A plan by the French government to subsidize the cost of music subscription services to cut the amount of illegal music file sharing in the country has gotten a nod of approval from the European Commission. The commission must ensure that programs such as this do not damage competition in the marketplace.

Under the scheme, French residents can buy a card to access a music subscription service. The card is worth 50 euros of "credit", but the government will pay half the cost. The scheme is aimed at 12-to-25 year olds. It is expected to cost about €25 million a year, and will run for two years.

"We welcome initiatives ... to increase the availability of music online at a lower price for consumers and through legal distribution channels," EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said in a statement. "The scheme will contribute to preserving pluralism and cultural diversity in the online music industry," the EU body said.

Websites that benefit from the subsidy must cut the price, extend the length of the subscription and contribute to the cost of advertising the card system. The benefit for each site will be capped at €5 million.

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The head of Britain's electronic spying agency has warned that Britain is vulnerable to cyber attacks from hostile states or criminals that could adversely affect critical infrastructure. Iain Lobban, Director of British intelligence gathering facility GCHQ, said in a speech that targets such as power grids and emergency services are increasingly vulnerable due to the rapid growth of the Internet and technology.

"The threat is a real and credible one," he told an audience in London at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. "We already provide expert advice and incident response to the operators of critical services. We must continue to strengthen these capabilities and be swifter in our response, aiming to match the speed at which cyber events happen."

Of the millions of malicious e-mails that target computer users all of the world, about 1,000 are directly targeted at government systems, according to Lobban. Britain's critical national infrastructure that could be vulnerable include its mass communication services, financial services, health and transport. Lobban also warns about cyber threats that could damage the British economy.

"A knowledge economy needs to protect from exploitation the intellectual property at the heart of the creative and high-tech industry sectors," he said.

His warning comes as ministers weigh spending on defense and public services, with the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government looking to cut Britain's deficit as soon as possible. Protecting against cyber threats, Lobban argues, is not solely a national security or defense issue, but, "goes right to the heart of our economic well-being and national interest."

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Sony Corp. has unveiled a line of Internet-connected televisions that use Google TV software. The company is hoping to achieve success in fusing together television and web content in the living room, while past attempts have failed to gain demand.

Sony's Internet TVs use Google TV (based on the Android platform), run the Google Chrome web browser and include an Intel Atom processor. The models also feature Dual View, allowing users to watch television while tweeting about what they're watching, checking their fantasy football scores, or finding related content on the web.

The TVs come with pre-installed applications from CNBC, Napster, NBA, Netflix, Pandora, Twitter, and YouTube. An intuitive hand-held RF QWERTY keypad remote incorporating an optical mouse makes it easy to navigate content, type in search terms, and control the TV's user interface.




Additionally, select mobile devices such as an Android phone, can control the TV with an app that will be available for download from the mobile Android Market later this year.

Built-in Wi-Fi makes it easy to connect to home broadband networks to access web content and to get upgrades via a system update service. "Sony Internet TV is the world's first HDTV that combines the big-screen impact of television and full Internet search to deliver an unrivaled entertainment experience," said Mike Abary, senior vice president of Sony's Home Division.



"Finally, you can seamlessly search your favorite TV programs and web sites on the same screen, at the same time."

The 24-inch NSX-24GT1 costs $599.99, the 32-inch NSX-32GT1 costs $799.99, the 40-inch NSX-40GT1 costs $999.99 and the 46-inch NSX-46GT1 goes for $1,399.99. Additionally, the Sony Internet TV Blu-ray Disc player with Google TV built-in, the NSZ-GT1, costs $399.99, and is probably the best option if you already have a HDTV and don't want to upgrade.

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Ben Heck has done it again, and this time to an Xbox 360 slim console. Ben's work is generally great, but this project of his is absolutely beautiful, and you can see from user comments on his website that most people agree.

From Ben's Site:

You knew this was coming – the Xbox 360 Slim Portable. Big differences compared to my older models:

• About 1.5″ inches narrower left and right, 1″ narrower front to back.
• Internal power supply.
• Uses stock Xbox 360 Slim fan so it's much quieter than my older 3 fan models.
• Touch sensitive power and eject buttons of the Slim have been preserved.

Not so big differences:

• Pushbutton control audio amplification.
• Gateway 1775W 17″ widescreen LCD display @ 1280×720.
• Fan grate design copied from PS3 Laptop design.
• PVC plastic routed case.

The construction of this unit is being covered over the first 6 episodes of The Ben Heck Show so be sure and check it out to learn how I put this thing together. This is the actual unit that is up for grabs as part of their contest, so one lucky winner will take this puppy home!

Here's a video demonstrating Ben's creation...



Some photos Ben has posted on his site...



Visit's Ben's website to see more and tell him what ya think.

