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Gizmodo: Microsoft, seeing all the good press Apple got for starting to sell DRM-free music in their store courtesy of EMI, has decided to do the same thing.

In the near future, Zune owners will be able to buy songs from the Zune Marketplace in what we can only assume will be DRM-free WMA files.

There’s no date or pricing set for when the big M is going to start doing this, but it will be interesting to see if they do the same higher bitrate/premium price scheme that Apple did or just replace the DRM’d versions with DRM-free versions and charge the same amount.

In any case, it’s pretty hot that the no-DRM movement actually has a bandwagon and major companies are actually jumping on it.

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Daily Yomiuri Online: Matsushita will further develop the manufacture of plasma TVs in the so-called BRIC countries: Brazil, Russia, India and China, President Fumio Otsubo said in an interview with The Yomiuri Shimbun.

The firm, which is known for its Panasonic brand products, will begin discussing the scale of the investment by fiscal 2009. It also will consider building one or several new plants in BRIC countries.

Russia, India or both are likely to be chosen as locations for the new plants as the firm is without a production base in either country.

Most of Matsushita’s plasma TV production plants are in Japan, while its overseas plants, including those in Brazil and the Czech Republic, are small except for one in China. Flat-screen TVs are expected to become a mainstream item in BRIC countries, which are undergoing rapid economic growth.

The firm plans to increase its production capability to outpace LCD TV manufacturers in BRIC markets.

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BBC: Chinese computer maker Lenovo has topped a ranking of the world’s most eco-friendly electronics firms. Compiled by Greenpeace, the quarterly report ranks firms by how green their production processes are and what they do to recycle hardware they sell.
In previous reports Lenovo ranked low for eco-friendliness but in 2007 it scooped the top spot over Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Dell, and Samsung.

Apple came last of the 14 firms Greenpeace profiled in the report.

Greenpeace Ranking:
1) Lenovo: 8
2) Nokia: 7.3
3) Sony/Ericsson: 7
3) Dell: 7
5) Samsung: 6.3
5) Motorola: 6.3
7) Fujitsu/Siemens: 6
8) Hewlett-Packard: 5.6
9) Acer: 5.3
10) Toshiba: 4.3
11) Sony: 4
12) LG Electronics: 3.6
12) Panasonic: 3.6
14) Apple: 2.7

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BBC: US computer and printer manufacturer Hewlett-Packard has unveiled plans it hopes will make it a major force in the global video and online gaming market.

HP bought specialist gaming computer firm VoodooPC at the end of last year, and said it would now expand the hardware the firm was able to offer.

Ideas on the drawing board are a curved computer screen and a handheld device that let users play on the move. (…)

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NewLaunches:  After the submarine transforming Lotus Espirit from ‘The Spy who loved me’ my favourite Bondmobile was the cellphone controlled BMW 750il used by Pierce Brosnan in ‘Tomorrow never dies’. The mobile operated car is a reality as the geeks over at iDnez.cz modified a car so it can be controlled via Bluetooth.

After this it is very simple actually just install a simple Series 60 application on your Nokia phone, and the screen shows a simple steering wheel and brake / accelerator controls which are mapped to two keys. Switch on Bluetooth and voila you can drive the car with one hand.

Watch the video over at iDNES.cz.

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Daily Tech: Blu-ray Disc Java is coming this fall, and it may be incompatible with some of today’s machines.

The most common piece of advice given to those unsure about which high-definition optical format to buy is to simply wait until a victor emerges. Early adopters, however, should be aware that being cutting edge could come with a price, such as the risk of bugs or complete hardware and software obsolescence.

The Blu-ray Disc Association has mandated that all players of the format released after October 31 must adhere to a specific feature set that is currently not standard for today’s hardware. All Blu-ray Disc players after the fall date must support BD Java, a programming language for Blu-ray Disc media used mainly to deliver picture-in-picture for in-movie commentary and special features.

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DailyTech: Plasma and LCD represent the two main technologies of choice for today’s high definition televisions, but by this time next year a third technology called laser TV will emerge in hopes of bringing the best picture quality yet.

Novalux Inc. is one of the main developers of the upcoming laser TV technology, and promises that its products will deliver appreciable benefits over plasma, LCD and CRT televisions. When compared to plasma and LCD, laser TV technology boasts half the production cost, double the color range, and three-quarters less power consumption.

Laser TV technology is suited for projection (either front or rear), and is likely to become the replacement for the UHP lamp currently used in today’s projection displays.

Novalux unveiled its technology last fall by demonstrating a Mitsubishi 50-inch rear-projection with lasers side-by-side with another Mitsubishi plasma television, with the special-made laser TV producing a richer image.

While Mitsubishi products were used as a part of the demonstration, the Japanese electronics company played no part in Novalux’s event. Rather, the use of a standard consumer Mitsubishi television was to prove that lasers could be fitted into existing rear projection cabinets.

Novalux is currently in discussions with various OEMs for bringing TVs to market using its lasers and remains confident that its technology will hit consumers within a year’s time.

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Teleclick: European electronics giant, Philips, is planning to introduce a new cellular phone designed to avoid the ever-present hassle of battery death.The Xenium NRG handset will have a special compartment for a standard AAA battery, which would kick in whenever the phone’s own battery runs out, allowing for up to three additional hours of usage. (…)

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About: Contrast ratio is the difference between the brightest whites and the blackest blacks that a television or video projector can display. High contrast ratios deliver whiter whites and blacker blacks and a greater degree of gray values in between. If the contrast ratio is low, even if the image is bright, your image will look washed out.
Contrast ratios of at least 1,500:1 are good, but 2,000:1 or higher is considered excellent.

> There’s more to read on contrast ratio at Wikipedia.
> Or read the “contrast ratio” tagged articles, here at About Electronics.

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Reuters: A solar eruption in December disrupted the Global Positioning System, a satellite-based navigational system used widely by the military, scientists and civilians, researchers reported on Wednesday.The solar flare created radio bursts that traveled to the Earth, covering a broad frequency range, the researchers said, affecting GPS and other navigational systems.

Solar flares have been known to knock out satellites and even electricity grids, but the researchers told the Space Weather Enterprise Forum this was an unexpectedly serious new effect.

“In December, we found the effect on GPS receivers were more profound and widespread than we expected,” said Paul Kintner, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Cornell University in New York. (…)

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Slashgear: Ah, sweet PS3 – so shiny, such lovely Blu-Ray playback, how could any man, woman or child not want to take you in their arms and gently molest your vent slots?  Well, it’s looking like gamers in the UK are finding those charms reasonable to resist (or having trouble saving up the extra for a UK model), since second-week sales over here have crashed by a whopping 82-percent. (…)

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I4U: As everybody expected the EU complaint against the Apple iTunes store is actually mostly aimed at the record companies.

The Wall Street Journal reports that EU spokesman Jonathan Todd said: “This is an arrangement imposed on Apple by the record companies,” Mr. Todd said. “The main focus of our attention is the major record companies.” (…)

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