The Technophilez

Apple has apparently instituted a credit card-only policy for iPhone sales at its retail stores in order to guarantee supply for the holidays and frustrate potential resellers, according to multiple reports.

Would-be iPhone buyers must now present a credit or debit card if they want to take home an iPhone, and they're also now limited to just two units, as they were on iPhone Day, according to The Associated Press. The AP quoted an Apple representative explaining the move as a way of making sure there are enough iPhones for the holidays and to prevent unauthorized resellers from flooding the market.

It's not clear whether the same policy applies to AT&T stores. I e-mailed the Apple representative quoted in the AP report late Friday evening and haven't heard back.

Before Thursday, when the policy was implemented, you could walk into any Apple store and plunk down cash for up to five iPhones. While the concerns about supply are harder to gauge from a distance, the credit card policy seems designed to make sure buyers leave a paper trail.

Last week, the folks at cable giant Comcast asked for more time to give a nuanced response to a report that the company was blocking some peer-to-peer traffic on its network. The public relations staff at the Philadelphia company seemed genuinely baffled by accusations that it was interfering with file-sharing applications like BitTorrent and Gnutella. They stubbornly insisted that they did not monitor or block any Internet traffic – despite strong evidence to the contrary.

Today, Comcast tried to do a bit better – while sticking to its guns. “Comcast does not block access to any Web sites or online applications, including peer-to-peer services like BitTorrent” read a written statement. “We have a responsibility to provide all of our customers with a good Internet experience and we use the latest technologies to manage our network so that they can continue to enjoy these applications.”

Speaking on background in a phone interview earlier today, a Comcast Internet executive admitted that reality was a little more complex. The company uses data management technologies to conserve bandwidth and allow customers to experience the Internet without delays. As part of that management process, he said, the company occasionally – but not always – delays some peer-to-peer file transfers that eat into Internet speeds for other users on the network.

The executive declined to talk in detail about the technology, citing spammers or other miscreants who might exploit that knowledge. But he insisted the company was not stopping file transfers from happening, only postponing them in certain cases. He compared it to making a phone call and getting a busy signal, then trying again and getting through. In cases where peer to peer file transfers are interrupted, the software automatically tries again, so the user may not even know Comcast is interfering.

The executive also noted that peer-to-peer network users represent a minority of Comcast customers, but that they use a disproportionate amount of bandwidth.

And that was about the extent of the explanation.

It seems unlikely that Comcast has a secret agenda to shut down file-sharing applications and combat piracy on its network. But the company is clearly trying to have it both ways. It claims it is a neutral Internet service provider that treats all packets equally, not blocking or “shaping” its Internet traffic.
Meanwhile it also positions itself as the champion of average Internet users whose speeds are being slowed by file-sharing.
The problem Comcast may now be facing is that in the absence of a plain explanation about what the company does to disadvantage certain applications in the name of managing traffic on its network, anecdotal reports and conspiracy theories fill the vacuum.

SanDisk on Monday launched a PC-to-TV video player that lets users download content from a USB port, and then carry the files over to a living room television for playback through standard audio/video sockets. In addition, SanDisk also unveiled a video download site called Fanfare which would compete with Apple's iTunes music and video store.

SanDisk is calling the device Sansa TakeTV, and claims that it's a simpler alternative to setting up a wireless network, running wires across a living room, or burning video on a DVD. "Sansa TakeTV is the most easy-to-use, straightforward solution for watching downloaded personal video content and other shows in the comfort of the living room," Daniel Schreiber, senior VP and general manager for SanDisk's audio/video business unit, said in a statement.

To use the device, consumers would plug it into a USB port on a PC or Mac, and drag video files on the computer to the device. Consumers would then slip the gadget into a cradle plugged into standard A/V sockets on the TV and see an on-screen guide to select content using TakeTV's remote control.

"It's actually a good idea because companies have been challenged in making that connection (between the PC and TV)," said Steve Wilson, analyst for ABI Research. "And they're leveraging a model that people are very familiar with."

SanDisk also was smart in not focusing on the delivery of high-definition content, which would have made the device too expensive for average consumers, Wilson said. Launching Fanfare was also a good idea, because it gives customers a place to go immediately after buying the device, rather than having to look for their own content.

The product supports video formats DivX, XVID, and MPEG-4, as well as the Vista, XP, Mac, and Linux operating systems. The TakeTV player costs $100 for 4-Gbytes of storage, which holds about five hours of video. An 8-Gbyte version that holds up to 10 hours of video costs $150.

