archives

o Excite@Home Announces Layoffs, Shut Down of Excite UK Web Portal
o Australia Bans Sale of Rockstar Games' "Grand Theft Auto III"
o Yahoo Integrates Music Content from Acquisition of Launch Media
o Sonicblue Debuts Advanced Digital Audio Center Device
o Fraud Injunction Leveled Against Video Firm PacketSwitch.com
o Briefly Noted: Philips - audio fingerprinting, ClearPlay, Princeton
Video Image - Major League Soccer, EUniverse - Perfect Greeting, Music
Choice - Liberate - Cablevision, Snowball - RedOctane, Sony Online
Entertainment - Intel, Enroute - THQ, Xbox vs. Japanese consoles in Japan
_____________________________________________

o Excite@Home Announces Layoffs, Shut Down of Excite UK Web Portal

Redwood City, Calif. -- Bankrupt broadband access provider Excite@Home
announced that it will lay off 400 employees as it prepares to cease
operations on Feb. 28. The company said 900 employees will remain to
transition subscribers from Excite@Home's network to those operated by its
partner cable companies. New contracts with the cable companies approved
last week will give Excite@Home $355 million to complete the task of
transitioning its customers. The company also announced on Monday that it
will shut down Excite UK, a Web portal joint venture with British
Telecommunications, on Dec. 21. Excite UK will lay off its remaining 48
employees in an effort to conserve cash looking towards Excite@Home's
closure in February. Users will have access to their Excite UK email
accounts until Dec. 31. The company is referring UK users to Lycos for
similar services.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/011214/sff027_1.html
http://www.excite.co.uk/front/lycos_pop
_____________________________________________

o Australia Bans Sale of Rockstar Games' "Grand Theft Auto III"

San Francisco -- The Australian government has banned the sale of game
developer Rockstar Games' "Grand Theft Auto III," according to a report
from CNET. Australia's government mandates that all computer games be
given a rating by its Office of Film and Literature Classification's
review board. The review board has refused to grant a rating to Grand
Theft Auto, deeming it "unsuitable for a minor to see or play." The
version of Grand Theft Auto III for Sony's PlayStation 2 was the second
top-selling title overall during October, according to sales figures
provided by NPDFunworld TRSTS. The game received an "M" for Mature rating
in the U.S. for its "blood, violence and strong language" from the
Entertainment Software Ratings Board. The Australian review board
confirmed that retailers may be prosecuted for offering the game in stores
there.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1006-200-8178976.html?tag=cdshrt
http://www.rockstargames.com/grandtheftauto3/html/index.html
http://www.npd.com/corp/content/ie/videogames/c_vg0110.htm
http://www.esrb.com
_____________________________________________

o Yahoo Integrates Music Content from Acquisition of Launch Media

Sunnyvale, Calif. -- Yahoo on Monday announced the debut of its new music
offering, launch.yahoo.com, which features content from its acquisition of
Launch Media. The site will be linked directly from Yahoo's home page with
a "Music" icon, and will feature Launch's extensive music video library,
editorial content, and Launchcast streaming radio service. Launch Media
co-founders Dave Goldberg and Bob Roback will operate the site, which was
acquired by Yahoo in June for around $12 million.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/011217/170049_1.html
http://launch.yahoo.com
_____________________________________________

o Sonicblue Debuts Advanced Digital Audio Center Device

Santa Clara, Calif. -- Consumer electronics manufacturer Sonicblue
announced on Monday the release of its Rio Advanced Digital Audio Center,
a device offering 40GB of storage and home networking for digital music.
The Digital Audio Center has room for up to 650 CDs converted to digital
format at bit rates up to 320kbps. It also contains a CD-RW drive to
create mix CDs, and multiple USB ports to use when downloading music onto
portable digital music players. The device comes loaded with music
database technology from Gracenote that automatically identifies and
provides track listings when a CD is inserted into the device. The
Gracenote database can be updated by connecting the Digital Audio Center
to the Internet via an internal 56k modem or a user's broadband
connection. The $1495 price includes a Rio Receiver, which when connected
to a user's home phone lines, can receive music from either the Digital
Audio Center or from a user's PC.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/011217/170002_1.html
http://www.sonicblue.com
_____________________________________________

o Fraud Injunction Leveled Against Video Firm PacketSwitch.com

Washington, D.C. -- PacketSwitch.com, a company accused by the U.S.
government of bilking investors out of millions with a phony wireless
streaming video technology scheme, was served with a fraud injunction by a
federal judge last week, Newsbytes reported. Company founder Stephen
Ristau was arrested in October and charged by the Securities and Exchange
Commission with defrauding investors out of $3.7 million. Investors handed
over their cash after seeing demonstrations of wireless streaming video
supposedly coming from 12 miles away that actually originated from a
server hidden above ceiling tiles in the same room. Ristau faces up to 10
years in prison and $18 million in fines if convicted on all charges.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/172988.html
http://www.sec.gov/litigation/litreleases/lr17065.htm
_____________________________________________

|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Interactive TV Roadshow

Jan 22nd - 26th, 2002 -- New York City | San Francisco | Santa Monica

Virtual Media Partners LLC has drawn on its extensive Interactive TV
experience in the USA and Europe to design this broad-based introduction
to the amazing potential of Enhanced Interactive Television - "The 4th
Dimension". A unique concept held from coast to coast on five separate
days. Contact: yaqub@virtualmediapartners.com

Info/to register:
http://www.virtualmediapartners.com/trainingevent.htm

|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
_____________________________________________

o Briefly Noted:

(Amsterdam) The Associated Press reported Monday on audio fingerprinting
technology being developed by Philips that can identify songs played on
the radio by holding up a cell phone so that it hears three seconds of a
song. The technology compares the snippet to a song database using an
algorithm that measures pitch, speed, variety and dynamics, and returns
the artist, song title and album name in the form of a text message.
Philips said it is in talks to sell the song server and ID software, for
which it holds patents, to several telecoms.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/672843.asp?0dm=C15NT
http://www.digitalnetworks.philips.com/InformationCenter/PhilipsInternet/FPress.asp?lArticleId=2133&lNodeId=997

(Los Angeles) Los Angeles-based ClearPlay is offering downloadable
software that can "clean" DVDs so that sex, swearing and violence are
edited out for family viewing. The software must be used in conjunction
with a PC's DVD-ROM drive and then connected to a TV. The program
instructs the DVD player to "skip over" or "mute" content based on time
signatures from the particular film. ClearPlay charges $9.95 per month to
access its library of 150 screened DVD titles, and says it is adding 25
new titles per month.
http://www.clearplay.com

(New York) Princeton Video Image, a developer of virtual advertising and
other digital enhancements for traditional broadcasters, announced on
Monday that it has partnered with Major League Soccer to develop virtual
advertising and in-program enhancements for the league's national
television broadcasts. Lawrenceville, N.J.-based Princeton Video Image
created the "virtual 1st down line" seen in NFL football telecasts and
also provided virtual ads that appeared behind home plate during
baseball's World Series.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/011217/172308_1.html
http://www.pvi-inc.com

(Los Angeles) EUniverse, a network of entertainment-related websites and
email newsletters, announced on Monday the launch of Perfect Greeting, a
website providing free e-greeting cards. Many of the top sites for
e-greetings, including AmericanGreetings.com, BlueMountain.com and
Egreetings.com, all charge users a fee to send online greeting cards. Los
Angeles-based EUniverse's Perfect Greeting has a selection of 1,000 cards
for its launch.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/011217/lam031_1.html
http://www.perfectgreeting.com

(Horsham, Pa.) Music Choice, a provider of commercial-free music channels
to digital cable providers, said on Monday that its partnership with
interactive TV provider Liberate Technologies has launched on
Cablevision's iO: Interactive Optimum service. The 45 genre-based music
channels will be accompanied by rotating artist facts, music news, new
releases, artist birthdays, music history, gossip, artists birth names and
album cover art made possible using San Carlos-based Liberate's software.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/011217/sfm009a_1.html
http://www.musicchoice.com
http://www.liberate.com

(San Francisco) Snowball, a network of youth-oriented entertainment and
retail websites, said on Monday that its IGN.com gaming site has formed a
partnership with online video game rental service RedOctane. San
Francisco-based Snowball will market RedOctane's service through links
across its websites, including "rent it now" links from reviews of games
on IGN.com.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/011217/172281_1.html
http://www.ign.com
http://www.redoctane.com

(San Diego) Sony Online Entertainment said on Monday that it is working
with Intel Corporation to enhance the performance of its EverQuest
massively multiplayer online roleplaying game. The improvements aim to
offer higher frame rates and smoother animations during game play for
users with computers equipped with an Intel Pentium 4 processor. Sony's
EverQuest online game has been played simultaneously by as many as 98,000
users.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/011217/lam009_1.html
http://everquest.station.sony.com/index.jsp

(Los Angeles) Enroute, a developer of 360-degree video technology, said on
Monday that game developer THQ has licensed its technology for use in an
upcoming game featuring pop singer Britney Spears. Los Angeles-based
Enroute's technology lets a player use their controller to look up, down,
left, right, zoom in, zoom out, turn around and see everything happening
from a full-motion 360-degree perspective at 30 frames-per-second.
Separately, Calabasas Hills-based THQ said Monday that it raised a total
of $156 million in its secondary stock offering last month.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/011217/lam062_1.html
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/011217/170106_1.html

(San Francisco) Online magazine Salon.com featured an article on Monday on
the launch of Microsoft's Xbox in Japan in February, and how the console
faces an uphill battle on the home turf of competing consoles from Sony
and Nintendo.
http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2001/12/17/xbox_japan/print.html
______________________

> Digital Media Wire Directory Launched

Digital Media Wire just launched the Digital Media Directory, an online
directory and RFP engine that facilitates the search and negotiation
process between buyers and sellers.

Register as a provider in the Digital Media Directory at
http://digitalmediawire.newmediary.com/dmw111301nl
______________________

To subscribe, go to:
http://www.digitalmediawire.com

Questions or comments? Send email to:
mark@digitalmediawire.com

News tips, press releases. Send email to:
editorial@digitalmediawire.com

Copyright 2001 Digital Media Wire