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LOUISVILLE, Colo –BUSINESS WIRE– Dec 19, `07 — In a major milestone for the cable industry, CableLabs has awarded qualification status for Data over Cable Service Interface Specification (DOCSIS) 3.0.

DOCSIS 3.0 specifications enable downstream data rates of 160 Mbps or higher and upstream data rates of 120 Mbps or higher.

Casa Systems received “silver” qualification while Arris and Cisco received “bronze” qualification for their cable modem termination systems (CMTS) headend gear. The announcement comes at the conclusion of the recent test wave in which the first products built based on the DOCSIS 3.0 specifications were formally evaluated.

The headends were tested under a tiered program that was created as a way to encourage CMTS makers to submit gear for testing earlier than they otherwise might. CableLabs also offered suppliers numerous informal interoperability events where vendors work together in CableLabs’ facilities to test and evaluate their implementations of the specifications.

“This technological achievement is a great step for our industry,” said Brian L. Roberts, Chairman and CEO of Comcast Corp., and Chairman of the CableLabs Board of Directors. “CableLabs rapid certification effort will enable companies to begin to develop products that will support the rapid deployment of DOCSIS 3.0 services in 2008.”

To achieve these higher data rates DOCSIS 3.0 describes a methodology for channel bonding in both the upstream and downstream directions. A minimum of four channels, each with throughput of 40 Mbps, is specified. DOCSIS 3.0 also incorporates support for the Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6).

IPv6 is the next generation of the Internet Protocol and greatly expands the number of Internet addresses that cable operators may use, allowing them to provide consumers with more IP-based services. In addition, DOCSIS 3.0 is backward compatible with all existing DOCSIS products.

IPv6 also will allow cable operators to effectively manage the proliferation of devices that are capturing consumer interest, including portable media players, cellular phones, gaming consoles, PDAs and others. More at CableLabs.

Companies sign landmark multi-year deal to collaborate on content distribution, advertising, event promotions and gaming

Microsoft’s Atlas to become exclusive ad serving platform for Viacom US web sites

NEW YORK and REDMOND, Wash — Dec 19, `07 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Viacom and Microsoft today announced a broad-based, strategic alliance under which major divisions of both companies will collaborate on advertising, content distribution, event promotions and games over the next several years.

The comprehensive agreement spans across the two companies and includes a number of significant components. Among them:

– Microsoft will license, on a non-exclusive basis, long and short-form television and theatrical content from across Viacom’s cable network
and motion picture businesses, including MTV, Comedy Central, BET and Paramount Pictures for use on Microsoft properties such as MSN and Xbox 360.

– Microsoft’s Atlas division will become the ad server for Viacom’s US websites and Microsoft will have the exclusive right to sell remnant
display advertising inventory on Viacom’s US websites.

– Microsoft will buy advertising on Viacom broadcast and online networks over a five-year period and the companies will work together on
promotions and sponsorships for MTV Networks and BET Networks award shows;

– Viacom will work with Microsoft on opportunities to become a preferred publishing partner across Microsoft’s casual gaming platforms.

Detailed financial terms were not disclosed, but the deal has a projected base value of approximately $500 million in financial considerations and business services between the two companies over the initial five-year length of the agreement.

The deal includes a combination of revenue sharing provisions, guarantees and content licensing agreements.More at Viacom.

New-Generation XSPAN Delivers 11n Performance at Price Points To Enable Broad Deployment of Triple-Play Gateways.

SANTA CLARA, Calif — Dec 17, `07 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Atheros today announced two single-chip 802.11n solutions developed expressly for the carrier gateway market.

The new dual-band, 2.4GHz/5GHz, AR9220 and single-band, 2.4GHz AR9223 PCI designs join the comprehensive Atheros XSPAN family, the world’s most widely adopted draft 802.11n Wi-Fi solutions.

These latest 802.11n designs provide reliable, market-proven performance at price points that allow carriers to broadly deploy home gateways capable of supporting data, voice and video on a single wireless network.