Fanfare, which was launched in beta on Monday, offers TV shows for download. The service requires the user to first download software to access the online store and manage downloaded content. The site offers free and paid video. The latter typically costs $1.99 an episode.

While Apple's iTunes is the most popular music and video service on the Web, the company has had its problems with content providers. In August, Apple said it would not offer NBC Universal's lineup of new shows for the upcoming TV season because of a rift over pricing. NBC wanted to double the wholesale price Apple pays for each TV episode, a move that would have forced it charge customers $4.99 per episode instead of the current $1.99.

Apple said Tuesday that it would deliver its long-awaited "Leopard" upgrade of Mac OS X on Oct. 26.

The Cupertino, Calif.-based computer maker, which initially delayed the launch from Spring until October, said Mac OS X 10.5 would go on sale at 6 p.m. on that day.

"Leopard, the sixth major release of Mac OS X, is the best upgrade we've ever released," Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO, said in a statement. The OS was priced at $129, Apple said.

At the same time, Apple announced Mac OS X Leopard Server, with features including "Podcast Producer" -- which permits the publishing of podcasts to Apple's iTunes service. The company said Leopard Server would also automatically configure "client applicaitons, including file sharing, Mail, iChat, iCal, Address Book and VPN from user information stored on the server."

Some Apple solution providers have said that advances included in Leopard Server, including improvements to iCal, would allow them to offer a viable alternative on the Mac platform to Microsoft Exchange. Apple said it was pricing Leopard Server at $499 for a 10-client edition and $999 for unlimited clients. The unlimated client version also comes with Xserve rack-mount server hardware, Apple said.

The launch of Leopard will cap a frenzied year of product launches for Apple, which has included the iPhone and several new models of Apple iPods.

A few days after Google announced the release of its GOOG-411 service, Microsoft has announced its very own free directory assistance service, Live Search 411.

Live Search 411 has very similar functionality to GOOG-411. It is a voice-navigated free information service, powered by the recently acquired Tellme, that you can get to by dialing 800-CALL-411 on any phone.

Much like GOOG-411, you can find any business in a city and state of your choosing, then get its information and a map sent directly to your cell phone via a text message. You can also search by business category and connect directly to the business that you select.

The number is not yet active, and right now, you will get a coming-soon message if you try to call, so I cannot yet evaluate the service's ease of use or quality.

While Google was first to launch its 411 service and has already begun a billboard-advertising campaign in San Francisco, this is still an important launch for Microsoft. To compete with Google, the software giant needs to keep pace.

This is just one more Microsoft service that matches Google's offering. With the release of its much-improved Live Search 2.0 a few weeks ago, along with this release today, it's clear that Microsoft wants to take a real shot at dethroning the search giant.

Apple has cut the price of its DRM-free music from $1.29 to 99 cents, the same amount it charges for songs encoded with its FairPlay DRM technology. The move brings Apple's pricing closer to that of Amazon, which recently began selling DRM-free music for 99 cents or lower.

Apple's DRM-free music catalog is largely made up of artists from EMI -- Apple and EMI signed a deal to offer higher-quality songs with no DRM, but the songs were priced at a premium.

"iTunes Plus has been incredibly popular with our customers and now we're making it available at an even more affordable price," said Apple spokesperson, Tom Neumayr.

While Apple has relied on EMI to provide it with its DRM-free music, the company said more music is on the way. "We're adding over two million tracks from key independent labels in addition to EMI's digital catalog and look forward to even more labels and artists making their music available on iTunes Plus," said Neumayr.

Not only will the The DRM-free songs come down in price, they will also remain at the higher-quality bitrate of 256kbps AAC instead of the 128kbps AAC for DRM songs.

Amazon MP3 recently opened its own DRM-free music store. Amazon sells its music for between 89 cents and 99 cents, but analysts don't feel they will challenge Apple in the long run.

After some rough going recently, things are looking up for TiVo Inc., the video recorder pioneer.

The Alviso company, which lost subscribers during the second quarter of this year and posted a $17.7 million loss after its first profitable quarter, can feel good about a long-awaited software deployment with Comcast Corp. and a patent fight that appears to be tilting in its favor.

