The major record labels have partnered with several performing rights organizations and big technology firms to develop more comprehensive tracking of digital media sales. In addition to Sony BMG, Warner Music, EMI and Universal, the Digital Data Exchange (DDEX) is backed by ASCAP and other performing rights organizations and royalty collection societies, as well as [...]

In another Pyrrhic victory for fair use rights, Australia’s government is set to legalize CD ripping. The revision to the country’s copyright law, like proposed changes being mulled in the UK, will legalize activities that are already fairly widespread, including “format shifting” of music you legally own from CDs to digital audio players. While blessing [...]

Sony Electronics begins shipping its 25B single-layer Blu-ray Disc media, adding that a 50GB version will hit the market in June. The 25GB write-once discs will sell for $20, and rewritable discs will cost $25; while the 50GB discs will be priced at $48 and $60, respectively. Links: http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/060505/nyf003.html?.v=36 http://www.blu-raydisc.com

What can’t Google do? Try this, open Google and enter 20 + 4 = in the Search box, press Enter and up pops the answer. Clever huh? But there’s much more to come. It recognises all of the standard numeric operators, i.e. plus (+), minus (-), multiply (*) and divide (/), and it also knows [...]

Just don’t call it a UMPC. Like the “we don’t need no stinkin’ WMCE” days of yore, Sony is launching into a new market segment with little regard for the generally accepted Microsoft or Intel standards. They have just announced their new Vaio UX Micro PC, which seems more akin to an OQO device than [...]

It’s always nice to see an accessory which isn’t for an iPod. This one is for the increasingly popular BlackBerry phones which, if somehow you haven’t heard of them yet, made their way into our hearts by offering an up-to-the-minute email forwarding service called Push email. Because BlackBerrys are now part of the business professional’s [...]

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer on Thursday detailed just how much of Microsoft’s extra spending will be devoted to bulking up its Internet services business. Ballmer, acknowledging that Microsoft’s stock has plunged over the uncertainty created by Microsoft’s investment plans, said the MSN unit plans to spend US$1.1 billion next fiscal year on research and development, [...]

“Flea,” bass player for The Red Hot Chili Peppers, has urged fans in a website posting not to download a “poor sound quality” version of the band’s upcoming album “Stadium Arcadium” that has leaked onto file-sharing sites. “I think it is a fair deal for everyone, and for people to just steal a poor sound [...]

We’ve seen plenty enough units claiming to be the “world’s ____ flash drive,” and while we think most of the size awards can safely go to the iDisk Diamond, it’s hard to begrudge the title of “world’s thinnest flash drive” to a 3mm thick unit that features a whopping 16GB of storage. The new U510 [...]

Oh Barry Fox, does a week ever go by when you don’t find a great patent or two? Today the intrepid Mr. Fox manages to dig up an application by consumer-darling Apple for an LCD display embedded with thousands of microscopic image sensors that would allow users to video-conference while looking straight into the “camera.” [...]

In much the same way that Coinstar machines have revolutionized the way we deal with accumulated change, Kodak has unveiled a new commercial scanner that promises to batch-digitize stacks of old photos and assign them rudimentary chronological metadata. Introduced on the occasion of the EasyShare line’s fifth birthday, the so-called “Scan the World” technology will [...]

Neil Young has made his forthcoming album “Living With War” available as a CD-quality digital download in advance of the album’s release in stores. The album will be available in Windows Media Audio Lossless format from MusicGiants, an online store that offers HD music downloads. The MusicGiants HD Music Store is available directly through Windows [...]

Sun Microsystems plans to alter its licensing to make it easier to bundle Java Runtime Environment with Linux. The company will announce the changes and at least one other open-source move at the JavaOne conference later this month, Sun executives said during a press teleconference on Thursday. Laurie Tolson, a vice president in the Java [...]

The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that new piracy figures from a study commissioned by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) show studio losses from piracy to be 75% greater than previous estimates. Conducted by LEK Consulting, the study used more consistent methodologies in determining studio losses from piracy, citing annual losses of [...]

Camcorder accessory manufacturer Bella has just announced a new device that will let you toss those MiniDV cassettes straight out of your bag and replace them with your iPod or nearly any other USB 2.0-compliant storage system. The Catapult, as it’s known, is a paperback-sized digital encoder that plugs into any standard or HD camcorder [...]