The AR9220 dual-band, 2×2 MIMO, PCI design is ideal for high-end, multiplay gateways and set-top boxes, which must robustly support multimedia applications requiring uninterrupted throughput — IPTV, HD video streaming, VoIP calls and multi-player online gaming on the 5GHz channel-while using the 2.4GHz band for simple data networking.

This solution provides leading 802.11a/g/n performance, supporting up to 300 Mbps physical data rates and 200 Mbps of actual user throughput on both the uplink and the downlink. With the dual-band design, users will enjoy universal connectivity to any 802.11 device through their gateway or set-top box. More at Atheros.

New Processor Provides 10x Performance Increase at One Tenth the Cost and Flexibility for HD Video Processing and Multi-Channel Applications.

HOUSTON, Texas — Dec 03, ‘07 /PRNewswire/ — To allow consumers to seamlessly move content across their video end products, Texas Instruments is offering a new DaVinci technology digital media processor for video transcoding in media gateways, multi-point control units, digital media adaptors, video security DVRs and IP set-top boxes.

Wrapped with a complete offering of development tools and digital media software, the new TMS320DM6467 DaVinci processor is a DSP-based system-on-chip (SoC) specifically tuned for real-time, multi-format, high-definition (HD) video transcoding. Integrating an ARM926EJ-S core and 600 MHz C64x+(TM) DSP core along with a high-definition video co-processor, conversion engine and targeted video port interfaces, the system solution delivers a 10x performance improvement over previous generation processors to perform simultaneous, multi-format HD encode, decode and transcoding up to H.264 HP@L4 (1080p 30fps, 1080i 60fps, 720p 60fps). More at DaVinci/TMS320DM6467.

Video security systems will see similar BOM (bill of materials) reductions and have the flexibility to implement multi-format multi-channel encode (up to four channels of MPEG4/H.264 MP D1 plus four secondary channels of MPEG4/H.264 MP CIF) or decode (up to six channels of MPEG4/H.264 MP D1) for hybrid digital video recorder (DVR) and server (DVS) systems. The DM6467 has an integrated C64x+ DSP which can accommodate video analytics or proprietary video processing algorithms. The DM6467 integrated ARM9, 10/100/1000 EMAC and ATA interfaces would eliminate the need for external host processor enabling a single chip DVR/DVS system.

Pricing and Availability

The DaVinci TMS320DM6467 is now sampling to select customers and will be sold in 50Ku volume for $35.95. The DVEVM is scheduled to begin shipping in 1Q08 from TI and TI Authorized Distributors. theDaVincieffect.

Espoo, Finland — Dec 03, ‘07 — Discover and listen to radio shows broadcasted over the internet with the Nokia Internet Radio service now available. The application can be downloaded for free from Nokia.com/internetRadio and will also be embedded in upcoming Nokia S60 3rd edition devices.

“Most new music discovery occurs while you’re listening to the radio,” said Tommi Mustonen, head of the Nokia music business. “By offering the Nokia Internet Radio service on mobile devices, the radio experience becomes more accessible, giving people new ways to find music.”

With hundreds of internet radio stations to choose from worldwide, the station directory of Nokia Internet Radio makes music discovery effortless - browsing can be done based on station name, genre, country or language.

To find out what hits are hot around the world, hourly updates of the top ten most popular internet radio stations are also available in the station directory. Plus, there is no need to search for your top stations time and again because adding them to the list of ‘Favorites’ makes them easily accessible.

Moreover, the audio quality is enhanced by selecting appropriate streaming servers that match the speed of the current network connection.

The Nokia Internet Radio application is currently available for download to the following devices: Nokia N82, Nokia N91, Nokia N95 and Nokia N95 8GB.

The application is planned to be available later on further devices and will be embedded in selected upcoming Nokia S60 3rd edition devices. Please visit Nokia.com/internetRadio for the list of the latest compatible devices.

Taipei, Taiwan — Nov 30, ‘07 — DigiTimes is reporting on AMD’s plan to drop the price of its Radeon HD 3850 and 3870 GPUs by around $20, citing sources at graphics card makers.