The most recent news was that Comcast, the largest cable provider in the country, said this week it is starting to roll out set-top boxes that support TiVo's software. The service will start in New England in the coming months before moving to other areas. Comcast officials had no timetable for when it will begin offering TiVo-enabled DVRs in the Bay Area.

Although the rollout will not be quick, analysts said the development is good news for TiVo, helping it reach out to Comcast's 24 million subscribers. TiVo, whose pioneering work in the field helped make its name synonymous with the idea of pausing and recording live television, has had its share of difficulty selling its set-top boxes and subscription services on its own.

The company boasts 4.2 million subscribers, but more than 60 percent of them come through a deal with satellite television operator DirecTV, which sells TiVo's set-top boxes. But now that DirecTV is selling a competing DVR alongside the TiVo boxes, DirecTV subscribers have been dropping their TiVo service.

Selling its software through Comcast and Cox Cable, which also has signed a deal to sell TiVo-enabled DVRs, should help TiVo add to its subscriber base again.

"This is a big deal because of the numbers," said Van Baker, an analyst with Gartner. "In order for TiVo to realize its vision, it needs a big enough installed base to matter."

Baker said if TiVo can get big enough, it can start to offer targeted advertising within shows that cater to their subscribers' preferences, an attractive draw for advertisers. He said the only question is how much Comcast will promote the TiVo-enabled DVRs alongside their own DVR offerings.

By offering software that can be downloaded into existing Comcast set-top boxes, TiVo can get out of the hardware game, which is dominated by heavyweights Motorola Inc. and Cisco Systems Inc., which owns Scientific Atlanta.

The other good news is the continuing patent battle with satellite television provider EchoStar Communications Corp. TiVo originally sued EchoStar for patent infringement in 2004 and won an $89.6 million judgment last year. In oral arguments last week in EchoStar's appeal, a three-judge panel seemed to suggest it would rule at least partially in favor of TiVo.

A final decision is not expected for several months and could still be appealed to the Supreme Court. But analysts say TiVo is in a good position to win and reap a potential windfall, depending on the extent of the court's ruling.

If all goes TiVo's way, it could take in money from EchoStar and also go after other DVR-makers, demanding licensing fees for its technology. Or it could go straight to other television providers who sell DVRs and secure deals for its TiVo software.

"If they win it, this could be really big for TiVo," said Kunal Madhukar, an analyst with Bear Stearns & Co. "The EchoStar settlement alone could mean 5 to 6 dollars more per share."

Relationships in the entertainment world can be famously fraught. And few are more so these days than the one between Steve Jobs and Universal Music chief Doug Morris. You may recall that Morris recently refused to re-up a multi-year contract to put his company's music on Apple's iTunes Music Store. That's because Jobs wouldn't ease his stringent terms, which limit how record companies can market their music.

The world's most powerful music executive aims to join forces with other record companies to launch an industry-owned subscription service. BusinessWeek has learned that Morris has already enlisted Sony BMG Music Entertainment as a potential partner and is talking to Warner Music Group. Together the three would control about 75% of the music sold in the U.S. Besides competing head-on with Apple Inc.'s (AAPL ) music store, Morris and his allies hope to move digital music beyond the iPod-iTunes universe by nurturing the likes of Microsoft's Zune media player and Sony's PlayStation and by working with the wireless carriers. The service, which is one of several initiatives the music majors are considering to help reverse sliding sales, will be called Total Music. (Morris was unavailable for comment.)

This isn't only about Jobs; Morris badly needs to boost his business, and Apple is the one to beat. The iTunes store has grabbed about 70% of downloads in the U.S. And the iPod--well, what's left to say about that juggernaut? Plus, music companies have been here before. A few years ago they launched services with the aim of defeating Napster-style file-sharing--and failed miserably. And let's not forget that existing subscription services have signed up only a few million people, vs. hundreds of millions of iTunes software downloads.

While the details are in flux, insiders say Morris & Co. have an intriguing business model: get hardware makers or cell carriers to absorb the cost of a roughly $5-per-month subscription fee so consumers get a device with all-you-can-eat music that's essentially free. Music companies would collect the subscription fee, while hardware makers theoretically would move many more players. "Doug is doing the right thing taking on Steve Jobs," says ex-MCA Records Chairman Irving Azoff, whose Azoff Music Management Group represents the Eagles, Journey, Christina Aguilera, and others. "The artists are behind him."

Microsoft Corp. is adding an event planning offering to its expanding Windows Live suite of services.

