By Jane McEntegart - Source : Tom's Hardware

The legal volleyball between Mac clone maker, Psystar and Apple continues as it emerges that the latter has asked a court to throw away the antitrust lawsuit Psystar filed towards the end of the summer.

Following the news of a copyright infringement suit filed by Apple, Psystar filed a lawsuit of its own claiming there were a lot more complicated issues than just copyright or trademark and that these more complex issues involved the end-user licensing agreement and a little bit of antitrust thrown in for good measure. Colby Springer, one of a trio of lawyers representing the company said they were alleging restraint of trade, “among other things."

Apple remained fairly quiet about the antitrust suit until this week. Yesterday it emerged that the Cupertino company had gone to a federal judge and requested the dismissal of the countersuit claiming the monopoly allegations made by Psystar were “deeply flawed.”

The progress of this legal battle has been slow and fairly quiet. Psystar began trading back in April and Apple didn’t file any lawsuits until half way through the summer. Mid-July saw the Mac maker file a copyright infringement suit against Psystar Corp. Psystar refused to comment on the suit (we did phone, we did email) until it filed its antitrust lawsuit at the end of August. Again, the company refused to comment over the phone (no one “qualified”) and didn’t respond to emails (no one arsed, we assume). Apple is also remaining quiet about the situation. Tune in over the next month or so for Psystar’s response. In the mean time, feel free to dangle your arms, legs and other appendages outside the carraige, we’re nearly positive this isn’t going anywhere fast.

Related Links

April 16: Mac Clone Psystar Slams Steve Jobs July 16: Apple Sues Psystar August 6: Psystar Beats Around Anti-trust Suit August 28: Psystar Files Anti-trust Lawsuit Against Apple

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By Devin Connors - Source : Tom's Guide

As it does every fall, Nintendo held a U.S. press event in San Francisco today. The DSi was on everyone’s mind, and will stay that way for the foreseeable future as the handheld won’t hit the west until next year.

The DSi, while available in Japan starting November 1, will not be available in the U.S. and Europe until well into 2009." The rationale for this, according to Nintendo America president Reggie Fils-Aime, is that the DS Lite is still selling well in the States, and will continue to do so through the holidays. Also, since some DS titles, like Guitar Hero: On Tour, utilize the Game Boy Advance slot for peripherals, bringing the GBA slot-less DSi may hinder both hardware and software sales.

Fils-Aime also touched on holiday hardware sales, saying that the number of Wii’s shipped to retailers this season will be significantly more than last year. How many exactly? "Ask me in January," said Reggie. Along with a boost in Wii’s, consumers can expect the newest peripheral, Wii Speak, on November 18th. The Wii Speak Channel and the microphone itself will be launched in tandem, with the latter going for $30 in the U.S.

As for the plethora of software Nintendo announced last night in Japan, Nintendo America did little to fill in the gaps regarding U.S. release dates, leaving many of the titles as 2009 releases with no specific day/month. Only two titles that were talked about were given concrete release dates, Pokemon Ranger: Shadows of Almia and Personal Trainer: Cooking, will be available on November 10th and 24th, respectively. Other titles, like Sin and Punishment 2 (Wii), Punch-Out (Wii), Fire Emblem: Fire Dragon (DS), and Mario and Luigi RPG (DS) will be out sometime in 2009.

The "Wii de Asobu Selection", or "Play on Wii Selection" announced by Nintendo Japan last night is shortened to "Play on Wii" for the U.S. Play on Wii will bring heralded GameCube titles to the Wii, including games like Pikmin. This service goes live in Japan in December, and is TBA (2009?) for everyone else. Nintendo also confirmed that the first two titles for the DSi Shop, which allows DSi owners to download games and store them on the handheld, will be Brain Age 1 and 2.

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By Aaron Heibert - Source : Tom's Hardware

HTPC and Quiet PC users are always fighting the battle towards the Ultimate Quiet and the Lower Power consumption system. Western Digital has tossed a new drive into your sights – The Caviar Green 1 TB drive.

The new 1 TB Caviar drive packs 333 GB per platter on three platters coupled with a 32 MB cache. According to Western Digital this new platter density and larger cache reduce power draw by up to 20 percent. Performance increases up to 10 percent . There are some drawbacks for those performance enthusiasts however. The new Caviar uses a 5400 RPM spindle speed which reduces overall performance of disk input/output.

