Blinkx on Monday unveiled blinx.tv To Go, a new service that will help users to search for online video content and then sync it to their iPod or personal video player. The service would automatically re-encode the video to play in the user's selected format.

Users would be able either save the video to their player with a single click, or save the search to a channel, which would then continuously update their player with new video. "Our vision of IPTV combines the interactive, customizable experience of the Internet, with the simple, seamless way we watch TV, and now we've made it portable," Blinkx founder Suranga Chandratillake said.

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Web developers now have one less browser to worry about, at least officially. Microsoft announced that as of December 31, Internet Explorer 5 for Mac will no longer be supported, and downloads of the browser would end on January 31, 2006. Microsoft ceased development of IE for Mac back in June 2003.

"In accordance with published support lifecycle policies, Microsoft will end support for Internet Explorer for Mac on December 31st, 2005, and will provide no further security or performance updates," the company said. Microsoft encourages users to upgrade to more recent Web browsers, such as Apple's Safari.

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THQ and Massive on Monday announced plans that would allow Massive, an in-game advertising network, to place its ads in THQ video games. The two companies say that the deal would help to enhance the realism of THQ games, and would enable the company to monetize its titles even further.

In-game advertising has become a big business, with companies using the revenue gained from these partnerships to further ensure the profitability of video game titles. For example, Massive offers the publisher $1-$2 for each ad served in the game.

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If you wanted a 1GB iPod Shuffle for Christmas and haven't gotten it yet, good luck finding one. A message in the Apple store indicates that the larger version of the two Shuffles has "sold out for the holiday," with no availability until the middle of January.

While the player may still be found in some retail locations, it is likely that the stock currently available is the last of the players from Apple until next year.

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Bill and Melinda Gates have been bestowed Time Magazine's annual "Persons of the Year" award, along with U2 rocker Bono. Time said it chose the three for their relentless efforts in helping to fight diseases such as Malaria and AIDS, as well as eliminate poverty in Africa.

Microsoft chairman Bill Gates holds a personal fortune of over $46.5 billion, which has enabled him to become the most philanthropic person in history. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is the largest charity in the world with a $29 billion endowment.

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Republicans in the U.S. House and Senate completed negotiations Monday on a deal that would mandate a transition to digital television by February 17, 2009. Included in the agreement is a $1.5 billion fund to help consumers buy the converter boxes that allow analog televisions to continue operating.

The two sides met practically half way to make the bill happen. The Senate had approved a $3 billion fund for the set top boxes and set a date of April 7, 2009 for the conversion, while the House approved a $900 million fund and a December 31, 2008 deadline.

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AOL, Microsoft and Yahoo continue to push out new versions of their respective instant messaging clients with added features like voice and video. But the open source community has been making progress with a client of their own: Gaim. Gaim 2.0 hit beta over the weekend after 15 months of development.

Gaim 2.0 Beta 1 features a rewritten status system, smooth scrolling, support for advanced MSN Messenger features like nudges and Yahoo Doodle, improvements to file transfer under AIM and ICQ, support for Apple's Bonjour, and even voice over IP capabilities. Downloads of Gaim 2.0 are available for Windows and UNIX systems.

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Hoping to use the holiday shopping season as a way to draw attention to the issue of violent video games, New York Senator Hillary Clinton on Friday introduced legislation to prohibit the sale of violent games to minors. The bill was co-sponsored by fellow Senators Joe Lieberman of Connecticut and Evan Bayh of Indiana.

Clinton had first suggested that she would pursue such legislation after the revelations of sexually explicit material in the Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas video game. Clinton then announced on November 30 that she and Lieberman would introduce the legislation before the holiday recess, and the Senator made good on her promise on Friday.

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DVR maker ReplayTV said Monday that it was exiting the set-top DVR market, instead planning to release a new software-based DVR solution in 2006. Through a deal with TV card manufacturer Hauppauge, the software would be bundled with the company's WinTV-PVR cards in North America.

ReplayTV has had its share of difficulties, coming in second to market-leader TiVo and struggling in retail due to its competitor's much stronger brand recognition.

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The push to make song lyric sites and programs illegal has cooled -- at least on one front. Walter Ritter, creator of the popular PearLyrics lyrics program, and Warner/Chappell announced that they would work together to allow the program to continue being offered.

Ritter said this holds benefits for the user, as it would give pearworks access to accurate lyrics for songs in the company's catalog. Many of its programs rely on unofficial sources.

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HP publicly announced its support for HD DVD Friday, officially joining the HD DVD Promotions Group and saying it would remain neutral. As expected, the core reason of HP's cooling to Sony's Blu-ray disc technology was the group's failure to use iHD, which would be supported natively in Windows Vista. The Blu-ray Disc Association only accepted one of HP's demands for launch, Mandatory Managed Copy.

"We're encouraged that the Blu-ray Disc Association is adopting Mandatory Managed Copy. Because HP wants to deliver the most user-friendly and cost-effective solution to our customers, we have decided to support both formats," said Maureen Weber, general manager of HP's Personal Storage Business. The company says that supporting both formats would help it assess development costs, "and ultimately provide the best and most affordable solution for consumers."

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A Tokyo court on Friday granted AMD Japan access to evidence compiled by Japan's Fair Trade Commission on rival Intel, which the chipmaker plans to use as part of a lawsuit it filed against the company in June.

The JFTC had found that Intel violated antitrust laws by forcing quotas and coercing customers not to buy AMD processors. Specifically, one OEM was coerced into agreeing to purchase all of its CPUs from Intel, while another was mandated with an Intel-imposed quota of 10 percent non-Intel purchases.

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Google has offered to pay $1 billion for a 5 percent stake in America Online, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday, effectively pushing Microsoft out of any negotiation with Time Warner. The news marks a major setback to Microsoft's efforts to gain a more even footing with Google in the search industry.

If the rumors prove true, it would mean nearly a year's worth of negotiations between Microsoft and AOL would have been for naught. Microsoft had endeavored to convince AOL to drop Google for MSN Search, as well as combine the sales and advertising departments of the two companies.

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T-Mobile USA has big plans for 2006, the company told BetaNews in an interview on Thursday. The carrier intends to complete the rollout of GSM 850, which has boosted its coverage area by nearly 40 percent, and finally establish its long-awaited 3G network. T-Mobile also believes it could top Verizon in Consumer Reports rankings of quality service.

The biggest benefit of GSM 850 would be increased coverage, mainly throughout the central part of the United States. However, the rollout would also include rural areas of the Northeast and West. Altogether, nearly 400,000 square miles of new coverage has been added during 2005, according to the carrier.

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With Microsoft embarking on a new "live era" of Web based services, there's only one thing missing from its efforts to pioneer the so-called Web 2.0: a conference to back it up. Thus, the Redmond company has scheduled next March to hold a 72-hour "conversation" in Las Vegas that it has dubbed MIX 06.

Acknowledging it's been "five long years" since it released a new version of Internet Explorer, Microsoft evangelist Ray Winninger says MIX is designed to showcase the company's renewed investment in the Web through development of new technologies and programs.

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