California Appeals Video Game Law Ruling
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said Wednesday that he had appealed a court decision that struck down the controversial violent video game law in his state. The appeal was filed in federal court for the Northern District of California. The law would have prevented the sale or rental of "ultra-violent" video games to anyone under 18, and would have required clear labeling of such games.
The legislation
LG Promises New, True Hybrid High-Def Disc Player
We've been down this road before: Covering CES last January, BetaNews was the first to report that LG Electronics' long-promised hybrid Blu-ray/HD DVD disc player wouldn't actually be able to play the full content of HD DVDs, due to its lack of support for its iHD interactivity layer - the part that gives you menus and on-screen features.
LG originally promised a hybrid player as far back as March 2006. Now, at the CEDIA custom electronics show in Denver, the company is showing off a new prototype that it claims will play both iHD and BD-J interactive content, and will sell for $999.
Intel Seeks to Upstage AMD 'Barcelona' with Quad-Core 'Tigerton'
The fact that AMD plans to unveil its quad-core Opteron server processor on Monday is the worst kept secret since rumors yesterday that Apple CEO Steve Jobs would unveil something having to do with iPods today. What has come as a surprise is that Intel decided not to wait to let AMD have its day before releasing some initial specifications for its forthcoming "Tigerton" class Xeon MP quad-core server processors.
If you believe the performance test numbers professed by CPUs' own manufacturers, then Intel definitely plans to make a wrestling match out of Tigerton vs. x4 Opteron. This afternoon, Intel stated that an IBM System x3850 M2 4-way server produced a SPEC_int_rate_base2006 benchmark rating of 184. To give you an idea of relative standing, the best 4-way Intel quad-core servers today tend to just break the 90 barrier.
Microsoft Releases Suite of Windows Live Software
As expected, Microsoft on Wednesday released its Windows Live software suite, including the global betas of several of its desktop products.
Among the applications included are Windows Live Photo Gallery, Mail, Messenger, Writer, OneCare Family Safety, and Toolbar. The unified installer for the product also acts as a central location to download updates to any program once it is installed.
DailyKos and Other Blogs Qualify as 'Media,' Exempt from Finance Laws
Responding to a complaint filed by a blogger for politically conservative Web sites, the US Federal Election Commission yesterday declared that DailyKos, a politically liberal site, operates as a news and commentary provider. As such - in effect, as a member of the "media" - DailyKos is exempt from campaign finance laws that restrict the amounts of money individuals and organizations may contribute.
BlogCritics writer John C. Bambenek alleged in July that DailyKos openly solicited money for what it characterized as good causes, in exchange for which the site would promote the donor through advertising. Rather than simply sell ads like a normal media site, Bambenek claimed, DailyKos was soliciting contributions, with advertising granted to contributors as a token of its appreciation.
Apple Cuts iPhone Price by $200
Apple said Wednesday it is scrapping the 4GB iPhone in favor of a single 8GB model, while dropping the price substantially. The surprise announcement came after news of new iPod models, including the iPod Touch. The iPhone will now cost $399 USD.
At that price, the iPhone will only cost $100 more than the 8GB iPod Touch and the same as the 16GB iPod Touch. Although Apple could see a sales boost from those who felt the iPhone was too expensive at $499 and $599, the price cut may have the unfortunate effect of upsetting current customers, who paid $200 more just two months ago or less.
Apple Introduces Wi-Fi iTunes Store
With its new iPod Touch sporting wireless capabilities, Apple on Wednesday introduced the iTunes WiFi Music Store, which will allow users of the device to purchase and download songs directly to the device. The service will not only work with the Touch, but also for the iPhone through an update that will be provided later this month. For Starbucks aficionados, new integration could prove a godsend.
When near a Starbucks with Wi-Fi, Touch and iPhone users would be able to see the songs that are playing and download them through a special Starbucks section that would appear. Additionally, users would be able to view the last ten songs played and also be able to buy those songs as well.
iPod Classic, Meet iPod Touch
With typical Steve Jobs flair, Apple introduced on Wednesday an entirely new player called the iPod Touch, while relegating its current high-end iPod to "Classic" status.
