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Dec 19, `07 — In a year when Al Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize and green became the new red, white and blue; when the combat in Iraq showed signs of cooling but Baghdad’s politicians showed no signs of statesmanship; when China, the rising superpower, juggled its pride in hosting next summer’s Olympic Games with its embarrassment at shipping toxic toys around the world; and when J.K. Rowling set millions of minds and hearts on fire with the final volume of her 17-year saga—one nation that had fallen off our mental map, led by one steely and determined man, emerged as a critical linchpin of the 21st century. Says Time Magazine, about its Person of the Year 2007, Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Richard Stengel of Time further writes, “No one would label Putin a child of destiny. The only surviving son of a Leningrad factory worker, he was born after what the Russians call the Great Patriotic War, in which they lost more than 26 million people. The only evidence that fate played a part in Putin’s story comes from his grandfather’s job: he cooked for Joseph Stalin, the dictator who inflicted ungodly terrors on his nation.

When this intense and brooding KGB agent took over as President of Russia in 2000, he found a country on the verge of becoming a failed state. With dauntless persistence, a sharp vision of what Russia should become and a sense that he embodied the spirit of Mother Russia, Putin has put his country back on the map. And he intends to redraw it himself. Though he will step down as Russia’s President in March, he will continue to lead his country as its Prime Minister and attempt to transform it into a new kind of nation, beholden to neither East nor West.

TIME’s Person of the Year is not and never has been an honor. It is not an endorsement. It is not a popularity contest. At its best, it is a clear-eyed recognition of the world as it is and of the most powerful individuals and forces shaping that world—for better or for worse.

It is ultimately about leadership—bold, earth-changing leadership. Putin is not a boy scout. He is not a democrat in any way that the West would define it. He is not a paragon of free speech. He stands, above all, for stability—stability before freedom, stability before choice, stability in a country that has hardly seen it for a hundred years. More at Time.

Washington — Dec 18, `07 — The Federal Communications Commission approved rules today to allow ownership of a newspaper and a television station in the same market in the 20 largest metropolitan areas in the US, easing a long-standing rule prohibiting such ownership in any market and voted to maintain its cap on cable ownership, limiting the number of subscribers a cable operator may serve at 30% of US households.

Cable:
The 30 percent limit, set first in 1993 and modified in 1999, was challenged by Time Warner in 2001. The DC Circuit Court then remanded it back to the FCC seeking further justification. That remand has been pending six years at the Commission.

The 30 percent cable horizontal ownership limit set by the Commission will ensure that no single cable operator can create a barrier to a video programming network’s entry into the market or cause a video programming network to exit the market simply by declining to carry the network. In devising a limit to achieve this goal, the Commission first determined the minimum number of subscribers a network needs in order to survive in the marketplace, and then estimated the percentage of subscribers a network is likely to serve once it secures a carriage contract.

Newspaper/Broadcast:
The newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership rule currently prohibits common ownership of a broadcast station and a daily newspaper in the same market. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit (Court), affirmed the Commission’s determination that this blanket ban on
newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership was no longer in the public interest while remanding the specific cross-media ownership limits drawn by the Commission in 2003. The Court agreed that “…reasoned analysis supports the Commission’s determination that the blanket ban on
newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership was no longer in the public interest.”

The media marketplace has changed considerably since 1975 when the newspaper/broadcast cross ownership was put in place. At that time, cable was a nascent service, satellite television did not exist and there was no Internet. Consumers have benefited from the emergence of new sources of news and information.

But according to almost every measure newspapers are struggling. For example, at least 300 daily papers have stopped publishing over the past thirty years and circulation and advertising revenues at approximately half of all U.S. dailies has dropped precipitously in recent years. Permitting cross-ownership can preserve the viability of newspapers by allowing them to share their operational costs across multiple media platforms.

