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Apple on Wednesday began selling unprotected MP3s from record label EMI. Shoppers have the option to purchase either a 256kbps AAC-encoded DRM-free song for $1.29 via iTunes Plus, or the usual 128kbps AAC-encoded DRM version for 99 cents. The move is important on many levels. For the first time, consumers can play music from Apple's iTunes on digital players other than the iPod. For Apple, offering DRM-free songs could hand the company some credibility in dealings with European regulators, who want the company to open up iTunes to third-party hardware makers.

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As expected, all the songs from music label EMI that are sold on iTunes are now available in DRM-free versions. Shoppers have the option to purchase either a 256kbps AAC-encoded DRM-free song for $1.29 via iTunes Plus, or the usual 128kbps AAC-encoded DRM-version for 99 cents. "We expect more than half of the songs on iTunes will be offered in iTunes Plus versions by the end of this year," Apple CEO Steve Jobs said in a statement. No one at Apple was available for live comment on Wednesday morning.

Crucial Ballistix Tracer 2GB PC2-8500

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When you think of memory, Crucial is a brand that is recognized as stable and trustworthy. It was some time ago that Crucial (and Micron) never provided overclocking RAM and never warranted pushing their modules passed their recommended values. Even back then, people used Crucial modules to push their systems to the limits. Today, Crucial is one of the many memory makers that back overclocking memory as a standard. RAM has come a long way since those early years. Now there are lights and heat spreaders on most memory. The real meat is the speed and timings and that is what we are looking at for the Crucial Ballistix Tracer 2GB PC2-8500 Kit.

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The dog may be man's best friend, but a mouse is a gamer's best pal. The market is flooded with mice that promise high resolutions and dead-on precision in the digital battlegrounds. Every company offers something extra to attract a potential buyer, be it the adjustable weight cartridge from Logitech's G5 line, or the triple threat button from OCZ Equalizer Laser Gaming Mouse, that allows the user to shoot a virtual weapon three times faster then normal. We tested the latter and its impressive range of sensitivity - from 400dpi to 2500 dpi - that can turn any lousy shot into a digital marksman.

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Zotac's new GeForce 8800 GTX OC Edition comes factory overclocked with clocks of 630 MHz core and 1000 MHz memory. This is a nice increase over the standard NVIDIA clocks, especially if you consider the small $20 premium and that you don't lose your warranty. For users who are not willing to spend a lot of money for a GeForce 8800 Ultra this card seems to be a viable alternative.

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Quote: You get what you pay for. It's a phrase we hear often, but how much does this statement reflect the truth? The Crucial Ballistix Tracer product lineup is intended to satisfy those who care about aesthetics just as much as performance. So with the Crucial Ballistix Tracer PC2-8500 2GB DDR2 Memory Kit, do you get what you pay for? We'll let you be the judge.

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The release of the Nintendo Wii in November 2006 has brought a different look to next generation consoles. Since is release it has sold over 7 million units. The Wii uses wireless (Bluetooth) remotes, called Wiimotes. Yes, other consoles offer wireless remotes, but they don't offer what the Wii does, interaction. The remote and receiver combination is more of a virtual simulation where how you move physically is affected in the game. This is very different than any other console. Yet some gamers may find this to completely destroy their purpose of video gaming. This usually is to just sit around rather than move. This gives the opportunity for people to lose weight and enjoy themselves while doing it. Who knew that video games could come to this?

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With the introduction of the 3D Galaxy II liquid cooling system, Gigabyte has given novice watercooling enthusiasts another option when deciding to take the plunge. This system is feature rich, expandable and great looking. It has good cooling performance as well, and addresses the motherboard cooling issues commonly overlooked by the inexperienced waterhead.

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Quote: External hard drives are nothing new to the computer accessories market. External hard drive enclosures are offered by many manufacturers and most perform their intended job well. Antec recently sent us the MX-1 which is their latest external storage enclosure for us to test. We expected an ordinary enclosure and were pleasantly surprised by the performance and features of this product.

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Power supplies are something that we just have to have, and sometimes the cheapie OEMs just don't cut it for the things we need to do. The trend lately is bigger, and bigger for power supplies, sure that's nice thing but what if you don't need that much power? What if you're looking for something that can handle a basic system with no problems and still allow for a bit of upgrading headroom as well? Today for review I have a 560watt supply from our friends at High Power, during my testing I found it absolutely stable, and well within tolerances. One nice and interesting feature is that High Power has included an LED display on the back that lets you know just how much power your system is consuming at any given time...

