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The Music Industry Sets Sights on a New Target: iTunes
Posted by Kristin Wenzel Categories: Corporate News, Music, Portable Audio / Video,
Those pesky music industry execs are at it again - and this time they’re looking not to take on file-swapping college kids or bootlegged CDs. Their next target? Apple’s wildly popular iTunes music service, which revolutionized and breathed life back into the (legal) music market with their simple pricing scheme (.99 per song, no matter what song it is) and easy-to-use service. The industry, who once hailed iTunes as a savior of sorts, now seem to have changed their… well… tune.
A sore point for some music executives is the fact that Apple generates much more money selling iPod players than it does as a digital music retailer, leading to complaints that Mr. Jobs is profiting more from tracks downloaded to fill the 21 million iPods sold so far than are the labels that produced the recordings.
Andrew Lack, the chief executive of Sony BMG, discussed the state of the overall digital market at a media and technology conference three months ago and said that Mr. Jobs “has got two revenue streams: one from our music and one from the sale of his iPods.”
“I’ve got one revenue stream,” Mr. Lack said, joking that it would require a medical professional to locate. “It’s not pretty.”
Excuse me while I laugh myself stupid. I’m sure Mr. Lack is nowhere near the soup kitchen, if he’s the chief executive of Sony BMG. I read things like this and just about always fail to see where these top-dollar executives find the sense of entitlement they always seem to develop as soon as anyone besides them is making any money.
Read More 
| NY Times
Those of you with Windows XP who have ever had the misfortune of having your system crash are certainly not alone. According to an article by John C. Dvorak, there are an estimated 24.5 million XP crashes a day, for a total of 30 billion each year throughout the world. If you add in estimated crashes for operating systems like ME, 98 and any other Windows platforms, the magic number jumps to 70 million crashes a day. Since kicking your computer won’t fix the situation, the next time you see the Blue Screen of Death you can at least take some comfort knowing you’re not the only one. Or you could just buy a Mac…
Read More | PC Mag
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MSN Messenger 7.5 is still in beta, but that doesn’t mean Microsoft can’t begin work on 8.0, right? According to The Hotfix a third party source who supposedly works for Microsoft was kind enough to provide them with the a list of possible, and most certainly rumored, features for MSN Messenger 8.0:
• Change of Messenger Skins
• Real-time Emotions
• Messenger Built Internal Windows Media Player 10
• Pause/Resumed File Transfers (File Blocked Extension Applied)
• Detailed File Transfer (Download/Upload Speed)
• Animated Display Pictures (.gif .jpg .png (File Support under Consideration))
• Mood Status
• Faster Contact List Loading and scrolling
• Public Profile and MSN Spaces Combined
• More MSN Space features
• New Hotmail and MSN Messenger Integration
• Downloadable MSN Messenger on Mobile
• News Updates according to Location
• Top 10 MSN Music Radio
• New Stylish Notifier Pop-up
• Downloadable Skins for MSN (Contact Window & Conversation Window)
• Complete Integration with Windows XP® & Windows Vista® Codename: Longhorn®
• Offline Voice/Message Machine
• Animated Buddy Icon Helper
• Display Picture Ratings
The source also claims that 8.0 will be in BETA by the end of this year, and we can expect the official release in 2006. What do you think of the features? Improvements to a popular IM client, or just more junk you won’t use anyways?
Read More | The Hotfix
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After a particularly destructive rampage across the Internet, leaving a wake of disabled and broken PCs, authorities have arrested two young men in connection with the case.
Authorities in Morocco and Turkey have arrested two people believed to be responsible for unleashing a computer worm that infected networks at U.S. companies and government agencies earlier this month, the FBI said Friday.
Farid Essebar, 18, was arrested in Morocco, while Atilla Ekici, 21, was arrested in Turkey on Thursday, the FBI said. They will be prosecuted in those countries, the FBI said.
The worm targeted critical security flaws in Microsoft Windows operating systems, with Windows 2000 most susceptible to infection. Mac users, as usual, were not affected.
Read More | KOMO
According to Motley Fool, Apple ranks as a “gas proof” stock, unlikely to be affected as much by soaring gas prices. Not bad!
Apple is second among the Motley Fool’s list of seven “gas-proof” stocks. While many organizations—from petroleum companies to Wal-Mart—have been affected by, or blamed for, the soaring cost of crude oil, there are are also “plenty of stocks sitting pretty, miles away from the nearest pump.” For example, the iPod is “the gadget of choice for active pedestrians and public-transportation commuters,” according to the report.
You know it.
Read More | MacNN
Yet another company has produced an iPod shuffle competitor with an OLED screen: The Adamond XK1 is a slick little black number with some great features. The XK1 features an OLED screen, 512MB or 1GB capacity, Line-In recording (or two headphone outs for sharing your music), and it’s all powered for 13 hours with a single AAA battery. The XK1 seems crippled by the fact that it only supports USB 1.1 transfers, and while being out for a while has failed to produce much media or really make a splash at all. While the XK1 lacks the clean lines of the shuffle it does feature strong black lines and has its own sense of charm. The XK1 is available for around $150 for the 1GB model and is availble now through UK webshops. Apple had better pay attention to all the flash based players with screens out there, or they will quickly lose their place atop the ultra-portable MP3 player market.
Read More | PocketNow via DAPreview
There is a new FujiFilm printer aimed at the mobile market. The new printer will interface with a mobile phone via IR (what - no Bluetooth?!) and produce a credit card sized image for all your devious mobile printing needs. The printer features Fuji Image Intelligence, which will supposedly help correct for dark photos normally associated with the camera phones it is designed for. Retailing for $129, this miniature printer will be available in September. I’m glad to see a 1st gen product like this - hopefully someday the technology will exist to provide onboard printers of some sort for high end digital cameras - obviously a high quality print will involve a photo lab, but for your quick snap instant prints would be fantastic.
Read More | Gizmodo
Revolution Controller to Be Revealed At Tokyo Game Show
Posted by Sparky Categories: Accessories, Wii,
The world can finally be at peace: Satoru Iwata is said to be unveiling the Nintendo Revolution controller on September 16th at the Tokyo Game Show. Much speculation has occurred as to the exact means of controlling the upcoming Nintendo Revolution- we have even written a number of articles on the matter. The current prevailing theories center around gyroscopic control and feedback, but nobody will know for sure until Nintendo’s Iwata speaks.
Read More | Spong
Ah, the good old days of the original NES and Duck Hunt. I remember how much I hated to hear the ducks make fun of me whenever they got away, resulting in me holding the light gun right in front of the television – come on, you know you did it too. Now Duck Hunt has been combined with a long time FPS favorite Doom. This means you can shoot those birds out of the sky using some of the most violent guns they have ever seen – who’s laughing now ducks?!
Read More | Duck Doom Deluxe Download
Here’s a look at the latest Doom movie trailer, featuring more footage than its predecessor. This time you actually get to see the weapons being used in combat, as well as the very cool first person camera shots being put into the movie adaptation of Doom. The FPS shots look awesome, but I can’t help but wonder how many people will get dizzy at the watching this one. Remember Blair Witch?
Read More | Doom Movie Trailer
