Technology News: Multimedia

Sony Talks Up Plans for Digital Media Superstore
November 20, 2009

Many companies would give up their right to right-click to be able to duplicate Apple's success with iTunes. However, only one actually has the pieces already in place to do that, and its executives announced their intentions Thursday to take on Steve Jobs' company with its own online content service.

Google's Strange and Shiny New OS
November 20, 2009

Google just keeps invading new territories, and its latest target is your computer's operating system. It's officially released the open source code for its Chrome OS, an operating system that will turn up in third-party vendors' netbooks. Those devices should start selling next year. With Chrome, Google takes a very different approach than major OSes like Windows, Mac OS, or even most Linux distributions.

Playboy's Bunny Couldn't Make the Hop to the Web
November 20, 2009

What the hell happened to the sort of man who reads Playboy? How could he let the Internet develop into the world's strip club -- and worse -- without taking Hugh Hefner's company along for the ride? There's no long tail for the Playboy bunny, judging from the rumored impending sale of Hefner's company for around $300 million to Iconix, collector of apparel brands like Candies and Joe Boxer.

New Calif. Standard Nixes Energy-Guzzling Flat-Screen TVs
November 19, 2009

California regulators have adopted the nation's first energy-efficiency standards for televisions, a move that will eventually ban power-hungry sets from the state's store shelves. Wednesday's action by the California Energy Commission could lead the way in a general reform of standards for an industry increasingly focused on wide-view, flat-screen, high-definition sets.

'Modern Warfare 2' Shocks and Awes With Explosive Sales
November 18, 2009

If Activision is to be believed, then its new "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2" video game has blown away all competition with the lethality of a Javelin missile plowing through Russian terrorists. Included in the smoking wreckage: not just previous gaming bestsellers like "Grand Theft Auto IV" and "Halo 3," but also the mangled corpses of Batman and Harry Potter.

YouTube Gives More News Reporting Power to the People
November 17, 2009

News Corp.'s Rupert Murdoch is threatening to divorce Google over the issue of unpaid news content. However, Google's YouTube division still wants the marriage of technology and traditional journalism to work; hence the Tuesday launch of YouTube Direct, a tool designed to bring together media organizations and citizen journalists.

Time Warner to Show AOL the Door Dec. 9
November 17, 2009

Time Warner said Monday that it will spin off its Internet business, AOL, as a separate company on Dec. 9. On that date, Time Warner shareholders of record as of Nov. 27 will receive one share of AOL common stock for every 11 shares of Time Warner common stock they hold, the media company said.

What's Apple's Game Plan?
November 17, 2009

Last year, Apple began marketing its iPod touch as the "funnest iPod ever," a nod to the significant popularity of the game applications available on the iPhone/iPod touch App Store. Games designed by third-party developers have been big sellers for the platform, and now Apple itself looks like it wants in on more of the fun -- it's advertising for an in-house game developer.

NBC's Sale to Cable Co. Signals TV Sea Change
November 16, 2009

Eight decades after pioneering the concept of broadcasting, NBC is on the verge of a startling move that illustrates broadcast television's decline. Cable TV operator Comcast is expected to buy a controlling stake in NBC Universal, perhaps as early as this week.

Intel Escapes Its Legal Morass, One Settlement at a Time
November 13, 2009

Intel and AMD have finally put a long and bitter disagreement to bed, and in the end, all it took was a little open communication and understanding, along with one and a quarter billion dollars. The two have been at it for years -- accusations, threats, lawsuits. AMD said Intel engaged in anticompetitive behavior; Intel said AMD broke its licensing agreements.

October Video Game Sales Falter
November 13, 2009

After a slight reprieve in September, U.S. video game retail sales slumped again in October, unable to escape the economic turmoil that's cutting into consumer spending and swelling the ranks of unemployed. Market researcher NPD Group said Thursday total sales of video game hardware, software and accessories fell 19 percent in October from the same month last year, to $1.07 billion.

Flu Fear Goes Viral on the Web
November 13, 2009

There's a very good reason why we call Internet memes and themes "viral." Good and bad information spreads on the Web in much the same way those nasty bundles of nucleic acid and proteins do when they attack your body's cells and make you sick. Some of the Internet news items I've seen related to the H1N1 swine flu virus are making me feel a little ill.

Clicker Charts the Seas for Online TV Surfers
November 12, 2009

Clicker Media on Thursday publicly launched Clicker.com, its programming guide to Internet television. This comes less than a year after the company began building what it describes as the "ultimate programming guide for Internet television." Clicker catalogs the broadcast-quality movies, music videos and Web videos available online on more than 1,200 networks.

Xbox Live Is Dead for Modding Gamers
November 11, 2009

The Xbox Live community forums are buzzing loudly, but it has nothing to do with online gamers fragging each other in the much-anticipated new video game "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2." Some Xbox 360 users are ready to stage their own military coup against Microsoft after they were told this week that their Live accounts had been banned from the service.

Schools Slam Kindle Over Blind Access Failure
November 11, 2009

Amazon's Kindle can read books aloud, but if you're blind it can be difficult to turn that function on without help. Now two universities say they will shun the device until Amazon changes the setup. The National Federation of the Blind planned to announce Wednesday that two major schools won't consider big rollouts of the electronic reading device unless Amazon fixes the problem.

Kindle for PC: A Good Preview for E-Reader Fence-Sitters
November 10, 2009

The scales of justice definitely don't tip in grayscale's favor when it comes to the overall e-reader device experience for consumers. Whether it's an Amazon Kindle, Sony Reader or Barnes & Noble Nook, 16-level grayscale means nothing more than a digital version of the weather in Seattle between November and April: different shades of gray.