Could video games help boost the music industry?
Rock Band, the music simulator for Xbox 360 and PS3 was reported by MTV yesterday to have sold 2.5 million song downloads since the game went on sale on November 20, 2007.
On the game's official site, MTV announced it had "gone double platinum."
Microsoft sued over Chinese character conversion technology
Zhongyi Electronic Ltd., a small Chinese company, is suing Microsoft over a product which turns words typed in the Roman alphabet into Chinese characters.
The software in question is called Zhengma, and has been used by Microsoft since 1998. In a statement from the company, Zhongyi's general manager says it has received no money from Microsoft since that time. In a statement on Friday, Microsoft said that it has the full right to use Zhongyi's product since it has paid all fees that were detailed in the licensing agreements.
Sears.com offers the cheapest desktop PC at $185
Another low-end PC hit the market today, this time it is a machine by Mirus equipped with Freespire 2.0, available at Sears' online shop for $185.
The Mirus desktop system is equipped with an Intel Celeron D 420-1.6Ghz, 1GB of RAM, 80GB HDD, CDRW optical drive, and Freespire 2.0.
Library of Congress publishes historical photos on Flickr
The Library of Congress has published over 3,000 photographs from two of its most popular collections on Flickr in "The Commons," a project aimed at creating a rich database of photos from public collections and civic institutions.
Photos from the George Grantham Bain Collection and the Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information were chosen for display online due to their popularity on the Library of Congress site, and their freedom from copyright restrictions.
AMD Xilleon processors to receive DivX certification
DivX announced it is working with AMD toward certifying certain Xilleon processors, which could add native DivX functionality to next-generation digital TVs or set-top boxes.
Xilleon is a system-on-a-chip MIPS processor found in set-top boxes and digital TVs. It was formerly a project of ATI, but when AMD recently acquired ATI, it absorbed the Xilleon brand as well. DivX and AMD have not come to a decision yet as to which of the growing Xilleon line will be certified.
Helio brings a Korean standout slider phone to the US
Helio increased its portfolio of handsets today with its release of the Mysto, a slider-style device produced exclusively for US distribution by Samsung.
The 3G CDMA device is based upon Samsung's U600 released last year. It has a 2.22" QVGA display, 106 MB of internal memory expandable to 4 GB via MicroSD, mono and A2DP stereo Bluetooth support, and an MPEG-4 video camera.
Amazon.fr keeps free shipping, for now
Mattel wants popular Scrabble game removed from Facebook
Facebook has been asked by makers of the classic word game Scrabble to remove the online version of "Scrabulous" from the popular social networking site.
In North America, the rights to the game are owned by Hasbro Inc., the company which also owns Monopoly, Trivial Pursuit, Risk, Clue, and Magic: The Gathering. The rights to the game in the rest of the world are covered by Mattel Inc., the world's biggest toy company, who sent the demand to Facebook.
New Alienware notebook looks to appease gamers
Alienware's new Area 51 m15x gaming notebook will hopefully provide some balance in today's notebook news, offering graphical processing power over a small profile.
The 15.4-inch notebook can come with either an Intel Core 2 Duo or Core 2 Extreme mobile processor, and an NVIDIA GeForce 8700M GT or 8800M GTX GPU. Alienware also includes its own BinaryGFX technology, which allows for switching between the built-in and high performance graphics processors according to the user's demands.
Gefen pipes DVI output from PCs over USB
Last week at CES, Gefen was among the companies hoping to catch some of the spotlight that last year was devoted so heavily to companies that make cables. But it may have done itself a service by waiting one week to announce how its new product will output a DVI video signal from your PC using a USB cable.
The Gefen USB-to-DVI Graphics Adapter plugs into a USB 2.0 port and outputs video in DVI-I format with screen resolution up to 1600x1200. It supports 32-bit versions of XP and Windows 2000, versions for OS X and Vista are currently in development.
Jango celebrates one million users with widget
Jango, the "social jukebox" site which launched in public beta in November, announced today that it has already exceeded the one million user mark.
To continue this growth, the company says, it has made available the Jango jukebox embeddable widget which was promised several months ago. The widget, as seen below, contains a scrolling repertoire of artists and continuous free stream of music in a simple skinnable form. A Facebook version of the jukebox will be released next.
Taiwanese company tries for cheaper VGA smartphone
Taiwanese company E-Ten doesn't have much brand recognition in the US yet, but it received some notice last year for releasing the "world's thinnest pocket PC" with its Glofiish X500. Now it's adding one more for the value tier.
This morning, E-Ten announced it will continue the expansion of its Glofiish line, but this time aiming toward the value-priced end of the spectrum with the new Glofiish X650 (yes, that's with two "i's").
Imation's removable HDD adds innovative USB interface
Possibly in response to the rapidly shrinking desktop PC market in the United States, Imation's Odyssey removable hard disk storage system line has expanded to include a portable USB interface.
Imation says its Odyssey line was designed for small and home offices for backup and data security, so it's no surprise that its peripherals should be pared down in size, if only to meet the shrinking footprint of the computer.
Another big Gemstar deal brings TV Guide to MobiTV
Long-running service MobiTV announced today that it has entered into a multi-year agreement with Gemstar-TV Guide.
The agreement includes patent licensing for the interactive program guides (IPGs) similar to those TV Guide places on set top boxes found throughout the US. However, these particular guides will be optimized for the mobile video programming made available through MobiTV.
With DRM fading away from MP3s, here come the ads
Today, Amazon.com announced an advertising partnership with Pepsi that coincides with the direction of the music industry as predicted by its leaders.
Numerous music industry heads at a panel discussion at CES last week displayed favor for the ad-supported, subscription-based models of music sales as we move away from DRM. Today, a major online music store that rejected DRM since it opened -- and was not represented on the panel -- is showing similar interest.
Tim's Bio
Tim Conneally was born into dumpster tech. His father was an ARPANET research pioneer and equipped his kids with discarded tech gear, second-hand musical instruments, and government issue foreign language instruction tapes. After years of building Frankenstein computers from rubbish and playing raucous music in clubs across the country (and briefly on MTV) Tim grew into an adult with deep, twisted roots and an eye on the future. He most passionately covers mobile technology, user interfaces and applications, the science and policy of the wireless world, and watching different technologies shrink and converge.
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