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Quote: After having used a handful of notebook coolers that use rigid bodies with fans to get the job done, the iXoft is obviously the quietest, easiest to setup, most portable, and still quite effective. The somewhat mysterious and scientific nature of Thermaltake's heatshift technology makes the iXoft even more appealing, as it is just that much different than the typical cooler.

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The MX-1 is aptly named, as surprisingly it is Antec's first and currently only foray into the HDD enclosure market. Feature-wise, Antec takes great care to stress that the MX-1 is actively cooled, definitely a good start out of the gate. The average hard drive can easily reach temperatures of 40-50c if left out in the open air, while inside a case active hard drive cooling is a must. Antec's choice to equip the MX-1 with both an eSATA and USB 2.0 connectors gives it the potential to perform just as fast as an internal SATA hard drive, while giving it the portability to easily go anywhere. No eSATA port? No problem, an eSATA -> SATA pass through PCI bracket is included in the kit as well.

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The Good Work Systems Fragpedal Elite gives your feet control during your favorite game. Our feet are the only part which we still do not use when sitting in front of the computer. The Fragpedal Elite give you four fully customizable buttons to use in any fashíon you would like. The included software with its own programming environment makes this possible. We give the pedals and the software a try, to see if it makes a good addition to your keyboard and mouse.

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Yesterday we covered the graphics hardware needed to handle Beryl and on the heels of that article we are taking a quick look at another Linux versus Windows comparison for the official ATI/AMD graphics drivers. NVIDIA's Linux and Windows drivers perform about the same and in some instances the Linux binary driver even running faster, but as we have been sharing now for many months the Linux fglrx driver is handicapped for performance. Has things since improved for ATI? Well, as you'll see in this article by using the official Linux driver from ATI/AMD you can expect your frame-rate to be cut in half compared to the most recent version of the Windows Catalyst driver.

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OCZ brings us face to face with the Reaper... Will you be dying to get your hands on this ram from OCZ? Find out as we take a look at the Reaper and see how it compares to other high quality memory out there. These were the first modules to be incorporate the new Reaper heatsink and are rated at 1150MHz at CL 5-5-5. Read on to see if these copper heat pipe clad memory modules are right for you.

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OCZ brings us face to face with the Reaper... Will you be dying to get your hands on this ram from OCZ? Find out as we take a look at the Reaper and see how it compares to other high quality memory out there. These were the first modules to be incorporate the new Reaper heatsink and are rated at 1150MHz at CL 5-5-5. Read on to see if these copper heat pipe clad memory modules are right for you.

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We thought it was already clear what graphics processors and drivers work and don't work with Linux desktop eye candy such as Beryl and Compiz, but it seems based upon the number of e-mails we have been receiving along with messages in community bulletin boards that the line isn't so clear after all. For those that have never tried out Beryl, it is a compositing window manager branched from Compiz (though Beryl will merge back with Compiz soon) that provides a variety of window decorations and other desktop eye candy for X.Org users. In this article we hope to make it clear for you what GPUs will make your Linux desktop look the most pleasurable and what ones just sweat thinking about these desktop effects. We have taken eight different systems, benchmarked them using the Beryl Benchmark, and have our thoughts on these ATI/AMD, Intel, and NVIDIA solutions with Beryl v0.2.

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The BeleniX LiveCD that is based off of OpenSolaris with GNU applications has reached version 0.6 after some setbacks. While this release is coming out later than expected, it is based upon OpenSolaris Build 60, uses X.Org 7.2, features Compiz 0.5 for Xfce and KDE, offers usbdump integration, and sports many other improvements. BeleniX is a OpenSolaris distribution we enjoy very much and would encourage all of you experimenting with Linux or Solaris to try it out.

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As an encore to the Habu Razer and Microsoft teamed up again, this time to make a keyboard. Rather than build off of Razer's successful Tarantula keyboard, as the company did with its Pro|Type the team decided to put together something very different from it. The Reclusa is a gaming keyboard that, according to today's standards, does not look like a gaming keyboard. In fact it looks more like a media keyboard from 1998, that is at least before you turn it on. This low-key approach to gamer gear is probably a result of Microsoft's influence on the product- an attempt to broaden its appeal- so it will be interesting to see how its performance is affected by this approach.

