Digital Media

Remember that little old BlackBerry app for MySpace that premiered last week? Apparently it struck a chord with users because RIM reported just after midnight on Friday (EST), that it hosted more downloads for the product's first week than it has for any other app.

While 400,000 downloads in one week for the BlackBerry-compatible MySpace software is a drop in the bucket compared to Firefox 3's 1 million downloads in 24 hours, it did beat out the initial release of RIM's Facebook app.

RIM did not reply with comparative numbers.

In a statement, RIM's co-CEO Jim Balsillie regards the download count as a proof of "an evolving consumer lifestyle where social connectivity and information access are more important than ever." Yet, the spike could as easily correspond to a more concerted marketing push, to a growing adoption of BlackBerry phones among consumers versus business users, or to first-time BlackBerry owners responding to the sexier looks of the Bold and Storm.

Either way, RIM has a lot of work to do if it wants to join Mozilla in the Guinness Book of World Records.

Updated at 6 p.m. PST: Adds comment from Michael Seibel, CEO of Justin.tv.

A 19-year-old man has committed suicide while broadcasting himself on Justin.tv, according to a report at NewTeeVee.

The teenager took an overdose of pills while on camera and was apparently encouraged to do so by commentators on Justin.tv and a bodybuilding site, according to the report.

Justin.tv enables users to broadcast video live to the Internet. NewTeeVee said it confirmed the man's death with the Broward County medical examiner's office, which is near Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. This will undoubtedly raise questions about the power of Web video and whether its voyeuristic nature can go too far.

The young man apparently posted threats of killing himself to Web message boards in the past, according to numerous online reports. Because of this many of those who watched the man's suicide were skeptical that it was a legitimate suicide attempt and began mocking him.

Some viewers did take him seriously and contacted the Broward County Sheriff's Department. It appears that deputies broke into the man's room and discovered his body.

In response to the tragedy, Michael Seibel, CEO of Justin.tv, issued this statement to CNET News:

"We regret that this has occurred and respect the privacy of the broadcaster and his family during this time. We have policies in place to discourage the distribution of distressing content and our community monitors the site accordingly. This content was flagged by our community, reviewed, and removed according to our Terms of Service."

The San Francisco Bay Area is a region already well known for its fabulous food, innovative technology, and breathtaking beauty. In the coming years, we could add one more thing to the list: electric vehicles.

On Thursday, the mayors of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose held a press conference at San Francisco's city hall to announce their ambitious goal of turning the Bay Area into the electric vehicle capital of the country. Here are details of the nine-point plan that will launch in December, as released by the San Francisco Mayor's office:

• Expedited permitting and installation of electric vehicle charging outlets at homes, businesses, parking lots, and other buildings throughout the Bay Area;

• Incentives for employers to install EV charging systems in their workplaces and provide similar incentives to parking facilities and other locations where EV charging stations can be installed;

• Harmonize local regulations and standards across the region that govern EV infrastructure to achieve regulatory consistency for EV companies as well as expanded range for EV consumers;

• Establish common government programs that promote the purchase of EVs;

• Link EV programs and infrastructure to regional transit and air quality programs;

• Establish programs for aggressive pooled-purchase orders for EVs in municipal, state government, and private sector fleets, and future commitment of purchasing preference for EV vehicles;

• Expedited permitting and approval for facilities that provide extended-range driving capability for EVs in the region through battery exchange locations or fast-charging;

• Identify and secure suitable standard (110V) electric outlets for charging low-voltage EVs in every government building in 2009;

• Identify roll-out plan for placement of 220V EV-charging equipment throughout each city including city parking lots and curbside parking.

Yahoo closed at $8.95 a share, down 2 percent, as the Dow Jones Industrial Average cratered 444.99 points to close at 7,552.29.

For Yahoo, its shares have not traded at this point since February 2003, while the S&P 500, which fell 6.71 percent to 752.44, has not seen these levels since 2002.

The markets reacted late in the session as signs pointed to a delay in moving a massive bailout for the automotive industry forward.

Last week, Yahoo's shares moved in the $9 a share range and the day before that the $10 a share range.

The growing economic slump doesn't appear to have fully struck Web advertising.

Internet advertising revenues for the third quarter were nearly $5.9 billion, representing an 11 percent increase over the same period last year, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau.

