Apple introduced a new version of its Final Cut Studio professional video production suite, as well as introducing Final Cut Server, a new product aimed at simplifying and streamlining the post-production process.

The central application in the suite is Final Cut Pro 6, which now includes the capability to add clips using almost any format without the need to transcode. Additionally, a new format called ProRes 422 will allow editors to create HD content within SD file sizes.

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Adobe's highly-anticipated new Creative Suite release hit store shelves Monday morning, although two of the four editions won't arrive until the third quarter. Both Premium and Standard iterations of CS3 Design and CS3 Web are available for both Windows and Mac OS X.

Prices range from $999 USD to $1799 USD. CS3 Production Premium and CS3 Master Collection will follow. Available for individual purchase are Photoshop CS3, Photoshop CS3 Extended, InDesign CS3, Illustrator CS3, Flash CS3 Professional, Dreamweaver CS3, Fireworks CS3 and Contribute CS3. The releases coincide with the start of NAB 2007 in Las Vegas.

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After over a year of having promoted what was widely perceived as an underpowered, limited, less-than-connective mobile computer platform, Intel this morning at its developer forum in Beijing took a route few expected: Rather than update the UMPC platform it had developed along with Microsoft, the technology company appears to be going it alone, producing a second, parallel mobile platform that just happens to include all the features UMPC missed - which include built-in WiFi, functional software, and embedded Linux.

Contrary to reports this morning which appeared to confirm early speculation that has since been contradicted, Intel is going ahead with plans for its new Mobile Internet Device (MID) specification, which will attempt to co-exist with UMPC on account of its being smaller.

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With "texting" becoming ever more popular, wireless carriers are beginning to offer unlimited messaging, some with the feature built into the voice plans themselves. Verizon Wireless is the latest to do so, saying Monday it would offer the feature in America's Choice Select and Family Share Select plans, which would allow customers to send unlimited text, photo, video, and instant messaging to any carrier within the US.

As opposed to the traditional America's Choice plan, the new options would be $20 more expensive per month. All other features, including minutes, would stay the same, said the company. Verizon Wireless customers are among the most prolific messagers in the industry, sending a record 17.7 billion text and 353 million picture and video messages during the fourth quarter of 2006.

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Google said Monday it would sell ads across all Clear Channel radio stations in the United States. This comes amid news that Google's competitors, including Microsoft, may challenge the DoubleClick deal over antitrust concerns.

Since the inception of its radio advertising program brought about by the acquisition of dMarc Broadcasting, Google has struggled to convince station owners to allow the company to sell their advertising time. The ClearChannel deal is certainly a step in the right direction.

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For the first time in many years, Microsoft this morning launched a head-on assault in a commercial software market where it is not the established leader. With Adobe's Flash becoming entrenched as the Web's principal delivery platform for scalable vector graphics, freeform animations, and flexible layouts, Microsoft is betting on there being room for two to play in that market.

Today at the NAB convention in Las Vegas, Microsoft will be unveiling Silverlight, the platform and marketing campaign whose aim is to deploy an Internet graphics delivery system not just on Windows, but on Macs and Linux as well.

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Just when analysts and journalists were believing that interest in acquiring Internet advertising firm DoubleClick had perhaps dwindled, it’s Google that made the big play late this afternoon, beating Microsoft to the line in a deal Google says late this afternoon is worth $3.1 billion in cash.

The deal comes as a boon to the equity investment firm which had purchased the once-colossus, later-troubled online ad broker for $1.1 billion two years ago. Microsoft was reportedly the first bidder, in a deal that analysts believed would only have been worth $2 billion – but just a few weeks ago, that seemed like a lot, perhaps even too much.

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A host of wireless vulnerabilities have been patched in several Cisco devices, the company revealed Thursday in two separate advisories. The first exists within its Wireless Control System, and works in conjunction with Cisco Aironet Lightweight Access Points, Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers, and the Cisco Wireless Location Appliance, it said in an advisory. Among the risks are information disclosure, privilege escalation, and unauthorized access, it said in the advisory.

The second fix addresses multiple problems in Cisco's Wireless LAN Controllers and Lightweight Access Points. There an attacker could cause a denial-of-service, disclose private information, change access control lists, or gain full control of the network. Those owning either product are urged to apply the patches immediately, Cisco says.

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Warner Music Group gave music retailer AnywhereCD mixed messages on Thursday, on one hand demanding it remove its digital music from its site, but on the other hand saying it was acceptable for the company to help rip its albums to MP3.

AnywhereCD had been selling albums in two forms, one in regular CD form, with an option to download the tracks immediately in MP3 format. Some even include the option to just download the MP3's themselves without receiving the physical CDs at a small discount.

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With the high-definition disc war still unresolved, yet another company plans to attempt to offer consumers in the United States a dual-format player by the end of this year.

Samsung, who has been one of Blu-ray's biggest proponents, announced its plans on Friday. It is the second company behind LG to develop an actual product. LG showed its drive off at CES, though it is said to lack some critical HD DVD features.

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Long a favorite of the rich and famous as well as hip teenagers, T-Mobile USA is aiming to take the Sidekick communications device to the masses with a new low-cost option. Available at a price of $99 with a two-year contract and mail-in rebate, the Sidekick iD is more in line with the average price of other cell phones offered by the company. It contains all of the standard features of the regular Sidekicks minus the camera.

The device would also give users the ability to exchange faceplates, a feature first made popular among late 90's cell users with Nokia handsets. A full HTML browser, AIM/Yahoo/Windows Live Messaging capabilities, myFaves compatibility, and a dedicated e-mail account would also be included. The phone will be available beginning April 25.

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This morning, the US-CERT team of the Department of Homeland Security acknowledged Microsoft's advisory this morning, stating that it's investigating instances where Windows servers running the DNS service can be tricked into running any code remotely in a local system context, with the same privileges as the DNS service itself.

As an indication of how seriously Microsoft takes this threat, in a special advisory issued this morning, it instructs customers to use their Registry Editors to set a bit in their DNS parameters for servers running the DNS service, effectively disabling DNS bindings to remote procedure calls (RPC) in favor of local procedure calls only (LPC). From there, the company further suggests that admins use their firewalls to block all RPC traffic, which could extend from ports 1024 to 5000.

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Instead of admitting that Leopard is taking far longer to finish than it anticipated, Apple has chosen an attempt to hide behind the iPhone to mask the hypocrisy of delaying the next version of Mac OS X.

PERSPECTIVE I can no doubt hear the snickers from Redmond this very minute after reading Apple's statement regarding its delay of Mac OS X "Leopard." This comes from a company that never passed up an attempt to bash Microsoft's incessant delays of Vista at every turn.

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In a statement to the gaming press yesterday, Sony Computer Entertainment spokesperson Dave Karraker acknowledged reports - apparently based on statements from resellers in the field - that his company will discontinue manufacturing the 20 GB version of PlayStation 3 for North America, concentrating instead on the 60 GB edition.

"Due to the overwhelming demand for the 60 GB model from both retailers and consumers," Karraker told reporters, "we have ceased offering the 20 GB model here in North America...Based on retailer and consumer feedback, we have decided to focus our current efforts on the more popular 60 GB model."

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A study released by the Federal Trade Commission Thursday gives mixed reviews to the entertainment industry on the self-regulation of marketing violent content to children. The report is sure to reignite the years-old debate once more.

The findings show that the movie, music and video-game industries were generally complying with regulations. However, violent marketing directed at teen audiences remains substantially high.

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