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The Gladiator is a mid tower case that supports AT, baby AT, ATX, and micro ATX motherboards. The case is constructed of 1mm thick high grade steel and has a total of 10 drive bays. The Gladiator also utilizes several Tool-less features from the 5 ¼ inch drive bays to the PCI slots. The Gladiator even includes an Intel TAC compliant CPU duct and VGA vent.

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Compared to the first generation of X-QPack, the X-QPack2 is a better designed and better performing Micro-ATX case. The improvements design-wise is the slightly deeper chassis which gives a bit more clearance for long video cards and optical drives, and the improved performance comes from the additional cooling and higher rated power supply.

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Today we have for review an Albatron 8600 GT from Albatron. This is a standard (as opposed to overclocked) version of NVIDIA's 8600 GT. The 8600 GT performance is a little under par with the 7900 GS and the X1950 PRO, which can currently be bought for about the same price. This puts the card in a tight spot. Will it please the hordes of eager gamers looking for an affordable card?

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The ASUS P5N-E SLI motherboard rings in at about $130 USD, which makes it substantially cheaper than many of the NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI motherboards on the market and even some of the nForce 650i motherboards. While this motherboard may be affordable, does it deliver upon the ASUS quality and innovations that enthusiasts have come to expect from their cutting edge products? Well, some of its many features include Intel Quad-Core support, NVIDIA SLI, and HD Azalia Audio.

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The OCZ name is well known when it comes to memory. Offering top notch performance and outstanding overclocking capabilities, it is hard to beat. OCZ's PC2-6400 SLi-Ready memory modules are programmed to boot at 800MHz DDR2 with timings of 4-4-4 1T.

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As DDR2 meanders to obsolescence, we're going to send it out with a bang......Today HL begins a four review series covering some enthusiast kits that not only tickle the overclocking itch, but do it without breaking the bank. We'll begin our journey with Crucial's PC2-8500 Tracer Memory Kit, for those of you that want bling in your case....it doesn't get much better than this.

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Every now again a product comes along that makes you sit up and take notice. It may be the newest video card or a screaming fast CPU. But once is a very long while it is a product that is less revolutionary and more evolutionary. And so I present you with the OCZ Trifecta, the next evolution in Secure Digital memory. The OCZ Trifecta offers microSD, SD and USB 2.0 compatibility at 66x speeds (10 MB/s) all in one convenient package. With capacities up to 2 GB, the Trifecta looks to have a lot of potential. During the time I spent with this device I would test to see how it performs as a replacement for my digital camera's SD card, my cell phone's microSD card and my OCZ Rally thumb drive.

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Mushkin's XP2-8500 4 GB DDR2 memory is the only kit on the market that can run DDR2-1066 in a 4 GB configuration. While other manufacturers have to use CL6 @ 800 MHz, Mushkin can use CL5 @ 1066, at around 2.30 V. Having 4 GB of system memory may soon be the recommended configuration when running the memory-hungry Windows Vista. The only drawback of this memory is its price: $679.

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* Although many have been a bit disappointed that the latest hardware renditions that ATI released didn't take the GTX performance crown, they tend to forget that the money is in the mid to low range cards, not the top end. This is a market that is still held pretty firmly by ATI with their x1950 Pro cards. Today I have Sapphire's version of the series which has proved itself time and time again; let's see how this one fairs against new challengers from the 8600 series.

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The 144-page document posted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Web site contained redacted versions of Novell's business, patent and technology agreements with Microsoft, which it signed in November 2006. While much of what was officially released is known, Novell did express concerns that the final draft of GPL 3, which slipped its March 2007 deadline, could see Microsoft halting the distribution of Suse Linux, having a financial impact on Novell. "If the final version of GPLv3 contains terms or conditions that interfere with our agreement with Microsoft or our ability to distribute GPLv3 code, Microsoft may cease to distribute Suse Linux coupons in order to avoid the extension of its patent covenants to a broader range of GPLv3 software recipients," Novell stated in the document.

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According to the Chinese Internet Security Response Team (CISRT), users of Norton Antivirus, Norton Internet Security 2007 and Norton 360 who installed an antivirus signature update released by Symantec on May 17 could not reboot their PCs. The update reportedly mistook two Windows system files--"netapi32.dll" and "lsasrv.dll"--as the Backdoor.Haxdoo Trojan horse. The two files were subsequently quarantined. CISRT said the flawed Symantec update only affects users of the Simplified Chinese version of Windows XP Service Pack 2 that have been patched with a particular Microsoft software fix available since November 2006. CISRT noted that this issue has been "huge." According to CCTV.com, which is part of China's largest national TV network, the problem has affected millions of PCs and was not completely resolved as of Wednesday.