Microsoft says the new service, Live Events, offers more than some other existing online invitation services, such as the popular Evite.com. Like those services, users of Live Events will be able to design a Web page and invitation to an event, choosing from over 100 templates. They can customize further by changing the font and background images and dragging and dropping different components of the site.

Users can choose e-mail addresses of people to invite to their event from an address book they may already have in Hotmail or Messenger. They can also type in e-mail addresses.

One feature that may set Live Events apart from other similar services is the ability for event participants to visit the invitation site after the event to upload photos or videos or comments, said Jay Fluegel, product manager for Windows Live Events. Then anyone can order prints of the pictures, view slideshows or download the photos to Windows Live Gallery, a beta service that lets users share photos and other content.

The service, accessed at events.live.com, will begin a gradual rollout across 56 international markets Thursday and Friday. The rollout is expected to begin just after 5 p.m. Pacific time Thursday in the U.S.

Microsoft also announced updates to a couple of other Live services. Users of the Skydrive beta, which lets anyone store and share files online, will now have 1G byte of storage, up from 500M bytes.

In addition, Live Spaces users will see an updated summary of changes their friends have made to their Spaces pages. When a user logs on to their Spaces page, they'll see thumbnails of new photos and snippets of text entries that friends have posted on their own pages. Microsoft also updated permissioning on photo albums so Spaces users can restrict access to their photo albums to a specific list of people.

After a couple of experiences dipping a toe into the mobile market, Mozilla Corp. said it plans to get serious about developing a mobile browser.

Mozilla has recently hired two new developers to help work on the project and plans to release Mobile Firefox some time in the next year or two.

The iPhone, Apple Inc.'s popular new mobile phone, in part contributed to the renewed interest in mobile browsing at Mozilla. "The user demand for a full browsing experience on mobile devices is clear," Mike Schroepfer, vice president of engineering at Mozilla Corp. wrote in his blog on Tuesday. "If you weren't sure about this before, you should be after the launch of the iPhone."

As Mozilla continues to develop Mozilla2, the second version of the platform on which Firefox is built, it will add mobile devices as a category. That means developers of Mozilla2, which is expected to be complete in early 2009, will keep mobile phones in mind as they build the new platform, Schroepfer wrote.

He didn't get more specific on a release date for the mobile browser other than to say "not before 2008." Schroepfer also said Mozilla hadn't yet decided which mobile phones the browser would work on.

Depending on compatibility, Mozilla could face competition from companies such as Microsoft Corp. and Apple that include their own browsers in phones running their operating systems, as well as from third parties such as Opera Software ASA that have been fine-tuning their mobile browsers for years now.

The announcement comes after the release earlier this year of a new version of Minimo, a Mozilla-based mobile browser for Windows Mobile devices. A few months prior to the release, the lead developer of Minimo said he wouldn't be spending much time on the project in the future. On Tuesday, Schroepfer said that there are no plans to further develop Minimo.

Mozilla also offers Joey, a project in development that lets users clip and save text, photos, videos and other content while using a PC and then access that content through a browser on a cell phone.

Mozilla is also involved with a group of companies including Arm Ltd. and MontaVista Software Inc. that is developing an open-source Linux-based platform for devices that are bigger than a cell phone but smaller than a laptop. Mozilla is developing a browser for the platform and has already built one for a similar device, the N800, from Nokia Corp.

The new Mozilla hires who will contribute to the mobile Firefox initiative are Christian Sejersen, who recently worked for Openwave Systems Inc., and Brad Lassey, who worked for France Telecom R&D, which has been very active in mobile Linux initiatives.

Google said Tuesday that it had bought the Finnish start-up Jaiku, which makes a mobile phone application people can use to send short messages about where they are and what they are doing.

Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

In a note posted Tuesday on Google’s blog, Tony Hsieh, a product manager for the company, said it believed that Jaiku’s technology could help develop new ways to use mobile devices.

It has made no formal announcement, but Google is reportedly working on an operating platform for mobile devices to make it easier for people to get access to Google when they are away from their personal computers.

Founded last year in Helsinki, Jaiku specializes in mobile phone software that makes it easier for users to share updates about their whereabouts and thoughts. The concept, known as microblogging, is also being promoted by Twitter, a San Francisco start-up.

Google shares closed at $615.19, up $5.57 on Tuesday.