The rule adopted today would presumptively permit cross ownership only in the largest markets where there exists competition and numerous voices. Under the new approach, the Commission presumes a proposed newspaper/broadcast transaction is in the public interest if it meets the following test:
(1) the market at issue is one of the 20 largest Nielsen Designated Market Areas (“DMAs”);
(2) the transaction involves the combination of only one major daily newspaper and only one television or radio station;
(3) if the transaction involves a television station, at least eight independently owned and operating major media voices (defined to include major newspapers and full-power TV stations) would remain in the DMA following the transaction; and
(4) if the transaction involves a television station, that station is not among the top four ranked stations in the DMA.

More at FCC here and here (in Word).

NEW YORK — Dec 13, `07 — Rupert Murdoch won control on Thursday of a long-coveted prize, The Wall Street Journal, as Shareholders of Dow Jones & Co. gave final approval Thursday to a $5 billion bid from Murdoch’s News Corp to acquire the media company, the final step needed before one of the world’s most influential newspapers, The WSJ, changes hands.

The controlling shareholders of Dow Jones, the far-flung Bancroft family, had initially rebuffed Murdoch’s approach this spring, but eventually enough of them agreed to accept his rich offer of $60 a share to ensure his bid would succeed.

Dow Jones held the shareholder vote in a hotel in the financial district of lower Manhattan, near its headquarters. The formal closing of the deal is expected to occur either later Thursday or Friday. The vote was 60.27 percent in favor.

Murdoch’s bid of $60 per share represented a massive premium of 65 percent over the price Dow Jones shares had been trading at before his offer became public.

With annual revenue of about $2 billion, Dow Jones is relatively small in an age of conglomerates. But it is one of the most influential forces in American media, especially in financial news, where Mr. Murdoch has placed some very big bets of late. The company includes The Journal, whose daily domestic circulation of more than 2 million ranks second only to USA Today, and Dow Jones Newswires, the Dow Jones indexes, the Factiva information and archive service, Marketwatch.com, and other properties.

Last week Murdoch named a longtime News Corp publishing executive Les Hinton to be CEO of Dow Jones, replacing Rich Zannino, who is leaving the company.

NEW YORK — Dec 13, ‘07 — Rupert Murdoch is poised to fulfill his dream of taking over The Wall Street Journal as a hard-fought takeover of Dow Jones & Co is expected to be completed Thursday.

Dow Jones shareholders are scheduled to vote later today on Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp takeover offer and the acquisition “is expected to be completed shortly thereafter,” both companies said in a statement last week.

Dow Jones & Co shareholders holding more than 50 percent of the voting power of the company approved its $5.6 billion sale to Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, the Wall Street Journal Web site said on Wednesday.

A count of the proxy votes ahead of a Thursday shareholder meeting showed shareholders owning more than half of the company’s voting power threw their support behind the deal, the Journal reported, citing unnamed sources.

Dow Jones’s board approved the deal in July after members of its controlling family, the Bancrofts, said they would support the sale.

Ahead of the deal’s closing, Murdoch appointed News Corp veteran Les Hinton as Dow Jones chief executive and named Times of London editor Robert Thomson as the publisher of the Wall Street Journal.

As Murdoch, 76, closed in on his long-sought prize, The Wall Street Journal, he gave his son, James, an expanded role in the media empire, naming him to a position apparently aimed at grooming him to head the conglomerate.

News Corp announced Friday that James Murdoch, 34, the youngest of Murdoch’s four children, will be the boss of News Corp in Europe and Asia, effective immediately.

As chairman and chief executive of the company’s businesses in Europe and Asia, James Murdoch will also oversee the Wall Street Journal Europe, the British newspapers The Times and The Sun as well as Australian publications controlled by News Corp.

News Corporation is the umbrella company for an empire that also includes the Fox News Channel, the New York Post newspaper, the Fox Hollywood film studios and television network and the rapidly growing Internet social networking site MySpace.

