SongBoom Get Your Music On!

Mitsubishi has introduced a new line of LCD displays, dubbed the 149 Series, that replace the standard stereo speakers of most TVs with "a 16-point audio system, much like speaker bars, that can generate a 5.1-channel surround effect without occupying the physical space."

The first two TVs to use this new system, called the integrated Sound Projector, are the 46-inch LT46149 and 52-inch LT-52149 and can utilize the system to "optimize the sound field for a certain room size and sweet spot to more convincingly generate audio."

Beyond the excellent speakers, the full HD 1080p 149 series comes with a 120Hz refresh rate and can also accept one-way CableCARDs for tuning cable-based HDTV without the need for a cable set top box.

Both TVs should begin shipping later this month with price tags of $3,299 USD and $3,699 USD respectively.

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Apple and AT&T have both confirmed that US customers who cannot, or simply do not want to sign into a two-year contract, will be allowed to purchase the new iPhone 3G, for $599 USD and $699 USD for the 8GB and 16GB models respectively.

For those who purchase the phone along with a 2-yr contract including mandatory data plan, the cost is only $199 and $299 respectively when the phones go on sale July 11th.

There is of course, a hitch to the new announcement. AT&T says to be able to buy the phone at all, consumers must sign up for some type of AT&T wireless subscription.

There was no word on when this new type of agreement would become available.

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After Real announced yesterday that it was opening up a DRM-free MP3 Rhapsody store, Verizon followed with an announcement of their own.

The company will be expanding its VCast Music service to allow MP3 downloads as well as the new Rhapsody service, meaning mobile users can download as much music as they want for $15 USD a month. Individual tracks can still be purchased for 99 cents and moved from a PC to the phone via a USB cable.

The new service expansion will work with 7 of Verizon's current phones and 3 that are coming soon. Verizon already has a similar subscription deal with Napster.

The new deal should help Verizon and Real compete with the dominant market leader Apple whose iTunes platform recently hit 5 billion song downloads.

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Nokia has announced they have signed a deal with Warner Music Group to make Warner music available through the phone maker's "Comes With Music" service as well as the Nokia music store.

"Comes With Music" is different from most other phone maker content services in that it allows users to keep all the music they have downloaded. It as unlimited subscription based model that costs $20 USD per month.

"(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 has already struck similar deals with Universal and Sony BMG meaning the three large labels will have their catalogs available on the service when it launches in the Q3 this year.

Nokia, the world's largest phone maker, says it sold 146 million music-enabled phones last year. The current market for digital music downloads is $2.9 billion USD.

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Sony has announced the upcoming PlayStation 3 firmware update, version 2.40 which will hit tomorrow and will give gamers a few of their most requested features, in-game XMB (XrossMediaBar) and "trophies" for online gaming.

The in-game XMB will allow uses to access PS3 menu during gameplay by hitting the PS button on the controller. Gamers can then check if any of their friends are online, as well as change settings or send messages without having to quit playback. Less notably, the Friends list will double to allow 100 friends which should be welcomed by those who are avid PSN users.

The new update will also bring "trophies to recognize players�� achievements in the online arena." Many games will eventually have gold, silver and bronze trophies, or platinum if you can get all three.

Sony says the first games to have trophy support are BUZZ! Quiz TV, LittleBigPlanet, MotorStorm�� Pacific Rift, NBA 09, PAIN, PixelJunk Eden, Resistance 2, SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Confrontation and Warhawk.

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Samsung SDI said today that it will be spending over $500 million USD to boost production of next-generation OLED displays to six times its current level by mid-2009.

This latest move comes as panel makers try to get bigger shares of the growing market for OLED displays, which offer better contrast ratio, slimmer designs and better energy efficiency than current LCD or plasma displays.

Currently, however, production costs are still high, too high to make OLED TVs available to the masses.

Samsung currently produces small-sized AM-OLED screens used in watches and other handheld devices and there was no word on whether this large new investment will be to increase production of small OLED screens or for all OLED production including TVs.

Using 2-inch screens as a basis, the new investment should raise capacity from 1.5 million units a month to over 9 million by mid-2009.

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MCE Technologies has announced it is bringing a 6x Blu-ray burner to Macs that can playback DVDs at 16x as well as read both Blu-ray and HD DVD.

