EC renews its anti-competition objections against Intel
This afternoon, the European Commission sent what it's calling a Supplementary Statement of Objections to Intel, reiterating its three-count claim of anti-competitive conduct in the European market against rival AMD.
The latest Statement from the EC, according to the Commission, adds supplemental material to its charges almost exactly one year ago, that Intel violated three counts of Article 82 of the EC Treaty. That law states that no entity that holds a dominant market position may use its influence to alter market conditions in such a way as to negatively impact trade among member states.
Sony plans $500 'Blu-ray player for audiophiles' for fall
At a press event in New York this week, Sony presented a prototype of a new "Blu-ray player for audiophiles" -- the BDP-S550 -- slated for release next fall.
NEW YORK (BetaNews) -- "The S550 will provide features like some additional decoding of high definition audio streams," said Christopher Fawcett, Sony's VP of home video product management, in a meeting with BetaNews at a Sony press event here on Wednesday.
Lionsgate to partner with YouTube
Soon, Lionsgate will be joining the ranks of major content providers to partner with YouTube in advertisement and hosting.
YouTube has already partnered with CBS and the BBC, as well as Universal Music Group, Sony BMG, and Warner Music Group. The now three-year old video service's system for monetization and content identification appears to be mature enough to sustain major studios, and the inclusion of Lionsgate could foretoken many more.
YouTorrent relaunches with focus on legal downloads
One of the fastest-growing new BitTorrent sites said late Wednesday that it had relaunched its search engine, indexing nearly six terabytes of legal content.
In April, the site made the decision to go legal and stop indexing sites such as The Pirate Bay and isoHunt, which do not prune their databases of pirated content. YouTube has only been online since January, but the company said at the switch it averaged over 10 million unique users a month.
Opera opens its Mobile 9.5 beta for PocketPC
The first beta of Opera Mobile 9.5, initially only available for touchscreen Windows Pocket PCs running Windows Mobile 5 or WM6, is still missing about a third of Opera Mobile 9.5's expected features.
Though it's still in the early stages of its lifespan, this first beta of Opera Mobile 9.5 maintains Opera's traditional focus on providing a fast browsing experience, while making it more similar to the popular Opera Mini.
Sony ships S350 Blu-ray player for $400, firmware awaited
Sony's latest entry-level Blu-ray player might be sleeker than its predecessor, but pricing hasn't come down any. The new BDP-S350 is shipping, but a firmware upgrade will be needed to make it the first non-PlayStation to work with BD-Live.
NEW YORK (BetaNews) - On Wednesday evening, Sony unveiled the BDP-S350, a smaller and lighter external Blu-ray disc player which adds new navigation and set-up features, along with planned upgradability to BD-Live, an online interactive site still currently available only for PlayStation 3.
Latest Winamp adds access to CBS Radio stations
Who still uses Winamp? There's at least one guy at BetaNews whose desktop clutter contains the venerable music player, and today there's actually a new reason for it to stay right where it is.
Amazon opens beta of its video-on-demand service
The latest project from the leading online retailer allows movies to be streamed directly to PCs. Built upon Amazon's library of Unbox titles, beta testers get a $5 rental credit to check out the streams.
In May, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos mentioned that an a la carte, pay-per-view streaming video service would be coming to the Site, but did not mention if it would be entirely new, or simply a feature upgrade to Unbox.
Google tweaks its use of contacts in Gmail's address book
Responding to user complaints over clutter in its address books, Google said it would partition the contacts it automatically adds to its users lists, into a separate area.
The feature in Google's Gmail Web pages that allows users to quickly enter e-mail addresses by only typing in the first few characters, is perceived to be helpful by some. However, typically when a user adds the address to enable auto-completion, it also adds a entry to the main address book.
Apple computer sales seen surging in US, Acer also strong
While the company has yet to make a mark among worldwide computer shipments in either major survey of the PC industry, it continued to show impressive strength stateside. But Acer is #3 or #4, depending on whom you ask.
In the Gartner survey, the company gained two percentage points of market share year-over-year to end the second quarter of 2008 with 8.5 percent of the market and a little under 1.4 million units shipped, good enough for third.
Yahoo's latest plea to shareholders has a familiar political tone
It would appear one or more former managers of defeated presidential campaigns may have joined Yahoo, as it latest spin on financier Carl Icahn's plan to couple Microsoft with Yahoo's search business uses a number of familiar phrases.
"Mr. Icahn can't make up his mind about what he thinks will work for Yahoo," reads the company's latest plea to shareholders this morning, signed by Chairman Roy Bostock and CEO Jerry Yang. They tell a story of Icahn initially suggesting that Yahoo sell itself outright to Microsoft for $34.75 per share -- a price we haven't heard quoted before. But Icahn didn't really do due diligence, the statement alleges, otherwise he would have known that Microsoft had already walked away from any kind of a full takeover deal.
Reports: SK Telecom, Sprint may be looking at a partnership
The two cellular companies are said to be in talks over a possible partnership to co-develop new services and handsets, media reports indicate.
This morning, CNBC reported that SK Telecom was interested in purchasing Sprint Nextel outright, however financial analysts quickly discounted the story saying the Korean cellular provider would likely not be able to swing such a deal. This was furthered by reporting by Reuters news wire and The Wall Street Journal, which seemed to indicate the talks centered around a partnership instead. A minority investment in Sprint also seems possible.
Microsoft's Live Mesh may or may not be open
In perhaps the most awkward launch since last week's iPhone 3G, Microsoft at least tried to start its technology preview for its Live Mesh services. But it didn't look like a preview at first, and now, it doesn't look much like a service.
This afternoon, Microsoft made testers aware it was opening its Live Mesh services suite, of services designed to be integrated into the Windows environment. But only a few hours later, the company came to realize it might have wanted to say this was a technology preview, in its initial announcement.
Australia tweaks its code of conduct for Internet and mobile
Today, the Australian Communications and Media Authority approved the Content Services Code, a set of guidelines for ISPs and mobile carriers, which include directives for ISPs to hire so-called "trained content assessors."
The Content Services Code is a code of practices developed by the Internet Industry Association for online and mobile content providers. Within it are guidelines for "self-regulation of content" from commercial ISPs and mobile operators, which include the mandatory hiring of in-house censors, called "trained content assessors."
Tomorrow, a new top-level domain just for .ME
Those interested in getting a .ME domain name -- perhaps one named just for themselves -- can do so after ICANN, the organization responsible for overseeing Internet domains, opens up .ME domain registration tomorrow.
The "Sunrise" period of registration for .ME domains began in May, where trademark owners were permitted to register their own names early. The "Landrush" period began in June, in which any interested party can submit a domain application without restrictions.
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