Dec 07, ‘07 — Rupert Murdoch installed his own leadership team at Wall Street Journal publisher Dow Jones & Co. on Friday, a week before his acquisition of the company is expected to close. He also tapped his son James as heir apparent to his media empire News Corp.

Les Hinton, who has spent his career at News Corp.’s newspapers, will become CEO of Dow Jones next week, following a vote of the company’s shareholders on Dec 13. Hinton currently oversees News Corp’s papers in the United Kingdom, including The Times, The Times Literary Supplement, The Sun, and News of the World.

Robert Thomson, editor of The Times, will become publisher of the Journal. Dow Jones also owns Dow Jones Newswires, Barron’s and a news database business called Factiva.

James Murdoch was named boss of News Corporation in Europe and Asia on Friday in a move seen as putting him in line to succeed father and media mogul Rupert Murdoch as head of the sprawling empire.

The promotion of James Murdoch, the youngest of four children, marks a remarkable rise through the boardroom ranks for the only family heir inside News Corp, the US conglomerate chaired by his Australian-born father.

The younger Murdoch, who assumes his London-based post with immediate effect, is in charge of assets including News International UK, Sky Italia, the Asian-based Star TV and News Corporation Europe, the group said in a statement.

As chairman and chief executive of Europe and Asia, Murdoch will also oversee the Wall Street Journal Europe, The Times and The Sun as well as Australian publications controlled by News Corp.

The 34-year-old leaves his post as chief executive of British satellite television broadcaster BSkyB, in which News Corp is the leading shareholder, but will assume his father’s role as BSkyB non-executive chairman.

The reshuffle, which confirms what a source earlier told Reuters, appears to address the long-term speculation of who will eventually take over the media and communications conglomerate from the 76-year-old media mogul.

Rupert Murdoch’s older son, Lachlan, 36, had initially been seen as the leading contender during his time at News Corp but he left the group in 2005 to start a new venture.

Murdoch’s daughter Elisabeth, 39, has also been viewed as a dark horse candidate over the years. The former managing director of Sky Networks struck out on her own in 2000 and launched her own TV production company.

“This is grooming James for a larger role longer term at News Corp,” Pali Research analyst Richard Greenfield said. “He has proved himself beyond a doubt over the last several years at BSkyB.”

James Murdoch joined Sky in November 2003 and has expanded the company from its pay-TV roots to add broadband and telephony services. News Corp owns 39 percent of the company.

But like his father, he has proved to be a risk taker. He has also drawn the attention of regulators, leaving the group engaged in three separate investigations and a law suit with fierce rival Virgin Media.

His most audacious move came in November 2006, when he purchased a 17.9 percent stake in Britain’s biggest free-to-air commercial broadcaster ITV.

Murdoch said the purchase was a long-term investment but its rivals accused him of trying to prevent ITV from being bought by NTL — now renamed Virgin Media — and the deal is still being investigated by the UK Competition Commission.

WASHINGTON — Dec 5, ‘07 — The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission defended his plan to ease media ownership restrictions at a congressional hearing on Wednesday, saying it would leave a “high hurdle” to consolidation in smaller markets.

Facing close questioning from a House subcommittee, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin denied criticism that the plan to relax ownership restrictions in the top 20 U.S. markets would also open the door for local newspapers and TV broadcasters to combine in smaller markets around the United States.

Martin said proposals to combine newspapers and TV stations in smaller markets would still face a steep climb to get FCC approval.

The comments came during a hearing of the House subcommittee on the Internet and Telecommunications held to air concerns about Martin’s proposed changes to the 32-year-old ownership restrictions.

Martin and his fellow commissioners appeared before the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet Wednesday in a lengthy hearing to field questions about proposed changes in media ownership rules.

The chairman released the text of a proposed rule on Nov 13 that he said would allow a radio or television broadcaster to own a newspaper, but only in the nation’s 20 largest markets. But Democratic commissioners Jonathan Adelstein and Michael Copps say the rule creates a broader exception than what is currently on the books.

