Hollywood unions eye Apple's video sales

Unions representing Hollywood actors, directors and writers have called for talks on securing a share of revenues from video sold through iTunes. Currently the unions have deals that ensure a share of the royalties from Internet broadcasts but they believe iTunes and the new video-enabled iPod are not covered by these provisions. The Writers Guild of America (West), the American Federation of Television & Radio Artists, the Screen Actors Guild, Directors Guild of America and the Writers Guild of America (East) are keen to sit down with ABC as soon as possible. ...more

Blackberry developer goes back to court

Research in Motion (RIM), the developer of the increasingly popular Blackberry handheld device is back in court today in an attempt to overturn a ruling brought against it in its three year legal battle with NTP which could see it forced out of the US. In August of last year NTP won a court judgment declaring that Blackberry's use of radio-frequency wireless communications in e-mail systems infringed its patents. The judgement was a terrible blow to RIM. ...more

Intel's 65-nm Cedar Mill CPU to have power consumption of 65W

The power consumption of Intel's 65-nm single-core Cedar Mill processors is likely to be around 65W, down from the around 115W of the current Prescott CPUs, according to sources at Taiwan motherboard makers who have seen Intel's CPU roadmap. The Cedar Mill is scheduled to be launched in early next year. However, the power consumption of Intel's 65-nm, dual-core Presler CPU, also to be launched in the first quarter of 2005, will still be at the same level as the dual-core Smithfield CPU, at around 130W, the sources said. ...more

EMI deal completes YouTube's record label collection

YouTube is now free to play music videos from the likes of Coldplay and David Bowie after signing an agreement with EMI. The video sharing website now has licensing deals with all four major record companies. EMI had delayed signing up until satisfied by YouTube that adequate safeguards were in place to prevent videos being downloaded and copied. ...more

80 per cent prefer email to phone

Eighty per cent of business people now prefer to communicate via email, rather than the phone, according to a new survey. The META Group found that the ability to communicate with multiple parties, speed and the retaining of a written record, were the top three reasons that respondents to the survey gave for preferring to type rather than talk. Seventy-four per cent added that they would be happier without a phone than they would without email. ...more