The TiVo Rhapsody music service announcement made last January launched today.  With Rhapsody on TiVo, you can choose from millions of songs, search for your favorites, tune in to continuous music on Rhapsody Channels, and build your own library—straight from your TV using your TiVo remote. Whether you’re in the mood for classical, hip-hop, or anything in between, it’s all just a few clicks away. And with a Rhapsody membership, you can listen all you want, without the need to buy individual songs.

Essentially, anyone with a Rhapsody account ($12.99/mo, free 30 day trial) will be able to access “artists, albums, playlists and channels” via a broadband-connected Series2 or Series3 TiVo. TiVo intends to activate the service today, but you’ll need the fall software update (v9.1).

Having been a prior Rhapsody customer, I do appreciate their music service… on a computer or portable device. I’ve gone down the TiVo/TV-as-Jukebox path before and it doesn’t really do much for me. And now, with my precious plasma, I just want to turn it off when not watching something. Having said that, this new service does represent a significant technical accomplishment and further differentiates TiVo from generic DVRs.

From TUAW

This morning, we were having a lot of trouble getting third-party iPhone apps to show up properly and run on the home screen. Despite the fact that Apple has added extra protections to SpringBoard and created a list of approved identifiers, iPhone hacker asap18 has managed to port several applications to the iPhone and gotten them to appear properly on the home screen. For now, only 15 icons can be added this way--the last spot appears to be reserved for iTunes. The apps have been tested and are working fine.
He has also tracked down an option for International capabilities in SpringBoard, which may lead to foreign language Application support. This will be needed in countries like Germany and France, where the iPhone will shortly debut.

This is a developing story, and we'll be keeping an eye on it but remember this success is only in regards to running apps on the 1.1.1 firmware. Unlocked iPhones still run the danger of being bricked when upgraded to the 1.1.1 firmware, so if you have an unlocked iPhone do not upgrade to the latest firmware.

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Sony Corp's U.S. video games operation has created an advertising unit that will promote brands and products inside games such as its upcoming "Home" virtual world, the company said on Monday.

In-game advertising has become an area of focus for video game companies as they seek new forms of revenue to offset higher production costs of new games, which often feature high-definition graphics and more dialogue than a movie.

The new unit of Sony Computer Entertainment America is being headed by Darlene Kindler, who most recently was head of publishing for Adscape, an in-game advertising company that was bought by Google Inc in March.

 Sony said it aimed to place ads in "Home," an online virtual world that is scheduled to debut early next year on its PlayStation 3 gaming console.

Sony said it "will depict brands in various forms within the game, where users would expect to see them in real life on billboards and posters, on shopping bags and soda cans and on images of TV screens."

Microsoft confirmed previous rumors on Monday that two free games will be bundled with holiday Xbox 360 packages.

In addition to recent 360 price drops, both Forza Motorsport 2 and Marvel Ultimate Alliance will be included with Xbox 360 Pro ($350) and Xbox 360 Elite ($450) models by the end of October.

"Xbox 360 is home to the most critically acclaimed next generation games according to Metacritic.coms, the leading aggregator of game reviews from more than 100 publications," said Microsoft in a statement.

"The most-respected game reviewers have spoken and according to them, Xbox 360 has more than double the games of the Playstation 3 and Wii receiving a score of 90 or higher."

Motorola Inc. disclosed late Sunday night that the telecommunications-equipment giant has received two contracts to provide a Taiwanese telecom operator with WiMax network infrastructure.

The Schaumburg company didn't disclose financial terms of the agreements.

WiMax is a technology that allows Internet service similar to the Wi-Fi "hotspots" found in airports and coffee shops, only over a much broader region.

Motorola said it will provide Taiwan's Far EasTone Telecom, which has about one-third of the Asian nation's wireless mobile market, with WiMax equipment in connection with the telecom company's role in Taiwan's national M-Taiwan project.

The M-Taiwan, or Mobile Taiwan, project is designed to ensure high-speed, wireless broadband access is available almost everywhere on the island of Taiwan, and the plan envisions establishment of ten "mobile cities."

Microsoft Corp. named company veteran Rick Thompson to oversee its Zune media player, two days after the company released a new version in an effort to compete more effectively against Apple Inc.'s iPod.

Mr. Thompson was appointed corporate vice president of Zune, taking over many related business-development duties from J Allard, according to a Microsoft spokesman.

