The path to world domination is paved in round numbers, especially big ones like this: 5 billion.

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Can MTV sell music online?

Amid its huge investment of resources into the 'Net, MTV made a big push in early 2006 to launch Urge, a digital music service that would compete with iTunes.

But just over a year later, MTV is calling it quits on Urge. Though the company didn't disclose figures, sources indicated it was unsuccessful despite a major marketing push on-air, online and outdoors, as well as a partnership with Microsoft to feature Urge on its ubiquitous Windows Media Player software.

So rather than trying to compete on its own, MTV is investing in one of iTunes' biggest competitors, Rhapsody. Cable conglom and that service's parent company, RealNetworks, are turning Rhapsody into a joint venture controlled 51% by Real and 49% by MTV.

Verizon Wireless will bring the service to cell phones, though it's not an equity stakeholder.

MTV, which is obligated to provide $230 million worth of advertising over five years, along with an undisclosed amount of cash, in exchange for its stake, seems confident that Real will prove a more beneficial partner than Microsoft.

At the least, its decision to invest in Rhapsody makes clear that in the face of Apple's dominance of the digital music space, even MTV can't compete on its own.

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SEGA of America on Friday announced plans to bring the hit anime fighting franchise Bleach to both Wii and DS this fall in time for the launch of the television show's second season on the Cartoon Network. Bleach: Shattered Blade is underway for Wii and Bleach: Blade of Fate for handheld.

"Bleach offers both fans and newcomers alike an action-packed arcade experience that delivers fast-paced swordplay in the tradition of the animated series' intense action sequences," said Scott A. Steinberg, vice president of marketing, SEGA of America. "Bleach is an exciting and highly anticipated property that translates extremely well to the versatility of the Wii Remote and the DS' portable gameplay, and SEGA is proud to be the first to bring the video game series to the North American audience."

"We are thrilled to be partnering with SEGA for the Bleach Wii and DS games," stated Linda Espinosa, vice president, content management, VIZ Media. "The SEGA games have enjoyed immense success in Japan, the manga is a top seller in both Japan and the U.S., and we are expecting great fan response when these games release."

Bleach follows 15-year-old Ichigo Kurosaki, who can see Soul Reapers, warrior spirits from the afterlife charged with the task of defending humans from evil beings called Hollows. One day Ichigo meets the Soul Reaper Rukia, who lends him her powers. On Wii, Bleach is a cel-shaded 3D fighter that makes use of both Nintendo's nunchuck and remote. On DS, the game is a more traditional 2D sprite-based fighter heavy on animation and effects.

In Shattered Blade, the console enables "gamers to wield the Wii remote and nunchuk as their weapons - slashing, jabbing, and lunging in furious battles like a real Soul Reaper," according to the publisher. The title features an original story specifically created for Wii, in addition to 32 playable fighters to choose from. Each fighter can execute specials and summon supernatural allies. There is also a full-fledged multiplayer component.

The handheld Blade of Fate includes 28 selectable characters and the ability to move between upper and lower-plane battles arenas in an effort to escape from opponents. In addition, gamers can build Spirit Card Decks in the handheld iteration, enabling them to "strategically access power-ups and power-downs to perform special attacks, cast healing spells on themselves, displace opponents, or prohibit them from using their own Special Cards," according to SEGA. The title features four-player Wi-Fi support.

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LG Electronics has announced it will begin offering mobile phone handsets with an integrated YouTube client later this year, enabling users to tap into the Internet's largest video sharing community. According to LG, the application will enable users to discover and view video, as well as upload new video directly to YouTube.

"This new service will connect people like never before. For the first time, LG customers will be able to film, upload and view videos on YouTube using their mobile phone just as they would be able to from their home computer," said Dr. Skott Ahn, President and CEO of LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company, in a release. "With this agreement, LG is continuing to drive forward wireless internet services as well as consolidate its technology leadership in the mobile industry."

The agreement isn't the first between Google and LG, LG announced an agreement to pre-install Google software on mobile handsets, with the LG-KS10 (currently available in Italy) being the first fruit of that agreement. LG also has agreements with Yahoo to pre-install Yahoo mobile applications and services on selected handsets.

LG says it will develop the interface for its YouTube application, and handsets pre-loaded with the software should be available toward the end of 2007. Although LG's applications ought to work regardless of carrier, phones LG markets specifically through carriers often only bundle software and services specific to that carrier, so an LG phone which offers YouTube connectivity with one carrier may not with another.

Of course, Apple's iPhone was the first to announce (and ship with) a dedicated YouTube client. Verizon also offers access to YouTube via its VCast service, although browsing capabilities and upload access are limited.

