Notice anything special about that laptop up there? No besides it's monstrous footprint. Right, a world's first HD DVD-RW drive in a laptop. Otherwise, it's the same 17-inch WUXGA (1920 x 1200) Qosmio G40 we know and love now topping out with a 2.2GHz T7500 Core 2 Duo, up to 400GB of disk and 4GB of memory, and a pair of terrestrial HDTV tuners with HDMI-out in a 10.6-pound slab of media action.

Priced at about ¥400,000 ($3,530) nicely equipped.

Source- http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/17/toshibas-qosmio-g40-now-with-hd-dvd-rw-drive/Read more on "Toshiba's Qosmio G40 now with world's first HD DVD-RW drive"!

Nearly half the Internet users in South Korea -- one of the world's most wired nations -- illegally download a full-length movie a week, according to a survey released on Tuesday.

The poll of 2,358 people, aged from 15 to 49, showed 47.3% had downloaded feature films through file-sharing sites by paying nothing or less than 100 won (11 cents) per film during the past year.

The margin of error in the survey conducted by the Korean Film Council is plus or minus 2.0 % points, Yonhap news agency reported.

It found that a typical movie pirate has downloaded 54.5 movies per year, or more than one a week.

Almost a third cited affordability as a reason for pirating movies, while 21% mentioned time flexibility.

Of those who claimed never to have pirated movies, 28% said it was too complicated, while 18 percent said they were worried about computer viruses. Only 12% said they did not want to infringe copyrights.

Source- http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20071218/tc_afp/entertainmentskoreainternetfilmpiracy;_ylt=Auu3xKDD.dr7AeVBMC3jaC4jtBAF

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Nintendo Co Ltd (7974.OS), already struggling with shortages of its Wii video game console, is also seeing signs of higher-than-expected demand for its DS handheld device- A top executive said on Monday.

"The DS continues to perform exceptionally well, with some retailers voicing concerns about DS inventory going into the holiday," Reggie Fils-Aime, president of Nintendo of America, told Reuters in an interview.

The DS has been the best-selling piece of gaming hardware this year, moving 1.5 million units in November, according to market research firm NPD.

Nintendo, which is striving to meet Wii demand more than a year after the machine first went on sale, had also advised retailers that it did not approve of the practice of bundling the consoles with extra games and accessories and selling the package at a higher price.

A Wii by itself sells for $250 -- cheaper than Microsoft Corp's (MSFT.O) Xbox 360 and Sony Corp's (6758.T) PlayStation 3 -- but some retailers have offered bundles priced for double that price.

"Retailers have already been given feedback that we are not big fans of that. We think it masks some of the price advantage we have versus our competition and, frankly, the consumer should decide what they want," Fils-Aime said.

Asked if Nintendo had threatened such retailers with fewer Wii shipments, Fils-Aime said only that the company carried a lot of weight as maker of one of the most highly sought items this holiday.

"We don't have to remind retailers of the strength we have right now. We are simply making an observation and that reinforces our point quite nicely with retailers," Fils-Aime said.

Fils-Aime also said he had high expectations for Nintendo's recent Wii game "Super Mario Galaxy," which some analysts said saw strong but not spectacular first-month sales despite being one of the most critically acclaimed games of all time.

The game sold 1.1 million copies in the United States in November, but fell short of marks set by other blockbuster titles such as Microsoft's "Halo 3," which sold 3.3 million copies in its first month.

"'Mario Galaxy' absolutely lived up to our expectations," Fils-Aime said. "Galaxy will have extremely long life and will have extremely large numbers throughout that entire life."

"Mark my words, look in 6 months and no one will have any remembrance that it 'only' did 1 million copies in its first month."

Source- http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071218/tc_nm/nintendo_dc;_ylt=AortMYIOJPdjJY3bI1O7HSYjtBAF

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In its first full quarter of sales, the iPhone has already climbed past Microsoft’s entire lineup of Windows Mobile smartphones in North America, according to figures compiled by Canalys and published by Symbian.

You can't get Canalys' number's without paying a lot of money, so instead what many folks do is find some sucker who's willing to pay for those numbers and publish them. Symbian is often that rube, and so we have the numbers and they show something startling: in one quarter (maybe two), the iPhone had garnered 27% of US marketshare in the smartphone category.

Source- http://www.wmexperts.com/articles/iphone_2_in_the_usa.html

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In an unusual situation for a company so vocal about protecting intellectual property rights, Microsoft is being sued for allegedly distributing material copyrighted by a Philippine college -- despite the fact that the material in question seems to have only been given to fellow educational professionals.

Southeastern College in Pasay City is suing Microsoft and Microsoft Philippines for 100 million Filipino pesos ($2.4 million) for handing out at least 700 CDs in 2005 and 2006 containing the 379-page "SEC Microsoft Office XP Manual," which had been copyrighted by SEC director Conrad Mañalac in 2005 (although work on it reportedly began in 1999). Apparently 10,000 copies of this same manual had previously been licensed from the school by the company in 2004, and retitled for use in a program to train high school teachers. For its part, Microsoft Philippines denies having "improperly distributed additional copies of the curriculum," although it's a little unclear what the company's actual position is, with the following statement -- emailed to the Inquirer.net -- seeming to indicate that the primary concern right now is protecting the mothership: "They brought this matter to our attention a year ago and we worked hard to resolve it, but without success.

For all intents and purposes, this is a purely local matter which does not involve Microsoft Corporation."

Source- http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/17/microsoft-hit-with-2-4-million-copyright-suit-in-the-philippine/

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