The bad news is online advertising appears to be slowing down. The third quarter in 2008 was up only two percent from the second quarter. For the first three quarters of the year, however, ad revenues totaled $17.3 billion, up from $15.2 billion for the first three quarters of 2007. The IAB said the $5.9 billion quarterly results were the second best ever.

Meanwhile, ComScore issued an ad-focus ranking for October. Platform A, AOL's ad platform reached 173 million Americans or 91 percent of the 190.6 million American's online. The Yahoo Network came in second by reaching 164 million people and was followed by Google's Ad Network with 158 million.

Only two and a half months after announcing Picasa 3 beta, Google has done the uncharacteristic and on Thursday has issued Picasa 3.

Here's the clincher:Picasa 3 is the exact same desktop organizer and editor it has been under the beta flag. (This is a good wagon for the Gmail team to climb aboard--Google's e-mail service has been in beta since 2004 and its latest releases have been earthshaking themes and emoticons.)

Although Version 3 beta users won't see changes in this release, those switching from Version 2.7 will enjoy the substantial boost in features. Version 3 stacks on over a dozen more tricks to refine the editing, creative, and sharing options in what has for years been a solid consumer app. Highlights below.

With a little creativity, you can make gorgeous collages like this in Picasa 3.

(Credit: Tara Morrison/Google)

Syncing and sharing
Instead of manually uploading new photos to Picasa Web Albums from Picasa 3, you'll be able to click "Sync to Web" to keep the folder automatically updated. You can exclude photos by right-clicking and choosing "block from uploading" from the context menu.

Sharing has also gotten much easier. In previous versions, you would upload the photos from Picasa and then click within the Web album to e-mail the link to friends. The 'Share' button next to Picasa's syncing button helpfully auto-uploads the album and sends the Web link without compelling you to go online.

No more leaving Picasa for the Web to update or share photos.

(Credit: CNET)

Movie Maker
A terrific but light addition, Picasa 3's new movie maker can take videos from your digital camera and other clips and intersperse them with any other file Picasa supports. You can then upload your video to YouTube or to Picasa Web, or share via e-mail.

Bare-bones editing tools will trim the clips and add a song for background. However, they don't do fading and there's no template to carry your caption style from frame to frame. Video output is currently only the WMV format, and encoding takes a little time--be patient while it renders.

Drop Box
Drop Box is the new default storage locker for newly uploaded photos, for pictures you don't want to assign to an album, and for multitaskers who tell Picasa to take it easy on the bandwidth so they can simultaneously surf and upload. The Drop Box also holds photos uploaded via Orkut, ShoZu, and other third-party photo uploading services that integrate with Picasa Web Albums. This is one of those features that some users will love and many will ignore.

Screenshots
Picasa 3 hooks into your keyboard's PrintScreen key to index captures of your screen, Webcam input, or a video. For casual users, this feature may replace independent screen-capturing software like Gadwin PrintScreen, Capture.NET, and SnagIt. Those who continue to use those apps may find the cataloging amusing or mildly annoying.

You can upload photos to the drop box and start making a movie from Picasa 3's toolbar.

(Credit: CNET)

Other notables
Picasa 3's red-eye reduction tool detects and auto-corrects all the red-eyes in a photo. This substantially cuts out the hassle of clicking and dragging over individual eyes to wipe out the redness, and it works well most of the time. For blotchy faces and other minor blemishes, the retouch tool will awkwardly but fairly effectively let you blot out problem areas.

Finally, the collage tool has gotten more customizable. Before Picasa 3, you couldn't delete, drag, angle, or print in full resolution. Now you can. These substantial additions make the tool an easy way to get really creative (see photo).

There's always room for improvement, especially with the movie maker and red-eye tool, which could use some more precision controls, but this Version 3 release is an excellent effort that will give people much greater control over their photos and Web albums without sacrificing simplicity. All without clinging to beta.

>>Want more detail? See the full list of additions and changes in Picasa 3.

To: Apple CEO Steve Jobs
From: Greg Sandoval, CNET News
Re: Acquiring DRM-free music

Steve, give us DRM-free songs for Christmas

(Credit: James Martin/CNET Networks)

The iTunes music library is looking a little shabby these days. Look around, Steve: iTunes is the last great refuge of DRM-laden downloads. Is this the image you want for Apple?

More than 18 months have passed since you signed your one and only deal to acquire music free of copy-protection software with a major recording company. And that was with EMI, which accounts for less than 9 percent of U.S. album sales and is the smallest of the four top music labels. In the meantime, Apple has continued to wrap the vast majority of major-label music in Fairplay, the company's proprietary digital rights management software, at a time when your major competitors have already signed DRM-free deals with all the big players.

If you cling to this position, iTunes is going to look stodgier than that "PC guy" you're always mocking in your commercials. Zune offers more DRM-free music, signing agreements with EMI, Warner Music Group, and just this week, Universal Music Group, the largest music label. Steve, DRM inspires hatred from all the cybergroovies, many of whom swear loyalty to Apple products. It's time to dump this loser. Even the major labels have recognized this. I'll get back to that.

You now have a golden opportunity to make things right. I've heard about your negotiations with the three largest music labels about acquiring music unburdened by copy-protection software. My sources said that no deals are final but that one top label is closing in on an agreement.

Close them, Steve. Close all of them. I'm going to point out the obvious: striking these agreements would be good for Apple, the recording industry, and certainly for Apple customers.

DRM doesn't fit with Apple image
I realize cutting a deal takes both sides to agree. But you and the music industry have blamed each other for the absence of DRM-free songs on iTunes for more than a year, certainly since you published your now famous open letter of February 2007. That's when you called for the labels to abandon DRM. I'm sure you know music execs always laughed at this and suggested that your argument was a tad disingenuous. They said your DRM fit perfectly with your plans to lock customers into buying music that played only on Apple devices.

I think I can speak for your customers here. They don't care who's responsible. What really matters to them is that it's time to do more than write letters. You must recognize that the time is perfect for you to act. The climate surrounding digital music is vastly changed since you wrote that letter. The labels admit now their DRM strategy has failed.

Check out what Edgar Bronfman, the head of Warner Music Group, said earlier this month: "We're not technology companies...We never came up with a version of DRM that did what we needed it to do."

Doug Morris, Universal Music's CEO, called you a friend and one the smartest men in music during a recent interview. Sounds to me like these guys are ready to deal. They must know that it's in their best interest for iTunes, the country's largest music retailer online or off, to have everything it needs to move music. Sure, they want iTunes to have some competition. They fear you will grab too much control over digital sales...again.

That's likely why all four major labels have provided music sans copy-protection software to your chief rivals: Amazon.com, MySpace Music, and Wal-Mart Stores. I'm not naive enough to think that's an accident.

But all the signs point to a music industry, at least with regard to digital downloads, that wants copy-protected songs buried.

Take away competitors' advantage
Just consider the benefits to Apple if you acquire DRM-free songs from the three largest labels:

• You snatch away the most important competitive advantage that any of your rivals possess. Amazon, MySpace Music, and Napster have been touting their DRM-free libraries. Amazon appears to be the only place where DRM is making much of a difference. The Web's largest retail store doesn't break out numbers, but in April, research company NPD Group reported that Amazon's MP3 service was showing signs of growth based on consumer sampling.

• You can give iTunes' tech-savvier customers peace of mind. Sure, they represent a tiny sliver of your customer base, but they're also the most vocal. They're the ones who have been calling for an end to Fairplay for a long time and understand that one day Apple could stop issuing DRM keys and leave their music stranded.

Remember, Steve, DRM schemes were proved to be anti-consumer this year. MSN, Yahoo, and Wal-Mart all made announcements that they planned to stop issuing DRM keys. They all were widely criticized when customers realized that without the keys, songs couldn't be moved to new devices or computers. All three capitulated. Sure, Apple appears to be an immovable force now, but who knows about five years from now? Fairplay is DRM and that means it's vulnerable to this key issue.

Do you really want to follow in this group's footsteps?

• Apple also will avoid alienating customers in the case that a company develops a popular music player that people can't play their iTunes libraries on because of compatibility issues. I've always said that in this scenario, Apple could lose a lot of good will.

Apple needs to prove the naysayers wrong and show that the company was never interested in locking customers into buying its music or music players. Apple has to show that it knows the best way to build an empire is to design products people want to play their media on--not players they have to play their media on.

Australian telecommunications provider iiNet on Thursday was dragged into court as major film studios filed a case against the ISP for allegedly letting its users download pirated movies and television series.

According to the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft, speaking on behalf of Village Roadshow, Universal Pictures, Warner Bros Entertainment, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Twentieth Century Fox Film, Disney Enterprises, and the Seven Network, thousands cases of pirated movies and television shows have passed through iiNet's network without iiNet doing anything about it.

AFACT Executive Director Adrianne Pecotic claimed that iiNet had ignored requests from the companies to discipline its customers for breaking copyright laws.

"We have provided in this instance, over a five-month period, the IP addresses of thousands of people who are iiNet customers who are using iiNet Internet access to infringe copyright. iiNet has several options within its power to prevent that. They have not done so," Pecotic told ZDNet Australia.

"This is not about iiNet policing its network. There's no suggestion that they have to police their network. What we're saying, and what the law says, is that when they know that copyright infringement is occurring, they have a legal obligation to prevent it," she continued.

Options the Internet service provider had, Pecotic said, were giving the customer notice, limiting download speeds, or suspending browsers or P2P protocols. She said 9 out of 10 people in the United States who were given notice did not pirate films again.

The companies want a court order forcing iiNet to prevent its customers from engaging in copyright infringement over its network. If the ruling goes their way, they will likely claim damages, but Pecotic would not name figures.

When asked if other ISPs were undertaking such measures when sent infringement notices, Pectotic made vague reference to unspecified agreements between ISPs and content providers in the U.S. and U.K. markets, saying only that she intended to focus on iiNet because it was the focus of the court case.

She would not say if any other ISP was also ignoring infringement notices, but when asked if there might be future court cases, she said, "We wouldn't rule out any future litigation, no."

On the choice of ISP, Pecotic said only that iiNet was the third-largest ISP in Australia, and as such, she didn't consider it to be small.

According to Pecotic, 50,000 people in Australia are employed in companies affected by the film industry, which all feel the brunt of pirating films and TV, and the faster broadband gets, the worse piracy gets.

The case will come back before the court on the December 17, and Pectotic considered that it would run for about 12 months.

iiNet did not reply to requests for comment in time for publication.

Suzanne Tindal of ZDNet Australia reported from Sydney.

A view of Yahoo Glue Pages when they debuted in India earlier this year. The feature builds a mini-portal around search results.

(Credit: Yahoo)

Yahoo rolled out a U.S. beta version of its Glue Pages, giving a visual boost to users' search results, according to a posting on its Yahoo blog site.

The beta is designed to allow users to enter a search and have not only text links appear on the site, but also related pictures, videos and blogs.

The company is taking a page from its Yahoo India Glue Pages site, which it unveiled in May.

With this effort, Yahoo is seeking to put related content all on one page, while its competitor Google currently offers up text links, with additional links to related photos, videos, blogs, books and news.

Microsoft's Live Search takes a similar approach to Google's.

Update at 8:55 p.m. PST: Changed to reflect that NPR Music had the streaming debut of Paul McCartney's album.

Guns N' Roses fans who have waited 17 years to hear the rock band's new album are mere hours from having their patience rewarded with a free Web debut before it goes on sale next week.

Guns N' Roses' Chinese Democracy will make its debut on the band's MySpace page starting Thursday, according to a Reuters report Wednesday. Fans will be able to stream the album for free before it goes on sale Sunday in an exclusive deal with Best Buy. Listeners, however, will not be able to download tracks from the site.

Also reported to be debuting Thursday was Electric Arguments by Paul McCartney's side project group, The Fireman. However, Eliot Van Buskirk at Wired.com noted that NPR Music got the jump on MySpace by beginning its streaming of the album Tuesday.

The News Corp.-owned social network launched its MySpace Music service in September with the backing of the four largest recording companies. The service represents the most significant challenge to Apple--at least in terms of firepower--in some time. The site offers free streaming music and sells unprotected MP3 downloads, ringtones, and merchandise.

MySpace has long been a place where bands market their wares to the Web. According to MySpace, 65 percent of its users already have streaming music on their profiles and 6 billion songs are played every month.

The free exposure for fledgling performers sometimes has big payouts. The rock band Boston recently hired its new lead singer from a fan's tribute page on the social-networking site.