RealNetworks Inc plans to unveil a new portable music service for digial music players.

Real’s entry into the market, which has been widely speculated in the technology community, puts it in direct competition with Napster Inc. (Nasdaq:NAPS - news)

With new technologies out there it is easy to take care of DVD and CDs especially with removing scratches.

Even putting them back into those containers is not so easy sometimes. It makes me feel helpless; there’s really nothing you can do about it.”

But there is. The emergence of DVD has spawned a cottage industry of products that grind scratches out of the plastic discs and polish them up like new.

The repair industry began with the arrival of the CD in the early 1980s but didn’t really take off until movie rental stores needed to fix DVDs that were damaged from frequent use. A tiny surface scratch can interfere with the laser reading the data, causing the picture to freeze or “pixilate” - break up into tiny pieces, like a mosaic.

Many Internet users are annoyed by spam, a study released by the Pew Internet and American Life Project say otherwise.

This shows some level of tolerance that people are manifesting,” said Deborah Fallows, a senior research fellow at Pew and the study’s author. “Maybe it’s their getting used to it. Maybe it’s like other annoying things in life — air pollution, traffic — they are just learning to live with it.”

Cell Phone Company Verizon is threating to abandon a $7.5 billion dollar buyout deal from MCI.

In a statement Monday, Verizon Communications Inc. said, “If the MCI board, capitulating to Qwest’s artificial deadline, declares this bid to be `superior,’ it would seem to us that the decision-making process is being driven by the interests of short-term investors rather than the company’s long-term strength and viability.”

“Should this occur, we would no longer be interested in participating in such a process,” the statement warned.

The Supreme court is set to hear arguments dealing with file sharing later today.

File-sharing supporters say a ruling against the software companies could effectively give the entertainment industry a legal veto over up-and-coming gadgets; they fear the threat of expensive lawsuits could hamper development of new devices.

Apple has issued a security update for the OSX v10.3.8 that fixes several problems with the system including the web browser Safari.

Apple explains that the Cyrillic letter “a” could be used in place of the Latin letter “a,” making it difficult for a user to tell if they are at a real Web site or a malicious imposter website that’s designed to look like the real one. These sites can be used to collect account numbers, passwords and other personal information.

The update provides a user-editable list of scripts that are allowed to be displayed natively in domain names. The default list does not include Latin look-alike scripts (Cherokee, Cyrillic, and Greek) that could be used to trick users into navigating to malicious sites.

In a last minute decision Motorola decided to put the new I Tunes phone on hold becuase of some concerns from Apple Computers Inc.

Motorola briefed reporters last week on the much-hyped new phone, which would allow users to download music from Apple’s iTunes Internet music store, and was set to unveil it during a consumer electronics show in Germany. It pulled back the announcement for reasons never fully explained, amid analyst speculation the delay was due to reservations among its carriers.

The Federal Trade Commission is being asked to investigate Web sites that claim to offer legal music downloads at cheap prices.

A Washington-based civil liberties group, the Center for Democracy and Technology, said it planned to file a formal complaint early Tuesday with the trade commission charging such Web sites with deceptive trade practices. The FTC has acted on previous complaints from the group, including one recent case over Internet spyware.

“They’re fooling people into spending money to buy products that are competing with legitimate products,” said Alan Davidson, an associate director for the group. “These are the people who are really polluting the marketplace.”

The Sony Ericsson Corporation has unveiled four new phones and one includes a Walkman.

Sony Ericsson’s new product launches have so far been modest compared with those of bigger rivals — market leader Nokia (news - web sites), runner-up Motorola and No. 3 Samsung. They typically launch 40 new products or more in a year.

Microsoft is risking alienating customers because of the amonut of threats with the software.

Speaking at a security conference, Gates also said the company would give consumers a free tool for combating spyware, a pesky and growing threat that can monitor users’ activities, hinder computer performance and create other hassles. Microsoft also will sell a more sophisticated antispyware product to businesses.

Internet blogging has become something that members of the cyber world can come together to express ideas and give opinions. The metaphor Dalzell uses alters our understanding of who journalist are because anyone can publish something on the Internet. Before the popularity of the Internet and online blogging before someone could have anything published they had to have creditntials of some sort.
Journalist Peggy Noonan says that blogging has changed the way business is done in the field of American journalism. The business of journalism can no longer be the guardian of the truth. I agree with what she is saying becuase there are people out there who think that anything they read on the internet is true.
I think that most bloggers are considered to be professionals about the topic they write about and most people think the information they get from a blog is accurate information.
Noonan also talked about the powers of the bloggers.
She said they used tools of a journalist such as a computer a keyboard and willingness to ask questions. Another power of the bloggers is they are independent operators. Bloggers can also post immediately as to where you have to read about news the next day in the newspapers.
As most people know blogging played a big role in the downfall of Dan Rather and then Eason Jordan, journalist for CNN. Media criticsm has changed over the last several years an will continue to becasue of the changing technology.
A few years ago the criticism of the media would have taken place in the Columbia Journalism Review or in certain newspaper columns, according to Paul Grabowicz at the University of California Graduate School of Journalism.
According to two surveys conducted in November by the Pew Internet and the American Life Project, blogs have become an extremely important part of internet life. The survey says that 27% of the users of the Internet read blogs and reports the about 8 million adults in the U.S. have created a blog. The Pew Survey says that 62% of Internet users have no idea what a blog is.

I think Internet speech should be controlled as minimum as possible, as long as people are not using vulgar language or intentionally offending someone the language control should be fine.

Cell Phone users will soon be able to download music from thier mobile phones.

Mobile phone makers and networks are looking for ways to boost their revenue given difficulties finding new customers in saturated industrialized markets and even in some developing countries.

Free voice calls over the Internet pose a further threat to revenues, forcing mobile operators to look to entertainment and data services for their future profitability. Such calls could soon be possible with mobiles: Motorola Inc. and Internet phone company Skype Technologies SA have just teamed up to explore that possibility.

Nextel Communications agreed to a plan by federal regulators that is aimed toward ending interference from cell phone by Nextel interferring with Public Safety communnications.

The agreement calls for Nextel to lose some spectrum in the 800 band and bundle together its remaining spectrum in the band and move it further away from emergency service frequencies. Those frequencies will be relocated next to each other, which should dramatically reduce the likelihood of interference, FCC officials said.

The Microsoft company formally launches search engine after it had debuted in the test form.

Beginning Tuesday, Microsoft’s own search engine will permanently replace the Yahoo search technology that has been used on Microsoft’s MSN Web site. But Yahoo’s technology will be still be used for the “sponsored” listings that companies pay for, and that appear separately alongside the main search results.

Not only can we take photos from our cell phones but soon we will be able to download music as well

With today’s latest models, users can download whole music tracks, enjoy video clips and games and even keep up with news and sports highlights.

Questions are now being raised on the ethical ifluences of blogging.

So far, many bloggers resist any notion of ethical standards, saying individuals ought to decide what’s right for them. After all, they say, blog topics range from trying to sway your presidential vote to simply talking about the day’s lunch.

Blogginng is a way of expressing your opinions and we are able to do it freely.