Metue.com

When Apple announced earnings two weeks ago, CFO Peter Oppenheimer shockingly forecast a reduction in earnings for this current quarter.  Analysts were dumbfounded how that could be possible after two quarters of stellar returns.   The vague explanation Mr. Oppenheimer provided under pressure for more info was that “there will be a product transition [he couldn’t] get into.”

Today, Apple revealed the first of what will likely be a few product changes. Today, they unleashed the new iMac. 

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It was a busy day at the courts.  In unrelated intellectual property cases Google saw its list of adversaries expand and Microsoft received a $1.5b dollar judicial reprieve.  (a Metue article on the Microsoft news is here.)

For Google, it’s been copyright, copyright, copyright.   For months, the company has been battling with Viacom over YouTube and the claim that the popular video-sharing site is a conduit for copyright infringement; essentially a service encouraging copyright violation.

The billion dollar infringement suit was filed in New York as a class action complaint on May 4th.  Since then, plaintiffs have been lining up to participate.  Now, in addition to Viacom (which is the parent of MTV Networks and Paramount Pictures) and the English Premier League (soccer/football), eight new plaintiffs were revealed Monday. Click to Read More

Over the years, the courts haven’t always been kind to Microsoft.  Monday, the technology giant had their day in court, and this time the day was good: $1.5 billion good. 

Back in February, a jury found Microsoft guilty of infringing on two patents held by French telecom giant Alcatel-Lucent relating to MP3 technology. The patents, which focus on MP3 Compression, date back to when Lucent was known as Bell Labs.   For the violation, the jury awarded Alcatel damages in the amount of $1.52billion.  It was the largest patent verdict in US history (and not a good day at Microsoft).

Microsoft, needless to say, appealed that verdict, especially the assessment and calculation of damages. Yesterday, in San Diego, U.S. District Court Judge Rudi Brewster, after spending about two weeks deliberating, gave the damage ruling a toss to the circular file.  Click to Read More

Most people are familiar with the cliché: if at first you don’t succeed, try try again. What happens, though, if it at first you did succeed? Does practice make perfect?  Do you still try again?

Eric Baker seems to think so.   In 2004, Mr. Baker walked away from then rapidly growing secondary ticket marketplace StubHub (of which he was co-founder).  Seeking opportunity and adventure, he packed his bags and,  in 2005, moved across the Atlantic and in London, started Viagogo, a similar ticket reseller aimed at capturing the European marketplace.

StubHub sold to eBay last January for  about $310m, making Eric, who reportedly held 10 percent of the company, a sizable windfall.  That, however, didn’t slow him down or stifle his ambitions. Click to Read More

With onboard Internet connections, large hard drives and extremely powerful CPU and graphics processors, today’s gaming consoles like the Xbox 360, or PS3 (and to a lesser degree the Nintendo Wii which emphasizes game play over game technology) house immense computing power.    The Xbox 360, for example, runs a custom designed IBM PowerPC triple core 3.2ghz CPU chip.  Put in perspective, a high end 2006 configuration of Apple’s Power Mac G5 used dual core  PowerPC processors running 2.5ghz.   In plain English, that’s some serious horsepower.

The most obvious benefit of this power consolidation is the quality of the graphics.  (3d image processing is power and memory hungry. The bigger the box, the better the potential images.)  But as important as graphics may be to the quality of the experience, for gamer’s the ultimate payoff may lie somewhere else; it may lie not in visual renderings but instead  in the potential for a new kind of gaming, the potential for: “Dynamic Games.” 

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National Geographic is largely known for its visual images. Its magazines, TV channel, and Internet sites have connected the dots between faraway and divergent way of life. On Friday, National Geographic Ventures, the media arm of the organization, announced they’ll be expanding their audio offerings to add more soundbytes, songs and stories to go with the pictures that are so easily recognized.

In a partnership with distributors including Clear Channel and National Public Radio ("NPR"), the company will launch a radio venture with programs syndicated to over-air and Internet based stations. Reportedly, hundreds of hours of programming are planned. Click to Read More

There are two predominant schools of thought when it comes to distributing music online.   One side advocates a steady and measured deployment of titles with careful command and control of how and where songs are sold; and in what format.  In bed with only a few partners, this Cautious Advocate sells exclusivity to their distribution partners and negotiates aggressively on fees and  revenue sharing (even at times trying to wrangle for a royalty fee from the sale of hardware that can play their music).  To police their position and defend their partnerships, this camp uses Digital Rights Management technologies to encrypt songs.  They’re deathly concerned about piracy. They’re also vigilantly concerned about controlling access to their products. Click to Read More