Western Digital is quoting a price of $219 USD for the new model, which is more than the previous 1 TB model which is available over at Newegg for $130 USD – shipped. (Speaking of Newegg – Newegg Canada is now open).

So what makes this drive stand out to someone? What would make you want to buy this drive? Well, if you want to save power and generate less heat – this could be your solution if you are still mindful of large disk capacity. Home Theater PC’s would be a good start for these new Caviars. Cases geared towards being slim and compact for HTPC application, such as those from SilverStone have very low output power supplies. Most of these power supplies average around 120 watts. Most of them are built-in and cannot be swapped out for anything else due to their custom design. This would be a good home for this new drive.

For the record, Western Digital’s VelociRaptor actually draws a lot less power than this new Caviar 1 TB drive – this is in part because of its 2.5” form factor / design.

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By Michael Brown - Source : Tom's Guide

Matsushita Electric Industrial, one of the world’s largest consumer electronics companies, is celebrating its 90th anniversary by changing its name. Never heard of Matsushita? That explains why the company is switching its corporate identity to match one of its biggest brands: Panasonic.

Matsushita’s U.S. division made the switch four years ago, but the Japanese parent company—founded in 1918 and headquartered in Osaka, Japan—was more reluctant to ditch the traditional banner, which honored the company’s founder.

Panasonic manufactures a broad range of products, ranging from batteries and semiconductors to personal computers, telephones, radios, digital cameras and camcorders, audio/visual gear, and household appliances. The company has carved out a particularly profitable niche with its Toughbook line of ruggedized notebook computers.

Company executives celebrated the event in the U.S. yesterday by ringing the opening bell on the New York Stock Exchange and displaying the company’s new 150-inch plasma HDTV outside the Exchange, the first time that product has been shown outside of private industry events.

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By Jane McEntegart - Source : Tom's Guide

Last week members of the senate proposed a bill that, if passed, would see the Department of Homeland Security require reasonable suspicion before confiscating your laptop or other device capable of storing information.

At the beginning of August the Department of Homeland Security disclosed border search polices, which stated border officials could confiscate any device capable of storing information (including hard drives, flash drives, your cellphone, MP3 player, Kindle, pager, and any books or documents you happen to have lying around) for “a reasonable amount of time.”

Aside from the fact they can take your precious electronics to a far off place for an unspecified amount of time, more people had a problem with the fact that they can do so without any suspicion of wrongdoing. Homeland Security officials also had permission to share your data with other federal agencies or private entities for language translation, data decryption or, our personal favorite, “other reasons.”

The polices currently in place apply to both U.S. and non-U.S. citizens, however if passed, the Travelers Privacy Protection Act would see "electronic searches" of U.S. on merely the basis of race, ethnicity, religion or national origin disallowed and officials would require probable cause and a warrant before seizing your device. The Act also includes restrictions on the disclosure and handling of any information obtained from the confiscated device.

Described as, “a bill to protect citizens and legal residents of the United States from unreasonable searches and seizures of electronic equipment at the border, and for other purposes,” it seems non-U.S. citizens entering the country will still be subjected to the same policies as before.

The Travelers Privacy Protection Act was introduced by Senator Russell Feingold and is co-sponsored in the senate by Daniel Akaka and Ron Wyden.

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By Jane McEntegart - Source : Tom's Guide

A report released this week by Canadian researchers alleges TOM-Skype, the Chinese version of Ebay’s Skype, run in cooperation with TOM Online, monitors users Skype chats, scanning for certain words.

The report, Breaching Trust: An analysis of surveillance and security practices on China’s TOM-Skype platform, claims that the chats of TOM-Skype users, along with Skype users who have communicated with TOM-Skype users, are regularly scanned for sensitive keywords, and if present, the resulting data are uploaded and stored on servers in China. Such keywords relate to Taiwanese independence, the Falun Gong and political opposition to the Communist Party of China.

According to The Wall Street Journal, a Skype spokesperson, Jennifer Caukin, said that the idea that the Chinese government “might be monitoring communications in and out of the country shouldn’t surprise anyone,” however other findings of the report were also worrying. The report says that the conversations stored are easily accessible by the general public.

“These text messages, along with millions of records containing personal information, are stored on insecure publicly-accessible web servers together with the encryption key required to decrypt the data.”

While Caukin said people shouldn’t be surprised to hear about the monitoring of communications, she did say the company was concerned to hear about the “apparent security issue.” Caukin said that once they informed TOM about it, they fixed the flaw.