The drive also has LightScribe compatibility and will allow professionals to author Blu-ray movies using Adobe Premier Pro CS3's Encore software. Non-professionals can use Roxio's Toast 9 Titanium (with the Toast HD/BD plug-in) to author more simple BD movies.

The bare drive is meant for Mac Pro or Power Mac G4/G5 running Mac OS X 10.4 or higher and can only use the HD DVD and Blu-ray playback if using Windows XP/Vista through a Boot Camp partition.

The drive will retail for $500 USD with an external model selling for $750 USD.

According to the specs, the new "Blu-ray drive works with all DVD and CD media, and writes to both 25 GB and 50 GB BD-R and BD-RE (rewritable) Blu-ray disks. Speed specs for the new drive are 6X for 25 GB BD-R, 4X to 50 GB BD-R and 16X to DVD��R. It also burns at 4X speeds to DVD��R DL, 5X to DVD-RAM and 40X to CD-R media, among others."

For an extra $100 USD, MCE will bundle the drive with an installation package, software for Windows Boot Camp playback of both Blu-ray and HD-DVD and Toast 9 with the plugin. For $1300 MCE will ship the drive with the Boot Camp package, Toast, and Adobe Premier Pro CS3 with Encore.

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Sony Europe has confirmed that the PlayStation 3 DualShock 3 controller will finally hit Europe on July 4th, months after it was launched in Japan and North America.

The controller adds "rumble" vibration technology to the PS3, a feature that many gamers missed when the Sixaxis controller was released with the console.

"We are delighted to confirm that DualShock 3 will be released in SCEE territories in early July. We hope this will add to the intense gaming experience for our fans, as we continue to evolve PS3, its software and its peripherals," added David Reeves, president of SCEE.

The DS3 will cost GBP 39.99 and is usable for games such as Resistance: Fall of Man, Gran Turismo 5 and Uncharted: Drake's Fortune as long as you have firmware 1.94 or higher.

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Today, Real announced the beta launch of its DRM-Free Rhapsody MP3 Store, a completely different service then its current DRM-based subscription service.

The new store will sell MP3s and has already secured the full catalogs of all the Big 4 music labels. The store also promises to allow subscribers full-length previews of any song they want before purchasing while non-subscribers can preview up to 25 complete songs.

Giving the store another edge over rivals such as iTunes, Amazon and Napster is Real's exclusive connection to MTV, CMT and VH1. Facebook users can also access the service and individual songs directly using the iLike application.

The Rhapsody service will not however, offer re-downloads for misplaced music like Amazon does.

Pricing for the service is identical to that of Napster, with individual songs costing 99 cents and full albums usually priced at $10. The company adds "Windows-only subscriptions will remain in place and cost $13 per month for PCs alone or $15 for those who also want device transfers to Rhapsody-compatible devices."

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Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli is in the news again for talking about how PC game piracy has affected his company and sales of its blockbuster hit Crysis. Last month, Yerli said the company would no longer be PC exclusive because of piracy and would bring future titles to multiple platforms.

In this most recent interview, Yerli was asked what he felt were the reasons behind Crysis' "lacluster" sales and he responded with putting most of the blame on PC piracy.

"The PC industry is really, at the moment, I would say the most intensely pirated market ever. It's crazy how the ratio between sales to piracy is probably 1 to 15 to 1 to 20 right now," Yerli said.

"For one sale there are 15 to 20 pirates and pirate versions, and that's a big shame for the PC industry. I hope with Warhead I hope we improve the situation, but at the same time it may have an impact on [our] PC exclusivity in the future."

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Panasonic executives are denying recent reports that they will have a 37-inch OLED TV on the market by 2012, and instead say that the launch date is closer to 2015. Official timelines were not available but the company did say R&D was continuing in Japan.

The recent reports had Panasonic readying commercial OLED displays at its Himeji production facility beginning in 2010. The manufacturer confirms the facility will eventually produce the OLED panels but not in time to have mass-produced displays by 2012.

"We are currently advancing research and development in view of OLED production at IPS Alpha's Himeji Plant for the future, but nothing specific has yet been decided on the commercialization of our OLED TV at the moment," added a spokesperson.

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According to an article in the Financial Times, the BBC is planning on bringing a set-top box to the market that will allow iPlayer users to transfer web video to their HDTVs.

The set top box, which will face competition from Apple TV and the newly introduced Roku from Netflix would allow users with broadband connections to have instant IPTV.

