quick start THE BEGINNING OF THE MAGAZINE, WHERE ARTICLES ARE SMALL
BAD ON BLU-RAY
Later this year, Blu-ray fans can expect new
movie releases to feature long-promised bonus
material, such as picture-in-picture commen-
taries. Trouble
is, Blu-ray
players sold
thus far (other
than Sony’s
PS3) are inca-
pable of playing the new version 1.1 content.
Players made with the 1.0 profile will be able
to play the movie itself, but nothing else. In
other good news for early adopters, the Internet
connectivity we’ve also been hearing about is
part of a later 2.0 profile.SONY TO DIS-CONNECT
On March 31, 2008, Sony will shut down its
online Connect Music service, in yet another
sign that the music biz is giving up on DRM.
In much the same way iTunes serves iPods,
Connect sold music in Sony’s proprietary
ATRAC file format, which could only be played
on the PC used to purchase the music or a
Sony device. Now that Sony is abandoning
ATRAC, owners of that music are left without a
player upgrade path.TIVO TRIUMPHS
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal
Circuit has upheld a jury’s verdict finding that
Dish Network’s DVRs infringe on TiVo’s time-
warping patent. As a result, Dish Network will
be forced to pay TiVo $89.6 million in damages.
The appeals court also upheld a permanent
injunction barring Dish Network from selling or
providing services to the infringing devices.BREAKING: IPHONE STILL SUCKS!
It’s been nearly a year since Apple’s blessed
iPhone hit store shelves, and we’re still
scratching our heads. Hacked applications are
a poor alternative for official support on Apple’s
side. Where’s that prom-
ised SDK? It’s hard for
us to find answers using
the iPhone’s atrocious
EDGE-based Internet
connection. Hey, Apple,
let us know when
you’re ready to make
improvements that
aren’t related to
the device’s
storage limits.FUNSIZENEWS
A lot goes on behind the scenes in the course of
making this magazine. There are the trials and
tribulations of product testing, the heated debates
about new technology developments, and the
ongoing tirade that is Gordon Mah Ung’s hate. You
can listen in on all this and more during our weekly
No BS Podcast (get it at MaximumPC.com).Listen and Learn
,I
1
Microsoft
Bids Big for
Yahoo
How much is Yahoo worth?
Microsoft is offering to pur-
chase the company for $44.
billion in an attempt to keep
its Internet strategy from
falling apart under the weight
of a Google-controlled search
market.
Data released by Nielsen/
Netratings in December shows
that Google controls 56.3 per-
cent of the U.S. search market,
with Yahoo eating Google’s
dust at 17.7 percent. Microsoft
takes third at 13.8 percent,
suggesting that a Microsoft-
Yahoo combination would still
trail far behind Google in terms
of market share.
Even so, Google is brac-
ing for an economic impact
from the proposed merger.
The Mountain View, CA-based
company fi red the fi rst vol-
ley shortly after Microsoft
CEO Steve Ballmer’s proposal
became public at the end
of January. On the offi cial
Google Blog, Senior Vice
President David Drummond
questioned the merits of the
proposed deal, suggesting
that Microsoft might very well
try to monopolize its way to
online success.
“Could a combination
of the two take advantage
of a PC software monopoly
to unfairly limit the abil-
ity of consumers to freely
access competitors’ email,
IM, and web-based services?
Policymakers around the
world need to ask these
questions—and consumers
deserve satisfying answers,”
Drummond said.
The fi nal word might not
even be Google’s, Yahoo’s,
or Microsoft’s: U.S. lawmak-
ers intend to examine the
proposed acquisition, echoing
an antitrust scenario that
Microsoft is all-too-familiar
with by now. Expect this pro-
posal to come under fi re for
quite some time.eSata Loses
Its Power Cord
Take that, extra cable. The Serial ATA International
Organization recently announced that it’s pursuing a
new specifi cation of the eSATA standard. In this ver-
sion, eSATA will be joining its connection peers by
offering power over the data cable itself. The new
cabling will remain compatible with existing eSATA
plugs and not suffer from any speed reductions.Cyber Security = Spying
In a profi le appearing in The New Yorker magazine,
U.S. Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell
lays out his vision for a safer cyberspace: The govern-
ment should have the authority to look at every piece
of information traveling over
the Internet in the United
States. Only in this way can
the country’s fi nancial institu-
tions be safeguarded from
cyber attacks by terrorists,
according to McConnell.
Let’s hope Congress doesn’t
just roll over on this one.12 MAMAMAXIMXIMXIMXIMUUUUMMPPPCC | APR 08 | http://www.maximumpc.com