UPDATE 1-Nokia signs Warner to music deal

HELSINKI, July 1 (Reuters) - The world's top cellphone maker Nokia (NOK1V.HE: Quote, Profile, Research) signed a deal with Warner Music Group (WMG.N: Quote, Profile, Research) to make Warner titles available through its "Comes With Music" service and Nokia music store, Nokia said on Tuesday.

"Comes With Music" from Nokia, the first cellphone maker to push
heavily into content, would differ from other packages on the market as
users can keep all the music they have downloaded during the 12 months.

"(Comes With Music) is the first global initiative to fundamentally
align the interests of music companies with telecommunications
companies," said Edgar Bronfman, Warner Music Group Chief Executive.

Nokia struck a deal with Universal (VIV.PA: Quote, Profile, Research) in December and Sony BMG (6758.T: Quote, Profile, Research) [BERT.UL] in April to offer tracks from their labels on the music service, to be launched in the second half of this year.

Having the three largest music labels on board looks set to help Nokia
attract smaller music companies and challenge the dominant
pay-per-track sales model for digital music.

Such unlimited download models could offer a shot in the arm to the
ailing music industry, which is struggling to find ways to make up for
falling CD sales. The music download market totalled just $2.9 billion
in 2007.

Nokia sold 146
million music phones last year. If all these had included the "Comes
with Music" bundle, just an extra $20 per phone would make Nokia's
service bigger than the total market.

Record labels are looking to Nokia and others to challenge the dominance of Apple's (AAPL.O: Quote, Profile, Research)
iTunes as they have struggled to negotiate with the U.S. group on a
level footing on issues such as pricing. (Reporting by Sakari Suoninen;
Editing by Quentin Bryar)

From : http://uk.reuters.com/

Nokia signs up Warner to provide music for mobile phone users

HELSINKI, Finland:
Nokia Corp. said Tuesday that Warner Music Group has joined the mobile
phone maker's music service, enabling customers to download and listen
to tracks on Nokia handsets.

Nokia users will be able to access millions of tracks from major
artists worldwide at Nokia's music stores or through the company's
Comes With Music program, expected to be launched later this year.

In April, Nokia announced that Sony BMG had joined the music service, and in 2007 it signed up Universal Music Group.

The world's top handset maker is increasingly turning to providing
Internet services for its mobile customers. It estimates the global
online market will reach €100 billion (US$160 billion) by 2010.

Last year, the Finland-based company unveiled new Web-based services
and gadgets to help customers download music and play games on handsets
— part of a strong push to challenge rivals, including Apple's iTunes
and iPod.

Warner Music Group's Chief Executive Edgar Bronfman Jr.
described Nokia's music service as "a significant step forward in the
evolution of digital music."

"It's the first global initiative to fundamentally align the
interests of music companies with telecommunications companies,"
Bronfman said.

In 2007, Nokia sold nearly 440 million handsets, accounting for 40
percent of all global cell phone sales. It is based in Espoo near the
Finnish capital and employs 116,000 people worldwide.

From : http://www.iht.com/

Apple releases OS X Leopard 10.5.4 update

Cupertino (CA) - Apple has posted the update 10.5.4 for its Mac OS X
Leopard operating system. The company promises that the update delivers
security, reliability and performance enhancements, as well as the code
to support the upcoming MobileMe online service that is set to debut on
July 11. The company also released security updates for Tiger client
and server versions, as well as the Safari 3.1.2 update for Tiger.

According
to Apple, the software "includes general operating system improvements
that enhance the stability, compatibility, and security of your Mac."
The download is available through OS X's Software Update mechanism or
as a free download from Apple's web site, weighing 88 MB for users who
already run their Mac on the 10.5.3 update.

Besides 10.5.4
Leopard update, Apple has also released the Security Update 2008-004
for Mac OS X Tiger and Tiger Server (both Intel or PowerPC). These
updates replicate the security fixes featured in 10.5.4 Leopard updates
so that both systems are one level in terms of security. The patch
includes protection against vulnerabilities in major system components,
such as CoreTypes, Dock, SMB File Server, Ruby on Rails interpreter and
Webkit.

Additionally, the company has updated Safari on Tiger to
version 3.1.2, fixing a serious issue in the open-source WebKit browser
engine that powers Safari. The problem could allow malicious JavaScript
programs to allow running potentially dangerous code through the
browser or crash the browser. The Leopard 10.5.4 update also addresses
the same WebKit issue under Leopard. Windows XP and Vista users already
have access to Safari 3.1.2 for Windows since June 19.