The commission is scheduled to vote on the cross-ownership rule Dec 18. Democrats on the commission and on the House panel have accused Martin of not allowing enough time for public review of his proposal.On Tuesday, the Senate Commerce Committee approved a bill that would delay the adoption of Martin’s proposal for at least six months until the agency completes studies on localism and minority ownership.

The commissioners are scheduled to make another trip to Capitol Hill before the ownership vote. On Dec 13, they will testify before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee.

NEW YORK — Dec 03, ‘07 — Don Imus is back on the air in New York City. He signed onto WABC at 6 am on Monday in front of a live studio audience.

Imus started by introducing his new cast members. Just eight months ago, Imus was forced off the radio over racist and sexist remarks he made about the Rutgers women’s basketball team.

He said that every time he would get upset about how he was treated - he was fired from CBS Radio and MSNBC - “I would remind myself that if I hadn’t said what I said, then we wouldn’t be having this discussion.”

Imus apologized Monday again to the players.

“I will never say anything in my lifetime that will make any of these young women at Rutgers regret or feel foolish that they accepted my apology and forgave me,” he said. “And no one else will say anything else on my program that will make anyone think that I didn’t deserve a second chance.”

While saying he had learned his lesson, he added - to applause from the live audience at Manhattan’s Town Hall: “The program is not going to change.”

His debut, on WABC-AM, completed a comeback that seemed improbable at the height of the uproar back in April over his calling the players “nappy-headed hos.”

WASHINGTON — The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is moving toward resurrecting a proposal that would limit the size cable operators could reach on a nationwide basis, agency officials said Thursday, Nov 29, the AP and Reuters are reporting.

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin is circulating the proposal among his fellow commissioners for a possible vote at the agency’s next meeting, scheduled for Dec 18 and has enough support on the five-member commission to pass a measure that would bar cable companies from owning systems that have more than a 30-percent share of U.S. multichannel video subscribers, according to one FCC source.

Martin, fresh off a marathon meeting that featured a bruising battle with the cable industry, also wants commissioners to vote on a number of media ownership issues, including his proposal to allow one company to own both a newspaper and a radio or television station in the nation’s 20 largest markets.

Fearing the potential monopoly power of cable television companies, Congress in 1992 directed the FCC to establish limits on how many customers cable television companies could reach nationwide. The FCC settled on a 30 percent cap, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit rejected the rule in 2001, saying the agency had failed to adequately justify its reasoning.

The issue has remained largely dormant since then as direct broadcast satellite providers — and more recently, traditional telephone companies — have continued to cut into the market share of the nation’s major cable television companies.

The immediate impact of such a cap would appear to be negligible. Comcast Corp., the nation’s largest cable company, reported 26.2 million subscribers to the FCC through Sept. 30, for a nationwide market share of all pay-television subscribers of 27 percent. More at AP, Reuters.

Inter BEE 2007 – CHIBA CITY, Japan –BUSINESS WIRE– Teac exhibits the HD-R1 recorder/player that uses Compact Flash as the recording media, at Inter BEE 2007, an international broadcasting equipment exhibition, in Makuhari. The device supports recording in MP3 and PCM (up to 96 kHz) format. It also supports control via LAN or RS-232C. A USB host feature enables playback of sound files in USB memory.

The SS-CDR1 recorder/player with Compact Flash and CD-R/RW drives supports recording in MP3 and PCM (up to 48 kHz) format. It also supports dubbing between CDR and Compact Flash media, continuous recording, and playback.

As with the HD-R1, the SS-CDR1 is a recorder/player that uses Compact Flash as the recording media. The supported recording formats are MP3 and PCM (up to 48 kHz). Photo Credit: SweetWater.

The HD-R1 can be yours for $1100 at SweetWater

CHARLOTTE, NC –BUSINESS WIRE– On Nov 06, ‘07 Verbatim Corporation announced the world’s first Color-background LightScribe 16x DVD-R and DVD+R media.