Mr. Allard, a corporate vice president with Microsoft's entertainment-and-devices unit, has been overseeing Zune since the departure of Bryan Lee in February. Mr. Allard will continue to oversee design aspects of Zune. Mr. Lee had been charged with tasks such as attracting music companies to provide content for it -- a challenge, given that the Zune has so far garnered a relatively small number of users. The first Zune, released in November 2006, has struggled to take significant market share from the iPod and has drawn mixed reviews.

Mr. Thompson will run a revamped product line. Microsoft last week unveiled a line of Zune devices, featuring sleeker designs and a broader range of options for storage and sharing of songs. He will be charged with Zune business development, including supervising relationships with the music industry and content providers.

Mr. Thompson first joined Microsoft in 1987 as a manager in divisions turning out early hardware products, such as keyboards.

The new Zune devices are expected to be available by mid-November. While they will feature similar pricing to the iPod, Microsoft is attempting to differentiate them by adding features such as an ability to use a wireless connection to synchronize content with Windows-based computers and to share songs with other nearby Zunes.

Microsoft sold 1.2 million Zunes from November to the end of June. Apple sold 9.8 million iPods in its fiscal third quarter, which ended in June.

A California man filed a lawsuit accusing Apple Inc. of violating antitrust law because its iPhone forces buyers to use AT&T Inc. as their wireless carrier and the company "bricked" phones that had been modified to call over other networks.

Timothy Smith filed the lawsuit Friday with a California state court in San Jose seeking class-action status. The suit demands that Apple be barred from selling locked iPhones and that it be required to provide warranty service for owners of unlocked devices. The lawsuit also asks for unspecified monetary damages.

In the lawsuit -- the second in as many weeks involving the iPhone -- Smith alleges that Apple violated several California antitrust statutes when it tied the smart phone to AT&T and prohibited customers from using other carriers. The result, read the lawsuit, was that Smith paid too much for the iPhone.

"Apple forced plaintiff and the class members to pay substantially more for the iPhone and cell phone service than they would have paid in a competitive marketplace either for the iPhone or for AT&T's cell phone service," read the suit.

Smith's lawsuit also claims that an exemption to the federal Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 granted last year allows for phone unlocking and so should invalidate Apple's move last month to disable phones modified to work with non-AT&T networks. Moreover, said the suit, Apple violated consumers' rights by "bricking" unlocked iPhones with the 1.1.1 update it issued a week and a half ago.

"Apple acted in defiance and without sufficient consideration of consumers' rights to unlock their iPhones because it knew that the probable result of its update would be to render unlocked iPhones inoperable," the lawsuit charges.

Apple did not reply to a request for comment on the lawsuit.

Smith's lawsuit was filed by M. Van Smith, a San Jose lawyer who has partnered with another attorney, Damian R. Fernandez, to publish a Web site soliciting Californians for the class-action suit. The site, which uses the URL of appleiphonelawsuit.com, was registered with GoDaddy.com Inc. just three days after a woman from Queens, N.Y., sued Apple over the $200 price cut that CEO Steve Jobs announced for the iPhone in August.

On the site, Smith and Fernandez told iPhone owners they might qualify for inclusion in the class-action suit if they had paid a termination fee to their previous cellular service provider after they bought the phone, if their iPhone had been disabled or had had third-party applications erased after applying the 1.1.1 update. Four other situations also apply, said the attorneys.

British regulators on Monday banned a toned-down version of the violent video game "Manhunt 2," saying the changes didn't go far enough to alter the game's "bleakness and callousness of tone."

The game's maker called the decision "a setback for video games."

In June, Take Two Interactive Inc. suspended plans to distribute the game _ because it was rejected by the Entertainment Software Rating Board in the United States and by regulators in Europe _ but finally agreed, two months later, to release the revised version.

The game, made by Take-Two's studio Rockstar Games, allows players to assume the role of an escapee from a mental institution who can go on a killing rampage.

In the U.S., the less-violent version eventually was accepted by the rating board, an industry group, and received a Mature rating, meaning it is appropriate for consumers age 17 or older. It will ship on Halloween for the PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable and Nintendo Wii game systems.

But the British Board of Film Classification said it was unsatisfied with the changes, which included blurring out some of the game's execution-style kills.

IBM and Google on Monday released details on their "academic cluster computing initiative" to provide data centers for remote computer programming.