Crucial Ballistix Tracer 2GB PC2-8500

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When you think of memory, Crucial is a brand that is recognized as stable and trustworthy. It was some time ago that Crucial (and Micron) never provided overclocking RAM and never warranted pushing their modules passed their recommended values. Even back then, people used Crucial modules to push their systems to the limits. Today, Crucial is one of the many memory makers that back overclocking memory as a standard. RAM has come a long way since those early years. Now there are lights and heat spreaders on most memory. The real meat is the speed and timings and that is what we are looking at for the Crucial Ballistix Tracer 2GB PC2-8500 Kit.

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OCZ is well known for their high performance memory and power supplies, now they are trying their hand at video cards. OCZ claims that each and every GeForce 8800 GTX card they put out has superior overclocking headroom thanks to premium GDDR3 memory and a special screening process in which only the best video cards make it to the market. Read on to see if OCZ says it true and to see if it can compete with other brands of cards!

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"Well, I was really hoping for much better cooling than I got from the Volcano. The performance isn't bad by any means, but given its massive size and $50 US price tag I would have liked to see improvement over the stock Thermaltake waterblock I was using previously. On the upside, installation was easy and three different sizes of hose connectors are included to integrate it with just about any watercooling setup."

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When building a computer most of the attention goes to the stars of the show including the CPU, video card, memory and motherboard. Parts that can be shown off and command a certain amount of enthusiasm. But behind all the sparkle and shine, amidst none of the fame of those items is the one piece that makes it all possible; the power supply. Without a rock solid PSU your computer would quickly turn into an unstable beast of burden that at best restarts the computer in the middle of your frag fest and at its worst, dies completely damaging your motherboard and CPU with it. A good power supply can provide your system with clean solid power helping you to achieve those massive overclocks or simply to keep your gear working for many months.

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"Digital picture frames are relatively new gadgets. I suppose that they've been around for a couple of years, but ones as large as 7" are still at or over 100 bucks. I don't work in an office anymore, but I suppose that having one on your desk at work is about the coolest use for one, along with giving one full of family pictures to parents or grandparents."

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Quote: Virtual Worlds.You've probably all seen them before in science fiction in comics. Worlds where jacking in via VR helmet or Neuro Implant send us to some fantastical internet life separate from our real one. It's quite a dream that's for sure, except it might not be as much of a dream as we once thought. Though we are decades away from "The Matrix" and gladly so, virtual worlds have existed for sometime now, and are evolving day by day.

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"With USB flash drives going almost anywhere, memory manufacturers have realized this and are designing products that can withstand a fair amount of abuse whether it be leaving it in the washing machine or smashing it against the table a few times. While this quality of construction is good enough for most, for those that demand the absolute best Corsair Memory has designed an ultra rugged USB 2.0 flash drive. We threw it into an eight-foot deep chlorinated pool, boiled it in water for several minutes, and even beat it with a hammer, but was the Corsair Flash Survivor GT able to cope with all of these torturous events?"

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If you are constantly changing components and playing with new hardware you sure have noticed that using a case is not the right way to do it. For years HighSpeedPC has been offering their easy to use Tech Stations that give you an open bench to work with. The new 'Top Deck' Tech Station removes one of the biggest problems of the original offering by placing the motherboard - just as the name suggests - on the top.

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This time around we will be focusing on the Tuniq 3, a steel mid-tower from the same people who make Sunbeam products. The Tuniq series generally has a more refined design than those from the parent company and is aimed more at consumers who prefer the looks of Lian Li to that of Thermaltake. The case is steel, not aluminum like its more expensive competition, but it has that sort of high-end flavor to it that more and more people are searching for.

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* "ZEROtherm have produced some very interesting coolers, including their Buterfly range, and GX series for your GPU. Today I have their CF800 and CF900 which look much more like a regular heatsink rather than animal-centric."

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Quote: "We set out to see if there was a significant difference between DDR2 and DDR3 memory on both of the Intel P35 Express based ASUS motherboards and found that there really isn't. Right now there is no clear call as to what would be better for gamers and enthusiasts as it depends on your tastes. As with all new technology it will only get better as time goes on and with memory companies hitting ~1,800MHz on the initial 512Mb DDR3 IC's it shows great promise for the new memory type."