The new 4.7GB LightScribe DVDRs are available in vibrant shades of red, orange, yellow, blue and green in addition to the original gold color. Verbatim has begun shipping them in the US market in 25-packs which include five discs of each color.

The richly colored DVDRs are produced using LightScribe Media Version 1.2 coating technology on the label side for enhanced image contrast and faster label printing.

With a rainbow of background colors to choose from, consumers and businesses can burn customized LightScribe labels for their videos and multimedia presentations that will give them a professional look.

Colored LightScribe DVDR discs are label-compatible with all LightScribe-enabled drives.

Verbatim LightScribe Color-background 16X DVD-R and DVD+R media in 25-packs will be available in the US through leading retailers, Internet resellers and distributors in Q4 2007.

Antitrust: European Commission Fines Professional Videotape Producers Over €74 Million for Price Fixing Cartel

Brussels – November 20, 2007 –The European Commission has imposed a total of $109 Million (€ 74,790,000)  fines on Sony, Fuji and Maxell for fixing prices for professional videotapes sold to customers in Europe, in violation of the EC Treaty’s ban on cartels and restrictive business practices (Article 81).

Between 1999 and 2002, Sony, Fuji and Maxell managed to raise or otherwise control prices through a series of regular meetings and other illicit contacts. Sony’s fine has been increased by 30% for obstructing the Commission’s investigation during on-site inspections at its premises.

Fuji’s and Maxell’s fines are reduced by 40% and 20% respectively because they co-operated with the investigation under the Commission’s 2002 Leniency Notice. There was no immunity applicant in this case. For the calculation of the fines, the Commission applied for the first time its new 2006 Guidelines.

Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said: “This decision sends two warnings to companies engaging in cartel activities: first, the Commission can prosecute cartels effectively even without prompts from immunity applicants, and second, obstructing a Commission’s antitrust investigation leads to severe penalties.”

The Commission started an investigation on its own initiative with surprise inspections, carried out at the premises of Sony’s, Fuji’s and Maxell’s European subsidiaries in May 2002.

The inspections proved particularly successful as abundant evidence of cartel activities was found. However, a Sony employee refused to answer oral questions asked by the Commission’s inspectors, in breach of Sony’s obligation to answer, while another Sony employee was found to have shredded documents during the inspection.

Fuji and, at a later stage, Maxell co-operated with the Commission and submitted additional evidence. Sony only acknowledged its involvement after receiving the Statement of Objections.

The cartel
The cartel covered the two most popular professional videotape formats at the time of the infringement: Betacam SP and Digital Betacam, which in 2001 totalled annual sales of some €115 million in the European Economic Area (EEA). TV stations and independent producers of TV programmes and advertising films are the main customers of professional videotapes.

Sony, Fuji and Maxell, with a combined share of more than 85% of the professional video tape market, organised three successful rounds of price increases and endeavoured to stabilise prices whenever an increase was not possible. They also regularly monitored the implementation of the price agreements.

The evidence uncovered describes in detail eleven meetings during which Sony, Fuji and Maxell discussed and agreed prices and/or exchanged sensitive commercial information as well as continuous contacts intended to monitor the implementation of their cartel agreements.

Fines
This is the first Commission antitrust decision where the 2006 Guidelines on Fines have been applied . Under the new method, fines better reflect the overall economic significance of the infringement as well as the share of each company involved.

More at European Commission.

Popular Service Lets You Capture And Share Online Text, Images & Videos.

NEW YORK — BUSINESS WIRE– Nov 07, ‘07 — Forbes Media, the corporate parent of Forbes.com, announced today that it had acquired Clipmarks, a unique Web-clipping service that enables people to clip and share text and other content from Web pages. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

Clipmarks’ free browser add-on application lets people clip text, images and videos from Web pages, and then save, blog, e-mail and print what they clip. Their site is home to a vibrant community of clippers who share and discuss their clips, among other uses.