The news comes after a long summer of controversy over censored content during the Olympic Games in Beijing.

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By Aaron Heibert - Source : Tom's Hardware

Is the IT industry following suit along with the economy? The Wall-Street blues, Corporate entities closing up shop and the big banks buying out other big and small banks — could this be happening in the IT world too? In short, yes – however we are not saying this potential buy out fits the exact scenario. It could though.

Nikkei, a Japanese paper first broke the news by saying that Fujitsu is planning a sale to Western Digital and aims to reach an accord by the end of this year. This potential transaction could have us seeing Western Digital digging in their pockets for US$660 million to US$950 million. That potential buy out price tag is reportedly two to three times the yearly revenue of Fujitsu’s hard drive unit.

Fujitsu does not get as much press as the other big league players such as Seagate and Western Digital, but Fujitsu does produce a very large share of notebook storage solutions. This speaking purely within the storage market.

Fujitsu had made a comment that it was “reviewing its loss-making hard-disk drive business.” While a company spokesman added to that with “We are exploring various possibilities for our HDD business.” The spokesman then claimed that Fujitsu hasn’t made any concrete decisions as of current.

So could the IT Storage market be heading towards the same types of consolidations we are seeing in generalized economy right now? It sure is possible at this point in time as everything else that is going on can and will affect business on a broader scale.

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By Kevin Parrish - Source : Tom's Guide

According to a report over on Memphis’ commercialappeal.com website (source), eight current and former employees of Gamestop have pleaded guilty to misdemeanor theft of property charges, and was thus ordered to serve one year of diversion (a light form of probation) for buying purported stolen video games. Strangely enough, the eight defendants do not have a prior criminal history.

Rory Rhoads, GameStop’s Regional Vice President of Stores, quickly took up a defensive position on behalf of the gaming retail chain. “GameStop takes this situation quite seriously,” he told the Memphis online magazine. “We are pleased to partner with the ALERT Unit and have taken very deliberate steps to improve our operations. Specifically, we have suspended our cash-for-trade transactions in Shelby County and DeSoto County, Mississippi until February 2009.”

After reports that several GameStop stores were knowingly purchasing the stolen games, an undercover sting operation revealed that eight out of eighteen stores participated in the illegal trade between April and May. Rhodes claims that employees undergo strict training, especially when stolen gamers come into play. GameStop employees will even freely admit to the strict security measures the chain goes through on a daily basis, making sure employees do not walk out the front door with games and other related items.

Last year GameStop faced a different fiasco. As reported by Joystiq (story), a GameStop employee sold Aeropause’s James Munn a "new" game by inserting the game disk into a display box and then offered to shrink-wrap the package. Of course, games are de-classified as new once consumers/retailers break open the package. But many gamers reject the company’s policies on hardware warranty, and there’s even a gaudy page online requesting to boycott GameStop altogether.

As for the Memphis, Tennessee incident, this is probably just the tip of the iceberg in regards to a nationwide problem. After all, the purchase of stolen games transpired in eight Memphis locations alone. Consumers who regularly purchase used (or so-called "new") games from GameStop might want to reconsider additional purchases before shelling out hard earned cash for something that may or may not be legal to own.

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By Michael Brown - Source : Tom's Hardware

Considered a water-cooled gaming rig, but haven’t had the nerve to mix electronics and liquids? Visionman Computers has just announced a new gaming PC that features a water-cooled dual-core CPU, 2GB of memory, and a 500GB hard drive that sells for just under $1,000.

The machine, dubbed the Red Blizzard, will be marketed under Visionman’s WidowPC label and will sell for $999.99. Visionman selected CoolIT’s PURE CPU water-cooling system, which—based on retail prices—would account for a larger percentage of the rig’s total bill of materials than any other single component.

Indeed, the remaining elements that comprise the Red Blizzard are fairly pedestrian in comparison—particularly for a machine that’s being marketed as a gaming rig. The company mated an Intel E5200 CPU (a 2.5GHz dual-core Pentium) to an Asus P5N73-AM motherboard (an odd choice, considering that it’s based on Nvidia’s nForce 610i chipset, which features integrated graphics). Each of the motherboard’s two RAM slots is occupied by a 1GB stick of DDR2-800 memory (manufactured by Visionman’s parent company, Silicon Mountain Memory).

