After what many would have considered a lackluster launch in the US, it appears as if the PlayStation 3 is doing much better in Europe. Sony says it has sold approximately 800,000 consoles since its launch there on March 22.

Of course, this does not take into account the supply issues Sony faced with its launch in the United States.. Whereas an estimated 1 million consoles were available for the European launch, most estimates say around 200,000 consoles were shipped for the US launch.

Continue reading →

If it seems cooler to you today in places where it's normally fairly warm, or even burning hot, there may be deeper forces at work than mere global warming changes in the atmosphere. The department of Microsoft's development team delegated to interoperability and open standards have released what might have seemed the least likely product ever to emerge from Redmond: an officially sanctioned Windows Media Player plug-in for Mozilla Firefox.

"When the [Open Source Software Lab] was created at Microsoft people thought it to be another Microsoft marketing ploy," writes OSSL developer Hank Janssen on his team's blog today, in a post entitled, "We're Writing Firefox Plug-ins?." "Well I can tell you that that is certainly not the case here at OSSL."

Continue reading →

NEWS IN BRIEF Nokia will move forward with WiMax in 2008, as it begins to rollout handsets compatible with the technology. However, the market for these devices will likely be quite small initially. Only Sprint has committed to use the technology in the US so far, and the company would be competing with Motorola for this small market, as they also committed to ship a WiMax phone next year.

The technology is promising to those carriers looking to deploy high-speed data networks in a much cheaper fashion. Studies show that WiMax services could be offered at 10 percent the cost of standard wireless data technologies.

Continue reading →

Game developer Red Octane admitted Monday that an update for the Xbox 360 version of Guitar Hero II intended to fix issues with the game instead caused some consoles to lock up.

An issue with the whammy bar in the Xplorer controller was supposed to be fixed by the patch. Instead, the patch caused system freezes and what 360 gamers call the "red ring of death," where the green ring around the power button turns red to indicate a critical error.

Continue reading →

Adobe on Monday offered visitors of the NAB 2007 conference in Las Vegas a peek at its new Media Player desktop application, designed to play Flash video content without requiring a Web browser. The program, formerly code-named "Philo," will enter beta testing this spring.

Although named as such, Adobe Media Player takes a different approach from that found in Windows Media Player and iTunes. Instead of focusing on existing, local content, the application relies on RSS feeds to receive Flash video. Adobe will essentially provide a virtual storefront, where users can discover new content and subscribe to it.

Continue reading →

Stating that Internet streaming broadcasters' objections had neither put forth new evidence nor presented any clear sign that they had made some egregious error, the three-judge US Copyright Royalty Board this afternoon ruled it would not stay its own decision last month imposing a massive, per-performance rate increase on Internet streaming broadcasters, beginning in 2008.

"We find...that none of the moving parties [that requested a rehearing] have made a sufficient showing of new evidence or a clear error or manifest injustice that would warrant a rehearing," the judges wrote. "To the contrary...most of the parties' arguments in support of a rehearing or reconsideration merely restate arguments that were made or evidence that was presented during the proceeding." While those who objected to the rates, which included National Public Radio, argued that they were putting forth new evidence, the judges wrote that such evidence was either already in the record or "could have been discovered during the proceeding, with reasonable diligence."

Continue reading →

Microsoft is preparing to launch Windows Live Hotmail in the United States by next month, although customers in India and Belgium will begin seeing the updates later this week, the company is expected to announce Tuesday. Other Windows Live product updates are also likely.

Various sources tell BetaNews that the upgrades won't come automatically, but rather in a gradual process over the next several weeks. Testers in France are currently receiving e-mails saying they will receive the update in several days, with a similar e-mail circulating to UK users.

Continue reading →

Although Adobe today began shipping the Design and Premium SKUs of its Creative Suite 3, Production Premium and Master Collection are awaiting the final new versions of After Effects and Premiere. Both of those products were released publicly in beta form Monday.

Interested video producers can download Adobe After Effects Pro CS3 and Premiere Pro CS3 from the Adobe Labs Web site. Windows and Mac versions are available for both products, but users must have previous versions of the software to activate the beta. Adobe offered a similar preview of Photoshop CS3 in December, enabling Mac users to try out the new Intel-compatible release.

Continue reading →

Much of the focus of this year's National Association of Broadcasters convention in Las Vegas this week will be on differing standards for digital broadcasting. Although US terrestrial broadcasters are gearing up for a permanent transition to the new digital spectrum in just under two years' time, considerable scrutiny is being given to the entry into the North American market of digital, portable TV services that have already taken root in Europe and Asia - especially Korea - not just for their portability but as potential alternate channels for TV content distribution.

So this morning's announcement by Samsung and Nokia - considered rivals in the portable phone manufacturing market - of cooperation toward the development of a key standard arising from Europe's DVB-H specification, is a bit of a wake-up call. Samsung is perceived as one of the driving forces behind the popularity of DMB, the most prevalent digital portable broadcast standard in Korea, while Nokia has been the champion of DVB-H in Europe.

Continue reading →

Depending on who Vonage is talking to, the message of whether or not it could implement a technology workaround to Verizon's patents was different. Now, court documents reveal there was never any workaround.

The vastly different messages put the nation's largest VoIP provider in somewhat of a hypocritical situation. While those most important to its financial health were told not to worry, its lawyers are telling the court it would take months to implement a workaround.

Continue reading →

Internet TV startup Joost is slowly expanding its library of content, which has become a major complaint from beta testers of the service. The company on Monday announced it has signed deals with four independent television and film producers, along with two indie distributors.

ALL3MEDIA International, Alliance Atlantis, September Films and Wall to Wall have joined Joost in addition to IndieFlix and Shorts International. "Joost empowers independent content owners to reach new audiences and generate additional revenue in a community-driven environment, while ensuring that all programmes are fully protected from piracy and copyright infringement," remarked Joost executive vice president Yvette Alberdingk Thijm.

Continue reading →

Microsoft said Monday that it will sponsor a contest that asks participants to create a new television show. The winner will have his concept premiere as an exclusive TV show for Xbox Live.

The Redmond company has made a strong push to promote its Xbox 360 console as a media center rather than just a gaming console. Xbox Live now hosts some 1,500 hours of television and movie content, with plans to continue to expand that number in the coming months.

Continue reading →

Online DVD rental service Netflix, which has made no secret of its plans to get into the movie downloading business, has appointed Anthony Wood to head its newly created Internet TV group. His focus will be on delivering movies directly to subscribers' televisions via the Internet.

Wood has no stranger to streaming content to the living room. He was the founder of ReplayTV, which competed with TiVo for DVR dominance before its acquisition by SonicBlue in 2001. Wood served as senior vice president of engineering and was responsible for the company's ReplayTV and Rio lines.

Continue reading →

News Corp. and NBC Universal's answer to YouTube gained momentum Monday after Comcast said that it will join the partnership by becoming a distributor and content provider. The addition of Comcast adds one of the nation's biggest distributors of television entertainment to a list of supporters that include Yahoo, Microsoft and AOL.

Comcast owns several networks, including E!, Style, G4, The Golf Channel, and Versus. Content from these networks will be distributed through the site, however the joint venture will not have exclusive rights to the content.

Continue reading →

Yahoo said Monday that it had signed an agreement with a dozen US newspaper companies to expand its newspaper content and be the exclusive provider of paid-search services as well.

In total, the deal includes 264 newspapers in 44 states, including the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Denver Post, The Houston Chronicle, San Francisco Chronicle, and the San Jose Mecury-News.

Continue reading →