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Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Beatles' songs are finally available on iTunes (AP) : Technet

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Beatles' songs are finally available on iTunes (AP) : Technet

Beatles' songs are finally available on iTunes (AP)

Posted: 16 Nov 2010 03:54 PM PST

By JESSICA MINTZ and RYAN NAKASHIMA, AP Business Writers Jessica Mintz And Ryan Nakashima, Ap Business Writers – Tue Nov 16, 6:54 pm ET

LOS ANGELES – Nearly 50 years after the Beatles took television by storm, the Fab Four's songs became available on iTunes on Tuesday, setting the stage for a possible new outbreak of Beatlemania — this one online.

After many a hard day's night of negotiations, Apple announced a deal Tuesday to immediately begin selling the Beatles' music by the song or the album. Until now, the biggest-selling, most influential group in rock history has been glaringly absent from iTunes and other legal online music services.

"The Beatles are one of those groups that parents and young people can kind of come together on, no pun intended," said Craig Marks, editor of Billboard magazine. "There are kids and there are baby boomers and people in between who, for whatever reason, never did download those Beatles songs because they weren't on iTunes, and now they're going to have the opportunity to do so."

Within hours of their availability Tuesday, eight Beatles recordings were at one point among the top 25 albums sold on iTunes, including a $149 boxed set at No. 13. The eight also included "Abbey Road," "The White Album" and "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band."

Apple would not release first-day sales figures or the number of Beatles albums or singles downloaded. ITunes' top albums list is a fluid, real-time chart that changes several times throughout the day; the 25th album may sell only a few thousand copies in a week.

It is unclear how big the Beatles could become on iTunes. After all, many Beatles fans already have copied the group's CDs to their iPods.

"It seems like too little, too late," said Kerry Sullivan, 24, a senior at Saint Thomas Aquinas College in Sparkill, N.Y. "Everyone who wants the Beatles catalog probably already has it. If, you know, they really wanted the Beatles, they know somewhere else to get it already."

Forty years after the Beatles broke up, Apple is selling 13 remastered studio albums, the two-volume "Past Masters" set and the "Red" and "Blue" greatest-hits collections. People can buy individual songs for $1.29 apiece or download entire albums, at $12.99 for a single album and $19.99 for a double.

Apple is also selling a special digital boxed set that includes all the albums and a download of the 41-minute movie of the Beatles' first U.S. concert, "Live at the Washington Coliseum, 1964."

Apple struck the agreement after on-and-off negotiations with the Beatles' recording label, EMI Group, and their management company, Apple Corps.

Apple Corps had resisted selling Beatles music on iTunes in part because of a long-running trademark dispute with Apple. The feud was resolved in 2007 when the companies agreed on joint use of the apple logo and name. Many people saw that as paving the way for an agreement for online access to Beatles songs.

EMI Group CEO Roger Faxon would not say whether the Beatles had gotten a special deal from Apple, which usually keeps 30 percent and gives the rest to the label and the artists.

Even without digital sales, the band was making money. The Beatles have sold 600 million albums worldwide since the 1960s, and last year's remastered versions sold 18 million. Cirque du Soleil used Beatles music for the soundtrack to its "Love" show. And "The Beatles: Rock Band" video game came out last year.

Lance Grode, a lawyer who worked for the firm that represented Beatle George Harrison in the late 1970s, said there was fear that once the Beatles embraced iTunes, the music would be so easily available that it would be harder to promote such special releases.

But ultimately, Grode said, the Beatles probably concluded that "there was too much money being left on the table. This is a money play, pure and simple."

In a statement, the two surviving Beatles — Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr — as well as Yoko Ono, John Lennon's widow, and Harrison's widow, Olivia, all gave the deal their blessing.

"I am particularly glad to no longer be asked when the Beatles are coming to iTunes," Starr said.

The deal gives Apple a sweet public relations boost at the start of the holiday shopping season, but sales of Beatles music probably won't make much of a financial impact on the company.

Brian Marshall, an analyst for Gleacher & Co., said he believes Beatles fans with iPods and other digital music players have already converted their CDs into digital tracks.

Even if people do rush to their computers for a "Yellow Submarine" fix, iTunes is not a big moneymaker for Apple compared with its other businesses. In the most recent quarter, Apple's revenue was $20.3 billion, and iTunes sales made up just 5 percent, Marshall said.

For the music industry, the arrival of the Beatles for download might mean even less.

"The digital music market — and the young music fans record labels desperately need to get engaged — need new music products, not yesteryear's hits repackaged," said Mark Mulligan, a Forrester analyst.

Moreover, about 90 percent of music online is downloaded illegally, music lawyers say.

Steve Gordon, a former Sony Music business executive and author of "The Future of the Music Business," said the Beatles-iTunes deal could generate as little as $5 million in the first year. "Sure, there'll be a preliminary burst of sales," he said. "If it's enough to bring the music industry back is another issue."

Younger fans may not buy Beatles albums, but that doesn't mean they're not listening.

Glenn Gass, a professor of music at Indiana University, has seen enrollment grow in the Beatles course he has taught since 1982. He is now teaching children of baby boomers raised on the Beatles.

"The Beatles are very approachable, accessible to kids," Gass said. "The melodies are so catchy. The songs have such personalities that an 8-year-old could love them."

Garth Brooks, Kid Rock and AC/DC are among the remaining major artists who refuse to sell their work through Apple. Some want more control over prices or the ability to force shoppers to download entire albums instead of individual songs.

Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO, couldn't resist celebrating the Beatles' arrival with an obvious quip Tuesday. "It has been a long and winding road to get here," he said in a statement. "Thanks to the Beatles and EMI, we are now realizing a dream we've had since we launched iTunes 10 years ago."

___

Jessica Mintz reported from Seattle. AP Music Writer Nekesa Mumbi Moody, AP Entertainment Writer Jake Coyle and AP Writer Mesfin Fekadu in New York contributed to this report.

Yahoo teams with Groupon, others to dangle deals (AP)

Posted: 16 Nov 2010 04:32 PM PST

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE, AP Technology Writer Michael Liedtke, Ap Technology Writer – Tue Nov 16, 7:32 pm ET

SAN FRANCISCO – Yahoo Inc. is hopping on the bargain-hunting bandwagon with Groupon, the Internet's hottest discount broker, and more than a dozen other similar services.

The partnerships announced Tuesday are the latest in a series of alliances that Yahoo has forged in the past 18 months with other Internet companies. It's part of an effort to keep people on Yahoo's website for longer periods and bring in more ad revenue after years of listlessness.

The turnaround efforts haven't paid off yet, leaving Yahoo vulnerable to a possible takeover attempt. Repeated published reports have asserted buyout firms that prey on out-of-favor companies have been exploring a possible Yahoo bid that might include the participation of another struggling Internet icon, AOL Inc. Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz declined to address those reports during an on-stage appearance Tuesday at the Web 2.0 summit in San Francisco.

Yahoo shares fell 36 cents, or more than 2 percent, Tuesday to close at $16.24, well below the $33 per share that the company could have gotten from Microsoft Corp. had it accepted its rival's offer in May 2008.

Bartz and her underlings so far have brushed aside the renewed takeover talk as they focus on trying to boost the company's earnings and introduce more features that "engage and delight" the more than 500 million worldwide users of Yahoo's website.

"You will see more rolling thunder and a drumbeat of constant innovation from us," Blake Irving, Yahoo's chief product officer, told reporters before Bartz's appearance.

So far, Yahoo mostly has been leaning on the ingenuity of its rivals and other Internet services. Among other things, it is relying on Microsoft Corp. for most of its search results and related advertising and has been plugging features from Facebook, Twitter and online game maker Zynga into its own website. Zynga games such as "Mafia Wars" and "Fishville," are just starting to roll out on Yahoo, nearly six months after the two companies struck their partnership.

Irving promised Yahoo would be unveiling more internally produced services next year. "Our cadence will be different and our swagger will be different," he said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Yahoo is currently testing offers of local business deals from Groupon and other services in assorted U.S. cities. Irving and other Yahoo officials declined to say when the discount offers would be more widely available.

Groupon, a 2-year-old startup based in Chicago, has become a hot commodity by dangling special one-day deals from merchants throughout the U.S. The discounts kick in after a specified number of customers sign up for an offer. Groupon makes money by taking a large cut of the sale from the participating businesses.

The concept has become so successful that there has been widespread speculation that Groupon might be snapped up by a major Internet company. It has been speculated that Yahoo has been pursuing Groupon and might be willing to pay as much as $3 billion to buy the service.

Although he declined to discuss that speculation directly, Irving said Yahoo still could decide to buy Groupon or another discount service. "Just because you partner with someone doesn't mean you won't buy them," he said. "A partnership doesn't preclude you from doing anything."

Besides Groupon, other deal brokers peddling discounts through Yahoo's website include: LivingSocial, Gilt City, BloomSpot, BuyWithMe, DealOn, Zozi, CrowdSavings, Lifebooker, FreshGuide, Scoop St., Goldstar, HomeRun, Tippr, Coupons.com, and Valpak.

Bartz said Yahoo is interesting in making acquisitions that bring in promising technology, more users or unique content.

Yahoo's biggest acquisition this year has been of freelance story service Associated Content in a deal struck six months ago. The company rebranded Associated Content as the Yahoo Contributor Network on Monday when it began feeding the freelance stories into its website.

By relying on contributions from more than 400,000 freelancers, Yahoo hopes to offer its audience more choices at a minimal cost.

Yahoo's emphasis on expense control could result in layoffs affecting 10 percent to 20 percent of its 14,100 employees, according to reports published last week on the technology websites All Things D and TechCrunch.

In Tuesday's interview, Irving acknowledged Yahoo is assessing its staffing needs as it budgets for 2011 but said layoffs remain a "big if." Bartz said Yahoo is still hiring, but didn't say whether the company also might do mass layoffs for the second time during her 22-month tenure as CEO.

The Beatles caved, who remains an iTunes holdout? (AP)

Posted: 16 Nov 2010 01:16 PM PST

By JAKE COYLE, AP Entertainment Writer Jake Coyle, Ap Entertainment Writer – Tue Nov 16, 4:16 pm ET

NEW YORK – With the Beatles finally on iTunes, Garth Brooks and AC/DC are among the few notable acts that continue to staunchly hold out, unwilling to agree to Apple's restrictive pricing schemes and loath to see their albums chopped into singles.

Kid Rock and Bob Seger have also refused to cave in, like holed-up gunfighters.

The Beatles have partnered with Apple Inc.'s iTunes service, ending the most prominent holdout and finally bringing one of music's most popular catalogs to the online store.

Yoko Ono invoked John Lennon's "Give Peace a Chance" in the news of the Beatles finally joining iTunes.

Since iTunes launched in 2001, the music industry has almost entirely gotten on board. For a long time, Led Zeppelin stayed away, but the act finally joined in 2007. Radiohead resisted, too, until 2008.

The ranks of the iTunes holdouts have gradually thinned, but the battle goes on for the remaining resisters.

Brooks, whose songs are among the most popular in country music, said he had no animosity with Apple, but nevertheless disagreed with its approach to selling music.

"They truly think that they're saving music," Brooks told reporters last year. "My hat's off to them. I looked at them right across the table with all the love in the world and told them they were killing it."

Brooks, who has a distribution deal with Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s retail and online stores, has complained about iTunes' lack of flexibility in pricing and album sales. Apple last year began selling songs for 69 cents and $1.29 aside from the normal 99 cents, though album-only downloads are still discouraged.

Angus Young of AC/DC, another act with an exceptionally lucrative catalog of music, once insisted that AC/DC doesn't make singles, "we make albums."

"If we were on iTunes, we know a certain percentage of people would only download two or three songs from the album," Young told The Daily Telegraph in 2008. "We don't think that represents us musically."

Young has said AC/DC's sales haven't suffered as a result. The band's last studio album, "Black Ice," released in 2008, sold more than 6 million copies worldwide.

Kid Rock, whose new album "Born Free" was released Tuesday, has said he's resistant to the pack mentality and is suspicious of anyone who tells him that he "must" be on iTunes.

"I don't have to," Kid Rock, 39, told Billboard this month. "Because I remember being a kid when I heard a song that I liked, I would jump on the bus, ride to Detroit, get a $2.50 transfer and walk a mile to the hip-hop store to buy the new Eric B. & Rakim record. You're not going to stop people from obtaining what they want if it's available at some level."

Craig Marks, editor of Billboard, said artists holding out "place inordinate value on the album as a cohesive piece of art."

"That's nothing that Apple is going to give on," Marks told The Associated Press. "If that's the emotional reason that they're reluctant to have their music available on iTunes or available as legal downloads, I'm not sure that's going to change."

Messages left with representatives for Brooks, AC/DC and Kid Rock were not immediately returned Tuesday.

Other iTunes critics continue to do business with Apple anyway. Prince's music is available from the online retailer, but he dismissed iTunes and the Internet altogether earlier this year.

"The Internet's completely over," Prince told the Daily Mirror. "I don't see why I should give my new music to iTunes or anyone else."

___

AP Music Writer Nekesa Mumbi Moody contributed to this report

The Beatles on iTunes: a day “you’ll never forget”? (Ben Patterson)

Posted: 16 Nov 2010 11:11 AM PST

By Ben Patterson ben Patterson – Tue Nov 16, 2:11 pm ET

No question about it — snagging the rights to sell digital versions of the Beatles' classic catalog represents a major coup for Apple, and surely must be a source of personal satisfaction for Steve Jobs, a well-known Beatles fan who's been dropping hints about the Fab Four coming to iTunes for years.

It's a big deal for the music industry as well. The Beatles were among the very last of the digital-music holdouts. A few major acts — like AC/DC, Garth Brooks and Bob Seger (go figure) — are still refusing to go the MP3 way, but the Fab Four was arguably the biggest digital-music domino yet to fall.

But for the rest of us? Frankly, I wasn't losing any sleep over the fact that the Beatles weren't on iTunes yet, and I'm guessing I wasn't alone.

After all, it's safe to say that most big Beatles fans long ago ripped their entire collections of the Fab Four's music to MP3 for use on their iPods, Zunes, or other digital music players.

And for die-hard Beatles fans looking for the best sound quality, it'll be hard to beat the remastered Beatles CDs and box sets that came out last September รข€" all of which, by the way, are available online for less than the digital tunes (or, to be more precise, the 256 Kbps AAC files) on sale through iTunes. The remastered CD of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," for example, is on sale for $8 on Amazon, versus $13 on iTunes.

Now, if Apple had simply posted its "The Beatles, now on iTunes" banner on its home page Tuesday, with no prior warning, the Beatles-on-iTunes news probably wouldn't have been such a letdown.

Instead, Apple decided to hype the announcement a bit, plastering a teaser on Apple.com Monday morning that read: "Tomorrow is just another day. That you'll never forget," adding that we should "check back" Tuesday for "an exciting announcement from iTunes."

So it shouldn't come as a surprise that the tech press (including, I'll admit, yours truly) and the Apple faithful jumped to some rather grand conclusions about what unforgettable thing might be on tap today.

Perhaps, we thought, the news would be something about all those rumors of a cloud-based iTunes — you know, a digital locker for all your music (and maybe even videos), stored and streamed from Apple's mammoth new data center in North Carolina.

Or, perhaps we'd be talking a music-subscription service, something along the lines of Rhapsody or Pandora. Besides, didn't Apple buy (and subsequently shutter) a music-streaming company called Lala late last year? And what about all that talk about Apple sniffing around Spotify, another popular online music site?

Those would've been some pretty big developments for iTunes — granted, perhaps too big to be announced with just a single day's notice.

Still, Apple was promising something we'd "never forget," right?

But dreams of iTunes in the sky or a subscription-based music service began to fade as Monday wore on, with All Things Digital's Peter Kafka pointing out that if Apple had indeed struck deals to stream tunes from the major music labels to iTunes users, his (well-placed) sources in the music industry certainly hadn't heard about it.

And the whole "Tomorrow is just another day" thing … isn't "Another Day" the title of a solo track from Paul McCartney? Yep, it sure is, and within hours, the cat was out of the bag.

While I'm probably not the only one who thinks that Apple way oversold its Beatles announcement Tuesday, there are still a few key benefits to finally having the Fab Four's albums available on iTunes.

1. For the first time ever (well, not counting old-school 45s, which came with "B" sides in any case), you can legitimately buy a single track of Beatles music. If, for example, you want to get "With a Little Help from My Friends" without having to pony up for the entire "Sgt. Pepper's" album, you're now free to do so, sacrilege or no.

2. A younger generation of music fans who've never even heard of (or don't really care about) John, Paul, George, and Ringo can now experience their tunes with a click of a button. (Assuming, of course, they haven't already done so through Pandora, which has been streaming Beatles songs for some time now, or using the dark magic of BitTorrent.)

3. You will never, ever, have to read another story speculating about when the Beatles will arrive on iTunes. (And I'll never have to write another post about Beatles-on-iTunes rumors, either.)

So, on a scale from 1 to 10, how big is Apple's news about the Beatles arriving on iTunes? Will you buy any Beatles albums online, or will you stick with the CDs?

— Ben Patterson is a technology writer for Yahoo! News.

Follow me on Twitter!

The Beatles arrive on iTunes, at last (Ben Patterson)

Posted: 16 Nov 2010 07:19 AM PST

By Ben Patterson ben Patterson – Tue Nov 16, 10:19 am ET

Yep, it's happened. A treasure trove of Beatles albums popped up on iTunes early Tuesday, a day after Apple promised an "exciting announcement" from iTunes.

Digital versions of such classic Beatles albums as "Abbey Road," "A Hard Day's Night," "Help!," "Magical Mystery Tour" and "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" were selling for $13 each, with double albums like the "White Album" going for $20.

Also available is a massive Beatles box set for $150, while individual tracks are selling for $1.30 each.

The Beatles, of course, were one of the last remaining digital music holdouts, and rumors of the Beatles arriving on iTunes (or going digital in any way whatsoever) have been circulating for years.

Apple teased the arrival of the Beatles on its website Monday with a banner that read: "Tomorrow is just another day. That you'll never forget."

Speculation on what the teaser meant ran the gamut from a cloud-based version of iTunes (powered by Apple's gigantic new data center in North Carolina) to a long-rumored iTunes-based music-subscription service.

Later in the day, though, there was increasing chatter that Apple's big news could be the arrival of the Beatles catalog on iTunes, and by late afternoon, Billboard, the Wall Street Journal and other publications had confirmed that the Beatles were at last set to go digital.

Whether Tuesday's Beatles announcement actually ranks as a day we'll "never forget," however, is up for debate.

Many, including me, were hoping that Apple would at last announce a Web-based version of iTunes, complete with a cloud-based digital locker for all your music. For now, it looks like we'll have to keep on waiting.

So, thoughts? Is the arrival of the Beatles on iTunes truly an unforgettable event, or did Apple and the Fab Four overplay their hands?

Update: Here's my take on why Apple's Beatles announcement was (for me, anyway) so underwhelming.

— Ben Patterson is a technology writer for Yahoo! News.

Follow me on Twitter!

After tussle, Google Voice application comes to iPhone (AFP)

Posted: 16 Nov 2010 05:38 PM PST

– Tue Nov 16, 8:38 pm ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Google launched a Google Voice for the iPhone application after a lengthy dispute with Apple that drew the attention of US government telecom regulators.

Christian Brunschen, a Google software engineer, said in a blog post that Google Voice for iPhone was available for immediate downloading from Apple's online App Store.

"We're taking the Google Voice experience on the iPhone to a whole new level with the launch of the official Google Voice for iPhone app," Brunschen said.

Google Voice allows users to merge their home, office and mobile phones into a single number. It also allows them to make cheap international phone calls, send free SMS messages and provides transcripts of voicemail messages.

The service is only available in the United States for the moment and requires a Google Voice account.

Google and Apple got into a tussle last year over Google Voice for the iPhone with the California gadget-maker arguing it usurped core telephone features designed into iPhones.

The dispute drew the attention of the US Federal Communications Commission which sent "inquiry letters" about the Google Voice for iPhone application to Apple, Google and AT&T, iPhone's exclusive carrier in the United States.

Remains of the Day: Helter skelter (Macworld)

Posted: 16 Nov 2010 04:30 PM PST

Dan Moren Dan Moren – Tue Nov 16, 7:30 pm ET

Apple's got the Beatles all to itself—at least for a while; RIM's mythical tablet faces off against the iPad; and Adobe says that the amazing battery-eating Flash isn't its fault. Really. When the remainders for Tuesday, November 16, 2010 get to the bottom they go back to the top of the slide.

Apple has Beatles exclusive until 2011 (The Loop)

The Fab Four's new digital presence is iTunes-only—or so an Apple spokesperson tells The Loop's Jim Dalrymple. But they declined to say exactly when in 2011. Perhaps they'll let us know a day beforehand, with a huge homepage-dominating banner.

BlackBerry PlayBook and iPad Comparison: Web Fidelity (YouTube)

A demo pits RIM's PlayBook against the iPad in Web rendering and, surprisingly enough, the PlayBook seems to eke out a win, even with Flash installed. Then again, as long as we're including unreleased products in this showdown, the iPad 2 beats the pants off the PlayBook.

Adobe CEO: Flash battery life depends on hardware acceleration, MacBook Air update in testing right now (Engadget)

Shantanu Narayen, Adobe's head honcho, said that the reason battery life degrades on the MacBook Air when Flash is installed is simply because Adobe doesn't get access to hardware acceleration. And they'll prove it, as they're working on a version of Flash optimized for the Air. Which hopefully they haven't confused with Adobe AIR.

Leading cell phone carriers in mobile payments bid (AP)

Posted: 16 Nov 2010 03:11 PM PST

– Tue Nov 16, 6:11 pm ET

NEW YORK – Three of the country's leading cell phone carriers have formed a joint venture aimed at allowing people to make purchases with their mobile phones.

And they say the technology they plan to introduce could eventually do away with any need for cash, credit cards or even metro passes — it will all be done with a wave of a cellphone.

Verizon Wireless, AT&T Inc. and T-Mobile USA, in a joint venture called ISIS, plan to roll the service out in limited regions of the country over the next year and a half.

They said Barclaycards US, a division of the British bank Barclays PLC, will be the first bank to offer a mobile payments service on the network.

Breyer says justices must adapt to Facebook world (AP)

Posted: 16 Nov 2010 04:12 PM PST

By ERIK SCHELZIG, Associated Press Erik Schelzig, Associated Press – Tue Nov 16, 7:12 pm ET

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Don't expect a Facebook friend request from Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer any time soon.

The 72-year-old justice said in a speech at Vanderbilt Law School on Tuesday that he was perplexed when he recently saw the film "The Social Network" about the origins of Facebook.

But Breyer said the film illustrates his argument that modern conditions — like the development of the social-networking site — should inform justices when interpreting a Constitution written in the 18th century.

"If I'm applying the First Amendment, I have to apply it to a world where there's an Internet, and there's Facebook, and there are movies like ... 'The Social Network,' which I couldn't even understand," he said.

Breyer said of the high court: "It's quite clear, we don't have a Facebook page."

Although Breyer was making a point about judicial philosophy, he also touched on the court's sometimes limited grasp of technological developments. For example, Chief Justice John Roberts in a public employee privacy case before the court earlier this year tried to figure out the role of a text-messaging service in enabling an exchange between two people.

"I thought, you know, you push a button; it goes right to the other thing," Roberts said. Responded Justice Antonin Scalia: "You mean it doesn't go right to the other thing?"

And in a recent case dealing with a California law regulating the sale or rental of violent video games to children, Justice Anthony Kennedy pressed a skeptical state lawyer on whether the v-chip blocking device, rather than a state law, could be used to keep children away from the games.

"V-chips won't work?" Kennedy asked, before the lawyer politely explained they are limited to television programming.

Breyer was in Nashville to speak to students, teach a class and promote his new book "Making Our Democracy Work: A Judge's View."

Breyer, who was appointed to the Supreme Court by Democratic President Bill Clinton in 1994, said his views contrast with originalist members like Scalia, whose approach focuses on giving a fair reading to the words of the Constitution as they were meant when they were written.

Scalia and Breyer sparred over their philosophical differences in a joint appearance at the Texas Tech University Law School last week. Scalia, who was appointed in 1986 by Republican President Ronald Reagan, called the writing of the Constitution "providential."

Breyer said he disagrees with those who argue that originalism is "a good system because it will keep the subjective impulses of the judge under control."

"If you want to have history solve everything, let's get nine historians and not nine judges," Breyer said. "And you'll discover that the nine historians are fighting about the various points on which these cases turn anyway."

___

Associated Press writer Mark Sherman contributed to this report from Washington.

Q&A with MTV's Music and Talent head, Amy Doyle (Reuters)

Posted: 16 Nov 2010 05:08 PM PST

By Shirley Halperin Shirley Halperin – Tue Nov 16, 8:08 pm ET

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – MTV removed the words "music television" from its logo earlier this year, but with the not-so-sudden surge in the popularity of music videos (thanks in no small part to YouTube), it's getting back in the music game.

When it comes to making sure its viewers can sing along while simultaneously cringing to the latest escapades on "The Jersey Shore," that task is bestowed upon Amy Doyle, MTV's executive vice president of music and talent.

Doyle is rolling out a slew of artist-curated programing over the next few weeks, including documentaries by musical artists including Nicki Minaj ("My Time Now," premiering November 28) and Kid Rock ("Kid Rock: Born Free") along with world premieres of videos by My Chemical Romance and Bruno Mars.

THR spoke with Doyle about the network's plans moving forward.

THR: Because MTV is so much about reality shows these days, it seems like you would have the hardest job...

Amy Doyle: It's actually easier, believe it or not, because we have so many more places to express music across all of our screens. I've been at MTV more than 10 years now and the opportunities are really endless for an artist. It's just different than what it was before.

THR: Having been there so long, does the prioritization of music at the network ebb and flow?

Doyle: It really doesn't. There's always a steady stream of music on MTV, what changes is how it gets expressed. When we get into a conversation with an artist, it's not for a one-off. In other words, it's not just about the video they've got coming out, it's about putting together a global video premiere plan on both TV and online. Then we make sure we can get an interview that can be exclusive and on-demand to that artist's fans. Then (we can) talk about a live stream ... whatever we can we do to engage fans while that's happening so they can interact in real time with the artist.

THR: Where does viewership stand for the assorted screens?

Doyle: Next to MTV would be MTV2, which is in 77 million homes. MTV Hits, which is very pop-oriented, that's in 30 million homes. We have MTV Jams which is our hip-hop and R&B channel and that's somewhere between 22 and 25 million homes. And then MTVU, which has more of an indie spirit musically but is 24/7 music, is on 750 college campuses reaching somewhere in the neighborhood of 80 million college students a week. All those channels have music at their core.

THR: One thing MTV has always excelled at is music placements. Have the labels seen a direct correlation between a song played on one of the network's show and sales?

Doyle: They absolutely see the impact. It's such a transparent world that we're living in right now. So literally a well-placed cue in "Jersey Shore" can affect the iTunes chart in less than 24 hours. The labels, the artists' managers, they're all seeing the impact on numbers in real time.

Take Florence and the Machine at the VMAs this year. The show wasn't even over yet but after her performance, iTunes was blowing up. It happened that instantaneously.

THR: Although it must be said that at this year's VMAs there seemed to be a disconnect in awarding videos that are only seen on the channel during the early morning hours, or not at all. Does that criticism concern you?

Doyle: No. It would if they weren't still coming to us to premiere their videos, but they are because even though they have so many choices now, they're still coming to us because they want that primetime premiere. They understand that their video premiering right after "Jersey Shore" gets more eyeballs than what used to be considered a typical video rotation.

THR: Did Lady Gaga single-handedly resurrect the music video as an art form?

Doyle: I think she shined the spotlight on the art form again. She inspired artists to really take creative control because when they do -- they don't leave it in the hands of someone else, it's their vision.

THR: Is Nicki Minaj the second coming of Gaga?

Doyle: She's got it all. When we met her, we started seeing the connection she was making with music fans and that she had this big personality. We really wanted to do something big and exciting with her that also shows people a side they haven't seen yet. She does live her life out loud. She's very active online. She's very connected to her fans and she gave us unprecedented access.

We've been with Nicki for the last three months of her life. She seems fearless and outspoken, to your earlier point about Gaga, and not afraid to be who she is. That was really refreshing to us. She didn't seem guarded, she didn't seem like she was trying to be someone she isn't. And that was when we fell in love with her.

THR: What does it take to get a video banned these days?

Doyle: We haven't done that in a long time. I don't know.

THR: Has the process gotten more lax over the years?

Doyle: I think it moves with culture. And the landscape of what people can see both on the Internet and on cable television has allowed us to always have an open conversation about what's appropriate and what isn't.

(Editing by Zorianna Kit)

Hands-On With Oprah's Magazine App for iPad [VIDEO] (Mashable)

Posted: 16 Nov 2010 03:26 PM PST

Lauren Indvik Lauren Indvik – Tue Nov 16, 6:26 pm ET

We dropped into app developer Scrollmotion's offices Tuesday morning to do a hands-on demo with the first iPad edition of O, The Oprah Magazine, the latest of Hearst's titles to land on the device.

While it's not nearly as entertaining or interactive as Esquire, another title that Scrollmotion recently adapted to the iPad for Hearst, the results are still impressive -- especially given that it was developed in two weeks.

Many of the same interactive features found in Esquire have been replicated in O, such as 3D rotating images and click-to-tab photo galleries. A particular favorite is a photo of a toy helicopter, which quickly begins flying across the page.

Perhaps the most interesting development in the app is its m-commerce integration. The issue's primary feature is its holiday gift guide, featuring 70 items chosen by various personalities from "the Oprah family," such as Dr. Oz. Not only are many of the photographs of these products made interactive -- thereby drawing attention and engagement to images a reader might have otherwise glossed over -- but most can also be purchased from within the app (a feature we also saw, albeit spottingly, in Martha Stewart Living, which was released for the iPad last week).

This is especially effective in the book recommendation section, where users can read excerpts of books before electing to purchase them on Amazon or Barnes & Noble.

What's important is that the shopping integrations don't make the magazine feel like a store or catalog, but rather strike the consumer as a convenience that saves them the hassle of clipping interesting products from a magazine and searching for it online or in-store.

While O has integrated m-commerce seamlessly, there is still much to be desired in the app. Instead of allowing users to swipe down to explore an article, O has locked each page in full-page mode, making it feel more like a static PDF than an interactive app. The fact that the text is not selectable further cements that impression. The app also lacks sharing features, although Josh Koppel, Scrollmotion's chief creative officer, said readers will be able to share to Facebook, Twitter and Evernote in future editions.

The app is currently available for $3.99 in the App Store [iTunes link]. For a more comprehensive walkthrough, check out the video below.

Video Walkthrough

Zynga joins up with Yahoo! on Mafia Wars, FishVille (Appolicious)

Posted: 16 Nov 2010 10:47 AM PST

October video game retail sales slide 4 percent (AP)

Posted: 16 Nov 2010 06:54 PM PST

By BARBARA ORTUTAY, AP Technology Writer Barbara Ortutay, Ap Technology Writer – 2 hrs 29 mins ago

NEW YORK – U.S. retail sales of video game hardware, software and accessories slipped 4 percent in October as demand for most gaming consoles declined from a year earlier, according to data from market researcher NPD Group.

Overall game sales were $1.07 billion last month, down from $1.11 billion in October of last year, NPD said on Tuesday. Year-to-date sales were down 8 percent at the end of October, at $11.07 billion.

"Keep in mind that these sales only reflect new physical retail sales," said NPD analyst Anita Frazier in a statement. "While down, there are revenues being generated from digital distribution, used game sales, rentals, social network games and mobile applications to name a few."

Hardware sales tumbled 26 percent to $280 million from $381 million a year ago. With the exception of Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360, every gaming system saw a decline in unit sales, NPD said. The Xbox sold 325,000 units, up 30 percent year-over-year, Microsoft said.

Sales of game software, meanwhile, climbed 6 percent to $605 million from $573 million. The basketball blockbuster "NBA 2K11" from Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. was the month's best-selling title. It was followed by the shooter "Fallout: New Vegas" from Bethesda Softworks and "Medal of Honor" from Electronic Arts Inc. The number doesn't include "Call of Duty: Black Ops," which went on sale Nov. 9 and shattered the entertainment industry sales record held by its predecessor, "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2."

Sales of game accessories jumped 18 percent to $142 million.

Reggie Fils-Aime, the president of Nintendo of America, said in a recent interview he expects Nintendo to do well during the November-December holiday sales period.

"Last year, we sold close to 50 percent of hardware on (the holidays)," he said. While Nintendo is not planning to cut the price of the $199 Wii, Fils-Aime added that some retailers are doing this on their own as they work to lure shoppers into their stores.

AMD to Ship First Bulldozer Server Chips in Q3 (PC World)

Posted: 16 Nov 2010 10:30 AM PST

Agam Shah Agam Shah – Tue Nov 16, 1:30 pm ET

Advanced Micro Devices on Tuesday said it will start shipping next-generation Opteron server chips based on the new Bulldozer architecture starting in the third quarter next year.

The first Bulldozer server chips are code-named Interlagos and will come with up to 16 cores, said Phil Hughes, an AMD spokesman. The chips are designed for mid- to high-end servers and will replace existing Opteron 6100 chips, which are code-named Magny-Cours and contain up to 12 cores.

The Interlagos processors will be in production starting in the second quarter and can be plugged into existing servers with Opteron 6100 chips, Hughes said. The Interlagos chips are socket-compatible with the older servers based on Magny-Cours chips, which should enable fast transition for server customers.

AMD has also said that next year it would release Bulldozer chips code-named Valencia, which will contain up to eight cores and should replace existing quad- and six-core Opteron 4100 chips. Hughes declined to provide further guidance on when those chips would be released.

The Bulldozer microarchitecture was built from the ground up by AMD and brings new features to boost speed and save power. In internal benchmarks, the company has measured up to a 50 percent performance improvement in Bulldozer chips compared to predecessors.

To improve performance, the new architecture brings flexibility in the way tasks are executed across processor cores. Processor cores can be paired to share components inside a CPU. For example, the architecture can share specialized components like the floating point unit between two CPU cores, providing a wider pipe to execute more operations per clock cycle. This flexibility also reduces the size of chips, as they require fewer components, and the execution efficiency results in power savings.

The Bulldozer chip, with its multiple cores and improved internal bus architecture, is competitive, said Jim McGregor, chief technology strategist at In-Stat.

But the server market moves at a slow pace, so market reaction won't be visible for six to 12 months, McGregor said.

"Until we get the parts tested and verified, it's going to be hard to judge," McGregor said.

The new architecture will also put AMD in an interesting competitive position against Intel, which dominates the server market. AMD may have an advantage on the number of cores it offers in chips, but Intel's domination may not end anytime soon, McGregor said.

Intel is expected to release Westmere-EX server chips, which will pack in 10 cores, to succeed processors code-named Nehalem-EX, which include up to eight cores and are considered the company's fastest processors to date. The release date for Westmere-EX chips has not yet been announced.

Intel held 93.5 percent of the x86 server processor market during the second quarter this year, while AMD's share was 6.5 percent, according to a study released by IDC in August.

The Bulldozer architecture also provides the building blocks for AMD to develop future generations of chips, McGregor said. In addition to multiple cores, the company could add different types of cores to server chips as it looks to boost system performance.

AMD has already talked about integrating graphics processors inside future server chips to boost the performance of certain math, scientific and imaging applications.

AMD last week also updated its server road map, announcing plans to release a 20-core chip code-named Terramar in 2012 to succeed Interlagos. The Terramar chip will be targeted at two- to four-socket systems. The company also announced a 10-core chip code-named Sepang, which will also be released in 2012 and succeed the eight-core Valencia chips.

The company said that the server chips to be released in 2012 will come with improved power management and virtualization capabilities.

US faces 'huge' cyber threat in the future: Gates (AFP)

Posted: 16 Nov 2010 02:12 PM PST

– Tue Nov 16, 5:12 pm ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned Tuesday that potential cyber attacks posed a "huge" future threat that had to be tackled through joint efforts by US military and civilian agencies.

Asked to assess the danger posed to digital networks, Gates said: "There is a huge future threat and there is a considerable current threat.

"And that's just the reality that we all face."

He said the Pentagon had bolstered security for the military's networks and hoped to do the same for defense industry contractors.

"We are working with our partners in the defense industrial base to bring them under that umbrella, to provide them with protection," he said at a Wall Street Journal conference of chief executives.

Gates said the challenge for cyber security efforts inside the United States is that resources and expertise are concentrated in the military and the National Security Agency (NSA), which raises thorny legal questions about civil liberties.

"The only defense the United States has I think against nation states and other potential threats in the cyber world is the National Security Agency," said Gates, referring to the secretive surveillance agency.

"You cannot replicate the NSA for domestic affairs, there isn't enough money, there isn't enough time and there isn't enough human talent.

"So how do you let the domestic side of the government have access to the asset that the NSA represents, while at the same time taking into account the concerns for privacy and civil liberties?"

Gates, a former CIA director, touted an agreement approved by President Barack Obama last month between the Pentagon and the Department of Homeland Security that he said paved the way for unprecedented cooperation between the NSA and the domestic agencies on cyber security.

The new approach allows for legal and other officials from the Department of Homeland Security to work out of the NSA's offices, and to assign tasks to the NSA to safeguard domestic networks, he said.

"So you have the domestic security agency, DHS, being able to reach into the NSA in a real time way to get the kind of protections that we need," he said.

The arrangement would hopefully provide better security for both military and civilian networks, he said.

Civil liberties groups have voiced concern over the role of the NSA in cyber security efforts inside the United States, saying privacy rights could be jeopardized.

Microsoft revamps online game service, more social (AP)

Posted: 16 Nov 2010 07:25 PM PST

By BARBARA ORTUTAY, AP Technology Writer Barbara Ortutay, Ap Technology Writer – 1 hr 58 mins ago

NEW YORK – Microsoft Corp. is creating a new online games hub and making it more social by linking it to players' Facebook and Windows Live accounts.

The new hub integrates the company's so-called "casual game" properties, MSN Games, Windows Live Messenger and games on its search engine Bing, so that people can challenge one another to simple but addictive games such as "Bejeweled" and "Plants vs. Zombies," regardless of which of the sites they play on.

Microsoft's Xbox Live online games service already has found success with an entirely different breed of games — the likes of "Halo" and "Call of Duty."

With the new hub, announced Monday, players can log in with their Facebook or Windows Live accounts, invite friends to play or challenge them to a round of bridge. They can also post about their achievements in status updates and check out online "leaderboards" of the highest-scoring players.

Microsoft is injecting a social flavor into this games service at a time when social games on Facebook are enjoying enormous popularity, with more than 200 million of the social hub's 500 million active users clicking away on games such as "FarmVille" and "Cafe World" each month.

Microsoft also said on Monday that Kinect, its controller-free motion sensor that lets players use hand gestures and their voice to play Xbox games, sold 1 million units in 10 days. The company expects to sell 5 million of them by the end of the year.

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Online: http://games.msn.com

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Need help with a technology question? Ask us at gadgetgurus(at)ap.org.

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Online:

http://games.msn.com
at 9:35 PM

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