Clipmarks joins the growing family of Forbes Web sites, which also includes Forbes.com, ForbesTraveler.com, ForbesAutos.com, Investopedia.com and RealClearPolitics.com.

In making the announcement, Forbes President and CEO Steve Forbes stated, “We’re very pleased to welcome Clipmarks to Forbes Media as we continue our pursuit of enhancing and growing the company. Web users will find Clipmarks’ technology extremely useful.”

“We’re very pleased to welcome Clipmarks to the Forbes family of sites,” said Jim Spanfeller, President & CEO of Forbes.com. “The technology offers our audience of affluent business decision-makers interesting additional content from around the Web, conveniently located in one place.”

Eric Goldstein, co-founder of Clipmarks, will remain CEO of the Company. “In order for us to fulfill our mission of enabling people to capture and share information on the Web, it became clear that we needed additional resources and a great partner,” said Eric Goldstein. “We are excited to have found such a partner in Forbes and are more committed than ever to create better ways for people to connect with information.”

Forbes.com editors use Clipmarks technology across the Forbes.com site, clipping and posting content from other Web sites that they think site users might be interested in reading.

Nov 06, ‘07 — Tech-On! is reporting on Sony, on the heels of its increased capabilities to record Holographic Disc more densly, recording 7-layer Holographic disc and further aiming to record 500GB of data on 20-layer disc by 2010.

In their words, “Sony Corp wrote and read data on a medium equivalent to a seven-layer disc by using “Micro-Reflector method,” a multilayer recording technology using holographic recording.

The company calculated the error rates of reproduced signals after signal conditioning such as equalizing. Until now, the company wrote and read on discs of up to four layers and announced only the eye patterns of reproduced signals.

This time, the achievement was announced at ISOM’ 07, an international conference on optical memory, which took place Oct 21-25, 2007, in Singapore. At the conference, Sony made speeches about speeding up data transmission speed, improving memory density per layer and increasing the number of recording layers even more.

In the Micro-Reflector method, lights are shed on both sides of a holographic medium. The focus points of the lights meet and interact with each other in a recording layer to form interference fringes. An interference fringe has an information amount of one bit. To read the data, a light is shed on one side of the medium.” More at Tech-On!

Nov 05, ‘07 — In a widely expected move, Parsons will announce that he is giving up his post Dec. 31, and will be replaced by Chief Operating Officer Jeff Bewkes. Bewkes, identified as the heir apparent since 2005, will take over the CEO job on Jan 1.

Parsons is expected to remain as chairman of the board, and there was no timetable set for how long he will stay in that position. A Time Warner spokesman declined to comment.

Parsons’ contract officially ends in May 2008. He took over the company in 2002 after a difficult merger with America Online and has been credited with improving the company’s operations across its portfolio of movies, cable television and cable services companies.

His departure ahead of the contract’s expiration and speculation that he would retain the chairman role, has been long rumored.

Bewkes, who also serves as president of the company, was identified close to two years ago as the leading candidate to take over as CEO upon Parsons’s exit. Some investors said they believed tough decisions on spinning off or selling off divisions, including AOL, would more likely to be made by Bewkes. More at CNBC.

Nov 05, ‘07 — Sony increased the surface recording density of coaxial holographic recording to 270 Gbits/inch². This is 1.5 times the density of the company’s existing holographic recording technology, which is 180 Gbits/inch².

A card type holographic medium called coupon medium was used as the recording medium. The achievement was presented at ISOM’07, an international conference on optical memories, which ran from Oct 21-25, 2007 in Singapore, as well as other events.

The company made two improvements to enhance the recording density. First, the NA of the objective lens was increased form 0.64 to 0.85. The improvement of NA was obtained by changing the design of lens group, etc. The enhancement of NA results in smaller interference fringes recorded on the medium, thereby increasing the recording density from 180 to 230 Gbits/inch².

