Pc News

[Rasputin]

Microsoft Patches Trip Up Windows Media Player

NEW YORK-- Three recently released Microsoft security patches may cause performance problems for Windows Media Player users, according to a company advisory.

Users who have applied the patches may experience problems when seeking, rewinding, or fast-forwarding files, said the advisory. For example, files may return to the start position or freeze up.


One of the patches at issue is a critical fix released by Microsoft last month, MS06-005, for a vulnerability in the way Windows Media Player processes bitmap files. The process could allow remote code execution.

Older Patches

The other two updates, released in October of last year, are a fix to enable Microsoft DirectX Video Acceleration of video content for video cards used in certain drivers and an update for Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 that addresses several stability and performance issues.


As possible work-arounds, Microsoft suggests that Windows Server 2003 SP1 users disable the Advanced Fast Start feature on the publishing point and make sure that the server-side playlist does not use the "clipBegin" element. Information about the problems has been posted on the Microsoft Help and Support site.

[Rasputin]

Cheaper 'Daily' dose on iTunes

LOS ANGELES- Viacom's Comedy Central is breaking the mold of iTunes television pricing.

Full episodes of "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart" and "The Colbert Report" will be available either singly or at a significantly lower cost when purchased using a new option called Multi-Pass.

The two shows also are the first daily programs to be offered on Apple's iTunes Music Store.

Individual episodes are priced at the standard $1.99. The Multi-Pass alternative costs $9.99 for the next 16 first-run episodes, each automatically delivered to the consumer's computer the day after it airs. Repeats are not included.

Apple vp iTunes Eddy Cue said Multi-Pass should not be considered as Apple moving toward offering subscriptions.

"We've sold 1.5 million shows so far, and we're trying to deliver what consumers want in a simple way," he said. "You're not going to get every customer every day coming in and hitting the buy button. Now they can click one button, get last night's show and get the next month's shows automatically."

More programs will be added, he said, though he declined to specify titles. "Sports is a good genre for this," Cue said. "Sports have time lines that are pretty well-defined, and people care about them."

[Rasputin]

Classical composer clicks with MySpace crowd

NEW YORK (Billboard) - It's no secret that MySpace.com is popular with kids, but who would have expected that it could boost a contemporary classical composer's career as well?

Eric Whitacre -- who has set up a page on the popular online destination -- can tell other young composers just how much the Web site is doing for his career and visibility these days. With "Cloudburst and Other Choral Works," his first recording for renowned British independent label Hyperion that was released February 14, Whitacre seems to be discovering a whole new audience online.

At age 35, Whitacre has already enjoyed tremendous success, particularly among choral and wind band music aficionados, performers and audiences. The Nevada-born Los Angeles resident's music has been hailed for its gorgeous and unexpected harmonies. His instrumental work Ghost Train, written when he was just 23, has already been featured on 40 recordings, and his choral piece Water Night has soared to become one of the most popular choral works written in the past decade.

[Rasputin]

Amazon, Hollywood studios in talks for downloads

LOS ANGELES- Amazon.com Inc. is in advanced talks with several major Hollywood studios about creating a service that allows consumers to download and copy movies and television programs, sources familiar with the discussions said on Friday.

The No. 1 online retailer has stayed mum in recent months over plans for a music download service to rival Apple Computer Inc.'s iTunes, as well as film and TV shows from independent producers. An Amazon spokeswoman declined to comment on Friday about talks with major movie and TV makers.

Several publications reported that Amazon was close to completing a deal with Paramount Pictures, Universal Studios and Warner Bros, specifically, but spokesmen at the three studios either declined to comment or were unavailable for comment.

One source said a deal was not imminent in the next two or three days, but added the studios were enthusiastic and an agreement, if one is concluded, might come soon.

[Rasputin]

IDF: Intel Upgrades Its Platforms Alongside New Chips

SAN FRANCISCO--Intel will roll out a succession of computing platforms that build on the efficiency gains it achieved with a new family of dual-core processors, company executives announced.

They range from the Bensley and Caneland server platforms to the Glidewell workstation platform, the Bridge Creek digital home platform, and Averill digital office platform.


Intel claims it has achieved great increases in power efficiency with its 65-nanometer family of dual-core chips, all using the company's new Core microarchitecture: the Merom, Conroe, and Woodcrest processors. (Read "Intel Seeks Efficiency With Dual-core Design" for more about these processors.)


But a processor is only one piece of a full system. An entire computing platform also includes chip sets, networking elements, and management software. So Intel executives also described the evolution of the platforms that surround the new chips.

[Rasputin]

Classical composer clicks with MySpace crowd

NEW YORK- It's no secret that MySpace.com is popular with kids, but who would have expected that it could boost a contemporary classical composer's career as well?

Eric Whitacre -- who has set up a page on the popular online destination -- can tell other young composers just how much the Web site is doing for his career and visibility these days. With "Cloudburst and Other Choral Works," his first recording for renowned British independent label Hyperion that was released February 14, Whitacre seems to be discovering a whole new audience online.

At age 35, Whitacre has already enjoyed tremendous success, particularly among choral and wind band music aficionados, performers and audiences. The Nevada-born Los Angeles resident's music has been hailed for its gorgeous and unexpected harmonies. His instrumental work Ghost Train, written when he was just 23, has already been featured on 40 recordings, and his choral piece Water Night has soared to become one of the most popular choral works written in the past decade.

No wonder, then, that the Hyperion disc experienced huge pre-order numbers that seemed to be a surprise, however welcome, to the label and its U.S. distributor, Harmonia Mundi, or that the disc landed at a solidly respectable No. 11 position on the Top Classical Albums chart in its first week, edging out many of its major-label competitors.

[Rasputin]

CeBIT: Blu-ray Backer LG Prepares Competing HD-DVD Drive

HANOVER, GERMANY-- LG Electronics, one of the main backers of the Blu-ray Disc format, is working on a player for the rival HD-DVD format, the company said on Friday.

Blu-ray Disc and HD-DVD are new optical-disc formats that are being positioned as replacements for DVD for high-definition content. Both formats are planned for launch in the first half of this year. Discs for one won't work on players designed for the other, so consumers face a choice between the two or waiting until a clear victor in the battle emerges.


"We are still behind Blu-ray Disc," said Annegees van Ligne, a spokesperson for the company, "but we are preparing an HD-DVD player."

[Rasputin]

CeBIT: An Origami With a Via Processor

Via Technologies is a company that takes pride in bursting illusions, such as the idea the new ultramobile PCs would only come equipped with Intel microprocessors. Instead, it appears that any x86-based processor will do.

PaceBlade Japan (PBJ) has launched an Origami device outfitted with the latest mobile processor from Via, the C7-M ULV, which runs at speeds from 1 GHz to 1.5 GHz. Via showed off the device, called the SmartCaddie, at a news conference here Friday.

SmartCaddie From PBJ of Japan

Via's new processor allows companies to make smaller devices while maintaining the benefits of a full-sized Windows-based PC, said Otto Berkes, general manager of the mobile platforms division at Microsoft, in Via's news release.


The SmartCaddie boasts all the same capabilities as previously announced Origami gadgets, including controls on the right and left side of the screen, wireless-LAN and Bluetooth capabilities, and touch-screen operations thanks to its OS, Microsoft's Windows XP Tablet Edition. PBJ's new device is the first of its kind to use the new Via C7-M ULV processor, but Via expects to see more design wins.

[Rasputin]

Microsoft takes on Yahoo, Google for Web ad dollars

SEATTLE- Microsoft Corp.'s top saleswoman for Web advertising, Joanne Bradford, spent her first few years on the job secretly wondering if the software giant was serious about cashing in on the Internet.

When she joined Microsoft in 2001, the company lacked a search engine of its own and had no clear Web advertising strategy. Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO - news) made multibillion-dollar businesses of search-related advertising while Microsoft waited.

"I wasn't sure the first couple of years that we were here to stay," said Bradford, Microsoft's corporate vice president for global sales and marketing. "I thank Yahoo and Google for proving that a software company can be a media company and a media company can be a software company."

These days, Microsoft is very serious about grabbing a larger piece of the $15 billion U.S. market for Internet advertising with a revamped search engine and a new system called adCenter to sell pay-per-click ads across the company's Web content and services.

Microsoft plans to overhaul its Web presence, consolidating e-mail, instant messaging, online PC security and search at its Windows Live site along with new offerings like an online marketplace in order to increase traffic and create valuable space for advertisers.

However, the company faces an uphill climb.

[Rasputin]

PC Sales Expected to Slow in 2006

Shipments of PCs worldwide will grow at a slower pace in 2006 than in 2005, partly because the replacement cycle for desktop PCs has hit a peak, market researcher Gartner said last week.

PC shipments in 2006 are expected to reach 234.5 million units, up 10.7 percent compared with 2005. However, PC shipments grew 15.5 percent in 2005, compared with 2004.


Although shipments of mobile PCs are expected to grow strongly in 2006, the deceleration in desktop PC replacements will drag down the overall growth rate, according to Gartner.


Desktop PC shipments are projected to grow just 1.9 percent this year overall, declining 8.6 percent in mature markets while increasing 19.5 percent in emerging markets, according to Gartner. Mature markets include the U.S. and Western Europe. Mobile PC shipments are expected to grow 31.4 percent worldwide this year.


Gartner also warned that worldwide PC shipment growth could fall below the current forecast of 10.7 percent if Microsoft doesn't set a precise release date for its new Vista operating system and if end users shy away from adopting newly-introduced Intel technologies.

[Rasputin]

Microsoft to offer free parental Web monitoring

SEATTLE- Microsoft Corp. said on Monday it plans to include a free service to help parents control and monitor what their children are doing online in its upcoming Windows Live offering of Web services.

The monitoring of children online has become a hot-button subject due to a nationwide string of cases involving adult sexual predators using virtual-communities on the Internet like MySpace.com to meet child victims.

Windows Live is part of Microsoft's strategy to consolidate a range of Web services -- e-mail, instant messaging, online PC security and blogs -- to compete with Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc. for Internet advertising dollars.

Windows Live is being tested now and will launch sometime in the second half of 2006.

Microsoft plans to roll out Windows Live Family Safety Settings in the summer, which will allow parents to filter Web sites and receive reports to see what their children are doing online.

The company also plans to eventually allow parents to control who communicates with their children over e-mail, instant messaging and in their blogs.

[Rasputin]

Google wants to sell online access to books

SAN FRANCISCO - Google Inc. wants to partner with publishers in the United States and United Kingdom to sell online access to their books, the company said on its Web site on Monday.



Google Book Search would allow publishers to set the prices for their books and make them available through a reader's Web browser. Consumers would not be able to save a copy on their computer or copy pages from the book.

"It's a way for publishers to experiment with a new method of earning money from their books in addition to those that already exist," the company said.

Five major publishers sued Google last year seeking to block the company's plans to scan copyrighted works without permission and derail its push to make many of the world's great books searchable online.

Legal experts characterized that dispute as a new front in the battle over digital duplication of media including music, movies and books.

[Rasputin]

Security Hole Found in GPG Crypto Program

PARIS-- Developers of the open-source GnuPG encryption software have reported a security flaw that could allow an attacker to sneak malicious code into a signed e-mail message.

GnuPG, or Gnu Privacy Guard, is an open-source version of the PGP encryption program used for encrypting data and creating digital signatures. It's included with several Linux distributions, including FreeBSD, and is also used widely used by the IT security industry.

Vulnerability Details

The vulnerability allows an attacker to take a signed message and insert additional code, which then appears to the recipient as if it were part of the digitally signed content.


"Someone who's able to intercept the message as it's transmitted could inject some data, and then the person who verifies the signature would be told it's a valid, unaltered message," said Thomas Kristensen, chief technology officer with security vendor Secunia, in Copenhagen.


"That's one of the main purposes of the program, so it's quite significant," he added.


The attacker could potentially alter a text file, like a business contract, or an executable file attached to the message, he said. Secunia ranked the flaw as "moderately critical."

[Rasputin]

Discovery Channel launches homework help Web site

LOS ANGELES - A new Discovery Channel homework Web site aims to remind parents whose math and history knowledge has gotten rusty how to help their children with the very things they have forgotten.

Cosmeo, a new online subscription site from Discovery Communications, offers a range of tools from a WebMath equation solver to educational videos and subject-specific Brain Games.

Launched on Monday, the site targets Web-savvy children from kindergarten through 12th grade. It also gives parents and other caretakers a way to be more involved in the learning process while refreshing their own knowledge, said Judith McHale, president and chief executive of Discovery Communications.

"Finally, you can look smart in front of your child," she joked.

Cosmeo is located at http://www.cosmeo.com and costs $9.95 per month or $99 per year. Other features include interactive quizzes, a digital encyclopedia and a digital photo library.

[Rasputin]

AOL video service to debut with Intel, Kraft ads

NEW YORK - AOL said it plans to launch on Wednesday one of the biggest free video services on the Internet, serving up vintage shows and short clips backed by online advertisements.


The service, called In2TV, will launch with four advertisers -- Intel Corp., Kia Motors Corp., Kraft Foods Inc., and Hershey Co.

"It's from the strength of the online advertising market that we can bring free on demand (videos)," Kevin Conroy, executive vice president of AOL Media Networks said in an interview.

In2TV will feature thousands of shows from corporate sibling Warner Bros., which owns the rights to shows that include "Welcome Back Kotter," "Kung Fu" and "Growing Pains."

AOL, the online division of Time Warner Inc., is gearing up to take on Microsoft Corp., Google Inc., Yahoo Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO - news) and Apple Computer Inc., which have their own designs on digital entertainment.