Virgin Ends Digital Music Venture
Virgin is calling it quits in the digital music business. The company has stopped selling tracks and accepting new customers as of Friday, and will shut down for good on October 19. New sales of music will end September 29, according to a message on the UK portion of the site. Those customers who have a payment due before the shut off date will lose access the day their next payment is due, according to the note.
The US side will also be ceasing, although it will handle the closure somewhat differently. Whereas UK users lose their unused credits, US users will be able to transfer them for use in Napster's online store. In either case, subscription customers will lose access to their music completely upon the 19th. The closing of Virgin Digital follows that of MTV's Urge, which shut its doors due to ineffectiveness in competing with Apple's iTunes.
FBI: Unisys Covered Up Gov't Computer Break-in
IT company Unisys is under investigation by the federal government following the revelation that it may have failed to detect a break-in by Chinese hackers to Homeland Security computers. Making matters worse, the FBI says the company tried to cover up the lapse, a charge Unisys denies. About 150 computers were compromised between June and October 2006.
Unisys has had a contract with the US government since 2002 to provide and manage IT services, totaling $1 billion. An additional $750 million follow-up deal was reached in 2005. The FBI is taking the lapse and cover-up seriously, and is apparently considering fraud charges, according to the Washington Post. In a statement, Unisys said "facts and documentation" would prove the charges false and that it "acted in good faith to meet the [government's] security requirements."
Thailand Looking to Block More YouTube Videos
Thailand's on-again off-again relationship with YouTube has taken another bad turn, as the government said it will go to court to have two videos blocked that it says were a threat to national security. The videos are actually a two-part series, and run about 17 minutes in total. It accuses former Prime Minister Prem Tinsulanonda of leading a government coup that occurred in September 2006, not the generals who claim to have headed it.
Supporter's of Tinsulanonda's rivals have often accused the former chief of such an act. However, the Thai government sees the talk as confusing to citizens and that it could cause public unrest. Thus it it moving to ban the videos, and is asking ISP's to voluntarily block links while it seeks a court order. YouTube could not be reached for comment on the latest dustup.
Orange Selected as iPhone Supplier in France
Although no official announcement has come from Apple itself, Orange on Thursday said that it had won the contract to bring the device to its customers in France. Like the German deal, no pricing details were given, however the company also declined to specify any launch date. In all likelihood, the phone would ship there on November 9, as that is the date that has been selected for both the UK and German launches.
Apple has shipped one million of the phones here in the United States, and has activated anywhere from 750,000 to 900,000 of them according to BetaNews estimates. Whereas it was originally planning to ship about 1.5 million Phones next quarter, it plans to attempt to ship nearly double that. This moves the target number of shipped phones from 3.6 to 4.8 million for the entire year.
EU Proposes Bailout of Galileo Sat Nav Project
Galileo, once billed as a potential rival to the US Department of Defense's GPS system, is now facing serious issues following disagreements over the development of the system by eight companies tasked with its build-out. However, the European Commission is proposing to shift money in the bloc's 2007-2013 budget to come up with extra funds to ensure its completion. Public funds were initially supposed to cover about one-third of the cost, said to be around 3.5 billion euros.
EU officials say the additional money -- some 2.4 billion euros -- will come from unspent money elsewhere. They are making the case by saying that the Galileo project is a strategic necessity, and would lessen the dependence on the US GPS system. The EU's positioning system would improve coverage in higher latitudes, and be interoperable with the GPS system through a recently announced deal. Member countries will still need to approve the bailout before it can proceed, however.
CBS Looks to Avoid iTunes Price Fight
On Tuesday, CBS became the second network behind Fox to indicate that it will likely be staying on iTunes. In comments to the Merrill Lynch Media and Entertainment conference, CEO Les Moonves said the company will be staying out of the battle and that the network "likes our relationship with iTunes." Moonves' comments follow that of News Corp, which owns the Fox network.
Shortly after NBC Universal pulled its own programming, News Corp's president Peter Cherin told Reuters that they planned to stay on the network and had "a perfectly good relationship with Apple." Later, the company said they expected the negotiations to be contentious, however it is still expected that the two sides will eventually come to a deal.
Murdoch: We're Considering Free WSJ.com
Following the New York Times' announcement Tuesday that it would be doing away with its premium online content, Rupert Murdoch hinted that the Wall Street Journal may be considering a similar move in the future at a conference for media held by Goldman Sachs in New York. Many have said giving away WSJ content online for free may hurt the paper's overall revenues, however Murdoch says he isn't buying that argument.
The media mogul seems to be following the same reasoning that the Times did: that by opening it up, and with good content, the revenues from selling advertising on its pages could far surpass any revenues it may have made off a subscription-only format. The current format has constrained any considerable online advertising, as it has caused the sites customer base to be more US-centric, and consumers generally frown upon ads in premium services.
ITC Investigating Nokia Claim Against Qualcomm
Nokia said Tuesday that the US International Trade Commission would begin investigating its claims of unfair business practices and patent infringement against Qualcomm. The cellular phone maker said there is significant evidence that Qualcomm has used its technology in both GSM and CDMA chips, and filed a complaint with the ITC on August 16. It is seeking to have the offending chips banned from importation.