DigiTimes further writes,”In response to AMD’s plans, Nvidia also notified its partners that it will consider following up with price reductions of its own, causing several makers to delay mass orders to prevent themselves from absorbing the price damage, according to the sources.”

The original official Radeon HD 3850 and 3870 prices were US$179 and US$219. More at DigiTimes.

Brussels — November 29, ‘07 — Today the rapid deployment of mobile TV services across Europe has taken a significant step forward as EU Member States endorsed the European Commission three pillar strategy presented in July: putting in place a joint approach to the licensing of mobile TV in order to accelerate the roll out of services and to encourage innovative business models; making available spectrum for these services, possibly in the UHF frequency band; and promoting the use of DVB-H as the mobile TV standard for Europe.

Next steps will now include the preparation of guidelines for authorization procedures and the addition of DVB-H to the official list of standards whose use all 27 EU Member States have to support and encourage. This proactive European strategy for mobile TV aims at giving European consumers the benefits of television everywhere and anytime, as is increasingly the case in Asia and the US. It also gives content creators, broadcasters, service providers and hardware manufacturers the certainty they need to roll-out mobile TV services across Europe in 2008.

The Commission is strongly committed to the success of mobile TV which could be a market of up to €20 billion by 2011, reaching some 500 million customers worldwide. The Commission considers 2008 to be a crucial year for mobile TV take-up in the EU due to important sports events, such as the European Football Championship and the Summer Olympic Games, which will provide a unique opportunity for raising consumers’ awareness and for the adoption of new services.

Today, South Korea and Japan alone have 20 million mobile TV customers, more than 30 times the number of users in the EU. These competitors have undertaken massive efforts to promote their own single standards around the globe, threatening one of Europe’s most promising industries.

To date DVB-H has been commercially launched in Italy and Finland, with trials in Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, France, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. More at European Commission.

Related Articles:

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Qualcomm Intros Snapdragon, First Chipset to Break the Gigahertz Barrier with Multi-mode Broadband and Multimedia Features

Remember last month NBC and FOX launched ad supported online video site Hulu?

The site is still in private beta and invitation only. I just received the invitation and here’s a sample clip from NBC’s 30 Rock, in which “Liz finally talks to Cerie about her inappropriate choice of clothing at the office.”

With a very quick look it sounds like Hulu have a fairly nice collection of SNL, 30 Rock, Tonight Show, The Office and other videos, considering its still in beta and the full screen resolution was  quite good.

If NBC and partners make full range of Tonight Show, SNL, 30 Rock and alike available at the full launch, the site will be booming with web viewers, making up for the market share NBC has lost in recent years.

You can sign up for private beta at  Hulu.

NEW YORK — News Corp’s Internet division plans to launch an online network to sell advertising across Rupert Murdoch’s sprawling empire and even to other media companies as early as the first half of next year, reports Reuters.

Reuters further reports, “Fox Interactive Media (FIM) President Peter Levinsohn told the Reuters Media Summit in New York on Monday, Nov 26, that the network, internally dubbed “FIM Serve,” is the subject of discussion across the company after first being built for its MySpace online social network.

“It could happen as early as the first half of next year,” he said. “We’re ready to go … we’re starting to have conversations outside now.”

The launch of a broader ad network follows a frenzied buying spree of privately held ad networks by Microsoft, Yahoo, Time Warner’s AOL and Google to dominate the fastest-growing segment of the global advertising industry.

He noted that the ad network focuses on graphical display advertising and would not conflict with the company’s partnership with Google, which provides search listings.

The seeds of News Corp’s online ad push come from its work to better target MySpace users, a project which it launched over the summer called HyperTargeting. The technology mines the profiles of its 110 million global users to bring them ads more relevant to their interests.

But across the Internet, subjecting users to more marketing has drawn the ire of privacy advocates. Rival social network Facebook faced a backlash from thousands of users after it allowed marketers to place ads on user pages based on products they bought online. More at Reuters.

London — Nov 27, ‘07 — The BBC, ITV and Channel 4 are to launch a joint on-demand service, which will bring together hundreds of hours of television programmes in one place, BBC News said on Tuesday.