The centers would allow a larger number of students and programmers to have access and processing power for writing software code involving massive amounts of data over the Internet, a practice known as "cloud computing."

The program, which is already under way at the University of Washington, will also be rolled out at Carnegie-Mellon University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Maryland. IBM and Google will provide hardware, software and services.

"The goal of this initiative is to improve computer science students' knowledge of highly parallel computing practices to better address the emerging paradigm of large-scale distributed computing," said IBM in a statement.

Toshiba Corp. and Microsoft Corp. Thursday announced plans to launch the Advanced Interactivity Consortium to extend interactive features in HD DVD, a high-definition format, in an effort to attract more users.

Both companies are stout HD DVD supporters. Microsoft offers an HD DVD player add-on for its Xbox 360 gaming console and Toshiba is integrating HD DVD drives in its PCs. The rival format, Blu-ray Disc, is supported by Sony Corp. and movie studios Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and The Walt Disney Co.

The consortium will be a platform for companies to collaborate on improving the digital home entertainment experience and bringing advanced interactive features, including Web-enabled features, to digital downloads that go to DVDs, PCs, gaming consoles and cell phones.

Bringing companies together will ensure interoperability of HD DVD players and services, said Hisatsugu Nonaka, corporate executive vice president for Toshiba, in a news release.

Microsoft's XML-based HDi development environment creates an interactive layer for HD DVD movies. HDi, supported by the HD DVD players and media, is currently a mandatory feature across players to keep the consumer experience consistent, said Richard Doherty, principal program manager lead of the consumer media technology group at Microsoft.

Microsoft hopes to collaborate with other consortium members on extending interactive capabilities to digital download services, said Robbie Bach, president of Entertainment and Devices Division at Microsoft, in the release.

The consortium had no specific announcements related to improved HD DVD interactive features.

The announcement fuels an already heated battle between the HD DVD and Blu-ray formats as the next generation high-definition DVD standard. Sales of Blu-ray exceeded HD DVD in the first half of 2007 by 2 to 1 in the U.S., according to data from Home Media Research.

Novell released OpenSuse 10.3 Thursday, its latest free version of the open-source operating system.

For those who need a refresher, OpenSuse is the faster-moving but mostly unsupported version of Linux from Novell and various outside contributors. It competes most directly with Linux versions such as Canonical's Ubuntu and Red Hat's Fedora. Novell has tried for years to pit it against Windows as well, even as it cooperates with Microsoft in a legally thorny partnership. Novell's supported product, Novell's Suse Linux Enterprise Server, is sold in the form of an annual support subscription.

Like most versions of Linux, OpenSuse has a choice of graphical interfaces. Version 10.3 includes new versions of the two most widely used, GNOME 2.20 and KDE 3.5.7, along with some elements of the forthcoming KDE 4.

Novell has been an eager adopter of fancy interface graphics, and 10.3 includes the Compiz and Compiz Fusion infrastructure for 3D effects such as desktop workspaces that map to the faces of a cube, or slightly blurred background windows, or windows that burst into flames upon closing. For those who want to head the other direction, version 4.4.1 of the minimalist graphics interface XFCE is an option.

You can either download OpenSuse for free or buy a $60 two-DVD set with a manual 90 days of installation help.

Web-site buttons from Internet telephony startup Jajah Inc. that allowed eBay Inc. buyers and sellers to initiate phone calls have been banned by eBay, a move that Jajah charges is unjustified.

This week, Jajah released a set of buttons that people can embed on a variety of Web sites to allow others to contact them by phone using the company's Internet telephony platform.

Among the benefits Jajah touts is its ability to drastically reduce the cost of calls thanks to its use of Internet technology and to its agreements with carriers.

Jajah developed a button for eBay, figuring that the ability for buyers and sellers to chat on the phone about potential purchases would be convenient, said Jajah CEO Trevor Healy on Thursday.

Moreover, eBay already provides a similar functionality via its Skype service for some product categories, so there is a precedent for this on the marketplace, he said.

But eBay didn't think so highly of the Jajah plan, ruling that sellers who embed the Jajah button are violating an eBay policy related to the inclusion of links in listings.

The reasoning for the ban is that eBay requires that all interactions between its buyers and sellers occur within its marketplace platform, said Catherine England, an eBay spokeswoman, on Thursday.

This is safer for buyers and sellers and lets eBay keep a record of the activities related to a listing, in case one of the parties puts in a claim against the other and a dispute has to be resolved, England said.

