Science and Technology

First AOL and Microsoft, now TiVo and Gemstar-TV Guide International are dismissing litigation and making nice: The two companies announced Monday that they have dismissed a lawsuit Gemstar filed against TiVo in early 2000, which alleged that TiVo’s digital video recorder service infringed on Gemstar’s patent for electronic programming guide …

New interactive digital cable software from Redmond: Microsoft Corp. presented new software Monday to help cable television companies develop digital TV programming and services. The software, called Microsoft TV Foundation Edition, is a new technological platform designed to run on the digital cable boxes that sit atop many television sets. …

Just as the FCC ruling to loosen media ownership rules has caught the public’s attention, the studios are being sued for price fixing by Intertainer: The one thing about the Intertainer service on which everyone can agree is that it was ahead of its time. Founded in 1996 to deliver …

Math genius claims to invent new piracy-protection technology: When Internet users started ripping off songs from the online Museum of Musical Instruments, they angered the wrong guy: millionaire mathematician Hank Risan. Risan’s unorthodox museum is a Web site devoted to guitars and their role in music history, reflecting his personal …

Discussion #3,1004 about the state of the music biz, this one by Amy Harmon of the NY Times: The industry is pursuing lawsuits against music pirates but is also offering new ways to legally listen to and buy music online through deals like a recent alliance with Apple Computer. That …

VERLYN KLINKENBORG of the NY Times hopes iTunes can remain independent from the machinations of the major labels: This new innovation is almost certainly going to set off a surge of new buying. Some of us will be filling in the CD-size gaps in our collections, but a lot of …

Henry Jenkins has a perceptive analysis of the “collective intelligence” of the Internet and its bearing on Survivor – really: The Survivor winner is one of the most tightly guarded secrets in the country. Some say that the show’s producer, Mark Burnett, engages in misinformation campaigns, planting misleading information in …

New movie-editing software goes on sale June 14: Apple, based in Cupertino, California, had unveiled the software in April during the National Association of Broadcasters meeting in Las Vegas. Final Cut Pro 4 will sell for about $999 [$911.99 from Amazon!!] Apple, like many personal computer companies such as No. …

Verizon runs out of options and has to reveal the names of four customers suspected of illegally uploading [article mistakenly says “downloading”] digital copies of songs to the RIAA: The nation’s largest telephone company was ordered to surrender the names to the Recording Industry Association of America by the U.S. …

Have you heard of RFID (radio frequency identification)? Wal-Mart has: Inventory management technology that uses wireless signals to track products from the factory to store shelves is set to win a major new ally next week: Wal-Mart. The retail giant is expected to throw its weight behind RFID (radio frequency …