The service is set to go live in 2008 and will offer viewers access to current shows and archive material. Plans will have to be approved by the BBC Trust and the other broadcasters’ boards, and a name for the service will be unveiled ahead of its launch.

The three broadcasters currently offer their own separate on-demand services.

The BBC’s iPlayer, ITV’s catch-up service and Channel 4oD will continue to exist along the new online “aggregator”, which will provide a complement to the established providers.

Programming from all three broadcasters will be available for free download, streaming, rental and purchase via the internet, with expansion on to other platforms planned.

John Smith, the chief executive of BBC Worldwide, said the venture was a “historic partnership” between the BBC, ITV and Channel 4.

“The new service will contain some of the very best of the UK’s content for consumers to view in one place, which will be both easy to use and great fun,” he added.

The BBC and ITV’s on-demand services launched earlier this year, with the commerical broadcaster initially concentrating on soap opera catch-ups.

Channel 4’s service offers hundreds of hours of programming from current series such as Ugly Betty to classic shows including Father Ted. Other on-demand services are offered by other providers including Five, Sky, BT Vision and Tiscali.

NEW YORK — Nov 26, ‘07 — International Herald Tribune is reporting on ABC News joining hands with popular social networking site, Facebook.

“ABC News and Facebook have formally established a partnership - the site’s first with a news organization - that allows Facebook members to follow ABC reporters, view reports and video and participate in polls and debates, all within a new “US Politics” category.

To underscore their collaboration, the two organizations plan to announce Monday that they are jointly playing host to Democratic and Republican presidential debates in New Hampshire on Jan. 5, three days before the state’s primary elections.

The announcements are another sign that news organizations are looking to capitalize on the potential power of Facebook, which began as a database of college friendships, and other social networking sites.

Media companies like The New York Times, which owns the International Herald Tribune, and The Washington Post have produced program applications on Facebook and some newspapers, magazines and television stations have recently invited users to join fan pages. But ABC’s new relationship is intended to be deeper.

The collaboration between ABC News and Facebook started quietly several weeks ago, with personal pages of network reporters like Rick Klein, the author of ABC’s widely read political newsletter The Note, and Sunlen Miller, who has been following the Barack Obama campaign.

For ABC News, the collaboration puts political content on a site with 56 million active users. For Facebook, it adds an authoritative source and fresh content for the site’s political section.” More at IHT.

Nov 23, ‘07 — CableLabs has begun testing the first set of DOCSIS 3.0 gear, as five companies have submitted cable modems to the organization for official approval. We’ve seen precertification equipment tested, and some cable ISPs in Asia have rolled out pre-DOCSIS 3.0 equipment, but this is the first set of gear to be tested for compliance with the final DOCSIS 3.0 standard, says ARSTechnica.

ARSTechnica further writes, “Cable ISPs currently use DOCSIS 1.1, which has been “good enough” in the past. Unfortunately, when compared to fiber, DOCSIS 1.1 lacks in the speed department. DOCSIS 3.0 has the potential to drastically change that, with download speeds of up to 160Mbps and uploads of up to 120Mbps possible. In addition, DOCSIS 3.0 also offers full support for IPv6, along with enhanced network management and security features. DOCSIS 3.0 also offers enough bandwidth for IPTV and other high-def video services.

The first round of DOCSIS 3.0 certification comes at an important time for the cable industry. Cable companies used to be the unquestioned kings of download speeds, but they’re finding it impossible to compete with fiber-optic deployments such as Verizon’s FiOS service. Last month, Verizon announced its new 20/20 symmetrical FiOS service, and earlier this week made the service available across its entire territory. The company also rolled out a new service tier with speeds of 50Mbps down and 30Mbps up.” More at ARSTechnica.

NEW YORK – Nov 20, ‘07 /PRNewswire/ — Millions of consumers now can take advantage of ultra-fast Verizon FiOS Internet upload speeds that blow cable away.