Plugging Leopard security holes

Leopard
10.5.4 update includes all recent security updates released between Mac
OS X 10.5.3 and the new update. The 10.5.4. update resolves issues with
several system and third-party applications, such as saving and
re-opening Adobe Creative Suite 3 files on a remote server. It adds
additional RAW image support for several digital camera models,
improves L2TP VPN client reliability, solves AirPort reliability issues
when on 5 GHz 802.11a and 802.11n networks and Logic Studio or
MainStage problems with AirPort. The update also delivers many fixes to
the system’s iCal calendaring application that is now more reliable,
with several new options and user interface improvements available.

Changes
to the Safari web browser address a potential performance issue when
loading secure web pages or issues that may arise if a user accesses
web pages with client certificates that reside on a smart card. Spaces
and Exposé features that handle virtual desktops and windows management
also received minor tweaks. Switching from a space with a Finder window
now keeps the Finder as the active application instead of the
application residing in the destination space. Also, dragging an
application from the list of application assignments in the Spaces
System Preferences does not assign the application to the desired
space. A problem with Exposé that may result in only a subset of
windows being shown is resolved as well, Apple said.


Important pre-requisite for MobileMe

Besides
the regular slew of security, reliability and performance improvements,
this update is widely believed to contain the code necessary to support
Apple's new MobilMe suite of online services for Mac, PC and iPhone
users that will replace the aging .Mac service. Dubbed "Exchange for
the rest of us", MobileMe is a $99 a year service that comes with 20 GB
of storage space shared between all services, including push email,
contacts, calendar and photos, web galleries and online file sharing.
These services can be accessed through a Web 2.0 web interface that
looks and feels like a desktop application.

MobileMe seamlessly
synchronizes personal information (contacts, calendars and email from
Outlook on a PC or Mail/iCal/Address Book on a Mac) between any number
of PCs, Macs and iPhones so that everything is up to date, all the
time. MobileMe is set to debut on July 11, the same day as iPhone 3G.
Apple is already transitioning some user .Mac user accounts from its
@mac.com name space to the new MobileMe @me.com name space.

From : http://www.tgdaily.com/

Windows XP's last hurrah

The mere fact that Microsoft will stop widespread sale of Windows XP at
the end of the day has been a topic here and elsewhere for months.

So, rather than rehash things (though you can click here for a recap), I thought I would take a look at the Windows landscape.

The most immediate question is, with Windows XP moving off the stage, just where is Windows Vista?

On the plus side, the newer operating system has sold 140
million copies, according to Microsoft. But, as I've been saying for
some time, that is largely a factor of how many people have wanted a
new PC in the past 18 months, as opposed to an indicator of pure
demand.

However, businesses, which get to choose which operating system
they run, have overwhelmingly stuck with XP. Just a tiny fraction of
corporate machines are running Vista, with some companies not planning any companywide Vista deployment at all.

Windows XP remains popular with consumers as well. So, if businesses
and consumers all like XP, why on earth would Microsoft stop selling
it?

There are a couple of reasons. For one, XP is now seven years
old. Even with a major security enhancement (XP Service Pack 2), the
company benefits from shifting things to the more secure Windows Vista.

It is also critical for Microsoft to build the install base of
Vista as quickly as it can. That's because developers won't really
start building applications that are Vista-dependent until it occupies
a large percentage of machines in active use. Even with 140 million
Vista copies sold, there are still extremely few programs that really
harness the features of Vista.

After waiting as long as it could, Microsoft has also started talking about what comes after Vista. In an exclusive interview with CNET News.com
last month, development head Steven Sinofsky said Windows 7 will use
the same drivers as Vista and largely aim to preserve compatibility
rather than introduce major changes, as Vista did.

At the "D: All Things Digital" conference, Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer showed off one aspect of Windows 7: its ability to use multitouch input to enable the same kinds of gestures found in Apple's iPhone or Microsoft's Surface computer.

Some argue, though, that it is time to stop slapping new paint on top
of Windows, instead rebuilding it from the ground up. Although there is
an enormous and unmatched number of programs written for the operating
system, preserving all those decades of compatibility is a crutch that
has made it harder and harder to innovate, or even update the software.

The New York Times posted an interesting piece
on this subject over the weekend. It points to a number of projects
inside Microsoft suggesting that it, too, is thinking about other
operating-system approaches.

