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Lawsuits claim Amazon, Apple and more are streaming unlicensed music
When you walk into a bar, hotel or store, you probably hear music. The same goes for when you tune into a TV channel or radio station. Those businesses are supposed to pay royalties to the artists for using their music. Collection firms like Pro Music Rights (PMR) are tasked with monitoring these things. And they've had a lot more work on their hands, now that they need to keep track of streaming services which must properly license the songs they add to their libraries. PMR -- which sued Spotify last year -- alleges that 10 of the biggest services have been streaming unlicensed music from artists the company represents, and has filed lawsuits against each.
AT&T launches pilot program for expanded push-to-talk services
Let's face it, walkie-talkies are far from glamorous, but for large and small enterprises that rely on real-time communication, the WWII artifact remains an integral part of the workday. Now, AT&T has set forth on a journey to give its push-to-talk services a modern makeover, and it's recruiting a few partners to join the quest. In addition to providing PTT-enabled smartphones, the carrier will be testing IP-based technologies that offer workflow automation for tasks such as fleet management and dispatch. Additionally, the system will also offer integration with traditional radio systems such as PMR and LMR, which means an organization won't need to transition its entire crew at once. You can find more about AT&T's hybrid communications system in the PR after the break.
EU Arena Tournament standings posted in anticipation of phase 4
Vaneras has posted the latest EU Arena tournament rankings over on the forums (after the latest phase ended), and it looks like PMR has found their way back on top across the pond: Priest/Mage/Rogue teams have taken over the top three spots. The Death Knight/Paladin/DPS teams, formerly dominating, have fallen down to just two spots out of ten, and two Shamans have made an appearance, one partnered with a Druid and a Mage, and the other with a Lock and Hunter. Very interesting.We should see the US standings posted soon. You can see the rest of the EU teams in the big listing over on the Armory if you want. Phase 4 of the tournament, Vaneras says, will be an invitational, and will start next week on April 14th. Congrats to all of the winners so far, and good luck in the rest of the tourney!
Victory from the jaws of defeat
Hate Arenas all you want, but I love it for the fact that you will sometimes see the grandest display of skill and mastery of the game in PvP and when those moments happen... it's magic. How appropriate then, that the most magical moment in quite possibly all professional Arena Tournament history was performed by none other than a Mage. It's a phenomenal comeback tale that ranks right up there with the greatest comebacks in sports -- and not just eSports.Team H O N was down 1-2 against SK-Gaming Asia, better known as the Council of Mages, winners of the Worldwide Invitational in Paris. Both teams from Korea sported the same RMP comps, with some spec changes in between matches to keep everyone guessing. In the fourth match, played in the Ruins of Lordaeron, SK-Gaming showed superb control despite H O N going offensive in the first few minutes... so superb, in fact, that at one point the shoutcasters were already congratulating SK-Gaming. If you've kept abreast of the tiny bits of the ESL Global Finals here at WoW Insider, you'd already know that H O N won the tournament so it should be no spoiler that they escaped from being down 1-2 to tie and eventually win it all.That's not the magical moment, though. You have to see it for yourself. Don't worry, the video might be long (that's just the first part of the match) but the most jawdropping moment happens right before the four minute mark. The movie may well be Moviewatch material if only because it's so unbelievable you're tempted to think it's all machinima. But the coolest thing about it is that it's not, and OrangeMarmalade will be celebrated as one of the greatest PvP Mages of all time.
Hitachi introduces second-gen 1TB Deskstar 7K1000.B hard drive
Remember the day you drooled all over your keyboard when Hitachi introduced a 1TB internal hard drive? Yeah, like a year and a half ago? The outfit's most recent HDD announcement isn't likely to have nearly the same effect, but those who skipped the first-gen version in order to get a more refined product the second go 'round will surely be delighted. Today marks the debut of the 1TB Deskstar 7K1000.B, which goes down as "the world's most energy-efficient 7,200RPM one-terabyte hard drive." Said drive features a new three-disk design which improves idle power consumption up to 43% over its 1TB predecessor, but unfortunately, there's no telling how long you'll have to wait to actually buy this currently unpriced overlord of storage.[Via PCLaunches]
Tracking the Tournament Realm rankings from the armory
If you're interested in keeping track of the 3v3 Arena Tournament, You can look at Vhiari's breakdowns, sure, and good ones they are. But there's also another resource that should come in handy: The official ladder listings right on the official Armory. By choosing the Coliseum 1 battlegroup, you can see the rankings for the Tournament Realms. The current top 3v3 team, Outrageously Better Pros, Is a Priest/Rogue/Druid team, although the Druid has no games played. Maybe they used to be Priest Mage Rogue, which is a pretty strong combo these days. It should be fun to watch these rankings as the tournament progresses, both to see what class and spec makeups stay near the top, and to see what outrageous and silly names people can come up with for their teams -- without breaking the naming policy, that is. What's interesting to me is that despite the fact that the Tournament itself is 3v3 only, the 2v2 and 5v5 brackets are still in full swing, with quite a few teams. I suppose this is a sign that people really do like the idea of a good solid PvP only realm to duke it out with high powered characters to prove their worth. I have to wonder if Blizzard is watching those brackets as closely as they're watching the 3v3 bracket, or if this is a sign that they may make these arena practice realms more permanent in the future. Either way, all this activity should be fun to watch. Keep your browser pointed to WoW Inside for all the latest Tournament Realm news, including the escapades of our own WoW Insider Arena Team. Here's some arena page trivia too, while we're on the subject: Mike pointed out to me that the blade that Draenei chick on the arena ladder page is holding is known as The Hungering Cold. Its model was used for the Infamous "Sword of 1,000 Truths" in the South Park episode "Make Love, Not Warcraft." It currently drops in Naxxramas, so chances are we'll see it again come Wrath of the Lich King.
Hitachi pushes out 2.5-inch 320GB Travelstar 5K320
Considering that Fujitsu just unleashed a half-terabyte drive in the 2.5-inch form factor yesterday, Hitachi's 320GB Travelstar 5K320 seems a bit underwhelming. Still, it's pretty capacious in its own right, and does feature optional Bulk Data Encryption (BDE) and a 3Gb/s data transfer rate. The 5,400RPM SATA drive also includes "altitude-sensing Thermal Fly-height Control (TFC), an improved actuator latch and fourth-generation perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) head technology," and better still, only sucks down 1.8-watts of power when reading and writing. The good news? It's shipping to customers worldwide as we speak. The bad? Who knows how pricey it'll be.
Toshiba's DTR technology hints at 240GB iPod drives by 2009
With Apple launching their new iPod classic, pretty much everybody is now aware that 1.8-inch hard disks max out at 160GB. Thing is, that disk -- be it from Toshiba or Samsung -- is actualy spinning a pair of 80GB platters at its core. So what would you say to Toshiba's announced 120GB single-platter drive? Hoozah, seems appropriate. The new prototype applies Discrete Track Recording (DTR) technology to boost the areal density of perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) techniques by a full 50% -- that's 516Mb per square millimeter (333Gb per square inch). Tosh plans on mass producing the 1.8-inch and 2.5-inch (laptop) drives in 2009 which means that a 240GB "iPod HD" can't be too far away, eh Apple?
Seagate crams 250GB on a single Barracuda platter
Just a day after Hitachi and Philips boasted about its newest external 1TB offerings, Seagate is up on its own soap box clamoring over the "industry's first 250GB-per-disc, 3.5-inch disc drive." Touting the second-generation of perpendicular magnetic recording technology, the newest Barracuda 7200.10 stretches areal density limits by stuffing 180Gb per square inch, and also manages to "set new benchmarks" for power consumption, acoustics, and performance. The drives will feature a 3Gbps SATA interface and should pop up in future external models, but for now you can probably grab one in a retail box as Seagate has reportedly achieved worldwide volume deployments.[Via TGDaily]
Western Digital's 250GB perpendicular Scorpio heads for laptops
Late last year, Western Digital decided to make the leap to the land of perpendicular magnetic recording with its 160GB Scorpio, and now the firm is stepping it up to a full quarter terabyte with its latest rendition. The 2.5-inch SATA drive fits nicely within the confines of most lappies, sports 8MB of cache, a 12-millisecond access time, spins at 5400RPM, and touts the company's WhisperDrive technology so you'll barely know its there. Additionally, the ShockGuard and SecurePark systems tag team to keep your data safe during turmoil, and the IntelliSeek system reportedly "calculates the optimum seek speed of the read / write head actuator to help reduce noise and power consumption." So if you're looking to up the storage capacity of your mobile machine, you can snag WD's latest right now for a penny under $200.[Via MacWorld]
Samsung crashes the perpendicular party with bevy of laptop drives
While Toshiba's sittin' pretty with its 200GB perpendicular laptop drive, Samsung is finally deciding to join Hitachi, Seagate, and Western Digital (just to name a few) in the perpendicular byte stacking game. The newly-unveiled 2.5-inch M80 / M80 SATA series features a trio of drives each, with capacities in 80GB, 120GB, and 160GB, 8MB of onboard cache, and a 5400RPM spindle speed. While the swifter SATA drives will likely benchmark a bit better than the PATA counterparts, both versions sport perpendicular magnetic recording to prevent data corruption, as well as "industry leading free-fall sensors" that pack 700G of operating shock tolerance. Furthermore, Samsung equipped these newfangled drives with a fluid dynamic bearing motor and its own Hybrid Latch System, which reportedly "eliminates unpleasant rattling noises and significantly reduces the clicking noise generated when a drive moves its heads on and off the disk." Although Samsung left us in the dark regarding pricing and availability, we don't envision the firm keeping these behind closed doors much longer than they already have.[Via TG Daily]
Fujitsu gets perpendicular with 160GB 2.5-incher
They promised 200GB by 2007, and it looks like we're getting 160GB in 2006. We can't quite tell if we're supposed to be disappointed by the missing gigabytes, or excited by the launch date, but with 160GB of perpendicular data spinning at 5,400 RPM you can't go far wrong. Of course, Hitachi announced a 5,400 RPM 160 gigger earlier this year, so we're not sure why Fujitsu is trying to pass off their new MHW2160BH's speed as some sort of record. Fujitsu is also dropping an 80GB MHW2080BH based on the tech, and both drives will be available in October.[Via gizmag]
TiVo Series 3 coming September 17th for $799?
It's no secret that TiVo's on the verge of shipping its HD-capable Series 3 set-top-box -- after all, the company's already notified the FCC, posted a product page, and even ignited a flurry of controversy over Time Warner's CableCARD policy -- but we have yet to hear of a solid release date or retail price for this highly-anticipated device. Well HDBeat's got an inside source at one of the big box electronics stores (to protect his identity, we won't say which one, but he goes by the name Todd and wears a blue shirt to work) who claims that the Series 3 has already been added to their system, scheduled to be in stock on September 17th for a hefty-but-not-unreasonable $799. (Side note: if that price stands, props to our boy Dave Zatz for prognosticating it many moons ago). You first heard about this box all the way back at CES, recently spotted it in the wild, and now it may finally be time to withhold next month's rent as well as ring up your cable provider to make sure they have those precious CARDs all stocked up.