Starting today, Verizon is offering its high-speed symmetrical FiOS Internet services to consumers in 16 states served by its advanced, all-fiber- optic network. The symmetrical services make possible equally fast downstream and upstream connections of up to 15 megabits per second (Mbps) or up to 20 Mbps depending on the state where the service is sold.

At the same time, Verizon also has dramatically increased the upload speed of its fastest FiOS Internet services across its FiOS Internet service areas. These new services offer consumers downstream/upstream connections of either up to 50 Mbps/20 Mbps or up to 30 Mbps/15 Mbps depending on the state where the service is sold.

Groundbreaking Consumer Symmetrical Services Expand to 16 FiOS States:
On Oct. 23, Verizon introduced a unique, new, symmetrical Verizon FiOS Internet service for consumers, featuring an upload and download speed of up to 20 Mbps. The service was first available to customers in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. Today Verizon is launching similar symmetrical FiOS services in the 13 other states served by its fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) network.
In Florida, Massachusetts and Rhode Island, Verizon now offers the option of a FiOS Internet service with downstream and upstream connections of up to 20 Mbps. In California, Delaware, Indiana, Maryland, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Oregon, Texas, Virginia and Washington, the company has added a new FiOS Internet service with downstream and upstream connections of up to 15 Mbps.

The new symmetrical services are available for as low as $64.99 a month with an annual service plan. Customers who subscribe to the new Internet service can upgrade their backup to as much as 50 GB at competitive rates.

Fastest FiOS Internet Services Get Faster Uploads:
In Connecticut, Florida, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Rhode Island, Verizon is quadrupling the upstream connection speed of its highest- speed FiOS Internet service from five Mbps to up to 20 Mbps (megabits per second). The downstream connection speed of this service is up to 50 Mbps.

In California, Delaware, Indiana, Maryland, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Oregon, Texas, Virginia and Washington, Verizon is tripling the upstream connection speed of its highest-speed FiOS Internet offering from five Mbps to up to 15 Mbps. The downstream connection speed of this service is up to 30 Mbps.

Pricing for these new services varies by market and ranges from $89.95 to $139.95 a month with an annual contract. Existing customers can call Verizon to subscribe to the new offering.

Consumer demand for bandwidth could see the internet running out of capacity as early as 2010, a new study warns. US analyst firm Nemertes Research predicted a drastic slowdown as the network struggles to cope with the amount of data being carried on it.

Such gridlock would drastically affect how people use the web and could mean the next Google or YouTube simply doesn’t get off the ground, it said. The report said billions needed to be spent upgrading broadband networks.

It put the figure at around $137bn (£66bn) globally. For users, the slowdown could see a return to the bad old days of dial-up, the report predicts. “It may take more than one attempt to confirm an online purchase or it may take longer to download the latest video from YouTube,” the report cited. But it is the knock-on effect for new services that could be the real problem, report authors think. “The next Amazon, Google or YouTube might not arise, not from a lack of user demand but because of insufficient infrastructure preventing applications and companies emerging,” the report warned.

The demand for bandwidth-intensive applications shows no sign of abating. Nearly 75% of US internet users watched an average of 158 minutes of online video and viewed more than 8.3bn video streams during May, according to research by measurement firm comScore.

The financial invested required to “bridge the gap” between demand and capacity would range from $42bn to $55bn in the US, Nemertes estimates. The report is part-funded by the Internet Innovation Alliance (IIA) which campaigns for universal broadband in the US.

SINGAPORE – Nov 19, ‘07 –PRNewswire — A young couple from Singapore and the U.S. — she’s a currency trader, he’s an IT guy — plan on not missing a day of work as they travel around the world.

To get the public to tag along and see how they do it, Grace and Pedro have hired TransMedia Group to publicize their daily online TV show at Worldiki.

“Hopefully by the time they arrive in New York, a great many voyeuristic fans around the world will know why they’re doing this,” she
added. They’re currently traveling throughout Asia just as a “warm-up” for their grand tour commencing in January, 2008.

This adventurous couple, Grace, 27, from Singapore, and Pedro 26, from the U.S. and Spain, are embarking on this peripatetic journey to show vividly in high-definition film that you can travel the globe without sacrificing your career one bit, said Morgan.