The two sides have been locked in a legal tit-for-tat since April of this year, when a patent licensing agreement between the two expired. In this case, the patents have to do with technologies that improve the performance and efficacy of wireless communications. This enhancements result in lower manufacturing costs, better battery life, and make it possible to develop smaller phones.
$100 Laptop Is Getting Pricier
Although its aim was to bring the price down, the organization behind the so-called "$100 laptop" is moving further away from its goal. The One Laptop Per Child Foundation said the device, now known as the XO Laptop, will now cost about $188. This is up $12 from the price tag the group gave in May of this year. Behind the price increase are rising costs of certain components and currency fluctuations, says OLPC, however they are committed to keeping it from rising any further.
Reports say the OLPC has commitments for about three million devices, but the group will not confirm where the devices are going until production begins in October. While the device currently uses AMD chips to power it, Intel recently dropped its efforts to deride the project and said it was working with the group to put its chips in the second version of the XO Laptop, though no release date for that has been set.
Village People Not Laughing at YMCA Parody
YouTube may soon be facing yet another suit over the use of copyrighted music in one of its videos, this time from the company that owns the rights to the music produced by the Village People. Can't Stop Productions is apparently not too amused with a parody that has appeared on the social video site which edits footage of Adolf Hitler and other nazi soldiers appearing to dance and sing the group's hit song "YMCA." The video may be especially offensive to the group considering two of the performers are Jewish.
A search for "YMCA Hitler" brings up two copies of the video, although clicking them brings up the message "This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by CAN'T STOP PRODUCTIONS / SCORPIO MUSIC." Another video appears below it, with Hitler and others appearing to sing Patrick Hernandez's 1978 disco hit "Born to Be Alive." That video was still available as of press time.
Nokia Leads Effort to Standardize Flash Memory
Nokia has joined forces with competitors Samsung and Sony Ericsson as well as memory chip makers Micron, Spansion, STMicroelectronics, and Texas Instruments to promote a single flash storage technology for mobile phones. Called Universal Flash Storage, the companies want to eliminate the need for various adaptors to read the multitude of different types of media now available.
While the standard is still in development, a final version is expected in 2009. It is hoped to provide a higher degree of performance and reliability than the formats currently available. "The proliferating use of flash memory as a storage medium underscores the importance of introducing a universal connectivity to memory cards where high performance and reliability are critical," Samsung president Jon Kang said in a statement.
Prince Sues YouTube, eBay, and Pirate Bay
Pop star Prince said Thursday that he plans to sue social video site YouTube, online auction site eBay, and file trading site Pirate Bay in an attempt to reign in piracy of his work on the Internet. On a statement on his Web site, Prince said that while YouTube was already filtering out pornography, it was not filtering music and film content because it "is core to their business success." The move is somewhat surprising, considering Prince has had a history of challenging the music industry and its business practices.
Prince is working with British company Web Sheriff to assist in having the offending material removed. So far, it has successfully had about 2,000 unauthorized videos of Prince removed, however it said that new content is constantly appearing on the site. It had also removed about 300 items from eBay. "Prince strongly believes artists as the creators and owners of their music need to reclaim their art," the statement read.
UK iPhone Announcement Expected
Apple has began sending out invitations to members of the UK press on Thursday, as it planned to hold an event at its flagship store in London on Regents Street next week. In typical Apple fashion, few details were given in the invitation other than the tagline "Mum's no longer the word." Speculation is rampant, with most analysts expecting the Cupertino company to announce its UK carrier for the iPhone.
It is expected that O2 will be the carrier of the much-hyped device, although representatives for the company would not comment to the press on any plans. There is the slight possibly that the announcement may have nothing to do with the iPhone at all and is rather about an iTunes announcement such as the adding of the Beatles catalog. However, such announcements will likely happen in a venue other than an Apple store.
New Zealand: China's Spying On Us, Too
China is once again being blamed for cyberattacks on a foreign country, with New Zealand secret service officials saying the Chinese were behind an attack on its systems. The country's prime minister Helen Clark said in a press conference Wednesday that no classified information had been compromised, however she did say foreign-government spies were behind the attack. Clark added that the government knew who was the source, but wouldn't elaborate.
However, like the US case, a government official identified the source of the hack through the media. In an interview with The Dominion Post, Security Intelligence Service director Warren Tucker hinted that the Communist country was behind it. If true, and China was behind the attack, New Zealand becomes the fourth known target of Chinese government hackers behind the US, UK, and Germany.
Office Ultimate Discount Available for Students
Microsoft is using the back-to-school season as the backdrop for its latest promotion to increase sales of its Office 2007 productivity suite. Beginning today in the US, Canada, and UK, and beginning September 20 in Spain, Italy, and France the company is offering students the chance to purchase Office Ultimate 2007 for $59.95 USD. The promotion runs through April 30, 2008.
Office Ultimate includes nine applications from the suite including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Access, Publisher, OneNote, Groove, and Infopath. Microsoft had run a pilot program of the offering in Australia which received good results. "We're listening to students who have told us they need Microsoft Office for their studies and want more flexible ways to get the latest version," said Alan Yates, general manager of Worldwide Education at Microsoft. More information on the offering can be found on the Microsoft website.
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