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Today we have the opportunity and pleasure to review a new memory product from OCZ, a name that is most certainly synonymous with quality in the computer products industry. We will be examining a 2GB DDR2 8500 kit from OCZ's Reaper HPC series of memory. The Reaper HPC series of memory uses the aforementioned heat pipe technology to help dissipate heat this improving performance. Is it effective? Stick around and we'll soon see.

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"The case itself is very attractive to the eye, and designed to fit in with your existing A/V gear; something it manages with aplomb. Available in three colours, the silver model we chose fits in perfectly with its surroundings. Hardware installation needs to be thought out a little but there were no real 'gotchas' caused by the case itself. No sharp edges either, allowing for a pain free installation. The HT-1000 supports both ATX and mATX motherboards and has provision for a full ATX PSU, allowing you to build a high powered system, perhaps for some large screen gaming."

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Lian Li continues the expansion of their Classical Series cases, and today we take a look at one of the newest editions - The PC-A12. We'll take a look at the layout and features of this case to see if it's worth its 140 USD price.

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"It was exactly one month ago that NVIDIA had delivered the 100.14.03 display driver and today we are reporting on yet another new beta driver in the 100.14.xx series. This time around we have our hands on the NVIDIA 100.14.06 graphics driver, which offers improved notebook support and fixes a variety of minor bugs."

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Quote: While I could generate a list of complaints regarding missing features (such as no headphone jack, lack of MP4/DivX support, no component input), I am really impressed by the Go Video 7" All-In-One Music and Movie System. It has a bright, vibrant screen, and a small form factor which allows it to be used in settings where larger, more traditional systems might not fit or be appropriate.

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"Back in March we shared with you a preview of the Tyan Toledo i965R motherboard. As we mentioned in the preview, the Toledo i965R features Intel's Q965 Chipset with the ICH8 Southbridge while fitting everything on a FlexATX footprint. We are back today with our compatibility report on the Tyan Toledo i965R as we share how it runs on Fedora 7, Ubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn, KateOS 3.6, Solaris Express Nevada, and BeleniX."

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Since its inception, the flash drive or "thumb" drive has given mainstream users an unique way to transport and organize their personal and professional information. These pint-size devices are holding larger and larger capacities these days, which in turn makes their value and usefulness that much more significant. My first thumb drive could only hold 128MBs of data, but now OCZ Technology has introduced an 8GB version of the Rally2 Dual Channel flash drive. These drives have been a fan favorite since the beginning, but we are going to run it through our gauntlet of performance benchmarks to see how it performs against the competition.

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"For $20, the Scout webcam is worth the purchase. It takes good still shots, decent video, and has a built in microphone. Its small size makes it ultra portable and I would have liked to see Cyber Snipa include a carrying case. It stays put when clipped onto an LCD monitor but can also stand on its own. For basic webcam functions it works great."

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"A while ago Razer released the Tarantula gaming keyboard. It received great reviews and everyone I talked to said they really liked it. Razer has a new line called Razer Pro|Solutions. All of the Pro|Solutions products are more focused towards the consumer crowd. Today we are taking a look at the Razer Pro|Type Keyboard, which is based on the Tarantula gaming keyboard. What's most noticeably different is there is an iPod dock right in the center of the keyboard. Actually it's the world's first keyboard with an integrated iPod dock. So let's take a look."

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"How much storage does one person need? 20GB, 40GB, 200Gb? Where does it end, or does it even end? Lucky for us, we never really have to answer that question. Each passing day brings us greater capacities for less money. Just last year, the 500GB hard drive was all the rage, now, in front of me is a brand new 750 GB drive. Yep, 3/4 of a terabyte! Honestly, how many wholesome family films can someone store on their computer?"

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"We don't normally publish reviews on networking hardware and other peripherals unless we have thoroughly tested the product internally for some time and find it to be truly great or a product that is simply a disaster. Today we have the SMC SMC2870W 802.11g Wireless Ethernet Bridge. This wireless bridge is capable of turning any wired networking device into a wireless node and can also act as an Internet Access Point along with a built-in 802.11b/g repeater. What category of righteousness does this product fall into? Well, for Linux users, the SMC bridge is falling down."