Grace makes money by trading money online (forex trading). She has also authored a book on forex trading (“7 Winning Strategies For Trading Forex”, Harriman House, 2007). Many know her to be this “too-young” girl who crazily takes the road less traveled. After a few years of trading currencies intensively and not having enough time for fun stuff, she has now decided to take her trading on the road and travel the world while managing her trading.

Pedro is an IT geek who wrote his first basic program on an Apple II when he was 7. Since then, he’s done everything from running servers, developing real-time applications to managing the IT infrastructure and department of an MNC. He has now decided to work on his own business and travel the world while doing so (with internet available almost everywhere, this is now possible!), and what would seem more natural for a geek but to blog about it!

From Singapore, the couple will travel to dozens of countries and visit perhaps as many as 30 or 40 cities, including Thailand, Cairo, Jerusalem, Jordan, South Africa where they plan to go on safari at Kwandwe Game Preserve, Guayaquil, Peru, Santiago, Chile, Madrid, Budapest, Rome, where they will visit The Vatican, Mexico, where they will see first hand the devastation caused by recent floods, Miami, San Francisco, Los Angeles and wind up in New York.

“We might squeeze in Australia with maybe a stopover in Tahiti on the way to Hawaii,” said Pedro, who together with his wife, Grace Cheng
has managed to merge their mutual love of travel with earning a successful living as they go. The public can follow their travels daily on their blog, said Morgan. They plan ultimately to turn their travels into a reality television series.

SUNNYVALE, Calif. — November 19, 2007 –Rewriting the rules for enthusiast computing, AMD today unveiled its new platform codenamed “Spider”, with the first true quad-core processor supporting scalable graphics for The Ultimate Visual Experience. The AMD Spider platform combines the introduction of AMD Phenom quad-core processors, ATI Radeon HD 3800 Series graphics processors with Microsoft DirectX 10.1 support, AMD 7-Series chipsets with CrossFireX and AMD OverDrive software. The AMD Spider platform is a major milestone on the path to Accelerated Computing, AMD’s vision for platform-level acceleration through co-processing.

AMD’s Spider platform advances enthusiast computing by delivering the most sophisticated multi-GPU enthusiast platform ever with ATI CrossFireX technology. The combination of the energy-efficient 55nm ATI Radeon HD 3800 Series of graphics processors and the increased system bandwidth of PCI Express® Generation 2.0 and HyperTransport 3.0 technology, provide optimal processing power for a scalable HD multi-GPU experience. AMD design and manufacturing innovation has enabled the AMD Spider platform to easily scale to three or four graphics processors and deliver a true gaming supercomputer.

HD Technology
With HyperTransport 3.0 technology, AMD Phenom processors have more system bandwidth than ever before with up to 14.4 GB/second of high bandwidth I/O. When combined with the additional bandwidth of AMD PCI Express 2.0 chipsets and graphics processors, the AMD Spider platform enjoys maximum bandwidth to support smooth 1080P video playback, enhanced multi-GPU and high-speed disk and network interfaces. With the only true quad-core processor and infrastructure flexibility with AM2+ socket, AMD processors are designed to be compatible with future 65nm and 45nm AMD Phenom processors to deliver key performance gains.

The addition of UVD ensures exceptional platform efficiency and image quality in HD-DVD and Blu-ray decoding for both H.264 and VC-1 specifications. Big screen gaming and entertainment is also made easy with enhanced HDMI connectivity with integrated HDCP and audio for HDMI video.

Scalable Platform Performance
The multi-core design of AMD Phenom quad-core processors, based on Direct Connect Architecture, features an integrated memory controller designed to support memory speeds up to DDR2 1066, 128-bit floating point units and AMD’s Balanced Smart Cache for rapid access to memory, with a shared L3 cache for leading-edge performance on multi-threaded software.