The eBay objection doesn't make total sense to Healy, who counters that Jajah users also have a log of their calls, but he's asking people to stop embedding Jajah buttons on eBay until further notice.

"We don't want to upset eBay, nor do we want our users to get their listings deleted," he said.

Jajah will poll its users to see how many of them are also eBay sellers and would like to have the Jajah functionality on their eBay listings, Healy said.

Based on the findings, Jajah will decide whether to approach eBay to seek a solution. Jajah didn't consult with eBay before making the buttons for the marketplace.

For Jajah, the eBay decision is a setback in its push to make its service available to consumers beyond its regular and mobile Web sites, he said. However, none of the other 30 or 40 other Web sites for which Jajah created buttons -- including Craigslist.com, Bebo.com, LinkedIn.com and MySpace.com -- have objected, he said.

The Jajah buttons violate eBay's Links Policy, England said. In the listings where eBay allows Skype buttons, it requires the buttons be placed in the section devoted to asking sellers a question about the item on sale. This section also includes a mechanism for buyers to type and send a message to sellers.

People can embed the Jajah buttons on their Web pages and social networking profiles by copying and pasting into them a snippet of HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) code. Jajah has an explanation of how the buttons work in a blog posting, as well as a writeup specifically about the eBay button in another other blog posting.

EBay doesn't have a way to block the Jajah buttons from being embedded on its listings, but it will remove listings that contain them, England said.

Gateway unveiled the XHD3000 which is described as a "quad-HD" for monitor display. The XHD3000 is a 30-inch monitor displaying a widescreen of 2560x1600 resolutions.

The widescreen display supports Silicon Optix Realta HQV video processing and promises 1600p. The new display is priced at around $1,700 USD.

The XHD3000 is capable of connecting other input devices such as single-link/dual-link DVI-D, VGA, component, s-video and has HDMI built-in. The unit has a 6ms response time.

Gateway also included support for six simultaneous input devices, USB 2.0 hub and back-lit buttons for easy navigation.

The new Gateway display monitor also has four remote control devices built-in with a speaker system. Speakers can use eight high-powered, low-profile neodymium transducers.

An Atlanta man says his iPod Nano caught fire in his pants. The nearly two year-old iPod caught fire in the pocket of Danny Williams at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, where he is employed, according to Williams' mother, Elaine. The flames lasted 15 seconds and fire reached up to his chest, she said in a telephone interview.

Apple Inc. representatives were not immediately available for comment, but the company has since sent a packet to Danny to return the iPod Nano, she said.

Glossy paper in his pocket may have shielded him from getting burned by the fire, Danny Williams said in local news reports. "If TSA had come by and seen me smoking, they could have honestly thought I was a terrorist," Williams is quoted as saying.

The iPod contains a lithium-ion battery, which has a history of catching fire in laptops. Since December 2005 these batteries have been blamed for meltdowns and fires in several computers. Last year several manufacturers, including Apple, Dell Inc., and Lenovo Group Ltd. were forced to recall millions of the batteries.

Sony will start selling a new configuration of its PlayStation 3 video game console, with less built-in storage capacity, in Europe on October 10, priced at 399 euros (276 pounds) , the company said on Friday.

The model, which will also be available in the Middle East, Africa and Australia, has a 40-gigabyte hard drive and includes the ability to access the Internet wirelessly.

Sony also said it would cut the price of its 60-gigabyte PS3 by 100 euros to 499 euros "while stocks last."

Sony launched the PS3 in the United States last November with a 20-gigabyte model and the bigger 60-gigabyte model, which was expected to cater to gamers who also use the device to watch video and movies. Sony discontinued the lower-capacity PS3 in North America due to strong sales of the higher-capacity model.

The new 40-gigabyte configuration is one way Sony hopes to spur demand for the PS3, which has struggled since its launch, compared with the success of rival Nintendo's Wii.

Sony, whose PS3 also competes with Microsoft Corp's Xbox 360, previously said it was confident of doubling PS3 shipments to 11 million in the year ending next March.

Unlike the 60-gigabyte version, the 40-gigabyte PS3 cannot play games developed for the older PlayStation 2 model.

Sony Computer Entertainment of America has declined to comment on when it might launch a 40-gigabyte PS3 in the United States.

"This thing being 100 euros cheaper implies very strongly that the U.S. version will be $399," Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael