British City to Turn on WiMAX
The British city of Milton Keynes, about 40 miles northwest of London, is set to become the first city in the United Kingdom to have a WiMAX network, Wi-Fi's longer range cousin. A source told Reuters Friday that Pipex, a British telecommunications firm, is set to make the announcement in conjunction with the city in about a month. Milton Keynes officials confirmed those rumors, saying it would gradually roll out the WiMAX service.
Pipex is planning to launch WiMAX networks in eight cities across the United Kingdom by 2008. This would include major networks in both London and Manchester, two of the country's largest cities. The cost of the project has not been disclosed. WiMAX technology is being used as a way to solve the problem of bringing broadband into Milton Keynes. In the 1980s, the city chose cheaper aluminum cables over copper ones, which has stunted the growth of high-speed internet.
EMI Signs Video Deal for Microsoft Zune
Microsoft's highly anticipated Zune media player will get a boost from record label EMI, which said Thursday that the devices will come preloaded with music videos from its artists. The deal also seems to confirm that at launch the device will have video support. Videos from American band 30 Seconds to Mars and British band Hot Chip were among those mentioned for inclusion in the player.
EMI did not provide specifics on Zune, but it believed content from other labels would also be preloaded on the device as well. At least one other label, Universal, is known to be in discussions with Microsoft regarding the player. Other labels have not publicly commented on any talks. Analysts consider the Zune to be the first potential competitor to the industry-dominating iPod, which had a 75 percent share of the market in the second quarter, according to NPD Group.
VeriSign Sent NASDAQ Delist Threat
VeriSign disclosed Thursday that it had received a notice by the NASDAQ stock market that it was not in compliance with policies regarding listing on the stock exchange, and had requested a hearing to prevent the stock from being delisted. The tech company is the third in the past week to receive such a notice. Apple disclosed its troubles on August 11, followed by CNET Networks several days ago.
As with Apple and CNET, the warning concerns the failure to file a Form 10-Q, which is a more detailed version of the company's quarterly earnings, with the Securities and Exchange Commission. All three companies have been mired in controversy over policies surrounding the awarding of stock option grants, and a process called "backdating," where the moving of the purchase date allows employees to buy into the options at a lower price.
iPod Continues to Dominate Industry
Apple continued to dominate the digital music player industry in the second quarter, data from the NPD Group indicated Thursday. The iPod had a 75.6 percent share in the United States, over eight times more than its nearest competitor. Following Apple was SanDisk, with 9.7 percent, and Creative with a 4.7 percent share. Rounding out the top five were Samsung and Sony, with a 2.5 and 1.9 percent market share, respectively.
NPD Group warned, however, that Apple's dominance may begin to crumble as more mobile phone manufacturers begin to integrate music player functionality into their devices. Still, the analyst firm said the industry should be able to hold its own as standalone players offer more features, capacity, better DRM support, and easier user interfaces when compared to phones.
Other Sony Batteries Investigated
The Consumer Safety Product Commission made overtures Tuesday that it may expand the battery recall past Dell laptops, as it said it was investigating all laptop batteries produced by Sony. The company's batteries also appear in laptops produced by Hewlett Packard, Apple and Lenovo. The agency is not saying that there is a danger to owners of non-Dell laptops with Sony batteries just yet, but it wanted to ensure they do not pose a safety risk elsewhere.
Nearly 4.1 million laptop batteries in Dell machines shipped between April 1, 2004 and July 18, 2006 have already been recalled as a safety precaution after several high-profile cases where the computers caught on fire. However, this latest move could significantly expand the scope of that recall. To its defense, Sony says it believes the overheating problem to be specific to Dell, but said recall decisions were up to the laptop manufacturers.
Google Launches New Blogger Beta
Google on Monday took the wraps off a new version of its Blogger service, which adds a number of new features in an attempt to catch up to its rivals. On the list of additions are categorizing posts with labels, controlling who can read a blog, and modifying the design without editing HTML.
While it's in beta, only a limited number of Blogger users are being offered the ability to migrate their blog to the new service, although those interested can create a new account on the beta. Google hasn't said when it plans to officially launch the new version, but notes that it will be tied to the company's Google Accounts system.
Google Offers Coupons on Map Search
Google has introduced a new feature for its maps service that would allow users to search for bargains and print out coupons from direct-mailer Valpak. The offering is the first of its kind from any of the map services, and Google hopes it will drive up advertising revenue. Beginning Wednesday, about 12,000 coupons will begin appearing on the service during searches.
A search for "Philadelphia dentists" would not only pull up a list of providers meeting that criteria, but also provide a link to a coupon offered through the Valpak direct-mailing program. The service will be provided to any merchant at no charge through the Google Local Business Center. Eventually, it will also be made available to advertisers using Google's AdWords product, the company said.
iRiver Adds Audio Books to New Player
iRiver on Tuesday introduced a 2-gigabyte version of its T10 digital music player, as well as announcing special technology and promotional offers for the unit available through a partnership with audio book company Audible. The device comes bundled with AudibleReady technology, and the company would allow for the download of one free audio book from a selection of eight titles.