Availability and pricing
AMD Phenom processors 9600 (2.3GHz) and 9500 (2.2GHz) are now available for $283 and $251 respectively in 1,000-unit pricing. The ATI Radeon HD 3850 with 256MB of GDDR3 memory begins at US $179 MSRP and the ATI Radeon HD 3870 with 512MB GDDR4 memory from US $219 MSRP, available from AMD’s selected graphics products partners.

TOKYO & SAN DIEGO –BUSINESS WIRE– Nov 13, ‘07 — DivX today announced that DivX video technology will be integrated into PLAYSTATION3 (PS3) from Sony. The popular computer entertainment system will be added to the ecosystem of devices that currently support DivX video playback. To date, over 100 million DivX Certified products have been shipped into the market, and it is anticipated PS3 will significantly expand that number.

“We are excited to work with Sony Computer Entertainment to bring DivX to PS3,” said Kevin Hell, CEO of DivX, Inc. “Our technology will expand the multimedia functionality of PS3 by enabling users to enjoy access to the broad library of content in the DivX digital media format.”

DivX is currently working to certify PS3 and deliver a superior digital media technology to consumers in the near future. Current PS3 end users will be able to add DivX functionality to their systems via a separate system software update at a forthcoming date. PS3 game title developers will be able to utilize DivX’s decoder technology by updating the system software of PS3’s Software Development Kit to version 2.00, which was released by SCE on November 2^nd. DivX.

Nov 12, ‘07 — Bob Duffy post an awesome YouTube video at Intel’s “The Server Room Blog” on Intel’s engineers and architects, Stephen Fischer, Principal Architect, Penryn Microsprocessor; Mark Bohr, Intel Senior Fellow; Kelin Kuhn, 45nm Device Group Leader; Kaizad Mistry, 45nm Program Manager, explaining how Intel got down to 45nm and what’s next after Penryn.

In his words, “Moore’s law has pushed the phyisical limits of the current materials. Intel has used Hafnium based materials allowing for smaller devices without gate leakage. As Kelin Kuhn says, the technology is getting nearly “incomprehensable”.

With 45nm technology we are working on a scale where 400 transistors can fit on the the size of a human bloodcell. Modern processors are allowing for 100’s of millions of working transitors, and devices in the fab are being produced at 1/10th the wavelength of light … truly amazing.” More at The Server Room Blog.

Nov 10, ‘07 — BERTOLLI, NBC has launched NBC Direct where you can download full episodes of NBC shows for free and enjoy them from the comfort of your PC, IF:

1. You have updated Intenet Explorer
2. You have Windows Media player 10
3. You download proprietary NBC Direct player

Videos will last 7 days only:
“The NBC Direct service uses a “fixed” and a “temporary” license arrangement. Under the terms of the “fixed” license agreement, all videos can be downloaded and viewed for seven (7) days from the date they are made available. However, within this timeframe, the user is required to renew a “temporary” license every 48 hours in order to continue viewing your selected content. ” says NBC Direct.

And yea, there’s more coverage to “Bertolli” than NBC at NBC Direct.

Nov 06, ‘07 — AT&T cut its forecast Tuesday for how many homes will have access to U-verse, the service that sends cable TV through home phone lines.

In a regulatory filing, the San Antonio-based company said it expects U-verse to be available to 17 million homes at the end of next year, down from a previous estimate of 18 million.

The delay is due to a shift in resources to prepare for the U-Verse rollout in the former BellSouth territory, AT&T said. It acquired BellSouth late last year for $86 billion.

Also to prepare for the startup in the Southeastern region, AT&T raised its estimate for capital spending on U-verse by $500 million for 2007 and 2008, bringing it to between $4.5 billion and $5 billion. Since the additional spending is for preparatory work, it won’t result in U-verse being available to additional homes by 2008.

AT&T has already delayed the rollout schedule for the U-verse project several times. As late as May, it expected U-verse to be available to 19 million homes by the end of 2008.

The service is seen as critical to stemming the loss of voice subscribers to cable companies. To provide it, AT&T is pulling fiber-optic lines closer to homes.

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.