Graphics are handled by an Nvidia GeForce 9600 GT with a 512MB frame buffer (there’s no upgrade path to SLI, because the motherboard has just one x16 PCI Express slot). There’s no sound card, but the motherboard does feature Intel’s HD Audio.

The system comes with a 500GB Western Digital SATA II hard drive, a LiteOn 20x DVD-RW burner with Litescribe technology, and a 22-in-1 flash media reader (a feature most gamers would readily trade for gigabit NIC, the one integrated into the motherboard is limited to 100 Mb/sec). The motherboard has just four USB ports, so perhaps it’s fortunate that the mouse and multimedia keyboard rely on PS/2 interfaces.

Just for fun, we decided to build out our own water-cooled Red Blizzard, using the same components where they were identified (and making educated guesses where they weren’t, including for the case, power supply, and a few smaller items). Based on street prices, the factory-built machine costs only $110 more than the collection of parts that comprise it (although Visionman undoubtedly pays much less than retail for its components).

While that premium doesn’t seem unreasonable, we think most gamers would choose different components for their home-brew rigs.

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By Devin Connors - Source : Tom's Guide

In a press conference in Tokyo today, Nintendo revealed the successor to the wildly popular DS and DS Lite handheld consoles.

The Nintendo DSi picks up where the DS Lite left off, and incorporates a myriad of new features that make the DSi a true multimedia device. While many will lament the lack of a Game Boy Advance cartridge slot (removed to allow for a 12 percent thinner profile), the DSi more than makes up for it by adding an SD card slot as well as a 0.3 megapixel camera. The SD memory card slot will allow the user to take pictures with the new camera and transfer them to a Nintendo Wii’s Photo Channel. The DSi also features larger screens with both the top and bottom displays bumped to 3.25-inches, a quarter inch bigger than the current DS.

The DS and DS Lite both have built-in WiFi, but the DSi takes internet connectivity to a whole new level. With the new DSi Shop, customers can download and store games directly to the DSi. Like every other console online store, the DSi Shop will work on a points system, with some content being free, but most going for 200 points, 500 points, and 800 points for "premium" content. DSi buyers will automatically receive 1000 free points, which will be good until 2010. Assuming the DSi Shop works in the same way as the Wii Shopping channel, 1,000 points will be equivalent to $10 USD.

While a U.S. release date has yet to be announced, the DSi will hit store shelves in Japan on November 1 for 18,900 yen, or about $179 USD.

Because Nintendo is skipping this years Tokyo Game Show, the press conference covered more than just the new Wii. Nintendo also elaborated on Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles, which will be out for both the DS and the Wii. In fact, Crystal Chronicles will link the DS to the Wii for what promises to be some very unique gameplay. Animal Crossing DS was also detailed, including a feature that will allow users who also own a Wii to transfer their Mii over to the DS title to use in game.

Nintendo CEO Saturo Iwata finally addressed an issue that has been on many a Wii owner’s mind: storage. Starting in the spring of 2009, said Iwata, Wii users will be able to download games from the Shopping Channel directly onto SD cards, completely bypassing the Wii’s internal memory. Nintendo also dated and priced the Wii Speak for Japan. The "Wii Speakerphone" will be released on November 20 and go for about $74 USD.

Taking a page from its wildly successful Virtual Console, Nintendo will soon make popular GameCube titles like Pikmin available in a series called "Wii de Asobu Selection", or "Play on Wii Selection" in English (likely to have a different title stateside). While old favorites are always good, some new Wii titles were also announced. Expect to see Punch Out, Another Code, Sin and Punishment 2, and a Dynasty Warriors title (Sangoku Musou 3, to be specific), sometime in the near future.

Related Links

Kotaku Liveblog Translation

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By Kevin Parrish - Source : Tom's Hardware

It’s no secret that internet service providers are considering broadband caps to cut down costs. However many U.S. consumers dislike the idea and will gladly change carriers if their current BSP implements the restrictions.

In Zeugma Systems’ recent survey conducted for the International Data Corporation (source), 81 percent of the 787 U.S. customers polled proclaimed their dislike for a bandwidth cap and the additional charges for internet use beyond the limit. However, 83 percent had no idea what a gigabyte was or just how much bandwidth they actually consume. 51 percent of those polled added that they would actually switch service providers if broadband caps were set in place. Some even claimed to actually pay for additional premium services if necessary.

"These results are both an opportunity and a warning for BSPs," said Kevin Walsh, Zeugma Systems vice president of marketing. "The opportunity is that consumers are signaling a willingness to pay more for dedicated bandwidth over and above basic high speed internet for such services as premium internet video, VOIP, gaming, and corporate VPN access. The warning is a clear distaste for bandwidth caps. At a minimum, providers moving forward with bandwidth capping schemes may want to consider a more intelligent and flexible application of caps.”

Starting today, Comcast residential customers are now limited to 250 GB per month. The company claims that the new limit is more than enough for its customers, and will more than likely never surpass the limit. But considering the consumers who purchases games and movies online, this restriction may feel more like a punishment than means to save money on behalf of the BSP. Online gamers may face the largest setback, especially those playing on Microsoft’s Xbox Live service or MMORPGs like World of Warcraft and Everquest 2.

So why implement a level cap at all? According to this article over on DSLReports, the broadband limits are speculated to be the result of addressing people who download more than the typical user. These people, of course, are more than likely users sharing files or downloading pirated software outside P2P networks. But for legit consumers eating massive amounts of bandwidth, studies show that a good chunk of the consumption involves downloading HD video.

Additionally, Time Warner Cable recently shut down its newgroups service, claiming that the company had no way to police files stored on Usenet servers. Time Warner is also currently testing broadband caps in Beaumont, Texas. "The introduction of Consumption Based Billing will enable TWC to charge customer based upon usage, impacting only 5% of subscribers who utilize over half of the total network bandwidth," states Time Warner in a leaked memo (source). The broadband caps Time Warner is testing range between 5 GB to 40 GB monthly.

Whether consumers like it or not, it seems to be only a matter of time before the entire American BSP market faces broadband caps. If time Warner succeeds testing and implements the cap, other BSPs will likely follow suit. If Comcast stands firm with its 250 GB limit, the company may face a surge in subscriptions once other BSPs begin 40 GB restrictions.

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By Jane McEntegart - Source : Tom's Guide

Speaking in an interview with MTV, Christian game maker, Digital Praise, has said it may endeavor to produce a wholesome version of Jack Thompson’s favorite video game, but admitted such a game would be a challenge to produce.

Digital Praise’s “Guitar Praise” hit shelves last week and while the studio has a number of other games out already, last week’s addition to its catalog, being a Christian version of the already hugely popular Guitar Hero, definitely struck a few chords.

MTV asked CEO of Digital Praise, Tom Bean if the company would consider making a more family friendly version of Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto. Nothing like taking a game named after a crime and trying to do what the company endeavors to do through interactive media: Glorify God.

Bean explained to MTV that there are popular games out there that are derided for being inappropriate for children or even in general that are popular because they really are fun to play and one of the major problems was that people are often distracted from the fun of the game by the content. He also said that the company was interested in open-gameplay and “several designs of that kind of an open world” but that the real question was what people were able to do in that world and whether it would be fun and enjoyable. MTV asked Bean how Digital Praise would go about essentially taking the “Grand Theft Auto” out of GTA and not surprisingly, he wasn’t quite sure.

“That would be one of the bigger challenges. How do you do that — make it fun and make it something that people want to play?”

Read the full interview on MTV

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By Kevin Parrish - Source : Tom's Guide

Internet media giant YouTube is taking a not-too-surprising step into expanding its service by raising the file upload cap to a whopping 1GB.

The upload increase announcement comes via an official blog posted on September 28, revealed as one of the new features added to the service’s revamped video uploader. Although YouTube has become a household name due to its seemingly immeasurable amounts of user-supplied media uploaded each day - literally 13 hours of content uploaded per minute according to YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley (source) - the company faces stiff competition from the likes of Google Video and MSN. The upgrade not only allows higher resolutions and longer episodes, the move propels the company back into the forefront of streaming media content.

According to the blog, random account holders have already tested out the improved system, however YouTube has now opened the floodgates to all registered users. Although the new uploader features the ability to upload multiple files (10 maximum) and edit the video’s metadata during the upload process, the biggest surprise is YouTube’s decision to crank up the file cap from 100MB to 1GB and ten minutes in length.

"Our goal is to allow every person on the planet to participate by making the upload process as simple as placing a phone call," Hurley told TechCrunch. "This new video content will be available on any screen - in your living room, or on your device in your pocket. YouTube and other sites will bring together all the diverse media which matters to you, from videos of family and friends to news, music, sports, cooking and much, much more."