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Apple on Friday released iTunes 7.3. The update is available through the Software Update system preference or directly from the Apple Web site.

This update is being offered to provide compatibility with the iPhone, which launches this evening at 6:00 PM. The new version enables iPhone users to activate service for their phone and syncs the iPhone with music, movies, TV shows and more.

iTunes 7.3 also enables users to share digital photos from any computer in the house with an Apple TV.

System requirements call for Mac OS X v10.3.9 or Mac OS X v10.4.7 or later. A separate version is also available for Windows.

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Apple announced that their new MacBook Pro laptop will include LED screens.

The new laptop line will also pack in Intel's latest processors and chip set, as well as 2GB of memory itself. This is an attempt by Apple to pick up the laptop line and to keep them as some of the most powerful laptops on the market.

The 15-inch MacBook Pros are the first to have LED-backlit displays which reduce the trace mercury previously found in LCD displays. They also run on lower levels of power reducing power consumption and raising the batter life.

“With Intel Core 2 Duo performance, more memory and state-of-the-art graphics, this MacBook Pro is a portable powerhouse for creative and professional users,” Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of global product marketing, stated.

Apple has set up the MacBook Pros to retain their slot at the top of the food chain, especially with the addition of the brand new LED screens and it should be interesting to see how many companies follow suit.

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High Tech Computer Corp. announced the HTC Touch, a device based on the Microsoft Windows Mobile 6 Professional operating system that's designed with one-touch screen features giving users instant access to e-mails, contacts and appointments.

Taiwan's HTC is the largest maker of mobile devices based on Microsoft Windows operating systems, and its use of a 2.8-in. touch screen in the HTC Touch is similar to the emphasis Apple Inc. has put on touch-screen features in its iPhone, which is due on June 29.

Users just sweep their fingers across the HTC Touch's screen to bring up an animated interface with three views: Contacts, Media and Applications. The views also allow finger control for scrolling on documents and browsing Web pages.

HTC said today that it developed the touch-screen technology on the HTC Touch itself.

Apple has also touted the touch-screen features in its iPhone. Among other things, the iPhone will allow users to scroll through songs and movies on the 3.5-in. display. The main difference appears to be that the iPhone focuses on entertainment, while the Touch focuses on e-mail and other business-oriented uses.

The Touch does not come with large internal flash memory capacity for music and movie storage, which the iPhone will have. HTC instead offers a microSD drive, and a 1GB microSD card is included with the handset.

The HTC Touch includes multiple wireless technologies, including triband GSM for voice and EDGE (Enhanced Data for GSM Evolution) and Wi-Fi for uploading and downloading data to and from the Internet. Device-to-device data transmission is offered via Bluetooth.

The Touch weighs 112 grams with its battery. The handset also includes a 2-megapixel camera and other features.

It is now available in the U.K., and users throughout Europe and Asia will be able to buy one by the end of this month. North and South America will have to wait until later in the second half of the year. The company did not offer pricing information.

SMS: HTC launched the HTC Touch, a Microsoft Windows Mobile 6-based device designed with one-touch screen features reminiscent of the iPhone.

Source : Computerworld.com

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SanDisk Corporation is expanding its line of solid state drive (SSD) products with the introduction of a 64 gigabyte (GB) SSD aimed at both enterprise users and early adopter consumers such as gamers.

SanDisk 1.8-inch UATA 5000 and 2.5-inch SATA 5000 SSD products, which already are available in a 32GB capacity, are compatible as drop-in replacements for hard disk drives in most mainstream notebook computers.

Compared to conventional hard drives found in most notebook computers, SSDs offer better performance due to the lack of mechanical parts. The flash-based SSD starts working almost immediately to achieve better access speeds than a conventional hard disk drive. SanDisk says that in notebook computers, data moves to and from an SSD more than 100 times faster than data moving to and from a hard disk.

These SSDs offer a sustained read rate of 67 megabytes (MB) per second and a random read rate of 7,000 inputs/outputs per second (IOPS) for a 512-byte transfer. As a result, notebooks equipped with a 2.5-inch SanDisk SSD can boot Microsoft Windows Vista Enterprise in as little as 30 seconds and access files at an average speed of 0.11 milliseconds. For comparison, a notebook using a hard disk requires an average 48 seconds to boot and an average 17 milliseconds to access files.

Low power consumption is also a benefit of using SSD technology. Compared to a typical hard disk drive, which consumes 1.9 watts during active operation, SanDisk SSDs consume 1.0 watt (0.5 watts for 1.8") while active and as little as 0.4 watts (0.2 watts for 1.8") while idle.

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Having just tried its hand at developing a digital music player, Microsoft is working on something new: digital furniture.