ROCHESTER, NY–BUSINESS WIRE–Nov 05, ‘07–According to the latest Harris Poll, the number of adults who are online at home, in the office, at school, library or other locations continues to grow at a steady rate. In the past year, the number of online users has reached an estimated 178 million, a ten percent increase.

In research among 2,062 U.S. adults surveyed by telephone in July and October, 2007, Harris Interactive found that 79 percent of adults are now online. This is a steady rise over the past few years, from 77 percent in February/April 2006, 74 percent in February/April 2005, 66 percent in the spring of 2002, 64 percent in 2001 and 57 percent in Spring of 2000. When Harris Interactive first began to track Internet use in 1995, only nine percent of adults reported they went online.

The amount of time that people are spending online has also risen. The average number of hours per week that people are spending online is now at 11 hours, up from 9 hours last year and 8 hours in 2005.

Internet Access Increases at Home and at Work

The proportion of adults who are now online at home has risen to 72 percent, up from 70 percent in 2006 and 66 percent in the spring of 2005. The percentage of those online at work has also risen, now at 37 percent, and up from 35 percent in 2006. The largest increase is among those adults who are online at a location other than their home or work as this has risen from 22 percent in 2006 to 31 percent today. It appears people who do not have access at home or work are increasingly turning to other outlets to get online. More at BusinessWire.

Mumbai, India — November 05, ‘07 — Microsoft announced a tie-up with Reliance Anil D. Ambani Group (RADAG) worth $500 million to launch Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) and allied services in India here Monday.

The IPTV services will first be launched in New Delhi and Mumbai, followed by the other metros, said RADAG chairman Anil Ambani. ‘Reliance will enjoy exclusive deployment rights for the Microsoft platform in India,’ he added.

Ambani also said that Reliance would launch direct-to-home (DTH) services in the country in the next few months. There are currently 100 million TV homes in India, he pointed out.

The service, which will be powered by next generation fiber optic network, is expected to be launched by March 2008, said a joint news release by the two companies. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Ambani were present at the announcement ceremony. Also present were Ravi Venkatesan, chairman, Microsoft India, and Prakash Bajpai, president, Reliance Communications.

“Backed by powerful Microsoft Mediaroom software, IPTV promises to offer our subscribers more choice, control and convenience, and at the end of the day, a unique and more satisfying user experience,” said Anil D. Ambani, chairman of R-Com, in a statement. The companies would also co-operate on rural broadband, mobile telephony, gaming and entertainment in the Indian market. More at Microsoft.

New York, NY–November 1, ‘07–Verizon FiOS TV customers will get even more of the high-definition content they love as Verizon today announced plans for a fivefold increase in the number of HD channels, to 150 channels, as well as plans for offering additional HD content through FiOS TV’s video-on-demand service.  Verizon is also planning a major expansion of sports and multicultural programming on FiOS TV in 2008.

In the spring of 2008, Verizon will begin expanding its HD lineup as well as the sports and multicultural program offerings on FiOS TV.  Verizon initially will double the current number of HD channels, on a market-by-market basis, to more than 60, including additional sports channels.  Verizon expects to have more than 150 HD channels by year-end 2008 as it continues to add to its HD lineup and programmers launch new channels. The company also will add standard-definition sports, multicultural and other programming during the year.

In addition to the expanded HD channel lineup, Verizon will offer HD programming through its industry-leading video-on-demand library, which already totals more than 10,000 titles.  Before the end of 2007, Verizon expects to introduce a limited number of HD on-demand titles, which will increase to more than 1,000 HD titles in 2008.

During 2008, Verizon also will expand the reach of HD programming throughout the home.  Through enhancements to the Verizon-exclusive Home Media DVR service, customers will be able to record HD shows and watch them from any room in the house with an HDTV and an HD set-top box. Moer at Verizon.

San Francisco, CA – October 31, 2007 – Building on the success of its industry-leading video search engine, Truveo has announced plans to expand its rapidly growing service into several major markets for online video worldwide.  As the first step of this international expansion, Truveo is unveiling video search portals for France, Germany, India, Japan, Korea, Spain, Taiwan, and the United Kingdom.  These new sites are available starting today at: