With the announcement by Apple that they have sold approximately 6.5 million songs and are basically break-even in their new music service yesterday during their quarterly conference call, many people are announcing their intention to follow Apple's lead and compete with it. An article from Australian IT discusses EMI's …

The New York Times has an article about the reasons that kids like to watch the same film repeatedly and what effect it may have. On balance, they think it isn't harmful and may even be good for them. Of course, they're not talking about letting your two year old …

There was not much extraordinary about the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. It wasn't as extraordinarily bad as The Hulk, but I wouldn't suggest wasting the time or the money unless you want to see Sean walk through a part. One of the biggest problems with this film is that it …

It's a movie based on an old, technologically un-savvy, animatronic ride at Disney World, how much can it really have to offer? The answer is surprising: 2 hours and 23 minutes of raucous fun. Pirates of the Caribbean:The Curse of the Black Pearl may not be up for any …

Only six weeks into its run, Finding Nemo has shot past The Matrix Reloaded to a total of $275M (to Reloaded's $271M). With this past weekend's $11M gross, Nemo is sitting in second place for 2003, behind The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (which is pretty secure …

As part of our July 4th celebrations, we went to see Whale Rider, a fine new import film from New Zealand, starring a cast of mostly untested, mostly Maori actors. In short, unless you hate dramas with a passion, find a theater that is showing this film and go and …

On Tuesday, before T3 and the other holiday films got into the theaters, we went to see 28 Days Later. Any film that is described as a "zombie movie" starts out with big question marks, but this film stands out in the genre as having some real thought put into …

I have to admit that I entered the theater for Terminator 3 with a somewhat heavy heart. As usual, I had avoided most of the reviews, but there was something about the advertising campaign (or lack thereof) that concerned me about this film. I'm not sure if it was the …

In the "better late than never" category, I just read in a UIUC alumni newsletter that Don Bitzer (famous around the University for his work on PLATO) had won an Emmy Award for his work in developing plasma display technology in the 1960's. There were actually quite a few stories …

The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Metallica, Green Day, Linkin Park (among others) are declining to put their music up on Apple's iTunes. The dispute, according to an article from Reuters via Yahoo! is about the ability to sell single songs. The bands say that they will not bend their "art …

Listen.com (owned by Real Networks and running the Rhapsody music service) is quoted in this Wired article as having doubled the number of CD track burns sold after cutting the price per track burn from $0.99 to $0.79. Although the company has not released total numbers of …

The New York Times had a great article that starts to give "kids in the digital age" some of their due. Instead of ranting on about their attention span, willingness to steal music, and their infatuation with TV and computer screens, Frank Rich looks at the rapid sale of Harry …

DirecTV and EchoStar are threatening the state of South Carolina with a lawsuit if $30M in taxes that the companies allege were illegally levied upon satellite TV customers are not refunded. The Triangle Business Journal reports that the companies (really company at this point) have made the threat to conform …

The world has lost another fine member of the acting profession. Only two weeks after saying goodbye to Gregory Peck, the world has lost a great actress, Katharine Hepburn. Unlike Peck, I can't think of any one role that personifies Hepburn, but her first really big film was The African …

In what may be a first, the Orlando Sentinel reports that a Sacramento, CA man has been found guilty of attempting to defraud DirecTV and Dish through scheming to sell satellite decoding equipment. The amazing thing is that he will be paying back a $180M settlement at $500/month for …

Mike and I went to see Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle last night at the Metreon in downtown San Francisco. Nice theater, by the way, but the movie isn't going on my list of must-see films. I will admit up front that I enjoyed the first Charlie's Angels film. It was …

Since a bunch of the usual crowd was out in San Francisco this week, we decided to see if bigger was actually better for The Matrix Reloaded. The short (albeit useless) answer is "yes and no." The IMAX treatment certainly was a far cry from the local theater in which …

CNet is reporting that a New Jersey man who posted a digital copy of The Hulk to the internet is being charged with copyright infringement and faces up to three years in jail and a $250,000 fine. This one seems pretty blatant. He had no rights to what he …

I love it when this happens. About a week after the iTunes Music store came out, I sent them a note asking for a global "Just Added" list. Now, I'm sure they didn't hear my one request, but they did add the feature. Not only does it show what is …

I was quite happy to see a mainstream media outlet (the Washington Post) with a concise, thought-out piece on DVD copy protection and how overboard the motion picture industry is going. Rob Pegoraro does a good job of arguing for restraint among lawmakers at preventing users from fair use of …