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Despite quite a clear disapproval to the plans, Australia's prime minister Julia Gillard has renewed her backing for a web filter. The proposed filter would block selected content such as depictions of drug use, child sex abuse and bestiality. Gillard says her backing is driven by a "moral question."

Generally when government tries to interfere with the Internet in any way at all, there are concerns raised from ISP's and privacy and personal liberty proponents, but the reaction to Australia's plan goes well past that. Even the U.S. State Department has voice concerns about the plan, and web giants Google, Yahoo and Microsoft are united in their opposition.

The problem they have with the plan is it sets a precedent for censorship. User groups have formed on social networking sites, slamming the government for pushing censorship over Australians and likening the filter to the firewalls used by Iran and China.

"My fundamental outlook is this: it is unlawful for me as an adult to go to a cinema and watch certain sorts of content, it's unlawful and we believe it to be wrong," Gillard said in a press club address. "If we accept that then it seems to me that the moral question is not changed by the medium that the images come through."

There are serious questions that need to be asked about plans such as these. By what method is content determined to require restriction, and who makes that call? Will the methodology change over time and who will ultimately be in control of it?

Also, while it is easy to use problems like child porn to push such a system like this, what is the full list of content types that can be blocked and will this change too over time? And of course the biggest question is whether a blanket filter covering the country's Internet users is really required? Do ISP's already co-operate with child protection agencies online to block known sources of child abuse images, for example?

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Apparently the spat between Eminem's publisher, Eight Mile Style, and both record company Universal and online music store iTunes has not been fully settled.

The Detroit News has reported that the publisher has filed for the U.S. District Court judge in Detroit to enforce the settlement reached in the lawsuit against both Universal and iTunes.

Essentially, Eight Mile Style wants Universal and iTunes to hand over $2.2 million (what proportion each must pay is unknown) which includes legal fees.

In 2007, Eight Mile Style filed a lawsuit against Apple for selling 93 downloads of Eminem tracks without paying appropriate compensation, and against Aftermath Records (owned by Universal) for illegally negotiating the deal.

The case went to trial last year but after five days in federal court a deal was reached for an undisclosed sum to settle the case.

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Redbox, the popular DVD rental kiosk service, will add games to thousands of its kiosks throughout the United States over the coming weeks. The move follows a successful limited trial which started with a limited number of locations back in July.

Redbox claims to have already rented over 1 billion DVDs at $1 each - a price that has sent shivers throughout the films industry with many believing it undervalues a DVD.

The company will provide rentals of Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii games for $2 each, but they must be returned within 24 hours to avoid incurring a fine. The service is due in the coming weeks, according to Xbox360Digest. You can check game availability at local kiosks here then.

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BNI Video, a start-up backed by Comcast Corp, Time Warner Cable Inc, and Cisco Systems Inc, launched on Tuesday, offering software that can help satellite and cable providers attempt to keep up with rapidly changing viewer behavior and demands.

The start-up's software will aid in offering functions like search and social networking to subscribers of pay-TV services. It has raised $16 million in financing so far, backed by Charles River Ventures and Castile Ventures.

Cable providers are responding to demands from a new generation of TV viewers, who watch television content on their smartphones, tablet computers and other devices, but have a clear appetite for more features to be available while viewing the video. The TV giants also require the technology to deliver video in a wide variety of formats and to many devices that are now used to commonly view programming.

BNI Video's products will cover a broad range of devices. Viewers have more choice now than ever for tuning in, and spend a lot more time using social networks and other services. BNI will enable pay-TV providers to add those features for subscribers as well as bulked up services for their gadgets.

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Japanese mobile Internet company DeNA has purchased the popular social gaming company Ngmoco for $300 million, with an extra $100 million coming if certain targets are hit.

Ngmoco creates mobile games for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch including popular games like "We Rule," "GodFinger" and "Flick Fishing."

Based in San Fransisco, Ngmoco offers free games then makes money off "virtual goods" and in-game ads.

The company also offers the Plus+ platform, giving developers a chance to distribute their games and let players connect with friends across the world playing the same game.

Ngmoco says Plus+ has 14 million registered users.

"They have great games, but what we value in Ngmoco is their platform," added Dai Watanabe, president of DeNA Global. "We want to use that platform the same way we operate our business in Japan."

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A new study by warranty company SquareTrade has revealed that the iPhone 4 is much more fragile than its predecessors, with the new phone 82 percent more likely than older models to be damaged within its first 120 days of ownership.

The company examined 22,000 reports from iPhone 4 SquareTrade warranty owners, as well as 20,000 reports from iPhone 3G devices.

Says SquareTrade marketing VP Vince Tseng: "The iPhone 4 is a more fragile device than its predecessors. The surface area ... which you can scratch or break has basically doubled."

The iPhone 3G and 3GS were encased in plastic, whereas the iPhone 4 uses glass on the backplate. The iPhone 2G used an aluminum back.

About 30 percent of the reported damage for iPhone 4 warranty owners had to do with the back glass. When Steve Jobs unveiled the device earlier this year, he boasted of the glass, which is "30 times harder than plastic...and 20 times stiffer than plastic."

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According to a new study from TNS Digital Life, the Japanese have the least amount of friends on social networking sites, while Malaysian web users have the most.

Users in Malaysia have an average of 233 friends, followed closely by Brazil at 231. Japanese users only had an average of 29 friends.

Chinese web users, despite heavy use of social networks, had a low average of 68 friends.

In terms of time spent on social networking sites, Malaysians averaged 9 hours per week, with Russian users following at 8.1 hours and Turkish users in third at 7.7 hours per week.

"This study covers more than twice as many markets as any other research," added Matthew Froggatt, TNS chief development officer. "It is the first truly global research into online activities, including all the key emerging markets… We have also researched beyond basic behavior to provide more detailed data into attitudes and emotional drivers of that behavior."

You can read the full study here: Global 'Digital Life' research project reveals major changes in online behaviour

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According to the latest iSuppli figures, Dell has fought its way back into second place in global PC sales after losing the spot to Acer over nine months ago.

HP, despite losing share, remained on top, at 18.1 percent market share. Sales dipped 6.3 percent from the first quarter.

Dell sales fell as well, but Acer fell farther. Dell took 12.8 percent share for the quarter, with Acer falling to 12.4 percent.

Rounding out the top five were Lenovo and Toshiba. The China-based PC maker saw huge 18.6 percent growth from the first quarter moving up to 10.1 percent global share. Toshiba stagnated, falling slightly to 5.4 percent global share.

Dozens of other computer makers made up the remaining 41.2 percent, but all have less than 5 percent share.

Until the end of 2009, Dell was the perennial second-place spot holder, but Acer managed to erase a 6 point difference between 2008 and 2009.

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Nokia retained the top spot in the global smartphone market, according to iSuppli, even gaining share in the Q2.

Android's growing popularity was evident by gains seen by a few handset makers, especially HTC and Samsung.

Nokia took the top spot with a 39.7 percent share, showing 11.6 percent growth from the first quarter. RIM, the makers of the BlackBerry line, remained in second at 18.5 percent, seeing a slight decline in share despite shipping more devices.

Apple took a dive while remaining in third place at 13.9 percent. The iPhone maker dropped from 15.7 percent last quarter on slowing shipments.

Seeing massive growth thanks to Android sales, HTC shipments grew 63 percent and market share jumped to 8 percent. Samsung saw 55.6 percent growth in shipments, moving up to 4.5 percent market share.

Motorola continued its climb, moving to 4.5 percent on 12.5 percent growth.

Says Tina Teng, iSuppli's senior wireless communications analyst: "From the spectacular growth of HTC and Samsung, to the steady advances of Motorola, Android is the secret sauce for smart phone growth for many companies in 2010."

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According to TechCrunch, Apple will likely not make a phone that supports LTE 4G until 2012.

Major carrier Verizon will begin to rollout its LTE network this year, with full rollout expected by the end of 2011.

AT&T will begin their rollout next year.

The site says Apple is waiting for the technology to mature before supporting it, as the LTE transition is expected to be slow at the start.

Furthermore, the site says instead the company will release a dual mode GSM-CDMA iPhone that will work with T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon. Rival Sprint uses WiMax 4G for its smartphones.

LTE promises downstream speeds up to 500 percent faster than current 3G.

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Wedbush's Michael Pachter revealed in a note he sent to investors that Bungie's Halo: Reach will have pushed U.S. games industry sales figures back into positive territory following three straight months of dismal results.

Pachter predicts that U.S. games software sales for September will hit $665 million, representing a 2.4 percent increase over September 2009. The increase would be larger if it wasn't for a decline in the music games genre. Last year, Guitar Hero 5 and Rock Band: The Beatles helped to boost the genre, while Pachter predicts this time around, Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock only sold 100,000 units.

Overall, Pachter expected rhythm genre sales to be down more than $100 million for the month, from $116 million to just $15 million.

He expects FIFA 11 and Dead Rising 2 to be among the best selling titles for the month, while he expects sales of Sony's PlayStation Move to be "modest" at best.

On the hardware side however, Pachter is not feeling very positive. He predicts an 18 percent decrease in sales due to the fact that games hardware saw price slashes in time for September 2009, helping to push up the figures. For the same reason, he expects the drop in hardware sales compared to 2009 to continue for a few months.

NPD's September figures for the U.S. are due this week.

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