes of Firefox and Opera. The Windows Sidebar has re-emerged in Vista build 5231, but it's not clear if the October CTP will include the feature.

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Microsoft is preparing to publicly test its new front end Hotmail, code-named "Kahuna" and simply branded: Mail Beta. The upgrade will support an AJAX-based interface that has been rewritten from the ground up using Microsoft's Atlas framework and a new architecture known as FireAnt.

Explaining the new Mail Beta, program manager Imran Qureshi said, "Some would call it a blank slate I guess. When we asked customers what they wanted the main theme was clear: Make it faster, make it simpler and make it safer. It couldn't have been clearer." Interested Hotmail users can now sign up for the Mail Beta test.

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Following in the footsteps of AOL and Apple, Yahoo has begun testing out a new search engine dedicated to audio files, or podcasts, available on the Web. Yahoo! Podcasts categorizes podcasts by topic, keyword and user-created tags. The site also features reviews and ratings of the top podcasts.

Like Apple has done with iTunes, Yahoo Music Engine users can access podcasts directly from the audio player. Listeners can subscribe to podcasts through their RSS feeds, or listen to the audio directly from Yahoo. The site will allow for playback at 2x speed to more quickly get through long podcasts. Down the road, Yahoo even plans to introduce software to help users create their own podcasts.

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Google took the covers off a Web based RSS reader at the Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco Friday. The tool, appropriately dubbed Google Reader, serves as an aggregator for Web feeds and is designed much like the company's Gmail service with Starred favorites and keyboard shortcuts.

"We often get asked how anyone's supposed to keep up with the firehose of stuff launched from the web's spigot, so we're offering Reader as a way to help," explained Google software engineer Chris Wetherell. "Like the Personalized Homepage, it's a part of Google's ongoing effort to bring together personalized web content to make information more relevant to users."

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David Falman is Managing Director for Odessa Mama Records of Melbourne, Australia. In this guest column, he explains from a professional perspective why the record industry's attempts at raising the price of digital music from iTunes' 99-cent ceiling would do more harm than good.

With a showdown approaching between the major labels and Apple over its 99 cent price for downloads (and now music managers in the UK becoming unhappy with iTunes pricing) I wanted to give an independent label's view on this subject, given that there are over one thousand independent labels on iTunes.

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Segway's Human Transporter may be priced too high for most consumers, but the company has found another way to spread its technology: third party licenses. Segway will provide the Smart Motion tech used in its two-wheel scooters to other manufacturers and, in some cases, co-develop the products.

Robotics company WowWee will be the first licensee. The company will integrate Segway's Smart Motion into its next line of robotic toys slated for debut in 2006, including the Robosapien, Roboraptor and Robopet.

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Hewlett-Packard isn't the only one expanding its horizons with non-Microsoft software: Lenovo said this week it will ship the new ThinkPad R51e notebook with Sun's StarOffice 8 productivity suite. However, the bundle is only available in Singapore and Lenovo has no plans to feature StarOffice worldwide.

StarOffice 8 is based on the OpenOffice.org project and includes a word processor, spreadsheet and presentation software. As part of the version 8 launch, Sun is stepping up its efforts to expose consumers to the Microsoft Office alternative. The company this week inked a deal with Google to promote the suite.

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