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In this in-depth guide we show you how the extract the highest performance from your Geforce 8800 video card, push that GTS past GTX speeds and turn that GTX into an Ultra-beater by following the steps outlined. We evaluate the performance increases along the way by using real world benchmarks; Can a $250 8800 GTS compete with a $500 8800 GTX? Read on to find out.

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The performance of these Reaper HPCs at 5-5-5 certainly was bright enough to blind me without glasses. I still can't get over how well they scale above DDR1200 with such small amounts of voltage. Obviously the ability for these crazy high clocks to continue rising just isn't there. I saw with my P5B-Dlx that it simply couldn't handle dual-channel memory past DDR1280 although the memory seemed more than willing. It appears as though the tortoise has caught up to the hare and is going to pass him...until the new round of chipsets come out which has already begun.

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Quote: "Both the NVIDIA GeForce 8800 series and ATI Radeon HD 2900 series were found to have an exhaust air temperature of 49C-56C, which is enough to heat up a small office, bedroom or dorm room very quickly. It's interesting to see just how hot these cards are getting and with both ATI and NVIDIA promoting multiple GPU solutions just imagine running a pair of any of these cards is a small room for an extended period of time. It's obvious that the GPU is now the leading cause of heat in a computer system, but what can be done about it?"

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Back in November 2006 everything changed with the release of a new style of video card. I say new style because it left behind everything we have come to expect from video cards at the time. Pixel and texture shaders were replaced with stream processors, no longer would you have to choose between Anti-aliasing and HDR, and picture quality would never be the same from the green team. The 8800 series had arrived and it brought with it a great many advancements in video card technology of which the most heralded was DirectX 10. It also brought with it a hefty price tag many people could not justify spending on a single component for their computer. So for some time these advancements were out of reach for many of us as we gazed upon amazing scores of 3DMark and watched as frame rates climbed ever higher. Well, now it's time for the rest of us to have some fun! Enter the 8600 series GPU from Nvidia.

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"GNOME 2.19.2 is the second of nine development releases leading up to GNOME 2.20.0, which is due out this September. GNOME 2.19.2 is being released today and for those of you interested in the latest changes to GNOME, we have included some screenshots taken from GNOME 2.19.2 built this afternoon with GARNOME. In the process of trying out this latest desktop environment we had run into several crashes and bugs -- GNOME 2.19.2 is not for those new to Linux."

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The HIS HD 2900XT 512MB Video Card performs exceptionally well, supports DirectX10 and is highly overclockable. This Video Card has many technologies, a few include; a massive 512bit memory interface, Custom Filter Anti-Aliasing, Unified Superscalar Shader Architecture, Tessellation and High-Definition Multimedia Interface output support. The core speed on this product is 740MHz and the 512MBs of GDDR3 memory is 1650MHz. It comes with 320 stream processing units for vertex, pixel and geometry data, the pixel fill rate is 47.5GPixels/s and the memory bandwidth is 106GB/s. Watch the video to find out more and check out the bloopers at the end.

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Quote: A 4U rackmount chassis such as the ICX-4830B-20BX is easy to get into and perform maintenance, making it a great choice for those on a frequent upgrade schedule. While many similar cases are designed strictly for business, this Maxtop offering provides a mix of features that would make it convenient to use at home, too.

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Late last month, Rep. Jay Inslee (D-WA), Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), and Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS) introduced the Internet Radio Equality Act (IREA), which would overturn the CRB's new fee structure. Instead, SoundExchange would continue to receive a percentage of the webcasters' revenue, which would be set at the same 7.5 percent mark paid by satellite radio providers. The IREA was a major factor in SoundExchange's decision to roll back the clock on the licensing fees, which the licensing group admitted in a press release announcing the extension. "Although the rates revised by the CRB are fair and based on the value of music in the marketplace, there's a sense in the music community and in Congress that small webcasters need more time to develop their businesses," said John Simson, executive director of SoundExchange. "Artists and labels are offering a below-market rate to subsidize small webcasters because Congress has made it clear that this is a policy it desires to advance, at least for the next few years."

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For years, stations have paid royalties to composers and publishers when they played their songs. But they enjoy a federal exemption when paying the performers and record labels because, they argue, the airplay sells music. Now, the Recording Industry Assn. of America and several artists' groups are getting ready to push Congress to repeal the exemption, a move that could generate hundreds of millions of dollars annually in new royalties. Mary Wilson, who with Diana Ross and Florence Ballard formed the original Supremes, said the exemption was unfair and forced older musicians to continue touring to pay their bills.

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Barcelona represents AMD's current hope for returning to profitability by stabilizing its server processor prices. The company has been forced to dramatically cut the prices of its dual-core Opteron processors to compete with Intel's quad-core server processors, which have been on the market since last November. The hope is that Barcelona's design, in which four processing cores rest on the same piece of silicon, delivers enough of a performance boost over Intel's quad-core Xeon chip to once again attract demanding server buyers. Intel chose to put two dual-core chips into a single package for its first quad-core processors in order to get out in the market well ahead of AMD; AMD contends that's an inelegant design that doesn't solve Intel's problems with memory bandwidth.

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Also on Monday, the company is expected to make available beta versions of previously announced translators between PowerPoint and Excel and corresponding applications that support the OpenDocument Format, or ODF. The converters, to be available on the SourceForge.net site, let people open and save documents in either the Ecma Open XML formats or ODF. An initial translator for Word was released earlier this year; those for PowerPoint and Excel are expected to be completed by the end of the year.

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Protoss, Terran, and Zerg. These three distinct and powerful races will clash once again in the fast-paced real-time strategy sequel to the legendary original, StarCraft. Legions of veteran, upgraded, and brand-new unit types will do battle across the galaxy, as each faction struggles for survival.

Featuring a unique single-player campaign that picks up where StarCraft: Brood War left off, StarCraft II will present a cast of new heroes and familiar faces in an edgy sci-fi story filled with adventure and intrigue. In addition, Blizzard will again offer unparalleled online play through Battle.net, the company's world-renowned gaming service, with several enhancements and new features to make StarCraft II the ultimate competitive real-time strategy game.

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In general, searching for potential software patent violations isn't practical, given the number, breadth and opacity of patents in the United States. Not only that, but it's at odds with Microsoft's own policy to wait for patent holders to get in touch with it if they think there's infringement. In fact, searching for potential patent problems can actually leave a company financially exposed: if a lawsuit concludes a patent was infringed, a company or individual that knew about the potential infringement must pay triple the financial damages compared with an unknowing infringement.

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When Novell and Microsoft announced their patent deal, the Free Software Foundation was quick to say it would move to prohibit such arrangements in a future version of the General Public License (GPL), the most widely used open-source license. The most recent draft seeks to prohibit all future deals of that nature and potentially past ones, too. The timing of Microsoft's pronouncement is telling, Radcliffe said, "particularly when you think that GPL version 3 is still in draft. I don't think that is a coincidence," he said.

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We're proud and excited to announce that Dpreview has been acquired by the worlds leading online retailer, Amazon.com. Started as hobby site in 1998, dpreview.com has grown to be the number one destination for anyone interested in digital cameras and digital photography. Each month dpreview.com has seven million unique visitors (over 22 million sessions) who read over 120 million pages. "We've worked very hard over the last eight years to deliver consistently high quality content to our readers", founder Phil Askey said. "It will be fantastic to be able to expand and build on that without compromising our quality or independence. With the support and resources of Amazon we can achieve this."

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But AMD chose to build a single chip with four cores, which the company believes will result in better performance because information will not have to leave one core to visit its neighbor. It's the same debate over an integrated memory controller and point-to-point links that propelled AMD's Opteron and Athlon 64 chips to prominence: Cores that are directly linked offer better performance than cores that have to exchange information by leaving the chip. Intel contends that by improving the speed and performance of its cache memory and the front-side bus--that off-chip bridge between cores--it can offer excellent performance and sidestep manufacturing concerns. Because AMD has yet to deliver its quad-core chips, the debate is mostly aesthetic, but it could become an important distinction if Barcelona and the Phenom chips open a significant performance advantage over Intel's currently shipping quad-core processors later this year.

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The company announced the Red Hat Exchange in March while launching its Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, a major update to its core product. It announced the RHX launch Thursday at the Red Hat Summit in San Diego. The exchange makes Red Hat a stronger competitor to Microsoft and the company's top Linux rival, Novell, which sells Suse Linux Enterprise Server and a variety of server software packages. But it also means Red Hat steps more directly on the toes of business partners such as IBM, Oracle and SAP.

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By a 6-3 vote along party lines, the House Administration Committee on Tuesday afternoon approved an amended version of the Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act, chiefly sponsored by Rep. Rush Holt (D-N.J.) and backed by 212 other members of Congress. Aside from the paper trail requirement, the bill also imposes a number of new security obligations, such as a general ban on any wireless technology in the machines and on connecting devices used to record or tabulate ballots to the Internet. In addition, only equipment preapproved by accredited test laboratories would be eligible for use in federal elections--a move aimed at keeping potentially flawed software from being slipped in at the last minute.

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In Florida, Utah, and soon in Rhode Island and Wisconsin, selling your used CDs to the local record joint will be more scrutinized than then getting a driver's license in those states. For retailers in Florida, for instance, there's a "waiting period" statue that prohibits them from selling used CDs that they've acquired until 30 days have passed. Furthermore, the Florida law disallows stores from providing anything but store credit for used CDs. It looks like college students will need to stick to blood plasma donations for beer money. Why this trend, and why now? It's difficult to say, but to be sure, there is no love lost between retailers who sell used CDs and the music industry. The Federal Trade Commission has scrutinized the music industry for putting unfair pressures on retailers who sell used CDs, following a long battle between the music industry and retailers in the mid 90s. The music industry dislikes used CD sales because they don't get a cut of subsequent sales after the first. Now, via the specter of piracy, new legislation is cropping up that will make it even less desirable to sell second-hand goods. Can laws targeting used DVDs be far behind?

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To fulfil the aims of our mission and in response to the technical challenges that these devices pose, we are announcing the Ubuntu Mobile and Embedded project. We will start more detailed planning at the Ubuntu Developer Summit next week in Seville and the first release of this edition will be in October with Ubuntu 7.10. If you are interested in the project, please get involved. We will be working through our normal development processes on Launchpad, the developer mailing lists and IRC.

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DHS has maintained that the Real ID concept is not a national identification database. While it's true that the system is not a single database per se, this is a semantic dodge; according to the DHS document, Real ID will be a collaborative data-interchange environment built from a series of interlinking systems operated and administered by the states. In other words, to the Department of Homeland Security, it's not a single database because it's not a single system. But the functionality of a single database remains intact under the guise of a federated data-interchange environment. The DHS document notes the "primary benefit of Real ID is to improve the security and lessen the vulnerability of federal buildings, nuclear facilities, and aircraft to terrorist attack." We know now that vulnerable cockpit doors were the primary security weakness contributing to 9/11, and reinforcing them was a long-overdue protective measure to prevent hijackings. But this still raises an interesting question: Are there really so many members of the American public just "dropping by" to visit a nuclear facility that it's become a primary reason for creating a national identification system? Are such visitors actually admitted?

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But they discovered that the opposite experiment - over-expressing levels of pha-4 in the worms - increased longevity when on the restricted diet. "This is the first gene we have found that is absolutely essential to the longevity response to dietary restriction," explained Dr Dillin. "We finally have genetic evidence to unravel the underlying molecular programme required for increased longevity in response to calorie restriction."

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You remember the time when mom used to tell not to talk on the phone while ironing clothes lest you make a mistake and burn yourself. And then one day she forgot to practice what she was preaching and…! Well a funny situation like this has occurred in the business world too. Business 2.0 is a magazine published by Time. They have been warning their readers against the hazards of not taking backups of computer files. So much so that in an article published by them in 2003, they 'likened backups to flossing - everyone knows it's important, but few devote enough thought or energy to it.' And one fine day, sorry night, (April 23 to be precise) the magazine's editorial system crashed, nullifying the work done for the June issue. The backup server failed to back up.

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At the end of May, the No. 2 PC maker will begin selling some consumer-focused laptop and desktop models with Ubuntu's new "Feisty Fawn" version of Linux installed, Dell spokesman Kent Cook said. The company plans to announce the Linux move Tuesday on its IdeaStorm Web site, launched in February to gather feedback directly from customers about what they want. When buying the Dell systems, customers will have the option to purchase support from Ubuntu backer Canonical, said Jane Silber, the start-up's director of operations.

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The FSF is strongly hostile to DRM. The first draft of the v3 revision expressed this philosophy directly: "This license intrinsically disfavors technical attempts to restrict users' freedom to copy, modify and share copyrighted works. Each of its provisions shall be interpreted in light of this specific declaration of the licensor's intent," and, while the words may have been toned down, the anti-DRM tune remains loud and clear. The FSF's position on DRM is not new. What is new is a fundamental change in the reach of the license terms that makes that hostility more of a threat.