Second, the recording capacity per page was increased from 95 to 135 Kbits. As a result, the recording density was improved from 230 to 270 Gbits/inch². More at Tech-On!

SUNNYVALE, Calif. — November 5, 2007 –AMD today announced availability of home servers based on the AMD LIVE! Home Media Server solution. First to market is the HP MediaSmart Server, which is powered by AMD64 technology and Microsoft Windows Home Server software. This new category of home media servers offers consumers a simple way to access, share and enjoy their PC files, digital photos, movies and music throughout the networked home and on the go.

Broadband, multi-PC networked households are expected to grow to 150 million worldwide by 2010, according to a recent study by analyst firm IDC. As the consumption of digital media continues to rise exponentially, devices like the HP MediaSmart Server help fulfill a growing need for digital file protection and centralization within the home while enhancing consumers’ entertainment experiences, regardless of media format or preferred devices.

The HP MediaSmart Server can be ordered beginning today from HP and select online channel partners in North America, and is expected to be available in select European countries in early 2008.

The complete AMD LIVE! solution includes desktop and notebook PCs, the AMD LIVE! Home Cinema, the AMD LIVE! Home Media Server, and the AMD LIVE! Entertainment Suite. More information and free software downloads are available at AMD Live!

HP MediaSmart Server EX470 / EX475 Specs:

- OS: Windows Home Server
- Control Center: Software that runs on network PCs to give all network users the ability to browse browse shared folders on the HP MediaSmart Server, add photos and video clips video clips to the HP Photo Webshare and perform an immediate backup of their computer
- PC hard drive backup: Once the HP MediaSmart Server software is installed on a home PC, the Windows Windows Home Server backup software automatically starts backing up the PC’s hard drive image every night. You can customize number and frequency of backups kept.
-Media streaming: Microsoft Windows Media Connect media streaming capability for streaming streaming photos, music, video and downloaded movies to an HP MediaSmart TV, an Xbox 360, or to a networked home entertainment center
- Users: Up to 10 user accounts can access the HP MediaSmart Server. In addition, a predefined predefined Guest can be enabled
- PC operating system support:
  - Backup – Microsoft Windows Vista, Windows XP
  - Remote access to computers – Microsoft Windows XP Pro, Media Center Edition 2004 or higher, or Windows Vista Ultimate or higher
  - File sharing – Microsoft Windows Vista, Windows XP Home or Windows XP Pro, Windows 2000 Pro SP4, Mac OS X, Linux
- AMD 1.8 GHz 64-bit Sempron
- 512MB DDR2 DRAM
- 10/100/1000 (Gigabit) RJ45
- 4 USB 2.0, 1 eSATA
- Internal Hard Drives: 1 SATA 500GB for EX470
  2 SATA 1TB(2×500GB) for EX475
- Four Hard Drive Bays for Expandability
- No word on price yet

More at HP MediaSmart Server, AMD Live!

New York, NY–Nov 02, ‘07–A little more than six months ago, Don Imus’ career seemed doomed. The shock jock had been fired over a racist and sexist remark that ignited an uproar over the limits of taste and tolerance.

But the cantankerous Imus has clambered back from the professional brink before, and the Rasputin of radio is poised to do it again.

Citadel Broadcasting Corp. announced Thursday that Imus would return to radio Dec. 3., confirming long-rumored reports that he was coming back to morning drive time on WABC-AM, based in New York - the same city where he was banished from the airwaves last spring.

“We are ecstatic to bring Don Imus back to morning radio,” said WABC President and General Manager Steve Borneman. “Don’s unique brand of humor, knowledge of the issues and ability to attract big-name guests is unparalleled. He is rested, fired up and ready to do great radio.”

CBS Radio fired Imus on April 12 amid a firestorm of controversy over his “nappy-headed hos” remark about the Rutgers University women’s basketball team.