Mark Thompson, BBC director-general, added, "There are many things out there in the market but what we haven't got is a simple standard, to mean that you can get services like iPlayer and Kangaroo."

It also appears the BBC is talking with content owners hoping to strike deals making their content available. If the set top box does come through, the BBC will most likely more directly compete with BSkyB and its digital video recorder service Sky+.

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Would-be iPhone 3G customers in Canada have just been hit with the news that Rogers will require a 3-year contract for the smartphone along with the mandatory data plan.

The carrier also announced the price of the plans, with the cheapest at $60 CAD and the most expensive being $115 CAD although the the carrier did not say how much the phone itself will cost when it hits on July 11th.

The lower end plan will come with 150 minutes of voice calling, with unlimited evenings and weekends, 400 MB of data, 75 sent text messages, and unlimited incoming texts and visual voicemail messages.

The medium $75 plan will get you 300 weekday minutes, 750 MB of data, and 100 sent texts.

The most expensive, $115, will get subscribers 800 minutes of daytime calling, 2 GB of data, and 300 sent text messages.

Rogers said the 400MB plan is enough bandwidth for 200,000 emails and 3000 web pages browsed. The 2GB plan will get you 1 million emails and 16,000 web pages.

Despite unlimited access to all Rogers Wi-Fi hotspots, many predict that even 2GB will not be enough to satisfy most iPhone users. In comparison, in the US AT&T offers an unlimited data plan for $30 USD on top of a $39 USD voice plan.

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Following in the footsteps of a few artists before her, the Australian singer/songwriter Joss Stone has begun encouraging fans to share her music online, going as far as to call piracy "brilliant".

In a recent interview, the artist admits she loves music but hates the music industry and feels that most artists are brainwashed by the industry.

When asked after a recent concert how she felt about piracy and unauthorized downloads on the Internet, she replied, ��I think it��s great��yeah, I love it. I think it��s brilliant and I��ll tell you why,�� Stone continued. ��Music should be shared. [...] The only part about music that I dislike is the business that is attached to it. Now, if music is free, then there is no business, there is just music. So, I like it, I think that we should share.��

��It��s ok, if one person buys it, it��s totally cool, burn it up, share it with your friends, I don��t care. I don��t care how you hear it as long as you hear it. As long as you come to my show, and have a great time listening to the live show it��s totally cool. I don��t mind. I��m happy that they hear it.��

Late last year, the rapper 50 Cent made positive statements for piracy, and bands like Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails have even offered their albums on their own sites, disregarding the record labels. More recently, Kidrock told fans to "steal" his album all they wanted.

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In order to "set an example", Portugal's first convicted file sharer has been sentenced to 90 days in prison. The man, who remains unnamed, had been in court after the Portuguese version of the RIAA accused him of unauthorized uploading of music on P2P networks.

The punishment was decided upon by the court in Portim��o in an effort to set an example for future file sharers.

The Portuguese Phonographic Association (AFP), the Portuguese equivalent of the RIAA sent out a complaint about the file sharer which was confirmed by EMI. The user was accused of uploading a couple hundred of EMI's copyrighted songs. The courts confirmed that there were over 100 other complaints being investigated currently.

A spokesperson for the EMI said he was pleased by the decision, a "necessary evil" that should be employed to stop future file sharers. ��The problem is people know they are doing something illegal, but they also know there are no consequences, at least until this week,�� he added.

There was word however, that the jail sentence can be replaced with a large fine, but there was no word on the compensation.

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BT, the largest broadband service provider in the UK, has begun threatening "pirates" with disconnection from the Internet if they are found to be sharing copyrighted music over file sharing networks.

An anonymous broadband user forwarded one such email to TheRegister and the letter indeed showed that the woman was being threatened with disconnection for the unauthorized sharing of "Biology" by Girls Aloud. The sharing occurred using the file sharing program Ares in May and she received the letter this week.

Geoff Taylor, the chief of UK record industry trade body the BPI said in a statement, "Establishing partnerships with ISPs is the number one issue for the BPI, and we are beginning to form positive working relationships with BT, Virgin Media and most of the other major ISPs."

It was still unclear whether BT has signed on to the so-called "three strikes" procedure agreed upon by the record industry and the government. Accused users will get two warnings for infringing music copyright and the third strike will be disconnection from the Internet.

Taylor added, "Everyone agrees on where we need to be, and we are working closely with our colleagues across the music community, the more progressive ISPs, and government to get us there."

BT did not comment but did say if the BPI provides evidence against BT broadband customers, those customers can expect similar threatening letters.

You can read the full BT letter here.

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According to a Department of Justice press statement, Daniel Dove, administrator for the defunct EliteTorrents torrent tracker has been found guilty by a jury of his peers and now faces 10 years in jail for criminal copyright infringement.

To give a quick refresher on the situation, EliteTorrents, for at least a 3 year period ended 2005, was the most popular public torrent tracker in the US and was the site responsible for the pre-release of the workprint version of "Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith" before its theatrical release. It was all downhill from there for the site and its 3 administrators. The MPAA, FBI, local police and US Customs all came together as part of Operation D-Elite and forced the site off line while arresting the administrators. Scott McCausland and Grant Stanley, the other administrators, pleaded guilty to their crimes and were sentenced to 5 months of prison.

"The jury was presented with evidence that Dove was an administrator of a small group of Elite Torrents members known as "Uploaders," who were responsible for supplying pirated content to the group," the Department of Justice press release states. "The evidence showed that Dove recruited members who had very high-speed Internet connections, usually at least 50 times faster than a typical high-speed residential Internet connection, to become Uploaders. The evidence also showed that Dove operated a high-speed server, which he used to distribute pirated content to the Uploaders."

The jury decision marks the first time in history a jury has decided a criminal conviction for P2P copyright infringement. Dan Glickman of the MPAA of course applauded the decision. "This conviction - the eighth of which resulted from a nationwide federal crackdown on the illegal distribution of copyrighted content over P2P networks - sends a clear message that when presented with clear-cut evidence, jurors have little tolerance for the willful, deliberate, and widespread distribution of protected content."

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The BBC has announced they have begun testing the transmission of HD services over Freeview using the second generation DVB-T specification DVB-T2. If the trials are successful then HD can be introduced to Freeview by December of next year, says the broadcaster.

The new spec is supposed to offer "30 percent more data-carrying capacity" as DVB-T "under the same conditions."

Justin Mitchell, DVB-T2 modem development team leader for the BBC, added: ��This is a big step forward in enabling the introduction of full HD terrestrial on Freeview by the end of 2009.��

The trial was approved by the DVB Project, the industry-led consortium which designed the DVB-T2 specification.

Freeview uses the over 10 years old DVB-T standard but hopes to move to the DVB-T2 standards soon, especially for "use in a post-Analogue Switch-Off environment".

In 2005, the BBC ran a trial of DVB-T based HD content over Freeview but compatibility issues and bandwidth limitations prevented anything more than a trial.

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Google has just introduced its latest Windows application, aptly named Google Media Server which will allow users to share video content and other personal files, most notably from YouTube to UPnP compatible devices such as the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360.

The application works alongside the popular Google Desktop and uses the Google Desktop Search for locating media files. To run the Media Server, you will only need a PC with Google Desktop and the UPnP-enabled device. Google Media Server does the rest.

Earlier this month Google CEO Eric Schmidt noted that YouTube had yet to turn a profit and that the site eats most of Google��s outgoing bandwidth as well. The company always hoped to sell ads according to target demographics but have run into hurdles every step of the way. There may be million of viewers watching every second all day but the content is completely unstructured and there is no logical way to make a demographic study.

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A new, leaked KMart flyer shows that Microsoft is indeed set to drop the price of at least one model of its Xbox 360 console line at the upcoming E3 event.

The ad, pictured below, shows the 20GB model selling for $300 USD, a $50 USD price cut from its current sale price. There was no indication of any rebate, or temporary discount do it appears this price will be the new asking price from Microsoft. All features appear to remain intact.

Two weeks ago we reported that Jesse Divnich said he expected a price cut across the board on Xbox 360s and that he also expected the introduction of a new model.

The new price for the Pro model leaves some unanswered problems however. The entry level Xbox 360 Arcade will only cost $20 USD less then the newly reduced price Pro model meaning Microsoft will have to either drop the price even lower or completely discontinue the model which seems more likely. The other problem is the now huge gap between the Pro and Elite models which sells for $450 USD. The software giant will either have to lower the price or upgrade the hardware to avoid cannibalizing its own high end model.

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