The Classic model is much like today's iPod, except with more hard drive space. It's thinner than today's 5.5-generation iPod, but comes in sizes of 80GB and 160GB. Pricing for the two models will stay the same as they are currently, at $249 and $349 USD respectively.
iPod Shuffle Goes (RED), New Nano Appears
At an event for press and analysts on Wednesday, Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced that the Shuffle would be joining the Product (RED) movement, while introducing a completely new iPod nano.
The Shuffle will now include a Product (RED) model, as well as silver, light blue, teal, and green models. However the bigger changes came to the iPod nano, and will mark the biggest advancement for the line since its debut in September 2005.
iTunes Chugs Along, Adds Ringtone Capabilities
iTunes continues to chug along at full speed, with the service now number one in all 22 countries that it operates in, CEO Steve Jobs said at a press event on Wednesday. All of the stores include six million tracks in their libraries, and customers have bought more than 3 billion songs. With over 600 million downloads sold via iTunes, the volume of songs downloaded has been enough to propel it to the third largest music store in the US.
Wednesday brings a new version of the popular software, and Apple's first entry into the lucrative ringtone business. 500,000 songs will be available as ringtowns initially and Apple would charge 99 cents to create one from a song. The user would have control of what 30-second segment of the song would be used. At this time, it only appears that the ringtones would be compatible with Apple's iPhone.
Yahoo Acquisition of BlueLithium May Help Close Analytics Gap
It's very clear now that one of Yahoo's principal goals in this latest reorganization, led by once-and-future CEO Jerry Yang and newly elevated President Susan Decker, is to distinguish itself from Google rather than catch up to it. Last week, those efforts culminated in executive reassignments to shore up its content business. This week, they resulted in the company acquiring British advertising firm BlueLithium, perhaps closing one of the most oft-noted gaps in its arsenal: a smart analytics tool.
Boasting of a higher overall audience reach than Google Search, AOL, MSN, or eBay by virtue of the sites it targets, BlueLithium positions itself as an advertising network in much the same way Right Media - last year's Yahoo acquisition - positioned itself as an advertising network.
NBC to Sell Shows via Amazon Unbox
It didn't take very long for NBC Universal to find a new outlet for its programming following its break with Apple. The channel's shows will now be available through Amazon for the same price they were on iTunes.
The programs will be sold through Amazon's Unbox service for $1.99 USD per episode. Like iTunes, episodes will be available the day after they air on the network, however Amazon has agreed to let the company bundle programming together.
Microsoft Drops Zune Price, Talks Zune Phone
Microsoft has decided to drop the price of the Zune in an effort to spur sales, while indicating it hadn't completely ruled out a Zune phone.
Effective Wednesday, the price of Microsoft's competitor to the iPod is now $199 USD. The company said the price cut was something it had been planning to do for months, and was part of the normal product cycle.
Palm Cancels Foleo Project in Response to Customer Concern
It may go down in history as a noble experiment that was wisely aborted just prior to perhaps going down in flames: Palm yesterday announced it has decided it won't be launching a little Linux laptop computer after all, devoting its entire marketing efforts instead to what many believe will be a smartphone called Centro to take on the RIM BlackBerry.
"In the course of the past several months, it has become clear that the right path for Palm is to offer a single, consistent user experience around this new platform design and a single focus for our platform development efforts," wrote Palm CEO Ed Colligan for his company's blog yesterday.
Silverlight 1.0 Released, Linux Version Coming
Wednesday marked the final 1.0 release of Microsoft's new Silverlight platform for building interactive Web experiences à la Flash, but the big news is that Redmond will extend official support to Novell's Linux port of Silverlight.
Silverlight was first unveiled earlier this year, promising to make it easier for developers to build rich Web applications without delving into the complexities behind AJAX or suffering its limitations. This space is growing increasingly crowded with Adobe's new AIR runtime and Sun's JavaFX.
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