Launched in 2005, YouTube has become a video sharing giant despite a lack of profit as of Q1 2008. Google bought YouTube back in November 2006 for a whopping 1.65 billion (in Google stock) and currently shells out around $1 million a day in bandwidth costs for YouTube alone. With those numbers, it would seem illogical to increase user storage of each file to 1GB. Only time will tell if the move cripples YouTube entirely, or propels it into the next generation of publicly shared videos.

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By Steve Seguin - Source : Tom's Guide

This Thursday, a ruling by the Copyright Royalty Board will decide the fate of iTunes as artists demand greater royalties.

According to Fortune, the National Music Publishers’ Association is seeking to increase the royalty rates for artists from 9-cents to 15-cents per track purchased on online music stores; a 66-percent increase. The problem is that no one wants to be the one who pays for it. Currently iTunes charges 99-cents a song, with 61-cents of that going to the record industry, 9-cents of it going to the artists and the rest going to Apple. Apple claims the 29-cents per song it makes is barely is enough for maintenance costs, let alone a profit.

According to a statement made last year by iTunes vice president Eddy Cue, "If the [iTunes music store] was forced to absorb any increase in the ... royalty rate, the result would be to significantly increase the likelihood of the store operating at a financial loss - which is no alternative at all." Clarifying that statement further he says, “Apple has repeatedly made it clear that it is in this business to make money, and most likely would not continue to operate [the iTunes music store] if it were no longer possible to do so profitably.”

While Apple may threaten to shut down the iTunes music store, the reality is that it may of been just an empty threat. Currently iTunes is the leading online music retailer, but it still only makes up a small portion of all music sales. Closing its doors could result in Apple losing its edge, even if the store closed only temporarily, giving enough time for alternative music sources to take hold. It definitely would not be a move stockholders would appreciate; as if the stockholders have not already taken enough of a beating from the current economy crisis.

Furthermore, by Apple shutting down iTunes to fend off music artists, Apple may taint its own marketing image by appearing as a greedy monster that is against music artists. As well, Apple also depends on the iTunes store to sell iPods; even if the iTunes store ran slightly into the red, Apple could still overall benefit from having it. The iTunes store also sells more than just music, but it also offers applications, audiobooks and videos, all of which may be affected in a negative way for Apple if it stopped selling songs.

While the concept of increasing the cost of a song instead of just absorbing the cost may sound sensible, Apple fears such a tactic will negatively affect sales. "I have no doubt that an increase in the per track price would lower total music purchases at the store," Cue had said in a statement. 99-cents is an appealing number for consumers, but it also gives Apple a reason to have a low fixed price on songs. If the price of a single song broke past the 99-cent barrier, suddenly there would be no limit on what could be demanded. $1.09 this week, next week the record industry could be demanding it be set to $1.29, with a song costing as much as an album before long.

The fact is, for some artists, that is exactly what they want. With customers able to pick and choose from low-priced singles, artists that became familiar with selling CD albums stuffed with filler are feeling the burn. Would you buy Katy Perry’s album, when the popular hit ’I kissed a girl’ is all that you want? With the current credit crunch and with heavy inflation looming, iTunes may soon be forced anyways into increasing the price of tracks to over 99-cents.

While artists are actually on the short end of the stick in this matter, their attempt at increasing royalties may not be just about making more money, but it could also be a counter-measure to prevent their royalties from actually being decreased. There has been a lot of effort to actually slash royalties of artists from 9-percent down to 4-percent, so in making a stance saying they are already undervalued could help their cause and prevent decreased royalties.

In the end, there is still the obvious answer, just cut back on the record’s industry massive 61-percent cut. The industry is out-of-date and the greed the industry has grown accustomed to seems silly these days. The chance of this happening though will require Apple to make threats against the big labels, to show that it is serious about the issue. With the record industry down 20-percent in sales with their old CD cash cow and profits now appearing from online retailers like iTunes, the record industry needs to start showing some gratitude. Otherwise, the industry may just end up killing the goose that is popping out the golden eggs.

Without iTunes ease of use, its excellent marketing, its iPod monopoly and fair iTunes pricing, the online music market may revert back to the chaotic days of Napster. Apple needs to show it won’t budge on the matter, to force the record industry’s hand, although really, Apple is just blowing hot air.

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