They are things that News.com has covered in the past, ranging from Microsoft Research's Singularity project to the slimmed-down MinWin kernel that the Windows team developed but apparently is not using in Windows 7.

The point raised in the Times piece is an important
one, though. With Linux-based computers starting to make inroads at the
low end, and Apple continuing to gain share at the high end, can
Microsoft really afford to do business as usual?

Steve Ballmer has vowed that it will never again be five years
between Windows releases. I think it is important to note, though, that
even assuming no delays in Windows 7, it will be three years between
its release and that of Vista--and that's for a release that doesn't
make significant changes under the hood.

It appears to me, anyway, that making major changes to Windows has
become an increasingly difficult proposition. Perhaps, at some point,
Microsoft will have to consider what Apple has done three times with
the Macintosh--make major changes under the hood, and use some sort of
compatibility layer to maintain its ties to the past.

What do you think?

From : http://news.cnet.com

Rhapsody Ends Restrictions, Cornering iTunes

The music download service Rhapsody has stepped up competition against
Apple’s iTunes by making its catalog of five million songs available
without electronic restrictions on playback or duplication and allowing
free previews of complete songs. With its announcement on Monday,
Rhapsody, a joint venture by RealNetworks and MTV Networks,
became the latest digital music service to do away with digital rights
management, or D.R.M., which prevents users from making unauthorized
copies of songs and can also determine which electronic devices can be
used to listen to the songs. Apple has used D.R.M. since it began
selling music on iTunes five years ago — and offers song previews at 30
seconds — but the other major download services, Amazon.com, Napster,
Wal-Mart and eMusic, all sell music without restrictions. Rhapsody will
restrict full-song previews to 25 a month, and the company also
announced that users of Verizon’s V Cast service can listen to songs
from Rhapsody through their cellphones.

From : http://www.nytimes.com/

Game makers set Sept. release for 'Rock Band 2'

LOS ANGELES, June 30 (Reuters) - The makers of video game
"Rock Band 2" said on Monday the sequel to last year's
best-selling predecessor "Rock Band" will be released for the
Xbox in September, months ahead of key rival "Guitar Hero."

Both games allow players to simulate being in a rock band
by playing musical instruments.

"Rock Band 2" makers Harmonix Music Systems Inc, Electronic
Arts Inc (ERTS.O: Quote, Profile, Research) and MTV games, a unit of Viacom Inc (VIAb.N: Quote, Profile, Research),
said the new version would include more instruments, a new
soundtrack and an online community. Music downloads for the
first "Rock Band" will be compatible with "Rock Band 2."

The game will be available initially for Microsoft Corp's
(MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research) Xbox, with versions for other game consoles released
later in the year. Further details are expected to be revealed
at the E3 video game conference in Los Angeles, July 14-17.

Since the first game's release last November, the "Rock
Band" online music store has sold more than 15 million music
downloads. Over 200 tracks are available.

"Rock Band" can be played with up to four people and
includes a drum set, microphone, guitar and bass controllers.
Players follow notes streamed on a television screen and earn
points if they hit the notes on their instruments accurately.

Activision's (ATVI.O: Quote, Profile, Research) new "Guitar Hero: World Tour" will be
released during the upcoming Christmas season and include a
drum set and microphone in addition to its guitar controller.
(Reporting by Jennifer Martinez; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte
and Braden Reddall)

From : http://uk.reuters.com/

Adobe to help reveal 'invisible' Flash Web content

Adobe Systems is helping Google and Yahoo to uncover Web content that was previously "invisible" to Web searches.

Both companies have been given optimized Adobe Flash Player technology
to help them better index dynamic Web content and rich Internet
applications (RIA) that include the Flash file format, or Shockwave
Flash (SWF), Adobe said in a statement. Search engines already index
static text and links within SWF files, but RIAs and dynamic Web
content are elusive to search engines because of their changing states,
Adobe noted.

Adobe's technology means that millions of pre-existing RIAs
that use Flash technology, including content that loads at runtime, are
immediately searchable without alteration by companies or developers,
Adobe said. Google has already added the optimized Flash Player to its
search engine, while Yahoo plans to add the technology to a future
update of Yahoo Search.

"Designers and Web developers have long been frustrated that
search engines couldn't better access the information within their
content created with Flash technology. It's great to see Adobe and the
search engines working directly together to improve the situation,"
Danny Sullivan, editor-in-chief, SearchEngineLand.com, said in a
statement. "The changes should help unlock information that's
previously been 'invisible' and will likely result in a better
experience for searchers."

From : http://news.cnet.com/