The company plans to unveil a computing device today called Microsoft Surface, featuring a 30-inch screen embedded in an acrylic tabletop. The device’s electronic guts are hidden in the low-slung table’s thick pedestal.

At first glance, Surface is reminiscent of an old-fashioned arcade game table around which patrons played Pac-Man. But there is no joystick here, and no mouse or keyboard either. The device is controlled by touching the tabletop display.

Microsoft says this touch screen will allow people to “interact with digital content the same way they have interacted with everyday items such as photos, paintbrushes and music their entire life: with hands, with gestures and by putting real-world objects on the surface.”

For example, when a digital camera with Wi-Fi capabilities is placed on the display, the table recognizes the camera and, at a touch of the screen, downloads its photos and video clips. The digital pictures can be sorted and sized by “handling” them as if they were physical prints.

The device uses cameras under the display to detect touches, and unlike traditional touch screens it can handle multiple touches at the same time, said Jeff Gattis, the director of product management for Surface.

Similarly, Surface can read bar codes and identification tags embedded in objects like hotel chain membership cards.

Microsoft hopes this technology will someday be common in homes, but its first uses will be commercial. By the end of this year, Surface will appear in hotels, restaurants, retail stores and public entertainment sites, where it will serve as an information kiosk and handle things like basic customer service. Steven A. Ballmer, Microsoft’s chief executive, was scheduled to unveil the product today at The Wall Street Journal’s “D: All Things Digital” conference in Carlsbad, Calif.

“With Surface, we are creating more intuitive ways for people to interact with technology,” Mr. Ballmer said in a statement. “We see this as a multibillion-dollar category, and we envision a time when surface computing technologies will be pervasive, from tabletops and counters to the hallway mirror.”

Microsoft also named several partners that will be among the first companies to use Surface, including Harrah’s Entertainment, Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide and T-Mobile USA. The device’s cost was not disclosed.

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Word from Sony Computer Entertainment Europe indicates that the PlayStation 3 will be receiving a significant firmware update on May 24, 2007. New for firmware version 1.80: upscaling of original PlayStation and PlayStation 2 games to 1080p when viewed on a compatible HD TV set.

With the announcement coming from the offices of Sony Europe, it’s still unknown if the upscaling of older PlayStation software is a result of the revised hardware’ssoftware emulation, meaning that the feature could be exclusive to the Euro-spec PS3. Currently, North American and Japanese PlayStation 3 utilize dedicated PS2 chips for the backwards compatibility of previous-generation titles.

Also on the upscaling front, the new 1.80 update will enable the PS3 to upscale DVD movies up to full 1080p as well. This feature was promised by Phil Harrison back in March, and now gives the PlayStation 3 similar DVD playback capabilities as most other standalone Blu-ray players.

Version 1.80 will finally enable Remote Play on gamers’ PSP across the Internet, allowing them to access their PS3 anywhere in the world where a broadband internet connection is available. The new firmware also allows users on a home network to view media content such as images, music and video on their PS3, that is stored on their DLNA3 enabled devices such as PCs and laptops elsewhere in the house.

Another quirky addition to the PlayStation 3 in 1.80 is the support for a selection of Epson printers, allowing the console to interface and print photo images stored on PS3’s hard disk or inserted storage media. Such changes reinforce Sony’s desire to make the PlayStation 3 the quintessential media machine.

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T-Mobile USA on Tuesday launched the first cell phone in the U.S. to come with Microsoft's latest version of Windows Mobile, with improved handling of e-mail and tougher security.The T-Mobile Wing costs $299 with a two-year contract and runs Windows Mobile 6, Microsoft Corp.'s latest operating system for "smart" phones, which handle e-mail, documents and Web browsing in addition to phone calls.

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As part of its continued commitment to deliver interoperability by design, Microsoft Corp. announced a new collaborative effort with the Beihang University (Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics) and others to create an open source translator project between China’s Unified Office Format (UOF) and the Ecma Open XML File Formats. In addition, the company announced the beta release of translation tools for Windows XP, and the 2003 and 2007 versions of Microsoft Office Excel and Microsoft Office PowerPoint as part of the Open XML Translator project launched in July 2006.
The UOF translation tools will be developed and licensed as open source software, and ultimately will be made available as free, downloadable add-ins for Microsoft Office Word 2003 and 2007 customers from SourceForge.net. As such, the tools will be available for use with other individual and commercial projects to accelerate document interoperability across the industry and benefit Microsoft Office customers in China who need to work with the UOF standard. A preview of the UOF translator tools will be released on SourceForge this summer, with final versions expected early next year. Further details on the UOF SourceForge project are available at http://uof-translator.sourceforge.net/.

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