Available books include George Orwell's "1984," C.S. Lewis' "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe," Thomas Harris' "The Silence of the Lambs," and a 12-month audio subscription to Scientific American. In addition to the Audible support, the iRiver T10 is also compatible with the URGE, Napster, Rhapsody, Yahoo! Music Unlimited and eMusic online music services. The player will be available for $149.99 USD through the iRiver eStore and Amazon.com.
Online Casual Gaming Taking Off
A new study indicates that American adults are becoming increasingly addicted to casual video games, opting to play them over other activities including watching television, watching movies, or going to see a movie at a theater. Released by Harris Interactive Monday and commissioned by RealNetworks, the survey found that 31 percent would rather play an online game for one hour than watch television.
A smaller percentage, 21 percent, would rather play games than watch movies at home, but a larger group numbering 35 percent said the same about going to a movie theater. Online gaming seems to have its biggest audience in women over 40, where as many as half of all respondents chose gaming over some activities.
MySpace, IGN to Offer Fox TV, Movies
Twentieth Century Fox said Monday that it would begin to offer television shows and movies for download from several websites owned by its sister company Fox Interactive Network. The offerings would first appear on the IGN-owned Direct2Drive site, and would be made available through MySpace.com in the near future. The downloads will cost $1.99 USD per television episode, or $19.99 USD per movie.
Expected to be offered on the service are shows such as "24" and "Prison Break," along with feature films like "X-Men: The Last Stand." Consumers would be able to view the videos on up to two PCs, as well as a single portable media device that uses Microsoft's Windows Media DRM technology. The service would not be compatible with Apple's iPod, as it does not support the video format.
Sony Online Acquires Worlds Apart
Sony Online Entertainment said Thursday it had acquired the assets of Worlds Apart Productions, the maker of various online trading card games. Employees of the company would remain at Worlds Apart’s former headquarters in Denver, and the move is expected to strengthen Sony’s position in the online gaming space.
Sony said it may integrate Worlds Apart’s technogies into its existing games, and it signaled it planned to create all-new games as well. Some of the games the company has created include 2005’s “Star Chamber: The Harbinger Saga,” 2004’s “The Lord Of The Rings Online Trading Card Game,” and 2001’s “The Eternal City.” Sony said it would send teams to Worlds Apart to begin studying its online trading card game technology, and how it could be integrated into SOE’s games.
XM to Stream Music to Alltel Phones
Alltel said Thursday that it would offer its subscribers the option to stream XM Satellite Radio channels to their phones through an application created by MobiTV. The deal is the first time XM would be providing such a service; competitor Sirius has been offering streaming audio to Sprint for nearly a year.
At launch, 20 channels would be offered including the 70s, 80s and 90s music channels, plus pop, hip-hop, country, blues, alternative, and rock channels. XM is providing Alltel with data to allow the company to display the artist, song and album on compatible handsets. The service will retail for $7.99 USD per month, in line with Sirius' offering on Sprint.
TNT to Start Broadband Video Channel
Cable network TNT will launch a broadband video channel next week called "Dramavision," it said Thursday. Initially, all six episodes of the series "Into the West" would be made available, as well as TNT original movies, a program created by CourtTV that looks into crimes that inspired "Law & Order" episodes, and a fan forum for the popular crime show.
The service would be free and advertiser supported, although the network has not yet announced a sponsor. Ads would appear both in the videos and via banner ads surrounding the player. TNT is not the first network to offer video on the Internet; ABC plans to bring back its online TV streams this fall, and other networks including MTV, Comedy Central and the Sci-Fi channel also offer some of their programming online.
Novell Renames Consumer Linux Distro
Novell said Thursday it was rebranding the consumer version of SUSE Linux in an effort to spotlight its open source roots. The product has been renamed "openSUSE," which echoes the name of the open-source Linux project the company sponsors. The current version of the product is 10.1, with 10.2 due to ship later this year. Additionally, the new branding separates Novell's free community-based product from its standard enterprise distribution.
The openSUSE.org project has about 30,000 members, and version 10.1 recently passed 350,000 verified installations, Novell said. "The spotlight is shining on Novell's Linux offerings, as shown by the great success of the year-old openSUSE project and the tremendous reviews received by our SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 products," Novell chief marketing officer and senior vice president John Dragoon remarked.
Wireless Spectrum Auction Begins
The FCC will begin Wednesday to auction of the largest-ever section of mobile spectrum, which would be used by many companies to launch next-generation mobile broadband services. The government expects to raise about $15 billion in revenue, which would be deposited into the U.S. Treasury. 168 bidders have qualified for the auction, ponying up some $4.3 billion in registration fees, and are bidding for 1,122 licenses good for 15 years.
While it is unclear who may win the auction, the FCC's policy of requiring up-front money based on the number of licenses provides some clue as to the most aggressive. Wireless DBS LLC, a joint venture of EchoStar and DirecTV, paid $972.5 million; SpectrumCo, a collaboration of Comcast, Time Warner, Sprint Nextel, Cox, and Bright House Networks, paid $637.7 million; and T-Mobile License LLC was third at $583.5 million.
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