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Reuters: Apple and EMI’s landmark deal to sell EMI songs at higher audio qualities and stripped of copy protection on iTunes raises as many questions as it answers.

The agreement marks the first for one of the world’s most popular digital media retailer. It is also part of Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ call to dismantle restrictions on digital music to boost sales and allow media to be played on devices other than its iPod devices.

EMI will be making copy protection free music available at other online outlets in the coming weeks. 

A couple of key points from the companies’ statements:

• Songs without digital rights management will cost 30 cents more.
• EMI’s wholesale pricing for premium single tracks will rise.
• EMI’s wholesale pricing for entire albums will remain the same.
• EMI music videos will be available on iTunes DRM-free at no price hike.
• iTunes consumers who have purchased copy protected songs can upgrade for 30 cents.

Here are a couple questions that come to mind:

• Do consumers care to pay a 30 percent premium for better quality and the ability to play their digital music on any player of choice?
• Will this stem piracy?
• Will other labels follow? Who’s next?
• What happened to Steve Jobs’ hard stance against variable pricing (excluding the Japanese iTunes store)?

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HDTVEngadget: What with Sony announcing two new Bravia series LCDs for the European market to go with the new PlayStation 3s, Toshiba had to jump in with two new lines of their own — for connecting to HD DVD players, naturally.
The X-series will start off at 40- or 46-inch sizes, and have three HDMI and two SCART interfaces. Moving up to the higher-end Z-series will add 100Hz Active Vision M100 refresh rates, and a wider range of sizes, from 37 to 57 inches. Both model lines support 1080p and built-in Freeview tuning. As with Sony’s sets, prices and exact release dates are forthcoming.

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Newlaunches: The Japanese continue to find innovative ways of using the Nintendo DS from teaching English to a museum guide to a cook book.

Now thanks to Capcom you will be familiarising yourself with words like Bull run, operator, EPS, futures, options, profit booking just to a few, you guessed it right the new game from Capcom teaches you stock trading.

The game starts with a protagonist explaining the basics of money markets after which you start trading and building a portfolio, the goal of the game is obviously to accumalate max profits. There is also a v/s mode where you can play against a friend with the aim of earning profit while causing maximum damage to your foe.

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BBC: A British climber has embarked on an attempt to make the world’s highest phone call.

Rod Baber plans to climb Everest and then establish a world record by making a mobile call from the summit. Weather permitting, the attempt to reach the peak of Everest is scheduled to take place in late May.

“There’s no reason why it should not work,” said Mr Baber who already holds a world record for reaching the highest point of every European nation.
(more…)

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BBC: The EU has launched a probe into what Apple’s online music store iTunes charges users across Europe, accusing it of restricting customer choice.

Brussels believes agreements between Apple and record companies violate EU laws by preventing users in one country buying music from a site elsewhere. The move follows a complaint by UK body Which? that British users have to pay more to download songs than others. Apple said it wanted to offer a single European service but faced obstacles.

(more…)

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AV zombie: Playback incompatibilities have hit HD DVD. While the format has been lauded for coming to market fully formed (unlike its rival), the newly released Children of men combo disc appears to trip up on a wide variety of players, including the Xbox 360 drive and Toshiba decks. The news mirrors the playback inconsistencies of first generation DVD discs a decade ago.

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Heise: On April 1, NSN (a joint venture of Nokia and Siemens) went into operation. But this news probably did not please the 60,000 employees of the new joint venture called Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN), especially the 37,000 who used to work for Siemens. They used to be part of the now dissolved Com Division and have already suffered from the effects of the scandal surrounding the bribery payments made by Siemens’ former communication division. The scandals were one reason why the founding of this joint venture was postponed from the beginning of the year and Siemens was forced to invest 300 million additional euro in the new firm. (more…)

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Gizmag: Approximately 1.7 million digital photo frames were sold in the U.S. in 2006, representing an explosive year-over-year growth rate of more than 400%, according to research firm Parks Associates.

“The most significant factors contributing to this growth are expanded retail availability, decreased price, and consumer interest in new gift ideas,” said Harry Wang, research analyst, Parks Associates. “The digital photo frame market was a Cinderella story for many small vendors during the past holiday season. Many were happily surprised by the strength of consumer demand.”

Parks Associates expects these numbers will attract more retailers and large CE manufacturers, further driving this product category to mainstream status. “Our revised U.S. forecast calls for 50% cumulative average growth rate (CAGR) into 2010,” Wang said.

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AV Zombie: Despite increased competition from LCD, sales of plasma screens have rocketed, according to research firm iSuppli.

During the last quarter of 2006, worldwide shipments jumped to 10 million units, creating a market worth approximately 7.7 billion dollars. According to iSupply, plasma production will rise 14 per cent by 2011.

The dominant maker of plasma screens will continue to be Matsushita, parent of Panasonic.

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Engadget: It’s official: EMI music is now DRM-free. True to his word, Steve Jobs has “embraced it in a heartbeat” making it available for download from Apple’s iTunes store, first, starting in May.

It’s taken so long but now, even (one of) the Big Four realizes that DRM fails to prevent piracy yet succeeds at being an unnecessary nuisance for the vast majority of law abiding consumers.

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Bloomberg: Pioneer has confirmed that it will build a new factory in Brazil to double output of car audio and video players to meet an increase in demand.

Pioneer will spend 1.5 billion yen ($13 million) by March 2009 to bring the factory’s annual output to 1 million units, double the current level, spokeswoman Ema Suzuki said by telephone last week. The plant, in Manaus, northern Brazil, will replace an existing facility in the city when it starts production by April 2008, she said.

The expansion adds to plans announced by Tokyo-based Pioneer last month to spend about 2 billion yen to raise production of car stereos over three years in China and Thailand. The company is increasing output as economic expansion fuels sales of vehicles and car stereos, led by expansion in Brazil, Russia, India and China, the world’s fastest-growing major economy.

The company plans to increase the number of employees at the factory to 550 in the year starting April 2009, from 350 now, Suzuki said. Pioneer is Brazil’s largest maker of car audio products, with about 30 percent of the country’s 2 million units a year market, she said.

Pioneer, also Japan’s third-largest plasma television maker, needs faster growth abroad as price declines for flat-panel televisions and other electronics are eroding its profit. The company on Jan. 31 cut its forecast for net income to 5 billion yen for the year ending March 31, from an earlier projection for 10 billion yen and an 85 billion yen loss a year earlier.

The company in February said it will form a venture in Shanghai that will start in August, and build a second factory in Thailand to open in April.

The Chinese plant is expected to have annual output of 4 million car stereos in the year ending March 2010, while production capacity of the Thai plants will increase 40 percent to 7 million units by 2010 from a projected 5 million this year Pioneer said at the time.

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