Universal really wants to slap Apple across the face and stick it to iTunes in a big way. After recently declaring it wanted to punish iTunes for its success, Universal is ready to go to war.   So, how does an old-school music industry dinosaur like Universal deal the too-cool-for-school, #1 US online music retailer a black eye? By ...

The XM and Sirius merger means a whole lot to the fifteen people who actually use satellite radio.  Granted, I’m exaggerating; some 15 million subscribers exist in North America alone, and many of these listeners are extremely passionate about the medium.  With XM and Sirius hoping to play for the same team in the future, the ...

The XM / Sirius merger rumor started late last year but it's been resurfacing again lately. Language used in recent speeches by executives from both Sirius and XM include lines like “Consolidation creates value…” and “Significant benefits…”. So it looks like we're up for another round of satellite radio merger rumors. Why would Sirius and XM, the ...

If game consoles are left as the deciding factor of whether HD DVD or Blu-ray is going to win the next generation high def disc format – HD DVD wins!Any discussion of the next gen format war is controversial at best. But the mood was already established as of last June, with the cover of Sound and Vision magazine proclaiming ...

DRM: Digital Rights Management. A technology that allows owners of digital media files to control how the files are used. Usually to prevent duplication. RIAA: Recording Industry of America. A trade group of brain eating zombies representing the recording industry. Generally regarded as technophobic, and hates digital media. Has ...

Few electronics are designed to work alone these days, nearly everything can perform some form of digital communication. We use routers to communicate with computers to other computers to VoIP phones to your home theater system. That's a whole lot of wires! A consumer electronics consortium called the HomePlug Alliance has created ways for ...

Efforts from the RIAA to stop www.AllOfMP3.com may finally be working. For months the US Government has been pressuring Russia to stop AllOfMP3.com or risk being blocked from WTO membership. AllOfMP3.com insists they’re following Russian law and denies that Russia’s entry to WTO is of any concern. The pressure may finally be working on ...

There’s been a lot of talk lately about Microsoft, including whispers of a viral DRM on its upcoming Zune device. The rumor was probably spawned by a mis-blog on the Zune Insider. Ceasar Menendez originally said that Zune would wrap all songs up in a DRM when conducting Zune to Zune file trading. But it’s not true; Ceasar has corrected ...

The RIAA is one of my favorite scumbag organizations - for as much misery as they cause I must admit some of the group's antics are downright entertaining. In recent RIAA court battle Arista v. LimeWire Arista, a recording company is seeking to sue LimeWire (a widely used file sharing application). Since it happens that most of the files ...